Short response to movie Waiting for Superman.

2/23/14

 

  I had not watched the movie Waiting for Superman and it honestly gave me a different perspective of the public school system in the United States. This movie showed me a glimpse of the lives of several kids who like most of us have to adapt to a public school system that is not giving us the same, equal education they say it's given to every child in America. It may seem like they are by the progress and achievements of a circle of schools but also turn a blind to so many other schools who are still failing. We always seem to see above the surface of most things and don't really bother to find out if things really are the way they are projected to us. For example, my thoughts of how schools were funded were that if a school needed the extra funding they would get it, if something wasn't working for a school they would immediately make changes to improve it, and that students were the main priority. After watching this movie I learned interesting ways of how it really is. First of all, yes, funding is given for schools but it's not divided in a way that it will uplift the schools that needed a lot more. Changes eventually do come to schools but sometimes it's to late to remedy the poor education of past generations. My thought of students being the main priority to this system is most shocking to me because kids are just cought up in the middle of it all. How Michelle Rhee said, "...it all becomes about the adults." It's sad to know that this is happening in many districts and communities across the country where kids are eager to learn, eager to become educated individuals but are not give the proper tools. Other than sad it also angers me to have seen and heard people in this movie who supposedly want every child in America to have the same opportunities but are not addressing the problem in a truly equal and realistic manner.

2/20/14

 

  In this technological era that we live in its much easier to get a message out. For example, social media. Social media is one of the most effective ways to get peoples attention to whatever you're advertising. We can definitely put up a website or create a page to advertise the need of supplies, books, or equipment to a school. We can ask for monetary donations through a fund or direct supply donations. This is what I believe we can do to help schools that don't have the necessary supplies. Sometimes we can't wait for someone else to do something first but we can. For example in the book it talks about Mrs. Hawkins, an elementary school teacher in Chicago who thought it was up to her to do something if the school wasn't. She said, "All this stuff"-she gestures at the clutter in the room-"I bought myself because it never works to order things thought the school system..." (pg. 59/60)

 

  I believe that we should hold teachers to very high standards when it comes to teaching. Teachers are like second parents to all students at any teaching/learning facility. To me a bad teacher is someone who doesn't bother to get to know his/her students at any level. Who instead of getting students engaged in the activities going on in the classroom, bores them with the lack of enthusiasm and creativity being passed on by the teacher. Someone who simply doesn't care for the overall success of the students.

Instead a good teacher should be caring, compassionate, enthusiastic, energetic, and understanding of the learning that the students are developing. A good teacher can be unique in many ways. For example, quoting Jonathan Kozol he says, "But what is unique about Mrs. Hawkins' classroom is not what she does but who she is. Warmth and humor and contagious energy cannot be replicated and cannot be written in a standardized curriculum."(pg. 62) We cannot write a curriculum to be like Mrs. Hawkins but we should see it as an unwritten requirement to which we should hold teachers to.

 

  I believe that protecting the wealthy by providing a lesser education to the poor is a big problem. I believe it's a problem because if we protect the wealthy to stay wealthy then we are not promoting a democratric society that we praise we are. Many business leaders do want low-income children to have more opportunities but others openly say that, "training kids like these for nothing more than entry-level jobs their corporations have available."(pg. 91) Entry level jobs are always going to be there as much as highly level educated jobs, and we should all have the opportunity to be educated individuals and move up in these positions.

2/6/14

 

  Two solutions to the oppressive system I can propose are to stop the budget cuts to the education system and make more electives available to students. Budget cuts to education discourage students to pursue a higher education because many can’t get the necessary financial help they need. The debt that many face after college is sometimes much higher than the job they land. To me that is an oppressive way of trying to keep people where they are even thought they’re told to go to school and get a higher education. Stopping budget cuts will give more opportunities to people who want to get an education without financial stress.

  Making more electives available to students will give them a better opportunity to find a sense of who they are and interest them more in school. Giving students a chance to find who they are and who they want to be starts with education. Education that of course has standards but lets the student choose from a wide range of activities and classes that influence the entire whole of education in a positive way.