Month: April 2019

Kristopher Baptiste

April 2, 2019

Rough Draft

In today generation kids are basically going to school just to be given unnecessary information that will not go no where in life. Parents should start taking action in trying to change this corrupted school system because teachers these days preferably the teachers in high school cause that’s where its really noticeable. Parents should go up to the school and talk to the principle about their child’s education because they are basically wasting there time coming to school and learning literally nothing that will help them in life. students should also stand up and say something about this problem before it gets even worse than it is right now. Students aren’t getting the proper education they deserve in today’s society. It could be both the students and teachers or just the students or just the teachers on why the students are not getting the proper education they need in order to make the right decisions when they get older.

The school system in this new generation is corrupted we have teachers that are out here rubbing there ideals to gullible young consumers that don’t really much about the world as yet. Some teachers would tell us her ideals and her opinion about the things happening and the young gullible kids agreed on the things she was saying even though we didn’t understand what she was talking about. In the article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto expresses his point of view which it shows how the American schooling system seems childish. According to the article “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto it says “My own experience had revealed to me what many other teachers learn along the way, too, yet keep to themselves for fear of reprisal”. Additionally if a student was to corrected a teacher by telling them your not suppose to be teaching students about her religion, or her ideals but it can backfire because some teachers hate to be corrected so they might try to do something to the student like fail him or give extra homework.

The other problems that are shown is that certain teachers don’t like there job or they don’t like work load they are mandatory to do. Some of the teachers don’t like dealing with students especially the ones that don’t listen to there instructions. There are teachers that are lazy they would just give the students work without even caring if they did well or not. They don’t like the fact they have to set up test, grade the test, create homework and also correct it, and the biggest one of all is giving up there free time especially there off days to come to work to help students graduate, obtain credits or give them an opportunity to pass the class and with that they would have to prepare work for them. This then has an impact on the students because they not getting the full help they really need or they just end up getting work without even getting it looked at.

   All my life has consisted of me being in school 5 days a week for 8 hours a day for the last 12+ years. I’ve experienced what it’s like to be in private school and what its like to be in the public school system as well. Even though both experiences were very different the outcome was the same, my teachers didn’t seem to care about teaching or helping students. In Gattos article “Against School” he speaks about how corrupt the school system and isn’t truly affective. Now i don’t entirely agree with his logic but i also believe a lot of what he says is true, he might be onto something.    

    The Idea that schooling can make children gullible and mindless doesn’t surprise me. Almost my entire life of being in school, being constantly told  to sit at a desk all day. Being told what to do and what not to by all your teachers every second of the day, than they go home to do more work that they’ve probably already forgotten all the material they learned that day can be really stressful. I know as a child who has grown up like this, this has put a lot of stress on me and my fellow classmates. I’ve never been an A student and sometimes i wasn’t a B student either, i struggled in some areas more than others but i tried about as hard as a child usually does. Which is trying hard once- I fail- and i give up. Meaning that i put effort into once and once i fail i have no motivation to want to try again. And when i did fail most of my teachers growing up never really noticed or some just didn’t care to help. Now i’m not saying every teacher out there is like this, i’ve had many teachers that i looked up too and will forever remember them.

The idea that going to school five days a week for 8 hours a day for 12 years+ straight doesn’t always guarantee success. What i mean by this is that all our lives we are taught that education is the most important thing which yes essentially it is important, But it always isn’t the case with some people. There are many people in this world that are living proof of that, people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg succeeded beyond reach and barely had their foot in the door. Again disclaimer i also don’t believe the same rules apply for everyone obviously, if you want to be a doctor you have to go to school for it there’s no exception. But higher education isn’t for everyone, back in the day around segregation going to university was considered a luxury because the only the rich white people could afford it because there was rarely any colleges accessible for people of color. It’s a beautiful thing that it is accessible in America now as it wasn’t back then, but standards for success is to overwhelming. In 2019 seeking higher education is a necessity to get any job, even Mcdonalds requires some college experience.

