Large, Boyce, Gilyard, Aronsen and hooks

1. Large's article is a nice change of perspective because he is not writing about his own work but instead a book written by Paul Tough called, "How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character". He describes the need to build character in order to help students succeed rather then focusing on academic acheivement. According to Large, Paul Tough supports his opinion with research and backs that up with real live experience as a parent.

5. In Boyce's article he  stresses the need for as Mark Greenburg states it, "Kindness, caring, empathy, being able to de-center from your own point of view and listen deeply to others..." Mark Greenburg is the director of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development at Penn State University. The atricle explains that yoga, meditation and even parenting classes can all help students succeed by helping them control their emotions and have greater empathy for others.

2. In "Children, Art's, and Du Bois", Keith Gilyard follows the trend of the previous articles in which he calls for changes in our school system. He does remark that "I take no position against science, technology, engineering, and mathematics efforts" . The changes he asked for are to stop cutting programs that encourage creativity such as the after school program he mentions in the first few paragraphs of his article.

3. Deb Aronson's article discusses MAS (Mexican American Studies" which was a program started in 1995 in Tuscon, Arizona. The program was intended "to improve retention and graduation rates among Mexican Americans," The program was cancelled due to statements by Arizona politicians claiming the program biased Mexican Americans against mainstream culture with the books chosen in the program. While students protested with marches, addressing the school board and even chaining themselves to chairs at meetings. In her article teachers are encouraged teachers to reach out to parents and the community about the books they are teaching. She even expresses frustration about the involvement of people who are not trained in education setting policy that affects education.

4. bell hooks, who stands out simply because of how she spells her name has a compelling narrative. She states that "Sadly, children's passion for thinking often ends when they encounter a world that seeks to educate them for conformity and obedience" I agree with her on that point, we are encouraged towards creativity only if it does not intervene with the required math, science and technical classes/training. hooks asks for schools to encourage critical thinking, a good relationship between teacher and student as well as an open mind. According to hooks this encourages students to learn and pushes students to "think passionately and share ideas in a passionate open manner."

Small Group Post 11-21-13

Freire discussed his concerns  about education in his paper, "The Banking Concept". One of the issues he mentions the training of the American students into worker drones or "adaptable manageable beings".  This is proved by the following statement: "It is not surprising that the banking....." (pg. 2) In "Chalk" this is backed up by Mr. Lowery trying to control his class and gain their respect he checked out a book on classroom management.

Gatto's main point in "Against School" was that American kids are being pushed to conform with standards set in the 1910's. There is a tendancy towards as a Gatto"forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years" (pg. 2) The documentary Chalk supports this point clearly when one of Mr. Stroope's female students disrespect him because she is bored with the class and curriculum.

Lewis Black, a comedian, discusses in the video "Back to Black" how American schools are "broken". "NBC dedicates one week to education and 51 weeks to incarceration." He further goes on to summarize the failure of the American system by describing it as "We are 25th in math, 21st in science. We fall behind in almost every topic except confidence. Who needs science, math and physics if he'd had a little more confidence he'd have cleared the roof."He and Mr. Stroope both utilized humor to make people pay attention and to motivate them.

In "Resolutions Someone Should Make for 2011" Mike Rose discuses the need to measure students and teachers success by improvement and knowledge instead of test scores. He explains it as "To stop making the standardized test score the gold-standard of student achievement and teacher effectiveness." In Chalk this is supported by Mr. Lowery's improved realaesionship with student which effected their desire to learn in his class. When his relesionship with them exceeded his exspectations his own personal confidence grew.

Similarities between Black and Rose

When I watched the video of Lewis Black, who it should be noted is a comedian not an educator,  I was immediately struck by the passion he showed about his subject. He honestly seemed to care about what to him is the despicable state of the American education system. He calls our schools "broken". He believe schools should not be too complex, he jokes that he "went to school in a Pal Mal. He frequently returns to the lack of commitment, when NBC kicked off their "Education Week" they told people to walk into schools even if their children didnt attend and to ask how they could help. Lewis Black immediately jumps on that statements saying, "Seriously! What kind of idiot just walks into the school and says I'm totally unqualified but I wanna help!" He finishes the clip with a not so encouraging statistic aimed at making us feel stupid. As a narrator explains the fact that out of 30 countries we ranked 25 in math and 21 in science that at least we were number one in confidence we are shown a clip of a stunt rider successfully launching himself of a ramp but then slamming into a rooftop. I understand that as a comedian his approach is to use humor to get his point across but sometimes a little seriousness is needed.

