Rough draft paper #3

Alice Rattananongsy
Dr. Sonia Begert
English 101, Paper #3
March 12, 2013

                Today’s K-12 education system includes an educational curriculum that must meet the state’s learning standards. Each state is different and to ensure that students are meeting these standards, the state has implemented standardized testing for all students. Many doubt that the standardized testing is helpful to students, it does nothing but stress, worry, and horrify students across the United States. The most important change the K-12 education system needs is to have an engaging, captivating, fun, and alluring curriculum to help students learn material better. This would be a lot more effective rather than having students sit, memorize, and regurgitate information on tests.
                In the films we have watched, we encountered different types of teachers handling the situations within their classrooms. Students were misbehaving, being disrespectful and bullying their peers to no avail. In Stand and Deliver, Mr. Escalantes engaged his students and used creative word problems that included gigolos and women; something the students could relate to. Although it may be negative, it helped them to capture the idea because it was something that they personally experienced. They didn’t have to memorize boring equations and Mr. Escalante brought “outside” resources to help guide them along. Stand and Deliver also showed how hard the students worked by going to school six days out of the week and staying after school to work on calculus. The dedication, hard work and perseverance helped these students to become confident individuals and to confirm that they deserved the same opportunities as other students. “Their response to the challenge evokes new challenges, followed by new understandings; and gradually the students come to regard themselves as committed” (Friere, pg. 4), this excerpt from Paolo Friere’s, The Banking Concept of Education, explains that students will rise to the occasion of challenge when necessary. He proposes that teachers no longer “teach” their students but have students enlighten their own ideas. Whether it was being tardy to class or not attending the calculus sessions, Mr. Escalante held students accountable and wanted the students to think responsibly. Mr. Escalante connected with his students and they wanted to impress him because he went out of his way to help them succeed in calculus. Teachers who are willing to go above and beyond and invest in their students can create new found ability students are unaware of.
                The K-12 education system is lacking teachers who are passionate, creative, and willing to get their hands dirty to help their students succeed. Many teachers have resulted to a standard curriculum and teaching their students only the basics of what they “need” to know. They are afraid of stepping outside of the box and appearing atypical to help students creatively venture out of their comfort zones. Teachers are not the only ones who need to be involved in a student’s education, parents should also be accountable. Parents should participate in their child’s education because it will help their child to have a more meaningful life and instead of conforming to the ideas of society, parents can help their children develop their own understanding and views of the world. This is important because it will help children gain insight to what interests them and take charge of their own learning. Parents will most likely come up with an excuse about not having enough time but investing over time in your child will surely benefit them. Some parents might say that it is the teacher’s job to teach their child but it is not. Learning starts at home and shouldn’t be dependent upon teachers. Parents should take the initiative in their child’s development to help them become an intellectual and thoughtful human being.
                Ken Robinson’s, Lecture on Education, discusses how children are getting, “educated out of their creative capacities”. Without creativity, students wouldn’t be compelled to have their own ideas, thoughts, and interpretations.  It is so important that the K-12 education system stop educating students to be conformists. It seems that every student goes through the same routine of six classes a day, five days a week and a majority of students learn the same material, take the same tests. With students grouped together, it is hard for each individual to mentally grow. Students go through the same motions as their peers and if one is out of the ordinary, they are considered “weird”. Robinson also says, “…if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original…” which also suggests that we are afraid to be wrong and that we might as well conform to the ideas of others just so that we can appear ordinary. The K-12 education system needs to engage their students in things that are out of the ordinary. Robinson said that when he moved to America, “Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one. Doesn’t matter where you go….At the top are mathematics and languages, then humanities, and the bottom are the arts.” This goes to show that the K-12 education system has the same curriculum throughout.
                Often, students become bored of the subjects being taught. In Chalk, Mr. Lowrey who is a first year history teacher is intimidated by his students. His students feed off of his apprehensiveness and see that because he is vulnerable, they take advantage of him. Mr. Lowrey finds that reciting things off the chalk board is not effective and decides that he needs help on how to manage his class. As the film progresses, he gradually develops a bond with his students by creatively coming up with the “spelling hornet”, which is a spelling competition of slang words. His students are ecstatic that he is in it and are willing to help him win the contest. This example goes to show that students want to engage in fun learning activities with their teachers. This interaction with students and teachers not only help the students but also the teachers. It helped Mr. Lowrey learn that “teaching is not a gift”, and that if he did decided to come back the following year, he would do things differently. Teachers in the K-12 education system need to explore different ways to captivate their students to be interested in the material. There are many teachers who have been teaching for years but eventually get burnt out from boredom of teaching the same subjects. This goes back to Ken Robinson’s idea that creativity is being educated out from public schools. Teachers no longer have the desire to be creative, therefore, following the standard curriculum that is already set for the school.  
                Boredom was a topic in John Gatto’s, Against School: How Public Education Cripples our Kids, and Why? Boredom was like a disease spreading among teachers and students. The students Gatto worked with were bored with the material they already knew and that the “work was stupid”. Teachers didn’t want to bother learning more and settled with what they knew. The teachers also blamed the students as to reasons why they were bored. Gatto’s grandfather told him that if he was bored, it was his fault and no one else’s and he was held accountable for finding ways to entertain himself. Ultimately, students are responsible for their learning and should start from a young age. Gatto defies the ideas of modern schooling and  urges parents to, “teach your own to be leaders and adventurers….think critically and independently….develop an inner life so that they’ll never be bored”.  Children are so enveloped in modern technology that they are forgetting to “enjoy their own company”. Students will eventually need to learn to develop their thoughts, ideas, and intellect so, why not start when they are young? In Gatto’s article, he says that, “we suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves.”
                Students in the K-12 education system should receive an engaging, captivating, fun and alluring curriculum. It will make school enjoyable for students and learning a lot less dreadful and because of this, students will want to come to school but it is up to the teacher to decide what they will be learning. The opportunities that may arise from engaging students are endless. Students will want to rise to the occasion of learning more and to be creative with their thinking. Instead of suppressing students of their ideas, it should be supported because not everything is wrong. Students are afraid to think outside of the box for fear of rejection and are taught in school to, “adapt to the world as it is” (Friere, pg. 2). Teachers should also be seeking new ways to learn everyday so that they don’t bore themselves to death. Passion, creativity, and fun, is what the K-12 education system needs.