From the article “against school”, we learned about all the concerns Gatto had about schooling in general. From what I learned, Gatto  thinks that the obstacles students have to go through for that long time is very difficult and were basically setup by a system in order to take advantage of kids in the long run. Furthermore, he also expressed his concerns about school system and how kid are prepared for a future labor force. Is that true and how come the vast majority of kids are still applying to school? It is obvious that school is a very convenient way of success nowadays and the department of education and teachers put a lot of effort for kids to learn and become better tomorrow. School is a bigger path no matter what one is planning to accomplish in his life. However, public schools still have a lot to do in order to improve the overall learning experience. In my opinion, Gatto probably experienced some of the worst school systems and generalizes his opinion accordingly.  The way classes are dispensed can seem overwhelming and this may give some students very different thoughts about school. However learning can be more interesting if the department of education and the teachers load more learning topics because one cause of boredom is repetition.

 

In the article “against school”, John Taylor Gatto explains that public school system are meant to condition children to be gullible and mindless consumers. In my personal opinion, Gatto’s thoughts about school in general is exaggerated. Everyone has his own experience about school, and all I can say is that it is difficult and takes a long time. After all, there nothing easy about life and school is just one of the many paths available except that it is more likely “promising”. Not saying that one hundred percent of those who go to school succeed, but saying that they always get something out of it. They get education, they learn how to write and read they make friends, relations and many will build professional careers. As far as I’m concerned, schools, especially public schools need improvement. That is probably what Gatto should be expressing are way to make school more enjoyable for children instead of scarring young people. Gatto said that “School has done a pretty good job of turning our children into addicts, but it has done a spectacular job of turning our children into children”. In my opinion, this is a wrong perception of the main objectives of school. First, “addict”, I doubt that and considering how mature children get for going to school, it is safe to say that Gatto probably went  through some less common situation and it affected his opinion.

 

Furthermore, Gatto stated “Even if they hadn’t, a considerable number of well-known Americans never went through the twelve- year wringer our kids currently go through, and they turn out all right. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln?”, like I mentioned before, school is not the only way to succeed, but one of the best ones. One may be successful without this world most basic knowledge (good reading and writing skills), he will still struggle and be dependent to other people who went to school.

In my personal opinion, I think that school prepare children to be better tomorrow, by making them go through challenging experiences which can be seen differently from one person to an other. I encourage the department of education to keep assisting students and improving their learning experience.  Gatto has his own point about school that I believe it is exaggerated and I hope he does not spread those thoughts to children because it may affect their feelings about school which can lead to them adopting the same thoughts about school which is not a good thing for upcoming generations “academic education” wise.

Hadeel Abuhamda

April 1, 2019

English 1101

 

 

Education is definitely important in anyone’s life.  A gift of knowledge can bring us to the top of our dreams. It leads us to the right path and gives us a chance to have an amazing life. Education makes people capable of doing new and interesting things that can go a long way to improving human living conditions and standards. The key of success for our future is education, and education plays a very important role in our society. But first let’s start with the problem of our current educational system. The biggest problem is, it did not motivate kids. Millions of kids do not know any purposing of going to school, except obligation. How should we take school seriously when half of the teachers doesn’t take teaching seriously? There should be more educators in the educational system that actually care for student’s education/ future. I personally feel like I have been robbed for my education throughout my four years in high school.

What if your little brother or sister comes home from school one day and tells you that he or she doesn’t want to go to school anymore because they aren’t learning anything. The teachers in their school doesn’t teach. At first you might think they’re just being stubborn and lazy, but really—think about your own experiences at school—what did you actually learn there? In John Gatto’s article “Against School” he argues that the American public-school system conditions children to be gullible, mindless consumers. Looking back at my four years in high school I realize I agree with him. When I was in high school I was thrown a textbook by my Global Studies teacher, Mr. Severin. He would always say…”read page 554”. Then go in his little corner, kick his feet up and go to sleep. Teachers like this that’s in our educational system honestly and truthfully need to go. In my experience high school teachers care more about how students were behaving than what they are learning. The teachers in the educational system need to motivate the students to do better.

