Our
system of education system is formed as a factory. We are learned that there is
only one right way to answer a question and only right way of learning. For
example, I worked a factory for two months and in my time I only had to make
holes into a metal plate and do that for 8 hours. But what does that do with
educations? I felt like a mindless robot just regurgitating ideas and
instructions and the truth is that children’s feel like hopeless mindless
robots just regurgitating information into paper without using critical
thinking. In our system, as no child
life behind, we measure students by grades and test scores. So in the fears of
teachers losing their jobs, the teachers only teach about what is going to be
on the standardizing test like the ACT and SAT. That took away the privilege of
asking questions that the child was curious about. That made a current
education into if we repeat what the teachers said then I will pass the test.
After years of being in this education, the child creativity slowly and surely
fades away. As Propaganda, a spoken word artist, said, “My child is not a
widget. And a school should not be an assembly line. Making my daughter’s
diploma equivalent to an inspected by 2235 stamp. Dear Bored of Education,
there not a scantron on the planet that can measure inspiration.” It made me wonder
what happened to teachers teaching children how to live life? What happened to
where teaching life lessons is less important than educating kids? Could it be
that more kids have ADHD because while all the situations in our minds like
life struggles, culture, heritage is more meaningful than being drown by the
information they are learning in life?
In
this current system philosophy is “there are only two main group of people: academic
(smart people) and non-academic. (Non-smart people) In a sense saying people
who are made for school and not made for school by making a big division
between the two. It sad to think that smart people believe that they are dumb
because they don’t want to close their mind to a narrow sense of thinking. The
damage of regurgitating information is making creativity disappear. In the
sense children start losing hope in their lives and start shutting down focus
in their lives and feel like zombies. This connection may be wrong but I feel
like the lack to focus that is cause by this system could contribute with the
problem of youth of being present, in the moment. The reason is that this
system isn’t letting youth to become of who they want to be but rather who the
system made them to be. Let me explain, in this current system, the people who
are “academic” have more opportunities to do what they want in life and the
“non-academic” only hope is to work at warehouse or factory or any job that
doesn’t depend in a lot of thinking and usage of the mind. You are probably
thinking, “give me an example?” Alright, it will be my honor. In my former high
school, Fenton High school, around half of the students fit into the profile of
no child left behind or a million children left behind...which ever you want to
call it. Which basically ranked the student in what they know and ranked the
school on their education “progress.” Well the students who were not in child
left behind were offered AP classes and made it big universities. I am happy
for them, don’t get me wrong. For the students who were in no child left
behind, which was half of the school, basically were passed by to help the
school graduation rate and school GPA are now working at labor jobs or fast
food. We were never expected or prepared to follow any education after
graduating high school.
What
is the problem with just regulating information? The truth is that in life we
cannot answer every situation like as easy as 1+1=2 but we will need to be able
to think of different solutions and interpret solutions. We expect that we need
to have the right answer but the truth is that when we go six feet deep we won’t
have a letter grade in how we did in life but rather the impact we had in our
world. These children won’t have the freedom of thinking outside the box
because they aren’t thought to critical thinking. For example, in biblical time
when a rabbi (teacher) asked questions. The student critical thought about the
question and responded by a question. In a sense that showed that they wanted
to dig deeper into the question but now a day teachers are satisfied with
single yes or no answers or a short answer without having the student to dig
deeper into the question that the teacher is asking. We need to reach a point
that would give the freedom to the students to feel confident and do something
with their talent and skills.
How do the minority feel
about the system of education? We honestly believe and feel like we are left
behind. The future we go through education we learn that our history classes
and reading is bias in the sense that it shows the European and “white” as the
best. I am a sophomore in college and I have never read a book from a Hispanic
Author and never learned about my heritage background that sometime make me wonder,
“Is my people history good enough to make it in the textbooks or lectures?”
Denice Frohman, spoken word artist, said it best, “the quickest way to silent a
mouth is to treat it as none has come before.”
The
truth about the no child left behind is that it has effected minorities more
negatively than positively. The government did “accomplish” their goal of a
higher graduation rate but in the consequence of the percentage of students
going to college and crushed their dreams. Denice Frohman, spoken word artist
used this illustration. She went into auditorium and asked “who has dreams?”
eleven students raised their hands barely above their shoulders as if they were
sitting in history class unsure of the right answer. One student in the first
row named Luciano is waiting for me to tell him what page to turn to. Another
student in the eighth roll is trying to decide if this is a trick question.
There is no right answer I say but they are too comfortable with the right to
remain silent.” The truth is that a lot of students are frustrating so they act
out but they only get kicked out of school. All they hear from the teachers and
non-facial expression from students is that they are failures. To a point, the
student just deal with it and end their dreams to become scientist, police
officers, a president but rather conform to what the system set them up to be.
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