Thursday, June 3, 2010

XC - Quarter 4 - Babies

Babies, was about the first year of 4 babies life. One lived in Namibia, one lived in Japan, one lived in Mongolia and one lived in San Francisco. Of course there were major differences in how they lived and how they were raised. The one commonality between them all is that there was a mother who was almost completely responsible for raising the child. There was no one mother who was better then any of the others. They were all there for their children in one way or another. Each one of them had certain obstacles to overcome, some were just bigger then others. The Mongolian and the African mothers had already had children, but they were also the parents who didn't live in big cities and had fewer resources to help them. The parents from American and Japan were both inexperienced as parents and just from the movie it is easy to tell because they both went to classes with their children. None of the cultures had a "better" or "worse" way of parenting. For their own countries and societies the children were raised to be accustomed to what went on around them. Some did have it better then others though.
In Africa there was no electricity, no running water, no diapers. There wasn't much there, coming from an American's point of view. The child was often shown chewing on rocks or bones. There wasn't much of a sanitary situation going on there. In Mongolia it was a little better. The child was raised in a house, but the mother washed him but putting water in her mouth and spitting it out on him. In America and Japan, the mothers were in hospitals when they gave birth and had overall, very clean practices with their children. What looked universal throughout the film is that mothers are a huge part of the children's life. They are responsible for raising the children and being there for them when the children need them. The fathers are supposed to be there too, but it is mainly the mother's job. The children feel more connected to her, at least through out the film, that's how it looked.
All of the families and cultures are very different. There would be no way that one child could move to another culture, especially when they are so young. The Japanese or American child would never be used to the outdoors or the animals or the lack of common utilities in Mongolia and Africa, and the Mongolian or African child would never be used to the confinements of America or Japan and all of the new technologies that they have. They are all accustomed to their own environment and to change it would to flip their world upside down. These children aren't meant to experience other cultures just yet. They need to be able to grow up a little in their own first. It may be a bad way to look at something, but i think that developing roots is good because it gives you something to always go home to. They are only babies, but they will grow up eventually, and its the type of environment and parenting that they have that will make them who they are. That's what i think the entire point of the movie is.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

YOU THE MAN - XC - 4th Quarter

I did enjoy the play. I thought that i had a very strong message and that the way it was conveyed was very affective. What the actor was trying to portray through his characters was that domestic violence and rape are a lot more complex and harmful then thought to be. What he made very obvious is that they are things that we can see and either choose to do or not do something about. The characters each represented a different view point of the issues at hand. One was the father of a girl in an abusive relationship. One was a boy who saw a girl he knew with a guy he knew in an abusive relationship, and another was about how the "high school student" saw a rape type scenario unfold in front of him on tape. In each situation the characters react differently and what makes it so interesting is how the actor tried to make it as real as possible by having the characters make a decision that we would probably make differently. The underlying dynamics in all situations is the failure to call for help, and once people finally get that call or alert that something is wrong, they take no action to try and correct the wrong that is being committed right in front of them. The violence was able to continue because no action was being taken to stop it and the perpetrator was never confronted to the seriousness of his actions. What i would really like to analyze is how with "the virgin Larry," he sees and has a video tape of how his best friend raped a girl, but he was still to afraid to say anything to anyone and because of that, nothing was done until someone did say something. What made it worse is that Larry stood up for his friend the first time a girl had said he raped her, and then when he saw the video of his best friend actually raping the girl, he was still in shock. I didn't understand why the friend would lie to Larry about something like that, especially when Larry is sticking his neck out for him on the basis of trust, because the friend said he would never do something like that. Then, there was the father who's daughter was in an abusive relationship and how that really did impact the family. The daughter was spending more and more time with the boyfriend, maybe only because he made her or because she was afraid. Whatever the reason is, it is still messed up. What made it even worse is that he couldn't even do anything to help his own daughter because she didn't talk to him about what was going on in her life. There was a communication breakdown and in that loss there was a girl who was crying out for help, but the dad was already sealed out. The final part i would like to discuss is the character who was friends with both the girl and boy in the relationship, and he knew she was being abused and they had to secretly talk about it because the boyfriend has people spying on her. When they did try to talk, she was almost okay with what the boy was doing because she didn't know any different, and was scared of what change might bring. The discussion was very helpful because the people in my room, really did understand how wrong it all was and hearing their opinions on it only made me think about it more. They brought up points, like how scary it can be to have to choose between doing the right thing and your friends. It may seem easy, but they are still your best friend, and before you tell anyone, you always want to see if you can talk to them and make them stop without getting them on trouble. My group also said it can be scary to have to deal with domestic abuse, no matter who is it, because if you take one wrong turn or say the wrong thing to someone, then it could be really bad for someone involved. Personally i think that the play was very insightful for these issues, it did bring up some great points and good ways to solve problems that don't always have an obvious answer in this type of situation.

Monday, May 24, 2010

HW 58 - Parenting 102

So we listened to two different people in class, talk about the process of raising their children. Marguerite Scully has 3 children who range from ages 21 to 16 and Josh Marks has a new born baby. They both have completely separate ideas on how they will, have, and do raise their children. Marguerite was always very hands on with her children and always wanted them to have some sort of family role model/authority figure. She raised them to be honest, hardworking Americans. Josh Marks wants to raise his child to be able to make choices and be able to support them because she will know her strengths and weaknesses. He said "I want to expose her to certain opportunities so she can choose later in life." He wants his daughter to be able to understand the different choices put in front of her and choose the right one. Marguerite raised her children in a different age and generation then Marks did. She had to work and because of that she wasn't always there for them, but she did raise them. She made sure to always have family dinners and raise them to know that she did love them and always would. Marks is raising his daughter for success. He wants her to be able to go out into the world and be a force to compete with. He wants to structure her time as well as give her free time so she can understand how precious her freedoms are and so she can learn to live with structure.
When i asked my parents what techniques they used when they raised me, they told me about how my mom used to bathe me in the sink with the baby book right next to her, telling her what to do. So i asked about what morals they raised me with. They said that they raised me to respect them and other adults, and to always try my hardest. They raised me so that i would do the work and be able to succeed in life. They want me to be able to live my life with confidence within myself to know what i was doing is right. They raised me very similar to how Marks wants to raise his daughter. They had structured free time for me. They had everything i did planned out to some extent so that i would be better accustomed to how things work in life. They didn't do it so i would follow the powers at be, but so i would understand them and be able to work with them. They raised me to work hard by always insisting that my homework was done, and done well. They did this so that i would get into the mindset that i would always have to preform at my best, no matter what the circumstances were. Those ideals were instilled into me for my own personal gain, so that i would be able to be more successful as a personal and in turn have a happier and more prosperous life. I think that they had a good idea of what they were doing
Part 4
The whole point of this parenting unit was to be able to see what its like on the other side of the coin. To see how parents view us as their children, and how things are always different then how we perceive it. That isn't an insight though. What is an insight is that us as children are all raised to be goal oriented. No matter how our parents raised us, we are all meant to succeed. No parent raises their child so they can be a street sweeper. They raise us so that we can shoot for the stars and be rich, successful or just simply happy. I don't always believe the happy option, but i do think it is a coping mechanism for parents whose children didn't achieve the dreams that they had. Its the idealism in setting goals for your children, because to your knowledge, if they reach them, then they will be successful and RICH. When the child doesn't achieve this goal, then you set goals so that they can be "happy," not necessarily successful. There is a big difference between being happy, and successful, to parents at least. Parents always want their children to have easier lives then they did. They want them to be able to make a lot of money so they don't have to work as hard later. They want this goal for them because it wasn't something they could ever achieve so they want their children to be able too.
When i become a parent, i know i will be strict I wont let my child have free reign to do whatever they please. They will be under my control, but still have the freedom to do what they want, as long as a approve of course. I wont say they can't hang out late with their friends, but i would set a curfew so they understand that there is a structure and that structure needs to be followed and obeyed or there will be consequences. I wont ground them forever or take away something, but they will understand that when rules are set, they should be followed. I wont brainwash them to believe whatever anyone tells them. I don't want my child to be submissive to the powers at be, but to obey them and be able to understand why they are both wrong and right. I think being able to understand another person's point of view is a very important characteristic, and i want my children to have that characteristic. By being able to understand what another person is saying, they will never be regarded as ignorant. It will also help them exponentially when it comes to persuasive writing papers. Its the little things like that, that i want my children to understand and be. I want them to be that, because those are all the things that i am not. Or even ideas that were instilled in me. I can look back at that list and see places where i fall short to my parents expectations and i want to be able to correct that in my child, so they wont have the same weaknesses that i think i have. I guess thats a big part of parenting. A mixture of correcting your own weaknesses and correcting them, and trying to set your child up for a great future by your standards. Nothing is ever that simple though.