In college, we have to read the material, and actually try to understand what the professor is hinting at, not like in high school where you can just be cool with the teacher, not do any work and they will pass you. I actually have experienced that before; you just had to be friends/cool with the teacher and they’ll pass you. This one teacher in my high school During high school, I did not have to study as hard as I do now that I am in college. Usually, I would be able to study the day before the test and score a hundred percent.

In conclusion, Education is definitely important in anyone’s life.  A gift of knowledge can bring us to the top of our dreams. The educational system is not perfect specifically the teachers in that teach high school. In my opinion, it will never be close to perfect. Although, I do believe that our education system is necessary to give children an education to hopefully improve their lives and their future.

work cited:

“Against School” by John Taylor Gatto

 

Mia Carter

Ever feel like a lab rat? When it comes to anything you do in life does your life feel like a experiment and you always have to test everything out. Or the things you do or been in are testing you. I know when I was in school grades k-12 I felt like a lab rat. When you were in school did you ever feel like a lab rat? When I was in middle school the principal and some other people would come into the classroom for the whole period and watch everything that happens. That made me feel like a lab rat. That my teacher was the scientist and I was the rat being used for the experiment. That were the idea schools are like science labs they study students and use students as experiments to see how the young minds will act by being drilled with information, habits and attitudes. That they believe we will be used in society when we get older. Always feeling that you have to show off and make yourself and the teacher look good.

When I went to school it always felt like we had to put on a show. To make sure that you and your teacher looked good. I feel that schools do this on purpose for us to learn to work in a situation that would happen in the future while working. However when this happens kids feel like they’re doing something wrong. Seeing the person write on their clipboard and not say a word to you. But when they do talking to you they ask you questions like “do you understand the topic? Is the teacher helping you? Can you explain the topic to me?” And at that point you wonder what should I really tell them. The true on weather I understand or not and is it going to get me or my teacher in trouble. Kids in this situation don’t know what to do. They feel under pressure to say the right answer. Is this suppose to be teaching or Preparing them to be scared when asked a question or on telling the truth.

Kids shouldn’t be lab rats. They’re there to learn not be used as a experiment to see how well the teachers are, the types of teaching strategies they use or the main fact is did you learn something new and can prove it by taking a test. This is not teaching kids young minds information, habits and attitudes that they believe kids will be using in society when we get older. They’re teaching kids that everything in life is a test. Whether you like it or not you will always be tested. Making you out to look like those lab rats. Always having something new being tested on you whether you like it or not. That you have no say in what happens but that’s not true. Have a say in anything you do and that’s school. You have a say in how you want to learn, on how your teacher teaches you the topic on things that would help you understand it.

        

 

Tell your fellow Americans that the school system is trash, and guess what most Americans will agree with your statement. There are a lot of reasons why in the United States K-12 schooling is low standard. Depending how you slice it, the public school education system in the United States conditions students to be gullible and mindless consumers. The consequences for both school and society shows that we students and teachers are potentially devastating in contribution to the system.

Someday people will cling to the hope that the school system will change, and view its service not as something that sucks and that they hate, but as something that is actually nice and that they don’t hate. In my life as I experienced K-12 schooling I noticed that when I was in middle school, each of my classes I attended we didn’t learn anything in class because the teachers couldn’t handle the students. There was only one particular class where the students didn’t misbehave and that was with our homeroom teacher.

A lot of teachers in our schools don’t know how to teach and make the students enjoy school. Of course the students also need to cooperate with the teachers, however it is the teachers responsibility to guide and make the students behave in class. There are also times in school when students get bored sitting for hours just listening to teachers. As John Taylor Gatto the author of “Against School” states in his article, “One afternoon when I was seven I complained to him of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head.(1)” The author also says when he was in school he was bored just as most kids during school. This also shows why most kids during school don’t want to learn, and listen to the teacher. This leads to the reason why the students do whatever they want in class because they are bored, or not interested during class when the teacher is conducting their lesson.

