Reflection Paper #20

The nineteenth century saw growth and industrial growth, people wanted knowledge. They felt that knowledge was power. European countries started to follow Prussia's example of a national school system and started opening schools. Schools came out to the forefront; education was becoming much more important. Just working in a workshop or for the family was no longer enough people were branching out and getting an education. In the European countries, Elementary schools were attended by children of the lower class and they ended their school years by the time they were ten or eleven years of age accepted for the few bright kids. The subjects were reading, writing, religion and if the teacher had knowledge of arithmetic then they were able to teach it to the children. Pestalozzi's belief was that their educational goal was for the development of the individual child instead of the memorization of the subject matter. European high schools were closed to women. Only on very rare occasions did individual women get the permission to study as an auditor or go to the University or a medical school. In the late nineteenth century, there were private women colleges for special courses and medical school as well. The Universities in Switzerland started to admit female students after 1867. European schools discriminated against the poor and the women. In the United States all had children had access to schools and so did girls. They were able to continue to study after secondary school. Subjects like science were added because they thought that mind could be trained to think scientifically. In addition, with the immigration problem the focus was how to impart the most amount of information to so many new students. New schools were built and new teaching methods were adopted.

Reflection Paper #19

The development of U.S. education from the Old Colonial Dame Schools to today's high schools is significant. In today's schools, there is so much more coursework and extra curricular activities that are offered and there are equal opportunities for both boys and girls. The Dame Schools of Old Colonial were modeled after the Dame Schools on Britain. They were private schools, which were privately supported, and fees were charged. They concentrated on reading, writing, moral and religion. They were taught by women and from their homes. In New England, these schools prepared the boys for admission to town schools. The boys had to stand up and read words with at least two syllables. The girls were taught how to do chores so they can keep a good household. This Dame school model is what is known today as a form of home schooling. Today's public high school education is so much more then the Dame schools were or offered the students. High schools today offer both boys and girls the same coursework there is no discrimination of gender. Public schools is a secondary school and it is financed by tax revenues and other government collected monies which administered by the state and local officials. They offer many different programs, which include magnet programs. These magnet programs are for students that want to study a specific career; it is a vigorous academic program. They have many levels of coursework. The coursework consists of regular, average, advanced and honors courses. They also offer advanced placement coursework, which allows the students to attend college level courses while still in high school. This allows the student to graduate with a high school diploma along with college credits or even their AA degree. High schools also offer extra curricular activities like sports, dance, clubs, band and many more activities. The purpose of high school is two fold; it is to prepare the student to enter the work force or to prepare the student to continue on to college.

Reflection Paper #18

If it were not for Education, where would many of our leaders be today? We have such great leaders in medicine, science, law and education. Education was the vehicle to a better life for these leaders. Higher education has helped people enjoy greater benefits such as with higher levels of savings, they have a better quality of life for themselves and for their children, they have hobbies, better decision making on things and leisure activities. It also gives you a better understanding of our society and gives you awareness to the social injustices around us. In your awareness to social injustice, you become involved in certain organizations or causes and you get yourself involved in helping out. Colleges encourage their students and make them well informed on how they can get involved, this helps you, the student on how to emphasize your civic responsibility. Colleges want their students once they graduate to have a sensibility towards their community and their needs in order to create changes. Continued education has helped women out in our modern society. As the divorce rate, rose women saw themselves single with children and no good means of support. This drove women back to school to either get or finish their degrees. We have many successful women in all sorts of careers today. The Women's movement has helped with this. Women are now doctors, lawyers, judges you name the profession women are involved. Education today has changed tremendously from what it was in Roman and Colonial times. There were not as many schools as we have now, back then kids were taught in homes. Education was not as important then as it is now. Back in those times education was basically for boys only and the girls were taught how to keep a good house. The role of girls in education has changed significantly and they have taken up a major role.

Reflection Paper #17

The difference between education now and education in the New England Colonies is so different. The differences are such that it is hard to believe that once upon a time there was religion in pubic schools and morality was alive. The similarities were that the goal was to prepare the students for participation in civil service. The Puritans had a lot to do with education and morality in the 17th Century in America. The first set of Puritans came in the Mayflower; they came to America because they became very unhappy with the church in England. They believed that each person was responsible for their actions to God therefore they needed to be good all the time so they were worthy of being on God’s chosen list. They believed that the education of the future generation was important in order to purify the church and society. The Bible was their learning tool and they were encouraged to make up poetry based on religious content only. In 1635, the Puritans offered free schooling the school was called the Roxbury Latin School. The early schools of the colonies were known as Latin schools or public schools and these schools in their beginnings were not entirely free. These “free schools” did collect some sort of fee except from the poorest students. The schools in the early 17th Century focused education on effective and functional means. In America the challenge has been to prepare the students for participation in the world and preparation for civil service. Education became so important that the colonies started setting aside parcels of land for buildings to build schools and to educate the future generations to come.