Monday, May 17, 2010

HW 57 - Parenting 101

I was about to say that i don't think that there such a thing as bad parenting, but sadly there is. Some people think their problems are all their parents fault and others don't have complaints. I think the connection between the people who complain about their parents and the people who don't complain about their parents is that for the complainers, there is too much freedom and equality between them. I think that the jobs for the parents is that they control their children but still treat them as equals. The parents can be parents and friends at the same time, and no its not really cool to have your mom and dad as your friend, but as out of context as it may be for a teenager to say, they are still the people who have your back no matter what and no matter how much they may hold you down, they are still looking out for your best interest. It may be uneducated of me to say, because i don't know another way of looking at it, but that's at least how i feel about it.
I think that the things my parents did were pretty successful. I don't know if everyone would agree, but i know that by raising me to want to work hard and do my work to the best of my ability and at least try, made me somewhat successful. They raised me to respect them and respect the people around me. I don't know if that worked out all that well but i do know that the ideals stuck with me. What they really did stress though is that i always work hard. That has stuck with me. I have always tried to do my work and to do it well. I know that i don't always get an A for effort but i never just give up. I think that is very important and that is what made my parents successful at what they did.

I read 3 articles, the first article that i read was "When Parenting Theories Backfire." I thought that this article was both funny and sad at the same time. I thought it was funny because of how the process slowly broke down and how the plan started to backfire on the woman and her family. The reason that i thought this was sad, which justifies my reason for it being funny, is that this woman took advice on how to raise her OWN children from someone else, this isn't that disappointing, what is disappointing is that she followed the theory entirely and because of that her children disobeyed her and the plan backfired. She didn't raise the children like she would have wanted to, she did it how someone else told her too. That is what i thought was sad.
The second article i read was "What Attachment Parenting is-The 7 Baby B's." I liked this article and didn't like it at the same time. I thought it was really good for when you start to raise a baby, but it doesn't address what happens as the child matures. Do you continue to raise it the same and give in to its every whim? I thought that there had to be some sort of separation and power difference. The baby cant grow up thinking its in charge, there does need to be an authority figure in its life. I like raising the baby and making sure that it knows that it is loved. But i don't like that the baby will never see the difference in power. But that is for later i guess.
The third article i read was the wikipedia article entitled "Ferber Method." It was about how you can't show the baby affection. You need to put it to bed, but you can't show it any affection while you do. You walk out of the room and don't walk back in for 5 minutes no matter how much the baby cries. This is teaching the baby to learn that it needs to live without you and not depend on you when it is in need. I think this method can be effective but it can also teach the baby to be distant from people and not trust them. It can show the baby and instill in it that people aren't to be trusted and that they wont do anything but hurt it. I think that the long term effects of this method can cause nothing but bad things to a child. It will be more likely to follow the herd because it doesn't know how to resist, only accept.
These are my ideas. In no way am i fit to be a parent at this present moment, but everyone has their own ideas on how a child should be raised.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

HW 56 - Interviews & Survey Question

My question was: How does the number/type of friends someone has effect their success? Or What effect do friends have on personal decisions?
My Interview questions are:
  • Have you ever been positively affected by peer pressure? If yes then how so?
  • Have you ever been negatively affected by peer pressure? If yes then how so?
  • How do you measure success?
  • Do you still keep in touch with any middle school/high school/college friends? If so, are they successful?
  • What is your worst memory of you and your friends?
  • What is your fondest memory that you had with friends?
Interview #1
For my first interview i asked a family friend who is in 9Th grade about what she thought about her friends and their affect on her life. When i asked about her good memories she said, "My friends positively affected me to do well in school. I want to do better then them on tests like as in a friendly competitions. We would all take the same test and after we would all compare grades and see who did the best. That made me want to study and do better so i worked harder. They also pressured me into playing volleyball. I did it because they did, and it turned out that i totally loved it."
When i asked about any bad peer pressure she said, "for my midterm in science all my friends got the answers online and when they gave them too me they told me that they were the answers and i didn't want to use them but i did because they told me that they were right and that everyone was going to use them. I did it because i knew i had too or else they would think less of me.
For my third question i asked how do you measure success, and she said, "If someone has a positive impact on someone Else's life and is happy with what they do. Money not so much a factor"
For my fourth question i asked does she keep in touch with her friends from her last school, and are they successful, and she said, "I do keep in touch with my middle school friends, some are successful. Some are trouble makers and are in bad high schools and they aren't happy and aren't doing so well and are making bad decisions. Others are happy and in good high schools and are getting good grades and they are proud of what they have done. I think that is successful
For my fifth question i asked what a bad memory she has with her friends was, and she said "When i went camp with friend we spent too much time together and because of that we started to get like short with each other. We had a big fight and we didn't talk for like 2 days but we ended up forgetting about it. It was terrible because we were good friends are i depended on her and when we weren't talking i didn't know what to do.
For my sixth question i asked what a good memory she has with friends, she said "One day me and all my friends were hanging out before class in the auditorium and one friend started to play the piano and we all started to sing and dance and have fun. We were all enjoying ourselves and forgot we were in school and because of that we just kind of let go of the stress of being in school.
Response
I really liked interviewing her because i thought her answers were very innocent. She is a family friend who is currently in 9Th grade at a public school in Manhattan. Her responses were before drugs and alcohol begin to affect you and your friends being to make you drink. I forgot that there were problems with peer pressure besides drugs. It made me understand that friends are always going to try to make you fit in with them and its because they don't want to be alone when they try out the newest fad. They want to make sure that someone will have their back and be there for them no matter what they go through. They need to be able to anchor themselves to someone on the outside and have them to be able to go back too.