Contrastingly Mike Rose is more concerned with, and I quote, "To have more young people get an engaging and challenging education". That is a goal I share and I must admit that I find Mike Rose's approach a lot more appealing, it's less of a rant and more of an actual conversation. He continues in his narrative to explain the need to stop defining students by test scores and instead by actual achievement. He puts it this way, "To stop making the standardized test score the gold-standard of student achievement and teacher effectiveness." 

What is high school for?

What is high school for? The differences in opinion are drastic. The majority seem to believe that the typical 4 years of high school is to prepare for college. The classes taken in high school include Math, Science, and English as the primary classes. The desired course seems to have each student emerge from the halls of their high school with as basic a skill set as possible so we can be trained for any future career with no obstacles. This is difficult for me to accept. High school to me is a time to prepare for the degree you intend to study in college. Most people have chosen a major or two to focuses their studies on by junior or at least senior year. That decision means that the student can choose classes in high school that will enhance their college applications. If they are trying to get into a college that is inclined to accept freshmen who are good at math then taking extra or more accelerated would help. This is sometimes made hard by the graduation requirements which stipulate taking a certain number of each type of class. This includes, at least in Washington, 3 years of Math, 3 of English and so on. Succeeding in high school requires a balancing act between the classes needed to graduate and the classes the students needs to take to help prepare for their college major.

Notes on "Chalk" 11-19-13

First teacher is a history teacher, his name is Andrew Lowery.
1st Rule: Show Up
2nd Rule: Bring Paper
Reads with the students "History is society, tech, politics, culture.
He is slightly awkward, teaching for an hour and 10 min
When you are in this classroom you should show each other respect
Can't control classroom
Checks out books on classroom management
Tries to add in humor, make classroom more lively
Bonds with students over "Spelling Hornet", spelling bee of slang words. They coach him and he wins
At the end if the year he is a lot more relaxed with students
Being a teacher is a gift, maybe its something you can learn but no one's taught me
He 

Then there is Coach Lindsay Webb who does trust falls, 2 year P.E, she feels like you depend on other teachers to help.
People have assumed she is gay, she is straight
Thinks students will rise to expectations, students who aren't active will try if they think you believe they can do it
Tries to make her students comfortable
I have found myself interested in someone, we are not alike, i enjoy work more, looks forward to seeing him
Coaches volleyball
Bothered that no one remembers tardy policy
Learned that she is a little opinionated, needs to change approach

Mr. Stroope, 3rd year history,  takes pictures away from a student to get back later, asks about summer stories, what his students did.
Goals from last year:
Sarcasm
Cleanliness, organization
Lesson Plans, due Friday before they are due to be taught
They say don't be their friend, but have a relationship
I want my student to know I care
Tells teacher to stop using school funds etc
Wants to be teacher of the year
Got nominated for teacher of the year, he lost but turned it into a good lesson for students but the loses it yells at students
I lost the election but whats worse is I lost it in front of class

Asistent Principal, didn't expect to be AP, is unsure, best friend of P.E teacher
Is getting home after 10, hasn't had sex in 3 weeks
Seems to be getting to hang of the new job
Relationship with husband seems better
Friendship with gym teacher strained
Misses teaching
The teacher eat lunch together and discuss class, describe math in non a comforting ways
Number 1,2,3 up to 57 is home. 58 is school

