HW 49

Initially, I was confused about whether the teacher in section 1's film was thinking about his day or he was dreaming. I figured it was a dream because it was portrayed with his head on his desk and his students did not look out of control the next day. One way I took the film was that the teacher was afraid that his students would one day disregard his wisdom and act out of control. But since there is not enough information to support this, I thought that the message of the film (and I can be totally wrong about this) is that teachers are the ones who need to be taught. The teacher in the film ignores the papers he was once holding, picks up a blackberry to text, and falls asleep on the table due to boredom. He dreams about his "want-to-be" self and the rude students but the next day, we see that things are the other way around. After a student wakes him up, he walks as if he was drinking alcohol, starts insulting the students and walks out the room.

This is different from Freedom Writers, Blackboard Jungle, and Dead Poets Society. It related more to the parody that we saw in class; in both films, the students were the ones knowing what they were doing and the teachers were the clueless ones. While the students in the other films walked into class disrespecting the teacher, the students in section 1's film came into class and waited for the teacher to start class. And when the teacher was still sleeping on his desk, a student went to wake him up, hoping he could enlighten them. Instead, he continues to be hopeless, starts yelling at the innocent students and leaves them behind.

Maybe there is no way schools or teachers can help students, or not all teachers can save students, or not all students can be saved. Each student have their individual and different conflict, which makes it hard for the teacher to save each and every one of them. The teacher in the film did not do anything to save the students and in fact, influencing them in a bad way by drinking in class. Some teachers themselves may be too out of it to teach their students about life. The students might just have to teach themselves on their own and this might just be the alternative to school.

Treatment for Savior/Teacher Movie

Ken Walker = teacher
Kim Steelie = student
Principal Staremann = principal

Ken Walker walks into the classroom to find Kim Steelie with a film so he took the film from Kim and went to return the film to the principal. Kim comes storming after Ken, demanding him for her film back. Ken ignores Kim and keeps walking which pisses Kim off even more so Kim starts throwing a fit. Kim smacks Ken on the back of his head which causes Ken to stop walking. Kim takes a few step back cautiously and then everything stops at that moment; Kim is staring at the back of Ken.

After a moment of awkward silence, Kim uses the book she was carrying and throws it at Ken. Ken, infuriated, picks the book up and throws it back at Kim. Kim, with amazing athletic abilities, dodges the book and the book hits Principal Staremann as the principal walks by. Ken flinches in fear while Kim looks away from the principal as if nothing happened. The principal slowly looks away from them and keeps walking. Kim smirks and starts to head back to the classroom while Ken stands there dumbfounded.

All the other teachers stare at Ken but does not say a word and continues heading to the classroom. Ken chases after Kim to demand for an explanation but walks into the classroom to find students with tattoos, students violating the school dress code, and students reading comic books. The chairs are out of place; some students are throwing papers and pencils around. Ken stands at the doorway, trying to absorb in all of this chaos. Kim, after settling in her seat, stares at Ken and waits for him to do something about the class but Ken just stares off into the distance....

Credits to Jia Min H.

Research and Writing

International Lessons about National Standards compares and contrasts the standards in different countries and comes to a conclusion about which aspects the Unites States should follow. It focuses its studies on education standards and testing in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, and South Korea. These countries suggest to create independent institutions that will ensure the development of national standards. Although the independent institutions will make sure national standards exist, they should not be the ones creating them but to provide the encouragement and resources in creating the standards. The United States should develop coherent, focused, and rigorous standards involving English, math, and science. Then, test students during their 4th, 8th, and 12th years in school with some open ended questions to reflect the coherence. Whether the students do poorly or excellent, the students themselves, the teachers and the schools are responsible.

International Lessons about National Standards is the first step towards creating a better education system for the United States. Not only does the study covers China but it also covers nine other countries for additional options for improvement. It first mentions creating an institution that will support the creation of the education standards. Countries around the world emphasize on the knowledge of English, math, and science. To prove their learning in these subjects, students are tested during or a year before they move on to the next school. Having students themselves, teachers, and the schools held responsible for the students' learning puts pressure on all of them to provide the best education for the students.

I think this study and the results of this study is leaning towards Hirsch and his ideas. This study suggests that students learn the basic knowledge of English, math, and science but does not mention anything about preparing the students to be open minded and to think on their own.

