sited sorces

“At any rate my buoyant young poet was radiantly intrigued with this coincidence.”  (19).

Stand and deliver

“(These actions show) students a lack of evidence, an ideological agenda, and political motivation supersede students’ academic growth, identity, hope, and belief in a whole world” (21).

Dead Poets society   

“Our students are critical thinkers” counters Acosta (21).

“In an interview with Spank Rock … Mos Def states.” (59595959.

Kieth, Gilurd "Children, Arts, and Du Bois." The Counsel Chronicle.  National Council of Teachers of English. Sept 2012  Web 3 Dec. 2013.

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramón Menéndez. Perf. Ramón Menéndez, Tom Musca,. ?, 1988. Film. 

"Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies Program"by Deb Anderson (210.

draft thing

While all schools K-12 have bits and pieces that are not there, I believe that all K-12 schools should have a wide variety of during and after school programs that are part of their curriculum. Too many schools do not have all of the learning material needed for children to completely learn new things. To many schools have a set few extra courses that are the same things that the students are used to from previous years, thereby not learning anything new at all. The one thing that I would change about the current K-12 school curriculum is the amount of classes and after school activities offered at them from few, to many.

The lack of variety in classes can be seen in many different schools. Likewise the affects if not having a wide variety of classes, or taking away classes/extra-curricular activities. Such is the case in the article “Children, Arts, and Du Bois" by Keith Gilyard, (quote) this is the very reason why we need more classes and activities offered in all K-12 classes. Through this after school program the girl learned about poetry, she learned that she liked it, she learned that she could write it well, and she learned about a new author she had never heard of.  

“At any rate my buoyant young poet was radiantly intrigued with this coincidence.”  (19).

Stand and deliver

“(These actions show) students a lack of evidence, an ideological agenda, and political motivation supersede students’ academic growth, identity, hope, and belief in a whole world” (21).

Dead Poets society   

“Our students are critical thinkers” counters Acosta (21).

“In an interview with Spank Rock … Mos Def states.” (59595959.

Kieth, Gilurd "Children, Arts, and Du Bois." The Counsel Chronicle.  National Council of Teachers of English. Sept 2012  Web 3 Dec. 2013.

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramón Menéndez. Perf. Ramón Menéndez, Tom Musca,. ?, 1988. Film.  

"Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies Program"by Deb Anderson (210.

“Stand and Deliver” movie

“Dead Poet Society” movie

  

Gato and Freire compair and contrast.

In our reading of “Against School” by John Gatto, and “The Banking Method of Education” by Paulo Frier, you begin to see a comparison in-between the two articles. Although the comparison ends with both of them agreeing that students who are uninterested to learn will not learn. John Gatto states that “Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as I often did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it.” Basically he is saying that his students were completely uninterested in their topics and were unwilling to do their work. He then only further displays this idea by writing “They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around.” This idea that students need to stay curious and want to learn is mirrored in “The Banking Method of Education” where Paulo Frier states that “The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the student's creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the oppressors, who care neither to have the world revealed nor to see it transformed.” By forcing students to learn new things that the already know and cramming it in their minds, the students begin to dislike learning and loose their imagination to education. Now in y opinion the comparison ends hear. From the rest of Gattos article he only berates teachers and puts the blaming them as the first step to bad students “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers, and anyone who has spent time in a teachers' lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there.” He is basically saying that all teachers teach students to be bored and hate school. This is contradicted in Paulo Frier’s article where he states that the teachers and the students need to reach a mutual agreement on learning, “From the outset, her efforts must coincide with those of the students to engage in critical thinking and the quest for mutual humanization. His efforts must be imbued with a profound trust in people and their creative power. To achieve this, they must be partners of the students in their relations with them.” So in the end both Frier and Gatto agreed on one thing, but they also have ideas that completely contradict each other.

