Schooling

One of the first courses I took as part of my teacher preparation at Stonehill College was Foundations of Education. I had Professor Branigan, who was also my advisor. I had a giant binder full of printouts from the library about subjects like W.E.B. Dubois and the No Child Left Behind Act. Professor Branigan didn’t believe in tests (or grades, really) but he loved to talk about the difference between education and schooling. He introduced me to the book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. We had several discussions about the impact those lies had on the lives of real people. I continue to be amazed at the inaccuracies and gaps in my own education. As I continue to learn how to be a better educator, I sometimes need to hash things out in writing to make sense of them in my own head. Usually, I do that privately and then delete the entire thing. Today I am using this blog, and, should it ever see the light of day, maybe it can help someone else.