Documentary about Stanton Elementary School

This documentary demostrated various environmental and social factors that may be affecting students' learning. The neighborhood is not safe; many of them only have a single parent or parents who cannot financially and physically support students; the school is in need of funds etc.

We've discussed what different thinkers say about ideal curriculum, structures, and teaching methods, but seeing this document, I felt that it seems really difficult to figure out the ways to improve students' academic achievement (here I mean academic achievement as in test scores) due to complex, multiple factors.

Aside from the conditional, external difficulties that the school have, the teachers were still trying to improve students' academci achievement and behavior. One method that they used was that they made students repeat who they were; they were 'talented, intelligent, and gifted students.' The students were told what to do when they had problems. They were told how they should sit in class etc. These diciplinal codes were taught to students over and over to the extent that students can recite. The students were actually able to recite, but they weren't necesarily behaving as they were taught. This resonates with the point that we discussed in class that messages sent are not always received. In this case especially, students seemed to have memorized the codes; it seemed that they weren't thinking the meaning of what they said. I think this means forcing students to follow rules do not always help them internalize the rules or improve their behavior.

Another thing that I thought was that one reason why traditional ways of teaching remain is that teachers' instructions were based on their values, which were traditional. For example, the male teacher with megaphone was complaining how current students do not respect teachers and how they were not deciplined. If this teacher saw a school like Albany school in NY, he might have opposition to such education because the students are not controled by behavioral norms or schedule. He believes in the education given to him in the past and is criticizing current education as becoming worse. I think this is happening in Japan as well. Parents look at the current disappointing status of academic achievement of students, and they conclude that the education that they received in the past was better and it's becoming worse and worse. As long as they're comparing the current education with the past one, they cannot be flexible to make changes in education. I think this shows how what is taught at school has been influeced over time. That's why , it's hard to make an abrupt change in educational system.