ranked suggestion 1-5 and the reasoning behnd each article

At the top of the list we would have to give the suggestion of having many after school programs as suggested in "Children, Arts, and Du Bois" by Kieth Gilurd at the top of the list. At the beginning of the article it is explained how Kieth went to a school to observe the after school program, you learn the story of a child that gets interested in a poet that Kieth brings up. Then you learn that the program will be cut, and like Kieth suggests the children will loose their new interests and begin to fail. Think about all of the new ideas and learning opprotunites that will be given to children if they are able to find their interests in a after school program. The child mentioned in the article only finds out about De Bois only because of the after school program, and with the turn of a pen all of the potential knowledge that that child could have learned about poetry is taken away from them only to save some money. The more frightening thing is that after school programs all over the country are getting cut and more knowledge is being forcibly taken form children.

Next on the list is from Bell hooks article "Teaching critical thinking". in this article it is explained how critical thinking is not being taught at schools to young children at a young age and the repercussions of this, those repercussions being that children loose their wanting to think for themselves and loose the ability to think critically which could solve the problems of  children. Being able to think is a great tool, it helps children to grow up to want to think and actually use their brains instead of being pack mules where knowledge is forcibly piled on them and they are expected to keep it forever. Through the processes of not teaching critical thinking children loose the wanting to think and those loose the potential to learn on their own.

After this would come "Gift of Grit" by Jerry Large, in this article Large proposes the idea of teaching grit to students. He solidifies this by giving examples of different students in school form a rich school and a primarily poor and minority school. What he found is that the students who attended the rich school got better grades and test scores that the poorer school and sent more kids to college, but they soon would fail due to the lack of experience and choices that they did not get at their school due to them always being hand held by teachers and sheltered. While;e the poor school had worse test scores, and sent less students to college, yet the ones who did make it had an easier time because they were forced to learn on their own and the learned "Street smarts". I do agree with this idea, i belie that students do need to be taught the ability to persevere and get though school without having their hand held all of the time, so we can avoid the students from failing in the future.

In spot number four is "Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies Program"by Deb Anderson. This article is about how the state of Arizona gets rid of a extracurricular class on Hispanic american studies. The program was a success in that it inspired students of Hispanic american origins to do better in school and it had the numbers in graduation and college bound kids to back it up. "Ninety-seven percent of students participating in the program graduated from school, compared to the 44 percent nationally." While i do believe that having extra courses such ad this is important the reason behind why it is lower on the list is because that my first choice "Children, Arts, and Du Bois" by Kieth Gilurdtouches this topic on a more broad range saying that more of every kind of extracurricular class is needed unlike in this article where it only talks about the situation that happened not the topic it represents.

Lastly  would come Barry Boyce's article "A Real Education" where it is promoted that students should be able to have a class that calms them down and gives them peace of mind. He gives examples form Mark Greenberg, director of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development at Penn State University and his research which has yielded results and happiness to the students and parents who got involved in mind calming exercises. This helps people not get overheated or over frustrated on school and work. This in essence is a good thing, calm people are happy people and happy people do their work.   

What I think High School is for and What I would change

High School is a place where most people begin to mature and learn more about themselves along with what they truly are interested in. It is also a playground for teenagers to experiment with finding new or better friends along with what group they will put themselves with. But beyond most I believe high school is the place where we begin to understand what we want to learn and what we want to do as adults. Through the different classes that are offered at high schools teenagers get a wider pool of knowledge to pull from and learn from it and only if they so choose. It is through this idea that we learn what we want to study or do in life that I believe that we need to change the amount of after school or extracurricular activities we have from few or none, to many to choose from. If high school students are given a chance to experience different things and learn about new stuff they had never thought about, and through this they may figure out what they truly want to do. For an example have a poetry class so students can learn about poetry and learn how to write it, or have a technical class or separate school close by so students can learn what it is like to work in a mechanic shop. Offer multiple languages not just one or two but five or six other languages and teach how knowing more than just one or two languages can benefit in a business job setting for students who want to go into business, offer a business class. All in all the changes I would like would probably make most high schools look like a small public college, but this is good. Again I cannot stress how important I think it is to offer multiple different types of classes and after school activities to students so they can see the many things life has to offer.

