Wednesday, September 25, 2013

I feel like this color is suitable for today. The topic sentence that stood out to me most was "Students are meant to be kept ignorant of their circumstances so they don't acquire a victim mentality". This gets to the psychology of the students. Aside from outside factors such as lack of supplies, rotting teeth, terrible healthcare, no parental motivation or role models, sewage-filled communities, and the appeal of drugs and gangs, the children suffer emotionally and mentally. In Savage Inequalities, one principal claims that the students subjected to "special" classes are brain damaged saying, "Placement of these kids can usually be traced to neurological damage" (Kozol 95). Kozol disagrees with this diagnosis, carefully stressing the sensitive point that race has a factor in these classrooms. Of the "gifted" classes, all but one student are usually white. In the "special" classes only one white child resides in most of the decrepit rooms their delegated. It's so sad that they don't bother to teach critical thinking to the kids in poorer communities. The poor teenagers there get thrust into jobs to fill entry-level positions such as manicurists or receptionists. That goes for the ones that don't drop out by the end of their high school education. Growing up I was always sure I was going to college. It was never a question. My dad pushed Stanford and Berkeley at me since I started kindergarten. Neither of my parents attended college but they wanted better for me. So I say it's not the parents to blame because even uneducated parents want their kids to surpass them. It's the lack of faith in themselves that comes from their school and community failing them. Parents try to fight for integration and school supplies and equality. It seems every one of their cries for help is shot down from East St. Louis to the Bronx to Chicago. From disproportionate school funding due to property taxes to vetoed loan requests the government's monetary rationing is so unfairly weighted to give richer schools even more advantages than they already indulge in. The children in these schools are said to not complain or even mention the elephant in the room that is the degree to which they're disadvantaged. They fill their time with sports or the arts to keep busy and keep spirits high.

But moving from the government to the psychology of students, I feel like students should be aware of their circumstances. Ignorance can be bliss but when exactly is reality expected to come crashing down? To me it sounds like the worst epiphany of a lifetime. I've had a few sporadic realizations but they were usually about a decision that had to be made. These kids in the unprosperous neighborhoods and underprivileged schools don't have much of a choice but to accept their lifestyles and this often means finding comfort from within them. They may look for someone or some cause for guidance and this can mean joining gangs and doing drugs a lot of the time. Once these kids don't have their parents, job skills, money, an education, or an escape to turn to they settle into their lowly lives. The spirit you see in the children in this book and in America doesn't last. The adults are the ones who see the children as victims more than the children. The adults seem to to either be on two sides of a spectrum: the advocates of bettering education and the ones who have absolutely given up on themselves, the children, their communities, and their cause. The children need outside help to get them out of the rut they're being engulfed deeper and deeper in. Even the more wealthy people see it but like I said earlier, "ignorance is bliss".

This is a picture of East St. Louis. I read an article about a trip that a more privileged writer took to watch a basketball game there. He said it was "a struggling city school that represented all that was wrong with urban society".

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

If biased teaching in school continues the way I have experienced it, the gullible will be confused or led to hold false beliefs. If just one influential teacher voices his standpoint on a political issue, that’s hundreds of students listening to biased lectures. People are everywhere preaching their opinions and there’s nothing wrong with that. I agree people should stand up for what they believe in. This is true in the classroom but with the exception of the instructor. They’re in a position where the students are expected to accept everything they say as the truth unless informed otherwise. It's their social and professional responsibility to refrain from the temptations of taking advantage of their influence on students. Different professions have different degrees of professionalism. Just as a psychiatrist is expected to respect confidentiality, teachers are expected to only speak the truth during class time. Nothing is stopping them from bending that social agreement between teacher and student. In school we’re taught that to succeed in school you have to respect authority. To rebel against a teacher saying their views is seen as disobedient and wrong in society. To challenge authority is not an easy task, especially when they’re responsible for your grade. In teachers’ defense, everyone can interpret a phrase they heard during a lecture in a different way than the way the teacher had intended it to be understood. This isn’t the case when a teacher pulls up pictures of the sky he took himself and claims he has proof of aliens for a good portion of a 3-hour-long class. I felt compelled to leave the class but I was certain I must have been missing a point or an explanatory email. As a result of this there are at least a few more students in the world that believe in aliens.
Pseudoscience does not belong in schools. Opinion being taught in U.S. government class is on the same level as psychic surgery being taught in medical school.  Biases are exactly the same. Schools need to focus on the world as we can prove it. We can’t teach untrue concepts because of many reasons. First, people need to know about the world we’re in. With everyone learning about the world in the sky that may or may not exist we’re wasting valuable time when we could use to investigate the truly wondrous place we inhabit. Secondly, religion and political views cause wars. We could be teaching communication and about culture to bring people together. It comes down to time being spent on the right subjects we’re educating our citizens on because time is truly theirs in the end. 
The solution is that sciences of all divisions should be focused on. Teachers control the future of any given place. Biases continue throughout regions because teachers reinforce them. For example, in the San Francisco Bay Area the people are generally seen as liberal and it’s evident in schools. In my health class we had a transgender woman speak to the class on her lifelong struggles with being biologically male. We felt for her through similar experiences. Although I believe it was a beautiful lesson, it just might not have taken place elsewhere in the country. That day the class learned compassion for the LGBT community. This reinforces the opinions of people in specific regions. Larger examples of this can be seen globally in schools. Perhaps it’s not bad that opinions change by region but until people can find peace in their contradicting opinions it’s best that everyone can at least come to a consensus.  