The goal for schools needs to be making sure that our children who are the future that they are in good place where they learn and continue progressing in school. Construct a school system where students are enjoying school with activities that involve moving around and cooperating with other students. Sitting for hours in chairs is boring and make students sleepy. Create social efficiency, the purpose of education is not to produce citizens, but productive workers that can succeed in life.

As I quickly learned in my experience, schools throw in unnecessary exams, and focuses more based on tests instead of making sure students actually learn something. “We have, for example, the great H.L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence…”(2)  Thus, Gatto states that the education system doesn’t fill our young generations with knowledge as an alternative, they give us pressure with passing common core, regents, or other exams. Therefore, the modern schooling needs to be modified and reconstruct how they want to test the students learning.

In our American public school system, schools make our students to be gullible and mindless consumers. If the system would change and try to make our children into real thinkers who will benefit later on effectively is just a hope. Of course there are some people who benefited from our schooling, however there have been more who dropped out of school too. The change would help make students not being bored in classroom, but being involved in activities, and develop skills like teamwork and social efficiency with other students. Taking out of unnecessary exams that pressure students into passing them instead of testing their real knowledge. As a change this will only be a hope that our future won’t stay gullible and mindless consumers.

 

 

 

Imagine a world where children and students alike would need a special barcode would be etched into their skin in order for them to be registered as a student. Imagine sending your children off to school, and watching someone scanning your son or daughter, like an item. But, every students “barcode” shows an extensive learning history of him/her. Their strengths, weaknesses, preferred learning methods, and an overall grade. A grade solely compiled of numbers, nothing more. It would not take progress, or the will to actually learn. Now, most would find such a system not only unethical, but possibly illegal. This “dystopian” world is not as far-fetched as it seems. Within the decade, multiple studies deemed “innovations” have been introduced within NYC Public schools. These innovations ultimately would take the teachers role in educating children, and determine how their child should be taught. Granted, there has always been a natural inclination to advance current technology, in order to make life easier for everyone, with the ultimate goal being to benefit modern society. But, there a limit to how far-how much rather we should depend on said technology. Technology already drowns humanity out, it quite literally is addicting. But to replace hardworking, dedicated people who have made teaching their profession, is not only insulting, to teachers as well as the entire foundation to teaching, but to pretty much every student who would have never even pondered such a thing growing up in school.

I always considered myself a self-dependent student. I knew from a young age that if I wanted to get something done right, I had to do it myself. I didn’t really rely on other people to “guide” me. In high school, I had a teacher that truly opened up my eyes to the way I view not only education, but also how I viewed learning in general.  She showed me the true impact that a teacher can have on your life. Being “self-dependent” meant that I tended to not ask so many questions regarding material being covered in class. I thought I could figure it out myself. I figured if using this method got me through elementary and middle school, what would be so different about high school? Yeah, my methods had worked-at first. My “don’t ask now, and try to figure out” routine only got me so far.  See, there would be days when, for whatever reason, I wouldn’t get all of the key points mentioned in a lecture. Or, perhaps, we would be given an essay with a specific prompt that I wasn’t familiar with. It was at these times that I realized that the way I was reading these assignments, and school as a whole was distorted. So, I did something that I had not done in a very long time. I went to my teacher and asked her a question. And to my surprise, she wasn’t mad at me. In fact, she told me that she encouraged questions about a topic. I had explained that the reason I never really asked many questions was because I had thought that it would seem as if I wasn’t paying any attention during the class period. But, she told me that it showed her the exact opposite. She explained that it shows genuine interest, and that she actually takes them as compliments. When she told me this, it quite literally opened up my eyes to how drastic things can be in reality, compared to the so called “facts” you may have of something. She gave me a whole new perspective, of perspective.

