Essay 3

From a young age, the idea of Success is a topic drilled into our highly absorbent and sponge-like adolgescent minds. We are predisposed to think of success as a combination of school, high test scores, college and eventually a career with lack of any creative thinking in the midst of it all. In an article from Harper’s Magazine, John Gatto writes “We have been taught … to think of ‘success’ as synonymous with [or dependent upon] ‘schooling.’” However it isn’t success that comes from school, but from education itself with just a bit of creativity sprinkled on top. Teaching each student the same curriculum the same way would be a lucrative route to teaching if each student were exactly the same. Fortunately, we are not ergo the numerous methods of teaching and learning available to America today. Although not all of these methods may be the “right” way, there is no determining the wrong way. Passion, critical thought and curiosity are key elements in the upbringing of young scholars. The next step is to apply these elements and bring light to the creativity of the brilliant young minds that make up our forthcoming generation.

            At just the tender age of six, students are put into a classroom with roughly twenty-five others of the same basic qualifications. Here they are expected to inhale a mouthful of information, digest it, and spit it back out in the form of a test score. These test scores are what determines a student’s academic success. Keyword: academic. It is these scores that have the potential to build students up or tear them down, academically and emotionally.  However, not all students have the same type of digestive system so to speak. Learning is diverse whether it is auditory, visual, kinesthetic, abstract, etc. and the expectation of each student learning the same information, the same way, in the same amount of time is foolish and nonsensical. This is our educational system’s biggest fault. Instead of shoving useless information down a throat that will throw it back up, the real consideration should be the student’s talents and passions, where they are able to flourish into something that is greater than any equation could ever be. In a 2006 TED lecture, Ken Robinson talks about how the most potentially brilliant students are lead to believe that they are unintelligent because what they are good at wasn’t valued in school. This feeling of incapability is unhealthy for students and can carry on later in their adult lives. Rather than feeding them information that they will never put to use, they should be focusing on what they are good at and coached on how to further blossom their fostering potential. One-on-one learning with the students gives teachers the opportunity to really target each student’s individual strong suits. Here they are able to openly communicate and express any excitement or concerns that they have, all while exploring and igniting sparks in their own colorful minds.

            We are coached to go to school so that we can get a job and go to work. Ensue, we become successful. This is a system based solely on industrialism that dates back to the beginning of schooling where students would grow up to become workers. Today however, there is much more to “success” than becoming an industrial employee. In fact, a very small percentage of students nowadays go to school for industrialism due to the endless opportunities provided in today’s booming job market. Often these opportunities are overlooked and students feel the obligation to continue an education that they care very little about because that is what the rest of the world is doing. After being taught for so long that conformity is a valuable approach to life, you begin to believe it. In Bell Hooks’ book Teaching Critical Thinking, she states “… children’s passion for thinking often ends when they encounter a world that seeks to educate them for conformity and obedience only.” Constant conformity is a hard habit to break, especially for those being brought up in a system that encourages it. This is where students find themselves with lack of any individualism, thinking the same way and evolving in each other’s shadows. The key is to realize this and to take the steps to stray from it, avoiding acquiescence and paving a path made for the student, by the student. This opens their frame of reference, allowing choices and introducing opportunities for creating their own success.

            There are those able to learn independently, using their own inner dialogues and applying personal methods to solve puzzling situations in their day to day lives. Then there are those who are dependent upon our education system, sending their children off to let the paid educators do all the teaching for them. Although classrooms are reputable for where learning happens, to think that they are the only source for legitimate education is extremely close-minded. The real classroom is at home and the real teachers are our mentors. It is the parent’s job to plant ideas in the minds of their child from a young age. This provides food for thought, inspiring them to explore, consider and question the new concepts introduced to them. In his article Against School, John Gatto says “we could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness- curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight …”As opposed to denying their right to those qualities, giving them the impression that curiosity won’t get them a career, but going to school will. These qualities play an essential role in the fundamental growth of a student’s conscience. As Ken Robinson said, “we have to see our creative capacities for the richness that they are and we have to see our children for the hope that they are.” Encouraging leadership, independence and fruitful thinking from a young age can lay down a clear path for an evolving, bright young mind.

