Final: K-12 Curriculum Change

Kristie Bertelmann

Sonia Begert

English 101

22 March 2013

K-12 Curriculum Change

            Ken Robinson mentions that "...it is education that's meant to take us to the future we can't grasp." Education has become a critically important asset in every person's life. Society has evolved to the stage where education is required to achieve success. To better prepare K-12 students for the unpredictable future, a more capable teaching staff, achieved by producing more good teachers and eliminating bad teachers, is essential.

From the readings and documentaries I've studied, it is very evident that K-12 students are not getting the proper education needed to achieve success. Some students take education for granted and some look at education as "a way out." Irrespective of students' feelings, teachers are obligated to help guide their students to as bright of a future as possible. Unfortunately, in the movie, Waiting for Superman, various interviewed students shared their experiences of an unsuccessful educational system. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, required states to test students annually in reading and mathematics. These results showed that students scored between the 20%-40% proficiency level in both math and reading comprehension. All across the nation, there is "a pattern of students failing to succeed and dropping out of high school" (Waiting for Superman). A number of students drop out of school because their level of education was not on par with the state requirements. This is primarily due to teachers' inability to engage with students and their ineffectiveness to meet students' needs.

To better address the students' educational career requirements, teaching staffs must be improved. This improvement should include better teacher training programs in order to train better teachers and a method of eliminating poor teachers from the classroom. It is critical that any new training program have various methods that train and reward quality teachers and penalize poorly rated teachers.  Examples of new training methods and programs would include teacher mentoring programs, student-teaching programs and merit based pay programs. 

An improved teacher mentoring program is an essential component to any upgraded training program curriculum. There were a number of scenes from the movie Chalk, which highlighted this method. Mentoring can be performed in various manners but they all require some variation of pairing up an experienced teacher with a new teacher. This combination is very important because it allows experienced teachers to share their experiences and provide insight and advice to new teachers. In Chalk, Mr. Lowrey, a first year history teacher, had difficulty in gaining control over his students and classroom. Whenever he was in front of the class, he seemed nervous and unprepared. As a result, his student took advantage of this and were rebellious. However, during lunch breaks, Mr. Lowrey and a number of the staff ate together. This short period of time enabled Mr. Lowrey to share his problems and learn from the experienced staff. He was able to query more experienced colleagues and gain insights into student behaviors and learn different teaching methods. As the school year progressed, Mr. Lowrey steadily improved and became a better teacher due in large part to the mentoring he received during his lunch period.

An improved and expanded student-teaching program is a critical component to any proposed upgraded teacher training program curriculum. Student-teaching is a well-known, well-practiced method of training new teachers that has existed for many years. In order to strengthen this training program, student-teaching program duration should be extended. This extension is required to better prepare new teachers to handle the everyday challenges of the classroom while developing new teacher confidence and increased skill level.  It is by spending supervised time in the classroom setting that a student-teacher gets the first-hand experience of working in the education profession. Not only does student-teaching offer exposure to real-life academic situations, it also provides insights into what a teaching career choice really means. Teaching is a demanding and challenging career choice and, as such, it is not to be made lightly and is not for everyone. Mr. Lowrey writes, "Being a teacher is a gift." Early exposure to the profession can help determine if one is equipped to pursue teaching as a career. Uncovering misgivings and apprehensions can help avoid the problem of raising bad teachers. 

Moving from a seniority based pay system to a merit based pay system could improve the overall performance of the teaching profession dramatically.  Merit based pay is controversial and poses many questions and issues, it essentially rewards good teacher performance and discourages poor teacher performance. Hard-working and dedicated teachers should be rewarded. Poor teacher performance should be penalized. Teachers are not equal and neither should their pay be equal. Without some type of financial penalty for poor teacher performance the system is allowing bad traits like laziness, apathy and ineffectiveness to remain within the profession. Changing the compensation system could help move the system away from continually creating more bad teachers.  

Lastly, teacher unions are obstacles that keep school reform from occurring. It is ironic that the very things that were first created to help the educational system are the things that keep improvement from happening. Tenure is a prime example. Tenure was first established to protect college professors from getting fired due to reasons unrelated to education such as political choices and political activities. Currently, tenure is automatically granted to public school teachers after a certain amount of service and carries with it the guarantee of lifetime employment in the education profession. This system contains a number of obvious flaws that allow poor performance teachers to remain in the industry and their poor performance to remain unchecked.  Laziness, indifference and ineffectiveness continue to remain in the professional ranks.

