A Retrospective View of Our Schools
In Jane Tompkins, A Life in School: What the Teacher Learned, Jane uncovers flaws in the American education system and how poorly formal education prepares pupils for careers after schooling. She describes how her teachers at P.S. 98 used authority to form the person she is now, teaching at Duke. Her experience dabbling in alternative teaching methods established the path she took throughout her career. Although Tompkins experience is atypical of most students, I agree with her argument about how fear is a successful means of motivation for those that can succumb to it, but alternatives exist that have been demonstrated and are successful.
Tompkins describes how authority drove her to success throughout her grade school year’s using vivid imagery. Authority was used to as fear to scare her into success. Her view of her memories produced from fear is described as “negative” and “painful” (25). She reconciles her view of these negative memories by recognizing that she possibly tainted her memories with her own view. Here, Tompkins recognizes how monumental of an effective approach to authority had on her childhood and
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In a setting of higher learning, allowing the students to set their own assignments and goals can have an immensely positive impact on the development of pupils. Tompkins described her course, Reading for Yourself, as her most successful approach to teaching, in which she had minimal interaction with the learning process. She even asked at one point, “What would I do next? Not show up at all?” (128). Tompkins’ personal experience allowing the students to dictate their own educational pathway was groundbreaking and an enormous success. I find this academic success in my own work whenever I have the choice to decide the topic on something as simple as an essay, or even to create my own material in a
Wilbur shows a good effort made to protect a child from fears because the fears are irrational. On the contrary, Collins juxtaposes a history teacher’s efforts to protect his students from historical truths and their ensuing behavior to show that the time he spends misguiding his students could be better spent teaching children to mature. Wilbur and Collins both demonstrate approaches to calming children; however the approaches differ in terms of protecting the children verses outright lying to them. Theses passages attempt to answer the controversial question of whether it is better to shelter children or expose them to the harsh realities of the world.
Specifically, Cox argues that “ The many students who seriously doubted their ability to succeed, however, were anxiously waiting for their shortcomings to be exposed, at which point they would be stopped from pursuing their goals. Fragile and fearful, these students expressed their concern in several ways: in reference to college professors, particular courses or subject matter, and the entire notion of college itself-whether at the two- or the four- year level. At the core of different expressions of fear, however, were the same feelings of dread and the apprehension that success in college would prove to be an unrealizable dream.” ( 25-26). Although some believe that fear shouldn’t be an excuse to failure, whatever shape or form fear come in, the students who attend college should be grown enough to control it and not let
The trivialization of high school in the present educational organization for teens has been posited in the public; however, it is one vital issue that is being debated.
In Patricia Limerick’s article “Dancing with Professors”, she argues the problems that college students must face in the present regarding writing. Essays are daunting to most college students, and given the typical lengths of college papers, students are not motivated to write the assigned essays. One of the major arguments in Limerick’s article is how “It is, in truth, difficult to persuade students to write well when they find so few good examples in their assigned reading.” To college students, this argument is true with most of their ...
6th grade was not all that bad. That is before the incident however. Going to school was fun for the most part, the classes were difficult, friends were plenteous, and the food was good. Life at Lancaster Country Day School was swell, again, before the incident. Now, said issue somewhat killed my image at the school and saved it at the same time; it also made me question others. Were my friends really my friends? Or did they use me to as a sick and twisted way to formulate drama? I had a friend. I had many friends really, I was friends with the whole 50 people in my grade. But this friend, this friend was different. Her name Mady Gosselin. Yes, the Mady Gosselin from Kate Plus 8. We had been close, I talked to her almost every day. However,
In John Gatto’s essay “Against Schools” he states from experience as a school teacher that are current educational system is at fault (148). He claims that classrooms are often filled with boredom manufactured by repetitive class work and unenthusiastic teachings. Students are not actively engaged and challenged by their work and more often than not they have either already covered the concepts taught in class or they just do not understand what is being taught to them. The children contained in classrooms have come to believe that their teachers are not all that knowledgeable about the subjects that they are teaching and this advances their apathy towards education. The teachers also feel disadvantaged while fulfilling their roles as teachers because the students often bring rude and careless attitudes to class. Teachers often wish to change the curriculums that are set for students in order to create a more effective lesson plan, but they are restricted by strict regulations and consequences that bind them to their compulsory teachings (148-149). An active illustration of John Gatto’s perspective on our educational system can be found in Mike Rose’s essay “I Just Wanna Be Average” (157). Throughout this piece of literature the author Mike Rose describes the kind of education he received while undergoing teachings in the vocational track. During Mike’s vocational experiences he was taught by teachers that were inexperienced and poorly trained in the subjects they taught. As a result, their lesson plan and the assignments they prepared for class were not designed to proficiently teach students anything practical. For example, the curriculum of Mike Rose’s English class for the entire semester consisted of the repeated reading of ...
