Education Argument (Rough Draft)

Education

 

Education is one of the most fundamental staples in life. Education starts at birth, you never stop learning; but your education really starts at age five. In school you learn how to read, write, arithmetic, science, and history. If you are good at one or all subjects you advance into higher classes, but if you are not good at any of the courses you just float through school not understanding or grasping the knowledge. Educators are supposed to educate you and make you understand, but with the classes overcrowding and standards being generalized there are many students being depraved of a quality education. In the United States has a very poor educational system. States officials elect people to boards who run lower boards and those boards are over the superintendents who are over the principles and the line continues all the way down to the parents of students. Who do you blame for the issues within your state, county, or district? Who is going to make changes to education? Who is going to stand up and hold all accountable for the low grades and school success rates? And last who is going to change the system to benefit the student not the test scores? Even though those are great but the best question is what could we do about it? To stop the accountability train long enough to define what we mean by “Achievement” (The answer Sheet: “Mike Rose’s Resolutions on Education”, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/some-2011-resolutions-someone.html). Mike Rose asks all of these questions, and they are agreeable. What is it going to take to make changes to benefit the students? The answer is that all are accountable and all need to start making changes to correct the educations injustices to students.

 

These are changes that can be made, small changes like the way students are taught on one curriculum and tested on another, abolish standardized tests. Teach students how to succeed in life not just school. Fewer students per classroom and more one on one learning. Take more focus on students and less on the money. These are just some things that our education boards need to focus on. When did education become this destructive mess? Most people will agree that it has been a mess since its creation and some may feel it’s the changing of time. We need to focus on the current and less on the past.

 

Education starts at home, when you are learning to crawl, talk, and walk, we are already being prepped for a life full of institution. Society is to blame for some problems in the education system, like if your child is hyper they may have a learning disability, or if your child is a slow learner they also may have a learning disability. As soon as children are labeled with these brands of ADD, OCD, a form of Autism, Dyslexia, Etc. the system automatically rules them out. “These kids slow down the class” as teachers tell parents and advise them to look at other alternative learning. This is where smaller classrooms come in handy, stop throwing these labeled students into special education classes that do not teach them at the class level they are. Educators grow intolerant of student behavior and ignore the signs for help. As teachers, we can create a climate for optimal learning if we understand the level of emotional awareness and emotional intelligence in the classroom (Bell Hook’s Engaged Pedagogy, Teaching Critical Thinking Teaching 3). this is another change that needs to happen. Stop labeling students and start reinforcing there esteem. 

 

In preschool children learn the alphabet, to count, to match colors, and shapes. They learn words and how to use them. There should be education before preschool, when a child hits preschool they are already behind, most children have not been socialized with other children, they are slow to learn and interact. We should have earlier head start programs that teach our young children sign language to start forming communication skills, the benefits are outstanding. Children are more susceptible to learning and retaining knowledge when you start teaching them before they can talk.

 

Parents should be held accountable to for their children; it is their responsibility to teach them as well as teachers. Teachers cannot do it all. The reason given for the enormous upheaval of family life and cultural traditions was, roughly speaking, threefold: 1) to make better people 2) to make good citizens. 3) To make each person his or her personal best. (Against school, by john Taylor Gatto. http://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm). If parents would get involved with their children’s education starting at a young age, children will have a higher reading comprehension, vocabulary, differentiate between right and wrong when they hit kindergarten, most students who have their parents involved, tend to have at least two grades higher reading levels, better test scores, and better attitudes. If schools and educators pushed the issue of early communication and reading, learning comprehension would be higher in K-12 schools.