Interview #2
For my second Interview i questioned my friend Mark who is graduate of University of Pennsylvania. I asked him all the same question as the person before me and these are his responses:
  • Have you ever been positively affected by peer pressure? If yes then how so?
Yes. My friends encourage me to learn and achieve my goals. Many of my friends have creative talents, and inspire me to foster my own, particularly music. Many of my friends help me remain open minded.
  • Have you ever been negatively affected by peer pressure? If yes then how so?
Yes. At times I have joined in a group of friends making fun of someone. I ignored the hurt I caused because of peer pressure.
  • How do you measure success?
I measure success by one's capacity to love. If you can treat others with love, you are a successful person. You can foster success through generosity and creativity. If you can achieve the goals you set for yourself in this context, you are particularly successful.
  • Do you still keep in touch with any middle school/high school/college friends? If so, are they successful?
Yes, I hang out with mainly friends from my town (elementary and middle school). I have a handful of close friends from high school, college, and grad school that I also enjoy spending time with. They are all successful in their own way.
  • What is your fondest memory that you had with friends?
Some of my fondest memories with friends include trips to Vermont or other road trips. Many of them involve travel to a new place or experiencing a new thing, like a live band I have never seen before.
  • What is your worst memory of you and your friends?
My worst memories of my friends are when I let one of them down.
Response
Although his answers are shorter you get an idea of what it is like for someone who is older. He has graduated from college and he has had more of a life experience then someone who is only in 9Th grade. He has lived his childhood through and now has the responsibilities of an adult. My favorite is his answer to how do you measure success? He doesn't look for money, but looks for the human to human connection. He wants the people around him to be able to understand their fellow man and not look at him by his clothes and judge, but get to know him and see him for his capacity to understand and accept. Everyone is different and because of that why should people be judged for their money? Money doesn't define a person, nothing can define a person, but that person themselves, so why not get to know them?

Interview #3
For my third interview i talked to one of my oldest friends. I asked her the same set of questions and these are her responses:

  • Have you ever been positively affected by peer pressure? If yes then how so?
Yes, everyday. My friends are the reason that i go to school and that i do some of the things that i love like painting. They like my paintings and ask me to paint things on their walls for them. I do it because i love it and because they are my friends. If it weren't for them i wouldn't never have kept painting like i do now.
  • Have you ever been negatively affected by peer pressure? If yes then how so?
Yes, i have done things that i regret. Things i am not proud of because i didn't want to do them, but they all did so i went along with them because i didn't want to be the odd one out. I didn't want to be left behind and the next day hear them all talking about it and think about what i missed.
  • How do you measure success?
I measure success by how happy someone is with what they are doing and what they have done. I think that if they can look back on their life and be happy with what they did and not regret that much if anything. Then i would say they are successful. I think that if they are happy and doing what they love then they are successful.
  • Do you still keep in touch with any middle school/high school/college friends? If so, are they successful?
Yes, I still talk to my middle school friends. Some of them go to my high school now. A lot of them are doing bad things and are failing classes, but they are happy for the moment. I think when they look back they wont be too happy, so i wouldn't say they are all successful, but i think that they are happy now. I think that their immediate success outweighs their future success.
  • What is your fondest memory that you had with friends?
One of my fondest memories is when i was going with my choir on a trip to a competition. As we were going there, one person stated to sing Don't Stop Believing' by Journey. When we heard it we all started to join in and pretty soon we were all singing it and for about 2 minutes the world seemed perfect. We were all in perfect harmony, and the world didn't seem to have a problem.
  • What is your worst memory of you and your friends?
One of my worst memories that i have with a friend is when me and one of my best friends got into a fight because i really liked this boy and she did too. The only problem is that he liked me, and because of that she didn't talk to me. I had to pick between this boy and my best friend. I chose my best friend of course, but it showed me how quickly she was ready to walk away from me and it really showed me who she was.
Response
I really liked being able to talk to her about this because me and her have had our ups and downs. We have known each other since we were seven so of course we have had our own differences. I liked being able to see what she thinks about friendships though. We have always had our discussions about the stupid things we do and sometimes it leads to fights. It shows that we shouldn't blame each other, but look in ourselves for some inner strength to be able to be ourselves. That's at least what i think.
Side note
The first and third interviews asked to have their names left out.

My question for the student survey is:
Do your friends effect trivial everyday decisions that you make, such as what clothes to wear?

Monday, May 10, 2010

HW 55

My question was: How does the number/type of friends someone has effect their success? Or as a more in depth question: What effect do friends have on personal decisions?
Blog Comments:
Esther, I think its a really good start. It focuses on what other people think about helping others. But i think you should establish your own opinion before you work on someone elses. I think John has the idea here. He suggests your question include your opinion too. I think you should try Why do people help others, and what arguments have people made to justify that? Just suggestions, not really a good question on my part, but i think it could be used to turn into something good. But good start so far. Sam

John,
I think you have a really strong start here. I think this is a really important issue that people face with inter friend drama. I think that this would make a really cool paper and i look forward to reading it. I think that your question would get some rather weird search results on the internet. I think that if you focus on the either building, or the decomposition of friendships then you will be in better shape so you have something to focus on instead of a broader topic. It seems like you have strong backbone here though and i hope my comment helps
Sam

Sources:
  • "Teen Peer Pressure : Statistics and Facts." Family First Aid 1.1 (2004): n. pag. Web. 12 May 2010. .
This source is about how teens are effected by alcohol and drugs and how it is very overwhelming to students. It shows that 50% of students feel pressured to have sex regardless of their age and that 30% are offered alcohol or drugs. I think that this can really affect how successful or independent a person is and how the choices the people around them are making can actually effect them.

