Please complete the following assignments before 6am Thursday, Nov 17th. Thank you!
1. Comparison of UK and US educational systems
Please visit these two sites. The first is the UK's Department for Education. The other is The British Council organization and provides a good overview of the UK education system. They are both good (reliable) sources of information regarding education in the UK. I want you to examine the resources, follow some of the links, familiarize yourself with the similarities and differences between the US and UK education systems. Then, create a list comparing the two. Your list of items comparing UK and US, for example "age of entry into school" should consist of at least 30 items. If you like, you may do this with a partner, or as a group. Both (all) of you will each submit the list on your individual blogs. Please see my note at the end of #3 re: more than one person working on this...
2. The moral values that form the basis of our political decisions.
We've talked about how cultures educate, and that education is political, and further in this blog, how schools are paid for (based in part on culture and politics!). Before that, I'd like you to watch this video. It's very provocative and as I think I mentioned to some of you, it totally changed the way I thought about politics...particularly the idea of one side being right, the other side being wrong. I want this to broaden your understanding of the dichotomy of liberals vs. conservatives. The video is 20 minutes long, but it's worth it and I want you to watch it closely. Haidt is quite entertaining! Then, when you've completed the video please follow this link in order to take the quiz that Jonathon Haidt refers to. This will take you a couple minutes to register (don't worry, you won't get bugged later, and it's completely safe). Take the quiz and then report back in your blog what the results were--what did you find out about yourself that surprised you, didn't surprise you, and so on. I'd also like you to comment on several issues raised in the video that caught your attention...do you agree with his thinking? Some of it? None of it? Where do you stand in the discussion?
3. Who pays for schools...
I want you to consider what systems are in place that impact why schools "look" different in the United States. Just because children are owed an education doesn't mean they'll get the same education as everyone else..I want you to answer the WHY of that statement. This will require you to do some research. You might start by finding the answers to the following questions (and include more information than just the answers to these questions): Who pays for schools? What is the funding based on? How does it differ state to state? What are schools supposed to provide for the money they get? (i.e. what strings are attached?). Why do some schools have art, music, phy ed and others don't? Why do some schools have foundations? Where does parent involvement come into play? Or doesn't it? Share in your blog what else you find out about school funding that you didn't know before...and last, where would YOU want to send YOUR (future!) children to go to school, and why? This response should be a hearty post explaining (as if I don't know anything about it) who pays for schools. You may also do this with a partner, but the written response must be in one voice and reflect the idea that two heads are better than one, and that the quality of submission should be enhanced by having more that one person completing it. (For example: If two of you are looking it over there should be NO spelling or grammatical errors).
That's enough for this week!