 

Education is just that EDUCATION; schools should be able to fulfill their dreams of fully educating the classes for life. Standardized tests set all students up to fail, there is no such test that can be accurate for each learner, why would we do this? Why would we make our children take tests that they are no way prepared for? Awe, yes because the schools need money, they higher the scores the more money the school receives. But what is that showing the students who cannot perform the standards of the test? In what other profession do we use a single metric to judge goodness? (The answer Sheet: “Mike Rose’s Resolutions on Education”, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/some-2011-resolutions-someone.html). There is no other profession that would be an unfair advantage. We are showing them that according to these tests, they are not up to par and breaking their esteem. Making students perform at a “standard level” is what is crippling the education system, tests should not be a make or break situation.

 

 Grading the work is not creating potential, it is killing it. Students get graded on assignments, work, tests, and behavior. But what really happens when the grades are given? If a student is failing and warned about their work what happens next? Educator should be paying more attention. Teachers find it menial help students understand the curriculum, example: Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. (“The Banking Concept of Education” from Pedagogy of the Oppressed – Chapter 2, by Peole Friere, 1970).Why is that student failing? Why do they not understand? These are the questions that the parents, teachers, and school counselors should be asking and getting answers, not looking past the issues. Education should be looking into the creativity of a child finding their strengths, and focus on strengthening the weaknesses.

 

In our schools we should be teaching about life, how to bank, how to fill out applications, how to do taxes, how to manage money, sexual education, how protect yourself after high school. We should not have to rely on the parents alone to teach their children about life, because they also don’t have the answers. When a student graduate’s high school the education system is pushing them into a world they have never had to experience before. Most students won’t have a job, won’t go to college, and won’t have a car. Wouldn’t you want them to be a bit more established leaving high school? Knowing how to get a job or fill out a college application knowing what you need to do before you can buy a car or sign an apartment lease. Our education system should prepare students for life. These are life goals that go with education. Accomplishing all of these and graduating high school bring more hope for a young person’s future. How do we allow our teachers to teach the things that would make a better life for students and society? A radicle commitment to openness maintains the integrity of the critical thinking process and its central role in education. This commitment requires much courage and imagination. (Bell Hook’s Practical Wisdom, Teaching Critical Thinking Teaching 1).  The education system should have the courage to stand up and teach the students about life during and after graduation.

 

Society today puts a lot of pressure on the education system. It blames the schools for the bad apples and the welfare cases. But it’s not the schools fault. Schools and teachers can’t control how someone grows up, but they can try and make it a better place through learning. Society complains about the school system but never follow through with taking an initiative to fixing the schools problems as Lewis Black roughly we spend more time on how a school is built or what types of fixtures we have but it’s about the quality of education that the child receives. (Dailey Show: Back in Black: Education Crisis, Lewis Black. http://politicsisstupid.com/link/223041)

It’s time that society figure out that it takes a village to raise a child, and with all the influences today we have to keep our kids aware of the outside world and making sure they get the knowledge they need to prepare for it. It’s not the schools fault your child is now a teenage parent, but the school can offer sexual education and condoms. It’s also not the schools fault that your child begins drug addiction, but the school can offer drug and alcohol awareness. Blaming the education system for examples like this is not going to fix the problems of society.

 

Technology is one factor in the problems with schools. It is a blessing and a curse. Requiring students to type out papers and do internet research as homework make people feel bad for not being able to afford a computer or internet service. When did penmanship leave the curriculum?  Why is it not important to spell without auto spell check anymore? In the five years the dictionary may be out of print. Writing teaches patients and willingness to learn. We should bring back penmanship as a standard. Technology makes it so easy for students to cheat and cause distraction.

 

Schools should try and eliminate as much of societies reliance on technology and bring focus back to learning, not to Facebook. The education system is broken, it needs to be fixed. We need to find ways to fix it. Making changes to the current situations can have an outstanding effect on how students learn and teachers teach. Schools need to worry less about having the latest and greatest food, or track fields, or cafeterias. They need to focus on making school a better place for learning. Cutting down class sizes and removing standardize tests is a start, but to really fix it is to reevaluate the education structure and redefine what is truly important. It all needs to start at the top each person involved in education needs to be held accountable and bring our education system to a higher standard for the future generations.