Groups top two

At the top of the list we would have to give the suggestion of having many after school programs as suggested in "Children, Arts, and Du Bois" by Kieth Gilurd at the top of the list. At the beginning of the article it is explained how Kieth went to a school to observe the after school program, you learn the story of a child that gets interested in a poet that Kieth brings up. Then you learn that the program will be cut, and like Kieth suggests the children will loose their new interests and begin to fail. Think about all of the new ideas and learning opportunities  that will be given to children if they are able to find their interests in a after school program. The child mentioned in the article only finds out about De Bois only because of the after school program, and with the turn of a pen all of the potential knowledge that that child could have learned about poetry is taken away from them only to save some money. The more frightening thing is that after school programs all over the country are getting cut and more knowledge is being forcibly taken form children. Next on the list is from Bell hooks article "Teaching critical thinking". in this article it is explained how critical thinking is not being taught at schools to young children at a young age and the repercussions of this, those repercussions being that children loose their wanting to think for themselves and loose the ability to think critically which could solve the problems of  children. Being able to think is a great tool, it helps children to grow up to want to think and actually use their brains instead of being pack mules where knowledge is forcibly piled on them and they are expected to keep it forever. Through the processes of not teaching critical thinking children loose the wanting to think and those loose the potential to learn on their own.

Paolo

Paulo Freire talks on curiosity does compares to the reading "Banking Method of Education" in many ways. In the video he explains how students and teachers need to stay curious about learning and never need to stop learning. In Freier's writing he also explains a similar idea, he explains how teachers need to be open to students when it comes to learning as well as students staying open minded to teachers when it comes to learning as well. In the video Frier also explains that teachers need to help students understand that their thinking and opinions are as interesting and "Beautiful" as the teachers. This idea is also agreed upon in his writing, Freire talks about the banking method of learning and how it doesn't help students understand the teacher or thri way of teaching, it forces students to be force feed ideas and not given the opportunity to explain themselves. Freire als otouches apon the idea of letting the students speak and to encourage them to speak, again this idea is shadowed in his writing on how the "Banking Method" of learning is not the right one.

section 3 notes

How public education cripples our kids, and why

I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom. Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as I often did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn't seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren't interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were every bit as bored as they were.

I believe that in John Grotto’s work “Against School”, he is explaining how the current school system we have now is not teaching anything to students. “They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it.” Here he explains that the students feel that they learn nothing, he explains how the students feel about their work which obviously is not good.  “They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn't seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren't interested in learning more.” And here he explains how the students wanted to learn new things but were not able to due to the teachers not knowing their own subject or wanting to learn more about it themselves. “Teachers were every bit as bored as they were.” Lastly here he explains the problem. If the teachers are as bored as the students then the students will not learn anything because there is no instinctive to learn.  

We agree that Gatto is right but wrong, with opinion. In the writing there are many examples of bias due to his experience in Manhattan.  “I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom.” Here he generalizes all schools with what he learned or experienced in Manhattan. “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers” Again this is bias from what he learns, and this is his personal belief. Yes in school there are good teachers and bad teachers, but to claim all of them to be “Bored” is unfair, and not right. “Of course, teachers are themselves products of the same twelve-year compulsory school programs that so thoroughly bore their students,” Yes it is true that the teachers come from the same school system as us, but all teachers come from a different era and area of school from us, which makes their school experience different from ours. “Who wouldn't get bored teaching students who are rude and interested only in grades? If even that.” While this is true for the most part in teachers who have the misfortune of having a bad class, some teacher do not find this as an excuse and actually make the students thrive. This idea of teachers taking a “Bad” class as a challenge and then turn around and make the students thrive can be seen in the Jaime Escalante case where he turned a class of students who would have dropped out and help them thrive in school. 

