https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6 en-us 2017-01-23 02:34:48 UTC 2017-01-23 03:53:43 UTC hello@padlet.com scridgeway1 https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6/wish/148611980 Mary Wollstonecraft was a prominent figure in the advocation for the education of women in the United States. She was forward thinking and felt that gender should not predetermine someone's life and she believed that all people should receive an equal education - she did not buy into the theories of Rousseau that said women should be educated merely to become good wives and mothers, (Gutek, 2011). She also felt that the classist views of Edmund Burke were archaic and that the ability of the female to move up educationallly was merely the beginning of "a movement of general revolutionary change that would liberate human beings from the tyranny of the past," (Gutek, 2011, p. 219). As in our current educational system, Wollstonecraft believed that all people should be educated equally - much like the right of all Americans to a free and appropriate public education. This right guarantees that all students will be given equal access to the general curriculum in the least restrictive environment, which is exactly what Mary Wollstonecraft wanted for women during her own time.  ]]> 2017-01-23 02:38:15 UTC https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6/wish/148611980 scridgeway1 https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6/wish/148612778 Frederich Froebel is known as the "father of the Kindergarten," (Gutek, 2011). Froebel placed a great deal of emphasis on the early stages of development in the childhood years. Like some before him, Froebel believed that children needed to learn through sensation, so play was an important part of how he believed that children learn, (Gutek, 2011). If you enter any pre-school today, it is apparent that the ideology of Froebel is still revered. Children need authentic learning experiences and most educators believe that play is one way that children are able to encounter these experiences.]]> 2017-01-23 02:54:49 UTC https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6/wish/148612778 scridgeway1 https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6/wish/148614144 W.E.B. Du Bois was a very forward thinker, in some respects, for his time. I say forward thinker, because he did not see or even feel many of the limitations known and felt by many other African Americans of his time. He was born free just after the American Civil War and was brought up receiving an education. Du Bois, according to Gutek, was "accepted socially by his white classmates," (Gutek, 2011, p. 435). Du Bois, unlike his southern counterpart, Booker T. Washington, did not have to struggle to obtain a meager education, he was well-educated and a serious student who was a favorite of his teachers, (Gutek, 2011). Much like the current system in the United States, Du Bois felt that the road to progress was paved with higher education - this is how he believed that African Americans would pull themselves from their station during Reconstruction, (Gutek, 2011). In some ways, Du Bois's ideas were related to Addams's, in that he believed that how to become a successful part of society, one should achieve higher education but he also believed that African Americans should connect back to and preserve their heritage.

]]> 2017-01-23 03:21:35 UTC https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6/wish/148614144 scridgeway1 https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6/wish/148614658 Gutek, G.L. (2011). Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education. (5th ed.). Boston, MA:Pearson.]]> 2017-01-23 03:30:48 UTC https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6/wish/148614658 scridgeway1 https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6/wish/148614765 Much like Froebel, Jane Addams thought that there should be an emphasis on the formative years of development. She thought that children should be taught how to do work tasks and to gain trade skills but she did not believe that children should work. She was so adamant about this belief that "Addams helped organize the National Child Labor Committee in 1904," (Gutek, 2011). Addams believed that children should be required to attend school because she felt that everyone needed an education in order to achieve a level of equality in this country - we still believe this today. Children are required to go to school, and I too feel that everyone deserves the benefit of an education to help them to make their way in the world. 

Addams was also an advocate for the education and acceptance, rather than assimilation, of immigrants. Addams developed a settlement house that assisted immigrants in becoming a successful part of their new country - she thought that diversity should be celebrated and "[she] organized special events that celebrated Italian, German, Greek, Russian, French, [and many other cultures]" in order to make the people she worked with feel welcome in the United States and their new community, (Gutek, 2011, p. 337). I have found that when I speak to my students about cultural backgrounds that their knowledge of and pride in their culture is rarely there anymore - I find this a bit distressing, as the differences we seem to note today are merely visible and often for negative reasons. I encourage my students to be proud of who they are and where they come from - I study Appalachian culture in my class by studying oral traditions from this region that were brought over from Africa and Europe - it is a great connection that is able to unite all of my students no matter their background (generally speaking, at least - my student either live in Appalachia, are African American, and some do know that they are Irish or German or the like). 

Jane Addams was a very progressive thinker. "Her life's work affirms the progressive belief in the possibilities of human personal and social development," Essentially, Addams believed what we many American's recognize as the American dream - with determination and education, any one of us can do whatever it is that we set our mind to. In education, we must still believe this on a foundational level, as we put all students on the college track and claim that anything is possible with education and determination.]]> 2017-01-23 03:33:08 UTC https://padlet.com/scridgeway1/mepzk2e6mhl6/wish/148614765