Paper 3 Draft

In every school systems there are flaws that range from disinterested teachers to lack of funding. For every one of those problems there are a thousand opinions and a thousand options to fix it. The schools, teachers and students that we have observed in the films and read about in the readings have provided excellent examples. The most common issues seem to deal with lack of flexibility with the subjects taught. Our education is often hindered by overly strict syllabi and the priority of math and the sciences over the humanities such as art or music; the following changes need to be allowed or student performance will continue to decline.

I have taken a wide variety of classes in an attempt to graduate. They have ranged from math, which I despise, to history and creative writing which are far more engaging. The teachers greatly shape the course of the class however their decisions however are extremely restricted by their superiors. From the movies we watch to the book we are forced to read, our overseers, the all-powerful school board, review each and every decision. This system damages the education of each and every American student by controlling they're exposure to the different cultures that are prevalent in the world. Deb Aronson touches upon this in her article, “Arizona Bans”. She states, “These actions show students that a lack of evidence, an ideological agenda, and political motivation supersede student’s academic growth, identity, hope, and belief in a whole world”.  Her passionate response to the cancelation of her program for Mexican-American youth is on the same level as mine. In many of the classes I have experienced the novels we had covered are the same traditional choices that were picked in the past. Paolo Freire in “The Banking Method of Education” expressed the same sentiment. “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry…” While the individual schools vary in the limits set on educational freedom, the vast majority rarely uses modern works or touch on current news. Both of these authors explain, in different ways, how the school system’s restrictions on what they consider “risky” subject matter irreparably harm education in this country.