Cycle 3: Schools as "Embryonic Communities"

When I hear the term "Embryonic Community" I literally think of an embryo. An embryo literally has everything it needs to survive until it needs to depend on something else. I envision a seed of some sort that is inactive and seemingly "dead" until it meets the right conditions, the right environment...and something happens. Changes start, and adjustments are made. Then, before you know it the seed is no longer a seed. It grows roots to support and sustain it, then a plant shoots up. The remnant of the seed is now a plant--the seed is no more. With such thoughts springing up just at the mere mention of the word embryo, you can imagine the thoughts I have when I relate them to a school described as an "Embryonic Community". I think it’s a wonderful concept, but embryos don't have to deal with the factors that our schools are subjected to.

I stumbled across an article by John Dewey that talks about the education system prior to the industrial revolution. Long before schools ventured off into a world of development and technology, things were structured much differently. The school community prepared students to work with their hands and in the service industry. It was known that you could learn to sew and cook in school in order to survive. Nowadays, home economics is no where near a high school elective list. As a matter of fact, the only place students would hear of such a class is from an old movie or from one of their elders. Here is one quote I enjoyed from the article:
“When we turn to the school, we find that one of the most striking tendencies at present is toward the introduction of so-called manual training, shop-work, and the household arts -- sewing and cooking. This has not been done " on purpose," with a full consciousness that the school must now supply that factor of training formerly taken care of in the home, but rather by instinct, by experimenting and finding that such work takes a vital hold of pupils and gives them something which was not to be got in any other way.”
In earlier days the embryonic community that the schools created prepared the students for their daily lives and ultimately their careers. The difference between the school community then and now is that students aren’t prepared for daily life as much in school any more. Generally our education system is designed in a way that suggests that the students would be able to obtain those skills outside of school, and the article called Cooking The Books: Why we need economics back in schools shares my same sentiments.
This on a much larger scale I believe has contributed to our country’s debt (not ALL of it of course, but a portion). Think about it, how old were you when you got your first credit card? I know how old I was…I was 18. I kept up with my payments. I never “maxed out”. I was responsible. However, I didn’t find out until it was too late that spending more than 50% of your limit would decrease your credit score. Finance was a requirement for my parent’s generation, and because of it I believe they were much more cautious than my generations and the generations to come.

As a teacher, I’ve been trained to educate my students within the fine boundaries of what our society has decided that they should know. However, I take on a larger responsibility. I demonstrate what it means to be a positive example and contributor to society. Teaching them moral values as simple as treating people the way you want to be treated, and admitting it when you’re wrong. If I make a mistake, I ask my students for their forgiveness and explain why I’m apologizing. I had a particular student that had the habit of not putting things back where he got them from. Time and time again I would have to remind him specifically what I expected. The year progressed the rest of the students got the hang of it, but this one particular student still struggled. Well, I saw him working with some materials… and a while later the materials were left unattended and he was off to another task. I let it rip. I told him about following the rules, I explained how unfair it was that he didn’t apply his knowledge of my expectations, I told him that until he learned he wouldn’t be able to work with anything else. By the time he could try to deny it I didn’t let him get a word in. Well…long story short he did put his things back. Another child got them out behind him and “accidentally” left it out. I was embarrassed (so was he), and I knew I had to fix it. I humbly got down to his eye level, and just as loudly as I reprimanded him I apologized and explained why I thought it was him. I asked him to forgive me, and I praised him for doing the right thing. Then I turned to my class and made an example out of myself and explained how easy it is to make a mistake and how important it is to try to make your wrongs right when possible. Powerful lessons take place daily in the classroom. Sure it took up 15 minutes of our plans Social Studies lesson. No it wasn’t planned, but how powerful was that? I learned…and so did they.