  • David, Nlvea. "Peer Pressure and Teens." International Adoption Articles Directory 1.1 (2007): n. pag. Web. 12 May 2010. .
For this article talks about how the reason we give in to peer pressure is because we have a need to feel accepted and respected by the people around us. It says that we don't always have the self confidence to turn down peer pressure because we need these people to validate us and show us that we are like or the same as them and they accept us as one of their own. And if they don't then we need to change so they do and they can.
  • Took, Kevin. "Dealing With Peer Pressure." Kids Health 1.1 (2007): n. pag. Web. 12 May 2010. .
This article discusses that there are two kinds of peer pressure and that they can be both bad and good. Peer pressure can help you remember things like the solar planet song because your friends told you it helped you remember them easier. Or it can be bad things like, all your friends are cutting math class, so you should too. These types of things are what define you as an individual and can really make or break you when you try to move on from your friends and become an individual. If you can by the time you are done with school. Peer pressure can be addicting and hold you back from success, whatever that can be defined as.
  • Manohar, Uttara. "Facts about Peer Pressure." Buzzle.com1.1 (2008): n. pag. Web. 12 May 2010. .
In this final article, the author writes about how peer pressure is bad and makes you do bad things, but the reason i liked this article was for the final post. "Peer pressure can be overcome with some help from you friends, family and your own determination to retain your individuality." I like the end where the author says that your own determination to retain your individuality. I think that shows how peer pressured the author was. She wrote an article saying how bad peer pressure can be and then finished it by saying that we need to be strong as individuals. The fact that peer pressure exists at all is because we are going to be affected by it no matter what. The result isn't just to give in and roll over, but its not to completely shield yourself from it either. There is happy medium. You need to be able to roll with the punches and learn from it because its only going to help you learn if you can keep your identity and be able to build it up at the same time. I think that would help more then trying to avoid it altogether.

HW 54

For this test i really thought the questions were pretty similar to the test you had us take about the questions we asked each other. I felt like the whole point of the test was to make us fit into categories that we are putting us into. It isn't like cold reading at all. We are judging ourselves and based on that we are put into categories. I don't know if i am an administrator. Maybe the people around me feel that i am but i don't know. I don't like these tests. I don't feel they are useful to us at all because you cant judge someone based on what letters some test assigned to them. They would work wonders for the job market if someone walked into the job they wanted, and along with their resume, they handed them the results to this test too as well as a full breakdown of the sections so they could better under stand them as a human as society and Jung judge them to be. Individuality doesn't matter when you can be part of a percentage.

ESTJ - "Administrator". Much in touch with the external environment. Very responsible. Pillar of strength. 8.7% of total population.

Personally i think this test does have a pretty accurate of who or what i am. I think that these results is how other people and myself see me. I mean its a lot of how people see me too. I may see myself as ESFJ and others might see me as this. I think that as well as taking this test for myself, someone else who is a good friend should take it for me. It would give a great comparison of how i see myself and how others see me. And i should have a high opinion but i still believe that the value of something lies in the eye of the beholder. Being a rebel doesn't make it any easier to get a job. I don't like what these tests stand for but i do like that they can give us some sort of feedback on who we are. Or who we think we are. Everyone likes to be reassured that they are still human and doing the right thing every once and a while. We all like to be validated. That is what this test is doing. It is showing us that we are important and showing us who we think we are so we feel like we are understood and valued. Not always a bad thing, but it is some form of false hope.

HW 53 - Survey Analysis

The thing about the survey is that it was incredibly personal. I didn't like answering all the questions because even though it is anonymous, it is still nerve racking to answer such personal questions in such a public place. The thing about the Internet is that once it is here, it can never leave. There will always be copies and records of it somewhere. The similarities that i noticed between the questions is that they all judged how you viewed yourself and how others view you. It isn't looking for information about you directly, but it is looking for what you think the information about you is. Some questions were purely about ourselves, such as any of the questions about sexuality. But even the questions about family and friends all ask about what we think about ourselves and how those thoughts go about what we think of ourselves. That's probably why i was so nervous about completing the survey. I didn't want other people to know what i think about myself because that is something to be nervous and self conscious about.

What i noticed about the results is that for the most part i was with the mainstream group. Almost all of my answers were part of either the biggest or the second biggest percentages. I also noticed that there wasn't a lot of family abuse or any inequalities or complaints about the home life, and there was not a lot of sexual activity and drug use. There is a lot of talk from people about it and yet there wasn't very much of it on the survey. For the most part people were very happy with their lives and what is going on. There weren't a lot of depressing answers and because of that i think that the images people put out about themselves can be false in order to make them seem more socially acceptable.

In the second professional survey i noticed that there were high percentages of people who had carried guns, been in fights, threatened to kill someone, or considered to kill themselves. All of these things mixed together are a very dangerous mix because they make for a person who is angry and has nothing to loose and something that can really hurt someone in their pocket. Our survey showed that we, as students really aren't that angry or dangerous and that is because this survey wasn't meant to expose that. This survey was meant to show who we are as individuals. The second survey conducted by the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey is meant to show how dangerous teenagers are and how the way we act and the things we do are dangerous and harmful to ourselves and the people around us. It is all about the questions that are asked. The type of questions that are asked are the types of answers you are going to get. By asking about guns and violence you will get answers about guns and violence. The motive behind the survey can show just as much as the answers. Asking anyone about violence, no matter where you ask, is going to get some negative responses and because of that, by asking people already accused of being violent and dangerous, you are only going to prove your point.

Monday, May 3, 2010

HW 52 - Initial Theories of Human Relationships

When asked if i am accepted by the people around me, or what my friends think of me, i draw a complete blank. The people who i spend all of my time with and try to impress and fit in with, i don't even know what they think of me. Well i have an idea, but its skewed and not really what it probably is. Maybe that's just my paranoia setting in. Its one of those things where you never really know because you are afraid to ask and when you do ask, you never get the answer you were looking for or wanted because, well you predicted what they thought of you wrong. Its just one of those things where you can't really know. At least for me that is.

I don't think humans are 100% self centered, but the majority of what we do has some sort of impact on ourselves. Whether or not it is the main motivation behind what we do, there is still a great reason for ourselves to do it. I mean just writing this has had some sort of positive effect on me. It will help me get a better grade and maybe into a better college and then better jobs etc. Its all about the future and how it all leads up to that. We all are about the future and how we can be better now to be happier then. We are all so caught up in grades and school that we don't have nearly as much fun now.

The students who try the hardest are the ones who do the best. But trying hard in school and studying aren't cool. By studying and doing your work and actually caring, you are giving into the demands of the school and the people above you. You aren't part of the rebellion anymore. The cool kids are always the ones who break the rules and make other people feel bad by cracking jokes on them. They usually aren't as successful because there is not really such a thing as beating the system. Sure its possible, but its like quick sand, the more you struggle and fight the deeper you get pulled in and it can drown you. By just staying calm and going with it you have a better chance of survival. Fighting it will never get you out but going with it will.

I started this paragraph with, "people are the way they are because..." Then i just stopped. I didn't know how to complete that sentence because i don't even know why i am the way i am. I am part me and part everyone around me. The people around me are what make up me so i guess i am not really me at all. You can think of it as a collage. I have taken the people around me and turned parts of their personalities in order to make mine. I don't know if everyone does that, but that is what i have always done. I think that's just me.

Every once and a while i will check my blog even when we don't have homework just to see if i got a comment that either condemned or approved of my work. I just wanted to see if anyone had read it and maybe had something to say about it. I like when people read my work even if they don't like it. I hate change and everything about it but i love the recognition. I just like when people say they like my work. People like to be appreciated and acknowledged. Its not always the big things either. Its like if you do something and tried really hard and some one says good job or actually appreciated/noticed what you did then you feel 10 times better about doing it.