(outlook, unlock potential , use outside of school??)

 

I’m on the train on my way home from class and all I can think about is how much work I need to get done. I have an essay due at 8 am, an assignment due in my psychology class, and I have to study for a test I have in two days. But when am I going to do all of this? As soon as I get home I have to shower, eat, and go to work. I don’t get out of work until 11 pm so, that means I’m most likely going to be up late getting all of this done. College. Stress. These two words go together just like peanut butter and jelly. As a student, every spare minute seems to be filled with worrying. You always feel like you have to achieve something and make plans for your future. Instead of relaxing on your days off, you’re worrying about assignments you need to complete, or working to earn some extra money. Whether it is your first or last year in college, you’re under some kind of stress. To my fellow students, you’re not alone and I completely understand. But, we can’t let the stress control our lives. It’s not healthy. As for college professors, we should turn our attention to making sure students can rebound between intense intellectual activity, just as athletes rest between hard and intense workouts.

 

According to Psych Central, 1 in 5 college students have stress and may even consider suicide. Most students juggle part-time jobs along with school, worry about assignments, stress about the future, and finally how and when to make the next step. Trying to handle all these things at once can leave you feeling overwhelmed. This stress can cause multiples problems, not just emotional, but physical as well. With the pressure to do well in college, students may become sleep deprived. Such sleep deprivation impairs mental capacity, but this is only one of the many problems that may come with stress. There have been so many instances where students are so overwhelmed they turn to drugs or alcohol in hopes of reducing the stress or just “letting go” for a moment. Next thing you know every time you’re sitting down to get an assignment done, you’ll also set down a bottle of wine or vodka at your table. The abuse of Adderall is also very common in students. It is a strong central nervous system stimulant that is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. But, college students who face a long night of cramming for exams often whip this out in order to improve focus, sharpen mental acuity and provide a small energy boost for more productive study. There’s just so many effects and things that stress can come with. 

In my case since this is my first year of college, the transition is what has caused most of my stress. I went from attending a high school where the education wasn’t the best, where teachers barely taught to becoming a young adult, juggling college and a part-time job. Then the rest of my stress was caused by how unprepared I felt coming into college. Saying that my high school was shit, is an understatement. So now in college, I feel like I have to work twice as hard to make up for what I didn’t learn that I should have knowledge about. The flawed educational system also takes a toll on the students; take me as an example. But in college, I see that one of the most common problems is how professors manage the workload in the class. During my first semester, I felt like it was just a workload after workload. For example, in my psychology class, we had to study for a midterm and then the same day that we took the midterm, we had to do an essay. Of course, everyone knows that college isn’t easy because it requires a lot of work from you. But, you gotta cut us some slack. How would you not be stressed out with such intense work being given to you back to back like that?

The statement that “the transition from high school to college might be difficult” is a huge understatement for me. It might be for you as well. I went from almost failing high school and thinking that college was going to be a breeze to dreading having to go to class every day. One day I decided to take a step out of my paranoid mind and saw things for how they really were. College wasn’t as bad as I had thought it was. I was risking more by not going. I had to at least try it before I judged it. Yes, college is hard, but it is not too hard for you.

When you hear the word “college” what do you think of? Some may think of college as being a gateway to many opportunities. Others may think that it is not worth the time, stress and effort. Based on my college experience I have held both views. In high school I didn’t take it very seriously. I was very laid back and procrastinated frequently. When I was at my final years of high school I rarely went to class and when I did it would only be for about a day or two a week. I didn’t understand the point of going to high school and learning all this useless stuff. I did not realize that high school was my preparation for college and school is what you make it. While reading the article “Learning (Your First Job)” I found that Robert Leamnson has some pretty good points about school and learning. He states that “…learning is not something that just happens to you, it is something that you do to yourself” (1). He also says that “…you do want to learn something while getting a diploma” (1). From this information I take away that you must be willing to learn in order to learn and you need to be engaged in the journey in order to get to the destination. Yes, we might not agree with all the things that you have to learn in school, but enjoy the things that you have been interested in while in school otherwise you will be stuck in the position of wondering what it is all for like I and many others have done. High school isn’t there just for doing tasks and getting grades. It is to prepare you for college. It is there for you to learn how to learn.

