Chapter 4 Reflection on Rethinking Education

This chapter of the book was about the development of American schooling and mostly the main stages of development came about through technology.  The development of the printing press was one of the first main technologies that helped in the spread of knowledge throughout people.  Since the printing press was able to create many pages in a short period of time they were able to create documents and spread them to people around the world.  The Reformation and American Revolution didn't have a lot of technology that laid the foundation for education like the printing press and the Industrial Revolution but, the goal was to get educate people for religious reasons, in the Reformation, and for political reasons, in the American Revolution.  Then came the Industrial Revolution where the technology of the world really laid down the foundation for education for the next couple of centuries.  This is when Universal schooling started to come about because they realized that all classes of people need to be educated.  It was pretty interesting to find out that a lot of the format that we have today such as, K-8-4 setup and the 50 or 55 minute class periods, has been around since the late 1800's.  It is amazing that this kind of a system was adopted and has been the same for such a long time.  Now that there is new technology being developed in the world many people think that this system needs to change because what students are learning is becoming irrelevant with the changing of the world around us.  The author tries to make that point because the system of education that we are in now was developed because the world around them at that time was changing due to the Industrial Revolution.  The enthusiasts therefore believe that education should change again because they believe that we are now in a knowledge revolution.  This may very well be but I don't think we need too drastic of changes that wipe the system we are in now clear.  I think there needs to be some changes but it will take time because of funding and people have to be persuaded to change, especially teachers.
As a new teacher I will have to be prepared to deal with the change of the education system and to adapt to change.  This is a very difficult thing to adapt to because my ideals of education have been traditional because that is the type of education that I received from K-12.  With the demand of technologies in the world today I will have to adapt to this change and help my students learn in whatever way is possible.  It will be very interesting if there is a drastic change in the system of education because I will be teaching right in the midst of change.  I don't expect it to be drastic because large systems like this take a long time to change and develop.  I just will have to be prepared if American schooling develops in a different way.