A prime example of teacher unions stopping change from occurring was the rejection of Michelle Rhee's proposal regarding tenure. In Waiting for Superman, Michelle Rhee, the superintendent of Washington D.C.’s schools, understood that tenure was a big obstacle against school reforms because it protected and secured jobs for bad educators. " ...in Illinois, 1 in 57 doctors loses his or her medical license, and 1 in 97 attorneys loses his or her law license, but only 1 teacher in 2500 has ever lost his or her credentials" (Waiting for Superman). Wanting to change the school system, Michelle Rhee took a big step and proposed a merit-based payroll. The proposal offered double merit pay for teachers in exchange for tenure. The union saw this proposal as a big threat and refused to vote on it. Something similar to this type of proposal should definitely be re-evaluated because tenure continues to pose a big challenge to improving the quality of teacher performance. Tenure should not be something that is guaranteed automatically. It should be something that a good teacher is granted as a reward for a lifetime of service. If a teacher's performance fails to meet students’ needs, even after working in the teaching industry for a number of years, tenure should be taken away. Over time, tenure bred a number of bad teachers in the educational system. Because of this continuous cycle, bad teachers are protected from job termination and continue to grow like a contagious disease. As a result, the students are the victims of this unfortunate reality.

The students in the education system are the future. Why must they become the victims of a system that allows unqualified staff to continue to teach? Dan Brown poses excellent questions, “What makes a great teacher?” and “Are great teachers born or made?” Great teachers are teachers who put the students’ needs first. They are teachers who understand and engage with their students. Mr. Escalante from the movie, Stand and Deliver, and Ms. Watson from the movie, Mona Lisa Smile, are great examples of what the educational system needs. Both teachers were placed in very difficult positions under extreme conditions and they both managed to gain the respect of their students. Mr. Escalante and Ms. Watson both possessed the determination to make a difference in their students' lives. In addition to teaching the subject they were assigned to teach, they taught lessons that had real life implications. Through their hard work, both instructors successfully made a positive impact on their students' lives.

            Education has become a necessary and critical component in every person’s life. It has become so essential that it is almost impossible to achieve any type of success without at least understanding the basics. It is the education system that is supposed to help students achieve success in the unpredictable future. However, the educational system is not achieving its primary goal of preparing students to lead a productive, successful life. It is clearly evident that the educational system needs to implement and enhance proper teacher-training programs like mentoring and student-teaching. Changing compensation rules and re-evaluating the power of teacher unions could be part of an integrated solution that leads to a better teaching staff. “Great educators are cultivated… Since every child deserves a great teacher and only moves through school once, we need to invest now in developing more excellent teachers” (Dan Brown – 2).

Works Cited

Brown, Dan. "What Makes a Great Teacher?" (2012): n. pag. Web.

Chalk. Dir. Mike Akel. Perf. Shannon Haragan, Troy Schremmer, Jeff Guerrero, Kaytea Brock, Janelle Schremmer, Chris Mass, Jacqueline Seaborn. 2007. DVD.

Mona Lisa Smile. Dir. Mike Newell. Perf. Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles. 2003. DVD.

Perf. Ken Robinson. Ken Robinson Says School Kills Creativity. TED, June 2006. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramón Menéndez. Perf. Edward James Olmos, Estelle Harris, Lou Diamond Phillips. 1988. DVD.

Waiting for Superman. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Geoffrey Canada, Michelle Rhee, Bill Strickland, Randi Weingarten. 2011. DVD.

"The Banking Concept of Education"

In the essay, Paolo Freire mentions that the banking concept of education is where "...the scope of action allowed to students extends only as far as receiving, filling and storing the deposits" (Freire- 1). In this case, deposits refers to education or information given by the teacher. Freire says that education "becomes an act of depositing" (Freire - 1). Students sit in the classroom and just patiently memorize the things the teachers say. At times, the deposits the students receive are things that they, themselves, don't even understand or don't see the significance of the concept. An example of this is Mike Rose's essay. In the vocational education, teachers just talked to "fill" up the time. Even though the banking concept gives an extreme scenario of an unsuccessful educational system, I believe that this is frequently happening in some schools. I was very fortunate not to have experienced an educational system like this. I believe that for a successful educational system, both the student and teacher must work together to form some sort of understanding. A good teacher would be someone who understood and engaged with the students. A good student would be a student who understood and learned the lesson. I do know systems like this exist in some places. Mike Rose, for example, experienced this himself. The vocational education had a lot of teachers that did not have the creativity or determination to teach the students in that program. They just did things to pass time. Mike Rose, himself, admitted to not trying in class. I am just fortunate not to have had experiences in this "banking concept."

