Final Paper

“But mostly the teachers had no idea of how to engage the imaginations of us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond.”(Mike Rose) It can be difficult relating a topic to a kid that does not want to know it and does not care about any scholastic achievements.  It is doable though, with some effort and a little time. Getting back to the basics is key, keep the material to the point, show its relation to the real world. This is why this particular math function does this, this is how it woks, it is useful because. I would not bring anything more complex than that to the classroom, there is no need and more than likely, there would not be many if any interested in mathematical complexities. Math is useful for accomplishing these tasks. I would incorporate basic life scenarios in which math could be a useful tool. But if the class constantly was full of outbursts, even this basic approach would not work. So there is little to no leeway for disciplinary problems, that is why I would lead a strict classroom, realistic, fair, and above anything else, respectful to everyone. And I would expect this of the students. Discipline, respect, committed work, and using basic tools and incentives are all it would take to have a successful classroom. 

Jerry Large say to “Hug your kids and Kiss their boo-boos, at least until you have to step back so they can develop grit.” There is no reason to coddle a student, letting them get away with anything they want. Discipline builds character. To have a successful classroom, it must be organized, there must be a mutual respect between the teacher and students. The students must know who is in charge. Dan Brown tells his readers of such an issue, stating “During my first lesson boisterous Fausto earned raucous giggles by declaring to class, “That story is wack, yo!” he was testing my authority but I didn’t know what to do.” A teacher having no plan for how to discipline children? That seems poorly thought out. Like not planing a lesson. A classroom is full of people, one legal adult, and many minors. Most of them are in a rush to become adults, so treat them as such. I would ensure that they took responsibility for their actions, a good teacher can not let a student walk all over them. I would show them I am in charge by not tolerating any outbursts, they would be punished with detention or seeing the principal. There would be little room for error on the students part. With a well ordered class, we can be productive and make good insightful progress in the material. 

Unfortunately, math is pretty boring to most people. They have no interest in learning it and realistically, most students will not use any math skills beyond addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. But if the curriculum is higher level math, how do you spark interest? Frieire states that “Liberating education consists of cognition, not transferrals of information.” The student does not need to memorize math, they must understand it and why it is important. Since math is literally involved in the creation and destruction of every modern object, showing the importance and altering their perception should be strait forward. I would find something that would get attention, like an artillery team performing a strike, or a rocket traveling to space. Something simple, that is loud and powerful. Easily relatable to something most kids are familiar with, destruction. I would then use that example and show the math involved, how math is used, something beyond what they know or understand at that time. There are a number of ways to do this, but the most effective I believe is video. Start with a video and then go from there, get down to the details, spark their interest. And instruct them that they will get to that point as the class progresses. By keeping other examples on the side for when the material is dry, I would be able to re-spark that interest as needed in the classroom. 

“To have more young people get an engaging and challenging education,” according to Mike Rose, is a resolution someone should make. This is what I would do. Challenge the students, give them something to take away from the class, and reward them for putting in effort when it is due. There is no need for fancy gimmicks or magic quick knowledge keys that need to be employed. Stick to the simple white board and marker and teaching the material. Kids naturally want to learn, it is in their nature. So if we put the information out, they will learn, and if we challenge them to a level they have not been to, encourage this, put in the extra hours like they may have to, reward them for the extra effort, the child will rise to that expectation. Incentives would curve the enthusiasm, incentives like extra credit, candy, or even no test if the students prove they are doing the work. Simple rewards for effort can make all the difference. If the teacher treats them like respectable adults  and gives them more than a grade, but gives them a life lesson that they will remember. So many teachers overlook or over think this. They want to be a students friend, want to be liked, or want their class to be entertaining the entire time. This is ignorant to think possible. With the clash of personalities and often dry material, it is not possible to do. I would treat the class like life, sometimes you win, sometimes you loose, often you are not entertained, sometimes you are on the edge of your seat, sometimes students just don not like you and you do not care for them. But that is life. I would keep the lectures to the point, cover the material, ensure the students grasp the material. And more importantly, be adaptive and receptive to the students needs.

So many teachers simply put out information, they do not really teach it, They do not put in effort to ensure knowledge is passed on to a student, and they do not motivate them. John Gatto says that “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness- curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, tests, by introducing kids to truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then.” Teachers often expect the mundane day to day of school, comfortable in tenure, not caring whether our youth learns or not. I would defeat this problem by returning to the basics. I would enforce structure and discipline, be respectful and adaptive to needs of students, use incentives to encourage hard work, and use real life scenarios to demonstrate the importance of math in our everyday life. This fundamental approach would be effective. We as a class would beat the monotony of the classroom and actually use our time to wisely and effectively to learn a useful subject that can be applied to a variety of things.

Works Cited

Brown, Dan. “What Makes A Great Teacher?” wjla.com. ABC7., 31 August 2012. Web. 6 December 2012

Freire, Paolo. Pedagogy Of The Oppressed. City of Westminster, London

Penguin Education Publishing. 25 January 1996. Print.

Gato, John Taylor. “Against School: How Public Education Cripples our Kids, and Why”. http://harpers.org. Harpers Magazine. September 2003. Web. 6 December 2012.

Large, Jerry. “Gift of Grit curiosity help kids succeed character helps kids succeed and it can be taught”  Seattle Times. Seattle. 23 September 2012.

