We spent a good chunk of time discussing practical and philosophical issues surrounding education. We considered both institutional and personal points of view. We considered structures, purposes, and experiences. We considered the status quo and alternatives. Now have your say.
Education Essay (with directions in R.A.F.T. form)
Role: Be yourself, a senior at Gloucester High School who has experienced, observed, and thought about education.
Audience: Your AP peers, your AP teacher, and others on the World Wide Web. (You'll be posting your essay in the comment box below by pumpkin time Friday, April 15.)
Format: You have a choice, whichever option you pick I'm imagining something in the 500 to 1000 word zone.
* You could write an argumentative essay using support and reasoning from your experiences, observations and studies to support your position on some aspect of education. (See topics below.) (Some of you may recognize the description of an argument essay from the SAT.)
* Or, you could write a personal essay, using narrative and reflection, to embody and suggest insights into education.
Topic: You could write about anything within the broad realm of education, but here are some of the topics many have you have already done some rich thinking about.
* How does the structure of the school day -- number of classes, length of classes -- and of the school itself affect teaching and learning?
* Are students motivated by a desire to learn, explore, and practice in order to respond and create? Are students motivated by a desire to achieve measurable success in school in order to please parents and gain access to colleges and jobs in the future? In what way does one dove-tail with the other? In what way are the two motivations opposed?
* How is the industrial model -- on which the century-old modern high school is based -- suited or not suited to the sort of learning you value and/or think is necessary?
* What are some of the alternative models for education? What are the advantages and disadvantages? What educational models and experiences -- inside and outside learning institutions -- work for you, for others?
* How might your experiences of (institutional or non-institutional) education -- here at GHS or elsewhere -- differ from others' experiences?
Whatever you write about don't forget to organize your thoughts into a focused argument or a sustained narrative with reflection.
I look forward to reading your responses.
When faced with a problem, effort is useless unless one is focused on the solution. In our society, we create more issues for ourselves by constantly focusing on what is wrong with the world. It is necessary to recognize the issue, but in order to address it properly actions should be taken right away to work towards a solution. One of the major concerns for our generation is education. We live in a competitive world. Jobs are quickly deteriorating, and our country is losing some of its international influence. These facts pose a threat on our education systems all across the country. This forces us to take a deeper look at our education systems. What can we do to make our system better?
ReplyDeleteThe root of the problem comes from student’s lack of motivation and desire to really explore knowledge. For so long, we are forced to cram lots of lessons in to reach a certain point. In the elementary schools, it is a constant push to learn how to read, write, and do simple arithmetic. The pace is probably a bit fast for children, but because they need to be at a certain reading level by middle school, it has to be that way. There is nothing wrong with encouraging children to challenge themselves, but some younger students may get too overwhelmed and give up very early on. Negative experiences with education in the beginning can influence a student’s attitude toward education for their entire lives. The children who cannot quite keep up should receive extra attention, at a time that is convenient for the good of the entire class. Teachers and other administrators should pay closer attention to children’s development and help them to work to a certain capacity very early on. Once students move to middle school and high school, they are expected to use the skills they had previously learned, and apply them. At the same time, students are bombarded with new information and work. Teachers stress things such as memorizing vocabulary, taking notes, and being quizzed on them. This rapid pace and heavy workload can often fail to be beneficial for students. The best teachers are those who create excitement about what they are teaching. The goal of knowledge is to create more of it. When students feel the pressure of memorizing and getting through a certain amount of subject matter, it is difficult to really think about what they are learning. This does our students a great injustice because it becomes a waste of their time.
How can this problem be fixed? Is it possible to make school fun? For most students, the words “school” and “fun” could never be put in the same sentence. It is the teacher’s job to engage their students in what they are learning. If a student is not excited about what they are learning, they will lose interest right away. This type of student who stays in the school system will end up distracting those who actually want to be there. If every student felt like they were able to contribute to the class and to the information being shared, it may be easier to keep them interested. Constantly taking monotonous notes and being tested on them does not incite any excitement towards the subject matter. In turn, the information is quickly forgotten. If teachers could keep working at ways to include students in what they are learning, the effects would be extremely positive.
ReplyDeleteAnother societal belief is that one cannot get anywhere without a college degree from an Ivy League school. It has been proven time and time again, that this is not the case. Sure, a diploma from Harvard will provide you with numerous connections, making it easier to find a job, but it is not the only way to get somewhere. Education is solely what one makes of it. These days, the push for people to go to college is higher than ever. It is certainly important for many students to go to a higher institute of education, but college is not right for everybody. If a student in high school really cannot picture themselves going to college, then they should not be forced to do so. If this is the case, teachers should stress that no matter what field you go into, a broad general education is required. That is the importance of high school; to learn what it is that we want in the future, and to prepare us to get to that point. For those students who do want to go to college, our education system is not rightfully preparing them. There is such high pressure from parents and the school to do well in high school so students can get into a “good college”. This causes students to cheat, and does not allow them to really think about what they are learning. All that seems to matter is the number that is written on an SAT score report. If the focus shifted more toward becoming a well-rounded student and person, student’s attitudes towards high school and college would change.
Our system of education at Gloucester High School is successful for many, but not for others. Kids who don’t fit into a traditional setting but are unable to go anywhere else are forced to sit by and watch others excel while they struggle. Because of this I believe that we need a reform in our system. I think that for the first one and a half to two years of high school, everyone should take the general education courses such as English, Math and the Sciences. After those years, they can begin making their own decisions about which courses interest them and what they might want to pursue after high school. For example, if a student wanted to be a nurse, they could begin taking classes such as anatomy and physiology along with First Aid/CPR courses through the school.
ReplyDeleteThis would not be like a technical school, but it would consist of classes that would have real-life applications for each individual student. It would be a hard thing to achieve and it would cost a lot of money but I believe it would be greatly successful. It would give each person an opportunity to focus in on what interests them and it would encourage the students to make life decisions early, instead of waiting until they are half way through college. It would also give you much more of an opportunity to change your mind and focus more intensely. A system like this would take years to put into affect successfully but it would be well worth if for our future generations.
As far as education throughout our nation is concerned, I believe that overall we have a successful and advanced system. Many schools provide laptops for all of their students and take great steps to encourage their students to be all that they can be. I think that our nation should focus more on the schools that do not have those things, though. Instead of us being so focused on the schools that do amazingly well and have students attending all of the Ivy League schools, we should focus on the schools that need help getting to that point too. It should be much more important to us to provide money to schools in need rather than keep giving to the schools that already have it.
One issue that is of great interest of mine is whether or not students are driven to succeed for themselves or for the hope of getting into a great college. In many ways it should be a healthy balance of both. It really bothers me when students seem only to care about their grades so that they can brag about all the amazing schools they have been accepted to or have visited. I wish more students concentrated harder on succeeding for themselves and in order to grow and learn as a person. Maybe this is because school has never come as easy for me as it seems to for everyone else, but I feel as though I find good grades more enriching because I know that I earned it and I learned a lot on the way to getting it. It is not necessarily a bad thing to ensure that you can get into the college of your dreams, but that also should not be your only motivation for doing well.
As a senior in high school I have thirteen years of education under my belt. It amazes me that I have come so far from the little kid I used to be in East Gloucester Elementary School. The biggest thing that I do not understand is why people look down on us here in Gloucester. At Gloucester High School, it’s all about what you make of it. You can slack off and go nowhere with your life or you could work hard and end up headed off to nursing school, like I am. All I know is that there are many smart kids at our school, and each and every one of us has an opportunity for greatness. We just need to be brave enough to reach for the stars and be proud of the little fishing port that we call home.
Education is a tool that, when used correctly, can provide our youth with the tools they need to become, as the Gloucester High School Compass states, “graduates with…skills necessary for productive citizenship”. To achieve this goal, there must be singular focus upon the students’ needs. For some reason or another, some parents, focus groups, and politicians seem to lose, or to have lost, sight of this. Still, along with all the negatives of American education, there are many positive aspects as well, which leads me to issue numero uno.
ReplyDeleteFreedom is a wonderful thing, a truly amazing American perk. That said, there are two groups of people who take advantage of said freedom in different ways; the users, and the abusers. In simple terms, the “users” are able to recognize which freedoms they can use to their advantage, taking those opportunities and creating better lives for themselves through them. The “abusers”, on the other hand, see the word freedom as an invitation to demand that everything be done their way, very rarely taking into account different opinions, ruining the original focus of freedom through democracy; teamwork. Public education is one such freedom, and teamwork is a principle that can be utilized as a cornerstone for its success.
Through experience, I have gathered that a class is most successful when teacher and student share common interest and enthusiasm toward the curriculum material. Achieving this level of interaction and partnership within a classroom setting is understandably challenging, and requires a teaching staff with the drive necessary to complete the task. Therein lies a major problem; in some instances, teachers are not fully invested in their work. By default, when a teacher shows disinterest and laziness, their students will follow in their footsteps. Teachers and educators are role models whether they like it or not, and I contend that if a child sees a mentor of theirs challenging themselves intellectually, it is likely they will do the same; sadly, this rule rings true with teachers of lower caliber. The problem is not solely with the individual per se, it is about attitude. I’m no psychological expert, but if a teacher is less mentally stable or proficient than the children they teach, you can be fairly certain they should not be the individuals responsible for the education of America’s youth. As previously mentioned, there are citizens, parents mostly, who blame teachers for in what their opinion is a faulty public school system. Is it really the teachers that should be put on the spot in this situation? I think not. Rather, shine a spotlight on the system who allowed these ill-prepared employees to “pass inspection”, if you will. Still, there is no use in beginning the blame game; our education system is one of the best in the world.