Rough Draft: K-12 Curriculum Change

 K-12 Curriculum Change

            Ken Robinson mentioned that "...it is education that's meant to take us to the future we can't gasp." Education has become a very important asset in every person's life. Society evolved to this stage where education is required to achieve success. To best prepare K-12 students for the unpredictable future, a better teaching staff, done by raising more good teachers and extracting bad teachers, is essential.

From the past readings and documentaries I've encountered, it is clearly evident that K-12 students are not getting the proper education needed to achieve success. Some students take education for granted and some look at education as "a way out." No matter the circumstance, teachers are obligated to help guide their students to a brighter future. Unfortunately, in the movie, Waiting for Superman, various students from interviews shared their experiences of an unsuccessfully educational system. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, required states to test students annually in reading and mathematics. Based on the results, students scored between a 20%-40% proficiency level in both math and reading comprehension. All over the nation, there is "a pattern of students failing to succeed and dropping out of high school" (Waiting for Superman). A number of students drop out of school because their level of education was not on par with the state requirements. This is primarily due to the teacher's ineffectiveness in engaging with the students' needs.

To better address the students' needs in their educational career, the teaching staff must be improved. This would include a better teacher training program to raise good teachers and a method of extracting bad teachers from the system. Starting with a better training program, it is crucial to explore different methods that will help raise good teachers. Examples of different methods include mentoring, student-teaching and changing salaries. 

Mentoring is one method of a better training program. There were a number of scenes from the movie Chalk, which used this method. Mentoring could be done in different ways however; it involves some variation of pairing up an experienced teacher with a new teacher. This combination is very important because this allows experienced teachers to share their experiences and provide advice to new teachers. In Chalk, Mr. Lowrey a first year history teacher, had difficulty in gaining control over his students and classroom. Whenever he was in front of the class, he seemed nervous and unprepared. As a result, his student took advantage of this and was rebellious in return. However, during lunch breaks, Mr. Lowrey and a number of the staff ate together. This short period of time enabled Mr. Lowrey to share his problems and learn from the experienced staff. He was able to question and learn student behaviors and different teaching methods. Over the course of the year, Mr. Lowrey slowly improved and became a better teacher compared to the beginning of the year.

Another method that would improve the training program is student-teaching. Student-teaching is not a new method in the least bit. It is well-known, well-practiced method of creating teachers today. To improve this training program, student-teaching should be prolonged. This is entirely because student-teaching is the best way to expose new teachers to real-life scenarios. In a classroom setting, a student-teacher gets the benefit of getting first-hand experience in the teaching industry. Not only does student-teaching offer exposure to real-life applications, it also offers a time a reflection. It is understandable that teaching is not for everyone. Mr. Lowrey quotes, "Being a teacher is a gift." Early exposure can help determine if one would like to pursue the career as a teacher. Uncovering misgivings and apprehension can avoid the problem of raising bad teachers. 

Changing the salary of teachers can improve the teaching staff dramatically. Offering a merit-based payroll would be the best example. Although it poses many questions and problems, a merit-based payroll would reward the good instructors and discourage the bad instructors. Incentives should be rewarded to hard-working and dedicated teachers. For bad teachers, there should be a penalty. Bad teachers should not get the same type of payroll as good teachers because it is unfair and it further encourages bad traits like laziness and ineffectiveness. Changing salaries could help shift the system away from continually creating more bad teachers.  

Beginning Rough Draft #3: K-12 Curriculum Change

K-12 Curriculum Change

Ken Robinson mentioned that “…it is education that’s meant to take us to the future we can’t grasp.” Education has become a very important asset in every person’s life. Society evolved to this stage where education is required to achieve success. To best prepare K-12 students for the unpredictable future, a better teaching staff is essential.

