14-MY PAPERS ON EDUCATION (click on the title above to go back to my classroom)

(Click on a paper's title to read it)
YOU CAN TRANSLATE THESE PAPERS FROM ENGLISH TO ANY LANGUAGE. CLICK ON THE DIAMOND


1-MY CONCERNS ABOUT EDUCATION

2-TEACHING AND LEARNING HISTORY

3-MOTIVATION: THE ROAD TO ACHIEVEMENT

4-EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

5-A NEW CURRICULUM FOR THE NEW GLOBAL ORDER

6-THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION

7-THE CRISIS IN OUR SECONDARY EDUCATION

8-VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS

9-THE INTERNET AS A TOOL FOR TEACHING L.E.P. STUDENTS



My Concerns About Education in the U.S.
(click on the title to go back )

By Carlos J. Diaz

1-Descentralization: There are huge educational differences among states, school

districts, schools, and classrooms in both form and substance. We, as a nation, do

not have a common set of principles, goals, and standards for our education. Public schools in

America should provide equal opportunities for every child. Most democratic

nations have a centralized educational system.

Is decentralization one of the main causes of the crisis of the American Education?

2-Academic Freedom: This is the cornerstone of American education. For many

people, the American system of education is suffering a deep crisis; control and

accountability are terms used by politicians and administrators -not always in the

right direction- as ways to solve the problem. Every teacher in Dade should follow

the CBC and the Sunshine State Standards, but we have freedom to choose among many different pedagogic methods

and strategies ( not necessarily the best). There is a modern theory that states that

“less is more”. The bureaucratic burden that exist on administrators is limiting

their capability to control academic activities inside the classrooms; many teachers

say that after they close the door, they are the kings / queens in their classrooms.

Teachers, like any other group of persons, have many different forms and qualities as individuals.

The FCAT, Florida Writes, SAT, and other standardized tests do not show

the results of the work or performance of individual teachers with their students.

What is the best way for society to be sure that individual teachers comply with the

curriculum they are suppose to teach and that they are using the best instructional

strategies? or Should we trust them not matter what?

3-Expectations of Education: They are so diverse that it is assumed that schools

should replace many of the functions that the family, community, church, and other

social institutions had in the past and try to solve many of the problems that we

foresee in the future. The school has to transmit knowledge and baby-sit children; it has

to take care of their emotional problems, discipline them, and prepare them as

future global citizens; schools should provide the necessary skills to the future

workers, help them to develop good moral values, and prepare them to use the

technology available out there, in the real world; it also must entertain them,

channel their energies in a proper direction, keep them out of bad influences, and

prepare them to be good inhabitants of planet earth, to coexist with their

environment, and to be able to fix the mess that we are leaving behind as our legacy.

Are our schools prepared -structure, personnel, funds, definitions- to face these

responsibilities?

4-School Academic Structure: Most of our secondary schools offer a long list of electives like

home economics, driving, and cosmetology that are limiting the possibilities for teaching

“core subjects”; we are graduating students with a very superficial knowledge that

later need to take remedial courses to enter in college; at the same time, the

employers are also complaining that our graduates don’t have the basic skills even for

entry-level positions; and finally, many students think that they wasted their time in

school. We are still pretending that we can teach something in auditoriums with 200

students. Academic and personal isolation is a major professional trend in

secondary schools and colleges. Most public schools in America only offer a 6 ½

hours school day and a 180 days school year, this without considering interruptions,

announcements, visits, field trips, fire drills, standardized tests’ days, cultural

activities, and some other non-academic things that happen every day in our

schools.

Can we provide an appropriate education for our children within this framework? Are we

fulfilling our obligations with our customers? Is someone happy with our work?

5-Classrooms’ Population: Most of our secondary schools’ classrooms are

overcrowded. In every classroom we can find 4 or 5 youngsters that are not

interested at all in what is happening there, that do not belong there. More and

more students come to school with emotional or / and disciplinary problems and are

required to stay there. Students sent to CSI come back again and again with a worse

attitude every time. Teachers have to spend a great deal of time dealing with

situations that result from these realities.

Can a teacher teach under these conditions? Can we meet the individual needs of every

child under these circumstances?

6-Standardized Tests: Even though most educators and researchers agree that

standardized tests are wrong, that they are incompatible with a totally decentralized

system in which nothing is standard, that we are one of the nations with a higher

affluence of immigrants from different cultures in the world (and those tests are in

English), that educational researchers and scholars recommend the use of

alternative assessments because of the multiple intelligences of human beings, that

the results of many of those tests don’t mean anything for the students taking them,

that a lot of students fail those tests; even though everybody in this

field is aware of these realities, we continue using standardized tests. Most of those

tests only measure the students’ skills / knowledge in Math and English (what about

the other subjects?). However, the state of Florida is using only these kind of tests

to assess the quality of our education and grade our schools.

On the other hand, all teachers are free to elaborate and give

their own tests to their students in their subject matters, those that really decide whether

the students pass or not, those that really mean something to them. In the same

school and department different students can take different exams in the

same subject. The system has not a valid way to know if a particular group of

students really acquired the competencies required for any subject matter.

This is a totally inconsistent situation.

When are we going to establish a reasonable policy for academic assessment?

7-The New Corporate Order: The most prevalent issues nowadays are related to

privatization, charter schools, neoliberalism, cutting funds for social programs and

education, introducing advertisements and commercials in public schools in

exchange for computers and other resources that the government is not able (or

interested) to provide. Most educators and reformers trying to solve the crisis are

addressing the symptoms instead of the real causes of the crisis because the

circumstances do not allow them to go beyond that. Republicans are suggesting

vouchers as an alternative for children in “failing schools”.

Will public education survive in a world ruled by omnipotent and omnipresent

corporations? Can we also have choices dealing with corporations?

8-The “Deep Structure”: The world is experiencing so many changes that it is even

difficult to stay informed about them. Computers and information are among the

most changing fields and both are closely related to education. Education is

expanding from the cognitive to the affective domain. The world is becoming

smaller. However, the way we teach, the way our classrooms are structured, the

way teachers’ professional formation is designed, the content of most of the

curriculum we teach and the books we use, all of that is very similar to the education

we had 30 years ago (which means centuries in our age). Many old teachers

recognize that they can not change and we can not do anything about it (tenure?

academic freedom? teachers’ unions?).

Are our educational system able to change with the times?

9-Social Recognition: Teachers are the worst paid professionals in the U.S. We also

have less social recognition than many other professionals. This situation is very

different to what occur in many other developed nations (ex. Japan & Germany).

For a long time, the federal government did not have a Department of Education;

President Reagan even tried to eliminate it. As a society, we spend much less money

in education than in entertainment, defense, or buying unnecessary things.

Politicians, educators, and all our economic and social leaders are aware of what is

happening to our education.

Is education considered a priority in our society? Are we really willing to solve the

crisis? Do the people with the power to do something really want to save public education?

Teaching and Learning History.

(click on the title to go back) 

By Carlos J. Diaz

Teaching and learning history is a puzzling job, which is full of dilemmas,

deficiencies and absurd situations that will have a very deep and lasting impact on

our society. If I had to summarize the central idea of what I have read about this

issue, I would have to use only one word: disaster. Many scholars tell us that

research results in this field are “thin and uneven”. Trying to achieve a better

understanding about these opinions, I looked for different points of view of well

known historians and researchers.

1-What is history? Is it a science? Who has written the history we know? Why is it

important? What history should we teach?

“History has often been criticized for being essentially the story of how the

victors won and how the elites ruled. This tendency has been called enshrined

history.” (Giese 1996, p. 305). “It would not be going too far to say that our heads

are completely filled with lies. It is simply that in many cases history is written by

the victors and is filtered through the prism of their prejudices” (Shekman 1993, p.

2). “One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil

must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. We must not remember that Daniel

Webster got drunk but only remember that he was a splendid constitutional lawyer.

We must forget that George Washington was a slave owner... and simply remember

the things we regard as creditable and inspiring. The difficulty, of course, with this

philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints

perfect men and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth.” (Du Bois, W. E. B.,

1935. Black reconstruction. In Loewen 1995. p. 18). We tend to present “...our

leaders as heroic statesmen, not imperfect human beings.” Because of this “Our

children end up without realistic role models to inspire them. Students also develop

no understanding of causality in history.” (Loewen 1995, p. 35). “We do not protect

our children from controversy (and difficult issues) by offering only (the best,

prettiest, and softest side of the history) in school. All we do is make school

irrelevant...” “Rock songs...,treat AIDS, nuclear war, and ecocide. Rap songs discuss

racism, sexism, drug use -and American history.” (Loewen 1995, p. 294).

“Our transactions with the past are based on memory...instrumental and

affective memory....Being highly subjective and intensely personal, memory often

produces incredibly vivid recollections, but these are just as often

erroneous...Memory expands and changes overtime.” (Giese 1996, p. 276). “It is

conventional for historians to distinguish between primary sources and secondary

sources...artifacts, books, papers, government documents, letters, oral accounts,

diaries, maps, photos, reports, coins, stamps...constitute what historians call the

historical record...The historical record is highly selective, often biased, and always

incomplete.” (Giese 1996, p. 279). “...much historical evidence is actually incidental

to the situations described...some of the available records are left because of the

self-conscious action of historical actors... Every source is biased in one way or

another and must, therefore, be scrutinized skeptically and critically.” (Giese 1996,

p. 280). “...evidence in history is particularistic, and interpretation is dependent on

the historian’s perspective.” (Downey & Levstik 1991, p. 403).

“Historians, like other people, are remarkably different with respect to their

interests, values, and experiences. Each historian exists in his / her own subjective

past -the personal meaning that attaches to nationality, social group, ethnicity, class,

family, schooling, and so on- as well as an ongoing present.” “...time, place, and

values (their environments) affect historians...Historians feel pressure to secure

tenure and promotion, to enhance their reputation, to publish in the best

journals...Those influences tend to keep historians attuned to the state of the

collective body of historical wisdom...” (Giese 1996, p. 283).

Personally, I think that history is very important because it helps us to know the

past and avoid the mistakes other people made, because it helps us to understand

the present and construct / predict the future in a better way. History is an

important element in making a nation strong. It contributes to mature our

youngsters’ character, morals, and ethics. I think history allows us to live a better,

more fulfilled and happy life because possessing historical knowledge help us to be

aware of the causes and consequences of many things around us. History is also a

necessary discipline for many professions like journalism, foreign service, politics,

teaching, and many others.

Without any doubt, I consider that we must teach history ensuring that multiple

perspectives are presented, making clear for our students that there is not a single

and easy truth, expressing our points of view with honesty, being as much

open-minded as possible, preparing our students to be able to develop and

express their own opinions. I think we should stimulate our students to be skeptical,

to challenge anyone who tries to tell them whom to believe in and to make them to

swallow “absolute truths”. Debate should be a required activity in our history

classrooms. The Socratic “why” should be the word that we most use when we teach

history to them.

2-What is the role of textbooks in our history classrooms? What kind of textbooks

do we use? Why do we use those textbooks?

“...the teaching of history, more than any other discipline, is dominated by

textbooks. And students are right: the books are boring...Textbooks exclude conflict

or real suspense.” (Loewen 1995, p. 13). “...national surveys have confirmed that

teachers use textbooks more than 70% of the time.” (Loewen 1995, p.288). “It is

widely assumed that textbooks dominate history and social studies instruction...90%

of classroom time involves the use of curricular materials, two third of this time is

spent on commercially produced materials, mainly textbooks.” (Downey & Levstik

1991, p. 406).

“Students exit history textbooks without having developed the ability to think

coherently about social life...Even though the books bulge with detail, ...(they) still

leave out most of what we need to know about the American past. Some of the

factoids they present are flatly wrong or unverifiable”...“History is furious debate

informed by evidence and reason. Textbooks encourage students to believe that

history is facts to be learned”...“In sum, startling errors of omission and distortion

mar American history.” (Loewen 1995, p. 15-16). “There is widespread agreement

that textbooks are a problem...The critics castigate textbooks for poor or bland

writing, an emphasis on coverage over depth of treatment, (and) omissions of all

sorts...” (Giese 1996, p. 303). “...textbooks (also) promote wartless stereotypes...”

(Loewen 1995, p. 33). Trying to find who is responsible for all these problems,

“...publishing executives blame adoption boards, school administrators, or parents,

whom they feel they have to please, for the distortions and lies of omission that mar

U.S. history textbooks. Parents...blame publishers. Teachers blame administrators

who make them use distasteful books or the publishers who produce them.”

(Loewen 1995, p. 283). “..textbooks mirror our society and contain what that society

considers acceptable.” (Loewen 1995, p. 292).

Even though most teachers and administrators are aware of the problems that

history textbooks have, they continue using them. They could use the books being

active complements and filling in the blanks, but some teachers like textbooks as

they are because many teachers do not like controversy and they already have their

old lesson plans designed according to those books; teachers prefer to teach as they

were taught and it is harder to teach open-endedly. Textbooks, even the bad ones,

make teachers’ lives easier. “Teaching against the book is hard...(there are)

problems of time and workload. Resources are also a problem...Teaching against the

book can also be scary. Textbooks offer security. Teachers could get in trouble for

doing that.” (Loewen 1995, p. 290-291).

