My HS experience vs. Gattos ideas

My experience in high school was similar to Gattos in that I felt like I was being stifled by several varieties of the same stupid institution that bred conformity and lack of critical thinking among its learners. I went to five different high schools before I graduated. One was an online public high school, one was a "bad" school with a few exceptional teachers but the constant threat of gang violence and the apathy of teachers who were already looking for new jobs. I went to another in Texas that was snobby and felt like I had teachers political opinions shoved down my throat, a school on Cape Cod that was also snobby and inclusive, and finally another school in Texas that was too large to have any kind of real drama within the student population, but you were ultimately just a number to administration.

I definitely did see some of the themes discussed in Gattos paper, especially in the mentions of the "functions" of education.

I saw the differentiating function in action when I was trying to get into an AP government class in high school. My first 2 years of high school were spent being flung across 4 different high schools, and I had a hard time getting a solid foundation. Plus, it honestly is not very motivating doing school work when you know you are not going to get any credit for it in 6 months due to lack of communication or stubborness on the part of the school district. My junior year though I had an awesome history teacher who challenged me and and inspired a great love of learning, I ended up with a 99 average for the whole year in his class.

My senior year I was basically fighting to graduate, retaking classes that I had passed in other schools or just taking classes that I hadn't taken before. My counselor treated me like an idiot, and when I wanted to take an honors level class so I had at least one challenging class in my schedule, she ignored my requests after I bothered her about it for a month. I got my parents involved and they told them they denied my request but could not be bothered to at least let me know. My parents were very angry and finally got me into a honors level class about 2 months into the year. The school had decided that I was not competent even though my test scores were brilliant and my grades were great because it did not fit into the picture they saw my freshman and sophomore year. My counselor even laughed at me when I told her my plans to go to a 4 year school eventually, they were incredibly disrespectful of any idea that didn't fit into their norm.

Author ranking 1-5 (hooks, Gilyard, Aronson, Large, Boyce)

1. hooks- I ranked hooks essay number one because I felt like it was the most thorough and reasonable. Several of the other authors did not seem to have the same effect as she did and I felt like she made the strongest argument.

2. Aronson- Aronson made a very good case about the issues going on in these Arizona schools and why they were happening. Sometimes the truth can be uncomfortable but it is discussed in a very reasonable fashion.

3. Large- The article that included Larges thoughts was a book review. It discusses what the book is about "Grit", and how kids need character. It also briefly touches on attachment parenting, and how that helps children in the beginning, but kids need adversity to grow character. I felt like it was not very well rounded and that it did not discuss things very thoroughly.

4. Boyce- Boyces approach was through mindful thinking and empathy. While these are all nice concepts, I would love to see some science behind why he thinks this is the key to everything.

5. Gilyard- I ranked Gilyard last because it felt wistful for the good ole days without giving any reason for his position. He discusses the humanities being cut, and says they should not be, but gives no explanation as to why they shouldn't be, he just talks about DuBois.

How does each author support their ideas?

Jerry Large is an author who believes that early attachment, and a little adversity later on helps kids develop "grit" which is an essential part of character. He discusses differences in two different schools, one with a large amount of privilege and another with less privilege and the differences in their test scores.

Barry Boyce believes that empathy is the most important trait that we take to the job market, and encourages Mindfulness by using contemplative approaches. These feature "nonattachment,noticing our cognitions, and being able to find a spot in our heart and mind where we can see whats going on but not get caught up in it". This nonattachment can come about via meditation or yoga.

Gilyard is a believer in the Humanities, however I don't feel like he went too into depth with his paper. However he insists that keeping the humanities in schools helps promote a democratic and egalitarian environment.

Deb Aronson talks about the MAS program and how even though it was a good program, it made administrators uncomfortable and was cut, going along with many of the other racist events happening in Arizona at the time. Books were banned, and students rights were being violated.

bell hooks discusses critical thinking and engaged pedagogy and how it is important in the class room.

Group Discussion about Chalk with Comparisons to Freire, Gatto, Rose, and Black

In Gatto's "Against School", he speaks of students and teachers boredom and the structure that a public school environment enforces, namely conformity and teacher/student dynamic. We see this in Chalk when Mr. Stroop the history teacher pulls two students aside and asks them to dumb themselves down so the teacher does not appear stupid in class. In effect he tells the young male student that they both know he knows more about history than he does, and to the young woman to stop using so many big words. He does this because he has a huge ego, but more importantly because the teacher/student dynamic was being disturbed. 