My Experience in high school VS Gatto's

High school was a wired thing for me, like most other people, it had its ups and downs and all a round’s, but for the most part it was good. My first high school was Kinnick high school on the U.S navy base in Yokosuka Japan. I didn't like it much at first, I was hazed by the other African American students for not conforming the “Black” stereotype on a daily bases. But they still used me when they needed help with homework. I was also hazed by the Philippine American group, again for not conforming to the “black” stereotype. It is also at this school where I would learn to grow up. As you can imagine constantly being hazed every day changes you, I didn’t conform to the stereotype they wanted me to be, but I did (through a series of successful and unsuccessful attempts” to gain their respect. I was able to gain respect by loosening up on topics and in my attitude in general. I pulled the metaphorical stick out of my ass as they would say, well without the metaphorical part. I actually got to know people and people got to know me, I also took part in volunteering opportunities through our JROTC program and through the Red Cross program, this got some of the student’s attention and people respected me for working for something bigger than myself. Still I was made fun of every now and then. But just when I thought I had gained the school status I wanted, my family and I were transferred to here to Washington. I would finish my high school years here in Washington and to some things up I loved it. I took part in school sports for the first time and got to meet tons of people through that, my classes were easy to me, I loved the teachers, and I got extra attention (both good and bad) from the students and teachers being one of the seven African American students at the school. All in all I love high school, I grew up in high school and learned tons of things I never knew. Now as you can see my high school experience was the complete opposite of what Grotto has written. He calls high school a place where students don’t learn anything and is boring, if this is true then why do I see so many smiles whenever I was at high school, why did I hear so many laughs? Why did I see so many happy people? Why you ask, because people were happy when they were at school, well for the most part anyway. Now when it comes to learning he may have a point, but learning is not totally at fault of the school or the program, most learning comes from how much the students want to learn. If the student does not want to learn then they won’t, you can’t force a student to learn. Some learning disability is at fault of the school though, bad teachers can hinder the learning ability of already bad students. It also makes students who don’t want to learn lose faith in the educational system and drop out.  Also I am not happy how he bases all high schools on his experience, it opens up for bias and makes him sound like an awful teacher, in my opinion. Also he claims that teachers have the same high school experience as the students, and again this is wrong, teachers are people to, people with different experiences and looks on life. Also there is a time difference between teachers and students, and as we know new things are being taught to students every year. So claiming that the teachers and the students have the same school experience is bogus.   All in all I do not agree completely with what Gotto is trying to say about high school, and my high school experience was completely opposite of what Grotto wrote in the paper we read as a class.  

Essay 2 draft/ completed work.

Paul Bradley

English 101

The Comparison of Two Phenomenal Teachers

In this world there are two types of teachers, those that are good and those that are not good. A good teacher can adapt to their students learning ability and will constantly encourage students to do better. A bad teacher will do one way of teaching and one way of teaching only, they do not care about their students at all. I have had many teachers in my journey through school. But out of all of those teachers two stick out to me, to teachers who have had great impacts in my ability to learn. They were both great teachers and I am happy that I have had them.

