Parker Palmer Reflection: Week 2

To be truthful, I comprehended some of what the article was trying to communicate, but felt mainly a lack of connection to the personal assertions and overwhelming rhetoric that the author was writing with. I had a feeling that Parker Palmer was very passionate about the subject he was engaged in. I struggled to find a context within which to understand the chapter. I really wanted a 21st century English translation of whatever it is he was writing about.

So, within the context clues I did find, and with the help of Google, I gleaned that Objectivism as a teaching practice is a one way street. The teacher is the bearer of knowledge, and the student is recipient. The students' prior knowledge or personal experiences are not relevant. The classroom is a passionless place. Students and teachers suppress their true states of being. Competition is cultivated. Reality exists outside of the classroom, and students have a detached view of it.

It seems that Parker Palmer is advocating a form of education in which the student gains knowledge of themselves and learns in a constructivist environment. The teacher relinquishes some power and is more of a facilitator. Student learning is based on experience and students manufacture their own reality over a lifetime. 

(As an aside-I did find the reading enlightening in that Parker Palmer defined obedience as listening and education as the act of helping students find their own answers.)

I take it that the character of Father Felix was tired of producing "knowledge" and tired of his students being lazy and not actively living their life in a "true" fashion that lead them to acquire and act about their knowledge. He was tired of his students wanting to be knowledge consumers.

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Short Analysis of Education Received

Just about all of my education has been delivered in the objectivist fashion. In high school, I had an English teacher who taught critical thinking and allowed for exploring personal interest. My high school art teacher was open to students picking their subject matter for projects and would do any thing to gather resources for her students. In college, the education was still mainly objectivist. In upper level art classes, students were given more self direction. I had no training or experience in verbalizing what I was producing visually. My senior year project was a struggle because I broke with my adviser's preferred style of formalist photography and chose to pursue a narrative project. My adviser didn't approve of narrative photography, so I had to stealthily find other professors who would give feedback. During my senior year I had to write an artist's statement and that was the hardest thing ever. After my senior art show, my panel of professors sat me down and asked me to discuss what my project was about as a final assessment. I was tongue tied because 1. They had the artist's statement to look at. 2. It was the first time I had even heard those questions.

 There was a shining star during my undergraduate experience. At the same time I pushing free from my adviser, I had a teacher who was in charge of overseeing the senior projects. during our first class meeting she told the class that she was there to advocate for us. If there was anything she wanted, she would make sure it happened. If we wanted the walls of our gallery painted green, but were told they had stay white, she would make sure the walls would be painted green. I was open - mouthed and floored. She was my hero from that point forward.

Short Analysis of Education Delivered

In art: In this area, I hold more of the formal knowledge. A lot of my direct technical instruction is objective in nature. I like to stand up in front of students and clear my throat to deliver juicy tidbits.However, I have been better about introducing/ informally pre-assesing in an inquiry based fashion - see notes below about GT - because it gets the students really motivated and open for peer discussions.  I VTS art pieces with my students, I tend to progress my lessons toward more open ended artworks by the end of the year. I allow collaboration when I am not trying to assess individual comprehension or skill level. I tell my older students I never ever want them to ask me if their work is "good enough." I want them to know when they have put all their effort into a piece and are finished ( I rarely have a set due date - they tend to be adjusted three or four times. I only give them when I sense a group of students need "external motivation.")

In my GT pullout: During my first year teaching GT I tried to be the deliverer of knowledge, and failed miserably. I am an art teacher foremost, and was killing myself trying to tie into curricular areas in which I had no training. It took trial and error to realize my strong areas were explorations into thinking skills, creativity training, and exploratory studies that are student guided, student produced, and student assessed. It took me a while to learn that the students should be doing most of the work, and I am there to offer guidance, tell the kids they are normal and explain their quirks, teach interpersonal skills to differing personalities, and beg for GT money for projects. These teaching strategies have been transferring over to my art classroom as well.

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Things That Get in My Way of My Passion for Teaching Art As I Wish I Could

1. Teaching at two schools. My 80% school has a full population. I teach in 4 days what the other special area teachers in 5 days because of #2.
2. Teaching GT at my 20% school. I double up grade levels in the morning so I can have enough time to meet the legal minimum with my GT kids.
3. The expectation that children should be clean. 
4. Meeting once a week for 50 minutes.
5. Teaching in a culture of fear in which my door has to stay closed. Otherwise, it would open to the outside.
6. New rules stating that pull out areas are responsible for literacy scores also.
7. My own physical health - I injured my back in all ways possible and can't jump around like I used to. I pass out when I get home.
8. Upper administrative road blocking of my fifth grade field trip. I acquired funding to take all my fifth graders from my school to Crystal Bridges. It would have paid for two tour buses since it was a 3.5 trip each way, paid for each students lunch, and tied the tour into their common core literacy lessons. I was told no because the students wouldn't be back at 3:30.
9. The chain of command that is expected to be respected at all times.
10. Myself for accepting the status quo at times.