Rose, Mike. “Resolutions Someone Should Make for 2011” cited in Valerie Stauss’s blog: “The Answer Sheet” from The Washington Post 

---. Lives on the Boundary.  New York. Simon and Schuster. 1889. Print 

Arizona Bans

Why would a state cancel a success story? Seem ignorant. If a student is showing progress, progress far better than the rest of the country, it should be promoted so others can be so privileged. A program that truly helps youth get a grasp on their heritage and how to be contributors to society should be fully backed by the government and made readily available for more students. But it got canceled. Why? Why ban books and cancel a good program? My opinion, someone with money and influence did not like it. More than likely someone racist, who is extremely conservative in all aspects. They were threatened so they made it go away. Classic case of the man putting the little guy down. It can be threatening to  person like that who is used to a race being below them, to see that race become better than was expected. A race below them can now think and that is being taught in school? Not while they have money a simple call to the local congressman and they get what they want. It is just a check away. People can be real jerks when they do not understand something different than they are.

Mike Rose Resolutions 

How do these wrap back to Lewis Black’s thoughts? The problem with Black’s video is that it only showed the bad, not one good school was shown, and they aren’t all bad. Looking back I know my high school was a good one, from my point of view anyway. Black is a comedian, though what he showed was true, it was negative and meant to make fun of the education system. Mike Rose’s resolutions are well thought out, positive changes to make that could actually benefit everyone. Instead of saying all the ways the education system is messed up, he writes good suggestions that are realistic in order to fix the problem. This is a quality not often found in our current society. I think Freire would support Rose’s resolutions. Though Freire seems against our current schooling process, Rose’s ideas do not encourage the “banking concept.” I do not understand education differently. If you think of our society, you might realize that the school system is not the only problem. Americans as a whole are lazy and will find the easiest way to accomplish a task. With that kind of attitude ruling the majority, it;s no wonder our schools are sub par.    

Against School

This essay, I find to be the most interesting yet, and sadly, the most true. Everything in the essay I can relate to seeing, or knowing of, or experiencing. Somehow, we as a society let this happen, listened and obeyed when the powers at be lined fed us the reasons and we ate it up. Created the machine in a sense, e were the parts, and they assembled us exactly like they wanted. Looking back now at my education, I remember thinking when I was in high school that this is a waste of my time. I can honestly say that I put forth little effort and still was considered “above average” whatever that means. I the essay, I especially agree with Ingli’s six functions of education. If we look at high school, and even college, critically, we find them all to be true. Why bother with school at all other than it being mandatory? Why not just go to work, learn in the field, experience something useful. Most people don’t even get a job in the field they went to school for anyway, so why not just eliminate that from the picture. The powers at be would probably loose money, so that is not likely to happen.

How Do Arts Help

The arts are crucial to our progress as a civilization. The arts shape our world, everything we do stems from some form of it. Art is not just painting a picture of carving a statue, it is creative being. Our most advanced buildings were made by artists, our latest computer technology, our most destructive weapons, all made by people with a creative mind, able to imagine something that would impact the world. It is imperative  that our youth develop this creativity, that it gets instilled in them young and is nurtured their entire lives. The fact that we even think of taking this away from students is disgusting, that we would take something that has impacted humanity since the dawn of time shows that we as a society have lost touch with reality. We would rather save a few bucks to line our pockets than to make our children well rounded, educated people. If we cancel the arts, we might as well cancel math and english, with out some creativity those topics will be useless anyway, what could is knowing how to read if what you read does not spark some kind of creative imagery, how useful will math be if we can not use it in ways to create, if we don’t have the critical thinking to apply it to something new. We need the arts, taking them from our children will only lead to disaster. 

WS Sect 50-51

  Forming a good argument will be vital in the last paper since the topic is so opinionated.  When we write about education, we can go numerous ways on the whys and hows of the way it is. If we are to teach a class, what is the method we will use, what is the topic, and why is it the best way. These questions are going to make or break the paper. There is not much fact associated with education, nearly every aspect of it can be argued, so getting the evidence to back up the argument will be crucial, without it the paper will be nothing. The cause and effect will be important as well, bring in the current status of education, and how it got that way, should give a good reason for why we want to do it a different way or the same way. But really the key to a successful third paper is going to be making sure we put in the whys and the evidence to back them up. If we leave the why out, our thesis will not be answered. Making the argument through cause and effect will get the paper where it needs to be.  

5 Things To Help Education

1. Without a good teacher, an entire class can fall behind. I would have much stricter requirements for teachers in all aspects. Tenure would not exist at the high school level, if a teacher didn’t perform, they had to pay the price, no questions asked.
2. Hold parents accountable. If a child is not performing at school, the parents should be intimately involved to resolve that, whether it be counseling or even making the parents come to tutoring with the child to help. Education starts at home, we need to enforce that. 
3. Make sure students are in the class they need. It is ignorant to say that every student is capable of learning equally. Maybe they all have the capacities to learn everything, but not in the same amount of time. Some will learn math more quickly, putting them in a class that doesn’t teach it as quickly is only hurting them. 
4. Enforce harsher penalties for poor grades. If a student doesn’t perform, they must be caught up. Using mandatory after school or evening tutoring which the parents also had to attend would fix that in no time. 
5. Reward good grades. In my high school, if your grades and attendance were good, you didn’t have to take any finals at the end of the semester. Some kind of incentive would be worthwhile.