There is a time and place to cite flaws within the American public school system. We do not live in a perfect world; flaws exist in life around every corner. It is this that makes life interesting. But I digress. The United States (minus some areas in the Deep South) offers a public school system where children of all ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds study under the same roof. Other countries cannot say the same. Germany, for instance, splits up their students by tenth grade. One group, in what is called the 10b group, is able to advance to higher learning and education (i.e. college) following the completion of a proficiency test called the Mittlere Reife; the other, group 10a, is denied the opportunity of moving onward toward higher education, and are more or less forced to find jobs or internships rather than furthering their studies. This is a blockage of what should be a worldwide human right; the right to learn and explore, to chase their dreams through education. While education on this side of the pond is no perfect example, we can at least say that any U.S. citizen has the opportunity to go to college if they put their mind to it.
ReplyDeleteNow as you dive deeper into the various technicalities of American educational opportunities, the simplicity of my previous examples becomes much more complicated, but I am speaking generally. What it boils down to is this; the education system in the United States is indeed flawed, but nothing will ever be fixed by sitting back and complaining. Approaching these issues with a reasonable and unbiased viewpoint is a necessity, and by the way our government has been operating as of late, change will not be happening too soon. But my generation is heading off into the world soon, so who knows? Maybe one of us can make a difference. Who’s taking poly-sci in the fall?
Damn. Alea, just read your post and it’s very similar to mine in theory and example. Didn’t copy you or anything, I guess we pulled the same thing from our in class conversations.
I just read to first posts and I have to say, I think this is the most interesting blog discussion we have had in a while. What I don’t like about the educational system today is the ever increasing costs of getting education at all levels. Ever since I have been in the Gloucester Public Schools system all I have heard of about the budget is that it is getting progressively worse every year. Teachers that were just hired are being cut not by their quality of work but simply by the amount of time they have been here. Teachers that retire are not replaced. Extra curricular activities that used to be free are not mounting in hundreds of dollars just to participate. Entire programs are being cut and forgotten about. All my older siblings used to tell me about the language programs in the middle school and that there was a teacher specifically meant for the theater program in the high school. I could go on and on about issues with funding on the public school. After high school it gets better. Any student who comes out with less than a hundred thousand dollars in debt is considered lucky. I find amazing that the costs for college are going but at the same time the demand for a prestigious college education is up. Every high school student that cares about going on to a level of higher education wants to go to the well known Ivy League schools, knowing full well that they are going to graduate with tens of thousands of dollars of debt if not hundreds of thousands of debt. Even after that it is very unlikely that anyone will hire with a salary that can help reduce a burgeoning college debt. In fact many students after dedicating two decades and a half to their education will only find internships with companies that would love for you to work with them for free but would never dream of actually giving money to support a living, never mind paying back debt. Many of these internships don’t even give any real reliance for some kind of a follow up job. All it has is a vague promise for networking connections and meeting affluent people that just might help getting you a job. Our culture has been so dedicated to education is seems to be a miracle that the demand for higher education has gone up. As this happens you see that many students don’t even get jobs related to their fields of study any more. My brother went to Emerson college for a majoring in Literature and after he graduating he started waiting tables and he has been waiting tables even since (six or seven years). One part of me is horrified to see the financial nightmare that is the American college system. Another part is proud that so many more people are willing to take these sacrifices and under go such hardships for education. It comes to show that Americans are not stupid, as so often we see ourselves. None the less we need to do something about the overall increased costs for education on any level. Whether it is elementary school introductory language programs, or getting a masters degree so a high school teacher can work for the pathetic pay that they get.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a world that is incredibly competitive, for some, they prosper, for others; they suffocate before even entering the work force. In order for an educational system to be successful and communicate long lasting knowledge, longer class periods should be implemented.
ReplyDeleteStudents are becoming aware from a younger age that they are going to encounter serious competition in work force. The pressure to be academically successful is put on much sooner. Everyone is capable of achieving, but for some the journey is longer than others. With shorter and more classes at a younger age, students can choke under the pressure and the adjustment. If a student has a negative experience with a class subject at young age, they are going to become discouraged about the subject. And once you have lost a student’s interest, you lose their motivation.
It is critical that longer classes are used in schools. Teachers would have to train to accommodate the longer class times and would have to adjust their teaching styles. There would have to be a mass reform of teaching tactics. From these adaptations, teachers would learn new techniques that would better their educating methods and ultimately be more effective for the students. After all, is that not what educating is all about? Is it not about the perseverance of education and ensuring that every student is afforded and truly given the opportunity to succeed?
In response to my peers, I believe that we are in agreement that the best educators are those that can create a spark in a student’s mind where before there was only disdain and darkness. For most, the desire to explore and learn is not truthfully why some excel in school. Some students are terrified of joining the work force, whether it is in the trades or in the office. Many students drown under these pressures, but enlightenment can conquer. If a student is interested in a subject, they will naturally take to it, and the rest is history.
As for this mental catalyst that I speak of, the path for educators is not for the faint of heart, but the rewards for our future generations are plentiful. With longer classes, much more information could be communicated to students. For those in lower level classes, and for all students, teachers would be able to have more to ensure that all the students understood the material thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteFor the last four years we have had a seven classes a day with forty-five minute periods with the exception of a “long block” that is an hour. This all occurs on a rotating schedule. Forty-five minutes is hardly enough time to really divulge into a subject and make sure each student copiously comprehends the lesson. Especially in the areas of math and science where many students struggle, there have been plenty of times where after forty-five minutes students are left with nothing more than a page of notes and head full of questions, if they have even formed questions at all. With longer periods, this would happen much less as there would be much more time to divulge into the subject matter and the task at hand. If the school had four classes a day, each being roughly an hour and fifteen minutes in length, on a rotating schedule, so the next day you would see the other four classes, test scores and overall absorption of the presented subject material would heighten. There would be room for much more analysis and understanding in every subject.
There is a metaphor in which students’ academic and extracurricular activities are compared to the makings of a car. We are asked if we would rather have car with gadgets and extras like air conditioning, leather seats, a sunroof, a great paint job, etc., these are supposed to be metaphors for our classes and activities. Students are not automobiles. Therefore, our school is being indirectly compared to a factory. The people who influence and educate us the most are responsible for our makings, not a company. We go to school; we are not assembled in a factory. And so we must ask ourselves, if we are really going to be compared to automobiles, would we rather have a car with all the works? Or a car that runs on much longer after that spiffy paint job fades a shade?
As my time in high school comes to a close, I look back and realize that reform is necessary in order to progress as a public learning institution. We are coming into a generation that has never before been so competitive and high tech, this thought alone threatens many. The role of a teacher is not only to educate and enlighten but to make sure that knowledge stays with their students long after they have left their classroom. If a teacher can succeed in that sense, then they have made those students into functioning “automobiles”. As I move on to the next part of my journey, I wish I had the opportunity to have longer class periods in which I could have absorbed more material. I would have a much longer lasting engine that runs off of knowledge had I had this experience as a high school student. Educational reform is necessary for our future generations to prosper in and out of the classroom.
Jacklyn Linsky
ReplyDeleteF Block
I awake in the morning, tired from another late night of doing homework into the wee hours of the morning. I roll over and shrug into a presentable outfit and I am out the door. I get to the school at six forty-five and continue on with the studying from last night. I wonder why the school has us taking so many classes in one day. With the hours of homework and lack of sleep piling up I feel as though I am drowning.
The first class of the day or really any class for that matter, is spent with my teacher taking the first five minutes to take attendance. The next three to fifteen minutes (depending on the teacher) is spent with them preparing for class or them complaining. By the time the teacher is ready to teach us class is halfway over. We manage to get half a lesson or a half-ass one and then its time to go and I am completely lost again. Classes like these, I have realized, are easy to get lost in. As long as I pass in my work and it is decent and I make a few random comments here and there I get a good grade and the teacher is just happy I am still awake at this point. It seems to me that in some cases the teachers feel as though they are failing you because they are not given enough time to teach. Due to this many teachers crave the long block as a chance to catch up. Most times I know this does not happen. The teacher, not wanting to throw to many things at us in one day or we become easily distracted, feel as though they have all the time in the world. However the teacher and I both know that the long block was given by the school committee to please the teachers who wanted four blocks so that they could have a longer block to teach.
To me seven classes; six at forty-five minutes, and one at one hour and some odd minutes does not work. It is too much information in to short of a time in to many different subjects. My brain cannot go from Calculus to English in a matter of seconds. I seem to lose the information from whatever class came first. Is it so wrong to want four blocks a day instead of seven? Is it wrong to want to actually learn the lesson fully than the basics of a rushed one? It failed once so it cannot possibly work if we tried it a second time. I am willing to try it and there are so many other students and teachers I know that want this too. Well I have just come to realize that it is them who are wrong. With proper training and the right amount of people willing to try it, it would work. In fact looking around me and the other schools who do it, I think those grades would even go up. Then again who am I? I am just a student, not even an adult; I do not know any better than to believe these falsehoods, so I keep to myself trying to stay afloat. For the first time though I could ask a teacher a question and not expect a rushed answer or go over three different things in one class period, like in math.
