Portfolio & Reflection – Page 5

September 28, 2021September 28, 2021

School Might Be A Scam {Unit 1 E.N.(Final)}

From a very young age I was always told by my parents that you need an education to be successful. They stressed the need for me to utilize my time in school and value my opportunities. My mom, as I’m sure many other people’s parents have, would sometimes make examples out of homeless people or drugged up people; and tell me there at that point because they didn’t stay in school and you don’t want to be like them. Me, being as young as I was, took this very seriously because I really didn’t want to end up like those people. If somehow doing well in school could ensure that everything went right me for me, that’s what I wanted.

I went hard for good grades until about 8th grade, that’s when I started to not care as much for the high scores and just did what I needed to do. By the end of 9th is when I want to say my views on education started to change. I think it was the fact that when you get into high school and time passes, you start to realize how much closer you are to actually being an adult and having different responsibilities. You have to start thinking about your plans for after high school, getting a job and probably even moving out for example. You are also introduced to many new things that you’ve never done or seen before. When you start to realize all the things the world has in store for you and what you want to do with your life, you start to wonder what quadratic formula or radioactive isotopes has to do with your life, unless of course you aspire to be something having to do with those things. It was even apparent to my guidance counselor that I was no longer interested in high school as she would always tell me something like “I know you want to be done, but you have to bring your grade back up if you still want to graduate early” or “You’re too smart to have your grades looking like this”. When you get into high school you start to learn about things such as taxes, credit/debit cards and resumes just to name a few, but why is it that not even a small portion of any of the information that is certain to be useful and applicable to us when we get older is not taught in high school normally and isn’t taught in college? Realizing just how many useful things you have to learn on your own when I’m in a learning environment for 8 hours getting taught information that I’m not going to have recollection of in the next year; definitely contributes to the change of view.

The classes and grades in general also contributed to the fact as well. Another thing you realize as you get older in school is that grades don’t have anything to do with how smart someone actually is, even though many people seem to believe that. In school you’re given material and then you are tested to see how well you retain and/or present that information you retained. This ruined the rewarding feeling of high marks for me in a way; and for a class like chemistry that doesn’t appeal to me at all, I couldn’t care less for a 90+ grade. Even from the beginning of high school it was apparent to me that many people do the bare minimum to get a passing grade; and regardless of that fact for the most part in classes your just memorizing things for that one test that you need to pass in the long run.

In many cases a lot of the classes were boring or weren’t taught by the right teachers which changed my views as well. For example, throughout middle school English was my favorite subject and all my teachers knew what time it was when it came to English. I used to always do well in my English classes love to get my points/thoughts across, have debates and discuss the different topics with all my friends. I even took the English regents in 8th grade and managed to get a 91 on it. When I got into high school, I realized that we were doing the same things I was doing in middle school and the flow of the class was nothing like how my old one was; because of this I started despising English there was just nothing interesting about the class. Thankfully, in the AP English class I got we were talking about real world things and analyzing them so I got back into English. On the other hand, adding those bad classes to online learning made things a whole lot worse due to the fact that many of the teachers didn’t know what they were doing or let online learning change their teaching. This made me ready to leave high school as there was just nothing worth being there for.

From a young age I always thought staying in school was imperative to my success but as I’ve gone through school my views on education have changed in different ways. I was often led to believe that without the qualifications that come with school you were bound to fail. High school was where many of the realizations I’ve had were made and I’ve been showed that there are so many important things you need to know in life that you’ll never see in a school’s curriculum.