Tuesday, September 10, 2013

You are beautiful

     After watching the Ted Talks video on the learning revolution I was inspired to conjure up some creativity of my own. I do feel we lose creativity as we get older from fear of being wrong. I sometimes don't even like my brother-in-law to read my essays out of fear of being wrong. Does this count as one of these instances? Is literacy a science or an art? I believe it can be a bit of both. There are specific methods used but still room to break rules and express yourself. I saw a lot of raw creativity coming from East Bay Arts. If you want to pursue art you just have to learn the methods for transforming your talent into a career, just like writing or any other skill. I agree that we see more potential in certain skills and knowledge because of how the already educated have shaped our educational system to be. It's crafted in their own image. In an art school there was so much emphasis put on personal expression, but when I came to Chabot things were different. I, myself, am different. I spend most of my time reading and writing when I used to devote myself to sculpting and painting. I wonder how my life would be, how I would be, if I had chosen to pursue art. I know from experience that you can find a balance in education between art and math, science, English, and all that jazz. People don't see art as productive but it's actually good for us. When we create something aesthetically pleasing it's been proven that our body responds to our mind positively. That's promoting health which is productive in my book. Why else do we take PE but to get a career doing something physical? I don't know where I'm going with this besides if you practice art it's good for your health and you can have a career in it, just like P.E. They both have so little priority in our educational system regardless. I guess I can wrap this up by saying that everyone fills a place, like a puzzle, but we try to cram pieces into places they're not suitable for. Everyone needs to follow what they love or are good at or will enjoy.

In school we spread the words "you are beautiful" to every nook and cranny of the world we possibly could through art of varying media. I think this phrase is relevant because everyone is unique and good at something.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

This blog could reflect me a lot more. For the time being I'm going to try to grow into it. The color green the color of some of my favorite things in life: plants. I enjoy gardening every morning. Nurturing my plants gives me a sense of accomplishment and gratification when they grow and bloom. The leaves in the background remind me of autumn which isn't among my favorite seasons, but they do show my love for plants. The picture below shows one of my old fish tanks including some of the plants I've been rambling on about. My boyfriend and I have a couple fish tanks but no fake plants.
Below is our current fishtank when it was in the process of getting cycled and established.
    


     Other than gardening I enjoy spending time with my family, friends, and boyfriend. I live in San Leandro with my parents, my two sisters, and my boyfriend. We coexist happily I believe we'd all agree. School and my job are very important to me because I need to be able to support myself and a family one day so I need to get an education that will lead me to a job with a substantial salary. My real passion is psychology. However, I have my reasons why I chose to change my major to biology. In this economy I see a lot of people with degrees but nowhere to use them so I chose a growing field that pays well. Below is a picture of myself and my boyfriend looking like a cerial killer.


 I'm in school to become a diagnostic medical sonographer. I chose the healthcare field because I was matched with healthcare and ultrasonography by a lot of assessments in a psychology-counseling class I took last semester. I agreed with my results completely and I think I will be great in the field. I believe getting an education is the way to make the best of your life. To be the best you can be you have to try to challenge yourself and better yourself.

     I hope to learn better communication skills in this class that will help me succeed in my career. I'm going to be working with people so I need to know how to relate, speak, analyze, listen, and read well. I've always loved English because I love having a way of saying everything in my head more efficiently out loud or on paper or the internet. I want to continue learning Spanish as well. The more I can relate and communicate with people, the better I'll be at my job.
  
 Seeing how I love to nurture, help, and take care of plants and animals shows me that I would love to do the same for people. I love healthcare because what more can you do for the human race than caring for individuals with needs? I think the fact that I like the responsibility of taking care of my plants and animals makes me more motivated in school because when I feel responsible for something getting done, it feels urgent to me. Life or death pressure is okay with me.

As stated in the video “The Passion Project”, there is a lack of passion in the profession of teaching. Everyone is required to go to school. Some of us spend most of our lives until our twenties in school. Those employed in educational institutions are expected to have great enthusiasm, charisma, and passion for their job. However, even if present, it isn’t always apparent. Being the future of not only the nation, but the world, is a big responsibility and the bigger responsibility is readying those people for the world and life. The importance of passion is emphasized in Protecting the Passion of Scholars in Times of Change. In the journal article Anna Neumann encourages faculty of schools to ponder the question “What is it about the academic career as a continuing profession that is worth maintaining?” (Neumann 11). By asking this question she inspires teachers and other faculty to recall the passion they had when in the educational system themselves. She herself had professor and teachers that compelled her to excel in school and push herself further. She says “I honed in on professors’ work and explored what they learned during this career period. A number spoke of feeling compelled to give up personal time and time spent with spouses or partners, families, or communities in order to keep up with growing professional obligations” (Neumann 12). This will to sacrifice is manifestation of passion in my eyes. The compulsion to grow and adapt to your growing and changing career is what we need in educational institutions today. In “The Passion Project” one of the students says that there is a “lack of raw passion and there is a raw lack of wanting to explore each child’s mind”. I found this passion and mental exploration in the field of psychology. I believe it’s the future of teaching because in psychology scientists examine conditioning and learning. Their efforts bridge the gap between basic research and applied research in the classroom setting. For example, basic research says that visual art can stimulate the memory. Psychologists can transform this into applied research by incorporating art and aesthetics into their curriculum and teaching others to do so. In this field you can clearly see the passion for learning about learning. Although I disagree with Samira on the latter point she made, I believe there is a call for more passion in education. The more we learn about different learning styles the more the world calls for passionate teachers who can meet students’ requisites for encoding and spanning their minds.