What is time to me as a student? Time to me is the difference between an A and a B. I know I can give up that extra hour of sleep for the grade. Where college is concerned they do not care if I am sleep deprived, they only care about my grades. I mean in the long run high school is only a way to prepare you for college. The same excuse every year. I am supposed to take these classes and do all of this homework because that is what is expected of me in college. I get less help because college professors will not answer every question I have. The truth seems to be though that they just do not have the time to answer, a teacher’s mind so focused on the present task ahead of them. If one or two students fall behind it does not matter because they are on a schedule and they need to finish this task to move on to the next. I just want to scream, SLOW DOWN PLEASE. I cannot take this anymore. A teacher who starts off slow, a class that I can keep up with, but wait the teacher has realized we have fallen behind and the speed of the class must increase. Forty-five minutes is not enough time anymore.
To a school I am a car, using the analogy of our principal. To succeed in life I must be the shiny and new car, no one wants a worn out and broken down car, it just is not reasonable. I am more than that though, so much more. I think and feel and need support. Yeah to a college I may just be a car, but right now, right here I should be so much more, I am so much more. The time though, the time is killing our humanity. Teachers see so many students in so many blocks in so many short periods that they can only pick a few out of the crowd. I have become the car because of this stupid seven block schedule. I no longer strive to learn every detail, only enough to get the A or the B, so that I become more valuable to that college. I have become desensitized to what we are learning because it changes everyday. I never have the time to let it sink in. The schedule has killed me.
ReplyDeleteWith all of the talk concerning the varying structures of education in American high schools today, especially our own personal issues with our school system here at Gloucester High School, many differing, argumentative, and exciting thoughts arise. We all feel very strongly about our personal beliefs concerning how we feel the school day should be structured, how we feel students should properly use the experiences and knowledge they gain from their education to better themselves rather than simply get into a glamorous and prominent college, and it’s an amazing feeling to be able to express those views. However, lately, due to the occurrence of these interesting education discussions, it really got me thinking more and more about the school system here in Gloucester, the one I’ve been built, processed, managed, and functioned under for the past 12 or so years. However, it wasn’t until just recently, of course during my senior year of high school, that I finally took notice of points of personal interest that disturb me about not only our own school system, but school systems around the country. For instance, extracurricular activities, including sports, clubs, and other after-school programs have proven to be some of the most beneficial and influential movements in a young persons’ life. Personally, and to put it in the most basic of explanations, the GHS Theatre Program has truly created me into the person I am today, and the one I will be tomorrow, as it has inspired me to major in theatre arts come next year. It has been one of the greatest motivations in my life towards becoming a better student and a better person. Recently, our program participated in the Massachusetts Educational Theatre Guild’s State Drama Festival, which is simply a competition festival of one-act plays between various other high schools throughout the state. At the festival, we put on an amazing performance and had a great time as always. However, over the years our program members have noticed distinguishing differences between us and the other productions: money and resources. During our cast’s post-mortem discussion later that week, we gained knowledge that some of the competing high school’s, if not all of them besides us, had theatre arts classes, in which they used the resources to their advantage to practice, rehearse, and work on their production. Now, this realization didn’t really anger me at all. Every school, no matter what the circumstance, including us, put on a great show, regardless of the money that is available to the school’s theatre program or the resources. The only thing that really bothered me is, why can’t we have that too? It’s not really unfair, it’s just the reality of the situation. Some schools’ (and maybe this is true for ours) just don’t have the money or the resources or the space or the time to include certain programs within their academic, or even their extracurricular, schedules. Even worse is that our school should consider ourselves lucky that we even have a theatre program at all, some schools have no such programs, and even far more less than us.
ReplyDeleteOf course this makes me sad. Extracurricular activities can be the building blocks, the foundation, of a young persons’ life. They build character, express self-esteem and emotion, and can give structure and insight to many students. I’ve been lucky enough to have such a wonderful program within my reach, even if I don’t have the extra classes or vast resources open to me to improve my education in the career field which I have the most passion for. Across the country art programs are being expunged from school courses and available activities, and it’s truly a depressing thing, the same I’m sure goes for sports and certain other areas of academics, however I don’t have enough knowledge concerning those programs to shed some light on it. Yet it’s the same no matter what the situation. A student should be able to have every single possible resource available to them to be able to expand their education, express their interests, personal talents, and emotions, and be able to find their area of passion through the help of their school community. I’m very grateful that I have been able to, and without the fancy classes and magnificent auditoriums. For here proves another point, as great as those programs can be, and as jealous as students who do not have those opportunities available to them can be, you can clearly see you can still make do with what you have.
ReplyDeleteSure, I get angry sometimes about the lack of certain programs with motivational stimulants available to any student who needs or wants them, and yes, a student who wants to be able to learn and explore and practice in their area of interest should be able to by using the most significant resources available, but even if they aren’t able to, there’s no reason to loose hope. This very well can relate back to the “simply-taking-the-fancy-classes-in-order-to-get-into-said-fancy-college” attitude. Our desires to achieve lie within ourselves, therefore we must use that desire to the best of our abilities. There’s always a way to look for other options, ways around the obstacles keeping us from practicing our passions and achieving our dreams. I’m sure the situation can be seemingly hopeless at times for the student who wants to be a football player, but doesn’t have a field, or the student who wants to be an actor, but doesn’t have a drama club, but every problem has a possible solution. As long as your ambitions remain strong, you will achieve your dream no matter what. You don’t need tons of money, extravagant programs, and big, fancy progressive schools to be the best possible student you can be and learn as much as you possibly can, you just need the desire. I know it seems strenuous at times to face theses obstacles, and we all love to complain. But complaining never really solves anything. You need to act if you want to make a change. So whether it be getting the class you want, the school schedule you desire, the program you need, and the opportunity you yearn for, act up and make a difference. Maybe one day no child will be left behind in the goal to achieve success and be all that they can.
-Tom Martin
Block F
Gloucester High School is my 7th school. This is over twice the number of schools that the average American child will attend during their k-12 education, and although some might see it as a weak point in my education, I see it as blessing. I have experienced the difference between private and public, religious and non-denominational, small and large, European and American schools. Through all this there is one point that I have discovered- every method of education has its flaws. Kids are not all the same, and therefore learning styles are not the same. It is impossible to cater to each individual's needs, and so we must design education with the greater good in mind.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my greatest qualm with the American public school system is the depersonalization of learning. I feel like I have been reduced to a set of numbers, and after spending only 2 years at Gloucester High School, I need to remind myself that I am learning for more than a number on my report card. I admire my peers who have managed to keep a passion for information alive while still striving for that A, for me it has not been easy. When the numbers are the only things emphasized by the administration (teachers are a different matter, I know many who work hard to make sure that students are developing into thoughtful, well educated people) it is easy to lose sight of the reason we go to school in the first place. Cheating becomes justified, and students become competitive in the worst way possible. There is no easy solution to this issue though. There are simply too many students to stop using numbers as a way to determine ability. Rather, we should work as a nation to decrease the importance of these numbers, and figure out a better system to determine a students intelligence and drive. More in-depth comments on our report cards would be a good way to start. It means nothing to me when I am told that I am “progressing satisfactorily”, and because I cannot use this to gauge my progress I am forced to look at that number which is often random and unexplained.
Piggybacking off of Josiah's point, I agree that teachers are the most crucial part of a child's education. Although many students are driven internally, the majority find inspiration and motivation through the enthusiasm of those around them. Like in any other profession, there are teachers who are excellent at what they do, and there are also teachers who lack the interest or passion for teaching that is so often required. With more engaged teachers comes better students. Unfortunately, this is another issue that cannot easily be solved. It is hard for people who aren’t in the classroom to distinguish between effective and not effective teaching, and so administration often looks towards test scores and grade averages for an indication of ability. This leads right back to my initial issue- the use of numbers to define ability and/or intelligence.
Unfortunately, these problems seem like a never ending cycle. The best we can do is to begin at a local level. As seniors we are the leaders of the school so we need to act as such. If we want younger students to appreciate knowledge and not just numbers, then we must do the same. Teachers and students should work together to bring education away from the GPA competition and back to the desire to create well informed, cultured and responsible citizens.
Education
ReplyDeleteEmily Powers
As a student in high school, I have very strong views about the way our high school is organized. I find that as a senior I started to have my own views about how our schedule should work. I would love to be part of a partially open campus, or one where students can go home for lunch or in between classes. Clearly this system does not work for younger students as most are immature, and all lack cars. Also there are a great number of older students that would still abuse the privileges. However I think that if we could develop a system to allow only the students who are in good standing with the school, and trustworthy to use this privilege it would be much more efficient than a 7 block a day schedule. For example students taking AP get a lot of work, and need to really dedicate themselves to those classes, with 7 classes a day we are forced to get homework from other classes in addition to these AP courses. Also many of my not AP classes are merely a free block some of the time, and in extension a waste of time. If students were allowed to go home or other places during these empty blocks we could accomplish so much more work during the day. Many days when I may have a lot of work to do out of school I will have none to do in school, but I am still required to be here when I could get so much more out of my day being at home. Also I would rather have longer class periods a day, and allow study or free period blocks to students with rigorous schedules. For example I have all my art, gym, and health requirements filled, but I am still forced to take electives that I do not necessarily care about or want to be in. If free blocks were allowed I would have so much more time to focus on my hard classes. This is how I believe our school should be set-up, although it would be almost impossible to do so, and we would need a system for deciding which students get privileges and which don't. However if we could accomplish this we might have more of a motive for students to try in school, even if they don't care about it as much as they should. They might work harder for the privilege junior or senior year to have an open campus, this would still be extremely hard to regulate still pretty much impossible.