Having the ability to think freely, explore the mind and apply multiple perspectives to daily life are fundamental elements in showing exceptional leadership qualities. With a society brought up educationally equal, leadership isn’t a common trait found among today’s youth. Finding a voice within themselves gives students hope in creating a bright future. Although there may be no changing the current educational system in America, there are steps to take to lead your kids astray from curriculum that they will not find beneficial and from conforming into un-individual robots who lack thought. Realize what they are good at, embolden their talents and allow their passions to prosper. Recognize creativity, encourage curiosity, challenge their minds and their hearts will follow. After using such an out of date method for educating for so long, take the opportunity to change it for yourself and your children. As Ken Robinson said when speaking to his peers, “we may not see this future, but they will.”

WORK CITED

·         Robinson, Ken. “How schools kill creativity.” TED 2006 February 2006. <https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity>

·         Gatto, John. “Against School” Harper’s Magazine September 2009. http://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm

·         Hooks, Bell. Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom (2010)

New York, London: Routledge. 7-21.

·         Freire, Paolo. “The Banking Concept of Education.” Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 1970. Chapter 2

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What is high school for

In a lot of ways, high school is the general building blocks that set us up for Life. While you're in there, you think of every single reason why its completely irrelevant. When will you ever need to know 3x+4y^5-7xy+4? Why is General Custer relevant in this day in age? In retrospect, its not. The majority of all that information is useless to us, but it wasn't until I left high school that I was able to realize how important it really is. Every person I met and relationship I made taught me how to interact with different types of people and adapt to each situation I'm in given the circumstances. The academic side of high school gave me a little boost, but not much for the college classes I'm taking now where I'm learning a lot of things completely fresh and different. However it was the social side of it that really benefited me more so in the long run. Interaction is such an important part of life and I think high school sets you up just barely in your comfort zone where you don't have to feel completely out of your element, but just enough to where you can branch out and explore your social mind a bit more.
Regarding CHANGE, I think there could be less focus on the 4-5 main subjects (math, english, history, etc.) and more on the creative aspects of learning. Don't get me wrong, those 5 subjects are important, but it would be nice to expand on students creativity rather than boxing them up in the generic "success" routes.
Go outside, smell the flowers. Look at some tree bark. Dance and be happy. Sit less in a stale classroom and more out in a bright environment. Take in what will benefit you, not all the knowledge that they stuff into your brain from a young age.

Using Sources Effectively

In his article Against School from Harper's Magazine '03, John Gatto describes schools as "laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands." He states that "mandatory education serves children only incidentally; its real purpose is to turn them into servants." when talking about the purpose of modern schooling. 

