SED Blog

Ready to Go But Not Ready to Leave: Departing Thoughts of an SED Senior

May 30, 2012 at 2:24 pm

“Ready to Go But Not Ready to Leave: Departing Thoughts of an SED Senior” is written by Laurence J. Kozakowski, Jr., an English Education major, Class of 2012

Illustration by Andrew J. Barlow

Four years went by in the blink of an eye, as clichéd as that might be. Before venturing off to college 4 years ago, many people told me to enjoy it because it will end faster than you know it. I dismissed them as not knowing anything and now owe many people personal apologies admitting how right they are. But in these past four years at the School of Education, I have joined a family of like-minded people hell-bent on affecting change in generations of students. It is a family that welcomes every student with open arms and makes it difficult to leave.

While volunteering at this past year’s Junior Open House (for high school juniors), I made a joke about how I was not okay with the fact that I am graduating this year. One parent, after I made this joke, approached me and said, “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but did SED prepare you well enough as you approach graduation?” I immediately replied “Absolutely.” I then told her I was ready to go, but not ready to leave.

From the moment Professor Tate threw on his 4 different hats in ED100, my indoctrination into learning the profession of teaching began. Throughout the next years, I took classes where professors challenged me, inspired me, and encouraged me. When I ultimately step foot into a classroom last semester as a student teacher, I felt more prepared than I ever thought possible. There’s something to be said about that in the School of Education. They are in the business of pushing students to succeed. I’m often reminded of Dean Vaughan’s saying that there would never be doctors, lawyers, or astronauts if it were not for teachers. We as educators are meant to challenge, inspire, and encourage. The reason I believe I can and will be successful beyond graduation is because of the effects of the School of Education. Each year was not the start of something new for me here. It was a steady progression of learning and preparation. To enter into this school a naïve freshman and leave a prepared teacher is something amazing.

So as I reflect back on these four years at SED, I know I am ready to go: go out into the often scary and intimidating “real world.” I am ready to go into a classroom and inspire students. I am ready to go out and try to affect change in generations to come. I am ready to go and represent the School of Education as a proud alumnus. I am ready for the next chapter in my life. But the friends I have made, the professors who have taught me, and the family of which I am a part, I am not ready to leave them. My experience at the School of Education has been the best 4 years of my life. I am not ready to leave so many memories behind. But, if I have learned anything during college, it’s that challenges should be welcomed as learning opportunities. So thank you, School of Education, for sending me out in to the world; I am ready.

By sedcomm | Posted in Student Voices | Tagged Graduation, Life Ready, Role of Education | Comments (2)

Out of School Behaviors: A Principal’s Responsibility?

May 30, 2012 at 2:04 pm

Out of School Behaviors: A Principal’s Responsibility? is an Alumni Op-Ed written by Karen Siris, Ed. D., Class of 1972.

I have never regretted my decision to become an elementary school principal. However, the responsibility of being in loco parentis to over 300 children each day is not without out its demands. With the advent of social networking, the challenges have increased. The question becomes, “What is a principal’s responsibility, both morally and legally when he or she becomes aware of inappropriate off school behavior?

Original Picture From Comcure.net

Educators are faced with a legal challenge when our interactions with our students involve their first amendment rights for freedom of speech. The situations become even more challenging when students’ inappropriate off school behaviors are brought to our attention.

The legal test comes from a 1969 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, in which a school suspended students for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School). In Tinker, the United States Supreme Court defined the constitutional rights of students in public schools by overturning the students’ suspensions (Id at 514). They did say, however, that when a student’s speech interferes substantially with the school’s educational mission, a school may impose discipline (Id. at 505-507). The problem with this decision lies with the interpretation of how “interferes substantially” is defined, since there is subjectivity in this criteria. Tinker is now being cited in off-campus cyber-bullying and YouTube cases when a disruption is caused in the school building due to the aftermath of these incidences.

As principal, I feel a responsibility to deal with bullying and cyber-bullying incidences that are brought to my attention. It is my moral obligation to ensure that my students meet their maximum cognitive potential and, in order for them to do so, their social and emotional needs must also be met.

The Internet, with its many variations of social networking, has brought new ways for children’s learning environments to be “substantially disrupted.” Students sometimes come to school distraught over comments that have been posted on internet sites and that have been forwarded to friends, acquaintances, and countless strangers. They may have been taunted about their weight, their height, their skin color, their sexual or perceived sexual preference. False rumors, altered pictures, and YouTube videos mocking them may have been posted and gone viral.

The aftermath of these behaviors may appear on school campuses the next day. They may be reported to the principal through a concerned parent or by the students themselves. In many cases, the students are too distraught to function in class, and through a caring adult’s observation and inquiry, they may share the reason for their distress.

