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Seeing the big picture in thriving communities

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Seeing the big picture in thriving communities
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Seeing the big picture in thriving communities

by Peterson, Dawn - Thursday, June 29, 2017, 10:30 PM

I greatly appreciated the essay by Addams (2013) about the plight of the immigrant child and the
resulting struggle of the family in making the difficult transition of becoming Americans. Her insight
into the far reaching effects traditional teaching had on the immigrant families at the time made her
one of the first social workers of the time. Addams promoted cultural differences rather than the
fashionable melting pot idea (Lundblad, 1995). By recognizing that public schools at the time were
teaching the children to shun the unique differences they brought to the school, they were invalidating
the child and the family. This invalidation tears the children away from their family at the very time they
need each other and it tells the child that they are only important if they shun their heritage or culture.
The dignity of the child was stripped from them in ways they were too young to understand. It struck
me that Addams was attempting to get the educational system of the time to recognize the uniqueness
of each child. McNight states that if you shift your focus from looking at whats wrong with people
[their ethnicity for example] to looking at their gifts and capacities and what they have to contribute,
you create citizens (as cited by Senge et al., 2012, p. 196). Could it be that Addams saw that while
schools were teaching children to be citizens, they were teaching them that each persons dignity was
of no consequence and this actually created bad citizens and families? Her belief that if we welcomed
the resources immigrant families bought to the community and thereby the school, we would be much
better for their contribution (Addams, 2013, p. 43) was in effect creating a learning organization.
Addams was looking at the school not as an isolated entity, but how it was connected to the community
around it which included the many immigrants at that time. It would appear that she was a systems
thinker and way ahead of her time! Her suggestion that it is the teachers role to lead the child (who
then lead the family) into the brotherhood of Americans is a call to teachers to care for the whole
child and in my opinion, something we are Christians are called to.

Count's essay was quite a different one to read. Taken from his controversial speech before the
Progressive Education Association (Dalton & Tikkanen, 2014, para. 3) his basic treatise seems to be that
we are an individualistic democracy that must learn to be more collectivist in nature. He attributes this
to the need for the resources (age of machinery, production, and technology) and riches to be spread
amongst the masses (Count, 2013, p. 51). He advocated a planned collective economy (Dalton &
Tikkanen, 2014, para. 3) and that the teachers of the time should reach for power and then make the
most of their conquest (p. 45) because they are the ones called upon to be the leaders effecting social
change (Dalton & Tikkanen, 2014, para. 3). To his credit he believed that there should be no classes
with special privilege. He wanted equality for all.

The concept of thinking from a collectivism perspective is one that many globalized organizations find
themselves balancing within the culture of the various countries in which they do business. For instance
countries from Asia, Latin America and Africa value harmony, team work and group rewards compared to
countries in Western Europe, Australia, and America, who value the individual work ethic, goals and task
oriented perspectives (Kirkman & Hartog, 2011, pp. 619-620). I see Counts desire for collectivism as his
way to encourage community betterment, equal opportunities, and American democracy. Looking out for
the whole rather than the individual. While I can appreciate that perspective, his methods were quite
political.

Learning organizations are those that learn, are adaptive but also generative. They find new ways of
looking at the world around them and where the people in this organization are continually developing
their abilities allowing their future to change and grow (Senge, 2011, pp. 97-98). While this definition
can describe both business organizations and schools, I fear that schools are slow to embrace new and
innovative ways of educating our young people but Senge (2012) believes that institutions of learning
can be designed and run as learning organizations (p. 5). He goes on to explain that as a learning
organization, people who have previously or traditionally not worked cohesively, find reasons to build a
school that allows the whole community to work together because the future of their community is at
stake (p. 5).

This means designing an educational plan that incorporates the needs of all children, not just those
who fit the over intellectualized (Senge et al., 2012, p. 43) traditional model for learning. As a parent
with children who have thrived on the intellectual and then suffered in the same intellectual side of
education, I appreciated the concept of teaching to the whole child in a language they can learn from.
My own observation of watching children who are gifted at fixing anything, but cannot sit still to listen
and then struggle to produce the required papers that show knowledge gained. Or another child in
eighth grade who could only do math at a fourth grade level, then graduate and move on to what? Will
that child be ready for high school math? The factory line of the industrial age is alive and well in our
schools. We must keep moving children forward, but to what? Thankfully for one of the children
mentioned, there is a vocational public high school in the area that he can attend and hopefully he can
thrive in that environment.

But this makes me think of our Adventist school system. Are we prepared to truly educate those who
struggle with the traditional methods of education? Do we offer alternative educational routes that
will capitalize on their strengths rather than allow them to feel like a failure?