In Mike Rose's "Resolutions we should make for 2011", he mentions that one idea that has been stated is to get "rid of the bottom 10% of teachers (as determined by test scores) and replaced them with teachers at the top 10% we’d erase the achievement gap, or leap way up the list on international comparisons". He then mentions that this is flawed because a students achievement is often proportionate to their parents income. We can see this in "Stand and Deliver" because of how low income the students are and how it is a challenge for them to rise to occasion academically.

In the Daily Show rant, Lewis Black discusses a misplacement of funds or a lack of funds. He discusses a new school in California that is extremely lavish, and it was built for 570 million dollars. None of the money actually affects the educational quality "Im pretty sure schools shouldn't be the nicest building you'll ever be inside, I went to school in an empty carton of Pall Malls!". In chalk there is a scene where one of the teachers is talking about how the volleyball team needs new uniforms, because they "cant go out naked" but they cannot afford it. Also, a running gag throughout the movie is the broken copy machine that doesn't work the whole year, presumably because they cannot afford to fix it. 

Friere believes that students are forced to conform and that the teachers are oppressors that stifle creativity, the teachers teach and the students are taught in a rigid manner. "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor". Mr. Lowry was very strict and anxious in the beginning, demanding respect from his students when  he really had not done anything to earn it, like yelling and sending students out of the class. Over the year he starts to loosen up, he wins the Spelling Hornet and starts letting the students teach him and they open up to his teachings. 

What do I think high school is for?

I think high school is an awful babysitter for older children. I think high school is largely rehashed things from middle school with some electives thrown in to make the experience somewhat tolerable. High school is a way of delaying people from entering the workforce while forcing them into a box that makes colleges and testing companies lots of money at the expense of students finances and well being. High schools breed apathy and conformity whilst trying to establish a group of manager types to run the whole show. High schools should teach critical thinking, actual job skills, and not put students into boxes based on abstract test scores about how well their ESL students know English idioms. We need electricians, plumbers, nurses, and these are all fields that could be introduced in high school. We could offer more tech programs, even make them mandatory that way students can graduate with some kind of job skill besides filling out a resume with school clubs. This in turn could help the government by lessening the need for welfare, and that money could go back towards the schools.

I also think standardized tests need to be eliminated. My senior year of HS I had to take a Social Studies state test as one of many that determined if I graduated. Some of the stuff covered on this test was World Geography, a class I never took due to me living in California at the time and is normally offered to freshmen. They expected me to remember some random river names and statistics after if I did take the class, NOT REVIEWING IT FOR MORE THAN 2 YEARS.

WS 32-37 and how these pertain to P#3

This section shows ways to categorize things and how to show their differences. Some of these include Compare and Contrast approach, or a Cause and Effect approach. It also goes into how to make your argument in a clear and concise manner. This can relate to paper number three because we have to make a argument as to changes we would make to the public school system, as well as comparing and contrasting different materials that we are exposed to during the units period. For example I could compare and contrast Chalk as well as Gattos writing and put my own argument as to whether each is right, one is right, or neither is right.

What do Freire and Gatto agree on?

Freire and Gatto do seem to agree upon that our Public school system definitely has some issues. Freire believes that the students are oppressed, and I think Gatto believes this as well, however Gatto delves more into how the oppression is done and its roots in a Prussian system while Freire takes a more social approach.

Comparative essay final paper

I have had some great teachers. They were passionate, knowledgeable, and determined to cram that knowledge into our brains in the best ways they could think of. And then I have had others that cared...not as much. I have had quite a few teachers, especially after doing 5 different tours of duty at different high schools, but there are two examples that come to mind when I think of notable teachers in my life, and they very different people who I have very different opinions of. One was passionate, creative, intense and dedicated to his students and his classroom. The other was apathetic, lazy and mean to his students. They both stand as testament to how our school system can go wonderfully...or terribly wrong.

