School systems can really differ from country to country. In the text “American high school” by Sarah Otto, she mentions some differences between the American and the Swedish school system. In another text, “Polar opposites” written by Herman Hallberg – he writes about his year in Namibia and what the school system looks like there. My dream school would probably be a mixture of the Swedish, the American and the Namibian school systems.
Although Sweden is one of the best countries in the world, our school system could be better. In Hallberg´s text, he mentions that the more intelligent students have a chance to challenge themselves and work harder for their grades. However, he also says that the less intelligent students are just “left behind”. Therefor there are both positive and negative things about both school systems. In Sarah Ottos text about the American high
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In Sweden, we don’t have to pay for our school lunch ourselves, which is pretty uncommon. In both Namibia and America, the students either have to bring their own lunch to school, or they have to buy their lunch for their own money, according to Hallberg and Otto. I think that it’s better that the school lunch is free, mainly because some families don’t have the money to pay for lunch every day. If you have to pay for lunch every day, for maybe 12 years, it will cost you a lot of money – which you could have spent on other things if the lunch was free, for example school material.
As Sarah Otto mentions in her text, in American schools there are many different extracurricular activities you can choose between, such as sports and math clubs. I would like to have that in my dream school as well. I think that the students would really appreciate doing something they really like at the end of the day after a day full of studies. An extracurricular activity would be good to relieve stress from the school
In Schooltalk: Rethinking What We Say About - and to - Students Every Day, Mica Pollock provides readers with fact-based information to “flip the script” of the misrepresentation of students in the education setting. Pollock demonstrates how race, gender, and ethnic labels can be detrimental to student achievement. She, then, dives in to 600 years of myths regarding social race labels and how they continue to affect humans today. By correcting race, gender, and ethnicity label myths in our minds, we can effectively advocate for these students. To conclude the book, Pollock focuses on how to devise a plan to correct our own misconceptions and foster a supportive environment for diverse students. Throughout
All of this leads to obsessing over disciplining and having high test scores to compete with other school around the area. In Finland, they have no standardized tests that students need to take. When people are in trouble in Finland, an approach is taken to help them and support them. This is different in America. This supports the example of Harold as none of the teachers at the school took the approach to help Harold or even to support him. Many accusations were said that Harold is the problem and not the teachers. However, as Rose took a stand for Harold and helped him as he started to give up. With the standardized testing, it puts students with similar scores in the same classes. From this, Millie was put in a remedial class which was stated as an average class. As the schools soon start to care about the results of the standardized tests, the school start to focus on math, science,and reading which leads kids to being the same. This makes school not fun and the students end up dreading on going to school. In Finland, not only do the school focus on math, science, and reading they also focus on other important studies such as the arts, humanity, and physical education. Focusing on it all gives the students the ability to become creative and be their own individual person. Ken Robinson also proves that giving students the individual attention that they need helps them thrive to meet the goals that they have in education. Ken Robinson claimed, “Education does not go on in the committee rooms of out Legislative Buildings, it happens in the classrooms and schools. And the people who do it are the teachers and the students. And if you remove that discretion it stops working” (TEDtalks 13:15). When a teacher teaches a student will learn. Taking the actions to actually
middle of paper ... ... But after seeing the plight of the current free and reduced system, and looking at how much it would cost comparatively to other government ventures, I understood that universal free could definitely be a possibility and a welcomed change to the current system. Overall, this book was a very eye-opening read that I would suggest to everyone, especially those that want to see school lunches evolve into something awesome not only for children but also for agriculture. After reading this book, I am ready to get out there and try to pursue change in the school lunch system so that my children’s generation can go to school knowing that they will be fed right, responsibly, and without fear of being stigmatized.
... school sports and clubs so they don't clash with academics we need to get Americas schooling back on top.
Charlie is fifteen and just entering high school. The book is written in letters to an anonymous person explaining his experiences in high school, his family life and his new friends. Charlie starts by talking about his friends in middle school had how one of them had committed suicide and the other stopped talking to Charlie. He then talks about his family which consists of his dad, his mom, his older brother and sister. Charlie also mention another relative, Aunt Helen. He only got to see her on holidays and she was by far his favorite relative. However, Aunt Helen was in a terrible car accident and passed away.