3-How do we teach history? Why do we teach history like that? What are the

consequences? What advice should we take from research results?

“All over America, high school students sit in social studies and American history

classes, look at their textbooks, write answers to the questions at the end of each

chapter, and take quizzes and examinations that test factual recall.” (Loewen 1995,

p. 299). “...most American history courses operate in a gray emotional landscape of

pious duty in which the United States has a good history, so studying it is good for

students.” (Loewen 1995, p. 301). “Teaching that emphasizes facts and the textbook

puts students in a passive role...Myriad instructional strategies do actively engage

students in authentic work... Simulations, role plays, mock trials, case studies,

small-group cooperative learning projects, and individual research projects...(can do

it).” “...classrooms become places where students learn unexplained nonsense, where

students cannot explore important topics in depth...” (Giese 1996, p. 302-303).

“...a fundamental problem in the high school curriculum is that we try to teach

too much...” “...we are addicted to coverage.” “...depth must replace coverage as a

primary principle for organizing instruction.” (Giese 1996, p. 302-303). According

to many scholars, the problem is provoked by the dichotomy between “quantity vs.

quality.” Many world history students has never seen beyond WW I and most

American history students wonder what happened after the Civil War; that is the

reality and part of it is a result of the current academic policy of “less is more”.

Even though this modern principle is “in place”, lessons are still superficial, boring,

and so on. Do our students have the right to learn about all periods and processes in

history? I would not hesitate to answer: yesss !!!!, they do. I agree that

we can not teach everything. But, the problem resides in what methods teachers are

using to approach this situation., in the use of adequate instructional strategies and

proper planning. It is absurd to provide excuses and support to those who are not

doing their job. Let’s help them to decide what issues are more important in each

unit, what details should be left out, how we are going to present the lesson, what

strategies and resources are more productive and appropriate for each theme and to

save time, what we should present in the classroom and what the students -with our

guidance- must research by themselves. Let’s elaborate a better CBC, let’s direct the

workshops we organize to solve concrete and practical things. Planning is a

crucial matter to solve this dilemma. But, under not circumstances, we should be

allowed to make “disappear” complete periods of history. That is my point of view.

Downey & Levstik (1991) advise us that “..the use of primary source materials in

history instruction makes high school students more sensitive to the interpretive

nature of history.” (p. 403); that “...history embedded in literary narrative elicited

strong interest among students and could be used to encourage (them)...historical

fiction and biography could encourage a student’s interpretation and analysis of

textbook versions of history.” “As children have been found to be generally

uncritical of narrative sources, critical analysis needs to be part of instruction.” In

many researches, the results show that “...the teaching methods most commonly

used were class discussions, lectures, and periodic tests and quizzes...(as well as

other) teacher-centered (activities, such as) question-answer recitation...” (p. 404).

“...teachers tend to adopt the terminology currently in vogue to describe what they

do, whether or not they have altered their teaching methods.” “...the way history is

taught and the quality of history teaching vary widely among the schools and among

teachers within each school.” (p. 405)

Personally, I am in favor of using as much audiovisuals as possible teaching

history (color transparencies, poster boards, videos, etc.). The use of technology, like

CD-ROM multimedia and the Internet, are necessary resources if we want to be at

the same level that most of the things our students use today for their entertainment.

After several studies made on the use of motion pictures for educational purposes, I

strongly think that movies about historical themes are very useful as a complement

in teaching history to young children. The combination of cooperative and

competitive activities is a crucial issue when we talk about teenagers who love sports

and competition and are under the heavy influence of peer pressure. I mentioned

most of the activities I do to motivate my students in my paper about motivation.

I have read as much as I could about cooperative learning. Thelen (1954) studied

what is called the group investigation approach to cooperative learning; Sharan

(1984) saw cooperative learning as a way to eliminate racial prejudice and improve

social relations among students by creating cultural / racial mixed teams in

classrooms; Cochran (1989) studied how cooperative learning strategies could help

L.E.P. students to succeed in regular classrooms; Kagan (1992) developed what we

call the structural approach to cooperative learning; Johnson and Johnson (1994)

explored how to integrate handicapped students into regular classrooms and

develop what they called “experiential learning” or learning by doing; Slavin (1995)

studied how cooperative learning affects students’ achievement; Aronson (1997)

developed the Jigsaw, which was adapted later on by Slavin. All my students are

grouped and work in teams. One of the most important forms of assessment that I

use are team projects and students love doing them. My teams compete between

them and I systematically reward the best results in different ways. This method is

especially important for me, because all my students are in ESOL I / II and the

possibility of helping each other is vital for them.

4-How important is the preparation of history teachers? What kind of history

teachers do we have?

“How history gets taught in the schools also depends upon how and how well

history teachers know their subject. Not only do expert history teachers have a large

store of information at their command, they also had a vision of history, a perception

of the discipline...” (Downey & Levstik 1991, p. 405). “Many history teachers don’t

know much history: a national survey of 257 teachers in 1990 revealed that 13

percent had never taken a college history course, and only 40 percent held a B.A. or

M.A. in history or had a major with some history in it.” “...fewer than one in five

stay current by reading books or articles in American history.” (Loewen 1995, p.

286-287). “Some high school principals assign history to coaches, who have to teach

something, after all.” “...60 percent of U.S. history teachers (are out of their field of

competence).” “...the subject is not (so difficult), ...anyone can teach it (using the

textbook!).” “history teachers also have higher class loads than teachers of any other

academic subject.” (Loewen 1995, p. 289). Only high school social studies classes are

assigned to work in auditoriums where more than two hundred students pretend

that they are learning something. It is hard to accept that, in many cases, “...social

studies teachers are part of the problem, not part of the solution.” (Loewen 1995, p.

291). I think this is not only their fault. Who should prevent that to happen?

5-How our students perceive history? Is history an interesting or boring subject

matter? Should we be amazed for student attitudes toward history?

“High school students hate history. When they list their favorite subjects, history

invariably comes last.” “...Outside of school, Americans show great interest in

history. Historical novels...often become bestsellers.” “The series The Civil War,

(North and South, and The Cold War ) attracted new audiences to public television.

Movies based on historical incidents or themes are a continuing source of

fascination...” “American history is full of fantastic and important stories. These

stories have the power to spellbind audiences...” (Loewen 1995, p. 13).

Downey & Levstik (1991) affirm that “History and social studies are widely

thought to be one of the least popular of school subjects, in part because of the use

of teaching methods and materials that kill student interest in the subject.” (p. 406).

After discussing all the problems existing in the manner we teach history, it is totally

normal and easily predictable that students feel this way. The thing is if we are

willing and capable to change this terrible situation. Is our educational system really

interested in enforce a policy aiming in that direction?

Controversial Issues to Debate

1-Coverage vs. depth

2-Teach by the book or against the book.

3-The controversial issues: AIDS, homosexuality, racism, social inequality, imperialism, trust in our leaders and institutions, and so on.

4-How to solve the present situation in teaching / learning history? Does our society want us to do so?

5-What should be the role of teachers? Are we responsible for what is happening?

Motivation: The Road to Achievement.

(click on the title to go back) 

By Carlos J. Diaz

Most of our students consider the subjects within the field of the social studies the least

interesting and useful and the most irrelevant among all those they have to study as part

of the school curriculum. The major reasons and arguments behind this judgment are:

poor and repetitive instruction, superficial instruction, lack of teacher’s enthusiasm

and knowledge of the subject, and lack of use of modern technologies. Goodlad

(1984) told us long time ago that “The data from our observations in more than

1,000 classrooms support the popular image of a teacher standing or sitting in front

of a class imparting knowledge to a group of students. Explaining and lecturing

constituted the most frequent teaching activities...” (p. 105). “Students receive

relative little exposure to audiovisual aids, field trips, or guest lectures.” (p. 124).

“Three categories of student activity marked by passivity -written work, listening,

and preparing for assignments- dominate ... at all three levels of schooling.” (p. 124).

“Students’ experiences with writing (and reading) decreased as they moved from the

upper elementary to the senior high grades.” (p. 106). “...guidance in improving

performance and teacher’s praise of students’ work dropped...about 50% from

elementary to senior high classes.” “All those characteristics we commonly regard as

positive elements in classrooms were more to be observed at the early elementary

level.” (p 112). (There is ) “... a decline in (the use of) amenities such as good

instructional materials and attractive comfortable classrooms.” (p. 125). Today’s

situation is more or less the same.

Some key concepts and ideas related to motivation:

1-“Students’ attitudes and levels of motivation are a function of a complex set of

variables.” (Massialas 1996, p. 82).

2-“Motivation to learn is defined as a student’s willingness to engage in efforts to

achieve an academic goal and to persist in those efforts.” (Massialas 1996, p. 83).

“Student motivation naturally has to do with students’ desire to participate in the

learning process. But it also concerns the reasons or goals that underlie their

involvement or noninvolvement in academic activities.” (Lumsden 1994, p. 1).

“Motivation is usually defined as the process within individuals that stimulates

behavior or arouses us to take action. It is what makes us act the way we do.”

(Arends 1998, p. 76).

3-According to Van Sickle (1996), the factors which determine students’

motivation to learn can be grouped in three categories: goal values, means values,

and goal expectancies. The author took Carol S. Dweck (1989) work as the

foundation of his analysis. Students’ motivation will depend on how students answer

the following questions:

How important is this for me to learn? (Goal value)

How do I feel about participating in this learning process? (Means value)

How likely am I to be successful and achieve the goal? (Goal expectancy)

Van Sickle (1996) identifies those factors as follow

Goal Value: Incentives (privileges, grades, library pass, skip examination, public

recognition, and bulletin board notes), Personal Relevance (sense of security,

sense of affiliation, sense of competence, and sense of influence) , and Academic

Environment (general expectations / feelings regarding what is worth learning

and the appropriate ways to do it). See the Reinforcement Theory (Skinner,

1956), the Needs Theory (Maslow, 1970), the Social Learning Theory (Bandura,

1977), and the Theory of Identity Development (Erikson, 1968).

Means Value: Comprehensibility (concepts, new vocabulary, identify key people),

Instructional Variety, Friendship (classroom environment, cooperative learning,

compete / contest like in real-life), Feedback, Affective Impact (emotional engaging

effects, real-life dilemmas, drama / fiction, storytelling, teacher’s role model), and

Concrete Experiences (role playing, simulation gaming, artwork, interviews to

real-life actors, hands-on activities). See the Multiple Intelligences Theory

(Gardner, 1983), the Triarchic Theory (Sternberg, 1986), and the Stimulus

Variation Theory.

Goal Expectancy: Goal Specificity (avoid risk and ambiguity, everything should

be clear), Self-Expectations (you can do it !!), and Task Relevant Resources

(availability of necessary resources to achieve the goal). See the Social Learning

Theory (Bandura, 1977).

Van Sickle also identifies -following Dweck (1989) theories- the two general

orientations to achievement that prevail in today’s schools: learning orientation

(concern with acquiring knowledge) and performance orientation (concern with

favorable social judgment: looking well and avoiding problems).

Personally, I think that motivation is a critical issue for the process of teaching /

learning and that teachers’ knowledge of the “laws” / principles that rule / lead to

the achievement of students’ motivation is conclusive for the success of our work. I

have tried to read as much as possible about this topic (see references) and to apply

the best experiences to my teaching. .

Key Points of Major Theories about Motivation

1-The Reinforcement Theory (Skinner, 1956): Positive reinforcers following a desire

behavior enhance the probability that that behavior would be repeated and negative

reinforcers following an action reduce the reoccurrence of the undesired behavior.

2-The Needs Theory (Maslow, 1970): Individuals are motivated to take action and

to invest energy in the pursuit of three outcomes: achievement (be famous, be cool,

have social recognition), affiliation (be part of the peer group, belong in some place),

and influence on other people (leadership).

3-Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977): Motivation is the result of individual

expectations about his/her chances to succeed and the degree of value or satisfaction

for achieving the goal.

4-Theory of Identity Development (Erikson, 1968): People pass through eight stages

during their lives; each stage involves a central conflict. With regard to the so called

stage of “the crisis of the school years”, Erikson tries to explain the process of

struggle between accomplishment vs. inferiority, identity vs. confusion, intimacy vs.

isolation. He describes the need of belonging and the necessity for recognition of

young people.

5-Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1983): People have a combination of

eight different types of intelligences, with the predominance of one or two of them.

Because of this, each individual learns in a different way and performs better in

some disciplines than in others. Those intelligences are: verbal/linguistic,

logical/mathematical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, visual/spatial, musical,

body/kinesthetic, and naturalist.

6-The Triarchic Theory (Sternberg, 1986): Teaching to the brain, right and left

hemispheres. People should be exposed to a broad diversity of educational

experiences and complex relationships which is in correspondence with the brain’s

structure and functioning way.

7-The Theory of Stimulus Variation (???): Teachers should change the kind of

instructional activities / strategies they use in every lesson / unit to keep their

students’ attention, to keep them engaged, to avoid being boring.

Personal Experience

Looking for the motivation and academic achievement of my students I am using

the following instructional strategies and activities:

-Dynamic lectures: use of transparencies with color maps, works of art, and cartoons, active note taking, questions/answers, debate.

-Unit summary prepared by me: vocabulary, key leaders, major events, causes & consequences, controversial issues.

-CD-ROM auto narrated picture shows: close captions / subtitles.