Compare/Contrast

Looking back on my ideas of good teaching, the thoughts that swam through my mind usually consisted of candy, snack time, and endless games of Heads Up Seven Up. I only considered read-ins, Pajama Day, and field trips when entertaining the thought of what teacher I would end up with the following year. However, taking a closer look from a more grown up standpoint, I realize that those tiny perks are a only sheer veil over the remarkable face of what being a teacher really is.  A good teacher addresses the unfavorable experiences in a students life, in or outside of the classroom, and turns them around to where they are able to take away something positive from the situation.  Erin Gruwell and Ron Clark are two prime examples of extraordinary teachers, devoting their lives and career to educating and creating the best futures possible for their students. With determination, positivity and guts, these two teachers were able to mold the brilliant futures of their young scholars and shine onto them influential beams of light capable of turning the most negative of situations into something much brighter. Giving them encouragement, hope and a group they were able to call family, the scholastic lives, as well as home lives, of their students flourished into remarkable stepping stones to create the base of the rest of their bright futures.
No one was really sure if she knew what she was getting herself into. A new teacher from the thriving high-class city of Newport Beach, Ms. Gruwell didn't anticipate the amount of violence and retaliation throughout the newly integrated Los Angeles High School where she would now be employed. She waited at the head of her dusty, bare classroom while the old graffiti-covered desks began to slowly fill. Looking at faces ranging on the color spectrum from black to white and everything in between, she might as well have been colorblind. The students mocked her fair white complexion and the faculty mocked her devotion to them. Regardless, she stuck around despite how threatened she was feeling to pursue a task that no other teacher dare even consider. Teaching the "unteachables".
With a lack of inspiring material to introduce to her new class, Ms. Gruwell was scorned for asking to use the library books because the students had a reputation for destroying them. She took it upon herself to pick up a second job to help pay for her new school books and introduced them to the idea of Change, which they were all able to entertain. With time she gained the trust of each of her students, some more willing than others, and explored alternative teaching methods to get them to open up more. She used their music preferences and backgrounds to bring them together where they were able to realize how much they actually had in common. During a game, Ms. Gruwell triggered loss as a mutual emotion between all of the students which was used as an icebreaker and offered a link between each of them. She compared Nazi's to the neighborhood gangs that the students were affiliated with to give them a perspective on how amateur they actually are which opened up their eyes to the idea that there may be more to life than the streets.  
Meanwhile at home, her relationship with her husband was struggling. Her heart was torn, battling a constant push and pull from spouse to scholars and she soon found herself splitting up their belongings in an unforeseen divorce. Still she kept close to her class and with them moving up a grade within the year, she was able to convince the school board to let her advance with them and remain their teacher until they graduated. After publishing a book of her students' writing and proving wrong the extremely pessimistic minds of her fellow staff members, Ms. Gruwell followed many of her students to college as a teacher to pursue the rest of her career in their footsteps.
Mr. Clark didn't expect to be laughed at when he said he wanted to "teach" in Harlem. Apparently his small North Carolina town didn't compare much to New York City, so it took some convincing of his weary parents before he decided to make the move. Landing at a low income Harlem elementary school, the faculty was doubtful of the new teacher, referring to the students as problems. He visited each students' home to talk to their parents about the curriculum they would be learning prior to starting at the school. Here he was brushed off with little to no cooperation from the parents, which gave him an idea of what he would be working with once he got into the classroom. For the loud and very disobedient new students, he came up with creative ways to make it exciting for the kids to learn. He rapped songs about History and even played games in class to make it more interesting for them. The number one rule was that in the classroom, they were a family and within that group they had a guaranteed safe place.
Entering a classroom where every single student tells you to leave must feel somewhat unwelcoming and although he considered leaving, Mr. Clark stayed because he was determined to raise the test scores of the brilliant young minds that sat before him. Picking up some of the burdens that the students were dealing with in their own lives gave them a chance to focus more on their studies and less on their problems. He met with students individually to help them with anything that they were struggling with, school-related or not. When he became sick with Pneumonia, he video taped himself at home for the kids to watch in class since he could not physically be there to teach them. Mr. Clark saw education as an out for troubled students while the students were able to look at the classroom as an out for their lack of a decent home life.
The class appreciated what Mr. Clark was doing for them, but not all of their parents did. It took time, but he showed them that if you set the bar low, then that's all you're going to get. When you expect nothing but less, then less is all you are going to get. After some convincing and positive test scores, he was able to prove the true potential of their children and bring light to their intricate developing minds. He took one very troubled student out of the shadows and brought him into an uplifting environment where he was able to prosper into a remarkable artist. Eventually when the students got their final test scores back, the results were outstanding and they ended up scoring highest average of any other class in the school.
It's a combination of determination, selflessness, positivity and guts that make these two teachers as inspiring as they are. For Ms. Gruwell and Mr. Clark's classes, it didn't matter where you came from. You could be black, white, Mexican, Puerto Rican or Jewish. It was the sense of community and affinity, regardless of their backgrounds, that brought them together and gave them a sense of family. Although neither of the teachers anticipated teaching a class of such intransigent students, they took it upon themselves to bring them together as one and give them the sense of wholesomeness and upbringing that they were lacking. Despite the seemingly endless mockery and judgement that they received from their peers, both teachers fought endlessly to improve and encourage the futures of each and every one of their students.