The first teacher, Mr. Scalia, was my US History teacher my junior year.  He was Cajun, loud, enthusiastic, demanding total attention of his students, and would often go off on hilarious rants at the beginning of class. One time I walked into class, and he was not there by the time the bell rang. We squirmed in our seats unsure of what was going on, when he opened the classroom door, and without a word, climbed on his desk, stood up and held a big bible. Then he started shouting and preaching like he was on a soapbox in the gilded age. He went on and on for about 5 minutes until the assistant principal decided to poke his head in and ask if there was a problem going on. It was hilarious and painted a very clear picture of the lesson ahead.  Mr. Scalia kept an open door policy and always had plenty of time for his students. I would occasionally come in early before class and discuss what we were learning, relative current events, and would just joke around. I learned so much just from those brief interactions, he actually gave me his copy of “Lies my History Teacher taught me” which was a great book. He also gave extra lectures occasionally during his lunch period to students that were interested and organized an optional assembly to listen to a WW2 Vet speak. Mr. Scalia, while fun and a great orator, kept a stern grip on his classroom. Noone really minded, since we were so engrossed in what he was saying, but the one time that someone did decided to act foolish, he quickly kicked them out of his class and had him put into a different class. He did not play games and had very strong opinions about certain subjects we covered, he did not tolerate racism at all. The fact that he was Cajun and grew up when the US was trying to destroy their culture and language probably contributed to that. When one student threw out a racist remark towards Cajuns (our school had a large percentage of Louisiana natives that came after Hurricane Katrina), he completely laid into him. They were both shaking when he was done, the kid from fear and the teacher from rage. It was awkward, but good to see him stand up for his principles.

The other teacher I had, lets just call him Mr. Black, was awful. He had dark hair and large, buggy eyes. He was tall and spoke with a hoarse voice, I found it was impossible for him to whisper when he spoke, it was always booming. He was quiet most of the time though, since he seemed to take a stance that since he was a coach, he was too good for teaching. He sat at the back of the room, chewing foul smelling tobacco and spitting it into a cup while he would have a student pull up the powerpoint he prepared and recite it to the class. After we had notes, we would have a worksheet, where he would scream at us to be quiet over and over again.  As students of course we would get bored of this and talk, or we would finish early and talk, and he would scream at us to shut up. He also insisted on using terms of endearment with the female students whilst still looking like he wanted to tear a hole in our throats, which was confusing and scary. We had a Special Ed. Teacher that would come in to help with teaching, but Mr. Black would just leave, so the other teacher had to actually be in charge. When this other teacher came he would  actually explain the material and help us learn instead of just having us take in information and spit it out. This teacher later confessed to his disliking of the teacher and how he had tried to tell the district of our situation, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. "Hes a coach, if he is going to coach he has to teach, so why not just give him to the 'dumb' kids anyways" is basically the message we felt we were getting. 

These two teachers had very little in common, if anything. Sure they were both teachers at the same school, but one of them actually wanted to be teaching while the other just wanted to bell to ring so he could coach the girls tennis team.  Mr. Scalia actually knew his subject, while Mr. Black either did not or did not care enough to bother demonstrating his knowledge outside of the artificial medium of PowerPoint. Mr. Scalia embraced the chaos of the classroom with his own brand of rambunctious energy, which in a way, drowned everyone else out and just left us watching the lecture unfold, while Mr. Black sat quietly in the back, screamed at anyone who disturbed the peace and indulged in his nasty habit. Mr. Scalia inspired greatness and challenged his students to do better, while Mr. Black had a "Do as I say or else" approach that inspires you to dig your heels in the dirt and cover your ears. 
Both of these were exceptional teachers…exceptionally great and bad.

Rough Draft of Essay

I have had some great teachers. They were passionate, knowledgeable, and determined to cram that knowledge into our brains in the best ways they could think of. And then I have had others that cared...not as much. There are two examples that come to mind when I think of notable teachers in my life, and they very different people who I have very different opinions of.

The first teacher was my US History teacher my Junior year of High School. His name was Mr. Scalia, and it was his first year teaching at this school (however he had been teaching a while at other high schools and was a professor at Virginia Tech and in Louisiana). He was Cajun, loud, enthusiastic, demanding total attention of his students, and would often go off on hilarious rants at the beginning of class. Once he had accomplished illustrating his tangential points (which were completely engrossing to listen to actually), he started talking about the meat of discussion, and history. He was never afraid to call historical political figures out in history, at one point he had a rant about why General Custer was an "Idiot" (he had been demoted several times for disobeying orders, and at the time he was killed he was doing just that again). He did not tolerate ruffian behavior from his students however, and actually had two students that year forcibly removed from his class and placed elsewhere. Of course, no one minded this, we were happy to just bask in his lectures. When the time for our state test rolled around, he prepared us well and the classes he taught actually had the highest scores out of any in the school, even the AP/Dual Credit kids. He was a fantastic teacher, and I wish to this day I could have another history class with him because of how honest and interesting he made it.