“More than one million High School students fail to graduate high school each year. This not only affects the individual and his or her education but also takes a toll on society and the economy”.-Unknown. Today’s education cap affects society in many ways. Education is one key element that is needed throughout everyday life. It is needed for critical thinking, problem-solving, and great independent decision making in our lives. Without education, we wouldn’t be able to communicate with one another or make something out of ourselves. So we might ask ourselves how can we make education better for us and the future generations? In the book “Smartest Kids in the World”, Amanda Ripley gives an explanation of the difference between the education system in U.S. and in countries like Finland, Poland, and South
These areas could reach beyond the academics, which Ripley touches on, and into other extra-curricular activities. In high school, I was extremely involved in theatre and speech and debate, as well as choir. Even in my small school our already small programs felt the effects of budget cuts. Yet, I never saw evidence of any financial struggle for the sports teams. While our theatre program could not afford microphones for our school musical and our science classrooms had not received updated textbooks in nearly a decade, the football and volleyball teams were given all new uniforms, even though the old ones were only a year or two old. Our school often spoke of the financial struggles they felt, yet the budgets for sports were never up for debate. Ripley talks about the benefits of high-school sports, and while I cannot deny that it is important to value “exercise, lessons in sportsmanship and perseverance, school spirit, and just plain fun” (3), it’s not worth the sacrifices the schools must make to have sports. That mentality also suggests that playing sports is the only way to gain certain life skills; however, someone might learn about teamwork from being in a play or doing a group project in school. School spirit could be encouraged through pep assemblies. There are several other ways to gain the same values without sports being involved in a school
In The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way, Amanda Ripley investigates the education systems of three of the world’s highest performing countries offering insight into the components necessary to raise education in the United States from its current mediocre place on the world stage. By involving three teenage American exchange students, Ripley gained access to firsthand experience of the familiar US system as compared to the highly competitive systems in Finland, South Korea and Poland. The author proposes that, although the systems vary greatly, commonalities in cultural valuation of education, rigor and teacher quality have made students from these three countries the “smartest kids in the world.”
Every year a significant percentile of the American population struggle with finding access to a quality education that their finances can maintain. Finnish writer, Anu Partanen, contrast the American School Systems and their lack in accomplishments as compared to the educational programs in America. Along with her contrast in the two countries she offers a probable fix to changing the way America operates in her recent essay: Finland’s School Success What Americans Keep Ignoring. Partanen juxtaposes both Finland and America, utilizes ethos, and even provides a visual in order to reinforce her argument on the situation.
First, longer school lunches will cause classes to be shorter, resulting in less learning time. The students will not gain information quickly, and would have less time to ask teachers questions. Teachers would have to stay at school longer. Teachers already have to stay after school to grade assignments, and bring work home as well. They will have to plan lessons and grade. If they do this, they will be extremely tired and will not be attentive in class. If they are tired, they could fall asleep in class, and might not teach the best that they can. Students already having less learning time will get terrible teaching and information, and then they will not be smart. Non-intelligent students might not get into university or college, and would have to work without a degree, earning little money. Longer lunches will have an impact on teachers, and students' futures. The school district should not agree to have longer lunches, as it will be awful for students.
Here in “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, has a large chunk of it that talks about the public school system in the U.S and its history and purpose. I agree with Gatto, partly. Teachers and educators severely need a new school system, and it does indeed need it. The big question is why we still haven’t done anything to try and change the school system into something different and better? After going through the public school system for about 15 years, should people feel as if they just went to school then switch to a remaining life of working like drones of another system? The system that we have today has taken over the sense of creativity and replaced it with one that believes in the opposite. Creativity and individualism, this is the reverse of the school system we have today according to Gatto. Compared to when the public school system first started, here in the present our society doesn’t have the same requirements and needs of what we used to need. What we do need in our society right now for our school system is individualism and creativity.
Schools are institutions that lay the foundation of a child's development. They play a key role in developing children into responsible citizens and maximizing an individual’s potential. A school is where young talent is recognized and nurtured. Every country has its own particular characteristics regarding the school curriculum, teaching profession, and overall education system. However, in the global education race, the United States is extremely falling behind; countries that were once behind now meet or exceed U.S. education standards. The failure in our education system is characterized by low test scores, minimal parental involvement, and high dropout rates.
While most evidence in the literature proves that extra curricular activities improve academic performances, Solanco School District has no program supporting or promoting the link between the two. This study will examine the effects of participation in extra curricular activities on student academic performance at Solanco High School. Findings from this study could be examined by Solanco High School and similar school districts to support and promote programs of extra curricular activities at...
If I owned my own school, it would reflect on all the positive features that my elementary and secondary schools offered me. Education opens minds that were closed, but now they are open because of the experiences the student had. Schooling gives you the materials you need to help in the work world and teaches you how to be a powerful member of society. Education is important because you are able to connect with teachers who become close to you. Community is just one aspect of a school that makes it powerful. Teachers are another aspect that can make the school significant. Instilment of positive values is final aspect of school that can make it influential too. My ideal school contains the aspects of what I have come from. All of these ideals
Imagine walking across the stage in just a few years from now. Having thousands of eyes pointed at you as you take that emotional walk to finally receive your high school diploma. After a few years when you have graduated high school and started life, you're going to look back and think, what have I accomplished so far? Extracurricular activities can be very beneficial for students now, and those in the future as well. They can allow you to feel like you have accomplished something while in school. Extracurricular activities are important because they can benefit a student through personal, educational, and even social means. It is a great idea to get more students involved in extracurricular activities and parents should begin to give their kids a little push to get them more involved.