Field Work Reflection (Marchant) HR: Class observation notes. EL education Core principles handout

    As I worked throughout the semester I started to realize the effect that we can have on the community through education. That being said I also realized how important it is to have faculty that are willing to invest tremendous amounts of time into their work. This need comes from the odds truly being stacked against the school systems. Currently, many students are capable of success, however, this success cannot be achieved if work stops after the school day ends. This capacity to work after the school day ends is not an opportunity that all students get. Some kids simply cannot afford spending extra time on school work as home life and home responsibilities get in the way. Moreover, negative influences can take over a student’s life early. While education is the building block to create a better community I believe it is naïve to think that it is the solution to strife in our communities. In reality students do not spend much time in school making the amount of influence that the school and teachers have limited. This is why the school system needs to become incredibly efficient in their delivery of work. Additionally, there is much that communities need to do outside of school to help kids stay on the straight and narrow. That, however, is complex and difficult. My best thought after reflecting on our experience in fieldwork is that if we become efficient and choose a curriculum that is applicable to the development of kids then some of these issues can be helped. The development that I am talking about, specifically, is the development of character and ethical/ philosophical thinking. This type of development has been neglected it seems. Yes, society has a set of rules that ought to be followed but if ethical/ philosophical thought is not taught in a way that is applicable then how can we expect people to be able to follow it. You cannot teach a mechanic all the ways a car should work without showing them how to make it work and why it needs to work like that. If you were just to tell them how a car should work without teaching them application skills then the information is worthless and the mechanic is not a capable one. This concept is the same as members of a community and the rules of said community. These ideas are present in EL education’s core principles they just need to be applied and ethics and philosophy cannot continue to be neglected especially at the lower levels of education.