HW 51

Schools are institutions that create a false image for teachers, parents, and students. Teachers believe that they can teach the students life-connected knowledge, parents and students believe that going to school will ensure success in the future. However, the students' savior teacher film, Freire, Sizer, Hirsch, and Ms. D contradicts this claim. All or some of them believe that schools are not teaching students the right information and that schools are just dumbing students down.

Section 1's savior teacher film suggests that students cannot be saved by teachers because the teachers themselves need to be saved. The film portrays the teacher ignoring the papers he was holding, texting on his blackberry, and falling asleep on his desk. He dreams about his "perfect" self teaching a bunch of rude students. The next day, the teacher goes around and insults some of his students after being woken up by a student. He walks around like he was drinking and storms out of the room, leaving the helpless students behind. Some teachers might not know what is best for students and might just teach students that are required from the government. Not all teachers can be a savior, hence the teacher did not do anything to save them; he was actually influencing them in a bad way by drinking.

Freire, in the second chapter of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, uses the analogy of banking to show that schools are not teaching the students as they claim to be. The teachers are depositing information into the students' head while the students obediently sit in classrooms and wait for the information to come. Students are so focused on collecting and storing the information that they forget about critically analyzing the information. Freire describes the students' heads as "containers" and "receptacles" that are ready to be fill by the teachers with information. Because students are being filled with information, they do not process and take the time to understand the information. By just depositing information into students, schools are not allowing students to develop critical thinking skills. Schools need to overcome this education model in order to save students from becoming robots.

Sizer believed that education should be focused primarily during the high school years so students can develop critical thinking. To succeed, one must understand some of the basic knowledge but also set goals for one to achieve. Education should not be shaped by the federal and state administrators but by the students who are getting the education. Test scores do not reflect a student's serious education and in fact proposed to drop the grading system, testing system, and conforming students by age.

Hirsch believed that students should know the basics, i.e., memorizing the presidents of the United States. He emphasizes education more during the early years of school, during elementary school, when students first learn their numbers, how to write, the basic history and sciences. Test scores best reflect how students are doing and how much of the information they memorize; portfolios are too subjective. In order to read college leveled texts, Hirsch recommends knowing basic information because knowing how to tackle college passages are useless; students need to know the basics to connect with the passages. Many schools follow Hirsch's view; they have their students memorize information and then assess their ability to memorize. Only a few has adopted Sizer's ideas and allowed their students to develop critical thinking, allowing them to become more humane than other students.

Ms. D, a teacher at one of Sizer's schools, finds it difficult to connect with every student she teaches. Without this connection with students, she lowers the chances she has to save her students from their problems outside school. Her curriculum consists a mixture of her opinions on what students should know and the standard curriculum. She was required to teach the play Antigone one year but she also decided to teach about world literature to widen her students' knowledge on literature. Although she cannot have that deep connection with students, she tries to save them indirectly by adding in her thoughts on education. She used to assign two essays a week, spent hours grading them, and gave only a few sentences for feedback. To ensure her students were getting the best out of their education, she assigned less essays but spent the same amount of time grading the papers and wrote letters as feedbacks. Ms. D feel obligated to care about her students but she cannot be like a counselor and pass her limit. Her ability to save her students is once again circumscribed. Teachers try to save their students but because they cannot reach out to every student, it makes it harder for them to save the students.

Section 1's film portrays teachers as clueless people who are not teaching the students the right information. Freire describes the classroom as a banking system, in which students do not think about the information they are receiving. Sizer and Hirsch have contradicting views and most schools follow Hirsch's ideas that includes having the students memorize. Ms. D, like any teacher, wants to teach students the important things so the students can use them. However, because of how the schools are set up, schools are not shaping intellectual students and teachers are not really helping the students.