In almost all cases, the parents of the perpetrators and certainly the perpetrators themselves believe that their off-campus behaviors should not be addressed in school. They believe, as referred to in Tinker, that their first amendment rights have allowed them these behaviors and that sanctions may not be imposed by their school teachers or administrators.

Although the law does not make it easy for school officials to become involved in inappropriate and dangerous off-campus behaviors, it does not take away a principal’s moral responsibility to keep students safe both physically and emotionally, so they can learn to their full potential. It is within a principal’s jurisdiction to educate our students as well as their parents. In today’s society, both must learn the dangers of inappropriate Internet usage. Parents should understand the importance of proper supervision and students must be taught how to use social networking in ways that will enhance rather than destroy their lives.

Restorative justice intervention is most definitely allowable in our schools. Helping students recognize their behaviors that have caused harm, and holding them accountable for finding a way to right their wrong is not only allowable under the law, but in many cases preferable to harsh consequences. It holds the key to giving principals the authority to intervene in dangerous behaviors that are causing their students emotional and long lasting harm. School officials should not be scared away by the parameters of laws that do not allow us to impose consequences, but instead should find effective alternatives to helping our children and families recognize the dangers of bullying and cyber-bullying behaviors and correct them through instruction on positive and constructive Internet use, as well as through restorative justice strategies. Hopefully, schools that value caring, kindness, and respect for all will serve our children well and help them enter society with a greater chance of leading productive and rewarding lives.

By sedcomm | Posted in Alumni Op-Eds | Tagged Bullying, Principal, Responsibility, Social Networking | Comments (1)

The Torch of Independence

May 30, 2012 at 11:55 am

The Torch of Independence is an Alumni Op-Ed, written by Alan White, Class of 1953.

Sacrifices made by past generations enabled us to enjoy more and more of the benefits promised in the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal [. . .] Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. The promise was the Torch of Independence – the possibility that, one day, all men would mean all people, without regard for sex, country of origin, religion, or economic status. Now, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, only age is left as the last barrier to the ideals expressed in that Declaration. We can take pride in our accomplishments, but as long as our school age children are forced to spend their preparatory years in a subculture of dependency, “for their own good”, we will have a citizenship problem: it is no wonder that the Torch of Independence is currently being carried by too few of our citizens. Without each new generation being prepared to carry the torch, the rights that made our nation the beacon of liberty to the world will not be properly protected. We are in a Post Industrial Age and our dominant educational model is holding us back.

Photo from Ng Matthew - Flickr

In the culture of our colonial past, the foundation was laid for the ideals that would establish our unique role as a nation. And it is the culture of our colonial past that should be guiding us now. Now is the time to complete our journey and make the ideals of the Declaration of Independence a reality for everyone.

The following is taken from The Rise and Fall of Constitutional Government in America, page 20, by Thomas G. West and Douglas A. Jeffery, Claremont Institute:

“From the early colonial days on, the Americans had strong town governments, especially in New England. . . . ‘The consequences of these institutions,’ wrote John Adams, ‘have been that the inhabitants [have] acquired from their infancy the habit of discussing, of deliberating, and of judging of public affairs.’ ”

That was the direction in which we were headed before we took a detour and initiated a new model for educating our youth in the 1840’s, when we were faced with an economic problem: How to train workers to meet the needs of industry then in its early stage of development. Because adults were too independent, we needed people who were trained from an early age to meet the needs of that technologically primitive industrial economy. Since basic literacy was part of what was needed, that was the part stressed, the three R’s. Nevertheless, the hidden basis of our current educational system, training people to accept external discipline, was the essential characteristic being taught. Unfortunately, that basis is alive and well in our mainstream educational model today – no longer so hidden!

It is personal experience of civic spiritedness and love of liberty that is most effective in training an independent citizenry. And it is the culture of freedom in which you are immersed that sets the parameters to the quality of your life, liberty, and the ability to pursue happiness.

So how should we prepare our school age youth to secure their rights as adults? Not by placing them in schools where they have no rights and are expected to do as they are told, “for their own good”. But, are there any alternatives? We cannot find out unless we experiment.

There is only one educational experiment of which I am aware: Sudbury Valley School, where students have equal rights with the staff. It is now in its 44th year. It is a New England school in the tradition of early colonial days and the students have “acquired from their infancy the habit of discussing, of deliberating, and of judging of public affairs” – the affairs of the entire school. These students are equal partners with the staff in running the school. What better way can you think of, to prepare children to pass on a torch of independence? At Sudbury Valley, it is part of their education and it results in a school that is economically much more efficient, at half the cost of adjacent public schools. While, at the same time, they have prepared themselves to successfully compete in the job market, or to continue to an institution of higher education.

By sedcomm | Posted in Alumni Op-Eds | Tagged Civic Education, Equality, Role of Education, Society | Comments (0)