-Thematic poster exhibitions

-Systematic use of motion pictures about historical themes: video clips in class, video analysis at home, debates in class. (See list)

-Subscription and bring to class history related magazines (World Press, Military History, Historic Traveler, Biography, National Geography, American Heritage, American Legacy, American History): use them in projects.

-Teams created following the theory of multiple intelligences. Their own names.

-Research Projects by teams including models. Go deeper.

-Knowledge contests by teams. Review content.

-Weekly competition between the teams (team’s and individual grades): Awards, bulletin board for results, party.

-Book reports on classics of literature related to history.

-TRAFO writing activities (playing roles).

-Quizzes of multiple choices. After every CD Picture Show.

References

Arends, R. I. (1998). Learning to teach. Boston, Mass.: MacGraw-Hill.

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Cochran, C. (1989). Strategies for involving L.E.P. students in the all-English-medium classroom: A cooperative learning approach. Washington, D.C.: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.

Cullen, F. T., Cullen, J. B., Hayhow, V. L. & Plouffe, J. T. (1975). The effects of the use of grades as an incentive. Journal of Education Research, 68, 277-279.

Dweck, C. S. 91989). Motivation. In A. Lesgold & R. Glaser, Foundations for a psychology of education. N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Erickson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York: W. W. Norton.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. N.Y.: Basic Books.

Goodlad, J. (1984). A place called school: Prospects for the future. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. T. (1990). Social skills for successful group work. Educational Leadership, January, 29-33.

_____. (1989). Cooperation and competition: Theory and research. Edina, Minn.: Interaction Book.

_____. (1986). Learning together and alone. Cooperation, competition, and individualization (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Kagan, S. (1992). Cooperative learning. San Juan Capistrano, CA.: Resources for Teachers.

Krajcik, J. (1994). Project-based instruction. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan.

Lumsden, Linda S. (1994, June). Student motivation to learn. ERIC Digest, Number 92 (ED370200).

Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality. (2nd. ed.). New York: Harper and Row.

Rencher, R. (1992, July). School leadership and student motivation. ERIC Digest, Number 71 (ED346558).

Sharan, S., Kussell, P., Hertz-Lazarowitz, R., Bejarano, Y., Raviv, S. & Sharan, Y. (1984). Cooperative learning in the classroom: Research in desegregated schools. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.

Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Free Press.

Slavin, R. (1995). Cooperative learning. (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

_____. (1994). Using student team learning. (4th ed.). Baltimore, Md.: John Hopkins University.

_____. (1984). Students motivating students to excel: Incentives, cooperative tasks and student achievement. The Elementary School Journal, 85, 53-62.

_____. (1983). Cooperative learning. New York: Longman.

Slavin, R., Sharan, S., Kagan, S., Hertz-Lazarowitz, R. Webb, C. & Schmuck, R. (1985). Learning to cooperate, cooperating to learn. New York: Plenum Press.

Sternberg, R. J. (1986). Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambrige University Press.

Thelen, H. A. (1954). Dynamics of groups at work. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.

Van Sickle, R. L (1996). Questions of motivation for achievement in social studies. In B. G. massials and R. F. Allen (ed.), Crucial issues in teaching social studies K-12 (p. 81-110). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

By Carlos J. Diaz

Tucker, J. L. (1991). Global education partnerships between schools and universities. In K. A. Tye (ed.) Global education: From thought to action. (p. 109-124). VA: ASCD.

Summary

A. Main Idea

The author mentions that conventional wisdom, research results, and his own

experience have showed that partnerships between schools and universities have not

been very successful in the past. However, he says that global changes during the

last years are promoting national school reforms; establishing joint efforts between

schools and colleges are an important part of those reforms. He also explains that

“...educational collaborations must include other groups, including business and

labor, foundations, and a broad coalition of community-based, non-governmental

agencies.” (p. 111). The rationale behind this idea is the necessity of making a better

use of our resources, achieving a higher quality in our shools’ performance, and

providing a global education to our students, which is a national priority today. Dr.

Tucker identifies some examples of good programs or partnerships across the

country; FIU and MDCPS, in Miami, have established one of these successful

collaborations. He explains that this partnership has to be a long-term one to reach

the expected results.

The author explains how the fact that global education is interdisciplinary should

be an additional reason to facilitate the educational partnerships. He identifies four

principles to succeed in this endeavor: culture and leadership; global education is

for everyone; the partnership must be rewarding for everyone; and a conceptual

framework is needed. He describes some ways how this collaboration could take

place:

Creation of a university speakers’ bureau of international students where they

can jointly participate in many activities.

Classroom teachers can be mentors for beginning teachers.

This partnership is full of rewards for both sides. It creates access to the

multitude of resources of the other partner; the university has “the opportunity to

conduct cooperative research in the school with a minimum of bureaucratic

hurdles...” (p.120); the school can obtain “library materials, advice by professors,

space for meetings, seminars, and workshops.” (p. 120). The collaboration also

creates the “opportunity to link pre-service and in-service training programs.” (p.

121).

B. Relationship to Education Practice. Personal Opinion and Experiences.

I consider that education partnerships are an ineludible requirement to solve

many of the existing problems in our schools today and a necessity to achieve the

global education that students and teachers need to survive in “Spaceship Earth” or

in the “Global Village”. I would say that the most important ways to improve

schools and universities performance under the current international circumstances

are through close links between educational institutions and international

corporations and organizations; interchanges of teachers / professors and students

between different nations; academic, cultural, and athletic international events; the

use of the Internet. Our country has the privilege that many of the most important

corporations and international political organizations have their headquarters in

our territory.

When professors and classroom teachers are exposed or get involved in

participating and solving problems in real life economy, politics, science, or society,

their teaching become much better, richer in experiences . When students combine

their academic learning with working activities in real life factories, labs, political

campaigns, or charity organizations, the knowledge, practical skills, discipline, and

experiences they acquire prepare them better for the future. When corporations,

political parties, or social organizations can have the help of some additional hands,

get in contact with or know in advance their future employees, and at the same time

they improve their public relations and enhance their community image, everyone

obtains profits. When we can send some of our students and teachers to schools or

universities in other countries and receive some from those nations, both parties

benefit.

History is full of examples of how international academic interchanges can be

done. Communist governments understood very well the political potential of

bringing students and teachers from African, Asian, and Latin American nations to

study in their universities or schools as a way to influence the future intellectuals of

those countries. Before that, Great Britain and France used similar policies with the

youngsters from the richest families of their colonies. Many world leaders today

were educated in American universities. My point is that the world needs to expand

these interchanges to a global and massive level. Communist countries’ educational

policies succeeded linking schools with factories / farms and universities with labs,

big industries, hospitals, etc. We have better conditions to do it. Personally, I

worked during several years in Moscow supporting the activities of thousands of

Cubans (university professors, graduate and undergraduate students) who were

part of the academic interchange between Cuba and the former Soviet Union. I can

say that it was a very interesting experience for all of them. Miami Senior High is

receiving students and teachers from secondary schools in Belorussia and sending

some of our own over there. FIU is another good example that it can be done.

The movement toward partnerships has not been without natural impediments.

In the case of schools - universities, these differences have evolved from disparities in

institutional funding and resources, student bodies, faculty role, and institutional

leadership. These factors, combined with the historical separateness of our loosely

coupled systems of secondary and post-secondary education, have led to a lack of

mutual understanding. Fortunately, many experiences demonstrate that those

problems can be overcome with appropriate planning and sensitivity. Perhaps, our

worst nightmare is the fact that we have not a national system of education, that

every state, district, and even every school follows different policies. A less

decentralized system would make easier and cheaper the relations between that

system and our corporations, foundations, organizations, and foreign nations.

With regard to schools - businesses, collaboration can take many forms.

Businesses can provide guest speakers, special demonstrations, the use of their

facilities, special awards, scholarships, or other incentives for the students. The

program to create “Model Schools” developed during the presidency of George

Bush, the Goal 2000 Educate America Act of 1994, and the School-to-Work

Opportunities Act of 1994 are examples of the interest of the federal government in

promoting this kind of collaboration; millions of dollars are available to support

those programs, but we are not doing our best to make it happen. If we had really

well structured vocational programs in our schools, enough vocational counselors,

and a clear vocational policy, the connection between schools and businesses could

be a real partnership, but the situation is something different. Though such

partnerships may enrich school programs, they do little to facilitate fundamental

changes in classroom teaching and learning. A deeper involvement is needed for

both corporate America and our schools if the key issues affecting us are going to be

addressed. The experience of the Industry Initiatives for Science and Math

Education (IISME) in California and the University of Washington’s Ford Fellows

Science / Math Project are good examples in this field.

I believe that education at all levels will change little by little according to the

pace and needs required by the society in general. There are many experiences

available and everyone is aware about the need of deep reforms. The content,

structure, and form of global education and global education partnerships will

depend on global economics and global politics.

Carlos J. Diaz

By Carlos J. Diaz

Becker, J. (1991). Curriculum considerations in global studies. In K. A. Tye (ed.), Global education: From thought to action. (p. 67-85). VA: ASCD.

2-Summary

A. Main Idea.

The author explains how our world is becoming more and more interconnected

and Americans are linked to what is happenning around the world. He says that our

nation needs citizens who can understand international issues and that a good

citizen today should have a global perspective. He concludes that our educational

system must change, that the school curriculum should lead to a better preparation

of our students for “... living in a more pluralistic, interwined, international

system...” (p. 70). Obviously, the discipline more related to this needed process is

Social Studies.

B. Relationship to Education Practice.

Education is a field that invites many opinions. Expectations of education are so

diverse that it is assumed that schools should transmit knowledge, baby-sit children,

take care of their emotional problems, discipline them, prepare the future citizens to

fulfil their civic duties, provide the necessary skills to the prospective workers, help

them to develop good moral values, and many other things. Education gets the

blame when young people misbehave, defy societal norms or enter in the working

world without the proper preparation, even though many other institutions and

factors are also responsible for those problems.

Trends in curriculum, such as making textbooks and courses more multicultural

and global oriented, draw fire from those who believe that one education’s essential

function is to provide a common language of allusions, texts and events that should

be central to every American’s consciousness, that national interests and loyalty are

more important than this “left oriented” global education. However, changes in

American population have had tremendus impact on public education; bilingual

education is an important example of that impact. In addition to that, changes in

the world arena have brought international events into the classrooms. The content

and structure of the school curriculum is part of the so called “deep structure” of

schooling and it is not easy to change this “deep structure”. U.S. education policies

change according to the political agenda of our politicians. While most of our elected

officials recognize that educating the future and potential work force should demand

top priority, in recent history our leaders seem to have had relatively little impact on

the state of education. The resistance to change has been stronger than any policy

directed to modify the essence of our schools. Becker affirms that the “...social

studies curriculum in most secondary schools is organized around topics that were

established 60 years ago.”, that “...international studies receives scant attention...”

in our schools (p. 69), that “High school social studies courses seldom provide

extensive discussions of international organizations such as the United Nations...”

(p. 70). And those are only some of the many current problems of the process of

teaching / learning social studies in our schools.

The Council of Chief State School Officers (1985), the National Commission on

Social Studies in the Schools (1989), the Council of State Governments, the National

Governors’ Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, and many other

organizations have recommended changes in the traditional pattern of social studies

courses. These changes include giving more attention to world history and world

geography, introducing more content focused on Asia, Africa, and Latin America,

infusing in the curriculum contents related to global issues like energy, peace, the

environment, population, and many others.

3-Evaluation

A. Personal Opinion

I think that there is a long way to go before education in America hits its mark.

The need for a global education is something evident, obvious, like the need for

peace, the need to end poverty, and so on. This is only one of the issues that we have

to address to improve our educational system which is crying for a deep and general

reform. Individual teachers and schools should play their role pushing for these

changes. In this new century, no doubt many American

institutions will be closely scrutinized. Learning to examine our assumptions and

challenge our existing notions of “how things should be” is one of the most

important lessons that public and private education should provide. I am totally

sure that the economy and the society, according to the path they take in America

and in the world, will provoke the adequate changes in education to fulfill their

requirements.

Even though this book is almost ten years old and some of the data and events

the author used or described are outdated, the main ideas with regard to the needs

required by the new global order are current and valid today. We are moving

forward at an extraordinary speed; political, economic, and technological changes

are occurring so fast that some times it is difficult to describe the details on the sides

of the road and predict what is going to happen next. However, there is not doubt

that we are going to need people with a global education. But the content, the

structure and the orientation that the future education is going to have in America

is not clear in the same way to me.

Carlos J. Diaz

By Carlos J. Diaz

Spring, J. (1999). Wheels in the head: Educational philosophies of authority, freedom, and culture from Socrates to human rights. Chapters 1 - 3 (p. 3 - 46). N.Y.: McGraw-Hill College.

We know that education and schooling are not synonymous. Schooling is just one

of the many components that intervene in the lifelong process of education.

Education includes the media, the family, the influence of peers, and many other

elements. Between education and schooling exist an interdependence, a mutual

influence. At the same time, education is a social activity and it is conditioned by

what is happening in society, by the moral values, ideals, concepts, and truths

existent in a particular society and time. I agree with Dewey (p. 20-24) when he said

that all these elements mentioned above are products of particular social situations,

that they are social constructed, that they serve a social function. Because of that, they

are subjected to change, they differ from one culture to another and from one time

to another. It has also been proved that socio-economic factors play a crucial role in

education.

