Reflection and Knowledge: An Alternative View of Learning.

Overview & Synopsis

This paper contends that the public education system in the United States has generally failed non-mainstream students because it is founded upon limited educational assumptions. The public education system relies upon linear/unit-dependent knowledge acquisition skills and rejects all data that cannot be recorded or verified as numeric quantities. Non-linear reflective perceptual skills, such as those rooted in traditional cultures and values, are not accepted as legitimate means of knowledge acquisition because the existing assumptions underlying the education system are race/culture/gender specific. The education system must be reformed to accept the different learning styles that result from gender, cultural, class, and racial differences. (DB)