So, what is learning how to learn and how does this have anything to do with college? Well, when I first entered college I was overwhelmed with work and would overthink the simplest tasks. This reflected my high school performance. Since I didn’t attend high school very often, I did not have the experience of a school environment. I didn’t have the drive or study practice that would transfer from grade to grade. I was so focused on the useless information being taught that I did not realize what mattered most. It may sound simple, but just practicing doing work in general is very important. When you don’t do your school work for a long while you start to get too comfortable. Everything is fine until you are presented with a task. You are very capable of doing that task, but are forced out of your comfort zone and into uncharted/abandoned territory. By simply going to school and getting into the habit of completing tasks you are more well off than someone who hasn’t. I know that I’ve been talking a lot about high school, but learning and practicing learning doesn’t stop with high school. It travels through college and life afterwards as well.

As a student, I also spent long hours in school learning different subjects sometimes feeling like class was long even if only 20 mins had passed, taking forever to end and other times when time went by fast that I lose track. What I noticed in my 4 years of high school, was that not only some classmates would take naps with the teacher unbothered while in other classes everyone was so attentive to what the teacher was saying but that I also grew as an individual. School is defined as an institution where children are educated. As students we are taught to listen carefully, think critically, be able to connect points together and the ability to think on our own but there are various ways for a person to be educated such as learning from personal experiences and lessons thought to us by our elders.

School plays an important role in developing skills because their goal is for students to learn and it’s up to us as students do our part also .The issue that revolves in the school system is whether or not each student is provided with enough resources and good school environment or if the student is even aware and taking advantage of those resources. To John Taylor Gatto we may just mindless consumers produced by the school system, implying that school is in fact useless and pointless but why is that some students show more interest than others?, not only will the desire of being successful always be stronger than poor teachings that may exist but it may just be because students don’t know how to ask for help and fight against the system . As students it’s our duty to do our job and be responsible in school which means doing our homework, following directions but most importantly being able to learn and take something from each class and apply it to other classes and especially outside of school.

School benefits us in some of the following ways: learning a new subject, allow us to interact with other people, have access to teachers and friends who support you so you can be the best you can be, the environment we are in allow us to build friendships with our classmates, the ability to learn how to work with others which is also crucial in life and most importantly prepare unto succeed and strive in a profession we worked hard for our entire life, not only for satisfaction but for stability. In “ Learning (Your First Job) by Robert Leamnson“knowledege is what has the potential for improving the individual and society ”(9), the information,strategies and lessons we learned in school can be used to our advantage and outside of school. Based on my experience being part of the school system I disagree that it manipulated us into becoming consumers and addicts but rather provided us with opportunities to become successful and be able to fulfill our desire.

A school environment provide students with access to teachers and classmates when we are in need of help, when we aren’t completely sure about something. In my opinion, a teacher should go beyond just teaching their knowledge to their students but rather be role models, a mentor and nature them. If a teacher offers you help but you don’t show that you care, they’ll eventually give up and it’s up to you to show effort. When I have trouble and need a deeper explanation I would most likely refer to a textbook but it’s important to realize we have teachers there to help us, teachers aren’t only meant to give us information that we have to learn for the class but are there to be utilized and allow their knowledge to enforce and grow ours. We have the ability to work in groups, pairs, do projects together even doing projects alone will enhance your ability to know new information while we can discuss about how we can help each other, not only improving ourselves but others also. Gatto suggests that the school “has done a spectacular job of turning our children into children”, the idea of turning us into children isn’t relevant because as we go into the next grade the lessons get harder rather than education being dumbed down to make it easier for us to understand. Schools basically challenge students allowing them to exceed their limitations and what they thought they weren’t capable of doing .