Thick Vague Theories

Education for change – Change for education

  • Here we go…

    I’m starting with my happy place: Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. When I am stressed out I close my eyes and remember how I felt when this photo was taken. I picture myself there a lot these days. You see, I am a teacher. And a doctoral student. And a Graduate Assistant. And a mom. And a busia (grandma in Polish-American).

    So much is going on in the world that I cannot control, but I try to do what I can to make things better for everyone. I plan to write about all things education: personal experiences, pedagogy, research, theory, humor, etc. Like the practice of teaching and learning, I am sure that other things will stumble in along the way. It is all connected, after all…

    Thank you for coming on this journey with me. I hope we can have some fun and learn a few things along the way.

  • I seem to have gotten distracted…

    I seem to have gotten distracted…

    Well, I spent the last 5 years completing my doctorate and seem to have not had the bandwidth to blog. Sorry for the dead air, but I was writing. Quite a lot, in fact. I won’t bore you with the shear amount, but will mention that the last thing I wrote was 121 pages long (even with my data in the cloud!). I have taken a few weeks off, but the urge to write again is creeping in, so I plan to start making this a regular thing from now on. The crazy part about writing a dissertation is the frustration of not being able to explore all of the areas the materials want to take you to. I suppressed so many tangents I am convinced I could write a series of 20 books and not be done exploring all of the connections between money and power and education and democracy. My goal here will be to begin the process of identifying what can be done to get education on track to promote justice and democracy, which will often involve identifying the ways that it suppresses justice and democracy, and, hopefully, be a voice of reason in the politically charged world of education we currently find ourselves in. Unfortunately, as my dissertation research proved, it has been a battle since the 1800s and not much has changed about the fight over the goals and aims of public education. As people say, it’s not broken, it’s working exactly like it is supposed to. More on that later. For now, I just want to say hi, I’m back, and I can’t wait to get into the nitty gritty of educational philosophy and practice with y’all.

    Dr. Kimberlie Kowalka Todd

  • Goals.

    In much of my research as a doctoral student in Theory and Social Foundations of Education the authors remind us that before we decide anything, before we plan curriculum, or instructional practices, or even how our classrooms are outfitted, we need to decide WHY we are teaching.

    I take this idea to heart, both in my personal life and my life as an educator and scholar. If I am not thinking about the why then I am moving without purpose. Because of this, I want to blog purposefully. I want to declare my goals. I recognize that my goals may evolve over time. (Great! I think I will add that to my list.) Here is where I am starting-

    GOALS:

    • Talk about education and economic policies and practices
    • Talk about educational philosophy (trust me, it’s awesome!)
    • Share some great quotes
    • Vent a little
    • Share some personal stories
    • Be kinda funny sometimes
    • Probably be fairly enraged at other times
    • Evolve

    Here is a quote that I think will give a little insight into my educational philosophies.

    “Thirsty for national profit, nations, and their systems of education, are headlessly discarding skills that are needed to keep democracies alive. If this trend continues, nations all over the world will soon be producing generations of useful machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, criticize tradition, and understand the significance of another person’s sufferings and achievements.”

    Martha C. Nussbaum – Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities

    I hope we can evolve together, learn from each other, open up our creativity, identify problems, work on solutions, and make this world a better place. You know, big goals….