My practicum is at Greenwood Laboratory School. Of course if it weren't for schedule constraints, I would have like to perform my practicum at one of the surrounding public high schools. The reality of a full schedule however has required me to go somewhere close.
I'll admit that I have a bias against Greenwood. I think that it is a failure to the ideas that John Dewey had about what a laboratory school should be. The school's purpose is supposed to be to provide educators with a realistic environment to observe or for educational theories to be put into practice. In my opinion the school does not provide either of these things. The school has basically become a haven for the children of the small portion of wealthy citizens of Springfield and the outlying areas. The ridiculous tuition rates of the school have basically eliminated the possibility for socio-econimic diversity so all the students in the school are statistically more likely to be attentive and successful. It also inferiates me that on an affirmative action university campus, there is only one African American student in the whole school.
Anyway, because of this bias I had some conceptions about the type of students I would be involved with. As I discovered in my first and second weeks of my practicum, some of these concesptions were false. First off, I notice that even though each class is pretty small (around 25 students), there were clicks in the school. One student shared his resentment of one of the uber rich students and shared that there were some division even among the students whose parents held high socio economic status. I also happened to notice that Dennis, the student teacher that I've been paired with had to confinscate an I-phone from a chatty student. After that I looked around and realized that almost all of the students had laptops and were all allowed to listen to there MP3 players at their leizure.
Overall though the students are great. In just two weeks I feel like I've developed personal relationships with many of them. One of the classes that I am observing is a debate class and I've been helping to coach two students C.J. and Arch while they prepare for competitions.
I still have misgivings about Greenwood but I like the students that I've met so far.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
one African American student?? That is ridiculous. It is sad that it has become a school for the elite rather than a very representative group for the masses. You have to wonder if the research that comes out of there will do anything to benefit "regular" students.
Post a Comment