There are many things I believe to be good about the Gloucester Education system but also many that I believe need to be changed. One thing that I believe strongly in is that we should only have four classes per day and semester. Seven is way too much, it is overwhelming and only increases the amount of stress students are faced with, especially seniors. Having to focus your attention seven different times a day is hard and many times by the end of the day I cannot focus and simply tune out whatever class I am. If there was only four classes a day you could deeper explore the topics in each class. So many times throughout the year, especially in AP classes we are just beginning to go deep into a topic and then the bell rings. You have no way to further extend the topic and starting it up the next day can be difficult because often times students forget what happened he previous day. If we only had four classes a day, the amount of homework would be less, or at least more easy to manage as well. It is ridiculous the amount of homework we have no. Most teachers expect you to do an hours worth of work for their class each night. I don’t think you realize that you have six other classes to worry about, so this task is practically impossible. We as students need more time to relax, play sports, work, and do extracurricular activities. Homework should not be the only thing we do during the school year. Another struggles of having seven classes is the fact that someday we end up with tests all on the same day. This is stressful, studying for up to seven tests is practically impossible. When studying you are not sure how to manage your time and will most likely end up mixing up some of the information. If we only had four classes, it would be easier to study and students would most likely do better on the tests. Longer class times would allow for more time for students to go deep into discussions and also to work with peers. Most schools in the area have converted to the four class a semester schedule, so I don’t see why Gloucester hasn’t done it as well. I understand that it will take time and money to train teachers into being able to hold classes for that long, but if it is something that will benefit students and the overall learning atmosphere of the school I don’t see why the school hasn’t done it already. I don’t see any harmful side effects of doing this new system, only positive ones. Considering the fact that I will be graduating in a few short months, it is clear that this system will never be in affect during my time at Gloucester High School. I do hope that someday it will be into affect though, because it is clearly the better way to learn.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I think about education and the education system? Well I know that it is necessary to gain knowledge, and school does help to do that (shhh….dont tell anyone that I see that school has a purpose. I also know that it has greatly improved over the years, with (for the most part…or at least a majority) of teachers being more informed about their subjects and the world. I also know that technology has made education easier (he typed for a class blog from a laptop, connected to wi-fi in a hotel room in London). People are able to research things, to gain more knowledge, and to do it faster (which might be a con). Also fact checking can happen…the word of the teacher or the textbook isn’t set in stone. Those are good things about modern education.
ReplyDeleteOn the system. I do not know what to say really, I don’t know if it is good or bad, I have never experienced anything but an America public school education. I do feel that students should have more freedom in their education, be allowed to have more of a focus to it, especially in their later high school years, if the student was able to take classes on what he/she wants, then for the most part they would do better and get more out of the experience. Now I’m not saying doo away with the basics, with the core education, people should be versed in everything (scratch that, the basics) but do we really need to know the molecular structure of a sugar, or how to solve cal problems if we are interested in the humanities like English and History like I am (we all should like English/be interested in it after all, it is AP English). I think our system should also focus some more on languages, and I hated my language classes, so I really do think it would be of value.
But it is not all horrible, for instance I saw a exact (or as close as we can be sure of ) replica of the Globe Theater on the banks of the Thames River today. Was it built by the English, or and Englishman(Englishwoman?). No it was the love and brainchild of an American (who happened to have the $$$$$), so there is some cultural appreciation, not just for Americans by Americans, but on an international level (Admittedly it is Shakespeare though). Educatio n willprobably never be perfect, it is to big/important and it is aimed at many different, unique people. The best we can do is try though…
Cherio!
Grant
Education is not perfect and never will be perfect. It would be impossible to accommodate everyone’s needs and wants. Should we lower the standards for the people that are behind? And are the people that are behind, behind because they aren’t “working heard” or because they actually need to go at a slower pace to retain the information? The fact is, kids make a choice: am I going to do well and work hard in high school, or am I going to not care and slack off? I think that we should not waste our time and resources on kids who are not going to do their homework and fail test when there are kids that really need the resources. A huge problem with our school is the fact that when there are students that are not doing well, we lower our standards to meet theirs instead of helping them reach the higher standards. I’m not really sure why this happens. I have a few theories, ranging from teachers being too lazy, or afraid to fail students because it will make them look bad, but either way, its something that is not helping students, but showing them that if you don’t try hard, then that’s ok, we’ll just lower the standards for you.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is different. It’s a fact that makes it impossible to make our school systems run perfectly. Some kids are naturally smart and may not even have to try to do well in school. Other kids can be successful, but have to work harder. Then, other kids do not do well in school, but it’s because they are naturally slower in learning, but work hard who would really benefit from extra help and attention from teachers. But if teachers are spending all of their time on the kids that will never try hard. In a class where these two types of students are present, it seems like nothing will get done. Education is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted because it is a tool that helps people who use it right succeed in life.
A lot of people have written about how important teachers are in a students’ education, and I whole-heartedly agree. That being said, this point is a downfall in the education system. Teachers are not programs that we can program to perfectly teach everything in the curriculum in its entirety by the end of the year. The fact is, teachers are trained by different professors at different schools, have different styles and values for what’s important to learn, and a lot of the teachers are not on the same page. Its amazing the difference in education that happens when you experience a new teacher, and I'm sure it’s happened to every student that has gone through high school. They have a teacher who is passionate about teaching the subject and the students and who is there for education. These are usually the ones that don’t scale grades up to make themselves look better. Then there are the ones who teach for half the week and do nothing for half the week. These are the teachers who are usually friends with the students and try to relate with them on a level completely unrelated to school.
A big issue I have with our school in particular, is that our schedules don’t prepare us for college. It is completely unrealistic to have 7 classes a day for 6 hours and having a short time after school to do all the homework for all 7 classes, plus, if you add on sports and extracurricular activities, it is a lot of stuff to handle for a high school student. And in college, you have 2-3 classes a day for 1-2 hours each, and then have the rest of the day to get work done. If it wasn’t for harder classes and bigger workload for each class in college, high school almost seems harder. And also, on a side note, I think that it’s hilarious that our school decides that it’s important to prepare us for college by computerizing our lunchrooms. How hard is it to get used to swiping a card and getting food in college? I just think its funny that they think that’s the preparation we need for college.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are a million things I could criticize about our school, I think that a lot of good things that happen too. If a students cares about education and about their future, they can get a lot out of GHS. I think that a lot of students form strong bonds with their students. For example, I know people who seek help from their old teachers if they are struggling in a class. For the students who try really hard in high school, it is easer to prosper in life.
Going back to what we talked about in class I wanted to state my opinion on reducing the amount of blocks per day. Choosing sides in this position is a difficult thing to do because of the many pros and cons of having four or seven blocks a day, but within the Gloucester Schools System I don’t think it’s a logical idea at the moment. Although I do think what my classmates had to say about having a fewer amount of classes during the day was completely valid I also think that there may be more advantages for certain kids if we keep to our present everyday schedule. It’s true that if we had fewer blocks a day that the teachers would be able to teach more and work in different styles throughout class time, but in all honesty I think we have to think more about the students in this situation. More and more students nowadays become easily antsy and distracted during long blocks and it’s almost impossible to concentrate for even a forty-five minute period. What would these students do if that block was doubled and they had to sit in that same situation for double the time? There’s always the argument that the teacher can perform different activities throughout class to keep students engaged, but then again I hate to say it but not every teacher at GHS is that creative or that willing to do something like this (a topic for later in this discussion). I understand that there will be less homework if there are less classes, but I have to say that I’ve made it through four years of high school with seven blocks a day and although sometimes I’ve felt completely overwhelmed with the amount of homework I’ve had I always know that if I just put the effort into it I’ll be able to get it done. Either that or I just figure out which teachers are the most adamant about their homework checking (which is a whole other problem in our school with the amount of students taking advantage of teachers, but I won’t get into that only because I at times find myself guilty of it as well). It’s not impossible to apply yourself in this way and in the end we’re only working harder to make ourselves more effective as workers. All this talk about fewer blocks kind of makes it sound like we’re trying to make school easier, but wouldn’t it be a large step backwards for us and our education if we try to dumb down our schooling? Making school easier will only make it easier for students to learn to master the art of slacking-off and eventually it’s likely they’ll get tired of having four blocks a day and will want to make it even less. In general students just don’t like school and no matter what you do to change a schedule they’re still not going to like it, so might as well stick with what we have now so the problems don’t escalate.