Man is a social being that can not survive in isolation. Society is the way

men live together. How they relate to each other, what rights and responsibilities

they have, how much freedom they have, and what laws and rules are present will

determine the type of society, values, and education they have. Democracy, as it was

defined by president Lincoln, is the society in which exists a government of the

people, by the people, and for the people. In other words, it is a way of governing in

which all citizens participate in their own affairs; they are the source of power; the

people are the sovereigns. In this sense, the government and the authority it

represents (people’s authority) are legitimate and fair.

Every society needs a government and laws and some people have to enforce those laws.

All types of societies involve politics and ideologies. Society is not a neutral institution.

Education and schooling, of course, are also affected by those variables, but also by

subjectivism, because every individual -teachers, administrators, students, parents,

etc.- participating in those processes brings with him / her his / her own ideas,

values, and political position. It does not matter who or what social institution

controls the process of schooling: schooling can never be objective or neutral.

Freedom is a hard concept to define. I looked in several encyclopedias and

dictionaries and they all avoid a straight definition; they only mention academic

freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion as specific terms. For me, the

concept of freedom involves many different issues: physical and spiritual security

and integrity, economic independence, access to knowledge and information,

justice, the right to express the own ideas and opinions, the capacity to take

decisions and choose from different options without the risk of endangering the own

security and integrity, and the respect to other people’s rights and freedom.

Freedom is a relative term and always should be limited by the freedom of others. I

do not agree with those who include as part of their freedom the right to exhibit or

promote violence, pornography, guns, racism, vulgarity, or any other thing

considered by the majority of society as negative or potentially harmful for other

people. Personally, I think that our freedom is destroying the foundations and

essence of our democracy.

The United States is one of the best places to live in our planet today. We enjoy a

great deal of some kind of personal freedom; our government and laws are based on

democratic principles and ideals; we are a very stable society ruled by the law and

in which justice prevails most of the times; the U.S. is a very rich nation that enjoys

economic prosperity. We are also the most powerful and influential nation of the

world.

On the other hand, the American society is based on a great deal of

individualism; people are participating less and less in politics and the will of the

majority is being replaced by the will of the most powerful; big corporations and

their money are more and more influential every day in our politics and in every

aspect of our lives -including education. While we enjoy all those privileges mentioned

before, many other countries in the world suffer hunger and misery, political oppression,

illiteracy, diseases, and many other calamities. Man is also destroying his own

natural environment and depleting non-replaceable natural resources at light speed,

trying to keep his throwaway economy growing endlessly. Inside the U.S., we also

have a big gap between the rich people and the growing lines of the poor. Because of

all those facts, we have to differentiate in this paper between ideals and reality. I

will address how schooling should be idealistically or philosophically speaking. What

we are really seeing around the world and even here, the course that the world is

following as part of the new global order, is a totally different picture. If we do not

distinguish between these two different fields of study, we could be considered very

naive.

Spring presents a great review of the different philosophical positions developed

over time trying to explain how should the world of education work, which is the

best approach to improve education, and how to achieve more freedom in our

schools. Freedom is a key issue for all of the scholars cited by Spring and for Spring

himself. I consider that the purpose of education is to prepare people to live in

harmony with our natural environment and in society, to be useful to themselves

and to others, to be able to achieve happiness for themselves and to be able to

provide it for others. Education should involve both the cognitive and the affective

domains. Education, like society, needs some kind of authority and nobody in both

systems of human organization can have total freedom. In many cases the

educational philosophies we see in the book present dichotomies: we should choose

between an authoritarian or a democratic model. However, I think that we can take

the best experiences and ideas from both, that in many respects they are not

exclusive. The problem is that most of the times we go to the extremes; it has been

difficult for us to achieve and stay in the middle point, which was suggested as the

best solution for many of the oriental religions and philosophies centuries ago.

Society and school must have some kind of structure and they need to have some

leaders; I would suggest one based on the personal merit, individual aptitudes and

preferences -according to the multiple intelligences (Gardner)- of people, instead of

on economic status or resources and ruled by democratic principles. Candidates for

any public position would submit their biographies that would be verified and the

people would vote on that. This exclude political parties, political campaigns and the

money they involve, and political appointees.

Schools should support order and law. The problem is passing the right laws and

electing the right officials to keep the order. The majority should prevail without

violating the rights of the individuals. The existence of different social groups,

professions, trades, and / or classes is normal and inevitable. People should have the

same opportunities, but total equality is impossible and nobody wants that; society

needs diversity. The problem is to avoid / forbid the huge differences or gap among

the groups in terms of wealth and influence.

Learning and schooling should be based on individual interest, needs, and ability.

It is absurd and expensive trying to force a student to learn something he / she

does not want, does not need, or is not able to learn, as part of a mandatory "common

education" for all. Everyone should learn the academic basics, but this should not be at the

secondary schools which were designed for higher academic levels of knowledge.

Instead of lowering the academic level of our secondary schools to make students

with other types of intelligences, needs, or interests fit and survive in them, we need vocational

programs / schools to provide the proper development to the special aptitudes, needs, or interests of those

students. The high school should be the bridge to college. However, taking the advice of

Theodore R. Sizer (1992) and the recommendations of the Commission for the Reorganization

of Secondary Education in its final report of 1918, we could reinvent the "comprehensive

high school", with several different schools within the same school; a high school with

different well structured tracks, some vocational and some academic. Schools also

should provide social mobility as always, but the goal of it has to be different; success

in life should not mean becoming rich -which should be forbidden beyond some level

of wealth (how much is too much?)- but reaching a better possibility to be happy,

working in the chosen profession, being more useful to society and to oneself.

I think that schools also have to keep and increase their extended social services.

The social problems and changes occurred at the begining of the past century are still present,

plus drugs, more guns, AIDS, and many new challenges; we lost the war against poverty,

immigration still is a critical issue, and our cities are more overcrowded than ever.

But our schools need more resources to match these demands, not vouchers.

Society has and always will try to influence people. We will continue putting

“wheels in the head” of people. General education and schooling have different stages.

While children are in their early years of schooling, they can not decide what

thoughts they should own; they are not mature enough for that. Schools should help

them to develop critical thinking, but at the same time schools have to direct them to

build some necessary emotional attachments and make the students internalize some

basic ideas, concepts, and values according to the existing society. This is not

indoctrination and we should not be afraid of that, but of having the right society.

Schools should also provide free access to knowledge, but at some levels it is

necessary some kind of censorship, according to the age and level of emotional

maturity of the children. We should defend the rights of individuals, but also

promote cooperation and work for the common good. People who only are

concerned with their own needs and desires are not good to society. The importance

and priority of our individualism as a society is one of the major sources of our

many social problems. General education can be a free and spontaneous process,

according to individual will and choice; schooling needs direction, according to social needs.

It is very interesting and contradictory that specialization and our

growing corporations are promoting individuals that instead of having the

opportunity of “...gaining knowledge and beliefs through actions of (their)

individual will...” (p.42) and developing their individualities, are being transformed

into ignorants, only literate with respect to their narrow positions and the

operations related to them. Some companies’ policies even forbid exchange of

information between employees or questions about salary or other issues. This is

what is happening in our global village, when everything is more and more linked;

some interests are trying to isolate people while pretending to defend the individual

freedoms of them. Schools should fight this and promote cooperation and

socialization to prepare children to live in a global world.

I see that schools should be part of the solution of the problems we have, but in

reality those problems are beyond the reach and the influence of our schools; society

is not changing in the direction that most of our educators would like and the same

is happening to schools; then, they are becoming part of the problem.

Philosophically, if we were able to use all the experience accumulated by humanity

and to take the middle road, we would be able to succeed, but I do not see this

happening.

Carlos J. Diaz

By Carlos J. Diaz

I-Introduction

Most people say that public schools are suffering a crisis of lack of credibility

and effectiveness; others think that nothing is wrong, that everything is according to

the master plan, that one of the reasons why public schools still exist is to make some

students to internalize failure. You can even listen to some individuals arguing that

the government and the big interests in the country don’t care about what is

happening to the public schools because their children don’t attend to those schools

anyway. The reality is that only half of the students that enter high school graduate;

most of those who go to college have to take remedial courses; businesses complain

that our graduates do not have the minimum skills and knowledge for entry-level

positions; many parents and students think that being in school is a waste of time.

Nobody is happy with our work.

According to Goodlad (1984), as a result of one of the largest and deepest

researches done in the field of education, “The data from our observations in more

than 1,000 classrooms support the popular image of a teacher standing or sitting in

front of a class imparting knowledge to a group of students. Explaining and

lecturing constituted the most frequent teaching activities...” (p. 105). “Students

receive little exposure to audiovisuals aids, field trips, or guest lectures.” (p. 124).

“Three categories of student activity marked by passivity -written work, listening,

and preparing for assignments- dominate (...) at all three levels of schooling.” (124).

“Students’ experiences with writing (and reading) decreased as they moved from the

upper elementary to the senior high grades.” (p. 106). “...guidance in improving

performance (and) teachers’ praise of students’ work dropped...about 50% (from

elementary to senior high classes).” “All of those characteristics we commonly

regard as positive elements in classrooms where more to be observed at the early

elementary level.” (p. 112). From elementary to senior high “There was increasing

less use of teacher praise and support for learning, less corrective guidance, a

narrowing range and variety of pedagogical techniques, and a declining

participation by students in determining the daily conduct of their education.”

“Paralleling the steady decline in these instructional procedures was a decline in

amenities such as good instructional materials and attractive comfortable

classrooms.” (p. 125). We could add to this list of calamities the growth in violent

incidents in schools, in the rate of drop-outs among minority children, and in the

number of students taking drugs or becoming members of gangs.

In this moment we have a tracking system that includes AP and honor courses,

programs for gifted students, SARP, BVIP, programs for students with

exceptionalities, and bilingual programs for LEP students. In the middle, we have

the mainstream or regular students, also known as “the disinherited”, because they

are not covered by special federal or state programs, which means extra funds and

better opportunities; most of them receive their lessons in auditoriums where 200

students pretend that they are learning. Even the lucky ones, those assigned to

special courses, don’t have well structured programs directed toward a clear goal;

sometimes, a student is taking some honor classes, some regular, and some bilingual,

all mixed together, like in a salad.

Many politicians, mainly the Republicans, are crying for choices, vouchers,

charters, and privatization; they reclaim the restoration of praying in schools to

recover the lost moral values; they ask for the elimination of the bilingual programs

(they succeeded in California), for making schools and teachers accountable, and for

grading their work using the FCAT for that purpose. They also suggest to cut funds

for general education and make parents responsible for the education of their

children. The family is the only hope, they assured in the “Contract with America”.

II-Stability

Since the moment when Horace Mann created his “common schools” in the 19th

century, until this day, economic interests, national defense, school districts, and

politicians have put pressure on public schools and made them to go back and forth,

and to explore countless “new” programs. First, they wanted a common curriculum

for everyone; secondly, the “comprehensive high school" was created; later, they

decided to go back to academics and passed the NDEA to match the scientific

achievements of the Soviets; in the sixties, President Nixon started his “career

education” to restore the order; later on, Reagan discovered that we were “A Nation

at Risk”; after that, Bush, Sr. saved education with his “Model Schools”; Clinton, a

moderate Democrat, approved Goals 2000 and School-to-Work;

Contract with America recommended choice and privatization, and President Bush, Jr.

 developed "No child will be left behind", also insisting on vouchers.

In all these years, America has not had a national system of education; Reagan

even tried once to eliminate the Department of Education, which is the main link

between the Feds and public schools; the American education has not a well defined

set of principles, goals, standards and a philosophical purpose as a guide for all teachers in the

country. Nobody can clearly say what our schools are suppose to do or to teach or

what educational theory or philosophy should be used; this is a matter of opinion or

circumstances. Now, some educators are trying to create National Standards and a

system of National Certification for some exceptional teachers. The federal

government has to use its funding power to push some specific programs, because

education is a responsibility of the 50 different states and thousands local districts in

the nation.

For me, the first step to finally approach this issue seriously, is to pass a law or to

amend the constitution to give us a real and stable system of education that future

politicians can not manipulate; some kind of Educational Bill of Rights for our

children. These Educational Principles and Foundations - if you prefer another

name- should be a natural result of our democratic ideals and educational

experience. Multicultural and multilingual education, tolerance and respect for the

rights of minority groups, high academic standards, equal opportunities for all

Americans, technology and ecology , and moral values are some key words that

should be in that document.

III-Equal Opportunity & the Right to Choose.

Thomas Jefferson wanted a “natural aristocracy”; the government should

provide equal opportunity for all the children and, at some point, find out who had

the best “natural” aptitudes and support those students until the end to make them

the future leaders of the society. Horace Mann thought that equal opportunity was

giving the same education to all the children in the same schoolhouse. However, that

was an illusion even at that time; Catholic Irish Americans, German Americans,

African Americans, Native Americans, Mexicans Americans, Asian Americans, and

many other minority groups were not part of those common schools; they had to

attend to segregated schools.

