In Cathy Davidson’s article, Project Classroom Makeover, one can easily see how biased and unrealistic the majority of her ideas and opinions are towards creating a new education paradigm. She has many valid points, but the amount of holes in her plans outweighs the benefits. What Davidson wants is an education to be interesting, while providing children with a successful start to life. While her intentions are possible, she is hoping for the wrong things to be changed in order for her scenario to work. Cathy Davidson strongly believes that standardization is inhibiting the ability for students to show their true potential outside of what is deemed important by the school. She also attempts to explain how standardization is leading to higher
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It is important though that standardization does not limit what the student is able to learn while they are in school because there is a balance that must be achieved between relevance and standardization. The importance of relevance allows a student to stay engaged in school, by allowing them to study something that is of particular interest to them. Davidson makes a valid point that “as we narrow the spectrum of skills that we test in schools, more and more kids who have skills outside of the spectrum will be labeled as failures” (61). This is a perfect example showing why it is important to allow a student to be able to create their own schedule. The education system needs standardization in moderation. If the system narrows down the requirements too much, it is going to make a majority of students look bad because standardization allows a general idea of how well a student performs. Davidson does not provide a solution to this issue, however, there is a way to satisfy both the education system and the student so there is a benefit to both. If an education system makes it a requirement for students to choose their own elective courses, outside of the math and English classes, it allows the students to explore their interests and won’t be labeled as failures when they show …show more content…
When the class becomes challenging, it allows the student to go more in depth in whatever research, reading, or critical thinking they need to do in order to get the highest grades. It is almost like a video game approach, the majority of children would not play a videogame that never progresses and always stays as easy as level one, however, once a student shows they are capable, more challenges can be given to them. In order to help keep the students in school who may not be able to handle the challenge, it is important to have “relationships with teachers and counselors who believe and support them [because it is] a determining factor in remaining in school” (60). This is also part of the “payoff” that students receive when succeeding. The students receive support by the counselors and teachers that they may not be receiving at home. In fact, it is extremely common for students who grow up in abusive or less than ideal conditions to not do well in school because they don’t feel like what they are doing is important. The old paradigm does not help students in this sense because in order to achieve this feeling of support, it is necessary to provide smaller class sizes to accommodate a sense of closeness between the student and the teacher who wants the child to succeed. This is why the new
It is important though that standardization does not limit what the student is able to learn while they are in school because there is a balance that must be achieved between relevance and standardization. The importance of relevance allows a student to stay engaged in school, by allowing them to study something that is of particular interest to them. Davidson makes a valid point that “as we narrow the spectrum of skills that we test in schools, more and more kids who have skills outside of the spectrum will be labeled as failures” (61). This is a perfect example showing why it is important to allow a student to be able to create their own schedule. The education system needs standardization in moderation. If the system narrows down the requirements too much, it is going to make a majority of students look bad because standardization allows a general idea of how well a student performs. Davidson does not provide a solution to this issue, however, there is a way to satisfy both the education system and the student so there is a benefit to both. If an education system makes it a requirement for students to choose their own elective courses, outside of the math and English classes, it allows the students to explore their interests and won’t be labeled as failures when they show …show more content…
When the class becomes challenging, it allows the student to go more in depth in whatever research, reading, or critical thinking they need to do in order to get the highest grades. It is almost like a video game approach, the majority of children would not play a videogame that never progresses and always stays as easy as level one, however, once a student shows they are capable, more challenges can be given to them. In order to help keep the students in school who may not be able to handle the challenge, it is important to have “relationships with teachers and counselors who believe and support them [because it is] a determining factor in remaining in school” (60). This is also part of the “payoff” that students receive when succeeding. The students receive support by the counselors and teachers that they may not be receiving at home. In fact, it is extremely common for students who grow up in abusive or less than ideal conditions to not do well in school because they don’t feel like what they are doing is important. The old paradigm does not help students in this sense because in order to achieve this feeling of support, it is necessary to provide smaller class sizes to accommodate a sense of closeness between the student and the teacher who wants the child to succeed. This is why the new