ReplyDeleteNow onto the topic of teachers and longer periods. In no means do I intend to say this on behalf of every teacher at GHS because I can honestly say I have some of the best teachers in the school for particular subjects and I know they’d be totally up for the challenge of longer blocks so that they could incorporate everything they wanted to do during a class, but then again you have those other teachers who are just there to get paid. They don’t care about the students and they don’t care if the class is getting anything out of their lesson as long as they’re ‘doing their job.’ Teaching is about so much more than standing in front of a class and lecturing for forty-five minutes, but unfortunately not all teachers believe in this and when in these classes students can’t wait for it to end. Student’s shouldn’t constantly be looking forward to the end of class because what’s most important is that they take in what I teacher has to say, but most of the time a teacher’s endless rants are either boring and irrelevant. Unfortunately, speaking from experience, GHS has a great amount of these types of teachers and I believe that if the Gloucester Public Schools do ever decide to cut down the blocks in a day that our first priority should be seeking out these teachers and getting rid of them or evaluating them more thoroughly while at the same time trying hard to find the best teachers out there. Four blocks a day isn’t going to do anyone any benefit if we’re still not getting anything out of a lesson. That’s my rant for now and let me just say it’s sad how lucky I feel that I won’t have to face any more of the problems GHS and the Gloucester Public Schools have thrown at us and it is in my sincerest hopes that if these schools do change that they do it with much good reason, research and preparedness beforehand.
ReplyDeleteTo our principal we are analogous to cars. Apparently, colleges want nice shiny cars with numerous fancy accessories. After spending 13 years in school, how wonderful is it to be thought of as artificial and so commonly associated with breaking down? Here at the end of our high school careers, we sit like cars straight off the assembly line placed onto a lot. Unfortunately as speculators search for a new purchase, they have in their minds that a car is only as good as the manufacturer. They think to themselves whether anybody in their right mind would really want to drive a Volkswagen when they have the option to drive a Porsche? According to this outlook, we have no role in how we are made. The decision lies in the manufacturers. They decide what materials go into their products and the designs used to assemble them. Like cars, we as students rely upon our manufacturer, Gloucester High School, to assemble us. Sadly, GHS decides to produce its students in an inefficient manner.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, many of GHS’s students have V12 engines, which often go into overdrive to handle the work that is put into our lives. This includes dealing with seven classes every day handing out homework, on top of time-consuming extracurricular activities, such as sports and drama clubs. Here lies the flaw of our school’s education system. With an overabundance of classes, there is insufficient time doled out to each class and teacher. Seldom do classes finish the material expected within the class time, and some fail to finish all the material by the end of the year. Some students are altogether overwhelmed with the abundance of classes and the hasty transitions between classes. GHS’s assembly line must become more efficient to produce a greater number of high quality students and to put those finishing touches on the already well furnished ones.
The solution lies in changing the school’s schedule from seven classes to an AB schedule. Having four classes one day, and four different ones on the second day would ease the stress facing many of the students at GHS. This would provide more time to do homework and study, leading to higher grades and a greater understanding of the material. With four classes each day being a “long block,” teachers’ difficulties with completing material would cease. Additionally, this would result in students increasing their number of completed classes to eight a year (excluding half year courses), thereby widening the scope of their education. Gloucester’s system must be changed in order to improve.
Of course, such changes would require time and money to adapt educators to new teaching methods. However, this is not a question of money. These changes would benefit all students by motivating them to complete all of their work, because they now have the time to complete it. It is shocking that Gloucester does not see that the benefits outweigh the detriments of this change.
On the topic of money, many students are required to pay outrageous fees to play sports. Other programs lack adequate funding all together. Why should players be forced to pay such sums when the programs themselves do not require amounts of money to be reasonably run? In addition, many students would be more likely to join an extracurricular were the fees not so high. If they were reduced, GHS would see an increase in participation. With more people paying more reasonable fees, the programs would receive adequate funding. Every student should have the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities regardless of money, because of the lifelong lessons students learn through these activities.
Like our school system, our principal’s analogy is flawed. Students can not be compared to cars. We are better compared to paintings; however, our artist is caffeine-induced with the tremors and lacking certain colors in their palette. GHS must lose the ailments in its system or face the inevitability of producing too many poor pieces and not enough masterpieces.
“What’s your rank?”
ReplyDelete“I’m number 4, and he’s number 3, but who’s number 2?”
“I don’t know. Who is number 2? Does anyone know?”
I sit a couple desks away from the conversation, just within earshot. Seriously, it’s hard for me to bear listening to this stuff. I must have heard this sort of conversation forty times before. “What rank are you? What’s your GPA?” I just want to scream out loud “ Who cares? You certainly shouldn’t!” This bothers me. I am realizing that our system of education is no longer based around one’s independent search for knowledge. High school is now a game, one great competition. Now don’t get me wrong, I love games and competition, and I think that they are beneficial with the improvement of different skills. But a scholastic education is different, it’s supposed to be more than just a competition. This common view among the students at the top of my class, that the addition of grades makes school one big competition, may sound productive to uninformed. One may initially think that some friendly competition will force students to work off of each other and perform to their greatest potentials. But this statement is a little shortsighted. You see, competition may work well initially, but like a fire, it’s difficult to completely control. Competition can turn dirty very quickly. My grade is the perfect example; throughout junior year, kids became so engulfed by this competition, that many would do anything (fair or unfair) to earn a leg up. You can’t blame the kids. High schoolers are still kids, games still appeal to them. During junior year, students face tremendous pressure from all angles. Many that have a dream of attending “big time university” become obsessive about their numbers, their statistics, their image, their product. This attitude can spread like wildfire. Once one student starts wondering aloud if their current GPA will get them into an ivy league school, other kids panic. They think, “I have to get my grades up in order to compete with this kid, no matter what the cost may be.” As a result, top colleges may now be accepting students with elite GPA’s and rejecting others that possess the larger capacity to learn. How do students get these grades without fulling comprehending their classes? Well high school is largely an honors system, I mean it couldn’t be any other way. Students are expected to play by the rules, the authority isn’t strong enough to really enforce these rules, but everyone is expected to (and really should) abide by them. But what happens to these rules? Take any game for example. Let’s say that a player notices an opposing player break a rule and not get called by the ref. And then they do it again. And again. And again without getting caught. Is this player going to keep following this rule if they know that it puts them at a disadvantage to the other team? No, they know that the ref isn’t calling this rule, and so they’ll play this new slightly altered game. Unfortunately, our school system largely works the same way. Like I said, it has become a game. This competition is detrimental to the basic idea of education. Faculty occasionally encourages it without meaning to. An adult will stress the importance of image and statistics in the college admission process, and reiterate the fact that getting into these schools is a massive competition among kids all over the globe.
Luckily, there are the players that possess the integrity to follow a rule even when the ref is not looking. The idea of true education is still here at our school, but it’s faint. There are a good amount of students that try their best to ignore the competition, that follow the honor code, and that approach education as it’s meant to be, a independent search for knowledge. We should be here to expand our horizons, to stimulate our minds, and introduce ourselves to new and exciting ideas that we had never before been exposed to. We should drive ourselves to learn, teachers and other students are just tools to make the process more convenient, but an education is largely internal. To treat an education as a competition for the best rank is a waste of time. Why should students be in school, if they partly ignore the learning, and focus on the prize of the top GPA? The difference between the honorable students and the majority is just a difference in desired reward. An honorable student has the goal of learning new things, of taking it upon his or herself to expand the mind. Sure it’d be fantastic to get into their dream school, but that’s just a bonus on top of the fact that they know that they’ve improved themselves as students. The competitors see valedictorian or admission to an ivy league school as their ultimate goal, true learning falls into the backseat of their minds.
ReplyDeleteSo that’s the end of my rant. To sum things up, competition and scholastic education do not mix. This competition is born out of the pressures that students get from colleges, statistics and each other. It plagues our school system, particularly in the older classes of the high school. However, there is still hope. Many of the top students in my class approach an education as it really should be approached. They reject the luring competition that swarms around them within each classroom. It will take a great amount of effort to dispose of this mentality of competition, and any change will be gradual, but our school system can change. There is still hope to save education in our school, but it will require the cohesion of a community of students and teachers, and an encouraged approach to pure and honest learning.
Caroline Bauke
ReplyDeleteThe method of education varies between each subject, each teacher’s style, and each student’s personality. For example, all of my classmates are dead silent, rapidly jotting down notes, and entirely focused on every word Mr. Walsh says in my biology class. However many students in my physics class are loud, distracted, yet they still are rapidly copying down the notes Mr. Roberts writes on the board. Both of my teachers teach me something new each day, yet there could not be two more different learning environments. So why are both my teachers so successful?
To answer this question I started listing the similarities between my two classes and then the differences. Similarities: both are science classes, both are fairly large classes, both classes are mostly made up of juniors, ect. Differences: physics involves a lot more math than biology, completely different subject matter is covered, ect. I could type up a longer list in both categories. In the end I drew my conclusion of why both my teachers are so successful in installing new knowledge in my brain from two factors, one from each category. As a student of these classes I know that I as well as the majority of the class wanted to learn in these classes—this is the similarity. Both teachers have their own unique style of teaching—the main difference (kind of).
