The Historical Foundations and Purposes of School

The Historical Foundations and Purposes of School:

Throughout the evolution of American education many ideas and concepts have played a large role in the way we now educate our children. For as long as schooling has been around, equality of education has played one of the most crucial roles in educating all of America's students in a fair and just manner. All schools strive to educate students in a way that they may be successful in their future and able to easily immerge into society. Due to locations and personal ability of some schools as well as policies, equal education and opportunities for success have been tough to maintain throughout the country over the years.

According to Joel Spring, "Meritocracy is an educational system that gives an equal chance to all to develop their abilities and to advance in the social hierarchy." Like others, Spring believed that by promoting such concepts as meritocracy in education, students' success or failure in school would determine their later position in society. He believed that by doing this each student would start out with an equal opportunity to succeed. Similar to Spring, Berliner & Biddle spoke of an ideology associated with such things as meritocracy and the myths surrounding them. Berliner and Biddle agree that, "There is a shared belief among American citizens that individuals in this country are largely responsible for their own outcomes, their own successes or failures." However, though the concept serves as a motivator, it often discourages students when learning, and is even sometimes used as an excuse for public support.

Though these concepts of motivating students to succeed in education remain, many obstacles have barricaded students from moving forward. As early as the beginning of American colonization, select minorities of students were unable to excel in particular learning environments. In Rury's article, it is brought to our attention that young women were commonly rarely schooled or able to teach and forced to grow up with little or no education. Eventually, as noted in the video "A Teacher Affects Eternity," women such as Catherine Beecher finally took a stand as advocates of female teaching and education and paved the way for the female teacher today. As one may similarly note in the video "The Bottom Line in Education," minority schools in East Harlem struggled severely with low student achievement and funding. Instead of children being given the equal opportunity to excel, many children were unfairly scrutinized due to their race, gender, and even location in the country. Reforms such as the Choice Experiment finally created more opportunities for the higher achievement of their students.

Oakes further researched the topic of inequality and education in addition to how schools are in actuality only worsening the situations taking place. Oakes explains in his article how many schools are involved in a tracking system in which students are placed in upper or lower tracks by their academic ability. These tracks are imposed to either aid those groups falling behind individually, while allowing more talented students to further excel. However, these tracks only seem to cause more gaps in the equality of education by allowing those with more talents to succeed extremely and those with less to fall behind.

Tracking systems are not alone in creating a sense of inequality in education. Due to the diversity in our schooling, the uses of IQ tests are commonly misused and misinterpreted. As further discussed in the video "As American as Public School," IQ tests and standardized tests are said to be culturally biased. Students were undermined due to their ethnicity and biased test questions. This unfair testing only once again prevents equality in education.

Throughout the history of education, incredible strides have been made in order to maintain equal opportunities for education. Some problems have been fixed such as allowing all children of the country to be educated. Other problems remain stagnant in society. Students in less fortunate areas are less equipped with educational needs and therefore only continue to fall behind. Equality of education has and will remain a crucial issue in the education of America.

Philosophical Education:

E.D. Hirsch Jr. is a professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and is also the founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation. Hirsch has an educational philosophy that is based on the core knowledge of American culture. His philosophy, also known by the term cultural literacy, focuses on the "knowledge of people, events, literature, and science that forms the basis of American culture." Hirsch strongly believes that, through his teaching philosophy, one may overcome disadvantage through the simple teachings of a common core of knowledge.

Also widely known as Essentialism, Hirsch's philosophy entails many other key concepts. Essentialism designs a curriculum in which teachers focus on an accumulated knowledge of American culture, facts, figures, and dates. This knowledge is thought to be crucial in forming the Ð''essential' things one must know to be an American and literate in the American culture. It is easy to note the underlying sense of democracy in this philosophy through the ways in which it seems to better educate a student by improving them as a citizen with informative American education. Essentialism is a much more traditional approach to teaching. It is traditional in the way that there is an objective reality in which the philosophy relies on. In Hirsch's philosophy surrounding core knowledge, the teacher is the center of the classroom. The students look to the teacher for their essential knowledge and as a leader to guide them through their understanding of key concepts.

In Hirsch's article "The Core Knowledge CurriculumÐ'--What's Behind Its Success?" Hirsch claims that, "Ð'...the most significant diversity faced by our schools is not cultural diversity but, rather, diversity of academic preparation" (pg. 182). Within Hirsch's curriculum he proposes that schools follow a coherent sequence of solid specific content. This would be an advantage to many students because it would have the ability to maintain a fair education in which all students remain on the same learning level. Another advantage of Hirsch's teaching style is that with this equality of education and core knowledge, student achievement is enhanced. Students are also given the ability and opportunity to question as they are processing new knowledge.

The Core Knowledge Curriculum does, however, include some minor setbacks. Due to the fact that Hirsch promotes the literacy