Education

I don’t think that someone could of convinced me that after being in school for thirteen years of my life that I would come to college and decide that education is one of the hardest things to define and that the way education is headed is a nightmare and almost makes me scared.

 

To preface everyone on why I am making this statement, let me first begin that I am in the midst of taking philosophy in education and an education class where you go into the field for three hours at a public elementary school. Another fun fact you should know to understand my dilemma is the fact that I went to a private school for K-12. So I am not sure if the tests that I took, or the lack thereof, are due to my county or due to the fact that I went to a private school for elementary school.

Part of the main components to my education class that has a field component is to interview teachers, art instructors, principals, anyone really to observe as much as I possibly can about the school system from a perspective other than a student. I have to say that I am APPALLED by the fact that we put so much emphasis on all of these tests. 

I know that I don’t really use cursive anymore unless I am trying to be fancy, but what do you mean you don’t teach cursive anymore!?! At least I am capable of doing it if I have to, like how are you going to sign your name?? I also completely understand why half of the people in college don’t know how to write essays (something that I had drilled into me before I even entered high school). There are so many things that are being cut out of a school day because it doesn’t benefit the students in order to take tests, well that is all fine and dandy until they get to the part of schooling, particularly college, and you aren’t taught the same way anymore, you have to think for yourself, be creative and above all write ESSAYS!  

I may be in the minority or the majority when I say these things I am not really sure, but I can say with 100% confidence that I wouldn’t be the same student if I hadn’t been to private school for all those years. I feel that I am better-rounded and can think for myself better than some of my peers who only know how to regurgitate information. It saddens me that this country, one that prides itself on freedom and “Democracy” has such a poor educational system. Did you know that we are being outperformed by a ridiculous number of countries that I think is 44. 44 countries are BETTER than the United States, and how is the US deciding to fix this? Give more tests and make teacher salaries based off of these tests, one teacher I talked to said that Maryland is even trying to make a teacher only be guaranteed half of their salary, that’s right HALF of their salary until the results on the tests come in and then depending on performance may or may not get the rest of their salary. I am sorry but what kind of incentive are you giving teachers to TEACH your children, your pride and joy the FUTURE of this country. You want all of your children to grow up and be successful yet you don’t provide teachers the opportunity to do so, and whose fault is that if little Sally can’t do something or little Sally is doing badly? The teachers. The fact that majority of the public would say it is the TEACHERS fault just irritates me. Yes I know there are those teachers who don’t help the stereotype but it isn’t an “easy job” to do. Shoot I feel like if all of those people who say teachers are the problem had to teach for a year and saw what it takes and what goes into it to actually perform and have some kind of positive result they would be whistling a different tune. But in fact the people who decide what should happen to education are those who are ignorant to what it really needs, and these are the people that we put in charge to make decisions…

 

 

2012

Wow, so I haven't written a new post in a very long time, but as a little personal update I am now in my second semester of college in my freshman year. In fact this is going to be an upcoming third week in my spring classes. College is so different from high school, more than just in classes, the atmosphere is so different as well. It's hard to believe that just last year I was finding out what schools I was accepted to and what institution I would be spending the next part of my journey on. I have met so many new people here and encountered so many late night conversations about literally anything that happened to occur. If someone asked me to explain the experience of college into words, I just don't know if it would be possible. So much happens at once. For me I am living in an apartment near campus instead of in a dorm, but regardless I have met different people that are neighbors and live down the hall. I have met professors that teach in a way that is so different from high school, in my opinion it's probably better than high school on levels but many could disagree.

It's exciting that with the completion of each semester I become so much closer to my goal of wanting to teach, its so close that it's almost in reach, and that is definately a different feeling. Before you could always say well I have quite a bit of time, I don't need to picture it yet, but with more than just occupation, life in general is just around the corner. A conversation that was had in my apartment with my roommates and neighbors, the topic of marriage was brought up and they were right, that is a possibility. The people we are all meeting now, could be that potential person and to me that is just crazy. You always imagine what it's like to grow up and be in the "real world" but when it's just beyond the door all you have to do is open it, that's when it suddenly becomes so real. It's hard to imagine that in ten years the people that I know, and myself included could possibly have the chance of being in a relationship or marriage, settled down, with a family. It's getting serious and I'm not quite sure how I feel about this yet, it leaves me with a somewhat uneasy feeling, because even though it is something everyone wants, when it gets here, you kind of wish that it was still farther away. However, it is time to start watching and taking the reins, instead of someone else controlling that path and the responsibility.

Bullying part 4

This will be the last part of the bullying blogs. I wrote these blogs not to harp on people about teasing others or to throw statistics in people's faces that I am sure have been on the news or in the paper or somewhere that is easily seen. My point is to possibly wake some people up to the reality of what impact you have on people's lives. We are going to college for some of the people reading this, and in college try and make a promise to yourself to be more open to people. Don't ridicule someone because they are different because you never know when that is their last straw, when they no longer can do life anymore. I once read a book called "Thirteen Reasons Why," by Jay Asher( I truly reccomend this by the way) and it was about a girl who had committed suicide but not before creating 13 tapes that were to be sent to every person on a list that had some impact on why she decided to commit suicide. It went through her story of how everything ended up linking together and causing one massive situation that she couldn't handle anymore. That book truly shows that you never know what someone is dealing with outside of the environment you see them in. You don't know what they deal with when they go home, or what they have to handle in other classes. We have so little time in some people's lives and do you really want that little time to be you bullying them or making them feel inferior to you for whatever reason?

What people chose to say to others does hurt, that saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me," Is wrong, it can hurt you. It is not okay to chose someone out of a crowd and make them feel alone or inferior, because chances are what you are making fun of them about they probably can't change. If you do anything in life at least try to remember that you may think its funny but that person probably doesn't and would you want to wake up in the morning and read in the paper about how someone YOU bullied died because something you said? Personally I woudn't want that on my conscience. I have my moments where I forget this very thing I am hoping people will learn to do, but I am getting better and I hope that someday it never happens because life could be so much simpler if people learned to accept others for who they are and not avoid them because of things they can't change.

So here is a blog I found about bullying, one story of millions that happen all the time.. http://bullyingstatistics.blogspot.com/

Here is a link where I found some of my statistics http://www.pascack.k12.nj.us/70271919141818/lib/70271919141818/Bullying_Statistics.htm

and this is a link to a video about a bullying project movie or show that is coming out..
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/04/27/bully_project_movie_trailer/index.html


I hope that even if you chose not to go along with what I say that someone out there learned something and maybe was able to change a few lives in the process.

(Oh and sorry Mrs. Healey that this one is like 13 minutes after 12!)