Sorry It's Been a While!

I know it has been a little while since I have posted about this project, but I've kinda been busy working on the project as well as dealing with sickness, car trouble, and all that comes with having a new husband, two jobs, student teaching, and taking 3 classes at UC. And I thought senior year was supposed to be the fun year. Who was I kidding? Well on to the assignment, on questia.com, an amazing website, I found soooooo many books that dealt with the topic I was dealing with. But the one I really focused was the book by many authors called "Private vs. Public School: A look through History". This book outlined the history of both public and private school and the reasons for why people would choose either. I'm still in the midst of reading that book but it goes on to talk about present public and private schools and the differences. Also in my meeting with Professor Ridolfo we talked about delving into the two curriculums I am familiar with from public and private school and using that as a case study. We also talked about how I could use interviews but I would have to take this class and get a board to approve me publishing an interview in my paper, which might be alot of work. So we will see how that goes. I plan on talking to my mother in law, the principal of a private Christian school in the area, and seeing if she will let me borrow the material and curriculum guides from her fourth grade for a while and she just might say yes but it probably won't be until a break like Veteran's day or Thanksgiving break so we will just have to see about all that. I'll keep you posted!
Ashley

The Great Debate!

Initial Bibliography

Works Cited
"Abeka Review: Is this curriculum right for me?" Homeschoolhowto.com. Web. 8 Oct. 2009. .
Benveniste, Luis. All Else Equal: Are Public and Private Schools Really Different? New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003. Print.
Education, Ohio department Of. Academic Content Standards K-12 Language Arts. Ohio Department of Education. Print.
Education, Ohio department Of. Academic Content Standards K-12 Mathematics. Ohio Department of Education. Print.
Education, Ohio department Of. Academic Content Standards K-12 Science. Ohio Department of Education. Print.
Education, Ohio department Of. Academic Content Standards K-12 Social Studies. Ohio Department of Education. Print.

I found that it was very simple to create this bibliography with easybib.com I think that I will begin using this in other classes as well. Since this is just my initial research I cited the two different curriculums I would like to explore the Ohio Academic Content Standards and a book I found that discusses about the differences between private schools and public schools. This gives me a great starting point to analyze my research topic and see where I need to go from here.

Change of Plans

After talking with Professor Ridolfo I realize that once again that topic is too broad! I plan on narrowing it in by discovering the differences between public education vs. private or Christian education, if there are any.

Starting Points

When assigned this project I wanted to do something related to my major which is middle childhood education. I thought about doing the history of technology in schools but that topic is so broad that I felt it would be more research and work than this class allows. Then I explored literacy history, and came to the same conclusion. So I decided to choose something that was a little closer to my own personal life but also pertains to my career. I have chosen to research the history of religion in schools. My eventual goal is to take this to predict the climate of schools when I teach in the classroom. In my initial research I have found some court cases and some laws regarding this issue. I plan to research these court cases even farther and look into how these laws came into effect. I plan to interview individuals that are involved in Christian schools and public schools. I would also like to observe some students in schools to see if they are abiding by the laws in effect. I would like to explore other examples and cases where religion in public schools is a concern. Eventually I would like to research the next steps. For instance the pledge of allegiance stating one nation under God, In God we trust printing on our money, and Ohio’s state motto- “With God all things are possible.” In general I will be exploring the separation of church and state mostly as it is in regards to education.