“Are students motivated by a desire to learn, explore, and practice in order to respond and create? Are students motivated by a desire to achieve measurable success in school in order to please parents and gain access to colleges and jobs in the future?” This is one of the topics we discussed in class. The students will to do well in school is half the process. What is also important is a motivating teacher. Both of these two people—or groups of people—rely on each other for the education process to take place. One cannot learn if there is no teacher to teach, and one cannot teach when no pupil is present. Education is a partnership between learning and teaching.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that an unmotivated student will not desire to learn. Students can be motivated for many different reasons. Some are honestly under pressure from parents to do well, while others just want to do well in life. Some people could love a subject and want to learn more about it, while others care more about their GPA. Motivation can be due to a lot of different reasons. Mine is sadly that I put pressure on myself to do well. What’s yours?
What I believe is the determining motivating factor is the teacher. You could love a subject and by result end up doing extremely well in it based solely on having an excellent teacher. You could love the subject and be all excited to start the class, only to discover five minutes in that you are drooling because your teacher’s voice is putting you to sleep. In the end, I have to say what truly makes or breaks the success of educating a person is the a willing student and a great teacher.
After reading the responses that have been written so far I have concluded that I agree with most of them in that the four class day schedule is a must. I understand the many possible questions and debates that come up with this new idea, however I feel that without fright there are no changes. It is obvious that the students as well as many students agree that the four-class day schedule would make the learning environment much more stress free and organized in a manner that would allow the kids to soak up more information. As a honor student I have felt the fist of the seven class schedule for four years. It is a fist that consistently punches you in the face every day and every night. It hits you with quick jabs until you are so confused and discombobulated that you forget everything. Pardon my exaggeration, however I feel that this seven class day schedule is the most useless and pointless system there is out there. What is the purpose of high school? Is it not to prepare your for the next level. Is college not the next level; and it college not a schedule where you will never have more than three classes a day only a couple of times a week. So why in high school are students taking seven courses a day every day? It does not sound like proper preparation to me. I am tired of hearing about how teacher are constantly making up excuses on how to avoid this new four-class day schedule. I believe that it is more the student’s choice than it is the teachers. They are not the ones taking the multiple tests and various intensive lessons plans every day. Now I can see where teachers come from in a sense that they will have to develop a new lesson plan and how to keep the kids interacting with the material. However I do not believe that teaching is not sitting up the from of the class room and lecturing fore 45 minutes anyways. If that’s what they want to do everyday than I believe they should not be a teacher at all. After doing multiple children’s talks at the elementary school I learned that the more you interacted with the more they listened. In a sense it is still the same in high school. Kids will lose interest regardless if your lecturing for forty five minutes or a hour and a half. So my advice to teacher is to get out of their seat and start interacting with the kids. Science classes will benefit the most from this because I feel that experiments and labs should always follow a days lesson. That way it’s a hands on experience with the material. Math I feel should be half lesson and half the homework. Math teachers need more time in this school for the lessons because the class is over right after they finish the notes. So that way the students never have enough time to go over problems or to ask questions or most importantly to do example problems on the board. History could benefit by adding in movies to the various things that they are learning. A picture is worth a thousand words. I hope that many faculty and executives with take this into consideration in the upcoming years because you can stuff as much information into kids as you want but if their not absorbing it just as good as nothing.
ReplyDeleteBefore I entered my senior year, many people told me that “this year will be the best year of your life”, “it will be stress-free!” and “it will be so much fun!” Well… they lied. This past year has been such a difficult and stressful year for me both in and out of school. And the way in which Gloucester High School does things and goes about the day and education, only adds to the stress. Yes, it has been enjoyable at times but overall I’ve just been stressed out week to week and even at this point it just gets worse. Something that really makes me mad about Gloucester High is how they schedule the day. Like many before me have said, I concur in saying that seven blocks in the school day are just way too much. With seven blocks, that’s seven or so different homework assignments each night give or take. Seven times five days a week is 35 homework assignments if you were to do the math. Though that may not seem like a lot, it really is and having that much homework on top of other extra activities students have, can be extremely overwhelming. And, if you include AP classes that students take that increases the work load and decreases the time they have that is already so small in the first place. Schools like Rockport, Beverly, and Manchester all have a different method for how they schedule the day. Though you are in class longer, I would certainly rather have only 4 classes a day and learn more in one sitting. I feel like this would be much more efficient and much easier on the student. An another point, I agree with Michelle when she stated that with seven classes, sometimes we end up with 4 or more tests or quizzes on the same day. I can see maybe 2 or 3 but 4 or more is quite a burden and not only is an added stressor but sleep is definitely lost when trying to cram for exams late into the night. Haha, now that I am really thinking into this matter more, it really does tick me off how messed up a lot of things are. Not only does the schedule make me mad, but a lot of the teachers can too. I also agree with the fact that teachers play a big role in a students education. I mean, they are the one providing them with the tools and skills of learning so it is important that they make an effort as well in what they are teaching. I’m not saying this about all of my teachers; for a good portion of them do care. But some are just so annoying but then assign stupid assignments for no logical reason. It’s just wicked annoying sometimes why people are the way they are.
ReplyDeleteOne more point I wanted to briefly touch on is what Alea brought up. I agree, that the belief “that one cannot get anywhere without a college degree from an Ivy League school” is absolutely untrue. Yes, when applying for a job a degree from Yale or Harvard will help but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get an education from somewhere like Salem State or UMASS Amherst. No school is a bad school; your education and determination is something that you make for yourself. The bigger the school you go to doesn’t determine your success rate. What determines that is yourself and what you want out of life. I have heard students say things like this before, that if you don’t get A’s then you’re basically not good enough. Not only is this rude and selfish, but it’s not true at all. In conclusion, I can’t wait to graduate not only to get out of this school system but to get away from students who think the world revolves around them. High school is such a small portion of my life, and though I haven’t enjoyed and I can’t wait to get away from it and ignorant/selfish people, I can’t let these 4 years define who I am or who I will become. I’m really looking forward to college and learning more about what I can do and beginning to live my life!
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ReplyDeleteYou don’t teach kids so that they can pass a test. You don’t teach kids so that they become vast repositories of knowledge. You teach kids because life is so much about learning, a thing which goes beyond–and is often unconcerned with–books and bubble sheets. This is not some floaty idea, but rather an exciting and difficult truth. Where education comes in is in improving the mind’s capability of making connections, of learning, and in so doing allowing people to be able to make decisions for the better and to hold their own. It is giving people a grounds of understanding that connects them with events, ideas and each other. All that being said, there is a problem: how do you cover material and experience? What is the point of seeing how much one can memorize, and not how much one can understand or how well? So much time is spent studying on paper what is never done.
ReplyDeleteSolomon Khan is a man who would like to see the educational system turned inside-out, having kids go home to watch pre-recorded lectures, and return to class to do classwork, having the teacher available for more personalized help. (He was interviewed by Ted here: http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html) Khan uses the example of a robotics class, saying that kids would go home to see the instructions for building a robot, and then have time in class to do the actual work. Students would have their online studying activity tracked so that teachers could see how they were progressing. They, the students, would move at their own pace of understanding, having to answer ten questions in a row correctly before moving to the next topic, so as to avoid situations where a student might be held behind all year because of an early problem that could have been mastered given just a small amount more time.
ReplyDeleteTo large extent, I agree thus far with Khan’s vision. I find that when I did all my schooling at home, I felt more motivated or rather, less dissuaded to explore topics in, for example, math. I found it inspiring to be given math subjects that, while I could not be expected to fully grasp, I could entirely appreciate. When I felt myself competent in an area, I would move deeper in to that area and on to others. When I, not rarely, felt stuck with a concept, I would ask for help from someone else, and get a personal explanation to what factoring is (thank you Becca) and what’s actually going on with quadratics. What begins to really bother me with Khan’s vision is when he talks about having his lectures and method become global standards. As a resource, I believe what he has done is invaluable, but to jump to the idea that his method is the best for every situation is a worrisome thing. Suppose that globally everyone actually had access not only to the Khan Academy lectures, but to people who would be able and willing to work through the lectures with the students. Suppose that everyone was able to take a derivative and apply it, to understand the classifications of animals. Suppose, even, that everyone could rattle off important figures in their cultural history. What is being left out? What I see is a philosophy that people can create globally ideal people, people given an equal, stellar access to knowledge, giving people equal opportunities in life. But all places on earth are not equal. I fear that this ideal is escapist and gives the idea that if we can educate everyone in the same way, their lives will be improved, and that this education is all that is lacking. The only way this could be so is if there were a common destination of individuals, and if one looks at the destination to which our classroom system leads, it’s to a system of life. Think about it: we’re given basics of knowledge, gradually specify and then park in a particular niche where we’re useful to the system and theoretically happy. We seem to put off the present, and it’s handy when we’ve got the present taken care of for the time being, until we take care of it for others who will take our place. As it is, education works for a system, and to universalize education would be to assume a universalized system.
ReplyDeleteAnd what would be wrong with a universalized system? To make anything standard is to disregard Nature’s and an individual culture’s role in life. Sure, a student may be able to list important figures in his culture’s history, but the last figure would necessarily be Khan; what about the culture’s traditional learning? Would oration, say, go by the wayside? The pioneering human would like to see a global, efficient, self-supporting system which loses connection to the most important source of support which is the world on which we stand. People create regularity sometimes to the extent that they cannot adjust to natural rhythm. To return to the idea of the Khan Academy, what happens when something is flawed in the system? When there is not enough energy to allow everyone access to the internet? Or if the source of that energy is destructive? To modify something on so large a level is a gargantuan feat. Not all systems have an elastic clause.
