Waiting for Superman: Parents of the Students

As I was watching this in class on Thursday, I thought about what I would do if I was a parent of one of these children that we saw in the documentary.  What would I be willing to do if I lived in a lower class area high in crime, with a large drop-out rate?  If I couldn't leave the area because of finances, I would do ANYTHING I could to get my child to have the best education possible.   I found it awesome that Fransisco's Mother was willing to leave the house at five in the morning so he could be in a place where he would excel and be safe.  Would you be willing to do this for your future-kids? What if you were working full time and had to wake up 4 hours early to get them to school and gas was really expensive? Or does it not matter where kids go to school, because a lot of people make it to college that have gone to public schools with sky-high drop out rates.  Is it possible to just raise a child to do the right thing and stay in school, and put them in any school and expect them to be successful? I think that a school has everything to do with the success of a student.  Watching this documentary really opened my eyes to what is going on all over the U.S. and made me think about the future of our schools as well.

Waiting for Superman

       Today in class we watched Waiting for Superman and it was about education and  how flawed our system has been.  I agree with Mr. Canada that our education system is flawed and needs fixed for the students and for the teachers.  To fix this problem first the teachers unions need to be dissolved.  Unions were great when teachers were being unfairly treated ,but now there is no need for them and they are holding up progress of making education better in America.  Tenure needs to be rid of for teachers, because the bad teachers hide behind it and don't give it their all to students which creates a bad atmosphere in the classroom and in the school.
       In the movie it talked about dropout factories and how there are so many of them in the united states. To get rid of the dropout factories states need to evaluate the schools and get rid of the bad teachers and equip the school with supplies and update the building.   States need to close down the schools that have schools that are falling apart and the schools that have low scores on tests and build new schools that give the students the chance to have a new start and better teachers.  Private schools have an advantage over public schools because they have their own rules and can hire the best teachers.

                In class on Thursday we listened to a radio talk show host interview with a man who recently published the book “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.”  Mark Bauerlein, diligent researcher and professor at an Ivy League school, is the author of this book and his interview with the host of the talk show.  During the interview Mark failed to show an unbiased opinion the entire time.

                Mark compares Ivy League students to students of other universities and says that the ones attending the prestigious schools know how to research properly, they actually use books for research and not the internet, and they are “better” in a way.  I wanted to bring up an argument that not many kids can afford going to colleges as expensive as those.  I’m sure that if we tested every kid at every university there will be numerous kids who score just as high as Ivy League students on tests.  The fact that Mark insists that these kids are better enrages me.  Another point Mark himself brought up was the fact that parents/ grandparents will criticize their kids/ grandkids on the fact that they are on the computer too much, or they aren’t reading enough books.  This could be argued in that we are using the computer to do our homework, and finish up projects.  Elder people think the computer is just a leisurely activity that teens now-a-days use to socialize, and just as a web browser.  I, for one, use the internet as an ultimate research tool.  It helps me complete my physics homework every week, and if it wasn’t for the internet I’d be failing many classes.  The internet is a place that has every tool you need to do almost anything you want to.  Technology has changed and people need to understand that with that change means we are becoming a lot more efficient.  Almost every book, encyclopedia, dictionary, writer (Microsoft Word), presentation (Microsoft Powerpoint), etc. is right there on our desks at home. We don’t need to go to the library to find an article or type a paper.

                As one of my class mates said kids now-a-days have a lot more drive to go to college.  If we don’t go to college, we will not amount to anything.  The fact that our parents criticize us on being lazy is complete hypocrisy.  Back in their day, college was not a necessity; one could get a job just by knowing someone in the business.  Mark should know that we aren’t lazy, we are EFFICIENT.  We find ways of doing something in half the time that it would have taken him to do it back in the 70s.

The Basic Step to Achieving the Path of Success

Education is a tricky subject to debate. Some would say that education is unfair to certain students who do not learn as quickly as others, and some would say that there are only minor flaws in the system but that it is working well for the time being. I do not believe that there are monumental flaws with the education system today. However, I do believe that people need to find something wrong with systems whenever they do not adequately fulfill their needs. The education system does have flaws because we are human and mistakes are made by everyone. But, no system is perfect and we can better it by supporting the path of success in education for the students involved.

            Support from family members and teachers is something that the education system must have in order for the children to want to be involved. The child must also want the education but I find it close to impossible if they do not have a teacher or guardian supplying them with the materials necessary to learn. For example,  parents pay the education fees to send their children to school and the teachers believe that the students are capable of learning the material. Both are playing key roles in leading the child down the path of success; the path to achieving the American dream of today.

