HW 51

What can schools realistically do to address the systematic problems of inequality, anti-intellectualism, and meaninglessness in our society?

Introduction: Living in America presents us with many opportunities to fulfill a rich meaningful life. Unfortunately we are so obsessed with always being number one that many of the concepts that seem like no big deal to us are taken for granted. One of the concepts we take for granted is school. The idea of the grass is greener on the other side plays into this. We complain so much about how we have to go to school day after day, we think to ourselves oh how I wish I didn’t have to go to school! The thing is though if we weren’t in school we would probably be working. There are in fact children in this world who lead a life like that. While I was in Egypt children as young as four came up to our group trying to sell us souvenirs. It made me feel heart broken, most of these children will never learn to read or write. For the most part these children will have the same job for the rest of their life. Children in the United States at this age are within a classroom exploring and discovering their imaginations. Sadly enough most of the world is much more like Egypt than we realize. If we embrace our education and challenge ourselves to be strong thinkers, our lives will be much more complete.

Argument One: Not only do we have the option to go to school in this country but it is also free. Meaning that regardless of financial circumstances, anyone can attend. Of course there are private schools but coming from experience a public school education gives you much more of an idea of what the “real world” is going to be. When we first started this unit I interviewed my mother and a line that struck me was: “School can actually be a microcosm of the world and we can learn how to live in the world.” I remember arguing with her and saying how experience is more important. I firmly believed that sitting in a classroom day after day resulted with no knowledge of how to deal with “real life situations.” But looking at it now, I hate to admit it but I agree with her. What happens in school allows us to work out problems and have that experience under our belt. Just because we are in school doesn’t mean we are not in the real world, it is just a part of how our world operates. Since we go to such a diverse school, we have the skills to be able to work with anyone regardless of their race, religion or gender. In our country those three categories often separate many people. However we will know how to work with anyone and not discriminate because of differences.

Argument Two: “Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.” (Obama) Especially since our generation has grown up with the computer, we all tend to be quite lazy. I could be sitting on my bed with my laptop and my book bag might be two feet away but I am too lazy to stand up and get it. I think that’s the problem, we have no motivation to give it what we got. The thing with school is even when we wake up mornings to lazy to get out of bed, our parents encourage us to. They make up for the motivation we lack, and with that little push we enter a world of discovery. Personally for the past three years I have had mediocre grades, I am not sure what happened but I realized that doing okay work was a waste of time. My teachers were giving me tools to use and I was doing a half ass job. Now I am using these tools to help and guide me to find something that I am good at. Since this class involves a lot of questioning and focusing on curiosity, we are a little bit more intellectual than most of America. Without school I am not sure if I could make that statement…

Argument Three: If we wake up every morning feeling as if there is no point then of course this idea is going to continue throughout ones life. That makes you someone who lives with a glass half empty. Mr. Fanning came in a not too long ago to speak to our class. I left class that day feeling really different about our school. The way he explained his ideas made me understand why SOF does certain things. He said: "SOF does things that are good education. We embody the student as an individual. You should question everything." It is quite apparent that himself and the other teachers actually do care about our ideas. They are willing to work with us to discover them and try to support us through discovering what makes us interested. He then went on to saying, "Perfect education is a lifetime education." Just because once we graduate and go out in the world does not mean we will ever stop learning. Part of me feels as if the students who go to schools where testing is a number one priority will be less likely to question things, to have the urge to learn new things for the rest of their lives. Merely because they are taught not to discover but to maintain a set in stone understanding. So even though they might end up at top schools whose main focus is the number, doesn't make them any better than the rest of us. In many ways our lives will be much more meaningful because we will pursue things that have significance to us. We will go into fields that we can spend the rest of our lives discovering and although some of these "robots" might do the same... it will be at a completely different level of learning.

Alternative Point of View: In: "Alternatives in Education - The Other Side of ADD" http://borntoexplore.org/addsvs.htm which is an independently run website that preaches the idea that there is a link between the system of US Education and ADD. The United States bases their educational system off the German. Germany's Schooling was to make better factory workers and better solders. There system seemed to be quite successful so we copied them as well as many countries. The only difference between us and them is that we didn't want our students to be illiterate. Considering the fact that ADD is the most over diagnosed disorder it probably has very little to do with the brains and more with the similarity between most schools. If in most schools being yelled at and training for jobs is the main focus how can children explore their creative imagination. Just as it is described in the website, how can people focus if what they are learning has no interest to them? Or further more has no time for exploration in thinking topics?

Conclusion: My ideas on school have changed so drastically in the past couple of weeks. I think a lot of it has to do with not appreciating the good in certain situations. I guess since most teenagers have negative attitudes about coming to school it becomes a mutual feeling. I am grateful that because of school I have a better chance of doing something with my life. Although I am probably not going to become the president, things that I have learned in school will probably come up when I come become an adult. I think about the children of Egypt a lot and it makes me upset about the way they live. By going to school everyday in some strange way may help it so one day all children in this world will have the same opportunity. If we live each day knowing that we are going to be learning for the rest of our lives, maybe it’ll help us see that this part is so small compared to the amount of time we have on this earth. So instead of wasting away a good opportunity to be successful, we should take it all in and use it in the best way possible.