Enter junior year of high school in AP US history, our introduction "In my class you will learn. Those who do not like my teaching can leave now. Those who stay though... will learn more about US history than any other group in this school." This came from a short woman with a manly haircut, those who did not know that she was married to a guy would assume she was swinging for the other team based on appearance alone. If you based her off of her attitude, which only further made people believe she was lesbian, you would be greeted by a mannerism that reflected her hardened 30 years of military experience perfectly, also you would think she was a guy. My first impressions were not the greatest I believed she would only do things her way and didn't care about her student. Greatly to my surprise Mrs. Smith ended up being a very helpful and inspiring teacher. Mrs. Smith took teaching in the same manner I believe she used during her military career, to the point and very very efficient. She would put up visual aids when ever she gave a lecture, provide interesting and funny facts about history, and made sure we were always paying attention and learned. Another amazing thing about her was her ability to learn what every kid was like in her class. About two weeks in she classified me as the kid who “Asks a ton of question, most of which are good the other’s make you sound like a kindergartener learning the lies and false facts about U.S history that sound good in the books.” But she encouraged me asking worthwhile questions, after every slide in her lecture without even looking she would say, “Paul, have any questions?” and before I could answer she would say “Make sure their not stupid or ones you can answer yourself.” This would cause me to think before asking questions and it got me to the point of only asking worthwhile questions. Another great trait she had was encouraging students to come in after or before school to get help on homework or make up quizzes. I would always go in after school to get help for her tests and to get help with homework. She would not complain about it at all she would only say “Either you care a lot about your studies, or you don’t have a life.” This humor of hers would always pop up in our class and would help lighten the mood. She never complained about teaching, she treated us like adults, and at least to me she was a building block that helped me get better in my studies in general. She would never let me quit at something, she would always say “Look, you have been in this class for a semester and you want to quit now? After all you have done you just want to quit, that’s it no questions about it. Fine if you want to be stupid and wasteful with your talents and waste my time with bad work, fine just quit it would save me time anyway. Or you could stop turning in garbage, re do your old work better, do more extra credit and get the grade you deserve and have worked hard for to get.” She never let me just give up she always made me press on and continue to do good in her class. This I would assume would come from her hardened year in the military.

In school some teachers would always throw biases about what classes you should take the next year. I was told that if I took pre-calculus that I would be more wanted by colleges. The only thing is, they do not tell you that this class will only count if you can get an A or better in it. Needless to say I got suckered in by this idea and I regretted it, that is until I would meet the best math teacher of my life, that teacher is Mr. Pochop. On the first day I expected to be bombarded with work that I couldn’t possibly understand, by a teacher that was uncaring if students. To my surprise I got what appeared to be Steve Jobs walking from one side to the other of a power point and advertising his new product, pre-calculus. Mr. Pochop was a heavier set tall man that was over enthusiastic about teaching to my opinion the most boring class to teach. But despite all of my disliking towards math, I was won over by Mr. Pochops ability to come in guns blazing with the high octane sugar rush of a fifth grader, in other words he was very excited to teach math. He never spoke quietly, he always had my attention, and he never let me stay confused about a question. He was inspiring, at one point I talked to him about dropping out of pre-calculus to which he answered “You know what pre-calculus, actually math in general is not for everyone. Some people get it and some people don’t. But I think that you get it you just need another spark to ignite the fire. How’s about you come in after or before school for some help. If things don’t get any better I will let you drop out. But if things go like I believe they will, I look forward to seeing you in my class next quarter.” This speech he gave me not only inspired me to go in after class, but it also got me to like math. As confusing as it is with Mr. Pochop’s help I found math fun. I began to see massive improvements in my grade and through all of this I found out that MR. Pochop does not just like teaching math, but he likes teaching in general. Every time I would go in for help there would always be two or three other students also getting his help, and by the end of it all we all began to get math more and more. He never complained about spending more time with students after school, he never complained about sacrificing his sleep time to come to school early to help students, he only greeted us with a smile and said “Alright what do we got to do today” he was an amazing teacher, one that without I would have definitely dropped the class.

When I look back at the memories I have of both of these great effigies and models of the teaching system, I see the similarities and comparisons. Either teachers were good to students and cared about them, both never let me or other students quit, both volunteered their time to students when they could easily just go home, and bot inspired me to do better. IF not for both of these teachers I believe I would have not learned nearly as much as I did, nor would I have the same good feelings when it comes to the teaching system. When all is said and done both Mrs. Smith and Mr. Pochop are extraordinary teacher that go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to teaching, and I am happy that I have had them in my life as a student.