Katie Spalding

8/14/20
TE825

What Constitutes A Quality Education? A Shift in One Mother’s Perspective

Education is a wonderful thing in that it works to broaden perspectives, sheds light upon

issues that may not have previously been fully visible to all individuals, and provides insight into

the ways in which we can take strides to do better as human beings and as educators. Quite

often, while reading through course content and connecting with others via discussion boards, I

have been flooded with new information and ideas that have made me rethink my own

philosophy of teaching. As stated by Dumas in Chapter 4 of Tuck & Yang’s 2018 text,

“Education is an applied field. This means that the expectation—both inside and outside of the

profession—is that scholarship makes a measurable difference in the lives of children,

institutions, communities, and nation-states.” (pg. 30). We all want to provide a meaningful

education for our students and foster a year of tremendous growth, both academically and

emotionally/socially, for all student populations. However, this goal may end up panning out

very differently from one educator to the next throughout various districts and across the United

States of America.

When we think about what constitutes authentic learning, an appreciation of “diversity”,

the delivery of meaningful content, and the ways in which we might employ equitable teaching

practices, we all might do so differently. Exposure to content, such as that provided within this

course, has enabled me to gain access and insights into the life experiences and worlds of people

that are different than my own, as well as to the historical roots that have led to the creation of

the systems I work within now. As well as applying this knowledge to the ways in which
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teaching structures might influence the lives of my students, I could not help but think of my

own two little daughters and how my influences as their very first teacher will shape the people

they become and the ways in which they interact with others. My hope is that I will be able to

foster a love within them for divergent thinking, authenticity, inclusion, acceptance, exploration,

and an appreciation for the natural world that surrounds them.

In order to accomplish these goals, my ambition is to keep in mind the main tenets of an

authentic, meaningful, useable education for my toddler girls, stemming from life experiences,

rather than traditional academic curricula. I hope that by keeping the following principles in

mind, I can cultivate experiences for my daughters that will lead them toward life choices that

will help them remain thoughtful, engaged citizens that can harness beautiful, meaningful lives,

while also sharing those lives with others.

Tenet I: Real-World, Hands-On Experiences

Tenet 2: Opportunities to Make Personal Choices

Tenet 3: Exposures to Worlds Outside of Their Own (“Windows”)

Tenet 4: Development of The Whole Child

Having worked as an educator in preschool, kindergarten, and second grade classrooms,

both under the lead of another teacher, as well as within the walls of my own classroom, I have

too often witnessed the tendency for teachers to fall into the trap of utilizing paper/pencil

activities with small children, or having students create generic craftivities that do no connect to

their own worlds or interests. My goal as I venture into the world of Stay At Home Mom and

primary educator of my one and three-year-old daughters is to allow their interests to guide the

experiences and materials I provide for them. As stated within Sleeter & Carmona’s 2017 text,

“It makes good teaching sense to start…by identifying the key concepts, or big ideas, around
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which a unit, lesson, or course of study will be built.” (pg. 44). On the same page, the text goes

further to flesh out the importance of allowing a child’s (or student’s) actions to determine what

will be taught and/or discovered. Readings such as this one have shifted my idea of what

constitutes a solid education. Rather than looking at a checklist of what I should teach my

daughters during their preschool years, my hope is that I can allow their interests to drive my

teaching practices.

An example of a unit of study that I believe touches on each of these tenets of quality

teaching remains my daughters’ exploration of plants. My three-year-old had been delighted by

the perennial flowers in our garden. We started discussing where flowers come from and of

course seeds and bulbs were mentioned. We then embarked on a journey to plant and grow

sunflower seeds. She planted them herself, along with her baby sister, in little starter bins, albeit

imperfectly, watered them daily and placed them in the sunlight, and began to watch them grow.

The girls then helped me transplant them into the garden, the baby mostly playing in the soil.

We used tempera paint as we painted sunflowers with textures like Eric Carle’s illustrations, and

as we placed our seedlings in the garden, we measured the spaces between them, and also

measured them as they grew up toward the sun. This concept stemmed into an exploration of

other plants, where our produce comes from, and how it is grown by farmers. We talked about

how there are many types of farms and many ways to go about growing different kinds of foods.

We read books about sunflowers and vegetables and farms. We found videos that showcased the

vegetables and plants that grow in different climates and that are eaten in different cultures. We

watched Sesame Street episodes that provided the girls with exposure to communities and

lifestyles and human beings that look, talk, and act differently than we might.

We found internet sources that included information, pictures, and videos that helped us
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all gain information about markets and grocery stores and fruit stands, visited a local farm, and

frequented both grocery stores and small markets. We talked about how not everyone has access

to fresh fruits and vegetables as easily as we do, both within our area as well as throughout the

world, and discussed how it is important to learn how to grow food ourselves and share that food

with others. As she gets older, we will discuss what causes these inequities to take place. We

observed as my husband’s friend who has a farm allowed us to come to his home, pick fruits and

vegetables, and take them home with us. We pet cows and fed chickens and collected eggs. We

compared his farm to videos and pictures of farms and markets throughout the world. We

explored the hard work and kindness that is involved in feeding ourselves and others. We did

not cut out sunflowers from printed stencils, being careful to cut right on the lines while coloring

our pictures a perfect shade of yellow. I did not read one story by one author in one setting and

call it “good” teaching. My heart wanted more for my daughters.

This remains just one example of the ways in which my version of a quality education

has changed, as well as my approach for providing meaningful life experiences for my daughters.

I have been changed as an educator for both my students, as well as my little girls, as I have been

exposed to content presented to me throughout my work towards my Master’s Degree. In fact,

part of the reasoning behind my leave of absence (starting in 2020), besides wanting to capture

this time with my own daughters, is to give myself time to grapple with my own beliefs about

what an authentic, socially just, meaningful education entails, and if I am able to accomplish that

within the walls of the rural public school that I have worked in for seven consecutive years. At

times, I feel that we are falling short for our students, and I would like to do better.

Bettina Love’s 2019 We Want to do More than Survive reaffirms my own thoughts as she

states that, “Schools did not reveal truths, they concealed them. Perhaps they must be burned
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away so that the heart of this thing might be known.” (pg. 40). One might wonder, though, how

we break through the standards-based classrooms that seem to leave such little time for authentic

exploration and real-world experiences and tend to sugar-coat for our youngest learners. I want

to do better for the sake of my daughters and my students alike. That means making changes

within, taking time to explore the ways in which I might flesh out a meaningful education for all

children, and practicing these skills while on leave. In this way, my hope is that I might be able

to extend what I have learned to my students, my coworkers and my administration upon my

return to the workforce in hopes for a more fruitful future for our young learners.
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References:

Love, B. L. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of
educational freedom.
Sleeter, C. E. & Carmona, J.F. (2017). Un-standardizing curriculum: Multicultural teaching in
the standards-based classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.
Tuck, E. & Yang, K. W. (2018). Toward what justice?: describing diverse dreams of justice in
education. New York: Routledge.