I believe in karma. I think that everything bad i do will come back to me and everything good i do will have the same effect. That's why i don't steal, and i do my best not to lie or cheat. I feel that stealing is the root of all crimes. To lie is to steal the truth, to kill is to steal life. I feel like to deprive someone of the trust and faith that they put into you is a terrible thing. If someone comes to you for help, to deny them is just as bad as stealing something from the store. It is never the end of the world, it is just about the fact that you then have to go home and know that you did that. Its not even just that people would do the same for you, its that you should want to help them and be there for them. Whether or not they did or did not do something for you, why say no? It is easier to make friends then enemies.

Now as to love, i wouldn't ever say that love is fictitious or fake, but it isn't something that is easy to find. I am 17 so i really don't know much about it. I don't know what love is like, i know what it is like to be in a relationship, i know what breaking up is like. Those are the types of things that help you understand love. I don't know much first hand, but what i do know is that love isn't about finding the perfect person, its about being able to see an imperfect person perfectly. It is about finding someone who you know and who knows you. Someone who doesn't need to be told when you are happy or sad. They know you because they are just like you. They understand your feelings. Finding a person like that and then loosing them is like loosing a piece of yourself. You depended on them and trusted them and suddenly they are gone. Its never about the piece of you they took with you, its the piece that remains. It is a deep pain. But what do i know right? I am only 17. There are times when i think i know everything, but i really don't. It is plain and simple, that i don't know everything no matter what i may think. I still have plenty to learn, but you have to start somewhere right?

Monday, April 19, 2010

HW - 51

Everyday we complain about school, we see it as some burden that we have to do just to get it over with. We complain that the teachers are bad, or there is too much work or that we have to take a test and in all honesty these things do suck. The thing is that even though we do have to wake up early to go somewhere we don’t like, we would still be lost without it. What would we do everyday, we would wake up and watch TV and eat. We wouldn’t really know anyone because most of the people we know through school in one-way or another. We may go to school for 13 years (if you go to college) and it may only lead into a job and more responsibilities, but that sounds like its total fun right? Our only time in life of almost no responsibilities and worries, we spend in school. I mean the later we start the later we get started being individuals with out own responsibilities. Everything we do in school all leads up to the point where we apply for a job. Hopefully this job will make us happy and pay the bills, and maybe along the way if you found the time you met someone who you like or love and then marry and reproduce with, THAT it the American way of life. That is the life we are all supposed to be living. By going to school and doing what they tell us, we will achieve that life and be happy. School doesn’t teach us how to be happy. It teaches us how to learn something else that will help us get a job that will make happy. The Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

School is a governing body, it governs the students up until a certain age and they enter another governing body. School is there to uphold our values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It promotes the pursuit of happiness, but it doesn’t secure it. It makes you believe different things will make you happy, then what you originally had in mind. School doesn’t make you into sheep, but it doesn’t make you into an individual either. What is the reasoning behind taking away our individuality?

It is a mix of hope and fear. The powers at be think that by putting us into groups that determine who we are and what we know and what our intelligence is, then we will be a safer but more successful society. If we all have the same strengths and weaknesses then we will all be the same. The lower intelligence groups can end up in the lower positions which involve grunt work and manuel labor. The middle groups end up in cubicles filing and selling to the other middle class people. The upper middle class can end up managing the middle class and govern them. The higher classes are the ones who run the businesses and they are the ones who control it all. They have the money and therefore they have the power. Not much has changed from the days of the Kings and Queens, only now the lower class at least have opportunities to become part of the higher class and have their voices herd. We all want power and money and to be happy, but how many people think of a job in an office doing something like telemarketing and thinking back and saying “you know what, this is what I always wanted to do.” They spent 9 to 13 years of their learning things that would never really help them when they became this telemarketer that they always dreamed about being. But here they are, they spent that much time in an institution that they hated to they could be happy now. Is it a fair trade, Freedom and youth for responsibilities and money? There was a movie called Big starring Tom Hanks. He played a kid who wished he was an adult and suddenly he was one. It was scary and overwhelming, but he was happy because he got to design toys for a company. He made money and got to buy all the cool stuff he could ever want. He even got his best friend in on the ride. Soon he became romantically involved with a woman who saw his potential and wanted to use him to boost her own career. Things started to become overwhelming though. He was afraid of the responsibility and we went back to the fortune teller machine and wished to become young again.

He bypassed his whole childhood and he wasn’t really ready to be an adult. He wasn’t ready for the responsibility and the competition to be successful. He wanted to have fun like any child would, but that just isn’t the same when you are an adult.

That is the whole point of school. It is there to get you ready to be an adult. Whatever you do or don’t do with your adult life is for you to decide. School is there to mature you by putting you with other people who are just like you and making you realize that you need to either sink or swim. They give you the choice, whatever you decide is what makes you happy and successful or not. We are all given Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness from going to school, its how we decide to take it and what we do with it that really decides it. We are given the ability to pursue our happiness, it is up to us how we go about actually achieving it.

HW - 50

John Gatto:
He believed in the deconstruction of a person so they could be rebuilt as the system they were put into chose. He wanted students to be able to really do anything. He wanted to have complete control over their lives by splitting them up by learning ability, have them be able to switch from one learning mode to another and not care too deeply about anything. He wanted them to be submissive to their superior, and that their superior is solely in charge of what they will learn. He wanted to be in charge of how the students viewed themselves and based on what he said they would determine their own self worth. Finally he wanted students to learn that they are always being watched and because of that they should learn to act accordingly. He wanted to be able to transform students into respectable members of society by taking away anything that made them an individual. He wanted to turn the school system into a machine.

I have to say i completely disagree, or maybe i am conditioned to disagree. It sounds like it would work but it would be used for all the wrong reasons, although there really aren't any right reasons for using it. By making each student the same as the next, he would have successfully removed any creativity and productive thinking from our society. The ideas and inventions would be severely limited and possibly even stop. Ideas like these are equivalent to those of a monarchy. It gives the power to the single person and everyone below him holds practically no power. Change and progress go hand and hand and by limiting one you limit both. He never thought about the impact of his actions.

Freire:
Freire was the exactly the opposite of Gotto. Friere believed that children were blank slates and that it was the teachers jobs to fill them up. He believed that the student should be able to teach the teacher as well as the teacher teaching the students. He believed that by going to school and teaching but keeping an open mind to the students, then the students will react in a more open and accepting way to their ideas and feel open enough to come up with their own. He wanted students to still understand that the teachers were more powerful and were still superior to the students, but they should be able to talk to the students.

I thought that by giving the students an equal chance to make points and by giving them the freedom to understand what the teacher is saying and maybe make their own points, they will have more confidence and have more respect if they do it right. By talking to the students as human beings and by teaching them as human beings, they will be able to be individuals and contribute more to society in terms of ideas and inventions. Things they couldn't come up with if they were conditioned by the schools and the teachers. If they were brainwashed and treated like cattle being herded through a system, then nothing is really learned but to listen to the higher power and do as they say. I don't think that is a very productive way of learning.

