Final Blog

The most important thought to me has to deal with the entire education system, how it is set up, and its overall history. I feel like it is important to examine critical aspects of the processes used in educating youth, such as contents of curriculum and how educators interact with students. Basically, people involved in the educational system should pay close attention to who is being taught what, how they are being taught, and why.

The video about changing education paradigms was one of the more poignant pieces to me. I thought using animation to embellish what was being explained was a good way to make the speech more interesting. But even if you disregard the animation, I would say that Ken Robinson did an exceptional job breaking down the public education system and connecting the dots to show how the current system is based on a scholastic model that is incredibly outdated. In addition, Robinson describes how the current public education system is actually detrimental to children and their academic growth.

The question I will be continually asking myself and trying to answer is: How can I affect a positive change in the way things are done in the educational system? Another question I ask of myself is: How do I help current and future students to navigate through the current process until adequate changes are made? Whatever steps I take or moves I make will be strictly for the benefit of all children; and I know it will take a considerable amount of effort on my part to consistently fight for what is right for them.

I hope to continue to learn and grow more through experiences, as opposed to reading and taking courses. I feel that best way for me to learn is to talk and interact with children and their families from all different cultures and lifestyles, and learn more about them, as well as teach them things they might not know about me and my culture. Although I consider myself to be pretty patient, I feel I still need to grown in that regard as well; when working with young people, I find myself getting frustrated often when trying to get them to do things, especially when they are wound up with a lot of energy, or I am trying to get them to do something they do not necessarily want to do, or if they are angry or frustrated about something.

Observation #5

I currently volunteer/observe at the Pillsbury House in their After-School Arts program. As of now, I have spent a little over 25 hours working with the children in the program. I spend time reading with the children, observing them while they are doing their homework, helping them with art projects, working with them when they learning certain skills, like walking on stilts, or how to play tennis. I also play games like football, tag, and other games that involve physical activity with them. There are also times when I interact with the kids while doing music-related activities.

The Pillsbury House seems to be a very family oriented facility, and they have information that could be helpful to families. There are plenty of pamphlets and flyers right on the first floor, and they are often in multiple languages. I think that Pillsbury House makes a strong effort to connect to families and provide information to them that can help them with their daily lives.

There were many strengths that I saw being exhibited by the adult staff working with the children in the program. I thought they did a good job calming down children when they would get excited, and making children feel better when they were seemingly in bad moods. I thought that most of the programming was able to maintain the children's attention for the most part. For instance, since the kids seem to enjoy play that is rather physical in nature, one of them is often getting hurt. When this happens, one of the staff is usually pretty good at making sure the child who gets hurt feels better and does not overreact by going to the child immediately after the incident and talking to the child calmly.