Woodrow vs. Wellesley

The two schools in the movies are far from similar to each other. Woodrow High is a very integrated public school with many cases of gang violence and poverty where as Wellesley is a high-class all girls private college. They both are on two opposite ends of the country with two opposite approaches to learning.
The teachers I find are pretty similar with a few subtle differences. They both aren't really aware of what they're getting themselves into and both struggle on the first few days of school trying to fit in and determine their place in the faculty. Both teachers make the mistake of showing vulnerability, which allows the students to undermine their confidence a little bit in the beginning. But soon they recognize their place in the school and let the students know that they have the upper hand. The most outstanding similarity I noticed however, was their genuine yearning for learning. They wanted to make their students become the best people they can be and it definitely shows as the movies progress.
I unfortunately have not had the pleasure of working with teachers similar to Gruell and Watson but I wish I could say that I have.

Using Details

Audre Lorde’s Zami

“For our mother’s souse, it didn’t matter what kind of meat was used. You could have hearts, or beefends, or even chicken backs and gizzards when we were really poor. It was the pounded-up saucy blend of herb and spice rubbed into the meat before it was left to stand so for a few hours before cooking that made that dish so special and unforgettable. But my mother had some very firm ideas about what she liked best to cook and about which were her favorite dishes, and souse was definitely not one of either.”

For Mrs. Gruell’s class, it didn’t matter where you came from. You could be black, white, Mexican, Puerto Rican or even Arabic. It was the sense of community and affinity, regardless of their backgrounds, that brought them together and gave them a sense of family. Although Mrs. Gruell didn’t anticipate teaching a class of such intransigent students, she took it upon herself to bring them together as one and give them the sense of wholesomeness that they were lacking.

Mike Rose’s I Just Wanna Be Average

“Jack MacFarland couldn't have come into my life at a better time. My father was dead, and I had logged up too many years of scholastic indifference. Mr. MacFarland had a master's degree from Columbia and decided, at twenty-six, to find a little school and teach his heart out. He never took any credentialing courses, couldn't bear to, he said, so he had to find employment in a private system. He ended up at Our Lady of Mercy teaching five sections of senior English. He was a beatnik who was born too late. His teeth were stained, he tucked his sorry tie in between the third and fourth buttons of his shirt, and his pants were chronically wrinkled. At first, we couldn't believe this guy, thought he slept in his car. But within no time, he had us so startled with work that we didn't much worry about where he slept or if he slept at all.”

Mrs. Gruell couldn’t have come to Woodrow Wilson High at a better time. The students desire to learn was dead and at that point, they didn’t think anything could save them. Mrs. Gruell was a new teacher from Newport Beach who decided to take the opportunity to teach at a newly integrated high school. She had never worked in a position like this one, but she took it upon herself to make the most of the situation because she knew no other teachers would. She ended up in an English class teaching a range of ethnicities and backgrounds. She was pretty and young. Her voice was soft, she wore a fancy pearl necklace, and her shoes clicked when she walked on the linoleum. At first, the students looked at her as a joke, with her even-toned white complexion.  However, soon enough she had them so engulfed in positive learning that they didn’t even consider the skin tone that they were sitting next to.

potential victims...

I'm having a hard time pin pointing a teacher who really stood out to me throughout my educational career. Coming from a small school with a mediocre staff, I wish I could say that at least one of them made a positive impact on me. However, there is only one, Mr. Tran, who was the most horrible math teacher I've ever encountered but I feel like I don't have enough background to make a 1200 word paper out of it. I've seen another great movie, similar to Freedom Writers called the Ron Clark Story starring Mathew Perry as a school teacher out of his element in a New York City school, so I'm considering comparing him and Ms. Gruell since they take place in a similar environment.
Any thoughts? Would that be way too easy?