Compare Schultz’s Pedagogy to the Pedagogy of Poverty

As I started to think about what my response was going to be in my blog to answer the question: Compare Schultz’s pedagogy to the Pedagogy of Poverty, I believe Schultz felt that his student were entitled to receive an education that would modify progressive education and hold them to a higher expectation then what they were use to by their other teachers and peers.

In the Pedagogy of Poverty, students must be involved to show examples of good teaching going on. Character is built by students who have had practice at comparing ideas with reality in their own lives and in the lives of those abound them (Haberman pg. 6). The students in the Spectacular Things had the reality of a school with lots of problems. The students worked on helping others to see that they deserved a school that was free of the problems. There should be no excuse for the heat not working or having broken toilets and leaking water. The students were able to learn and applied school curriculum through the work being developed through the projects. The project began from questions. The students could clearly identify the problems in the school and how it affects their learning. Schultz created a cooperative and democratic classroom. All of the students had control of their education. The students learned from each other. The teacher gained knowledge and understanding from his students as well.

In the Pedagogy of Poverty students should be asked questions and think about answering the questions that may require a student to now go beyond what they were taught and discover how to apply what had been discovered. The students in Spectacular Things were able to build on what they learned about the original request for a new school building. The students took different approaches to move forward in their effort to get the new school. They applied technology and media to get their information out to others. The class used all of the students working together, the weak students worked with the stronger students to develop ideas to change their lives at school. The lesson they learned working on the project are skills that the students can apply throughout their lives.

Schultz’s sets the bar high for urban educators to create an environment that will question what is and work to change what was. Students should be encouraged to think and determine how they can change their education to meet their needs.