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D & D project
Imani Wheeler
Miami University
EDL 204
Dr. Williams
12 May 2015

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D & D Project

For a while now I have been studying the various problems at Miamifield high school
and the community. I have learned that the school is having problems with issues such as
students not finishing schools, bullying, drugs, STDS, and much more. I believe setting certain
policies in place will help solve some of these problems. For my policy I will focus on the high
school interest group and address the race and sexuality phenomenon by spreading knowledge
about these issues through classes or informative workshops.
Violence has increased in the schools. These acts of violence are usually caused because
of the differences that the students have as far as neighborhood, race, or social class. The
students need to be shown that it is OK to be different. Classes on diversity can be implemented
as well as team building exercises. The cultures focused in these classes or informative
workshops will be the minority groups that make the school which are Africans American,
Hispanic, Asian, and LGBT. Both in the schools and the community there are signs of a
disconnect between people. Having informative classes or presentations about different cultures
may decrease the ignorance someone may have about a group.
A more diverse staff should be in the schools if possible. If a student as a good role model
of someone they feel is similar to them they are more likely to follow that example. Even if the
staff is not diverse the staff needs to be informed about different cultures and different problems
the students may be facing. Having these classes or some sort of meetings and assemblies will be
beneficial for both the students and teachers.
Democracy is the running force behind the country and what brings people together. The
goal of Miamifield Public Schools is to bring back Democracy into the schools. In Quantz
textbook, Sociocultural Studies in Education: Critical Thinking for Democracy, he state, And

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the best kind of society is one that encourages and promotes conditions that bring people
together to solve problems, and the best kind of society for this is a democratic one (Quantz,
2014, p. 83). My policy of implementing education about things that make us different such as
race and sexuality is important in promoting this democracy.
Having informative workshops or classes that teach people about or differences promoted
democracy because it bring people together and encourages them to solve problems.
Progressive educators believe that democracy is more than the process of voting or individual
rights (Bartow, 2011, page 99). In these informative workshops people will come together and
preform team building exercises, discussion groups, as well as listening to lectures about
different cultures and sexualities. Getting together in small discussion groups allow people to
talk about their own experiences and learn about each other on a personal level. Nancy Thomas
talks about democracy in her article, Democracy by Design. In this article Thomas talks about
how every generation must be capable of standing up and facing challenges so that society may
flourish. Having everyone come together to discuss and learn will also allow them to try to solve
some of challenges such as violence and bullying in the school because of differences.
The educational philosophy that this policy best coincides with is progressivism.
According to the progressivist philosophy of education, humans are problem solving beings.
Through problem solving we grow, our society grows, and we achieve progress (Quantz, 2014,
p. 83). Progressivism fits best with this policy because of the ontology of progressivism
emphasis coming together and problem solving. Martine Luther King Jr. wrote an article, The
Purpose of Education, that talks about the importance of education. The function of education,
therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically (King, 1947, para. 3).

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Educating the students about different cultures will allow then to think critically by solving
prolems and apply some of the information to their own lives.
The Progressivist aim of education also fits well with this philosophy because both the
philosophy and policy promotes participation in democracy. Given that knowledge is gained
through a community of learners who study ways to address problems, and given that democracy
is the best state within which such knowledge can be created, the most fundamental aim of
education for progressives must be to develop in students the habits of mind to participate in
democratic communities of all kinds (Quantz, 2014, p. 83). These informative workshops or
classes will strongly encourage participation from everyone. The progressivist stance of
assessment is that authentic assessment comes from observing the process of a project instead of
standardized testing. If everyone is participating in the exercises and group discussions then their
progress will be easy to observe.
This policy coincides with the progressivist view of preparing students for continues
learning. Students will not have to take standardized test and memorize facts for the workshops.
The progressive view tries to stray away from being like the traditional classroom. Its not
hard to recognize an utterly traditional classroom. If the teaching is heavily scripted and
focused mostly on getting students to memorize right answers and practice skills by rote; if those
students are sitting in rows, hunched over worksheets or being lectured at well, geez, how can
you not notice? (Kohn, 2014, para. 1). Unlike essentialism the acquisition of knowledge and
skills are not the goal in itself. Students will be able to interact with each other and hear about
different ways of life. This will help students to think critically and think about their own
opinions about the world.