From the past readings and documentaries I’ve encountered, it is clearly evident that K-12 students are not getting the proper education needed to achieve success. Some students take education for granted and some look at education as “a way out.” No matter the circumstance, teachers are obligated to help guide their students to a brighter future. Unfortunately, in the movie Waiting for Superman, various students from interviews shared their experiences of an unsuccessful educational system. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, required states to test students annually in reading and mathematics. From the first wave of results, students scored in between a 20%-40% proficiency level in both math and reading comprehension. All over the nation, there is “a pattern of students failing to succeed and dropping out of high school” (Waiting for Superman). A number of students drop out of school because their level of education was not on par with the state requirements. This is primarily due to the teacher’s ineffectiveness in engaging with the students’ needs.

To better address the students’ needs in their educational career, the teaching staff must be improved. This would include a better teacher training program and a change in salaries. Starting with a better teacher training program, it is crucial to explore different methods that will help raise good teachers. Examples of the different methods include mentoring and student-teaching.

Mentoring is one method of a better teaching training program. There were a number of scenes from the movie Chalk, which used this method. Mentoring could be done in different ways however; it involves some variation of pairing up an experienced teacher with a new teacher. This combination is very important because this allows experienced teachers to share their experiences and provide advice to new teachers. In the movie Chalk, Mr. Lowrey, a first year history teacher, had difficulty in gaining control over his students and classroom. Whenever he was in front of the class, he always seemed nervous and unprepared. However, during lunch breaks, Mr. Lowrey and a number of the staff ate lunch together. This short period of time allowed Mr. Lowrey to learn from the other experienced teachers. He was able to question and learn student behaviors and different teaching methods. Over the course of the school year, Mr. Lowrey slowly improved and became a better teacher compared to the beginning of the year.

Another method of a better teaching training program was student-teaching. Student-teaching is not a new method. It is a well-known, well-practiced method of creating teachers today. To improve the training program, student-teaching should be prolonged. This is entirely because student-teaching is the best way to expose new teachers to real-life scenarios. In a classroom setting, a student-teacher gets the benefit of getting first-hand experience in the teaching industry. Not only does student-teaching offer exposure to real-life applications, it also offers a time of reflection. It is understandable that teaching is not for everyone. Mr. Lowrey quotes, “Being a teacher is a gift.” Early exposure can help determine if one would like to pursue the career as a teacher. Uncovering misgivings and apprehension can avoid the problem of raising bad teachers.

The educational system, as of now, is not working as effectively as it should. The second way of improving the teaching staff is changing the salaries of the instructors by offering a merit-based payroll. Under this main idea, two major changes would occur. The first change would be incentives for good teachers. The second change would be re-evaluating tenure.

Offering a merit-based payroll would improve the teaching staff. The first change under this idea is incentives. It is a fact that good teachers are being underpaid. Good teachers do more work than what they earn. A complete change in salary may be unrealistic in modern society however, offering incentives are a good alternative. Incentives could be in any shape or form. Good teachers deserve to be rewarded for their hard work.

The second change under the change in payroll is re-evaluating tenure. Tenure was first established to protect college professors from getting fired due to unreasonable cause like political reasons. Now, tenure is a guarantee of lifetime employment in an academic career and it is offered to public school instructors automatically. This poses a number of problems because it could encourage laziness and ineffectiveness. Over time, this bred a number of bad teachers. Because of tenure, bad teachers are protected from job termination and continue to grow like a contagious disease. The proposed change would be to re-evaluate tenure. Instead of being a lifetime guarantee, tenure should be something that can be gained or lost. Rewarding tenure should be based on teaching ability and success. It is unfair for bad instructors to be guaranteed security. Tenure should only be given to teachers that deserve it.

Dan Brown poses the question, “What makes a great teacher?” 

How is Gilyard's Essay and the NEA article important to Unit #3?

In Gilyard's essay, he talked about an after-school creative arts program that was closed down due to lack of funds. During this time, the after-school program was closed because of fiscal cuts. Most of the time, humanities classes are sacrificed for STEM initiatives. In this after-school arts program, elementary school students share their experiences and talents involving different forms of art such as poetry, lyrics, oral interpretation, song, drawing, story writing and dance. It is unfortunate that practices of such activities are becoming less and less during school hours. 

