HW 45- More big thoughts on school

Hirsch had came up with a very important concept. When he said "The idea that reading comprehension requires not just formal decoding skills but also wide-ranging background knowledge. He concluded that schools should not be neutral about what is taught but should teach a highly specific curriculum that would allow children to understand things writers take for granted.", I felt that he is absolutely right. Peoples thinking in school isn't what it suppose to be. All people do when they want to learn something is learn it and not wanting to learn it at a deeper level or a higher level and that cause a bad affect on the way they learn and read stuff. He tries to portray this distinction between the meaning of something and also the significance of something. He feels that kids should take test because it will help their knowledge of things and help them understand things better.

Sizer on the other hand seems to think otherwise. He feels that "Educational policy should be determined from the bottom up, at the level of the school, rather than as a result of state or federal directives.". Education is always whole thing rather giving certain educations based on what the school is. Unlike Hirsch, Sizer believes that schools "should abandon one-size-fits-all educational methods like standardized tests, grading and even the grouping of students into classes by age.". Basically He feels that education shouldn't be based on standardized test that every type of learner has to take. He feels that The child's knowledge is the way to group these kids and to teach them at the level that they need to be at. He disagrees with the fact that everything is a "one size fit all" type of method, one test every person has to take, one type of essay or book every person has to read or write. he believes in Habits of Mind and students using this type of method to go deeper into work. He wants student to use this type of method rather then the others because he want kids to go deeper into a subject as much as possible so they can get get every type of idea, meanings, and insights from it.

Between Sizer's theory of school's education and Hirsch's insight on school's education, I feel that Sizer's theory connects more to my experience. I say this for many reasons. One reason is because in school of the future, We base some of our learning off the habits of mind. And not only that but we use them to go deeper into a topic and try to get as much insights and idea's from it. For example in Andy's class we had a unit/topic on cool. We learned every type of insight of what cool actually is and what it really means to be cool and why people want to be cool. Stuff like this shows how we just don't go into any topic and just move on to the next one. We deepen our conversations and learn something for each type of idea about this simple topic of cool. Another way is school of the future doesn't take Standardized test as much as other schools. We do big papers based on different subjects and arguments that the student come up with. And since the essays have you go very deep into a subject or an argument, this shows how my experiences and type of work at school of the future, is exactly what Sizer is trying to talk about. Now I have a better understanding of why Andy teaches the way he does. He just wants us to use our brains more and wants u to be able to deepen our thoughts rather than just making standard thoughts about a certain topic. Sizer schools did teach me how to use my mind better. There is multi steps to a thought now. It isn't just thinking about something and that's it, now you have to take what you think and know and deepen that.

Even though Sizer's theory and Hirsch's theories are different I still think they can adapt to each other. I simply say give the federal and state directives what they want and simply learn the core subject in a way that we can learn and deepen our own ideas and other people ideas. Like school of the future, even though we use habits of mind and deepen our thoughts in some class, we still take 2 regents just because its mandatory and required and that way we keep every body happy. But I do think that they can adapt because there is enough time in the school year where we can meet the state and federal requirements and at the same time meet the standards and learning skills they want the kids to be at.