During the first years of this century, those who supported the idea of the

comprehensive high school, vocational education, and the principle of meritocracy

thought that equal opportunity was tracking the students according to their abilities

and interests, keeping them under the same roof, and, at the end, ranking them

according to their individual results, ready to be sent to the market. However, this

social race within the school, considered fairer than the one that was having place

before in the job market, was still inequitable, because every student had a

background and some personal circumstances that helped or hurt him / her in the

race. This is still a current issue in education. Even when the government tries to

balance this type of inequalities, the problem remains. Besides, we have to

remember that schools are funded by property taxes, which does not help to

equalize the race.

I consider that we should add to the principle of equal opportunity another

element: the right to choose. Schools try to be “scientific” and fair sorting machines

(Spring, 1976), but the place where you happen to live, the program you are

assigned to, and the teachers you have, play a great role in what your real

opportunities are. Parents and students should have the right to decide what school,

what program or track, and what teachers they prefer,

within the system of public schools. Schools should be funded according to the

number of students they have and to the socio-economic circumstances of those

students -poorer students should receive more funds- (this is a critical element to

achieve a more realistic “equal opportunity”). It doesn’t matter in which

neighborhood is any school located and how much the local government collected in

taxes there. The school system would have the responsibility of transporting the children to

the chosen school. The laws of the market will decide the destiny of each school or class.

IV-Scientific Management

Schools have to be run based on the principle of cost-effectiveness;

administrators should have the power to keep what works and discard what doesn’t

work. Even though schools are not businesses, they should use their resources in the

best possible way. They must also consider their students as their customers, and

treat them like that. Schools may advertise their good results and the services they

offer, to attract clientele. We have to be useful, to satisfy the needs of our students

and the needs of the society to which they belong. Schools are suppose to be aware

of the market’s demand for every type of profession, to be able to properly advise

their students. Any entity to survive needs to operate following the law of the

demand and supply. In the sixties, our society suffered educational inflation; they

flooded the colleges with students and then, there were not jobs for too many

graduates; the same situation happened to most communist countries when they

tried to have better educational systems than the western nations. We don’t need

that; we can not work blindly. Standardization is important for productiveness and

saving; all the additional and / or unnecessary procedures should be eliminated; all

the school districts should follow the same administrative rules and procedures, use

the same forms, and reduce their bureaucratic personnel. We have to reduce expenses

at the top and direct those resources toward the places where they are more needed and

useful: the classrooms, to increase the quality of our product (our students), to be profitable.

V-Assessment and Accountability.

Our state pretends to evaluate and grade our schools based on the results of the

FCAT. Depending on those tests’ results, the schools will be punished or rewarded;

the state will take their funds away to give vouchers to the students in the “failing

schools”. Let’s take a look to this. The FCAT, Florida Writes, HSCT, SAT, and

other standardized tests are additional exams to those that our students are required

to take as part of their regular courses; this means more time and expenses. The

FCAT measures mainly the students’ abilities or skills in Math and English; what

about the other subjects? Most of those tests have not a direct impact on the

students; they do not decide if the students fail or pass a particular subject or

academic year; many of them are not interested in those tests at all. In addition to that, the

new proceedings require that even the LEP students in the first levels of ESOL have

to take those tests. This situation reminds me my readings about the immigrants

who came to the US from southern and eastern Europe in the beginning of the 20th

century; they were forced to take IQ tests to show that they were inferior races, less

intelligent people, and to explain why the government must restrict their entrance

and should control the breeding (Eugenics) of those already here, to preserve

America’s purity. The schools, which are very interested in the results of those tests,

are promising to give rewards (perhaps a trip to Bush Gardens or Disney World) to

the students who obtain good results. Now, some schools are even creating specific

courses to prepare the students for those tests. What does the state really try to

achieve with this system of assessment? Is this a way for blaming and condemning

the victim or to discreetly privatize our education? Is this what Republican

neoliberalism is all about? Are we going back?

On the other hand, based on the principle of academic freedom, our teachers

elaborate all their own tests for their students, whose results do not show if the

students learned what they were supposed to learn. Teachers are supposed to follow

and comply with the CBC and Sunshine State Standards and to teach some specific

curriculum approved by the state; however, the state has not a way to control what

is really happening in each individual classroom. We have the TADS and PACES

based on classroom observations that last some minutes, some times a year, but teachers

are almost free to use whatever instructional strategies they want. Many politicians

claim for teachers’ accountability and are trying to change their system of payment,

using merit instead of seniority as the major criterion, but teachers’ unions are very

concerned about how it would be implemented without giving too much power to

administrators, who could later be capricious or unfair to particular teachers.

I agree with the idea that schools and teachers should be responsive to the public,

but we have to create a reasonable system of assessment. I would suggest to

eliminate all the standardized tests and the TADS. The state would develop the

regular mid-term and final tests for all subject matters taught in the secondary

schools every year, according to the SSS, and evaluate the schools based on the

results; the administrators’ evaluations would depend on these results, not the

schools’ funds. All students would be required to pass those tests in order to be

promoted to the next grade. Every school would prepare a list with its teachers’

names, by departments, ranking them according to their students’ results in those

tests; these results may not be used directly to remove a teacher from his / her

position. Both, the schools’ and teachers’ lists would be published in the local

newspaper; parents and students have the right to know that in order to choose

their school and teachers. Best schools and teachers would receive bonuses, like in

large corporations, as a reward for a job well done. In addition to that, I would

create in every school a Board of the Peers and a Commission of Ethics, integrated

by senior teachers, administrators, and a union leader. Every teacher would be

required to present periodically (3 years?) to the Board a portfolio with his / her

professional work. Students would also evaluate their teachers yearly. Students,

parents, teachers, and administrators would have the opportunity to present any

complain against any member of the school staff to the Commission. Students’

evaluations, teachers’ positions in the results’ list, and the resolutions of the

Commission would be sent to the Board, which based on all the information

received, would evaluate all teachers; in case of an unfavorable evaluation, a teacher

would have a year to improve his work or to be dismissed. Tenure would be a

privilege that should be renewed every three years.

VI-Security

Most of our schools have multiple accesses. Administrators say that this situation

is a necessary feature in case of a fire or other problem that requires an immediate

evacuation of the building. However, we are in the twenty first century, in

the information age, in the years in which everything is computerized and

electronic. Can’t we have an alarm system that will keep the school’s doors closed

and open them in case of an emergency?

Parents and students have to vote every year to decide whether uniforms should

be used in the school or not. We all know that the notification never gets home and

that students decide following the normal drives and taste proper of their

adolescence. However, we have to give up the advice from scientific research results

and our mature common sense in order to respect their democratic rights. Did the

Miami Dade School Board ask for parents and students vote to decree that high

schools must be closed campuses? Not, they didn’t. Where were the democratic

rights in this case? I think that the School Board decision was wrong and that all

our public schools must require uniforms for their students. This would be more

reasonable, cheaper, and more secure for all of us.

We need more and better trained security officers in our schools; I guest there is

an appropriate scientific ratio students / security officers established by research

results. This personnel has to be prepared to handle different types of critical

situations and to deal with both, a multitude and / or individual troublemakers.

These persons have to be licensed by the state, like any other professionals in contact

with the public. But these officers should have the legal power and the means to

restrain and bring to order to any individual within the premises of the school

violating the rules. Schools are government property. The government should press

charges against any intruder trespassing the limits of the school without a

reasonable and legal purpose and not using the main door. Signs must be placed

around the school perimeter warning about that.

The most important point in this matter is prevention, self-discipline, and caring

educators. As I explained in my paper about violence in schools, the proper

environment and good teachers are the best medicine to cure these kind of

situations. When the children know that we care about what happen in the school

and we care about them, they avoid this kind of problem and they help with the

common security.

VII-Funding, Structure, and Organization.

To transform our schools in centers of knowledge, in safe centers for the

members of the community to carry out their lifelong education and to have a place

to meet like a family, in a refuge for the needy and the weak, and in the road taking

every student to his / her individual goal, our government have to invest the suitable

resources. Our schools need the necessary technology to be part of the new

millennium; teachers must be paid like the professionals we want them to be; no

classroom must have more than 25 students; auditorium classes have to be

eliminated; accesses to the Internet must be anywhere; no student should be allowed

to repeat the same grade more than once, without the excuse of a medical condition;

department chairpersons, elected by their peers among the senior teachers, should

be liberated of half of their teaching obligations, to be able to help their teachers

with academic matters, deal with publishers and other school suppliers, keep the

Dpt. website updated, and other academic (not administrative) tasks; schools should

have the proper equipment and materials to develop their extra-curriculum

programs.

Every student should have the constitutional right of receiving an appropriate

public education; what is appropriate should be clearly defined and put in writing;

the necessary resources to make that possible have to be assigned by law to the

schools according to the number and socio-economic situation of the students

registered in each school, and the government should have the obligation to provide

real equal opportunities for all and be liable for that. Every community should have

the right of using its school as a social center, open at least 16 hours a day, with a

wide variety of services. The whole schooling system must be modified.

In our schools today, many students are labeled as slow or difficult to teach;

others are blamed for having lack of interest; and some others are accused of being

troublemakers; and, as I explained before, only half of them graduate. On the other

hand, Arthur Bestor (Spring, 1997), censuring the vocational programs that existed

in the fifties and asking for a “back to basics” for everyone, affirmed that every

student can learn the essentials or basics; maybe some of them may need some more

time. Gardner (1983) explains that each individual has a particular combination of

several different intelligences and his / her learning capabilities depends on that type

of combination. Many educators -myself included- consider that it is better and less

expensive having a student in school than a young criminal in jail. We have tried to

solve this complex situation lowering the academic levels in our secondary schools to

allow every student to fit in, even if he / she needs to stay a longer time. I would

suggest a different solution for this puzzle: Go back to the comprehensible high

school of the beginning of the 20th century, use Sizer (1992) proposal of creating several

schools within the same school, eliminate all elective courses (see Adler, 1982),

extend the academic year to 200 days and the school day one more hour daily, and

finally, develop a system integrated by six (6) different tracks or “roads to success”,

well structured, goal directed, and market oriented; all of them under the same roof

and with the highest academic standards.

Vocational education has been a recurrent idea in the minds of many of the best

educators and philosophers. Even politicians have understood its benefits. Rousseau

wrote about “learning based on experience” and using the “law of utility” first in

the process of teaching; Johann Pestalozzi promoted the method of “learning by

doing” and “active learning”; John Dewey, perhaps our best educator ever,

proposed the use of “real situations and solutions for real problems” as the best

instructional strategies. He promoted group work, the use of projects, and the use of

“social imagination”. The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 tried to expand vocational

education with the use of federal funds. Its supporters explained that vocational

education meets the individual needs of the students, provides equal opportunities

for all according to their individual abilities and interests, allows a better teaching -

learning process, and makes school useful. Many years after that, President Nixon

and his Commissioner of Education, Mr. Sidney Marland, developed their Career

Education, which was the resurrection of vocational education. They said that the

student’s rebellion (in the sixties) was a result of educational programs that had not

specific goals, had not links with the job market, and did not provide real

opportunities for them. It is obvious that their explanation was too simplistic;

however, the validity of the idea that students need those things is incontestable.

President Bush, Sr. created the “model schools” to promote the idea of developing closer

connections between corporate America and public schools. President Clinton and

his Goals 2000 and School-to-Work are part of a policy to link education to the need

of business, promote career exploration and counseling, integrate vocational and

academic education, stimulate a plan for a lifelong learning, train properly our

future labor force, and create programs to help our poorest children to succeed. It is

a fact that the role and influence of global corporations in this new global order is

growing worldwide. They have many resources that we need. And it is also a fact

that many students, according to the theory of multiple intelligences and to the

common sense, have other abilities, interests, and needs, not directly related to

academics. They are not slow or stupid, they are just different to those who love

algebra, physics, or philosophy; they should also have the right to succeed in what

they do best. I think that the message is clear.

I propose to create six (6) roads to success: Two (2) academic (Humanities and

Science) and four (4) vocational (Arts, Technology, Services, and Clerical). The

academic roads would be college oriented and would require the highest standards

possible. Each vocational road would be associated to a group of jobs / trades in the

real world and would required the highest skills possible. Each road would have a

well defined and clear program and set of goals. Electives are to be eliminated; they

are not needed in this plan. AP, Honor and Gifted programs are not necessary within

the academic roads, in which all the students should be motivated.

Each vocational road must establish a close partnership with similar

businesses; contracts could be signed. Vocational graduates should be ready,

if they decide so, to continue their education in college and become engineers,

architects, etc. Schools, as part of a mutual convenient relationship with businesses,

could allow the opening of little stores and fast food restaurants inside the premises

in exchange for equipment and other resources, like many universities do.

Vocational students may have to work some hours as part of their internship in

some real life business in order to graduate. Labs are require for every road. This

roads should allow the students to obtain their trade license (ex. hair stylist,

electrician, plumber, auto mechanic, etc) at the same time that they finish their high

school. In my paper on partnerships I describe further some other ways to use in our

benefit the limitless possibilities of our association with businesses. The role of

vocational guidance is critical for the success of this idea. The actual ratio students /

counselors is ridiculous; how can one person advise 1,000 students? However,

counselors would have also to coordinate with the corporations, sign contracts,

study the demand / supply situation in the market for every profession / trade, help

students to find jobs after graduation, and help them to decide the correct road at

the beginning of the race. It is obvious that we would need much more personnel in

the guidance department.

