The Dichotomies of our Education
“Quit bitchin.”, said a former history teacher of Duncanville’s High school to student Jeff Bliss on May 2013, when he tried to explain to his teacher that handing out children packets of information while sitting behind a desk is not a form of teaching. Jeff Bliss is a former student of Duncanville’s High school, known for boisterous classroom rant that went viral in 2013. Now of days we don’t see children standing up to their teachers when their education isn’t up to par, but as technology is advancing we get to know more about this world than ever before and we are given a wider view of the world while the quality of our education is diminishing. Students often have credulity when it comes to education
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There are two groups in almost everything and us as human beings tend to categorize everything whether they are people or subjects. The dichotomy of the classroom meticulously separates the teacher from the student. The teacher sits in the front of the classroom away from the other desks and away from the students. The position of the teacher’s desk is a cognitive example of authority and power. The students, on the other hand, sit together as one body scattered around like many of the other objects in the classroom setting. In "The 'Banking' Concept of Education", Freire mentions a dichotomy in the education system between the teachers and the students, "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor." (216) An example of this would be Jeff Bliss, the student from Duncanville’s high school who wanted his teacher to be more involved when it came to teaching, instead of handing out packets of information and expecting students to memorize it all. Bliss states, "If you would just get up and teach us instead of handing 'em a packet, yo. There are kids in here that don't learn like that. … They need to learn face-to-face. You want kids to come to class? You want them to get excited? You gotta come in here, you gotta make 'em excited. To change him and make him better, you gotta touch his freakin' heart. You can't expect a kid to change if all you do is just tell him. " Here, Jeff is angry at the way his teacher takes the banking approach when it comes to teaching the students because it fails to teach the students anything when they are not driven. When repetition starts to take place students become disinterested and because they are not driven they will not question their education or their teacher. This is the way the manifestation of our education has been for decades and in result the
Given the widespread availability of information today, students no longer need teachers to lecture to them on the causes of the Civil War, for example, because that information is readily available—and often in more engaging formats that a typical classroom lecture. For this reason, educators should use in-school time to teach students how to find, interpret, and use information, rather than using most or all of the time to present
Multicultural education is a reform movement for school of diversity. It came to be known during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the 1970s. If planned out carefully and thoughtfully, it will transform schools, colleges, universities and other learning institutes. Multiculturalism is mainly used by diversity critics to describe the practices the practices they directly opposed or is mutually incompatible to the Western Canon. The purpose is to give each student the freedom to voice their opinion, give each student justice, and give each student their equality.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Ignorance Vs. Reason in the War on Education Kareem Abdul-Jabber writes an article explaining the attack on education and the serious problems in the classroom involving teachers and students. Abdul-Jabbar describes how students only hold on to one perspective; students should explore different perspectives on topics, and question education’s opinions on practical matters. Republicans, Democrats, and non-partisan discuss this controversy over education.
Higher education is important to most people, but there are times where it does not take priority. One major issue talked about by Magdalena Kay in “A New Course” is that teachers are teaching to the state test, and not to teach students knowledge. There are two perspectives in this article: one is from Magdalena Kay, an associate professor of English at the University of Victoria, and the other is Christopher Lasch. Christopher Lasch is a historian and a social critic, who does not have an inside sight into the educational system. Lasch is only able to express the perspective of an outsider, unlike Kay who has an insight because she is in the educational system.
The Other Education Rhetorical Analysis David Brooks is a well-refined journalist for the New York Times News Paper Company. He writes many different controversial articles, that tends to focus around arguments of education. Within Brooks’ arguments he uses effective techniques to persuade the audience. In this specific column, he addresses society as a whole, but with special emphasis on students. David Brooks successfully persuades his audience through his presentation of his claim, his persuasive writing style, and his usage of emotional appeals.
An important point I learned after reading Holler if You Can Hear Me by Gregory Michie is that teachers should care about their students because students will learn more if they know you care and then they will care to learn . Mr. Mitchie believes his students don’t care enough to learn about sexism, but the truth was that they were tired of spending 2 weeks on the same lesson. Mr. Mitchie will then get angry at his class and tell them that if they didn’t care to learn then he wouldn’t make them. In another instant a teacher named Miss. Reilly was tired of her class not listening to her that she threatened to quit, but a student named Samuel wrote her a letter and told her not quit.
