[As another semester
concludes, a series recapping some of the wonderful texts we read in my
classes, along with some other Spring work of mine. Leading up to a preview of
coming attractions for the Summer and Fall semesters. I’d love to hear about
your work, past, present, or future, in comments!]
On the two
education-focused texts I’ve used in this class, and the quest for a new one.
When I teach our
English Studies Senior Capstone course, I include one reading for each of our
departmental tracks: Literature, Professional Writing, Theater, and Secondary
Education (English). For my first few sections of the class, the Secondary Education
text we read was Diane Ravitch’s The
Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are
Undermining Education (2000). I like Ravitch’s book a lot (not least
because she was a former advocate of standardized testing and policymaker behind
No Child Left Behind who then examined the evidence and changed her
perspective, which is a rare and important thing to model for us all), and if
anything her topics and arguments are even more salient in 2018 than they were
a decade ago. But the book is super long, and a bit more in-depth than what
this Capstone setting calls for, so after those first few sections I decided to
switch things up.
When I did so I
went with Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown’s A New Culture of
Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change
(2011). Thomas and Brown’s book is as concise and overarching as Ravitch’s is
lengthy and in-depth, and touches briefly but thoughtfully on a number of interesting
and important educational and cultural topics. I’ve found that it inspires lots
of student reflections on their own educational experiences as well as communal
conversation about our 21st century society and culture; while none
of us agree entirely with Thomas and Brown’s diagnoses or recommendations, we’re
always inspired to keep talking about these and other related topics through
their book. So it’s been a good text to feature in this Capstone mini-unit, and
I’d recommend it to anyone as a very teachable way in to conversations about
education, learning, and 21st century identities and communities.
But at the same
time, Thomas and Brown’s book is from 2011, and while of course I have nothing
against older works, it does seem to me that for a class like Capstone (especially
given how much I focus my version of it on next step kinds of questions and
materials for the students), there’s significant value to featuring works that
engage with particularly current and pressing questions and issues. So I’m
looking for a new text for this Education portion of the class, something from
the last couple of years that addresses issues in education (secondary, higher
ed, overall, you name it) in ways that could engage students and get us
talking. I’d love your nominations!
Next recap
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Any
education texts you’d nominate? And again, what have you been or are you
working on?
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