Another important issue is to maintain the spirit of community, to develop unity

and cooperation, to help in the process of socialization, and to promote some of the

values our society need. Thinking in this, I suggest to keep some of the common

activities that we have today: athletics and cultural activities, general assemblies,

clubs, the yearbook, the school TV, and some others.

All the students would also have to take some common subjects:

• Math (for science students, this program would be more rigorous)
• English (history of the language, grammar and vocabulary: required for all

the students during the 4 years)

• Physical Education (only during the first two years of high school)
• Seminars on Moral Values and Human Behavior (only one year); this new

subject, which could be supervised by the Dpt. of Social Studies, could be based on

daily debates on controversial issues, presented and conducted by the teacher as a

facilitator; it may require a final research paper written by the students on one of the

topics discussed in class; this would help us to rescue an important service that schools

should provide and now is missing.

• BCC courses for students in levels 1 and 2 of ESOL must be available for

the students in the 6 roads. Every road should offer the possibility to learn a second

language to every student, at the same level that English.

The academic roads have to be linked to their homologous in corresponding

colleges to achieve an smooth transition from high school to the university. The

Science road must include 4 years of Math taking the students to pre-calculus, 3

years of Physics, 2 years of chemistry, and 3 years of biology. The school must have

labs for each different branch of science. The Humanities road should include 3

years of Geography, 2 years of World History, 4 years of American History, 2 years

of World Literature and 2 years of American Literature, 2 years of History of Art, 1

year of Economics, 1 year of American Government, 1 year of Psychology, 1 year of

Human Rights, 1 year of Ecology, 1 year of Global Issues.

It is a shame that we are allowing the disintegration of our system of public

schools, the destruction of the beloved dream of equal opportunity in America, the

privatization of our common heritage and rights, and putting the destiny of

education in the hands of the politicians and the big interests. Accepting that we can

not solve the problems imposed to us, that we are not able to use our experience and

expertise to transform our schools into what they always were suppose to be, is a

treason to our children. What I have proposed here is an idealistic picture. I know

that our circumstances will not permit all these changes to happen. I even

understand that some people will label me as a naive reformer. However, some of

these ideas can help us to improve what we have today; some of the alternatives

suggested here can assist our leaders to find a better way; or at least, this could be

one more warning that we should do something.

I hope that America will continue to be a beacon, the land of opportunities,

justice, and democracy. This is what public education is all about. We all should do

something to save it. I found in America a second home, many opportunities, and

freedom. This paper is my humble contribution to make possible / available for

others like me, who will come later, for our sons / daughters and grandsons /

granddaughters, the existence of the same chances that I had in this great nation.

Carlos J. Diaz

References

Adler, M.J. (1982). The paideia proposal. An educational manifesto. NY:

MacMillan.

Arnove, R. F., Altback, P. G., and Kelly, G. P. (1992). Emergent issues in

education. NY: State University of New York.

Bennett de Marrais, K. & Le Compte, M. D. (1995). The way schools work. A

sociological analysis of education. Longman Publishers USA.

Dewey, J. (1902). The school as a social center. National Association Proceedings.

_____ (1893). Teaching ethics in the high school. Educational Review, Nov.

Dworking, M. S. (1959). Dewey on education. NY: Teachers College Press.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. NY:

Basic Books.

Goodlad, J. (1984). A place called school. Mc Graw-Hill.

Marland, S. (1972). The school’s role in career development. Educational

Leadership. Vol. 8 (March).

Sizer, T. R. (1992). Horace’s school. Redesigning the American high school. NY:

Houghton Miffin Company.

Spring, J. (1997). The American school. 1642-1996. NY: Mc Graw-Hill.

_____ (1996). American education. NY: Mc Graw-Hill.

_____ (1976). The sorting machine: National educational policy since 1945. NY: McKay.

By Carlos J. Diaz

I-Introduction

I selected this topic because we all are exposed to some degree of violence; this is

a global issue today, but a very important one for educators because schools are

becoming nowadays the most frequent stage for violent incidents and teenagers are

being the main characters of this tragic reality. Teachers have to be aware of the

real causes of violence and know how to handle those events. Another key element in

addressing this issue is distinguishing between global, national, and local violence, as

well as knowing the existence of links and cause-effect relationships between them. It

is also crucial to identify which kind of violence is legitimate and which is wrong.

Violence can be seen as a destructive communication and it should include

physical acts against another person that violate human autonomy and integrity,

verbal attacks that demean and humiliate, symbolic acts that evoke fear and

hostility, psychological attitudes that deny one’s humanity and equality, and

spiritual postures that communicate racism, inferiority, and worthlessness.

The worst act of violence is war because thousands of people suffer the

consequences, most of them innocent people: children, very old persons, and sick

people. However, it is not the same an aggressive war that a defensive one. Society

has to use violence against some kind of individuals occasionally as an act of self

defense. It is also important to understand that some types of national or global

policies can provoke acts of violence locally; that some cultures promote and

stimulate the use of violence as something normal or even necessary; and the fact

that most of the times national or global criminal organizations need the support of

locals to accomplish their operations involving the use of violence. When mentioning

different forms of violence, we should also include suicide, the ultimate violence of

despair. This is just to show how complex and interdependent the problem of

violence can be.

On the other hand, the use of violence always has a high cost; it could be

emotional, material, or both. Most of the times, violence is harmful and has a long

lasting effect. Civilization is supposed to be about restricting the use of violence as

much as possible, finding peaceful ways, compromising, and reasoning. However,

with the years, man is becoming more and more violent; his weapons are more and

more destructive and lethal; holocaust, massacre and genocide are all modern terms

created to describe acts of human violence. It has been scientifically confirmed that

the use of violence brings in / provokes more violence. But governments, societies,

and people have not been able to eliminate the use of violence. This is our legacy,

our example to the young generation, to those children in our classrooms.

II-Society and Violence.

If we are going to identify some of the real causes of violence, there are some facts

that we can not ignore: A twenty per cent of the world population receive 85% of

the world income; 38% of the population of the world suffer hungry; 60% of the

people on Earth live in shantytowns; more than 1.3 billion human beings of this

planet live on less than $1 a day; every day, 40,000 children -more than one every

second- succumb to diseases linked to chronic hunger; the personal assets of only

three wealthy men (Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Paul Allen) total $156 billion,

while the total GNP of 43 countries where 600 million people live is only $136.2

billion; more than 30 million persons are infected with HIV/AIDS in Africa and the

GNP per capita in that region is just $510; the estimated annual value of illicit drug

sales worldwide is $400 billion and most of them are directed to poor neighborhoods

and young people; rich nations / people are becoming richer and poor nations /

people are becoming poorer: the gap is bigger every year; the middle class, even in

America, is disappearing. (Dorfman, 1999 and Renner, 1999). These are frightening

facts, some of the ones that can transform human beings in animals trying to

survive; these circumstances can make people to be violent.

If we are to be more specific and mention some other causes, we could include

“...being neglected or abused by parents; witnessing violence at an early age on the

street or in the house; living in a culture that glamorizes youth violence in decades of

movies (and video games, cartoons, comics, TV)...”, discrimination and frustration

for many social groups; “... parents who haven’t finished high school, who are

unemployed or on welfare, ...families with a history of generations of violence...”

(Kantrowitz, 1993, p. 13-14); “...deep-seated racism, ...white moral panic, ...fear

among the middle class over the declining quality of its social, political, and

economic life...” (Giroux, 1995, p. 15). Hegemonism, thirst of power, intolerance, the

desintegration of the family, individualism, may be also included in this list. “...true

peace requires justice and equity, and a sufficient degree of human well-being.”

(Renner, 1999, p. 158). The lack of these three elements will cause violence.

There is not doubt that drugs are a major variable when we analyze the causes

of violence. “The kids that are selling crack when they’re in fifth grade are not the

dumb kids. They are the smart kids. They’re the ambitious kids...trying to climb up

their own corporate ladder. And the only corporate ladder they see has to do with

gangs and drugs.” (Kantrowitz, 1993, p. 13). Years ago, home, school, church, and

community were natural pillars that supported the education of a child; the media

promoted social values, the bad guys always died or went to jail. Today, their own

peers on the street, the gang, and the local drug dealer are the only ones leading

many of our children; the bad guys get parole and the media makes them heroes.

We are too busy; we even have not time to vote in favor of what we belief in . We

are victims of our own development, of our material needs; our own freedom and

liberties are destroying our democratic society.

We always have tried to find someone to blame for our problems or fears. They

could be savage Indians, catholic Irish, or any others. Talking about violence we

find the same pattern. “In previous decades, American politicians and social

scientists predicted waves of violence stemming from “impulsive” blacks, “volatile”

Eastern European immigrants, “hot-blooded” Latin Americans, and other groups

“scientifically” judged to harbor innately aggressive traits.” (Males, 1996, p. 17).

During the Cold War, the “commies” were responsible for all the conflicts around

the world. We have also created other stereotypes and scapegoats: that most

Muslims are terrorists, Colombians are drug dealers, Italians and Russians are

members of the global Mafia. Today, we say that the media, gun makers / sellers,

and our youngsters are to blame for the violence we see. Personally, I think those are

simplistic explanations. Considering the facts I mentioned before, we may be able to

identify what are the primary and secondary causes and the effects of violence; we

may be able to differentiate the mirage and the real thing. However, there are

people who prefer to blame the victim, to relate poverty to the lack of initiative and

laziness, to explain violence considering the natural instincts of some particular

ethnic group.

For many sociologists, schools and teachers are not the main educational force

influencing our children any more; TV and computers have replaced them. This

opinion and the facts mentioned below are perhaps the reasons why many people

blame the media for promoting violence. “Air time for war cartoons increased from

1.5 hours per week in 1982 to 43 hours per week in 1986. In 1980, children’s

programs featured 18.6 violent acts per hour and now have about 26.4 violent acts

each hour. By the time the average child leaves elementary school, he or she will

have witnessed at least 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 other assorted acts of

violence on television.” (Smith, 1993, p. 1). Psychologists think that children

between ages 8 and 12 are particularly susceptible to the influence of television

violence. Of course, this could be only one of the variables to consider when trying

to identify the causes of violent incidents among our children.

Availability of weapons is another variable. “In 1987, the National School Safety

Center estimated that nationwide 135,000 boys carried guns to school daily.”

“According to the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, for every household in the

US, two guns are owned by private citizens.” (Gaustad, 1991, p. 1). It is incredible

that you need a license to have a dog or to fish and you don’t need one to own a gun.

In a recent survey made by The Miami Herald, 24% of high school students in south

Florida have carried a gun to school in some occasion. It is normal that teens argue

or even fight for trivial things; it could be a girlfriend, a football game, or who

drives the best car. It is known that adolescence is the most difficult and emotional

period in our lives. The problem is when they can use bullets instead of punches.

Politicians tell us that they will fight crime and violence by hiring more police

officers, passing tougher laws against criminals, building more jails. World

superpowers usually deal with violence using the military, using more violence

(Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Yugoslavia). Some school administrators

recommend the use of more security officers and metal detectors to avoid violence;

others think that closed campuses will protect the students from the violence existing

outside the schools. I think that they are addressing the symptoms, not the causes;

the result will be fear and more violence.

III-A New Stage: Public Schools.

Years ago, schools were respected places, almost sanctuaries, like churches,

sources of knowledge, advice, and help; they were “neutral turf”, even for gangs.

For many children schools were their only refuge and teachers their only mentors

and role models. Violence was common on the streets of inner cities and poor

neighborhoods, bars, brothels, and similar places. Now, it is spreading to “edge

cities”, to suburbs, and to schools. Why to schools?

Schools are largely funded by property taxes. Schools in poor, deteriorated,

crime-ridden neighborhoods tend to be physically dilapidated, overcrowded, and

lacking the resources necessary to work properly. As I explained before, our middle

class is disappearing and poor communities are becoming poorer. Years ago, people

saw schools as a way to achieve social mobility and to fight poverty. Today, many

are disappointed. According to past social standards, teachers were very important

persons, moral pillars of the society; today, they are the worst paid and least

respected professionals in our society. Politicians and other critics of the public

schools are among the ones to blame for the loss of support, isolation, and cynicism

affecting schools today. We have made schools available for everyone, which is good,

but everything has a price: when you don’t increase funds at the same rate than

enrollments, more quantity will cause less quality. Schools and teachers have less

and less power over their troublemakers; these type of students are almost

invulnerable; it is very difficult to get rid of them as a result of different pieces of

legislation and court decisions during the last years; and the worst part is that they

know it. Larger classes have provoked a rupture in the connections between the

teacher and his / her students. Education has become a political token in the hands

of many unscrupulous individuals; constant changes back and forth, continual

experimentation, and conservative or liberal measures, depending on who is in

power, have created great instability in our schools. Finally, the world is becoming a

global village; everything is becoming global and violence too. We are not safe

anywhere, anymore. Because of all this, many urban teachers feel overworked,

stressed, and burned out for all the pressures on them. These are some of the causes

why schools have lost its status and its immunity to violence.