            However, the support must not stop at these basic steps. The students must have the proper psychological support as well. Many studies have proven that if a child has a bad relationship at home then that will lead to developing more bad relationships outside of the home. One study that proved this would be Erik Erikson's Psychosocial theory. In his model he compares how parents treat their children and how the children respond in habits afterwards. One of his stages in the model is Initiative versus Guilt. This stage is during the preschool years for toddlers and is centered around the exploration and discovery during play in the classroom. This is helping the child to establish purpose and direction in interacting with others. But, if the  experience is unpleasant or is lacking entirely than the child will learn to be ruthless and/or inhibited to learn the right purpose and direction of the action of interacting with others.

Therefore, children who do not get the proper respect and care from their guardians will expect that same reaction in other environments, school being one of them. Support at home is important to a child developing the skills necessary to interacting at school with other students and teachers. The relationships at home must be supportive and respectable for children to be successful in relationships which will help further their education and lead them toward the path of success.

            The main point of all of this is to get the point across that the education system is not perfect. But, if we can help support more students in other ways outside of school than the system will be that much closer to perfection.  The relationships outside of school are the places we should start working on in order to get the students into the right mindset to achieve in class. 

Recap on Education

Earlier in the semester we talked about education. I would like to revisit that subject. I think that education these days is preposterous. I can’t believe that people would expect a child/young adult to sit in a classroom all day, listen to one person speak and actually be interested. I know that for people who went to my high school, going to school had nothing to do with wanting to learn, but it had everything to do with socializing with friends and going to college. I think that it is up to the teachers to find new ways to teach these students and keep them interested. Students should want to go to school to learn, not to socialize. If teachers had interactive ways of teaching, I think that the students would be much more interested. Thus, there will be lower dropout rates and more high school graduates.

I also think that school boards need to find a way to teach kids at a level that they will all understand. Not all kids learn at the same speed, some kids need more help than others. This cookie cutter education that we have today is not cutting it because not every kid is learning at the same pace. There are some kids who are ready to move on, some kids who aren’t quite grasping the concept and some kids that need extra help. The more emphasis that we place on making sure that every student is on the same page, the more students will be encourage to pursue their education. In the end, it’s up to the boards, teachers, and faculty to motivate the students and up to the student to want to gain an education.

The Less Than One Percent

In the story Bartleby The Scrivener, Bartleby peacefully protests doing simple tasks, then peacefully protests doing anything at all, even leaving. The result is that he is constantly on his boss's mind. A rather unrealistic idea, seeing as any boss in this modern day would simply fire an insubordinate worker, peaceful or no, and call the police if he refused to leave. I find the comparision of Bartleby the Scrivener to the movement that has become known as "Occupy Wall Street" to be way off base. Bartleby did everything peacefully, with no violence and a kind of apathy.

Occupy Wall Street is just a gathering of unorganized and unemployed losers, with violent and often disgusting tendencies. In my brief one hour spectating of these protesters, I saw three ambulances come and leave from fighting, amongst the people proudly sporting their "We are the 99%" signs. Is that really what the majority of the 99% is like? No. For the most part, the majority of us do not fling our feces at passing escalades. My view of the protesters is that they are the less then 1% of the 99% that are useless and like to complain about it instead of going out like civilized humans and finding jobs.

Too much Occupying, not enough Protesting

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a headless monster that is lumbering about at will. It has no direct goal, no unification, no plan. It simply is. It is a diverse group ranging from the old to young, educated to uneducated, white to black. There is one thing that this group does have in common: discontent.  The “occupiers” are not happy with this country, and more importantly they are not happy with how the issues are being addressed.  Although they share discontent, they disagree on how to handle the situation; how to restore the country. This is the reason the movement has had limited success so far.

Now as not to completely discredit the movement as a whole, they have experienced some success. If one were to say “I am a 99 percenter” it can now be looked upon as a badge of honor, recognized as an actual phrase as opposed to the ramblings of a crazy person. More importantly, they are there, there are people out on the streets, voicing their opinions, picketing and holding clever signs. Seemingly like Herman Melville’s Bartleby who demanded nothing his mere existence irked those around him. That is the success of the Occupy Wall Street movement so far. Often the movement has been criticized for having no clear cut goals and no leader. Many analysts and others believe the movement will soon wither and dissipate entirely. Yet how long have the dissenters had such talk? Although the movement does not have a specific outline of goals and is a hodgepodge of people from all creeds they seem to be persistent. In the end, people have an opinion on the Occupy Wall Street movement, whether they agree or disagree, they are still talking about it.