Reflection Paper #16 (The Revised Version)

Effective speaking and writing along with the art of persuasion is called Rhetoric. The Romans centered their educational system on the rhetorical style, which they got from the Greeks. Education became so important to the Romans that the Government became much more involved. The schools became bilingual because it was so stylish to speak Greek everyone wanted to learn how to speak Greek.

There were three types of teachers at the schools, the first was the literature and this was the teacher that taught the students the basics reading, writing and math. The second teacher was the grammaticism this teacher taught the students secondary education and the role of that teacher was to teach the students memorization and how to recite out loud; they put great emphasize on pronunciation and enunciation. The third teacher was the rhetoric and this teacher taught the students to make and do their speeches on any given theme and taught them how to engage in debates.

The rhetorical style of declamation was the most popular style of rhetoric. It was the style that fascinated the adults and added style to the literature and the oratory. The style of controversial was a form of the style of declamation but more advanced. Controversial was a made up legal case that was argued before a mock jury. The three parts of this style were the sententiae which were the four and against arguments, the division which was the statement of legal points and the third was the colures which were the explanation of what happened. The controversial was done in public and was for entertainment purposes.

Reflection Paper #15

There are several differences between Athenia and Roman Education. In Ancient Rome education was very important. The rich put a lot of emphasize in Education. The poor people while they still were able to learn how to read and write they did not get a chance at a formal education like the rich were able to do. The boys were the main focus of education while girls did go to school but again like the rich boys, girls from the rich families were the ones that received an education but at home. They were taught how to run a household and be good wives for when they would get married. Their education consisted of music, sewing and running a good kitchen. There was no test given out to the children in order to test their progress. In the Roman world there was no legal requirement to go to school and be educated. They also had no age requirements, when to start the kids in school and when to finish. The only place where things were taken serious was in the athletic world. With that said it does not mean there were no assessment tests for the students. They had to show the teachers the results of all assignments to the teachers and they were corrected on the spot or congratulated for a job well done. There was not a great deal of subject to choose from in Roman schools and they had very long days. They were very strict and kids were beaten for the most simplest of things. The Romans had two types of schools. The first school was for younger kids age’s eleven to twelve. They learned to read and write and do basic math. The second school was for more advance studies the studied public speaking. In Ancient Athenia education was private and only the rich were able to afford an education. Boys and Girls were allowed to get an education but girls could only go to school until they reached a certain age. The students went to the teacher’s house and the really wealthy boys had a slave that was there only for the boy. The slave to care of all the boys needs. The boys learned how to read, write and do math. By the age of twelve they would learn how to play an instrument, sing and do athletics for when their time came to go into the military.

Reflection Paper #14

Aristotle’s impact in modern western education with the four causes was that the four causes form several divisions. The amount of the separation or division depends on the questions “why” may be answered. The first cause is Materialist views and for instance he thought a square is a square and it will not change you have to make the best of what you have in the square and make it work. It’s like when you use bronze to make a bronze statute there is no change in the material just in the structure. The second cause is that objects form a pattern and you get what you form but what you get from it is much more worthy. This cause is like parents forming their children to be religious, respectful and productive individuals. When parents are successful in accomplishing this they outcome is so worth their time and energy put into the cause. The third cause is the initiating source of change or rest. Your health is a cause for you to exercise and to be healthy. In order to stay healthy you visit your doctor, this is the initiating part of the third cause. This is the cause and effect theory. The fourth cause is the about the purpose of a thing or situation the ending. The reason you exercise is to stay healthy and the reason you go and get an education is to get an education and become successful and be a productive citizen to society not a burden. And in the “Unmoved Mover” Aristotle referred to the unmoved mover as God which was a being. The being is a mover and shaker. Motion that is one and simple and the being is perfect and eternal but does not take on interest in the world.

Reflection Paper #13

Idealism is the theory that reality is based on absolute truths and not materialism. You are taught to have big dreams and goals. Plato continued his development of idealism when he opened up his own school which he named “The Academy”. Plato taught the following things; he taught that the truth is in all things; he believed that everyone should go in search of the truth because it is perfect and forever and that the hunt for the truth is the mission of every philosopher. In Plato’s theory of form he argued that the things that change are unreal and can’t be the object of true knowledge. His idea was that good was the source of all the true knowledge. His teachings were to embrace ideas and to reject matter because you would not be able to progress toward the good because when you accept matter and reject ideas thing became unstable. This is done by having an open mind and refusing selfish desire. In order to achieve this you need to have a grip on the subject matter at hand and critical focus. He thought since there are universal truths in math equations that the same concept goes in every other field like politics, religion and education. Truth equals honesty therefore being the best policy and this we are taught at home and it’s bought into our schools. As for his views on reminisce Plato thought that if the world around us can’t be the source of our knowledge of the ideas, then how can we learn of them. He thought that each person needed to have a soul and which has access to good because of a prior experience. He believed that people were born without knowledge and those that became knowledgeable had the duty to help out and give of themselves in order to teach. Our teachers are bound by an ethical code to teach students and basically are tracked because of the FCAT testing we have in Florida.