The Mexican American Studies (MAS) program, in the NEA article, was banned because it "promoted resentment of mainstream culture" (MAS - pg.21). This was a very unfortunate event because MAS was well-known for academic achievement. "Ninety-seven percent of students participating  in the program graduated from high school, compared to 44 percent nationally, and 70 percent entered college, compared to 24 percent nationally" (MAS - pg.21). MAS was established in 1998 to improve retention and graduation rates among Mexican Americans. The reason why this program was successful was because MAS's curriculum presented content from Chicanos and other ethnic group's perspective. Teachers and students from the program strongly opposed the close down of MAS. The reason for this is the unfair treatment towards Mexican American students and because of the people involved in the school board and Superintendent of Public Instruction. That is because the members of the school bored and Superintendent of Public Instruction are not educators. They do not understand the hardships and responsibilities teachers face. It is unfair how these people in power, with no educational experience whatsoever, make regulations and policies about education.

These two readings helped with the third assignment because it addressed more problems regarding the educational system. It provided more perspectives and examples of which direction we want to go through in our paper. It also provided another source that could be used to enhance details in our paper.

What is the most important changes that K-12 education needs?

Based on all the movies and essays I watched and read, I believe that the answer, in regards to the K-12 educational issue, is a better teaching staff. Being a teacher is a very complicated job because teachers are expected to help guide their students to the path of success. What the K-12 educational system needs is a better way of producing good teachers and finding a way to eliminate bad teachers. This could be done in a couple different ways.

Mentoring could be an option. I think it is important for experienced teachers to be able share their stories and advice to new teachers. I also think it is important for new teachers to have access to experienced teachers because it gives them a sense of security, in a way.

Student-teaching should be encouraged and prolonged. This is a great way of getting exposed to teaching students in a real life scenario. It is best to put student-teachers in a classroom and observe how they interact and engage with the students. This could also be an opportunity for student-teachers to realize if teaching is what they really want to do. If an unwilling teacher can learn that he/she does not want to teach, it is best to have them realize sooner rather than later. This is to avoid producing bad teachers in the future.

Teaching is definitely not for everyone. I believe that schools should not hire anyone readily. Teachers may have an impressive resume however, it won't mean a thing if they fail to take control of students and the classroom. I believe teacher training periods should be longer and more carefully looked at. Scores and resumes should not be viewed when judging teachers. How they perform in a classroom should be a big factor. Preparing students for the future is a very big responsibility. We want to improve the teaching staff and eliminate bad teachers to fulfill this responsibility.

Waiting for Superman

Children were being interviewed about how they like school and their teachers. Most of them said they liked school however, they were struggling in class. Parents were unable to go school because of financial reasons. Some parents can't afford the school tuition. A lot of students drop out of high school because their grade level is behind the state's standard. No Child Left Behind allowed states to hold standardized tests for students to test their reading comprehension level and math. The United States fell behind in standardized scores compared to the other countries. The students scored around a 20-40 percent proficiency level. However they scored highest in confidence level compared to any other country. 

A number of students drop out of high school because their grade level is behind. Many students that end up in prison are high school dropouts. It costs more to maintain a prisoner's lifestyle than to send them to years in a private school. In prison, meals, recreational time and housing must be supplied. 

Teacher unions are an obstacle in reforming schools. It's ironic how the things that were made to protect the educational system are the very things that keep schools from improving and changing. An example of this was Michelle Rhee's proposal regarding tenure. She proposed double-merit pay in exchange for tenure. The union found this threatening and did not even vote on this proposal. Michelle Rhee is the superintendent of Washington D.C.'s schools. In attempt to better the educational system, she fired a number of staff and closed down 23 schools. Many were unhappy with this decision. She continues to try and improve the system however it's is difficult because she keeps running into the system.

Tenure was first made to protect college professors from being fired due to unreasonable cause like political reasons. However now, public educators get tenure automatically after working a number of years. This keep them from getting fired. This poses a problem because bad teachers cannot get fired. Instead, schools do "dance of the lemons" where they exchange teachers between schools. 

Chalk

In the first scene, a teacher asked a boy to mention something related to history and the boy did not respond. The next scene shows different teachers teaching different subjects. It also showed how students interacted with the teachers. With some teachers, the students seemed well engaged with the lesson. However, there was one teacher who seemed to have trouble engaging with the students. The students are unmotivated and undedicated to classes. There was one scene where students were fighting physically outside and another scene where students were verbally arguing during Mr. Lowrey's class.

