Blog Post 7 - Jeff Duncan Andrade

Education in this country is in a critical state. Although we are spending a lot of money on education, it doesn’t seem to be enough; not all students are getting the level of education they need to be successful. Duncan Andrade’s philosophy seems to be that education should be more personalized and suited to individual communities. As he said, “The ways in which we approach schooling in this country with poor kids – particularly poor kids in urban environments would never be tolerated for middle class or wealthy children.” Duncan Andrade advocates changing this system. To this end, he asks, “What’s your curriculum for? What’s the purpose? Is the purpose to get kids to pass the test? Or is the purpose to give kids a set of skills that they can actually use in their lives?” The focus of education should be less about passing tests and more about developing life skills that can serve students in the future; instead of encouraging students to memorize a set of useless facts for a test – which will then be promptly forgotten the morning after – education should be transformative and less about students regurgitating information. As Duncan Andrade remarked, “Figure out what’s really important in your young peoples’ lives and start from there.” This is how education reform will happen.

                On a personal level, this philosophy hits home. Since I was homeschooled, I’d never had to deal with an educational system that seemed pitted against me. Growing up, my education was personalized specifically to suit my needs. If I had difficulties with algebra, my mom could spend hours going over specific problems with me. If I didn’t understand biology, I could take a class with other homeschooled kids. If I needed additional support with my essays, I could take classes at Chabot as a concurrent enrollment student. In short, my education illustrates Duncan Andrade’s idea of figuring out what “really important in your young people’s lives”. Because of this, I understand how vital it is to have active support from teachers. That being said, I understand how difficult it must be for teachers with 30+ kids in a classroom to help each child individually. Teaching my sister and me was a full time job for my mom – so I can’t imagine trying to give the same amount of attention to twenty eight more students. However, I don’t think that means that teachers shouldn’t try. I have had plenty of excellent teachers at Chabot, teachers who have to deal with many classes and hundreds of students. Ultimately, this philosophy hits home with me because it encourages an individualized educational system.