Delpit:
Lisa Delpit believed in looking at what the students know and what they are being taught at home and then working with them from there. She works with first graders. She said that many lower income families aren't teaching their students simple things like the breakdown of the words and what they mean. The teachers were just assuming that the students knew that stuff and because of that they weren't able to ever really learn as much as they could. Because of that they had a severe disadvantage and started behind the other students who were taught that stuff at home. She proposed 40 lessons for children who wouldn't normally understand the work. It was a slow pace, but it was meant for the children be able to understand what was going on at a deeper level.

I thought she had some really strong ideas. She wanted all students to have an equal and fair chance when it comes to learning and succeeding later on in life. She knew that not all children got the same support at home and because of that she wanted to make sure that they would get the same education at school. She wanted them to be able to look at words and not just understand them, but know what they mean and how they work. She wanted to start at the root of the problem so measures like John Gatto's don't have to be taken. She targeted the lower income families where the families taught the kids how to survive instead of how to contribute in a conversation. She wanted teachers to be able to understand this and because of that she wanted them to be understanding and patient and have faith in the students.

Manley:
He said that his teachers kept his students in line by humiliating them and forcing them to do things that they wouldn't be comfortable with so they would learn it better. He made him stand under the flag for 30 seconds while everyone would stare at him if he made an error. He then went on to work at another John Gatto school where the students did exactly as the teacher asked and never had any ideas except for the answer. He was told to not be personal with them and not say anything about himself and not expect the same in return. He didn't like that of course though. He believes that there is a sense of equality and fairness between the students and teachers. He wants the students to participate and actually enjoy the class.

I personally like that idea. I feel that school isn't about equality among teachers and students at all. But i feel there should be a certain open mindedness to it. The teacher should be open to listening to students when they are trying to contribute ideas, not when they are trying to correct them with their own ideas. Total control is never a good idea because it only leaves room for rebellion, and brain washing students only leaves them the way you want them and usually without creativity or anything really special or important to contribute to society. They just kind of get by on the mediocre jobs. Manley enjoyed giving that length of freedom because he knew what it would do to a students self esteem and just overall attitude towards class and school. Its the little things that always make the difference.

HW - 49

In total honesty, i didn't contribute much to the production of the film. I really wanted to be a director, but as esther did help write it, it was much better that she did it. I saw myself in the corner of the film for a couple parts of it. I didn't have that many lines, nor did i interact with any character that did. I just didn't fit for any of the roles that were written. I would have liked to be more "in it," but there wasn't much i could do. I would say definitely next time, but i doubt there will be a next time, but if there is i would like to participate more i guess.

The tone of the film was mostly self destruction, for the most part. It drifts in and out of anger, regret, and a drunken rage. If you look at the movie as though will isn't a student but a teacher, you can see him trying to relate to the students when he puts them down. You see a level of power that he is trying to attain and needs the students to see him as equal, then he steps above them so he can have his power. The message he the film is trying to send is that humans are humans no matter what their job is and just because they have power over people doesn't give them more power over themselves. By loosing power over themselves but being in a position of power, they tend to fall apart even more, such as the teacher did in our film. He had a tragedy at home and lost a part of himself. He resorted to drinking and because of that he lost even more of himself and it started to show in how he treated his students.

I thought our film really had a violent and dark undertone when compared to the "savior" films. There is no savior. It doesn't follow normal movie standards where it has a conflict and a resolution. The closest it gets to a resolution is when the teacher makes fun of the three different groups of students and therefore is equal with them for when they were demeaning him before. In the savior films the teachers needed to reach the students and make them feel special and therefore want to participate in school and succeed. In this film the teacher doesn't like the students and doesn't care if they succeed or not. He has to deal with his own demons.

So the common conception is that education is the path to salvation. By going to school and participating and doing well then you can go to a good college and good job ect. I can't say i disagree with that because that is how i have been living my life and it is too late to change my course now. The way it works out is to socially mingle us while conforming us to each other's styles and the format of being pushed through a system. The reason this is viewed as a form of salvation is because it helps you get better jobs, which means more money and that in turn means happiness and salvation. To be able to understand the world around you is just to look at it the way the people around you tell you too. To be able to say you have a revolutionary view isn't always the truth. Unique is a much better way to be able to look at the world because we form our opinions from the people and books around us. We need to be able to take them and then mix them with our own and other people's perspectives to be able to see this world. To see things without a bias is really a form of salvation. To not be inclined to one side or another but to understand both sides perfectly and argue them both is to have reached nirvana, that is at least what i think. School does help you get there because it helps you establish other people's POV's and see things as they would, but the vice is that it can over take your own. It is meant to. Who need individualism when we can brainwash the masses? Making one mold is a lot easier then making millions.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

HW 48 - Treatment for Savior/Teacher Movie

The teacher wakes up, he has a slightly scruffy beard and he lives alone. He wakes up with a hacking cough and immediately lights a cigarette. He sits on the edge of his bed and smokes while the the cloud like vapors build up around him. His apartment is a disaster, there are magazines everywhere, as well as old pizza boxes and beer bottles. He has dirty clothes everywhere. He gets up and showers, finds clothes that seem clean, grabs his bag and a banana and walks out the door.
He takes the train to work. Its 7 in the morning and the commute is starting. There are men in business suits everywhere as just people going to work. They all seem to be awake and clean and have a purpose. He felt left out yet again. He gets out of the train and has a cigarette on the way to work. He puts it out and walks into his building.
Its 7:30 so the school is still pretty empty, he has an hour to set up before the kids get there. He goes and sits at his desk and looks at the notes he wrote last night, they wont be of help, the writing is eligible and there are some weird stains on them. He needs to cut down on his drinking but he wont. He is verbally disheveled when his students arrive. He has been teaching for 10 years and because of that he knows all the excuses to not do something. But for some reason he can never convince himself to ever change and step up and forget about her.
He sits down at his desk and waits for his class. He dreams about his wife and how much he really missed her.
Since she died his life has been on a real downturn. He drinks and still tries to teach. The students know how smart he is and how good of a teacher he is, but very few of them know what really happened to him. They just know that he isn't the same person who he used to be. His eyes have lost their twinkle and his face has lost a smile. Its like a big part of him died with her. Everyday he wishes he had her back but he never will.
His students walk in and he jumps up. They all go to their seats silently and get out the work. Not one student talks and they all do their work silently and the teacher stands and watches. He doesn't want to say anything and doesn't need to either. He helps the students if they need it but otherwise he doesn't talk. He stands at the front of the room and watches the students. Everyday he does this and everyday he sinks more into a depression. The students begin to notice when he stops talking in general and everything slowly falls apart.
They try to help him, but there is nothing they can do. He is a lost cause but he is still their teacher and he can't afford to retire just yet. Slowly the students come to him one on one after school and begin to talk to him. They talk about school, the students home lives and things like that. He beings to see what they are getting at and tells them what they want to hear, but is still unable to move on. He keeps teaching, but every day he is haunted with his wife's death. He finds a new love in teaching and is slowly able to move on and become the person who he used to be.

