Hw 45

Sizer focused more on the the habits of mind and how teachers should teach them to students in school. He opposed "one-size-fits-all educational methods". Sizers form of education is structured around less testing and grading but more on the amount of knowledge a student is prepared with. His teaching was more of going deeper than the basic knowledge of things.

Hirsch ideas of education were if you don't know stuff then you can't understand it. You understand what you are taught more from books which is focused less on using the habits of mind. He argued that " an important factor in determining comprehension, an even more important consideration was background knowledge." So having basic knowledge on things is most important to understanding stuff in our culture. He focuses less on students different learning abilities but more on a one-size-fits-all education.

SOF definitely follows Sizers ideas on what schools should be like. The school is focused on the habits of mind and using them in our educational experience. Which is why SOf doesn't do much standardized testing,etc which is different from other high schools. I am more used to Sizers educational methods than Hirsch.

HW 44

In Obama's speech on education I agree with him on understanding that sometimes kids don't feel like being in school "wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning". He identified with that feeling of just blowing school off but that it's solely up to us to decide what kind of an education we want and how hard are we going to work as individual to get it. I think it's interesting when he mentions that an education can open the doors to self discovery, like an education can help us create goals for ourselves and help us discover what we want out of life. He's saying that a good education is out there for us we just have to want it and push ourselves to do better. We also won't get anywhere in life without an education which is what makes having one so important.

While reading the article "Where the Bar Ought to Be " I agree that teachers should have/want the desire to inspire their students to want to learn and get an education since the students are in their classrooms everyday. It seems that good teachers are hard to come by because most of them are just average educators who might not really care about their students. To have good teachers and understand the value of them in students lives will make for a much richer educational experience.