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Title: Moral Questions in the Classroom: How to Get Kids to Think Deeply about Real Life and their School Work by Katherine G. Simon, Nancy Faust Sizer, Theodore R. Sizer ISBN: 0-300-09032-3 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Thinking deeply about moral and existential questions...
Comment: Six years after she completed her fieldwork in three high schools (one typically suburban, one Catholic, and one Jewish), Katherine Simon has written this book about discussing moral issues in the classroom.
Her emphasis is on the interaction between the kids and teachers around what she calls "moral and existential" questions--what is a good life, what does it mean to die, what matters? She loves how youngsters can "open up" their seriously held questions of meaning of their lives under proper classroom management and curriculum design.
She thinks that these questions are the heart of good education. Her intellectual foundations seem to be Ted and Nancy Sizer and the Coalition of Essential Schools forum at Brown University--and the urging to ask important questions of youngsters.
Simon believes that most modern schools disconnect kids from their important questions and focus wrongly on the "trivial" non-essential mechanical mass tests at the end of the year. To this extent, she shares the liberal bias that objectivity and accountability are chimerical. Simon also differentiates her approach from cognitive developmentalists (Kohlberg, Nodding, Gilligan), character educators (Wynne, Lickona, Ryan, Bennett), and the values clarification crowd (who get caught in moral relativism).
Instead, Simon is a "pure" educator: she believes that all good education, including moral education, has coherence, is honest, allows for critical reflection, raises questions about how humans should act, and explores questions into the unknown.
What I liked most from this book: Simon gives detailed transcripts and stories from the three schools that served as her fieldwork. These transcripts are about raising moral questions as part of the curriculum: e.g., in literature (War and Peace) or biology class. I also agree with her pet peeve--that of missed opportunities to discuss moral and existential issues with kids.
I found all of the book easy to understand, but I am saddened that this book really falls into the genre of idealistic "systemic reform" books--that is, those books by thoughtful writers who are fed up with the limits of American public schools, which educate few children well. I believe that it would take thousands of Katherine Simons to implement moral discussions in classrooms--but perhaps some individual teachers will read this book and take heart.
Rating: 5
Summary: Educating the Heart and Mind
Comment: The idea of moral education is one that may be frowned upon by those who seek a values-free, non-indoctrinative approach to schooling. Simon skillfully shows the fault in such simplistic notions. Moral and existential questions are at the heart of true intellectual inquiry. The life of the mind is fueled by questions that matter to the heart. The curriculum is vitalized by the integration of the deep concerns of real life into the disciplines.
Spanning the gap between heart and mind may be an endeavor that we can conceive of happening primarily in religion classes at religious schools taught by religious instructors. Simon shows, however, that the investigation of moral and existential issues can occur just as effectively in the more pluralistic world of public education. Her writing is not imprisoned in the impersonal world of theory though; the transcripts of actual classroom teaching and her subsequent analysis are helpful to the practitioner. While there may be some substance to the appraisal that her work is that of a "Monday morning quarterback," her scrutiny and reflective insight has certainly inspired my work with junior high age scholars.
The influence of Nel Noddings and John Dewey are clear in Simon's writing (something that she is careful to acknowledge). I sense the spirit of Stanford's Elliot Eisner in her work as well, especially in the way she conducts what he calls "educational criticism." Moral Questions in the Classroom is recommended for teachers of middle and high school students, curriculum committees, and students of moral education.
Rating: 5
Summary: Someone is finally asking the right questions
Comment: Thank you to Katherine Simon for suggesting ways that education can be meaningful both for students and teachers. This beautifully written and well argued book argues that teachers are systemically limited in their ability to ask meaningful questions, the ones that students most want to talk about and teachers most want to teach. "Moral" or "existential" questions are what liberal education should be about, Simon argues, and this university professor frankly agrees.
Finally, an academic and educator is forcing us to ask what price we are paying by making standardized tests the measure of learning, and she charts a path for bringing meaning back into education. This book is a MUST READ for anyone interested in children's education.
I plan on asking my university colleagues to read it, because although Simon focuses on K-12 education, her lessons are applicable to all levels of learning.
Kudos to Dr. Simon
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Title: The Students Are Watching: Schools and the Moral Contract by Theodore R. Sizer, Nancy Faust Sizer ISBN: 0807031216 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word by Linda Christensen ISBN: 0942961250 Publisher: Rethinking Schools Ltd Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Deciding What to Teach and Test : Developing, Aligning, and Auditing the Curriculum by Fenwick W. English ISBN: 0803968329 Publisher: Corwin Press Pub. Date: 18 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins, Jay McTighe ISBN: 013093058X Publisher: Pearson Education Pub. Date: 28 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.80 |
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Title: Developing Teacher Leaders : How Teacher Leadership Enhances School Success by Frank Crowther, Stephen S. Kaagan, Margaret Ferguson, Leonne Hann ISBN: 0761945628 Publisher: Corwin Press Pub. Date: 15 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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