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class.
The article “Students and Homework,” written by Josephine Campbell, describes a very important topic in education. Homework has always been an essential part of the American education system. Although not required in a vast amount of school districts, many educators recur to this resource for various purposes such as a remedial strategy or method of advancement. Throughout history, the concept has been taken from different approaches in regards of the time period and overall purpose of assigning. However, it was during the time period that involved the space race with the Soviets that homework was specifically encouraged to improve the United States’ educational system. As of today, homework is still revolutionizing the concept of education
During my first few days of sophomore year at Stuyvesant High School, I saw how the ways of thinking were diverse in each of my classes. In my European Literature class, where, in our first reading assignment, we questioned the purpose of education itself. I always went with the flow in my learning, and never stopped to say to myself, “Why am I doing this to myself?”. However, once I read Live and Learn by Louis Menand, I started to think about Menand’s three theories of college and juxtapose each of them to my experience so far in high school. In the end, I concluded that many of my classes followed the main points of Theory 2, which was the theory that I mostly agreed with when I read the article for the first time.
Have you ever been controlled by fear? This outlines that individuals would do whatever they can to stay out of fears way, it proves that they have no power whatsoever. Today I’ll be addressing this topic with reference to the set topic Hunger Games by Gary Ross and my chosen topic the cartoon ‘State School NO.1812’ by R. Cobb. These two different texts show two contrasting ideas of love and compassion over ruling fear and control; and the amount of power they have.
Sadker, D.M., Sadker, M.P., and Zittleman, K.R.,(2008) Teachers, Students, and Society (8th ed.).New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
“I do really believe, it had been totally impossible to have made it to submit by violence and force.” If an instructor teaches education with vexation and pressure, the students will only learn to hate it, associating it with anguish, therefore, becoming sluggish and uncaring when in the study room. As seen in schools present and past, children rebel against even the slightest bit of work. The work the students are given is completed in drudgery. From experience, children enjoy the classes that have good and kind teachers. Even if the workload is high, they appreciate how the instructor teaches and want to make them proud putting their best effort into their
In a society where kids must go to school up to the collegiate level, teaching is an impactful career choice. Teachers help contour the minds of future leaders of the world. Furthermore, teachers play a crucial role in guiding students to the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to succeed in life, and teachers lead students to make informed decisions on any topic the meet in the future. As a teacher, a person must relinquish their knowledge onto students. Finally, they must prepare their students for all the obstacles they will face later in life.
Hase, S., & Kenyon, C. (2000, pg 2) suggests that we should now be looking at an educational approach where it is the learner himself who determines what and how learning should take place. This form of learning is called heutagogy. Heutagogical “the study of self-determined learning,” (pg 2) this “approach recognizes the need to be flexible in the learning where the teacher provides resources but the learner designs the actual course he or she might take by negotiating the learning,” stated by Hase, S., & Kenyon, C. (2000, pg 2, 6). With this form of learning adults are accountable for their own learning with a little bit of assistance from a facilitator or instructor. Adults can utilizes not only the aptitude to be self-directed but also their competence to incorporate their everyday experiences in to their
The classroom should be a democratic environment where students choose what they want to learn. The teacher and stud...