Now as a college student, I feel obligated to be rebellious; historically college kids have always been the ones who stage the sit ins, the demonstrations, the marches, the protests. In that light I would love for the movement to gain some steam, to make some real changes. And by real changes, I mean getting me a damn job, getting my friend a job, getting the kid picking his nose next to me a job (yes, even him). As previously stated, yes the Occupy Wall Street movement is being talked about, but unemployment is still very high. Many college kids are graduating with a degree that serves better as kindling for a fire than for finding a job (okay maybe it’s not that bad). But as far as I have seen, the movement has so far been little more than a fad, a shiny new toy beginning to dull. This is an unfortunate truth and it will not be changing unless the “occupiers” form a plan and consolidate.  The powers at Washington seem unperturbed by all this “occupying” and I can guarantee that the “1 percenters” rest easy at night. Maybe once the media labels the movement “Going Apeshit on Wall Street” the protests will begin to produce real results. Until then, they can “March on Washington” all they want.

Bartleby is Weird

            It seems like no one can figure out this story and what Herman Melville was trying to accomplish with this story.  Going off of the discussion in class on Thursday, I think that Bartleby was just a weird guy.  He would not be the kind of guy that I would want working for me.  He is lazy and is gets paid to do absolutely nothing.  I know that he needed a place to stay and if he were to be fired he would be out on the streets.  Bartleby is kind of a charity case.  I think that I would fire him but try to either to help find him a place to live or continue allowing him to live out of the office.  Morally I do not think that I could just let him kick him out and leave him homeless.

          

           “I’d prefer not to;” a simple statement that seems innocent enough but confuses everyone.  He throws the rules out the window it seems and he does not have any work ethics.  Why would he have a job if he was not planning on working? I think people should do a job that they actually enjoy. At the same time, however, the attorney does not follow through and push him to do anything.  He just backs down.  He gets so fed up with Bartleby that he has to move out and let Bartleby win basically.

            

           I would feel uncomfortable around him because of the way he takes people out of their comfort zone.  He is repetitive and tries to push things to their limits.  I think he enjoys confusing people to try to achieve a power shift.  He does not like to be touched or talk much.  Why do you think this is?  Ann brought up the idea that he could be autistic.  I do not know if that is the case but I think that it is something to strongly consider.

            

           Overall, I do not like this story because it makes people confused and think about it way too much.  I prefer more straightforward stories that have clear explanations. 

What if Ipads relace text books.

During a class discussion last week I was interested in the use of video games put into classrooms, which led me to do some research. I found that the in some states the idea of replacing text books with ipads is a high possibility in the near future. To see a new link about Georgia pushing forward watch this http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/ipads-may-replace-books-in-georgia-schools-020111 . I think this would be a good move forwards for this county. It would save a lot of paper because any text is digitally in front of the student along with handouts. Students will become more organized; allowing them to find their homework and due dates’ easily. This could also prevent the students from cheating off of homework because other student would not hand off their ipad.

A problem about funding could concern some people but with crunching numbers and knowing that no more money would be spent on handouts, or copy machines the budget could easily be made. For a quick comparison of prices one tablet my cost up to $600, meanwhile one book can coast $500, this is not much of a difference and with state funding towards education ipad are a realistic thought in today’s schools.    

So from thinking how video games could help a student’s education, think about what the student can accomplish with a tablet in their possession. A child’s reading skills could improve because the public library is a touch away rather than down the street. Also a child’s ability to read new articles from other states is in their hands. I think replacing school text books with ipads would be a great way for student’s to expand their learning horizons. This will give an updated, fun twist to the way school is looked at by the future adults of America.    

So there's talk about bringing video games into classrooms. This could be a great idea and a horrible one at the same time. It would catch more students attention and they would be more eager and excited to learn. It would also be a distraction because, obviously, everything cannot be taught in video games so it would be hard for the students to focus.

Social Networking Sites

This blog doesn't really have to do with what we have discussed in class, but I think it is very important. Social networking sites are a part of almost everyone's lives today. They are pretty much taking over the communication world. I personally think that they should be eliminated from the Internet. I really don't think this will ever happen, but if it did it would be a very good thing. I have a Facebook, so I know what social networking sites are like. It is just a huge gossip site pretty much. The only good thing about them is that families who live far away can communicate for free (you can do this on Skype for free too). Whenever you hear about these sites it is always bad news. It is usually a kid killing himself over online bullying, or a school having to create a fake Facebook to see what their student's are really doing. That bully is only a bully through their computer screens.
Which brings up another point; face-to-face communication is spiraling downward. What is the need to talk to someone in person when you can just message them on a networking site? Students get in front of their class for a speech and freak out now more than ever.
This can also be a scary thing. These people don't know who they are really talking to. There is no proof that the person your messaging is that person or some crazy murderer. "Let's meet up." And when the meeting up and face-to-face contact actually happens it could turn out horrible.
I do admit that people are being smarter about these kinds of things and parents are warning their children, but it would be much easier if these social sites were eliminated.
Kids will play outside like they use to instead of sitting in front of the computer screen, crime over the Internet won't be so high, and we can bring back face-to-face communication. I am probably the only person my age who wants to get rid of these sites, but oh well I guess I am just old school!