Week One Reading Reflection- Rethinking High Schools

Chapter one's ideas and reasons for school reforms revolves around the central theme that American high schools are "badly out of tune with the times," and "out of synch with society." The conclusion following this statement is that high schools are failing all of our kids at some point in time and some of our kids all the time. With this in mind, isn't education about teaching children FIRST and our subject matters second? If we think about it, our children gorw up in schools, so wouldn't we want to create a positive and better environment for them to partake in meaningful experiences.

What really resonated with me in this chapter was the section on how children are viewed and treated in schools. It states that some of our children are welcomed and reasonably well served by their schools, other have mixed experiences, and some are ignored, misunderstood, or injured. This goes to show that there is a gap between the students who are served and those who aren't, which is a problem! I believe that a focus on reforming schools should be in how to close this gap to ensure that all students feel welcomed, appreciated, and apart of the school's community. It is obivious (we have all seen it through our own experiences) that high school can make adolescence better, more supportive, more helpful, and more constructive, or it can make it worse. It is important to remember as educators we do place a profound impact on the present lives and the future lives of our students.

I think that the national curriculum standards stated in the chapter set high expectations for schools to conform to more contemporary education. However, I would like to know or see how schools are putting these standards into action, because it seems easy on paper, but i am sure some of the standards may be more difficult to implement in our schools (maybe that's one reason why several schools are resisting to reform).