My HS exsperience vs Gatto

My high school teachers were a mix of confusing, by the book, and just plain weird. The "confusing" teacher tended to like their subject but not have the practical skills needed to control a classroom. The "by the book" teacher could control their classrooms but they stifled creativity. The "just plain weird" teacher seem to be the most fun as well as the best balance of discipline and actual learning. Gatto summerises in his paper the apparent inability of the US school system to encourage each students potential. Instead he believes we stifle our students and attempt to mold them into what we think society needs, a small percent of skilled laborers and a large, docile workforce. Fortunately this has not be my experience with teachers as a whole. I have had enough teachers who are willing to let their students mold themselves rather then shape them into little suit wearing office drones.Gatto makes some good points about the US school system but the way he presents his ideas comes off with a little too much fire and brimstone for my taste. If you want to persuade someone to change a system as large and complex as the US school system you need to use honey, not threaten them with hell.

Discussion Question 4 on John Gatto's "Against School"

According to Gatto we believe:  We have been taught (that is, schooled) in this country to think of "success" as synonymous with, or at least dependent upon, "schooling," but historically that isn't true in either an intellectual or a financial sense.

5 Sentences:
1: I don't mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary?
2.  School trains children to be employees and consumers
3. School trains children to obey reflexively
4.  The aim.. . is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.
5.First, though, we must wake up to what our schools really are: laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands.

The purpose of education should be to encourage and developed the individual talents of each child, in there future career.

Paper #2

When I started school I was a daydreamer, it earned me several demerits on my grade reports. My parents had to talk to me several times about it. By 3^rd grade I was pulling out a book the moment I finished my work, to be fair I would occasionally read first and complete the homework later. If I was not interested by the topic I tuned out. I preferred to immerse myself other worlds, Harry Potter, Redwall and many more. My teachers scolded but as I showed that my work would be completed they allowed me to read, they preferred that occupation to that of a troublemaker.  As I entered middle school I was still a voracious reader, I devoured books by the day and I dreaded my classes. The sound of the bell meant I would have to close my book and learn about someone who died 100 years ago without a story to leave behind or a complicated math problem that left me with jackhammers attacking my skull. Despite those horrors it was in middle school that I first learned the value of a good teacher. A good teacher is one who inspires their students to love learning, and encourages them not to hide themselves away while their counterpart is one who teaches simply because it is a job, someone who does not have a passion for their subject.

The best example of a teacher who inspired me was Mr. Davis, my creative writing teacher from North Kitsap High School. Walking into the classroom I immediately decided that it had character. I sat at an old fashioned chair that swooped up to connect to a tan surface pockmarked with scratches and scribbles of verse. The walls were covered with posters featuring the immortal personalities of cinema. Sherlock Holmes was analyzing the members of “Spinal Tap” on the opposite wall while “The Hobbit” stepped out his front door on another. I felt comfortable there, a feeling that was solidified by my new teacher. Mr. Davis immediately sent out this aura of eccentric intelligence. That first week he learned our names and we dived into a world of writing. His prompts ranged from the subject of our least favorite class to the meaning of the color yellow. While the rapid plunge into writing was a little unnerving, the first reading of our work in class was nail biting, he always encouraged us to write without fear. He honestly cared about all of his students. He wanted to know what our writing styles were, and he understood that what we wrote came from a place that most of us wanted to keep hidden. Because of that we had pseudonyms to use whenever we submitted assignments. The project of the week would be stapled into a packet and then read out loud. The pseudonyms gave us anonymity, safety to write and receive comments, without embarrassment. The safety was one of the tools he used to draw us out of our shells and tell the truth in our writing. He never tried to censor what we wrote by telling us it was too political or try to shape our writing into a box of his design. Instead he preferred us to take that box, put it inside of a bigger box, tape it to some explosives and then drop it off the empire state building. That isn’t an actual quote, I’m simply paraphrasing but I feel like it sums up his teaching style. Mr. Davis was a supportive teacher who honestly wanted his students to succeed; he believed that the emotions and stories we conveyed through our writing were important.