Gangs are another important component linked to violence in schools. Gangs

among young people are not a new phenomenon. They have existed for a long time

and they still are a magnet for many students because they provide protection,

solidarity, a family environment and acceptance for those who can not find that

support some place else. “They have the ability to respond to student needs..., (to

furnish) a sense of belonging and to become a major source of identity for its

members.” (Burnett and Walz, 1994, p. 2). Gangs evolve among people of similar

ethnic groups and show strong loyalty to their neighborhoods. Their activity is more

violent where different ethnic groups struggle for influence or control in the same

area. Many gangs are involved in drugs and weapons trafficking and today they use

schools as sites of recruitment and socializing; they see schools as a necessary evil. It

is interesting to know that less than 2 percent of all juvenile crime is gang-related

(Bodinger de Uriarte, 1993).

Even though violence in schools was the sole problem of poor schools for a

relative long time, today this problem is affecting all kind of schools. Some recent

incidents show that nobody is exempt: Frontier Junior High, 600 students, Wash.,

1996, 3 killed and 1 wounded; Pearl High School, 1,000 students, Miss., 1997, 3

killed and 7 wounded; Heath High School, 600 students, Ky., 1997, 3 killed and 5

wounded; Westside Middle School, 250 students, Ark., 1998, 4 killed and 10

wounded; Thurston High School, 1,400 students, Ore., 1998, 4 killed and more than

20 wounded; Columbine High School, 1,900 students, Colo., 1999, 13 killed and 23

wounded; and Heritage High School, 1,300 students, Ga., 1999, 6 wounded (Cloud,

1999). There are some common things in these violent incidents: all those schools are

located in middle class neighborhoods; all the perpetrators were emotional

depressed white males and most of them come from broken families; most of them

were addicted to violent influences (music, video games, books, and / or movies) and

all of them had access to weapons, in most of the cases at home. We should learn

something from these patterns of violence.

Most psychologists agree that prevention is better than repression and that a

good education can be the best prevention. We can use curricula that teach

nonviolent ways of resolving conflict; we can use peer conflict management and peer

tutoring programs. We must reach students before gangs do; teachers have to be

aware that the interaction of a disturbed child with caring adults can make a

difference. Research indicates that teaching interesting lessons, modeling respectful

behaviors, and acting quickly and in a nonintrusive way in response to misbehavior

discourage disorder, which could escalate into violence. Quickly repairing the acts of

vandalism and showing care for the premises discourage further vandalism. Schools

must provide extra-curricular activities and create athletic, cultural, and

job-training programs, that give students alternatives to gangs. Schools should

prepare teachers and all school staff to handle violent incidents. We have to avoid

sending a message that we are afraid of our students; we must build trust,

self-respect and self-discipline in our students; we have to give the school back to

them as the refuge and 2nd. home that at some point it was or tried to be; our

schools should be again social centers for the community. Recruiting teachers that

live in the school neighborhood can help to reweave the torn fabric of community.

Adding guidance counselors and giving them new roles could be a good idea.

Uniforms and permanent control over the school premises will keep foreigners out.

Schools alone can’t solve problems with complex societal origins. The community,

local businesses, the police department, and job agencies are some of the natural

allies that we should have to succeed in this battle against violence in our schools.

Causes of violence lie outside the influence of schools, but we can help to prevent or

at least alleviate the effects and contribute to find the solutions. Most of the above

ideas are not new; they were used successfully at the begining of the century and can

be used again.

IV- Do We Have a Chance?

Yes, we do. The key is understanding, cooperation and caring. Our society has to

understand why this problem is happening, be aware of the real causes, and act

resolutely. The government can play a decisive role to achieve a social balance, to

reduce the gap, to help the weak; but we have to vote, to participate, to elect the

right government, to invest some of our time in our future. We have the experience

and the democratic foundations. We should break our present chains and do not

allow that some wrongfully interpreted rights and freedoms destroy our great

society. Nobody has the right to promote violence and provide the tools to exercise

that violence against us; nobody should be free to profit from our suffering and our

children’s future. The American people is admirable and can win this battle. I hope

it will.

Carlos J. Diaz

References

Bodinger de Uriarte, C. (1993). Membership in violent gangs fed by suspicion,

deterred through respect. Los Alamitos, CA: Southwest Regional Education

Laboratory. (ED 358399).

Burnett, G. & Walz, G. (1994, July). Gangs in the schools. Greensboro, NC. (ED

372175).

Cloud, J. (1999, May 31). Special report: Troubled kids. Time, p. 33-59.

Dorfman, A. (1999, June 14). Che Guevara. Newsweek, p. 210-212.

Gaustad, J. (1991, May). Schools respond to gangs and violence. Eugene, OR:

Oregon School Study Council. (ED 337909).

__________. (1991, Oct). Schools attack the roots of violence. Eugene, OR:

ERIC. (ED 335806).

Girard, K. L. (1995). Preparing teachers for conflict resolution in the schools.

Washington, D.C.: ERIC. (ED 387456).

Giroux, H. (1995, March). White panic. Z Magazine.

Kantrowitz, B. (1993, Aug. 2). Wild in the streets. Newsweek.

Males, M. (1996, March/April). Wild Deceit: Why teen violence is poverty

violence in disguise. Extra!

Renner, M. (1999). Ending violent conflict. In Worldwatch Institute (ed.), State

of the world 1999. A Worldwatch Institute report on progress toward a sustainable

society. (p. 151-168). NY: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.

Smith, M. E. (1993, Dec.). Television, violence, and behavior: A Research

summary. NY: Syracuse. (ED 366329).

9-THE INTERNET FOR TEACHING L.E.P. STUDENTS

By Carlos J. Diaz & Manuel Noly Perez

A Paper Submitted to the Florida Educational Technology Conference 2000

INTRODUCTION

Children contending with poverty, linguistic limitations, family problems, social adaptation, and urban crowding can achieve high academic standards when they are properly motivated and empowered by the full use of advanced digital information. We strongly believe that a serious movement to reform public schools located in low-income urban communities, fortified with the use of advanced media and access to the Information Superhighway, can break the constraints placed on our students. As in a good mix of coffee/cafe (representing condensed information) and milk/leche (representing class content/curriculum), the Superhighway allows classroom teachers to blend a good "educational concoction" for their LEP students.

Presently, the total membership of our school numbers 3,000 students. The student population consists of 2.8% non-Hispanic white, 8.5% black, 88.3% Hispanic, and 0.5% Asian. The percentage of students with limited English proficiency is 20.0% and that of free/reduced lunch is 61.0%.

Most of our students are recent immigrants who must adapt to a new life: new language, new culture, and new friends, compounded by the struggle of hard economic problems. Sometimes they are on their own and work full time for self-support or contribute to the meager family budget. These hardships coupled with declining economic status as indicated by the most recent Federal Income Assessment by Congressional District, indicate that the average household in the attendance district of our school has a mean annual income of $26,643.00, nearly $3,000.00 less than that of the city and $16,000.00 less than the county's mean. In spite of their adversities, these students have real interest in learning and understand that this is the way to success.

Limited English Proficient (L.E.P.) is the category which describes the student that can not communicate in the English language. They are like any other student in all the aspects of school life. Some bring a better academic background, they just happen to speak, read, and write in their home language. LEP students have the intelligence, curiosity, and interest to seek for academic information when they are motivated properly. When they engage in a search for information and find it written in a language they do not understand, it's like being placed in front of a blank wall. Students can become discouraged because the academic activities become boring and meaningless; as a result, students can be discipline problems and drop out of school, not to mention teacher frustration contributing to teacher burn-out. The Internet can help classroom teachers to overcome some of these socio economic, linguistic, and motivational problems.

The Information Superhighway is changing our lives, the way we learn, meet people, exchange information, work, and do business in our evolving post-industrial era. Information Highway is an expression to describe the global network of millions of computers moving digital information at high speed, including text, audio, and video around the world. Gates (1995) believes that it will become the ultimate market, will make money disappears as we know it today, will replace printed paper (books, letters, archives) with digital documents, will offer the multitudes inexpensive access to unlimited sources of information, will make virtual reality available as a learning and tourist alternative for those who cannot afford the reality, will break down national boundaries and create a world culture, and will promote equality and democracy. Many other specialists and scholars agree that this environment will encourage students to see the amazing interrelationships between things and concepts, to analyze causes and consequences, to think critically, and to learn faster than ever before. The present Internet is a very close predecessor of the future Superhighway and potentially, the most significant educational tool to surface in quite a while.

CLASSROOMS WITHOUT WALLS ALWAYS AVAILABLE

Learning is a process that not only occurs in classrooms and under the supervision of teachers, but also when the learning is applied in real life. The Internet facilitates home schooling and makes distance learning easier. The experiences and methods used in these two roads can be very useful for LEP students, the students that need to work full time, or those with too many absences, or for those placed in mainstream classrooms without a bilingual teacher, or for those students whose teachers' explanations and class activities are not enough. The Information Superhighway is providing access to almost unlimited information, anytime and anywhere. We now can create classrooms without walls and rows and schools without constrains of time and space. The Superhighway allows students to reach beyond the classroom, transcend isolation and mediocrity, and find solutions to their socio-economic problems that may be affecting their academic performance. The Internet is contributing enormously to the process of social and cultural globalization. The way students work together in front of a computer and communicate across oceans and exchange information and opinions through e-mail; the way they participate in electronic discussion groups or LISTSERV's, collaborate in bulletin boards/newsgroups, take part in real-time interactive conferences using Internet Relay Chat rooms (IRC's) or Multi-user domains Object-Oriented (MOO's), all are proof of this benefit. The Superhighway is bringing together the best work of countless teachers and authors, the best educational practices are being shared in this electronic educational heaven. These capabilities are useful tools for allowing LEP students to overcome linguistic and academic limitations. And finally, finding the door to a better understanding in their "New World."

Make no mistake: the Internet alone is not a magic wand that will solve all our problems. These virtual-digital resources will never replace real experiences. People need personal interaction and learn how to work cooperatively. Jordan and Follman (1993) recommended that we should use technology in ways that emphasize cooperative learning models, stress high-level problem-solving skills, and support interactions between students and teachers rather than use computers as teaching machines to supplant the teacher, create interactive learning environments built around real-world problems, and be adaptable to a variety of learning styles. Dede (1996) added that "access to data does not automatically expand students' knowledge; the availability of information does not intrinsically create an internal framework of ideas" (p. 199). The skilled facilitation of teachers is an essential part of this process. Teachers will still have to know when to ask, observe, motivate, comfort, scold, or urge students forward to reach their goals.

The Internet can release teachers from the tyranny of being the main source of information for their students and transform them into facilitators, mentors, coaches, and guides of to acquire, select, and process the information the students need. Teachers can become designers of structures and learning systems used by their clients. It facilitates teachers' task of monitoring, evaluating, giving feedback, and guiding student performance. Within this new environment, teachers can assign homework that may include the review of hypertext references to electronic resources and students can submit their work electronically on a diskette or across the Superhighway via e-mail. Special software programs are helping teachers to summarize information on the skills, progress, interests, and expectations of their students.

The Internet also offers the feature of updating the content of web pages easily and almost instantaneously allowing teachers to provide students with the best source of up-to-the-minute information. Teachers can use e-mail to enhance communication with parents and colleagues or to find the best lesson plans for students' particular needs. This environment will provide teachers with more time, possibilities, and energy to do creative work and develop better educational materials. The future of the teaching profession appears extremely bright. Educators must adapt to these changes and reinvent their teaching strategies. Teachers' role will relate less to the cognitive domain and more to the affective domain.

The Internet makes it possible for parents, professionals, political leaders, and the community in teaching/learning process of their children. It allows schools to find, approve, and create lists of available mentors, experts from different fields and locations and to facilitate their work for our students to excel in education. Parents will find they are in a better position to help their children, to review their daily work and progress, and to establish connections with other parents. The Internet can help us bring back the old tribal expression which says, "it takes a whole village to raise a child."

MOTIVATION, HIGH ORDER THINKING, & "MASS-CUSTOMIZED EDUCATION"

Technology is making learning more demanding but also more practical and pleasant. Learning should be fun even though some people see it from a different perspective. The availability of so much information on the Superhighway, its variety of forms and designs, its use of color, graphics, and multimedia, and its interactivity, spark the curiosity, imagination, and interest of students. LEP students find these inherent properties useful because it helps them with their linguistic limitations (providing information in their home language or help them translate/understand it in English), and assist students with short attention span (attracting and motivating them to stay engaged).

Eastmond (1995) emphasizes how the Internet requires and facilitates learning-how-to-learn skills, such as locating and evaluating information, organizing information, collaborating with diverse individuals, and summarizing and presenting their own work. The works of Swan and Mitrani (1993) and Bialo and Sirvin-Kachala (1996) explain how the use of computers as a learning tool make a measurable difference in student motivation, achievement and attitudes; how it also fosters self-directed learning and higher order thinking, contributes to allaying tensions and increasing focus on academic content, enlarges global awareness, and creates opportunities for students to do meaningful work. The integration of email-based activities into the curriculum (Le Loup, 1997), as in keypal projects, can help students to learn faster a new language and the culture linked to it (look for Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connections, K-12, in the URL: http://www.iecc.org Multi-user Object-Oriented domains (MOO's) like Mundo Hispano and Diversity University can serve to develop self esteem in our students and, at the same time, contributing to promote a student-centered learning environment. There is no doubt that the Internet makes it possible for anyone to access data, people, and ideas and to search any area of knowledge deeply and thoroughly at anytime and from any location where there is a computer connected to the Superhighway.