ReplyDeleteNow I strongly value the education I have gotten at Gloucester High. (To paraphrase senator Tarr, we should be proud of it – just look; it produced him!). Through the school I have learned a great amount and am prepared to head off to college. But it would be wrong to say that the value of education is in how well it prepares you for the next step. As I’ve said before, we seem to put off the present. It’s detrimental to focus and conducive to stress to be sent home with assignments from seven classes to process individually and return the next day. Given one desires to complete this workload, one has two options: think solely and about the task one has at hand in the time one has allotted for the task, or forgo sleep and human interaction. Mincing the day into portions of study precludes the possibility of exploration within and across areas of study.
Once more, there is a divide between the in-system (school) and the out-system (life). What is of the in-system is neat, clean and processable, whereas that of the out-system is messy, strange and something to be circumvented, not worked-with. When learning is associated solely with a fairly one-track system, there may form a mentality that what is not of the system, that is, what is not pre-packaged for the student to solve, does not fall under the category of educational. And how is it that what is focused on excludes the creative so often? There is so much taught in school that is interpretive without expression as an outlet for that interpretation. On bubble-sheets you can be correct or incorrect, while there is (for which I am ambivalently but greatly thankful) no Scanntron for life. We look for answers in education more so than responses to questions. It is practical in school, but how practicable in life? I would not abolish “yes or no,” but I would provide for a practiced “what if” and “how.” Since when are the arts, one of the most basic links of humans to life, not considered among the “basics?” People can say technology gets us into problems, and they can say it brings us out. What matters to me is that art can carry us through them.
ReplyDeleteNow we have divided ourselves not only into science and humanities, and school and world, but have also divided mind and body. I would like to see classes other than gym which take the body seriously. I don’t mean that we should turn history classes into a game of charades (Waterloo or Bullrun?), but perhaps we should have theater taught in school, should understand its influence and inspiration, and we should certainly have hands-on projects. We have labs in the sciences, but little time to carry them out, and irregular long blocks on which to schedule them. A great deal of the problems I have mentioned come down to the issue of having a run of staccato classes in the day. I would love to see what many other schools have, where days are alternated between two sets, “A” and “B.”
It’s only in the last year that I’ve heard a good explanation of why Gloucester High runs the way it does. I think that’s too bad. If education is a thing that enriches decisions and understanding, why is it simply accepted as standard that GHS educates in its current fashion? Complacency, I think, is one of the more detrimental things in life, and awareness can be its solution. I would like to see a level of awareness to the extent that not only students are encouraged to look at where they are and why they are there, why they think what they think, etc., but also a level of awareness such that the school itself demonstrates its own equivalent of metacognition. Not every time is opportune for change, nor is every change for the better, but this is all the more reason to be ready to adjust in a positive way when the school is able.
ReplyDeleteIt would be good to know that we were aware of why we do what we do and don’t do, to know that what decisions we make are in light of what has been thought out in the past, acknowledging that education is not a static thing. Leaping back to the fourth century BC, we have the Socratic method prompting students to think into issues, asking them directed questions. The method is based on the idea that there is no simple solution, but that the importance is in how one treats that question. This is not to say that back in the day, people didn’t have their different ideas on education. Later that century, Aristotle acknowledged that there was no agreement on what educational training should entail.
We’ll skip ahead a few centuries. In America, we’ve had our share of educational movements. The progressive John Dewey held science in high regard, believed that schools should be receptive to change, and encouraged a respect for student individuality in the schools. He tested this out in his 1896 laboratory school, which aimed to broaden education to cater more toward the interests of the students, while integrating subjects. To apply his belief that study of books could not be a substitute for doing things, Dewey made sure that students frequently had fieldtrips into nature and society.
ReplyDeleteBehaviorism was John B. Watson’s approach to education. Writing in the 1920s, he placed his cards with nurture as far as the nature vs. nurture dispute went.
It was in the 1930s that William Bagley advocated for essentialism in America, a back-to-basics approach to education, where he saw school as the place to develop knowledge, character and cultural literacy, with classrooms clearly oriented around the teacher. Students should have mastery of basic skills, such as, in the context of today, typing.
In 1953, Robert Hutchins published his book The University of Utopia, wherein he protests that education was acting more as schooling for a trade than for the betterment of the mind. He believed that a core of Great Books—not text books—should be the center of study. His educational philosophy of perennialism deplored the replacement of the search for a truth, not dependent on time or place, by professional training. (Interestingly enough, four years after he launched this book, Russia launched Sputnik, and America launched in the direction of training its students to be little scientists.)
Then the 1960s walked on the scene with A. S. Neill’s educational ideal known as existentialism, which rejected objectivity and above all the essentialist stance on education. He founded the Summerhill school on the idea that students should discover themselves freely, and not be impressed with others’ ideas. Nature, then, should be encouraged and not directed through nurture. Today this school has problems with student attendance and behavior. (Source of information for these movements: Teachers, Schools, & Society.)
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ReplyDelete...Well I'm having quite a few issues with the blog today. Note: Teachers, Schools, & Society is a book that the blog will not italicize. Anyhow, to return:
ReplyDeleteSo life is about learning, and learning, response to the world. I would like to see education that I trust had taken notes from its past, had learned. Perhaps we can’t fully answer the question on what education must look like, but we can respond to it, can show that the educational system has not run into complacency. In response to my own experience with learning, with living, I would like to see more time allowed each class, more active involvement with nature and society, and more arts learning. Not to sound sing-songy, but I would like to see more life in learning to expect more learning in life. As life differs from culture to culture, I would expect educational methods to differ as well. Going further than that is the question of cultural and societal ethics, which will have to hold off for another day.
Mac Hutchinson
ReplyDeleteEDUCATION must CHANGE
Before I dive into this very passionate and very important discussion every high school classroom should have I must clarify on the following. GUTEN TAG! I just returned from my exchange trip from Basel, Switzerland and I now have even a greater perspective and opinion on the current state and direction of GHS and the entire public school educational system in America. My views are very strong, especially on this topic but I am just as passionate about learning conflicting views as I am about mine. I will say up front that my views tend to be more liberal especially in the view of education in which I feel the status quo is unacceptable and that a certain change is needed. I am so glad we are having this discussion and I really hope that it will be turned into action so that our schools can start to progress instead of getting worse.
It was April seventh in which I had the best class of my high school career. Mr. Cook’s AP English Class I witnessed a start of a discussion that I thought had no voice in GHS, but I was gratefully wrong and witness that I was not the only one that shared a this certain view about education. Our school has flaws, our city has flaws, and the entire public school system has its flaws, but they all have the potential for a greater success if the people involved have the willingness to make tough changes. I heard what needed to be said that April day and it was the politics in Gloucester, the fear of change, the lack of money, the structure of our school day, and many other problems. What the biggest problem GHS has is the effort, the determination, and the ability to change the way of its past. We are one of the few schools that have a seven block schedule everyday and it is a fact that kids have a difficulty changing from class to class and switching subjects so frequently. Other schools in Massachusetts have less classes, longer classes and when they made that change it was not easy but the teachers trained and worked hard to benefit their students. We need that in GHS, we need the decisions from those in power to not base education of off money, the difficulty, and outside interest, but ultimately on the students and their relationship with their teachers. The best teachers understand that students are all different and the students in return know the best teachers are the ones that grab your attention and can teach the entire class in multiple ways and not to just to the few gifted ones that understand right away. I am absolutely positive that if I had the best teacher in a CP2 class I would learn way more than having the same class with the worst AP teacher. That brings up the idea of how important teachers are and that if you ask almost any student what do you want the most for your high school; they would respond, “great teachers”. We need teachers that are willing to change from the attitude of, “Im not gonna’ change, I’ve been doing this for years…” to a teacher that has the ambition to change the way they teach in order to benefit their students. This brings up another discussion of grading and testing in high school. I feel very opposed to the way our process of progression is built around a system of tests and how many teachers grade and form their curriculum around tests. What I’m about to say is not an opinion but a fact; students not just in GHS but in America are becoming test takers and grade grubbers. I see the obsession of grades over the passion to learn. I see the students learning only what they need to pass a test instead of learning what they need for life. I see students taking courses for GPA boosts or for status instead of taking classes that their interested in. I also see teachers teaching a certain way because it is the easiest way and grading a certain way based not on what their students have learned but on how well they performed. An example is the bell-curve grading system. Still used by many in which the teacher evenly distributes the grades from bad to good based on where the student falls on the curved line. The ridiculousness of this would be easier to see with a chart but it basically is a way of evaluating a kid based on how he compares to the class versus what he actually learned. I actually heard this from a teacher at GHS in which they said, “oh look how perfect this bell curve looks, some kids failed others did perfect”. Are you serious?!