Extra Credit Opportunity - "The Class"

I heard about the movie The Class about 5 months while watching movie trailers online. I then ordered it on Netflix and watched it. What really shocked me about this movie was how no one came out ahead of where they started. It was a school for the kids who didn't have many other choices.
What i didn't understand is why the kids didn't try to help themselves. They all just brought each other down. The reason for the failure among the students is that the teacher was doing his best to teach the students but unlike the movies we saw there wasn't just one protagonist. Most of the students were protagonists and the teacher couldn't win over all of them.
The best example is with the student Souleymane. He was a smart kid but he was also trying to fit in and be cool. He refused to do the work and when he did do it, it was above where everyone thought it would be. None of the teachers liked him because he didn't try and brought the other students around him down too. That is why the teachers wanted to kick him out. All but the "lead teacher" or "savior."
Everyone has given up on these kids already and if these teachers give up on them too then they wont ever rise above the situations that they are in. The school and the teachers want to do what is best for them which is keep the class in line and kick out anyone who refuses to obey. They don't care all that much if they do the work or not. They just want to be able to show that the teachers were at least trying.
There isn't much that can be changed. The students don't care and the teachers don't care. There isn't much that can be improved. Even if the teachers cared, they couldn't make their entire class care. They are all the protagonists and because of that not much can get done.
When compared to SOF, there isn't really much of a resemblance. Our school is hands on and there is a small form of effort from every student. Students who don't care are usually asked to leave. It doesn't need to get physical like in The Class. Although we are lucky that our school isn't like it is in the movie. There is still a lot that can be done to improve our own situation.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

HW 47 - Class film preparation 1

1. Have the whole movie shot through different students cellphones to make it more through the student's point of view.
2. Have the opening scene where the teacher quits and a student tries to take over the class and is somewhat successful.
3. Have really motivated students but unmotivated teacher and the students try to save the teacher.
4. School deteriorates instead of improving.
5. Try the whole dangerous minds thing except in a college setting, so they are trying to get them jobs, not into high school,
6. Shoot the entire movie outdoors but still have desks and a formal looking set up with the teacher desk to show level of commitment but lack of funding
7. Have a Feed like scenario and make Violet the teacher and she is trying to get them to refuse the system so they can lead more successful individual lives that is free of any form of government control. It has to be set in the future or a third world country so that they actually have something to rise up against, not like the american government.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

HW 46 - Research and Writing

For my book i read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It was about a firefighter named Guy Montag, only firefighters in that time aren't responsible for putting out fires, but starting them. They are responsible for the burning of books. Books are against the law and might spark some form of revolution. They made it a point to throw people who were found in possession of books to be thrown in jail and their house to be burned. This was all fine with Montag until he met a young girl who wasn't under the spell of television and opened his eyes to the world around him. It was when she met her untimely end that he really began to question everything around him. The story is about how we are so quick to absorb what is right in front of us but refuse to look past it, especially when we are being spoon fed the "truth."
This connects to my thesis because although it doesn't directly deal with success rates or anything like that, it gets into the mind set of someone who had an education under the government and someone who didn't and offers extraordinary contrasting points that will be extremely useful when i write my essay. I can use how the government mindset is so easily upset when it comes into conflict with the free thinking mind.
I wanted to be able to look at education and see how the schools in urban areas compare to suburban schools and how that can effect success rates. I thought that race would play a big part as well as income. I figured inner city schools wouldn't fare as well as rich long island schools. The reason that the book helps with this is because it addresses the types of education and without looking at race or income it attacks this man's life and how easily his perfect balance can be thrown off when he comes into conflict because he doesn't really understand life because he was never really taught, he was more along the lines of forced memorization. These tactics can leave you unprepared for life which is exactly what happened to Montag. He didn't know how to respond to change so he shut down and did what he was told. Even in scenes where he should have made his own decisions he had someone else make them. He was never truly alone throughout the book, it was always someone Else's thoughts or words that were guiding him, he was a puppet. I want to be able to base what i write off of something like that. I want to be able to understand the school systems like i understand Montag.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

HW 45 - More Big Thoughts on Schools

Theodore R. Sizer as we know was the founder of the coalition of essential schools of which we are members along with over 600 other school across the country and internationally. He believed that if students were allowed to more freely use their mind then they could develop more intellectually. He thought that by giving us minor structure that we would be able to grow beyond what we could have if we had stuck to the structure. He thought that we were like a plant, if you keep putting us in bigger pots we can grow more because if we were a big plant in a little pot then we can only grow as much as the pot will let us. He wanted to leave room for change and because he believed that with change came growth. E.D. Hirsch, on the other hand believed that by learning facts about American and other countries that we will be more prone to success because we know what is necessary and that is what will help us more when we apply for colleges of jobs. In the books he published he stated that every grade level should have certain lesson plans that should be followed more explicitly and then after that the rate of success will be much greater.

I believe that freedom is necessary for change and that you can't progress without change. The problem with that is that progress and change are things that need to be kept in check. You cannot allow a plant to grow freely and expect it to stay within certain boundaries. The idea of untethered change can be scary to many because it is unpredictable and has the ability to get dangerous. If total and complete freedom is offered to today's youth then what control does the powers at be have over us? How can they possibly control us and make us do what they want. What i would do if i had to run a school, as predictable as it may be, i would mix the ideas of Sizer and Hirsch. I think that freedom is necessary to grow and learn but there needs to be some sort of root that can be built off of. It would great if people could hold an intelligent conversation and interject their own ideas, but they need to be able to understand what is being talked about. The Bill of Rights is something that should be taught in schools. We need to know the history of the planet. I think that if there could be a mix of Political sciences, World History, and Social studies in public schools, then there would be a great increase in the people produced by that education system.

E.D. Hirsch said: "Such is the case for the fundamental, inescapable importance of substantial, broad background knowledge for reading comprehension (and for performing well on reading comprehension tests). But agreement on this begs the next question: Knowledge of what? What knowledge should the schools be responsible for teaching to all kids? I believe that part of the answer is quite straightforward, and I hope uncontroversial—and to teach it ought to take about 40-60 percent of curricular time. " (Building Knowledge-http://archive.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/spring06/hirsch.htm). He wants the students of tomorrows youth be able to hold a conversation. It isn't necessarily a bad thing. He bases his knowledge off of comprehension tests which isn't right so i think that his ideas might be skewed from the beginning but he does have some valid points especially with the fact that we need more background knowledge. Ted Sizer said : "Few of the young soldiers who served under him had completed high school, but when treated democratically, as members of a cohesive group, they learned new skills readily, he found.“Whatever troops you got had to deliver,” Professor Sizer told Phi Delta Kappan magazine in 1996. “If one person didn’t do it, he put everybody’s life at stake. That made a deep impression. There was no tracking in the Army, just the beliefs that somehow these young men had to be trained and had to be reliable and that all soldiers can learn.”(Obituary Works-http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/education/23sizer.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all). Again just like Hirsch, Sizer recounts ideas from personal experiences and plans that to work accordingly with all people. Both of these people didn't ever investigate the other side, because if they did then it wouldn't be a problem right now because they would see how they could use each other to cover the flaws in their own ideas. But that is because they didn't take advice from each other, at least thats what i think.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

