Author: Michael Ramirez

arrived at 12:35 but nobody there

positive good explanation for the problem situation

good idea and support from Percy

constructive insert “of the “

good transition into Percy quote for support and good anecdote

no negative

The American education system is…not the best in the world, it’s still stuck in the Industrial Age. The structures of education are one of the pillars of a healthy society, as the way a society views education and engages with it on an institutional level will determine the kind of citizenry it has. At W.C.U the school has worked to modernize not only in technology but with procedures and making a shift from lecture focused classes to more interactive methods. Working towards improving education as to be in line with Paulo Freire and Walker Percy’s philosophy about teaching without teaching. In pursuit of the goal of a more egalitarian form of teaching, I propose student led labs, for teachers to better emulate the maieutic virtue by facilitating group discussion, having presentations/seminars led by students, and the removal of tests in place of experience based projects and simulations as well as reflective papers on the topics covered.  

Applying these ideas to say a comparative politics class; let us say Latin Amderican Culture and Politics; for the sake of context would go as follows :Student led labs, as in the dogfish is splayed upon a table and the students go ahead and work with little more than their tools and an objective to learn. Perhaps an exercise on a topic of interest in relation to the class. Percy said that “He(consumer) carves his initials as a last desperate measure to escape his ghostly role as a consumer.” So the labs in which students find their own topics which will then be used as a base for their presentations will allow the students to reclaim their intellectual sovereignty. The labs offer practical skill learning for research data collection and team work. By students working to create something they learn. When students then present on the topic of the labs and what they found, sharing what they discovered through the fruits of their pursuit of learning. Removing the banking approach from the institution we learn by removing the object from the educational package by which the information is wrapped in. As having no instruction equalizes the dynamic of learning therefore making it not an “exercise in domination” but an exchange of information. 

The role of the teacher; they do play a part in this ; is to be the midwife the facilitator that is there highest role as anything more will just be part of the educational package. In practice that would include things like asking questions which propose problems like “What could this indicator suggest? What do these factors point to?” etc..  Therefore allowing the proliferation of thought. The simulation and experience based projects would include having students go out in the field and perform the qualitative/quantitative data collection that will be routine in the field of political science. “…English major who began poking around in a dogfish with a bobby pin would learn more in thirty minutes than a biology major in a whole semester;” Experience is the best teacher after all.

 Leading into my next educational experiment is the idea to have trips to allow students to get hands on experience in the execution of political experiments. Given the nature of social science the students would conduct mock surveys in the surrounding areas and perform cold calling to people, this would be especially useful during the fall semester when election day is held. The surveys serve the dual purpose of getting practical skills for the student such as communication, unbiased question formulation, and data collection. Supporting these ideas Percy Walker said “The measures taken are measures appropriate to the consumer: the expert and the planner know and plan but the consumer needs and experiences.” to break down the divide between “layman”and “expert” Walker Percy praises the value of experience in a technical society. My labs would allow the consumer to take his fill of the knowledge he is deprived of by being passively fed information.

As for my final proposal : reflective papers, about three times per semester the first at the beginning, the second at the halfway point, and thirdly at the end of the semester.  The first one would be worded something like “what do you wish to gain from this course?” By giving the student an active objective and goal for his class the student metaphorically carved his initials in the tree trunk or stone he regains his sovereignty and ceases to be simply a consumer. During the middle of the semester the question would be how the student feels his desired goals are being handled and reignites the class as an active part of the student’s cognition as per Paulo Freire “A deepened consciousness of their situation leads people to apprehend that situation as a historical reality susceptible of transformation.” and this makes them an active participant in their education. Finally at the end of the semester the final reflective paper will allow the student to do much the same as the second and will ask what changes they would make to the course and what the student could have done to make sure all his goals are met in the case they were not all met. This will allow the course to be constantly tweaked to better serve future students and

In conclusion education in the 21st century is a changing entity, we’re doing new things with it and trying to adapt it to an ever changing world and taking old ideas from Freire and Walker turning it from a system of oppression and deprivation to one of intellectual autonomy and active growth. In the modern age we cannot still be using Industrial Age methods the world is full of young minds hungry to learn and go out and be transformers and the skills they need to be successful whether in political science or any discipline is contingent on our system here at W.C.U.

neg don’t fall for the trap about the educational packaging if you’re having teachers plan things for the students

Good use on Percy as support from the author

Constructive: good idea be more precise as to how the effective setup and discussion groups would be set up

Constructive: Great intro and transition into the context of your major

too just a little grammar error

good use of Percy in support of the idea

The American education system is…not the best in the world, it’s still stuck in the Industrial Age. The structures of education are one of the pillars of a healthy society, as the way a society views education and engages with it on an institutional level will determine the kind of citizenry it has. At W.C.U the school has worked to modernize not only in technology but with procedures and making a shift from lecture focused classes to more interactive methods. Working towards improving education as to be in line with Paulo Freire and Walker Percy’s philosophy about teaching without teaching. In pursuit of the goal of a more egalitarian form of teaching, I propose student led labs, for teachers to better emulate the maieutic virtue by facilitating group discussion, having presentations/seminars led by students, and the removal of tests in place of experience based projects/simulations.

