Ranking Large, Gilyard, Boyce, Aronson, and hook

1) Barry Boyce’s idea is to cultivate values in our classrooms by adding yoga classes and parenting classes at pre-school age. The yoga will help children focus and parenting classes can help with the whole family unit. Boyce supported his ideas with research from Mark Greenberg, director of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development at Penn State University.

2) Keith Gilyard suggest that all the after school programs that are being cut will have a devastating consequence on our children and on our economy. He highly recommends that we spend more on education, and for the humanities to be included not just S.T.E.M.  Gilyard supported his ideas with the works of Du Bois and Joseph Stiglitz.

3) Deb Aronson idea is to support programs that work, not close them. The Mexican American Studies was a program created to help more Mexican American’s graduate and continue on to college. The program was discontinued due to political opposition.  Aronson supported her ideas by compiling information she gained from everyone involved.

4 )Hooks idea is to have more dialogue and collaboration in the classroom. She was a big fan of Freire. She uses a lot of his works for her support.

5)Large's idea is to be more affectionate with our children when they are younger. He supports his ideas with research done by Paul Tough.

 

I rank Boyce as #1. I have seen the life changing effects of yoga. It works and has so many positive side effects. The parenting classes are a big one. I did not take parenting classes until late in life. I learned so much. I use what I learned with my grandchildren, makes life so much easier. I was lucky I had some very vocal daughters and I learned everything I was doing wrong from them. I would often not notice or be totally unaware about the huge life changing events that they were going through. At a time they needed me the most, I was busy being a part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Gilyard #2. I believe extra curriculum at school is the key to keeping our children from getting bored and ending up in our judicial system. If our parks, schools and communities work together we can do a lot of great things for our kids, without a huge financial burden.

#3 Aronson; needs may vary, and some districts may create unique programs to accommodate the needs of the kids in that community, especially less affluent school districts.

#4 is hooks. I agree with so much of her work. I think we need to be free to express ourselves in school and to be able to discover who we are through expression, but everything above will help us reach that point.

#5 Large. Even though I agree with Large it is not realistic for many children. The children that need the extra help and extra programs, most of them never had an affectionate parent and never will. Most have quiet the opposite.