HW 44 - Big Expectations for School

In my professional opinion i think that President Obama's speech on school is really the best out of all the articles. He doesn't say that school is there to transform you into something that you aren't. It simply says that if you try your hardest then you will be in a better position to help yourself in the future. Although it is the most generic and designed to embrace the path of least resistance, he still does an excellent job of getting his message across. He doesn't say that if they try to be something that they aren't then they will be better, but if they try their hardest then they will have more opportunities then if they just drop out. On average the people with the college degrees have a higher salary (http://www.all4ed.org/files/u1/TaxesGraph.gif). Albeit that race does place a significant role in these topics, that is not what i am discussing now. What Obama was basically saying is that if you try your hardest and stay in school then the chances for success are much higher.
My beliefs in the school system are quite simple. I believe that school should be mandatory but for those who are going to go and just make it harder for the people who went there to learn then what is the point. Things don't always happen like they do in movies. There isn't going to be a new white teacher in every bad school in America who goes there to miraculously change the lives of the students by reaching them through various trust exercises. Some of the students will just be dragged through school and just barely graduate if they don't drop out and then find a job that they can do. That's what i think at least.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/02/column-we-need-two-school-systems-.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/opinion/23herbert.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/opinion/03friedman.html?em
Those three articles seem to understand what i am talking about. The first address the fact that people are different and that there should be schools to address the different peoples needs so that they can be more effective to this country and be more successful in life. The second article states that schools are more successful when they are more stern with their students and mold them to follow their rules and do what they say. They make the children submissive and because of that they are more successful and therefore more able to adapt to our society. Terrible but true. The third article is about how we are beginning to have to outsource more and more because although we may be leaders in most aspects of the world. We are beginning to let the rest of the world catch up with us and in complete honesty. They are just plain cheaper then us. They can produce the same labor and basic needs for a fraction of the price and be the same quality. These three articles are all really important because as cheesy as it may be, they all connect back to the original Obama speech. They all basically say that we need to step up. We have become lazy! I am no exception, i have had all week to write this and i am doing it the night before it is due. I don't know who is to blame the school, my home, my friends, my teachers. Maybe it might just be my fault. At least i am willing to accept it.

Monday, February 22, 2010

HW 41 - Initial Internet Research on Schooling

Golba, Amy. "How Does Education in Urban Schools Compare To Suburban Schools?." Indiana University Of South Bend 1.1 (2006): n. pag. Web. 24 Feb 2010.
Basically what this article is saying is that children who attend urban schools are under privileged and we need more money because we don't have enough and because of that we are not graduating and not making enough money to support ourselves. Amy Golba had this very interesting chart that compared drugs, theft, violence, attendance and bad class behavior in urban and suburban schools. What made this chart so interesting is that in every case the urban schools were worse (had higher numbers) then the suburban schools.
This is a good source for my topic because i am looking into how successful students are in graduating high school and then their future achievements based on whether they go to a urban or suburban school. This was interesting because it brought some very negative light onto urban schools and i like to see how it compares to suburban schools now. (http://www.iusb.edu/~journal/static/volumes/1998/Paper5.html)
  • Mone, Lawrence. "Little behavioural difference between urban and suburban teenagers." City Mayors Society 1.1 (2004): n. pag. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .
Basically what this paper said is the exact opposite of the last article. It said that Urban and suburban schools are just as bad as each other. They both promote, smoking, drinking and recreational sex. All of which can hinder future success. Or at least distract you from the task at hand.
This connects back to my topic because it shows that peer pressure plays a part in both urban and suburban schools and because of that neither one can really have the finger of blame pointed at which one may have the more successful students.
(http://www.citymayors.com/society/urban_teens.html)

  • Jordan, Jennifer. "Suburban, urban school gap remains." Rhode Island news 1.1 (2008): n. pag. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .
This article is slightly different then the others because it has more specific examples and is talking about rings of schools in Providence Rhode Island. It is talking about how the "urban" rings are incredibly below average and if they cant bring their averages up then they are facing severe budget cuts and even school closures which can be incredibly bad and cause many children to go without an education.
This relates back to my point because once again it shows how the students grades are failing due to peer pressures. Although not directly stated in this article it is made clear by the simple fact that these students in urban areas are failing.
(http://www.projo.com/news/content/SCHOOL_CLASSIFICATIONS_08-20-08_27B8U6T_v47.3f5f96b.html)

  • Noguera, Pedro. "San Francisco: Improvements are rooted in local initiative and leadership." Achieving Success Through Shared Accountability in Urban Schools 1.1 (1997): n. pag. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .
This is an old article and the reason i chose it was because from the very beginning of when San Francisco was starting to turn around its school systems and this article was published which made this article that much more valuable. It showed how the urban areas were beginning to turn themselves around and by doing that they were making it a better place.
This relates back to my topic because it shows that even though urban schools were bad they still had the ability to improve and the social situations and social hierarchy's still had room to change.
(http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/pnsf.html)

  • Knudson, Brigitte. "A Liberal Education." Wordpress.com. 15 Jul 2008. Wordpress.com, Web. 3 Mar 2010. .
This article said that the difference between urban and suburban schools and which ones do better depends on which ones have less "underprivileged children" because they tend to not do as well on standardized testing and that is what schools are usually marked by for their success.
This article is helpful because it gives a very close minded and almost racist view into the success rates of school. She says that suburban schools are better because they have less poor kids and they don't do as well as middle class kids. She didn't bring race into it but i think that would be next. I think that this article does give a urban outlook on success/failure rates outside of their own little bubble.
(http://brigitteknudson.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/education-in-urban-vs-suburban-schools-comparing-apples-and-oranges/)

Basically what i learned from these articles is that upbringing and personal background and such play very important roles in your personal role at school and no matter what area you live in those things will still be key.

HW 42 - Significance

How does the social hierarchy in urban/suburban schools connect to the success failure rate of today's youth?

The reason that this topic interests me is because i have a good number of friends who go to school on long island and what they learn is incredibly mundane and usually straight from a textbook, but yet they all seem to do quite well in college and get scholarships whether they be academic or sports related. Most of the people who i know who went to college from the city don't seem to really amount to anything like that, they go to decent colleges and jobs that get them by from there.
I want to know if it is a trend that this is between urban and suburban schools or is it just the people i know. I want to know if this is a pattern. Since i am presented this opportunity then i should take it and maybe see what the cards hold for me for my future. I really don't want to end up in some dead end job that gets me by because i didn't do everything i could in high school. I want to do something that makes me happy. I know i need to work for that but i want to know why it seems that suburban kids have such an advantage.