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The economic/political ideology that this policy coincides with the most is progressive
democracy. The progressive democratic ideology emphasizes helping the minority. According to
Quantz, the progressive democratic ideology believes we have a moral responsibility to take
care of each other and especially of those who are most vulnerable and in need (Quantz, 2014,
p. 155). The informative workshops or classes will focus on teaching everyone about minorities.
Spreading this knowledge will help minorities because it will give people some information
about their lives and the different challenges they have to face. If people are given more
knowledge about minorities will be able to form their opinion based more knowledge and facts
rather than prejudices.
The mayors office should be guided by the logic of the progressive democratic
economic-political ideology because the ideology commitment to Keynesian economics.
Keynesian economics was the dominate economic ideology during Franklin D. Roosevelts
presidency. According to Quantz, Progressive democrats point out that during this time the
United States had the longest period of economic expansion in its history while dramatically
expanding the middle class a reducing poverty (Quantz, 2014, p. 151). As proven in the past, the
progressive democratic view has done wonders for the country and is likely to do wonders for
Miamifield High School.
The progressive democratic ideology advocated helping not only ethnic minorities but all
minorities. Members of the Lesbian, GAY, Bi, Transsexual (LGBT) community are also
minorities. Miamifield High school has had problems with bully of members of the LGBT
community. Many times people hold prejudices about people because they do not know about
the persons situation, the violence is created through ignorance. Teaching students about the

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LGBT community will allow them to learn more about the lives of someone that is a member of
the LGBT community, thus decreasing bullying.
Matron Hills article, A Call for the Americanization of Mexican-American Children
(1928), talks about problems in the Mexican-American community and what needs to happen in
the schools to accommodate to the community. Many Mexican-Americans did not speak English
well if at all. It was suggested in the article to implement English classes for MexicanAmericans. For Miamifield Public Schools to improve, it needs to try to accommodate to the
different problems students may have. Eight months ago an African American male student was
suspended from school for two weeks being late to school too many because he had to take care
of his nine-year-old sister in the morning while his single mother had to work at the bakery in the
morning. Many children in the African-American community live in single parent households. A
child should not be punished and take more time off of school because of a circumstance that is
out of their control. Because people are in different circumstances we cannot make one general
rule that does not allow room for adjustment, therefore all zero tolerance policies will be
abolished. Every case must be looked at individually because everyone situation may be
different.
The idea of race plays a role not only in Miamifield High School but also in the US. It
has been this way for as long as this country has been established. On narrative that really seems
to fit the idea of race in the US is the race as caste narrative. A child is born into a caste system
and can never change out of their caste. The caste a child is born into limits or promotes the
possible occupations available to her or him. It helps determine a familys income, potential
educational attainment, future occupation, and future lifetime partner (Quantz, 2014, p. 212). A
persons caste in the US is extremely important in determining their life.

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The former mayor, backed by Ohios State School Superintendent, think that ethnicstudies courses are racist because they identify race as a central element of each person rather
than treating each person as an individual. A person is more than their ethnicity they are an
individual but their ethnicity affects their life because of the caste system and institutionalized
racism in the US. Everyone is an individual but unfortunately American society does not only see
a person for their individual attributes, society also sees their caste. Until the caste system in the
US is abolished it will be important to teach children about ethnicity. Miamifield is made of a
diverse student body so the children come from different backgrounds. It is important to learn
about race in schools because a childs caste affects their education wither we want to
acknowledge it or not.
W.E.B Dubois talks about the narrative of African Americans in his book, The Souls of
Black People. In the book Dubois focuses on African Americans post-slavery. Dubois describes
the US as a prison for African Americans and the American Dreams only being accessible to
white Americans. Even though slavery has been abolished African Americans are still
disadvantaged and are still a part of a caste system. The history of the American Negro is the
history of this strife, this longing to attain self-conscious ~ to merge his double self into a better
and truer self (Dubois, 1903, p. 3). Because of the constant oppression in the African American
community they have fallen behind in education.
The educational system is not fair or set up to accommodate to minorities. In order for us
to create a fair educational system we must first sort out our social issues. Creating a class or
informative workshop will give students the opportunity to learn and try to solve some of the
social issues we have in the schools and community. We can no longer ignore these social issues
we must provide a chance for students to confront these issues. Instead of using violence against

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people that are different, we are providing an opportunity for students to talk about the problems
they may have. Only when we have confronted our social issues will we be able to figure out
how to help the school as a whole and create a fair educational system.
From my observations, I feel that the best policy for Miamifield would be to implement
some sort of class or informative workshop on different cultures and minority groups. Many of
the conflicts happening in the high school are a result of ignorance. These classes will inform the
children about people that are different from them and help the school become more of a
democracy. The school needs to take a persons situation into account and not apply zero
tolerance rules onto the student body.

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Works Cited

Bartow, S. (2011). 10 Great Curricula.

Bois, W. (1902). The souls of black folk. Champaign, Ill.: Project Gutenberg.
Dutton, N., Quantz, R. & Dutton, N. (2012/2000). The Great Game of High School
Hill, M. (1928). A Call for the Americanization of Mexican-American Children.
King, M. (1973). The Purpose of Education. Retrieved from
http://www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/thepurposeofeducation.htm
Kohn, A. (2014, October 1). The Illusion of Discovery. Retrieved May 12, 2015, from
http://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/discovery/
Quantz, R. (2014). Sociocultural studies in education: Critical thinking for democracy. Boulder,
Colorado: Paradigm.
Thomas, Nancy L. (2014) "Democracy by Design," Journal of Public Deliberation: Vol. 10: Iss.
1, Article 17.
Available at: http://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/vol10/iss1/art17