The Dreaded Dr. Denton was, unfortunately, my Washington State History teacher in a mandatory 7^th grade course. We were supposed to learn, as the name suggested, the history of our state. Our governors, our founder’s etcetera etcetera, which is not what we learned. Dr. Denton’s first impossible quality was his voice. It was a cross between a monotone and, remember Charlie Browns teacher? I am pretty certain that those two are related. It didn’t matter if we were discussing the bloody death of Narcissa Whitman or the effects of logging in the Rocky Mountains. It was all rendered equally dull by his voice. The effect was often intensified when he gave lectures, which my brain refused to absorb. I don’t mean to suggest that we learned nothing at all, he simply didn’t teach us what we needed to know. We learned the story of the aforementioned Narcissa Whitman who became a missionary and traveled to the Oregon Territory, had numerous children and was then killed by the Cayuse Indians. We spent a month on a woman whose entire life I just summed up in one sentence. This trend continued all year. I don’t know who our first governor was or even who wrote our constitution. His preferred the seemingly most boring aspects of history such as the backwoodsmen of the 1800’s that roamed the Rockies. I am sure that those men, and their families led impossibly hard lives. It’s not so interesting to hear about however when you leave out the outlaws. He did not teach the subject he was hired to teach, instead he taught us subjects not relevant to Washington State or it’s history. His monotone voice was combined with a torturous interest in dull moments of history and this lead to the waste of the entire class.

The teachers I wrote about in this paper influenced my life again and again but each in different ways. Mr. Davis taught me not to be ashamed of my stories and even encouraged me and his other student to send in our writing to be published. He encouraged us not to censor our stories and to let our feelings flow to show the truth in our writings. He gave me a boost of self-confidence I needed in a difficult part of my life. Dr. Denton on the other hand was utterly uninteresting. His voice was dull, simply uninspiring. He did not teach us the history of Washington State. Instead he taught us parts of history that were not compelling. A good teacher is one who listens to their students and teaches them not only the subject but also how to trust there our knowledge. Their opposite is a teacher who teaches for the paycheck and not for the students.

Paper #2, the draft

When I started school I was a daydreamer, it earned me several demerits on my grade reports. My parents had to talk to me several times about it. By 3^rd grade I was pulling out a book the moment I finished my work, to be fair I would occasionally read first and complete the homework later. If I was not interested by the topic I tuned out. I preferred to immerse myself other worlds, Harry Potter, Redwall and many more. My teachers scolded but as I showed that my work would be completed they allowed me to read, they preferred that occupation to that of a troublemaker.  As I entered middle school I was still a voracious reader, I devoured books by the day and I dreaded my classes. The sound of the bell meant I would have to close my book and learn about someone who died 100 years ago without a story to leave behind or a complicated math problem that left me with jackhammers attacking my skull. Despite those horrors it was in middle school that I first learned the value of a good teacher. A good teacher is one who inspires their students to love learning, and encourages them not to hide themselves away while their counterpart is one who teaches simply because it is a job, someone who does not have a passion for their subject.

The best example of a teacher who inspired me was Mr. Davis, my creative writing teacher from North Kitsap High School. Walking into the classroom I immediately decided that it had character. I sat at an old fashioned chair that swooped up to connect to a tan surface pockmarked with scratches and scribbles of verse. The walls were covered with posters featuring the immortal personalities of cinema. Sherlock Holmes was analyzing the members of “Spinal Tap” on the opposite wall while “The Hobbit” stepped out his front door on another. I felt comfortable there, a feeling that was solidified by my new teacher. Mr. Davis immediately sent out this aura of eccentric intelligence. That first week he learned our names and we dived into a world of writing. His prompts ranged from the subject of our least favorite class to the meaning of the color yellow. While the rapid plunge into writing was a little unnerving, the first reading of our work in class was nail biting, he always encouraged us to write without fear. He honestly cared about all of his students. He wanted to know what our writing styles were, and he understood that what we wrote came from a place that most of us wanted to keep hidden. Because of that we had pseudonyms to use whenever we submitted assignments. The project of the week would be stapled into a packet and then read out loud. The pseudonyms gave us anonymity, safety to write and receive comments, without embarrassment. The safety was one of the tools he used to draw us out of our shells and tell the truth in our writing.