September 28, 2021September 28, 2021

Flaws in Our Education

Juan Tax
Douglas LaTourette
ENG 1101
September 26, 2021

Flaws In Our Education

Have you ever heard that education it’s important to succeed in life? It is true that education is important for everyone since it can give people a lot of opportunities. Although education is important, there are many people who are starting to hate it because there are some flaws in the education system. School is not that easy, especially if you do not fully understand the language. Students are expected to learn every subject and have good grades. Classwork can be hard, that some of us thought that there might be something wrong with us. Nowadays schools feel that it is just about grades and competition, which can be unfair because there are students that are “gifted” and people have the money to pay for prestigious schools and tutors while the rest of students are being pressured by parents and teachers to get good grades and be the best at everything to be successful in life. Students are forced to learn subjects that are not going to be useful in life and most spend a lot of time studying just to get an A on a test which could have caused stress. For these reasons many studies are starting to dislike school

As students we are expected to be the best at everything, to bring an “A” at home, and make our parents proud. In reality, school can be difficult, and getting an A can be impossible for some of us. My first year of middle school was not easy, I did not understand anything. I remember staying up until 3:00 am just to finish a project. I wanted to get a good grade because that is what my parents expected from me. When I got my grade I was disappointed because I did not get the grade that I was expecting and when I saw the talented student get a good grade it made me feel that I was not good enough. Weeks went by with me not understanding anything. I was losing my confidence with every passing day, and my grades were so bad that I felt like a failure. I have worked hard and now I can get good grades. Seeing other people struggle makes me think that there is something wrong with our education because students have to compete with talented students which makes us feel that we are not capable of succeeding in life also we can feel the pressure from our parents telling us that we are not good enough and that we are not even trying even though we are doing our best, feeling disappointed can come in the form of giving up on goals, ambitions, and passions because students do not believe that any of these are worth pursuing. If schools make us feel disappointed there are greater chances for a student to drop out.

Certain subjects such as math shouldn’t be that complicated. Students should be given a choice to take deeper math classes or any subject. Forcefully teaching a subject that we don’t like is going to destroy our motivation because we could feel dumb. This means that a lot of motivation and imagination are being wasted. I was taught that math it’s everywhere and I would need it in real life but I have never used it since I finished High school. I remember “breaking my head” every night to learn important equations like the Pythagorean theorem, however I have never used it and many of my friends haven’t used it. This makes me feel that all of my efforts were worthless because I learned something that would not be useful. The high school system should emphasize personal development while introducing specific technical skills that students are willing to learn. High School students should be taught basic daily life tasks such as opening credit cards, maintaining their credit, and expending their wealth via passive income such as investments or properties. At the same time they should also be taught how to manage their taxes, bills, and monthly expenses. Schools focus on memorization, forcing students to remember as much information as possible. Instead of real-world skills, the education system focuses on furthering academic achievement which is not going to be that helpful in the future.

I always studied for the SAT because teachers told me that it was one of the most important tests in High School. I was trying my best to get at least 1300. I was not good with math and I’m still learning English. It was impossible to get that score that I was hoping for. I realize that standardized testing can be unfair because people like me who didn’t learn English at a young age might struggle with it. This causes me to get a low score. The SAT’s main focus is math and English which can be a problem to many of us since some people are not good at math or English which can cause a lower grade meaning that there are higher chances that students can not get accepted in their dream college. Getting a low score does not mean we are not suited for college because a test can not define what we are capable of doing. If a student performs poorly on a standardized test, they can face increased pressure from their parents and peers to do better and be “smarter.” This can lead to students resenting learning and believing that they are worse than everyone else because of their low scores. “Short-term stress lasting as little as a few hours can impair brain-cell communication in areas associated with learning and memory, researchers have found. Problems with cognitive functioning (being unable to concentrate or learn as well as you normally would).” (Davis, Ben) Standardized tests are thought to be fair because every student takes the same test but it fails to account for variables such as language, learning disabilities and others. Making standardized tests unfair to many students. Also can affect our mental health and giving up our education.

School is difficult and every student can not understand everything that is being taught and if students are struggling we as a class should help and make sure that everyone understands at the main points of a lesson, also teachers should provide extra help for students and make lessons that can be both beneficial to the talented student and the student that is struggling. To have a better learning environment our education system should be less demanding and more interesting so students would learn better. The education system should not grade a student based on how well they can memorize information for a test, rather it should prepare students for our careers and real life situations.

