Fifty Great Educators

This weekend was my birthday and so I took a little break from school work and didn’t have time to sit down and write until today, however what I noticed during this time is that a lot of ideas have been running through my head. Similarly to our first course with Wayne, I have had many conversations with colleagues and my mom (a retired teacher of many years) and even though I can’t always sit down and write formally, a lot of ideas have been “percolating” in my mind.

When we were given the task of choosing from the list of “Great Educators” I was really at a loss as to who to choose, and I didn’t consider my choice very important. My studies at the Faculty of Education were so long ago, that with the exception of those people who we studied with Wayne, I really didn’t remember or recognize anyone else, especially as I got the list so close to the end of the class. When I made the choice to go with a Jewish educator it was a fairly flippant decision; I simply thought that I had to pick someone, and as my Jewish identity is such a big part of who I am, I might as well pick someone Jewish. As with many things in life, I didn’t recognize at the time how significant the choice, as well as the process of my choice, was until after the fact.

At the time I noted that considering the list was so small (I am certain there are well over fifty great educators in modern times- at least I hope so), and judging by the names alone, there were quite a few Jewish names on the list. After giving this more thought and reflection, I realized that this is not actually surprising to me at all.

I was brought up Jewish and went to Jewish day schools through to my high school graduation. During my schooling two areas were consistently stressed; the first was my Jewish education, including Jewish values, religion, laws and tradition, and the second was the value of education in general. For as long as I can remember I have known that I was entitled to a good education and that my education was important. As a young student (especially in high school, and even in university) I may not have appreciated this, but I always thought of it as a given. I would do well in high school and I would go to university, which is exactly what I did. It was also what the vast majority of my classmates did, as well as what my brother, my sister and their classmates did in subsequent years.

The value of education has always been at the heart of Jewish tradition and values, and growing up Jewish it was a value that was taught and then continuously emphasized throughout my learning. From the earliest Yiddish stories (I learned Yiddish before Hebrew) the learned Rabbi was a scholar and always the most esteemed member of the community. Having the time to study (in this case the Torah and other biblical and rabbinical teachings) was sought after in the shtetals (Jewish villages- think of "Fiddler on the Roof"), and studying at Yeshivas (rabbinical schools) in Israel today is still held in high esteem (by most- politics aside), and is considered a service to the country; it is often an alternative to going into the Israeli army (again politics aside). Jewish history (for better or worse) has also necessitated the need for the focus on education as at many times throughout Jewish history, Jews were not allowed to own land, and restricted from studying Jewish religion, which led to further stress on the importance of education (both Jewish and secular), as well as the right to study.

As Jews immigrated around the world, especially after the Holocaust, and assimilated to various countries, specifically in North America and Britain, it is not at all surprising that many entered the fields of education, and focused on the connections between education and social justice.

As I began my reading of Basil Bernstein, and then heard the various presentations of the other great educators, who also happened to be Jewish, like Bloom, Eisner and especially Gardner, the impact of Jewish history on modern education in the 20th and 21st century became much clearer to me. It is a part of my history that I have somewhat taken for granted, and I am beginning to realize I need to be both grateful for it and proud of it.

As a result of all of the presentations during last week’s class I also find myself coming back to the question, “What is curriculum?” As with many things in this life, the result of these thoughts is another paradox, as it seems that I am coming both closer to a working definition, and farther away from a definitive answer, simultaneously.

Reading about Bernstein's work helped to clarify a working definition of curriculum for me, and again paradoxically also led to further questions. In his work with “message systems,” Bernstein separated the concepts of curriculum, pedagogy, and later evaluation into clear working definitions. He stated that, “Curriculum defines what counts as valid knowledge, and pedagogy as what counts as valid transmission of knowledge.” He later went on to add, “Evaluation as valid realization of knowledge by those who have been taught” (Fifty Modern Thinkers on Education). Working with these definitions I can narrow the curriculum to the “what” of what we teach, and pedagogy to the “how.” Evaluation is not quite as clear cut, but that is the topic for another blog.

Defining curriculum to the “what” makes things quite clear; curriculum is knowledge and knowledge includes both the facts and the skills. The topics and the processes are equally important, for one could not exist without the other. Curriculum can then encompass everything we teach, which at first glance appears to make things quite simple, but as always with questions like these, things are never that simple. This definition only leads to many more questions. The two most pertinent questions which come to my mind are, 1. Who then decides what this valid knowledge is?” and 2. Can we ever truly separate curriculum (valid knowledge) from pedagogy (how the knowledge is transmitted)? These are questions I am still pondering and I am certain I will return to in later reflections.

Before I close this entry I would also like to share one very interesting insight that my mother expressed in the course of one of our conversations. My mother recently retired from teaching for over 25 years in Winnipeg's core area, and so we often talk about my courses and the discussions we have in class (she also helps me greatly with my research and has my Questia password- thanks mom). My mom commented that, “Curriculum has changed with the different periods in society. In the 60’s it was about the “what,” the facts, and the inspectors would come into the schools and expect that each teacher, in each classroom, would be on the same page in the same book, according to their grade level. Then in the 80’s the focus shifted to the “how;” with Bloom’s Taxonomy and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and of course, Piaget, teaching became all about the development of the child and how they learned. A third shift then began to occur in 2000’s, when she noted that the “who” had moved into the forefront, and the individual student including their background and experience were considered to be a part of learning.” I thought this was a pretty cool observation, especially as it was an understanding of her experiences. It also reminded me of the “Growing up Canadian” video and the changes in our schools, and how we are all a part of that. So even if I don’t have any of the answers, it’s good that I am asking the questions.