Hw 41 and 42

Since I am still unsure about exactly what I want my topic to be, I decided to just look for some general information or statistics schools.

"Fast Facts." National Canter for Education Statistics. U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, n.d. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .
A short text with a lot of information packed into it. This is a sheet of statistics about schools gathered from a variety of sources, ranging in topic from the amount of elementary school children attending private school to the percentage of female high school graduates enrolling in college. A useful source for almost any education-based study.

"National Statistics." Youth Violence Project. U.S. Violence in Schools, n.d. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .
A page of charts and graphs documenting violence in schools over time. The website seems to be a bit partial to the hypothesis that overall violence has decreased since 1994, but the actual data was pulled from a variety of sources and seems to be unaltered.

Senior, Jennifer. "The Junior Meritocracy." New York Magazine 31 Jan 2010: n. pag. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .
An interesting article from New York Magazine about how elementary school placement tests such as the ERB provide unfair comparisons of future students. Beginning with an overview of the test's effects later in life and moving on to related topics like why these tests don't provide a good picture of a student's future prospects, this article provides an in-depth look at the ramifications of early intelligence testing.

Other interesting articles:
http://www.educationbug.org/a/public-school-uniform-debate.html
A page talking about the debate over school uniforms. I hadn't heard about this debate since elementary school, and I forgot how interesting I found it.

http://www.education.com/topic/school-bullying-teasing/
A fairly extensive portal page on bullying. Links range from Spanish information on recognizing the warning signs of bullying to the psychological mechanisms that cause it.

HW 42:
Part A:
A possible topic that I am thinking of exploring is the specific laws governing objectivity in teaching. I looked for sources based on that.

Kleiman, Mark. "What Sort of 'Objectivity' in the Classroom?" The Huffington Past 3 Mar 2010: n. pag. Web. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-kleiman/what-sort-of-objectivity_b_108598.html.
This is a small article from the Huffington post. It makes a point similar to one that Andy seemed to be making in class: essentially that, no matter how hard, you try, there is no such thing as complete objectivity in the classroom. This article seems to be advocating that this is a good thing. Not that there should be no limitations on what can be taught, but that teaching theories proven to be wrong and letting the children decide would be a massive waste of time.

Kantor, J. (2008). Teaching law, testing ideas, obama stood slightly apart . The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30law.html
Although not strictly on topic, I came across this article in my research and found it interesting. Written during the 2008 presidential race, it focuses on Barack Obama's time teaching at the University of Chicago Law School. Based on what is now well known of his personality, it is easy to picture him in all of the mentioned roles. On a slightly more on-topic note, there is a section mentioning that teaching along with some top conservitive minds did not seem to shake him.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~coco8/topic_4/students/james-simermeyer879181864.html
This article talks about objectivity in the teaching of the sciences. It specifically mentions the example of creationism vs. the theory of evolution, and how technically not teaching creationism is an example of bias.

Part B:
My essential question:

Is absolute objectivity in teaching possible? If not, does this mean that the concept of objectivity can be ignored completely, or do there still need to be boundaries on how opinion can factor into teaching?

This question is especially important to me personally because I am a firm supporter of objective learning. That is not to say that I believe that it is possible to be 100% objective. There will always be subconscious leading towards the side that one agrees with, and decisions of what is 'important' to teach cannot be made without bias. I also don't necessarily think that every single angle of a topic must be taught, because, as mentioned in the first article I found for this assignment, that would take a massive amount of time.

I believe that, for example, when presenting a scientific study, one should teach the procedure and results, not the more debatable conclusions. While it is true that teaching can never be fully without bias, I am strongly against the idea that this lifts any responsibility to attempt removing it.