Cited Work

Davis, Ben. “Home.” Mvorganizing.org, 31 May 2021, https://www.mvorganizing.org/how-does-stress-create-a-barrier-to-learning/.

September 28, 2021September 28, 2021

Breaking the mold (final draft education narrative)

The moment I was born I instantly became the betting horse of my immigrant family to do what they couldn’t and that meant finishing all forms of school. My parents put all their trust on a child who looked to them for everything to be what they thought they couldn’t be, successful. Unfortunately for my parents my inability to focus on a thing for longer than a few minutes cost me my grades and developed bad study habits. Parent teacher conferences were a mixture of “she’s a great student, attentive and an active participant” to “she has potential to be a good student”, my mom stopped going after a few years as she knew exactly what she was going to hear. Being young and unaware made me susceptible to the idea that I lacked the intelligence to become someone grand and inevitably disappointing my parents. Now in my later years I comprehend that the system is made with only one student in mind, the obedient and quiet student, and us as students and parents we must find methods to make it work. Previous perfect students creating a near unbreakable mold that others have to bend and break to fit in.

My mom has always been my biggest supporter and critic, criticizing my grades, my lack of concentration, and anything in between. I know she was doing the best she could with the little knowledge she had, being the first child she must have felt lost. Forcing me into afternoon programs and clubs hoping I would stick to something inevitably making my school day 3-4 hours longer. Anything I would show remote interest she had already found 3 programs I could get into, thus allowing me to choose what kind of high school I wanted to go into. My mom’s love of cooking consequently provoked me to choose a culinary program focused high school. A whole new world for the both us introduced me into a different kind of education, one I was actually interested in. A mixture of growing up and trust allowed my mom’s grip on me to lessen and allowed me to truly chose what I could immerse myself in. My freshman year of high school introduced me to a man that changed my views on the education system.

Tough love isn’t anything foreign to me, I mean I have very traditional hispanic parents it’s an everyday occurrence. So when I got into high school and the first teacher to be introduced to me was the most feared in the program, it was like any other day. My first culinary teacher was as strict as any chef you see on TV, unforgiving and not lenient. One of my clearest memories of him involved me being late to his class and getting a 10 minute lecture in front of my classmates on poor time management. Safe to say I was never late to his class again. While he had a tough exterior and seemed unkind, his demeanor would unravel the moment you demonstrated respect and passion for the craft. Between constant class participation and successful recipe replicas I became one of his top students. Developing a relationship with a teacher in your favorite subject to me is more impactful than most friendships made in school. He connected me with outside programs and internship opportunities to help grown my connections in the culinary world. His class helped me solidify that I wanted my career to be culinary centered. I began to learn that the education system might not have been made with people like me in mind but with the right people and motivation I could mold it into what I wanted to. I had the privilege in choosing a school that closely resembled the career path I was choosing and made school not seem a chore. School had always felt like a place I went because I had to and in that year it turned into a place where I went to learn and gain opportunities I couldn’t have had without it.

As a preteen I believed it was me against the world and I had no one to lean on that could understand me. Being in a system that only measured me based on old methods of teaching and a rubric grading system I always felt incomplete. Finding a support system within that made me feel valid and allowed me to realize that the mold I had subjected myself was malleable. Finding a professor or two that guided me and assisted me was the help I didn’t realize I needed to preserve during school. I still believe the education system is broken, and only works for a select few students who are able to grasp everything in one attempt. Leaving the others with feelings of incompetence and lost as to how to be on the same level as their peers. I know we as students have the power to change how the system treats us and chooses to guide us. Introducing peers and teachers that can support us and guide us in the journey of education really is the key.

Category: Portfolio & Reflection

School Might Be A Scam {Unit 1 E.N.(Final)}

Flaws in Our Education

Breaking the mold (final draft education narrative)

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