Cultural Contexts in an Election Year
Shapiro, "Policies Without Meaning"


This was an interesting read and brought up many issues from an administration that I knew little about.  Overall I found that while the Clinton administration brought a few new, positive changes, it was more or less a continuation of negative policies towards teaching and learning.  One of the positive changes that was made was a shift in resources for Early Childhood and various Head Start Programs.  This was great to read since it has been lacking across the board for some time.  There was also a recognition of the inequalities that take place in the public schools for programs and resources.  While it is nice for there to be recognition, the larger question is what will be done about it?   There was also a claim that encouragement was placed on the local level to be  more flexible.  I found this interesting that the people with the power expected those with little power to be flexible when they aren't able to call any of the shots.  There were also new college loan initiatives.  At first I thought this was a good thing, but as I continued reading I realized that these students would be trained for their roles in society outside of what their true talents and calling may be. 

Shapiro has many key arguments in this article that generally relate to one another.  One is that the "attempt to redefine the value of education primarily in vocationally related terms is misguided".  I believe that he is claiming redefining education for students to go out into the work force is another way of further corrupting the educational system.  There was a focus, during this administration, to prepare future generations to be globally competitive.  This, in my opinion, will set Americans further and further apart away from a common goal.  The whole idea of training students to go out and become part of a Corporate system just seems wrong.  As educators, the goal has always been to train students for the greater good of society, for citizens that can co-exist in a Democratic way.  Making education "global" and competitive goes against the original values of education.  Another argument is in relation to performance standards.  The article that I chose to compare/contrast to Shapiro goes into detail of Mitt Romney's opinion on performance standards.  Romney is a big supporter of performance standards and standardized testing in schools and claims they make education better.  I believe Shapiro would enthusiastically disagree with Romney.   Shapiro claims that performance standards emphasize the "uncritical, uncreative character of public education".  In my opinion, these performance standards and the NCLB act have done precisely what they claim to protect students from.  Children are being left behind and have been for some time now. 

After I read Matthew Tabor's article titled "Mitt Romney's Views on Education" I felt agitated.  I couldn't believe that a man that is suppose to be educated so well can be so narrow- minded when it comes to the core values of our country.  Romney promises, that if elected, he will catalog all the schools to see which students and teachers are working and which are not.  The insinuation that education is in such a poor state due to students and teachers not working seems ludicrous.  Clearly, this gentleman would benefit from seeing the whole puzzle and not isolated pieces of it.  It is like Shapiro addressed the Clinton administration, "This is time for you and those in your administration to widen the focus of your educational lenses." I believe Shapiro would claim the lack of creativity and student experiences in the classroom mixed with performance standards are some of the main underlying issues in our schools.  Romney also points out that he helped start a program where parents must go to parental education classes in poor performing schools.  While I think parental involvement is a wonderful thing, he went about it the wrong way.  It seems to be an in your face approach putting the bulk of the blame on the parents. 

It is now clear to me that education is political.  It is sad that those that have the power misuse it.  I wish that somehow as a society we could rise above all of it and make positive changes for future generations.  The correlation between depressed students and uncreative schooling is shocking but after reading these articles makes more sense as to how it has become such a sad situation for our youngsters.  The link below is a video of Mitt Romney.  It echoes some of what I discussed in my blog as well as other topics.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8gNLgQrwy0