What are the antecedents to the unique assumption in the United States – manifesting itself in the top-down nature of our contemporary school reform – that teachers’ talents and insights are not to be trusted? Could it be because teaching was traditionally “women’s work” in a society that viewed women as second-class citizens? Could it be that teachers have indeed not shown that they are capable of exercising autonomy appropriately, perhaps because they were not trained well? Is it simply because we believe so firmly in the power of education in this country that we are predisposed to be overcritical of actions by the people who administer it, no matter who is doing it and how capable they are?
In any case, I think that answering and addressing this question is vital to contemporary school reform, because only when teachers are given autonomy to use their local knowledge to address local needs in their students will every student get the impassioned and responsive education that they deserve and that will make them the virtuous citizens we so need.
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I feel as though this year has been a journey in more ways than one. Taking time to understand and work within someone else’s experience as a teacher - to walk a mile and a year in someone else’s shoes – has provided a point of comparison for my own life and has thus taught me so much about my own self. I get the same feeling when I travel and get to see other people’s human experiences and compare them to my own. In this regard, though most of the year has been focused within the boundaries of Rochester, I feel that I have traveled leagues. It has indeed been an exercise in empathy.