American education is unique for its heterogeneous clientele with diverse backgrounds and needs. Information technology allows teachers to "mass-customize" the curriculum, to address the different intelligences, learning styles, cultural and academic needs of every student -following Gardner's theory (1983)- in a system of massive education, in which students can take divergent paths and learn at their own rates. The Internet supports the constructivist approach to learning in which each student constructs his/her own knowledge. Dede (1996) describes the way a well prepared system can lead to the achievement of general standards allowing every learner to choose among options to meet their particular needs and interests. In the near future, "computers with social interfaces will figure out how to present information so that it is customized for particular users...Different interests and learning rates will be accommodated, because computers will be able to pay individual attention to independent learners." (Gates 1995, p.195). The Superhighway is altering the focus of education from the institution to the individual: It is putting people at the center of their own learning and making it an individual endeavor in which every student establishes their individual goals and work at his/her own pace, in a relaxed and non-competitive learning environment (Doucette, 1994 and Ortego & Richards, 1995).

USER FRIENDLY SCHOOLS

Today, at the dawn of a new millennium and in the midst of a new revolution, there is no doubt that education will depend upon computers. Children with access to computers learn faster and better. In most of our schools nowadays there is a substantial presence of technology. However, Peck and Dorricott (1994) see that the quality of education remains largely unchanged by computers. It is evident that technology has not transformed education asmuch as it has the business community. In some places where computers are used, they are still playing the role of baby-sitter, entertainer, and drill sergeant. "The slowness of schools to embrace technology partly reflects conservatism in many corners of the educational establishment. It reflects discomfort or even apprehension on the part of teachers and administrators who are older than the average worker. It also reflects the minuscule amounts city school budgets have allotted for educational technology." (Gates 1995, p. 186).

Today, even preschoolers are familiar with pagers, cellular phones, video games, cable television, DVDs, satellites, personal computers, videoconferences, and multimedia. However, most of the students in high school are still taught with chalkboards, overhead projectors, textbooks, and boring lectures. Most inner-city classrooms do not even have a telephone line. These are obvious constraints that must be eliminated if our political leaders, corporations, and communities really want to reform our public schools.

According to Gates (1995), classroom learning will very soon include a digital white board connected to a computer and with access to any kind of media on demand, data bases, web pages, and all type of information available on the Superhighway; students will use small digital information appliances -even more powerful and efficient than present laptops- with which they will interact with the digital board and access the Superhighway; multimedia presentations and projects will be the most common way of introducing new contents by teachers and assessing students' learning. It will only take minutes to pull together an audio-visual show combined with statistics, maps, graphic organizers, documents, and other forms of information. The texts of millions of books will be available on the Internet. "The interactive network will allow students to quiz themselves anytime, in a risk-free environment...Testing will become a positive part of the learning process. A mistake won't call forth a reprimand; it will trigger the system to help the student overcome his misunderstanding" (p. 196). Today, many of these wonders already exist. It should be present in every classroom and be accessible to every student.

Public schools are facing big challenges, but they are our greatest hope. Most of Goodlad's (1984) observations are still present: "Explaining and lecturing constituted the most frequent teaching activities..." (p. 105). "Students receive relative little exposure to audiovisual aids, field trips, or guest lectures." (p. 124). "Three categories of student activity marked by passivity -written work, listening, and preparing for assignments- dominate (...) at all three levels of schooling." (p. 124). "All of those characteristics we commonly regard as positive elements in classrooms were more to be observed at the early elementary level." (p. 112). From elementary to senior high "there was increasingly less use of teacher praise and support for learning, less corrective guidance, a narrowing range and variety of pedagogical techniques, and a declining participation by students in determining the daily progress of their education." "Paralleling the steady decline in these instructional procedures was a decline in amenitie" such as good instructional materials and attractive comfortable classrooms." (p. 125). However, our problems are not insuperable, just extremely complex. For every disastrous public school mentioned on the news, there are dozens of successful and exemplary cases that people don't read about. Different formulas are being used to face these problems; therefore, we must focus on the real problems and try to find real solutions that work. Privatization and vouchers are not the answer, even though there is no doubt that private businesses should play a very important role in this endeavor. The massive use of the Information Superhighway can be a powerful instrument to raise educational standards for everyone.

A VERY IMPORTANT PARTNERSHIP

Five years ago, in San Francisco, California, President Clinton made a call and challenged American businesses, state and local governments, universities, and schools to make a commitment of time and resources so that by the year 2000, every classroom in America would be connected to the Internet and it would become what Gates (1995) called the Information Superhighway. During these years, many good examples of how this partnership have lead to achieve this national goal in improving education: IBM and its Program Wired for Learning -Reinventing Education (visit the URL: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/TechStrength/ibm.html and the URL: http://reinvent.k12.wv.us); Microsoft and its Program Anytime Anywhere Learning (AAL) (visit the URL: http://www.microsoft.com/education/aal/default.asp); Apple Computer Inc. and its 13 years study Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) visit the URL: http://www.apple.com/education/k12/leadership/acot); the multilateral partnership (Sun Microsystems, Apple, Xerox, Oracle, TCI, and others) in California during 1995; the work of Bell Atlantic and Christopher Columbus Middle School in Union City, NJ; the Virtual Classroom Project, in which the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, the Sloan Foundation, the state of New Jersey, IBM, Apple, and the Institute of Technology of NJ participated; the Project Eiffel in NYC, created to support the minority and disadvantaged students in that city through the full use of advanced digital information (visit the URL: http://eiffel.ilt.columbia.edu); HighWired.com, which is a very easy -and free- way for teachers to have their own web pages, and many others initiatives. However, this is still an unfulfilled dream; most inner-city public schools trail far behind.

On the other hand, the result of some corporation' policies is that "a great deal more has been invested in computer software meant to entertain than in software to educate. It is easier to create an addictive game than to expose a child to a world of information in an appealing way." (Gates 1995, p. 197). It is sad to see how millions of children waste their time and skills playing Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, Killer Instinct, or Super Streetfighter. Some companies prefer to stimulate hate and violence rather than develop healthy educated minds. Our students are being exposed to different types of technology regardless our intervention. We have the inexcusable duty to get their attention, appropriately direct their initiation and struggle to keep them in the right places in this fascinating new world. The Internet can help us to accomplish this mission if we contribute with positive personal experiences, time and talent. Most professors have their own web pages as an important part of the courses they teach. High school teachers should follow this example.

The Internet is still slow when we try to download audio and video. Many corporations are taking advantage of this situation; some for good and others for our children's disgrace. Many educational CD-ROMs possess the high quality multimedia the Superhighway should offer in the near future. The good educational software available on the market, mainly those with bilingual presentations, the inclusion of captions, and those that promote a high level of thinking and creativity, offer a taste of the interactive and multicultural experience needed to help LEP students. The National Geographic Society Picture Shows and the Zane Publishing PowerCD series are good examples of this assertion. However, CD-ROMs are limited by their storage capacity; you are constricted by your personal collection, and some are too expensive for the average inner-city families such as the ones in our attendance zone. Just imagine, these kids hopping on the Superhighway with its endless stream of information, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. - Yahoo !

When looking for the best sites to address particular needs of students, teachers should point to Google, Direct Hit and other special types of search engines that count the number of times a site is accessed or linked. This can also help the government, corporations, and philanthropic foundations/individuals to provide recognition and funds to help the institutions and individuals that make a difference.

THE INTERNET & THE "UNSERVED STUDENTS"

Horace Mann said that education should be the gateway to equity in our society (In Adler, 1982). However, our educational system is full of inequalities. This could be perhaps one of the major contributing factors of low achievement of students in poor communities. This should send a loud alarm for educational reform and a good reason to reject vouchers and the privatization of public education. We are in accord with Bruder (1989) and recommend the use of the Internet and other information technologies, like CD-ROMs, teleconferencing, interactive television, and electronic mail as possible avenues to improve the services for the "unserved students". However, the Superhighway will not solve all our social problems. We should use it as a tool to extinguish inequalities and ensure students their right to the best education. It can help to bridge the ever-widening gaps in society; it can promote democracy in our global, multicultural, and multilingual environment. The average child today with access to the Internet has more opportunities to acquire information and knowledge than most privileged students 20 years ago.

Providing access to the Super Highway will allow LEP students to enhance their education and personal opportunities, especially those without recourses fortunate to enrolled in elite schools, or have the greatest teachers, or have access to the best libraries, museums, and labs or even to those who lack parental support. This medium will challenge all students to make the most of his/her natural aptitudes. Projects of excellent teachers and their wonderful superb lesson plans are available on the Internet for millions of students with net access. Nonetheless, we should be aware that minority, disadvantaged, inner-city, and rural students do not have the same access to computers and to the Internet as the "average" or privileged student. Becker (1987) reported that most schools with students of high abilities are the ones with more access. In contrast, low achieving/at-risk students, particularly in high school, are less likely to have these resources. This situation must change in order to help those most needy. We must promote the optimum use of available digital resources in our community. If our schools lack computers connected to the Internet, we must direct our students to the public libraries as an extension of our services. Perhaps, special arrangements depending on the particulars of each neighborhood (business hours, priority to students, reserve computer time in advance). Additionally, as part of the efforts for wiring every classroom, education districts must give serious thought to the need of computer labs with connection to the net (i.e., at the school media center) for common use after school hours. By achieving this, we would serve the needs of students without the resources at home.

We must learn from our best experiences complied by the use of the Internet as an educational tool, such as in distance learning, home schooling, learning a language, teaching students with disabilities, educational equity, reform and quality in education. The ERIC database has results of valuable and interesting studies and research in the different fields. The combination of these experiences will allow us to serve our LEP students from low-income families located in a Hispanic inner-city. The results of Project DO-IT (Disables, Opportunities, Interworking, Technology) mentioned by Burgstahler (1995) and Project Distant Mentor described by Dede (1996) are good examples to consider.

The web site Resources for Social Studies and Humanities (URL: http://www.se.mediaone.net/~carlos55) used in our presentation, is an ongoing endeavor and an attempt to include the best resources and experiences available on the WWW in its perspective discipline. This site encompasses everything a high school student may need in order to succeed in the courses taught at this level, including in the absence of the regular class Social Studies Teacher, serving as a "cyber-substitute", includes tools for LEP students to help with their language barrier. This web site was developed with the following objectives in mind:

Extensive source of information and academic resources that would allow a students to find the content they need for the Social Studies courses offered.

Explicit, clear, and always available description of the norms, requirements, goals, structure, grading policy, assignments, materials, and other useful guides, includingÝ instructor's method of teaching the course.

Help students and their parents be informed of class expectations in order to succeed in class. (see: My Classroom).

An additional resource to help students overcome the language barrier (English), help translate information in English to their home language, and access to information in their native language.

To promote pride and self-esteem in their respective ethnicity, help maintain their roots and expand their culture, prepare them to succeed in a city that is a bridge to The Americas, where speaking Spanish is an economic advantage in business. (See: Bilingual Education & Hispanic Links).

To develop research and inquiry-based learning to support the multiple projects and assignments required in class.

An additional channel to communicate between students, parents and teacher via E-mail. An "Open Door" to communicate and exchange ideas and experiences with other students in the class, school, or any place on planet Earth.

To foster cooperative learning while working toward a common goal (a class project).

A tool to promote tolerance, understanding, multiculturalism, human solidarity, and peaceful coexistence.

A way to expose students to crucial current issues and develop global awareness. (See Social Studies, Global Links, and the World Today).

A reward system to expose the best class project teams/students.

Results of class team project competition and names of their participants.

Students with the best grades published periodically (see: My Students).

As a tool to facilitate students in their homework. A way for the teacher to have control of the source of information they are using: he/she knows in advance the web sites visit.

Exposure to the best educational, cultural institutions and Education best of Philosophy scholars in the world.

Teacher's educational philosophy, and academic policies; a pledge of what will be do for them. By these means, students and parents know what to expect from the teacher and what the teacher expects from them. (see My Papers about Education).

Study guides for every unit in every subject (Social Studies) taught in high school and exercises and questions to prepare the students for the midterm and final exams.

CONCLUSIONS

As with any medium of information transfer, the internet/technology has disadvantages and limitations that cannot be ignored:

The processing speed of computers and internet connection fast enough to download adequately.

Because digital technology is changing so rapidly, nothing remains up-to-date for any substantial length of time. Computers become obsolete in approximately three years or less. Laptops have even less of a life.

Parents concerned with their children surfing the net may dislike the freedom/latitude the net offers. They would prefer more structure and supervision.

It could cause information overload. Information management training will be needed.

The lack of verbal cues from the teacher out of the classroom could hinder communication and create misunderstandings.

It could breed passivity in some individuals or provoke boredom in others who prefer more physical activity.

It requires additional training and sustained technical support for teachers and students.

Despite these limitations, the benefits the Internet offers its dedicated learner, outweigh them all. We are positive that the Internet can help immigrant children struggling in poverty, language problems, and other limitations to succeed in our crowded urban schools; it may also be a powerful instrument to reform our traditional educational structures and methodologies.

Even though the revolution we are experiencing could be very demanding and we as teachers of the third millennium have a lot to do and change, the promising future ahead is so bright that we all should be proud of being part of it. "It is a wonderful time to be alive." (Gates 1995, p. 276).

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