What is the Goal of School Reform by Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose - Article Example

What is the Goal of School Reform? The principal aim of Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose is to pass their message to the relevant educational authorities in the United States regarding the need the change the goal of school reforms. They argue that the current reforms do not take into consideration on philosophy of education or the theory of the learning process in the K-12 schools across the United States. In addition, they argue that the government has not done enough to revive the educational system. The current system has not incorporated primary systems whereby children can learn and grow intellectually, socially, and civically and even the social development side. The learning process as they claim it has not included the practically of the theoretical aspect but, it has been simplified into a behavioral one. The intended audience for this paper probably is the body funded by the government of the United States that is concerned with school reforms in the entire country. One of the critical values about this work is its successful challenge on the goal of the current reforms that only focus on professionalism and does not put in consideration the intellectual view. Consequently, my reaction to this paper, I concur with the writer in that more needs to be done in the entire educational system to cater for the minorities which include the immigrants, children with special needs and the English language learners. In this scenario, Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose main aim are to persuade their audience to change their goals in regards to the school reforms. From the test that was derived from the "possible lives" case study in Baltimore we see Stephanie trying to expose her students to the practical side of learning, and she is trying to analyze the intellectual part of his students that are not actually covered in the syllabus. From this scenario, we learn that the school is poorly equipped, and she even spends her low salary to buy learning facilitators and equipments. Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose are persuading their audience to change their course on school reforms. Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose have used narration and comparison to passing their message to the intended audience. In the narration, we see the episode they use about Stephanie and her students about the Hermit Crabs. From the script, we learn that the children were learning the theoretical version of the script. Consequently, a question from Kenneth challenges Stephanie on the possible habitat of the hermit crabs. From the above phenomenon, we learn the school situated in Baltimore was not well equipped and maybe did not have even a simple laboratory facility. We learn that, the teacher Stephanie runs all the way to the kitchen to collect warm water from the women preparing lunch. From this scenario, we see Stephanie struggling to demonstrate the actual habitat for hermit crabs using her devised methods. In this scenario, Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose are trying to demonstrate the importance of the practical part of learning and how nurture young children talents. On the other hand, they use comparison, to clarify their claims for example they have noted Stephanie more competent to her work, and they have given a reason. The reason given; she attended the National Science Foundation and the National project writing to gain her exceptional skills, which most teachers do not have. The ideas in the text are arranged in a chronological order in that they give their claim from the beginning of their work then go further to give episodes and examples to support their claim. Additionally, they have persuaded their audience on the need to adapt an extended engagement with the National Science Foundation and the National writing project to improve the competence of the teachers. In my view, the flow of ideas in the text is smooth, and there is no confusion to the reader. Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose have used a unified transition throughout their work, and the text is coherent. From this analysis, he has used several features including narratives and other ideographs in a coherent manner. Evident from the episode they used to clarify their claims. From my view, the use of a narrative in this episode makes my understanding of the text easier. From my view am able to see the real situation on the ground, the challenges faced by teachers hence giving me a convincing scenario on the importance of the school reforms. From the text, there are three quotations that make it more persuasive, and they include. "They looked at us in disbelief," said another New York principal, "when we told them they were intellectuals." Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose have used this quotation to show what is happening on the ground or their audience. We see the New York principals comments as supportive towards the claim of new reforms. Students have got great potential locked on their minds that needs to be exploited. The other quotation includes "general diffusion of knowledge." From this quote from Samuel, Harrison Smith supports their claim that knowledge is power in that knowledge can bring democracy to the entire nation. Hence, knowledge is nurtured through school reforms. The quotation makes the text more persuasive from the evidences it gives on the targeted audience. Consequently, the language used in the piece is simple and Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose, used the language may target their wide range of the audience including students, teachers and stakeholders of the education system in the United States. There is minimal use of ideographs to make the message simple to the audience. In punctuation matters, Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose have used italics at the beginning of the text to attract the attention of the reader where they adapted their works. In this clearly show that their work was adapted from "Public Education under Siege." The authors used collection of essays that focus on educational, social and economic issues. They have also used brackets, hyphens and quotations to give emphasis on their claims. The images used on the text are used to give more insight on the hindrances on the school reforms. Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose have given an image concerning poverty that they claim a major danger towards these reforms. We see Stephanie is underpaid as we learn from the episode and the struggle she undergoes in the process of teaching her students. The works of Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose use several tropes to ascertain their claim to the audience. The tropes used include metaphors, imagery, simile, irony, first person narration, and narrative. Metaphors: House for hermit crab, cheery hermit crab walking all over, and learning is pretty, subjects fade. Irony: Though she would be happy to have extra money given that some of her classrooms were furnished from her pocket. Simile: They are like crabs in the book, quotations: "They looked at us in disbelief ""when we told them they were intellectuals" (Katz Rose, 2013). Narrative: The story in the book that Stephanie was reading to his students about the Hermit crabs and their real habitat. Metaphors house of hermit crab –This metaphor is used to make the text more persuasive because we learn that Stephanie is dealing with young children in her class. Instead of using a real name "shells," the term house is easy to be understood by young children. Hence, it makes learning easy and understandable by young children. Learning is pretty: The author is implying that learning is as beautiful as something that is attractive to give his narrative more weight on the importance of changing the course of school reforms. Subjects fade: here the author wanted to show that if the reforms on schools are ignored or not incorporated in the current reforms then there will be poor performance of in the subjects of History and art are weakened. Irony: though she would be happy to have extra money given that some of her classrooms was furnished from her pocket. It is ironical that Stephanie used her money to furnish classrooms yet we have a functioning government and the reform movements that should look at the problems facing learning. In that teachers should be paid, well and improve their working environment. Simile; they are happy like a crab in the book; the author makes the text more persuasive by using similes. The text looks assertive on the importance of artwork in schools in that these are the reforms that are needed to improve the intellectuality of students. Hence, they should be included in the school reforms process. Quotation "They looked at us in disbelief" "When we told them they were intellectuals." Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose quotation to show the credibility of their work and their source. (Katz Rose, 2013). Narrative; Stephanie was reading a narrative to her students in the class about the Hermit crabs and their ecosystem. From a narrative, we appreciate the professionalism and expertise that Stephanie and apart from his profession she uses artwork to make his students reason intellectually. Michael B. Katz and Mike Rose wanted to show their readers on the importance widening the school reforms to include the extended engagement with National Science Foundation and National writing project. Reference Katz, M. B. & Rose, M. (2013, September 4). What is the goal of school reform? Truthdig [Weblog]. Retrieve from http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/what_is_the_goal_of_school_reform_20130904 Read More