Dear Dr. Hirsch...

Dear Dr. Hirsch,
After reading your thoughts on education, curriculum and teaching I must say that I agree with some of your ideas and disagree with others. I believe that the standards are important and that students should all recieve a 'core base of knowledge' in order to level economic playing field. I think that rote memorization, and whole class telling does have its place in the classroom but, so does inquiry and creativity. In addition I think that testing also has a place in education how else do we know if students are on level playing field?

Inquiry has a significant role in education in my opinion. Especially in the sciences. How else are our future doctors going to learn how to test out medicines or create vaccines? Individuality and creativity are being hindered if we are teaching our kids as if they were robots. Have you considered state funding, teacher training differences, class size, school culture, behavior issues as part of your prescription? I see at the end of the article that the new Hirsch was to be considered more like a vitamin supplement than the end all be all. That seems to make much more sense. I believe that education has so many facets that your views are too one sided to be totally effective.

NJCCCS for Science

As a science teacher I believe that both state and national standards are necessary. They should serve as a rough outline and not the 'end all'. For example in biology, human anatomy is a topic that everyone should be made aware of!! Many of the standards for science are VERY broad. For Earth science one of the high school standards is being able to understand the structure of Earth. I could spend most of the year on that topic alone.

I think standards in general are the only way to assure that people have a base knowledge about a subject. The idea behind public education is to provide opportunities, and at least attempt to provide a level playing field (although I know its far from reality) through a core base of knowledge.

This I believe

-I believe that all students can learn.
-I believe that the mind has no limits.
-I believe that students should learn to be reflective and think critically.
-I believe that science education should replicate more of what 'real' scientists practice in a lab.
-I believe that character education is necessary at all grade levels to foster respect and self-esteem.
-I believe that schools should operate as learning communities.
-I believe that collaboration is necessary in the educational field for both teachers and students.
-I believe that curriculum serves as a skeleton of what should be taught. Teachers and students needs fill in the gaps.
-I believe that teaching is the most influential occupation.

Introduction

Hello! Here is a bit about myself...
Name: Marisa
Where I work: Sparta High, Earth Science Teacher, 5th year teaching
Career Goals: to someday be a science department supervisor
Family: Engaged and getting married April 09...yay!!!
Personal Interests: the great outdoors, cooking...love foodnetwork tv, volunteering at an animal shelter...I walk the dogs awaiting adoption anytime I can, I have a pet rabbit named Bun
Why I took this course: required and I want to learn about designing curriculum as I will need to do this someday.