Rose and Black Comparison (11/21)

Both Rose and Black agree that kids need more of a challenge. We think that the “magic bullet” (Rose) is charter schools but we cannot rely on charter schools. Black also believes charter schools are the best for challenging students. Rose and Black both point out that we cannot rely on charter schools. Clips from “Waiting for Superman” are used to support Black’s dialogue of charter schools; kids get into charter schools through a lottery system. It is pure luck that kids get into charter schools: if they don’t get in they are funneled into less reliable public schools. As Rose points out, we cannot rely on the “magic bullet” of charter schools, because the majority of students do go to public schools.

Black points out, via a clip from “Waiting for Superman”, that American teenagers are 25^th in the world for math and science and #1 in confidence. Rose has a related point: “To stop the accountability train long enough to define what we mean by “achievement” and what it should mean in a democratic society. Is it a rise in test scores? Is it getting a higher rank in international comparisons? Or should it be more?” Should we look at the “25^th in the world” standing and be shocked by it? According to Black we are #1 in the world but ranked extremely low in test scores. The question we should be asking is why is that? To reform the education system we need to find out what is wrong, and also what is right with the education system.

The most important similarity between Rose and Black is how they both agree on challenging students. One of Rose’s calls to action is that we need “more young people getting an engaging and challenging education.”

What do you think HS is for? (11/19)

            I think high school is for getting students ready to go to get into college, and to complete schoolwork. Not many kids from my high school went straight into the work force. So, we all prepared ourselves to write quality college application essays, learn calculus, and to learn enough history and social sciences to deem ourselves well informed. In today’s society, a bachelor’s degree has become equivalent to a high school degree (compared to forty years ago), and a graduate degree has become equivalent to a bachelor’s degree. To be “successful” in life, students need to go to college, and high school is just a steppingstone to college. Even if one would want to go into the workforce sooner than four years, a community college would be the best option for them because at a CC they could get technical training.

            I don’t necessarily believe that high schools should switch the curriculum to offer more technical skills courses, but I think high schools should prepare students emotionally to go out into the “real world”. Students should be treated as adults in order for them to grow up into the adults we want them to be. This means, adults should not coddle students or hold their hands in order for them to succeed. There needs to be a balance between too much pressure and too little adversity. In an optimal environment, students will be able to grow into the adults we want them to be, and also be successful students.

Quotes and Sentences

In the article “Gift of Grit, Curiosity help Kids Succeed: Character Helps Kids Succeed and it can be Taught”, Jerry Large, Seattle Times columnist writes, “A big part of building character is overcoming failure. Too much adversity is bad, but so is too little, which doesn't allow a child to build grit.”

John Gatto questions in his article “Against School”, “Could it be that our schools are designed to make sure not one of them every really grows up?

Gatto makes a call for action to parents, writing, "School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers. School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently."

According to Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator and philosopher, "Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated account. Worse yet, it turns them into "containers," into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teachers.

They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world. – Freire

How do pages 32-37 relate to P#3? (11/14)

Although the section "Argument" is most closely related to the paper (as we are making an argument in our third paper), all sections (Classification, Comparison/Contrast, and Cause/Effect) all pertain to Paper 3. Classification is necessary in order to clarify facts and points in the argument. There needs to be explanation in the argument to make it clear, and therefore valid. If a paper is not clear, the argument will not taken seriously. I think Compariosn and/or Contrast is one of the most important factors in writing a persuasive essay. When I write persuasive essays I like to bring up a counterpoint, then make an argument for my points. In this section it has an example "Mom's vs. Dad's Form of Discipline". If I were "Mom", and arguing that my form a discipline were better, I would make an argument for my way, then bring up "Dad's" form of discipline, explain why my way is better, then reiterate my argument (or make conclusions for my argument). It creates a strong argument that doesn't leave the audiences thinking, "but what about that other way....". Cause and/or Effect is the last section; to evaluate why something happens and how that even occurred is essential to an argument. If one cannot identify why/how the situation occured, an argument cannot be really formed at all. In Paper 3, we should all (briefly) evaluate why the education system is how it is, instead of jumping into how to make it better.

Freire and Gatto (11/14)

Freire and Gatto agree on most points. The one that stands out to me the most is how students are passively learning. They simply take in what the teacher in telling them to learn. The education system is for shaping children into what "society" wants them to be, which is easily manipulated and adaptable.
Gatto: Our schools are... factories in which the raw products (children) are to be ahped and fashioned.... And it is the business of the school to build its pupils according to the specifications laid down."
Gatto: "Is it possible that George W. Bush accidentally spoke the truth when he said we would "leave no child left behind'? Could it be that our schools are designed to make sure not one of them every really grows up?" (By this, Gatto is referring to our lack or curiosity to challenge ideas and notions in society. We are ignorant to the fact that we are being manipulated.)
Freire: "Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated account. Worse yet, it turns them into "containers," into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teachers. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teachers she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are."
Freire: "It is not surprising that the banking concept of education regards men as adaptable, manageable beings. The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them."

Another point on which Freire and Gatto agree upon is how we should all learn how to think critically. We should be judgmental of the information that is bestowed upon us.
Gatto: "School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers. School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently."
Freire: "Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world. They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world. "Problem-posing" education, responding to the essence of consciousness --intentionality -- rejects communiques and embodies communication. It epitomizes the special characteristic of consciousness: being conscious of, not only as intent on objects but as turned in upon itself in a Jasperian split" --consciousness as consciousness of consciousness."

My HS experience vs Gatto (11/12)

I don't think my High School experience was very much like how Gatto claimed high school to be. My teachers were always challenging me to challenge what people said, and to argue my point. In literature classes we were always discussing the piece of text; we never just took it as it is. Even in history classes we read multiple points of view of the same event. In history, we cannot really argue the "truth" but we could understand multiple sides. Of course, in math and science class, which we based on "facts" I took the material how it was. In those subjects we learned how the scientific community knows the subjects. (Now, in college, when I started doing scientific research we actually were able to prove and disprove theories.) Gatto argues that high school is just a passive learning experience. Maybe for some students learning is taking in information to get good grades. But if students want to be more active in the learning process they do challenge the ideas they are learning.

Gatto - Small Groups Discuss (11/12)

#8. Gatto states, "We have become a nation of children".

What does he mean by this?
    By this, Gatto means that we have become impulsive, ignorant, and innocent to the world around us. WE do not need to work hard, we do not need self-control, and we do not need to entertain ourselves. Everything has been provided for us in a way that we do not need to think anymore. We are so manipulated by politicians and commercials; we are passively thinking that everything said to us is true.

What, according to Gatto, would it mean to be adults as opposed to children?
     According to Gatto, we would need to challenge the ideas of others, as opposed to believing everything told to us. We need to judge what we have heard before deciding that it is true.

What should we be doing to ensure that our children are given the opportunity to grow up?
      To ensure that our children are given the opportunity to grow up we need to teach our children to think "critically and independently". We also need to teach them to entertain themselves, and enjoy solitude - children now seek companionship through the media, which is teaching them to always dependent on these technologies. Also, challenge your children with "grown-up" materials, such as "history, literature, philosophy, music, art, economics, theology."