Eventually though, my Junior year comes to an end. I actually was on high school number 5 at the time as a result of being a Military brat, and my credits were all kinds of screwed up. Me and my counselor had worked out my plan for my senior year before, but she moved and a new counselor took her place who helped contribute to my misery for that school year, but that is a different essay. She decided to place me in World Geography, which is a Freshman course, instead of just having me take the course in my credit recovery class that I was in all year. I was mortified that I was going to be the oldest in this class, but I quickly resigned myself to it since I felt I had no other choice in the matter. For six weeks I was in one teachers class who was fair and cared about his subject, but clearly exhausted by the rowdy freshmen. As I was taking this class, I was also taking my Senior history class, and I had them switch me over to an advanced version since I was going to pull my hair out because of my classmates and the boring content. The awful woman in the office finally let me in after I hounded her for weeks, which screwed around my schedule some more and I was in a different World Geography class, this time with Him.

I do not recall his name, lets just call him Mr. Black, like the tar in the cup he would spit his tobacco into. He was a girls tennis coach, he had large bulging eyes, a loud hoarse voice. He was chewing tobacco constantly, and never actually spoke besides screaming at us to shut up. He would prepare a Powerpoint and have another student administer it while we copied down notes. Then he would give us a work sheet, then a quiz. Then the day was over. He demanded total silence all the time, however he never actually taught or engaged us, so of course a bunch of rowdy freshman are not going to care. We had one assistant teacher who came into the class about 2 days a week, and often Mr. Black would just leave and have the other teacher supervise. This teacher was actually a special ed teacher normally and knew how to handle the students better. The best part? He actually explained the content. You could tell that he hated the position he was in, and he had expressed subtle dislike of the man who was supposed to be running the classroom. It was sad though, when Mr. Black left, the students would come to him and have him help us prepare for the tests, explain things, laugh with us. I hope he is doing well.

I think a part of Mr. Blacks problem is that he did not want to be a teacher. I do not believe he went to college for education, he went to school to be a tennis coach. However, the High School I went to demanded that all coaches be teachers, so you had some very unqualified people teaching classes, usually the on-level classes since we were assumed to be stupid and not know the difference anyway. He was forced to sit at a desk and teach a bunch of kids he did not care about, teaching a subject he was indifferent towards, and basically making his students suffer for his own incompetence. A large part of the reason I now abhor the public school system is the fact that people like him are in a way forced to be a part of it. Teachers like Mr. Scalia are a rarity nowadays, apathetic teachers breed apathetic students, who grow more apathetic as they work through the system. New teachers go into the system either idealistic and wanting to cause positive change, only to be startled by how lazy the students and administration are, or people become teachers because they need a job and just don't care, contributing more to the cycle.

Audre Lorde's essay

Lorde illustrates some of her teachers various characteristics in ways such as "she was supposed to be totally dedicated, like all the other Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, to caring for the Colored and Indian children of america. Caring for was not always caring about. And it always felt like Sister MPH hated either teaching  or little children " and "Sister Mary of PH made me sit in the back of the room
on the window seat with a dunce cap on. She had the rest of the class offer up a prayer for my poor mother who had such a naughty girl who broke her glasses and caused her parents such needless extra expense to replace them. She also had them offer up a special prayer for me to stop being such a wicked-hearted child.".

What makes a good teacher?

I think a good teacher is someone who is passionate about what they are teaching, knows their stuff, and makes an effort to connect with their students. They have reasonable expectations of their students, they don't expect perfection but they do expect effort, they challenge their students as individuals rather than as a group. I think good teachers take a little bit of extra effort in their lessons, they don't just give Powerpoints and have someone else recite the material as they sit at their desks and read a magazine. Good teachers are often discouraged by current practices in public education, such as teaching to a test, because they don't allow much room for their own material and often have irrelevant content. My best teachers were not afraid to give supplemental instruction outside of class in a fun way, I enjoyed going with my Art Teacher to the museum on a saturday, or listening to an extra lesson my History teacher gave after school about how to be a smart voter.