Senges view of the educational system being a living system was interesting. Recognizing that we are
in an increasingly interdependent world, no one can truly create a school that learns without
engaging and changing the community that surrounds it(Senge et al., 2012, p. 21). Living systems
recognize the interrelatedness of all that connect to it. Look at the intricacy of how God made our
bodies! It is all designed to work together. One part of the body cannot work without another part
doing its proper job. Paul refers to the church community as parts of the body, all working and
worshiping in harmony. In fact, we are built to thrive in such a community of believers. Its a spiritual
as well as biological law: nothing survives in isolation (Rice, 2002, p. 29). In our case that would
include the school. As part of a living system the school, the church as part of the community, and the
family. All are part of the solution to creating a different type of educational experience for our children.

References

Addams, J. (2013). The public school and the immigrant child. In D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The
curriculum studies reader (Fourth ed., pp. 41-43). New York, New York: Routledge.

Counts, G. S. (2013). Dare the school build a new social order. In D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The
curriculum studies reader (Fourth ed., pp. 45-51). New York, New York: Routledge.

Dalton, C. B., & Tikkanen, A.(2014). George S. Counts. Encyclopaedia Bricannica. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-S-Counts

Kirkman, B. L., & Hartog, D. N. D. (2011). Performance management in global teams. In J. S. Osland & M. E.
Turner (Eds.), The organizational behavior reader (Ninth ed., pp. 616-636). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Lundblad, K. (1995). Jane Addams and social reform: A role model for the 1990s. Social Work, 40(5), 661-
669. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23718213

Rice, R. (2002). Believing, behaving, belonging: Finding new love for the Church. Roseville, CA: Association of
Adventist Forums.

Senge, P. M. (2011). The leaders new work: Building learning organizations. In J. S. Osland & M. E. Turner
(Eds.), The organizational behavior reader (Ninth ed., pp. 96-115). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Senge, P. M., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J., & Kleiner, A. (2012). Schools that learn: A
fifth discipline fieldbook for educators, parents, and everyone who cares about education [Kindle version].
(pp. 584). Retrieved from amazon.com

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Re: Seeing the big picture in thriving communities

by Clements, Kalicia - Friday, June 30, 2017, 10:49 AM

Dawn,

I appreciate your perspective and your grappling with questions that hit close to home in our own
Adventist Education. I believe that if our schools were to truly follow the advice laid out in the book
Education by Ellen G. White, our schools would prove much unlike our current. Our schools would
even-more-so be at the forefront of leading educational institutions of today, or even of the future.
We have a long way to climb, but as Adventist Christian educators we have the responsibility to take
the challenge for we are in the process of raising up the youth to finish Gods great work. What an
awesome and humbling privilege and commission. Let us labor together in our learning community
to accomplish our mission.

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Re: Seeing the big picture in thriving communities

by Rowe, Katherine - Saturday, July 1, 2017, 10:40 PM

I really appreciate what you said about Counts. I was struggling with the words, and you summed it
up quite nicely. I too can appreciate his ideas for looking out for the whole, but as you said, it was
quite political. I tend to think those are more personal, and not something to be forced on others.

Your concern and passion, as it comes through your writing, for a need of alternative educational
routes in our Adventist schools is refreshing. As one of my students this last year said, "If you really
have a dream and desire to be a car mechanic, should you not also be able to get it through
Adventist Education?" This was a lot to do in part with the overall concern with what should happen
with AUC. There were many who tried to convince others that it would make sense for AUC to
become a trade school. It struck me that even the youth had been thinking how there seemed to be a
lack of alternative education within our schools.

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 Re: Seeing the big picture in thriving communities
by Francis, Carolyn - Sunday, July 2, 2017, 4:33 AM

I agree with the view that if immigrant parents were/are allowed to be a part of the education
system that their children are involved in it would make a world of difference both to the child, the
parent and the system itself. A deeper respect and understanding for the varying cultures would be
developed. This would create a bond between the school and the home thus developing a greater
support system in which immigrant students can thrive and grow. Parents would have buy in and
children would not be forced to make a choice between their school and home culture.
Encouragement of diversity in this aspect would help immigrant students enjoy a more effective
assimilation into the system.

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Re: Seeing the big picture in thriving communities

by Rowe, Katherine - Sunday, July 2, 2017, 9:04 AM

Ohh, so very well put. Thank you.

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Re: Seeing the big picture in thriving communities

by Peterson, Dawn - Sunday, July 2, 2017, 8:11 PM

Carolyn,

I agree with your belief that by encouraging diversity we would be helping the students to more
effectively assimilate into the system, but I think it also comes down to treating not only the
child but the whole family with dignity. The section about educating from a sense of dignity (p.
180 onward) was really powerful to me. The sad part is that we as Christians should be treating
all we come into contact with not only dignity but the love of Christ which goes beyond basic
dignity. This becomes important to all our relationships. Sometimes we treat our own family
with less dignity than we do others outside of our family.

Thank you for your comments!

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