ReplyDeleteDon’t you want all of your students to do perfectly? Why do you set up a test that makes kids fail in order to fill your need to make a bell curve. You should stride to make every single student to learn as much as possible and a kid that doesn't perform well is not something to celebrate but a result of the problems with the way you teach. Yes their will always be kids that just will refuse to learn but it just another example of how the schools need to change in order to find alternatives for the less gifted students. The bell-curve isn’t the problem but it is an example of a bigger problem in which teachers still use the techniques and learning methods of the past and just refuse to change. I just don't understand why GHS feels like a prison to the past and why it will not move with the world around it. The world has changed so much and Gloucester has stayed the same and is hurting badly from doing so. The world has become a world of technology yet we frown upon technology for students in GHS, lack smart-boards in our classrooms and our computers in the library are fossils. Other schools have smart-boards, multiple computer labs (not dells) and some even give out laptops to their students and iPads to their teachers. We lack money, creativity, arts and then our city decides to give that all away to a charter school which at the moment is failing to maintain its arts. Gloucester tries to change and as Mr. Cook said politics is all about timing. Gloucester has tried to make changes but they are sometimes the wrong ones for the wrong reasons. GHS already existed why not give the money, arts, and teachers to us so everyone has greater opportunities. We need to change for the students and It is frustrating because I feel the “island mentality” of keeping to our roots and keeping the Gloucester way of life is still strong, but what people sometimes don't understand is that Gloucester needs to change, it is getting worse in our schools and we must progress with the change that is happening beyond us. Now getting back to the main reason to this discussion which is changing the seven block everyday schedule. To give you all the perspective of the school system I saw in Basel, Switzerland I must inform you that their students have it as good as it gets. It is set up more like a college schedule in which you only have a few classes a day and each day you have different classes. They can take multiple classes and are able to focus on one subject during the day for longer periods of time. Also they form their schedule around what their interested in just like a major and in their junior and senior years get to go on apprenticeships and actually work in a field that their interested in to see if that is the career they want to pursue. Our education in America lacks the hands on approach, experience, and formation around our student interests and talents. The Swiss exchange program is the greatest example itself that we need more learning outside of the classroom. The best learning is doing and while you can learn a lot from a book or a lecture (if you can stay awake) there is nothing more rewarding than experiencing it in person. I learned more about the culture of Europe in two weeks than I could have if I read about it in books for the rest of my life. Maybe I would know more useless facts but I would never get that feeling of actually being there, hearing the dialect, tasting the food, meeting the people, and instead of looking into it from the outside I became a part of it. There is no real ending to the problems that our schools have but their is one solution. The solution is change, but not just any change, it is the change that will give the students the greatest opportunity and the greatest learning environment to perform to their greatest potential. GHS and America must move forward in that direction instead of staying the same, because the world is changing and If we do not progress with it we will most definitely fall behind.
ReplyDeleteAs students of Gloucester High School, we are spoken to ever year by Dr. Goodwin, and he shares with us his “car metaphor”. He explains to the students that it is important for them to create a good-looking resume in order to show themselves off for colleges. He does this by comparing each student to a new car, explaining that joining a club may be like adding a new coat of paint, or an A in algebra could be like replacing old tires. Yes, it is an excellent way for students to visualize the importance of their high school resume, but it also represents the goals that faculty and parents are setting forth for students. These goals are not encouraging students to embrace the knowledge they gain in class, but only study it, know it, test on it and then forget it. Learning only to succeed cannot allow students to absorb the knowledge in the right way for them to use it in life. Learning only to advance can hinder one’s ability to retain the knowledge later in life.
ReplyDeleteAll students are motivated differently, but I have seen many of my classmate’s motivations be based upon the desire to move on to the next stage of life, or to meet the goals that their parents have set for them. These are great motivators, but they must remember that the skills and information they are given in high school are to be used later in life and not just for the test on Friday. The real key to learning and remembering is to learn because you want to, not because you have to. Once you know that then grades will come naturally, and mean something lifelong and you’re A+ in English will be an accomplishment for you to be proud of, not just a new addition to your resume.
I have been seeing recently more adults going back to college just to learn a new skill, or to learn more about a certain topic. At first this really confused me because I am so used to going to school to advance in order to further my education so that I can get a job later in life. I even saw my mother go back to college for a few classes to learn how to give Lidocaine to her patients, which would then gain her a raise at work. I never really thought about education for pleasure before I met my boss’s son Jeff. He is a 45 year old single man who worked for the government for 20 years and joined the army for 3. I worked with him for a short period of time, and during that time he explained to me that he wanted to go back to college to study law. I sort of laughed at first, thinking about a 45 year old man in class with students just a few years older than me, but it really changed what “furthering your education” meant to me. I believe that knowledge is just one thing that you gain and learn to appreciate with age, and if we can get our students to learn to appreciate and use what they are learning in school outside of the classroom now, then the meaning of education with change for them, and be much more useful. Education is an enriching process that is mandatory until the age of 16, so we really have to get students to appreciate it now, before the opportunity is gone.
It is a great thing that students mind sets are focused on the future and building the best “car” that they can, but students must also understand why they are being educated in the first place. Knowledge and education are so important, but a lot of students take for granted their public education by learning the material only to earn a grade in the class, when they should be learning the skills and material to better themselves as people. The car may look good with its new paint job, but have any of these kids worked on the engine to make sure it runs? Learning and studying to better one’s self will ensure that when a college gets the “car” that they choose, it is not only the best looking car, but the best running car that money can buy.
ReplyDeleteArica Aiello
F block
Kelly Benson
ReplyDeleteF-Block
Looking at the previous posts I would like to throw my two cents in about my high school experience and how I found it pleasing and also unsatisfactory at the same time. For I kid like me, I would rather spend my days outside being active rather than cooped up in a class room listening to a teacher drone on about a subject that can’t quite hold my attention. When I got to the high school I found that the seven block schedule worked best for me, because I had a taste of each subject in just enough time before I fell a victim of boredom, which by that time the classes had switched. Even though this factor is helpful to my fidgeting mind, I have a huge setback. This setback is how well I can actually absorb and interpret what had happened in the class and then apply it later on in the year. I have notice this mainly in my statistics class, where the class is hard enough already, I have to learn a difficult section in one day and be expected to still remember it by the time June comes around. I think that if the blocks were longer then I would be able to be given more examples and be able to truly understand rather than just guess. Another aspect of the longer classes, means that there will be less homework at night. Not necessarily less, but only three subjects rather than all seven to cram for. This will cut back on the work load, and the stress. So there are certainly ups and downs to the process, but if we were looking for the biggest effects of the system, it would be in the test scores after using the system. Looking at my peers comments, I see that they too struggle with the same issues, after their after school activities they go home to try and catch some relaxing time but can’t because they have to work on their homework to get to bed before midnight if they’re lucky. And honestly, I don’t think the brain can actually comprehend what goes on past 10, its just to tired and overworked from the grueling day of classes that happened earlier. So all that studying for the big test is pointless because it was reviewed so late, so we have to wake up early to cram some more and head off the school to get more work. If the school system could find a happy medium for absorption of schoolwork and activities for fidgeting kids, then the world would be a perfect place. But in the mean time, cut us a break! We work hard as we are all in high level class’s times seven, and we deserve to be rewarded with good understanding of the subject, and if longer classes are the result, then so be it.
The one thing that cannot be undervalued enough in the world of education always seems to be the one thing that suffers most when the dreaded annual budget cuts are announced. Art has been a huge part of my education since elementary school, with Beeman School’s “Arts throughout education” program. Through middle school, the teachers of the microcommunities known as houses always went out of their way to integrate the arts into every class and subject we learned. I cannot thank these teachers enough for making me realized just how important and useful art is in every aspect of my life and education. For me it was a no-brainer to take as many art classes as I could cram into my schedule. If I ever had a free block in my schedule I would skip right over to my guidance councilor and fill it with whatever art class I could get my hands on. I fondly remember all of these classes as my “sanity blocks.” I can say with absolute certainty that if it weren’t for classes like Photo, Chorus and Clayworks I could not claim the academic success I have achieved over the past 4 years in high school. I would undoubtedly be a miserable ball of stress but for the release and creative outlet art has provided me.
ReplyDeleteYou don’t have to be a talented painter or sculptor, or have an instinct for the value of space and color composition, to appreciate the vast benefits of art in an educational setting. It allows you too use a whole different kind of thinking to solve problems. There are no wrong answers, only creative solutions. Art conditions you to look at things from different perspectives, experiment and try something no one has ever done before. This type of thinking and problem solving can be used throughout all your classes. A successful and memorable essay or poem uses techniques and perspectives that are unique and unexpected. To solve a difficult math problem one may have to think of it in terms of a visual, or shift one’s perspective to find a solution where traditional methods fail. The study of history can be enhanced exponentially with a link to the arts and how they have evolved with the progression of time. There is not a class or field on this planet that is not in some way concerned with composition, synthesis, problem solving or judging the value of ideas, all of which are skills that can be gained through the study and use of the arts.
It baffles and depresses me when I walk into a clay studio and find no clay, or a paint room with no paint or canvas. When a light needs to be replaced, the auditorium cleaned and mopped, or the stage repainted it is the young actors and techies who must pay for it out of their own funds and do it on their own time. I have known dedicated art teachers to pay for supplies out of their own pockets to keep art classes running.
Art is absolutely essential to enhance any education, no matter what field one chooses to pursue, and should be accessible to everyone, not just a select few students. It is a sad day indeed when we have to worry about the funding for it being cut off completely in our schools.