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The library has a rather extensive
collection of artifacts relevant to the history of education. Select one
and analyze it for whatever it has to tell us about education at the time
it was produced. I have a list of the artifacts in my office. You will need
to come by my office and choose one no later than 1/15/08.
On 2/5/08 you will do in-class peer
critiquing of each otheršs papers, so you need to have a finished draft by
then. (Bring copies of your paper to class with you for each member of your
group.)
Your final written analysis is due on 2/12/08.
During the final exam time, you will each give a brief (5 minute) oral
presentation to the class about your artifact, so be sure to keep a copy of
your paper.
In the paper, first, describe the artifact -- who, what, when,
where. Be sure to include its title and the name of the person whose
material it originally was in your description. Next, report what we can
learn about education at the time the artifact was created from the
materials. This is absolutely the most important part of this paper. Put your main focus here. Some
artifacts will provide better data than others, so select carefully.
Also, don't assume that a brief once-through look will be sufficient.
STUDY the material carefully. Look for information about facilities,
administration, political influence, funding, teacher/student relations,
student/student relations, relationships between the school and the
surrounding community, role of the family in education, educational
materials, subjects studied, role of sports, public uses of school
facilities, who the teachers are, information about salaries and working
conditions, etc., etc. In many cases, this information may be there
only as some kind of side commentary, so don't assume you can just read once
and get it all. Look carefully at pictures -- what do the desks look
like? How is the room arranged? What's in the room?
What's outside? A water pump? An outhouse? Is the
baseball diamond just dirt or is it turf? What are people
wearing? Look at the detail. Read between the lines.
Finally, compose a well-written paper. Take some pains to make it
thorough, detailed, coherent, clear, readable, and interesting.
Though they will probably vary depending on the materials you look at, I
expect something in the neighborhood of 5 pages. If you submit less
than 5 pages, be prepared to convince me that that is all the material
permitted.
You may quote small bits of the material, but what really counts is your
analysis. I expect 90% or more of the paper to be your words.
Note: Some of the artifacts are quite
large -- multiple boxes of material. In those cases, I don't expect you to
look at everything. Select a thematic portion of it and work with that. (If
you are going to do that, though, check with me before you get too far into
it.)
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