Oftentimes in education courses, I find myself growing increasingly frustrated with the pedagogical strategies and educational tools that we discuss. The primary reason for my frustration is that I always find it difficult to map these seemingly ideal techniques onto a classroom in my hometown (Cleveland). The schools in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District are typically urban, public schools with overcrowded classrooms, out-of-date, textbooks, low teacher retention, and poor funding. Thus coming to the Mainline was a major culture shock for me, especially as I looked at the elementary and middle schools that are near Bryn Mawr. The ways in which we talk about education don’t always seem to be grounded in my “real world.” In its design, the field placements would help aid in grounding our classroom discussions in practical and tangible school settings. However only one of the three placements (including this one) that I have been in has been similar to schools back home. So I still find it difficult to apply this knowledge in a different context. These observations from my past experiences in education courses and field placements leaves me with a lot of questions. The overarching question is: What does holistic education look like in different contexts? Can the systems/structures in which different schools exist support a holistic model for education? In thinking about these questions I hope to address my frustrations as well as check the assumptions that I have going into my placement at Thorne Preschool. For this essay I plan to primarily discuss the reading about expulsion in preschool and how the ideas and cases from that article map onto Thorne as well as my other school experiences.
In thinking more about my placement at Thorne, I’m hoping to answer the questions I presented above as well as check any assumptions that I have about the school. Some of the assumptions that I have are related to the demographics of the students. The school is described as a self-structured environment that has play rooms and art rooms where children have the ability to make their own choices. There is a traditional preschool program as well as a language enrichment program. Based on the information I saw on the website, it seems as though the majority of students are white, middle to upper-middle class. I also think that a good number of the students are “typically developing” although the school website does say that, “children with special needs can be considered for admission if their needs can be met in the regular classroom.” [insert more]
I was immediately drawn to the reading, “Empathy not Expulsion” because I could not wrap my mind around three and four year old children getting expelled from preschool. In the case that was described a young boy, Danny, was exposed to abuse in the home which resulted in some behavioral issues in preschool. The teacher in this case was afraid that Danny was a danger to the classroom and instead of learning more about this child and his history, she had started to make the decision to remove him from the program. Walter Gilliam who was interviewed for this article said that, “expulsion is not a child behavior, it’s an adult decision.” This statement leads me to thinking about how a holistic view of education, especially at a young age, requires extensive and thoughtful work by the teacher. If Danny had of been viewed as a whole child, with a family and home life, a myriad of e [insert more] I find myself questioning if this type of expulsion would happen at Thorne Preschool. [insert more]