Mr. Lowrey is a first year history teacher who seemed to have trouble engaging with his students. Whenever he is in front of the students, he seemes unprepared and nervous. He tried to teach the class seriously however, students clearly did not have any interest. Students would "bully" him by taking his chalk during his lecture. It was clear that he had no control over the students and the classroom. However, there seemed to be improvement with engaging with the class after Mr. Lowrey added humor to the lesson. There was one scene where he was in the library, studying classroom management. He is improving slowly however he is still struggling with discipline. There was one class where a cellphone rang in the middle of class. Mr. Lowrey forced the student to leave because he refused to give up the cellphone. As the student walked out, he called Mr. Lowrey a horrible teacher and Mr. Lowrey retaliated by calling him a horrible student. He clearly regretted it and was distracted from continuing to teach the class. It is evident that he wants to be a good teacher. There was one scene where he visited a student's house to explain a child's expectation. Mr. Lowrey managed to win the slang-spelling bee (Spelling Hornet)! He gives credit to his students that helped him practice. He is not sure if he will be coming back. "Being a teacher is a gift."

Couch Webb is a second year physical education teacher who makes the effort of engaging with her students. This is her second year, so she has some prior experience in dealing with her students. She believes in the school system and tries her best to be consistent. For example, one of the school policy is called lockout. This is where students are sent to PCR when they are late. There was one scene where Couch Webb chased after a boy who ran in class late. While the boy was running, he shouted back, "She always lets me in." Couch Webb called out to the instructor and confronted her about the problem. It seems like the faculty finds Couch Webb pushy and a little aggressive. She truly believes in the target policy. She believes that she needs to approach people different, less aggressive.

Mr. Stroope is a third year history teacher. It seemed clear that he had goal issues from the previous year. His goal was to be less sarcastic, improve on cleanliness and improve on punctualness in lesson plans. He is a very funny teacher which makes it easy for him to engage in the class however, he is very sarcastic. He believes that teachers should not have a friendship with teachers, but have a relationship. He believes that talking to students truthfully about problems and showing students that he cares for their well-being is important. There was one scene where he talks to his students and advised him/her to discontinue from using words that Mr. Stroope did not know. In this video, it seemed like all he cared about was winning the teacher of the year award. He was trully passionate about winning however he did not. He was very upset about losing. He threw a chair across the room after a student made a statement. He regretted losing his patience in front of his class.

Reddel is the assistant principal of the school. She tries to keep things in control however, she thinks that her friends take advatange of the power she has. There were a couple of scenes where she was frustrated with this kind of treatment. There were some instances where she did not get home till 10 pm. There were also instances where she was chasing down a student through the halls. She really tries her best and cares for the students.

This movie showed me how a teacher can take many approaches to how they want to teach the class. There are a number of approaches however, one thing remains the same. A teacher needs to engage with the students in order to be a successful teacher. If the lessons are not engaging, then students are not learning or absorbing. As a result, it becomes a one-sided relationship.

What seems to be the biggest challenge facing K-12 students?

To me, I think the biggest challenging facing K-12 students is finding the motivation to learn from a curriculum that is not challenging or stimulating. A number of our past readings emphasize this statement. Mike Rose's narrative explains his time in vocational education, "...a place for those who are just not making it, a dumping ground for the disaffected" (Rose-2). For this reason, some teachers don't try to teach the students the necessary skills required for jobs. Instead, they give just work to keep the students busy instead of challenging them. "I did what I had to do to get by, and I did it with half a mind" (Rose-2).The curriculum for vocational education was clearly not challenging or engaging enough for students. "...the intellectual equivalent of playing with your food" (Rose-2). It is clearly evident that a curriculum that is not engaging or challenging fails to accommodate students' needs. Students need to learn skills that apply to real life situations like jobs and etc. Without this, students become bored and unmotivated to continue bettering themselves. Therefore, I believe that the biggest challenging facing K-12 students is a curriculum that fails to challenge, stimulate and engage in the mind. 

WS: How does section 48 & 49 pertain to the assignment?

Section 48 and 49 is about classification and compare/contrast essays. Classification first classifies things into different groups. Within those groups, it represents how similar and different items can be in the series. Items in the same group have similar characteristics but are different compared to the other groups. This can pertain to the assignment by the different kinds of information we have. When formulating an essay, we brainstorm a number of different information from different sources. To make things easier, we group the similar information together and compare it to the other types of groups of information. This is an easy way to organize the ideas we have for our assignment. Section 49 is about compare/contrast essays. Comparing things explain how things are similar, while contrasting explains the differences. This pertains to the assignment because this current paper is a compare/contrast essay. We are supposed to compare and/or contrast the educational system with any changes we are willing to make in the K-12 curriculum. We have to observe the K-12 students and come up with changes that could help improve their learning experience.