Applying this to say a comparative politics class for the sake of context would go as follows :Student led labs, as in the dogfish is splayed upon a table and the students go ahead and work with little more than their tools and an objective to learn. Perhaps an exercise on a topic of interest in relation to the class, for example if the class was Latin American Politics a student could decide to research something in the region related to its development and politics. Percy said that “He(consumer) carves his initials as a last desperate measure to escape his ghostly role as a consumer.” So the labs in which students find their own topics which will then be used as a base for their presentations will allow the students to reclaim their intellectual sovereignty. The labs offer practical skill learning for research data collection and team work. By students working to create something they learn. When students then present on the topic of the labs and what they found, sharing what they discovered through the fruits of their pursuit of learning. Removing the banking approach from the institution we learn by removing the object from the educational package by which the information is wrapped in. As having no instruction equalizes the dynamic of learning therefore making it not an “exercise in domination” but an exchange of information. 

The role of the teacher; they do play a part in this ; is to be the midwife the facilitator that is there highest role as anything more will just be part of the educational package. In practice that would include things like asking questions which propose problems like “What could this indicator suggest? What do these factors point to?” etc..  Therefore allowing the proliferation of thought. The simulation and experience based projects would include having students go out in the field and perform the qualitative/quantitative data collection that will be routine in the field of political science. “…English major who began poking around in a dogfish with a bobby pin would learn more in thirty minutes than a biology major in a whole semester;” Experience is the best teacher after all

Kyle : good points, and ideas on topic support and analytical presentation will be the essential part

More specific on the thesis statement, should be a definitive statement

Good use of the Percy quote, in understanding that the educator cannot be part of the solution

Rabi :positive and neg
good thesis, and relation to Percy, more specific in sub points though, like list the strategies.
on Percy: good quote to support thesis

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UH1GxGOLTwbmRzPRK7IihauETVraCx9lXkvtgH4mOG4/edit

Michael T, Timothy, Kyle Owens

So in Kyle’s discussion group we discussed Walker Percy and his idea of quantifying what value to: being the first to find something that person has the whole value, but the millionth person to discover it that person only gets one one-millionth of the value. Now we in the group definitely agreed that discovering something new has it’s own special value because of the nature of the secrecy but then that depreciates in value the more people that discover it. Now yes but no, like I gave the example of finding a little known restaurant and it’s great as opposed to going to a chain and it being alright. And also about the value of how easily accessible a place is like Everyone knows the Grand Canyon, and everyone knows about Mt. Everest but because Mt. Everest is a lot harder to access it is a lot more value because the conditioning of how people are taught it’s a challenge and that it is. So I don’t think one can quantify value like that. And value is dependent on how saturated in the consciousness of the people the place is . and notoriety or fame .

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gpiKn4g53Udw5qAgkq0T8DRsZIK0QUxSGWr14Eq_Jf8/edit#slide=id.g621037c88a_0_154

Implementation for self involvement

we will have change, when the students are involved we will rise up to dismantle the oppressive establishment education that keeps us all ill. At W.C..U we pay thousand of dollars to attend these lush classes and their awesome facilities to someday learn, so if must then be our responsibilities, to ensure our own futures. We will do this by making an app that matches W.C.U students to other students and assign partners based on needs, he computer science department needs to get on this. this will be one user friendly and exclusive to W.C.U we’ll have bulletin boards(I’m pretty sure they already do this). So then we got the student group teaching day, so once a week students get to teach the class.Once a week and in every class then we measure student teaching capabilities and you know what people say ” If you can teach it to someone else you probably know it already.” So that should be useful hopefully. Beginning through grassroots organization is the way. Education where people teach each other .

Through media usage we shall connect the students and the movement will catch on. Now funds are important for any revolution, so since it’s by broke college kids we will rely on donations at first then maybe a fair monthly charge. We gonna need students, to get behind and become transformers of their education. So in Political science and sociology we learned about how revolutions require fire and dedication to keep them motivated, so the S.G.A will lead and administer. That’s the end of my ideas for now..

Topic 2

Team :I

Thesis: Whether the teacher is intentional in thir oppressive operations, it is the job of the student to be responsible for their own education at WCU.

“Problem posing education, as a humanist and liberating praxis, posits a fundamental that people subjected to domination must fight for their freedom”(Freire pg 6)

“Problem posing education does not serve the interests of the oppressor”(freire pg 6)