“Grant’s daily interactions with his students result in feelings of displacement and disillusionment. Grant compares his students to some of the older uneducated townsfolk and finds that his hours in the classroom make a little difference.” (Lockhart 83). Even though Grant is unhappy with where he is at in his life he still realizes that he still is making a change in his students they are becoming more intelligent than some of the older people in their
Ungar’s essay, Charles Murray discusses why a liberal arts degree is unnecessary in his essay, “Are Too Many People Going to College?”. Murray believes that the basics of a liberal education are indeed important, but that students should be provided the basics of liberal arts in elementary and middle school (Murray 223). In this essay, Murray cites E.D. Hirsch Jr.’s book Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.” Hirsch Jr. and Murray believe that there is a “body of core knowledge” that all students should have, and that “this core knowledge is an important part of the glue that holds the culture together” but that this core knowledge should be taught in grades K-8 (Murray 224). Murray discusses how young children are much better at memorizing facts than adults are, to support his position that kids should be memorizing this core knowledge at a younger age (Murray 224).
This quote from an 8th grade student shows what most students are taught from a young age except with over exaggeration. However, this over exaggerated example helps in convincing students that they have been taught to grow up with a ridiculous and illogical mindset when it comes to
“Teachers of English and literature have either submitted, or are expected to submit, along with teachers of the more "practical" disciplines, to the doctrine that the purpose of education is the mass production of producers and consumers” (Berry). Berry uses the word practical to describe the way in which we produce students as though they were massed produced. School systems today demonstrate specialization, and with that follows oversimplification. “In our society, which exists in an atmosphere of prepared, public language-language that is either written or being read illiteracy is both a personal and a public danger” (Berry). While schools relax their education standards and primarily focus on profitability, we become vulnerable to loss of literacy through
In “I just wanna be average” Mike Rose recounts his years in vocational school, known as low level classes. Rose was placed in vocational school by accident, rose decided on staying enrolled with low level students. Rose observed his teacher and classmates and talks about them throughout his essay. Rose explains to the reader why many students don’t learn or don’t take school/education serious. Teachers show they don’t care about their students by giving lack of education and by using physical violence and all just to control them.
As Nelson Mandela once said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Donovan Livingston, a graduate at Harvard Graduate School of Education, has similar views on education. His passionate and inspiring speech called “Lift Off” was given at HGSE’s Commencement Ceremony on May 25, 2016. The speech discusses the importance of education as well as the obstacles and injustices students, especially those of color, have experienced throughout history in getting an education. Livingston’s graduating classmates who are becoming teachers, as well as teachers and educators in general, are the audience of his speech.
We are told that we are the land of the free, but in school we are taken many rights. We’ve been told to put our trust into the government, but only to realize false hopes. We are told to follow the books, but realize that they too are filled with mistakes. We are told to help the school by fundraising to grow our education, but then get fined because it’s illegal to sell during school hours and to strangers. Even though they do their best to educate us, they too are restricted on teaching us too much for it “doesn’t go with the school’s study plan,” we seem to have liberty to know all but at the end we are left empty.
The diversity of student backgrounds, abilities and learning styles makes each person unique in the way he or she reacts to information. The intersection of diverse student backgrounds and active learning needs a comfortable, positive environment in which to take root. Dr. King continues by explaining, “Education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.” From back then to today’s society, kids are failing because they lack those morals that they need to succeed.
I had the pleasure of visiting with Mrs. Cooke’s fifth grade class during my clinical experiences. Mrs. Cooke has a great rapport with her students and has very little difficult actively engaging students in learning. One of the “takeaways” from my visit references the students’ and teachers’ commitment to the principles of “The Leader in Me”. From a school-wide perspective, East Elementary School does not practice the traditional positive behavior interventions. Instead, the administration has adopted the ideals and principles behind “The Leader in Me”.