How does Mike Rose and Lewis Black help you think about education differently?

Lewis Black mentions that "our school is broken" (Black). So much time and money is being invested in schools to have special facilities such as gymnasiums, swimming pools, cafeterias and etc. The examples used in the video was Robert F. Kennedy community schools with modern buildings, costing half a billion dollars. He also mentions that students lack the challenge of a school curriculum. To try and solve this issue, students are being sent to charter schools, which offer a better education. However, the acceptance in this school is a lottery-based method, only allowing a selective few to enter. Lastly, the last thing he mentions is the quality of the faculty of public schools. Some of the faculty in public schools are not qualified to teach students. 

Mike Rose also believes that children need a much more engaging and challenging education. Another point both agree on is the unqualified people of the faculty in schools. Without qualified teachers, who will challenge or motivate the students to learn? Standardized tests are considered the ultimate "student achievement and teacher effectiveness" (Rose). How can goodness be judged based on a single test score? 

As Rose well explained in his narrative, he was placed in vocational education, where a majority of the children placed in this division were troubled students. Some people of the staff placed in vocational education did not make the effort of properly educating and motivating the students. Rose mentioned that the teachers needed to be creative to teach a class filled with troubled children. However, most did not even care to try. Students are more than capable of learning, no matter the circumstance. Without a challenging or engaging curriculum, how would students be motivated to learn? If they are not challenged, then they will not absorb anything. Through my educational journey, I had enough exposure to a number of teachers with different teaching styles. Among those, there was a few teachers that did not care for their students' grades. It was very frustrating to watch such an instructor, teaching in a one-sided dialogue. I definitely agree that a challenging curriculum would keep students focused and motivated to learn. In my opinion, this is a task for qualified teachers who care for their students' success.

John Gatto's "Against School"

This essay was very interesting to read because it showed a different perspective against school. Gatto thinks of school as "...labaratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands (Gatto - 5). He views schools as institutions that brainwash children in order to provide for society. As people, we know not to buy things that we do not need. However, society needs to profit from us. How do they do that? They use schools to bring children into the equation. As a result, we, humans, start craving for things that we want but not need. Another interesting point Gatto mentioned was that school was a "selective function." This refers to Darwin's theory of natural selection. To help the human race be more superior than previous generations, the school is used as an eliminating institution. "Schools are meant to tag the unfit" (Gatto - 4). Poor grades, remedial classes, detention and other punishments are ways of tagging inferior people. After this process, they are eliminated in the reproductive sweepstakes. Once the inferior people are out of the equation, a small fraction of children will be trained to continue this ongoing cycle and control the population.

When we think of school, we connect it to success. Society now requires children to go to school to be successful. Jobs, nowadays, require a minimum of a college degree. As time goes on, the standards keep increasing their expectations. We think school is what leads us to have successful, happy lives. We assume that the schooling system are supposed to: 1.) Make good people. 2.) Make good citizens. 3.) To make each person his or her personal best. However, many people before us managed to become successful without a formal education. "If Thomas Edison could publish a broadsheet at age twelve... there's no telling what your own kids could do" (Gatto - 4). Gatto believes that the solution to this entire problem is to let children manage themselves.

I found this to be a very interesting essay to read because it showed me a side that never came across my mind. I believe it to be a little on the extreme side however, some of the points mentioned made me stop and think about our educational system. Perhaps some of these points could be valid in certain schools. In schools that do not care for their students and such. I never been in a school with such condition, so I cannot confirm this. I was fortunate to have been in schools that cared for every student's education. Even fellow classmates that were not doing well were cared for, the best the school could offer.  

How are the two schools different?

KIPP Academy was a school filled with students of mixed cultures and backgrounds. Hispanic, black and students from poor families were among the students that attended KIPP Academy. This school has a reputation of a number of successful students. Through their educational journey at KIPP Academy, they continued to excel and earn academic achievements. However in high school and college, they slid backwards or failed to graduate.These children were overwhelmed by stress and failed because character was not being reinforced individually. On the other hand, Riverdale Country School was an elite school. Students in Riverdale were not developing qualities to deal with adversity. Instead, they were shielded from the possibility of failure. The students tried their best however, they were not fundamentally challenged. That being said, it is important to support and nurture children emotionally. "If more parents hug and kiss and coo in those first years, we'd have a  lot more happy and successful children" (Large - 2).