"Having so many topics in the curriculum as the U.S. does means that each topic is covered superficially— and, often, repeated grade after grade" (Schmidt, et. al 24). If schools could go in depth in each concept, the topics would not be repeated every year and middle school math would not be "a repetition of the arithmetic topics covered in grades 1-5" (Schmidt, et. al 25). And if topics can be fully covered before high school, students can start to develop their own way of thinking that is aside from lecture and regurgitation.

Hirsch also believed in testing, but why should knowledge be questioned with a number 2 pencil and bubble-in answer sheets? Why not allow the students teach each other on topics that were taught?

Class film preparation 1

• one problem the teacher should overcome is getting a student to re-attend school after deciding to dropout.*
• students should have tattoos*
• violate dress codes*
• disrespect the teacher
• wise but rebellious student*
• students make fun of the teacher
• the teacher should have some kind of secret that students have to figure out
• students should give their teacher a name to show the resolution of the plot*
• students should read in class
• others see the class as hopeless and thinks the students will not graduate
• there should be war in class
• the teacher should visit students' homes

More Big Thoughts on Schools

Hirsch believes that students should know the fundamental information, which includes memorizing the presidents of the United States. In his opinion, education should be taken most seriously during elementary school, where most fundamental studies happen. Test scores are a more accurate method of assessing a student's knowledge and portfolios are too opinionated. Students need to know their basic information so that they are able to read college-level texts. Knowing how to read and tackle difficult passages are useless; students need to know the actual facts related to the subject.

Sizer, on the other hand, believes that education should be more focused during high school, or before the end of education so that students are prepared to critique if necessary. Succeeding, in Sizer's point of view, is to understand some of the basic knowledge but also to set their own realistic standards that they can achieve. Education should not be shaped by the state and federal administrators but by the students whom the education is being taught to. Test scores does not equate with his definition of serious education. In fact, he proposed to drop the system of test scores, grades, and categories based on age.

I feel that Hirsch and Sizer have a chance to work together. Look at Millennium High School in New York City; they offer AP classes, have their students take regents and write exhibitions on top of that. Hirsch suggest that "tests are far fairer than more subjective means of assessing student performance" while Sizer prefer "explore a single subject for several months and then present an ''exhibition'' of their work to demonstrate what they've learned"(Mosle). Millennium incorporates both ideas together to put loads of pressure on students and who knows, it might be better for their students.

In my experience, I think that SOF used to be one of Sizer's schools. Recently, it has become more of Hirsch's, with the division of math and science classes depending on student's speed. The only classes that remains loyal to Sizer are the social studies and English classes. We the students have a say in what we want to learn in the class and the English class is more open to discussions as oppose to in class essays that are treated as tests. Math and science classes require basic knowledge to understand the more complicated materials that appear in further studies.

Big Expectations for School

Obama's view on school is that schools can provide the opportunity to discover your talents. He delivers a great speech but his solution seems too easy. He says that we can have the best schools in the world; easy to say, but what are the steps he is willing to take to create the best schools in the world. What is the best school in the world, relative to him? Obama wants schools to prepare students for the future, to get good jobs and to get the economy going. Even if some students have the best education out there, there are other factors like racism that stop them from getting the job they want. And if everyone gets what they want, the economy is going to be in high demand for the jobs that people are skeptic about applying for. Obama names the people who were determined to finish high school and go to college. Sure, school can teach you to be persistent but is college necessary to get a good job? What do we learn in college that cannot be learned earlier in our lives?

The article about liberal arts also argue about career but at a personality level. Schools mold our ideas, help us learn to discover ideas, and teach us to think creatively. I don't think art is teaching students a necessary skill in the workplace. What corporations look for are practical solutions to problems and if studying art is enforcing imagination skills, then liberal arts may not be all that important. But other than the workplace, I think studying art is a nice personal hobby. Thomas Friedman implies that schools train us to become tools of corporations across the world like Intel. If corporations cannot get the best engineers in their own country, then they will get them out of other countries such as China. I think school is also encouraging students to compete; it has become sort of a battlefield among students not only in schools themselves but throughout the world. Friedman suggests to step up the education a notch and compete with the education around the world. Even schools within America are competing against each other to see whose students get into the best colleges.

Significance

What are the similarities and differences between schools in America and schools in China? How can schools in America learn from schools in China and what aspects should American schools promote to other schools? What elements affect the schooling system and how schools teach, what schools teach?

I want to compare how American schools and their education compare to other countries, especially China. What are we lacking in our schools and what is strong about our education system? I have heard stories about schools in Japan, how Japanese treat their schools like their second home. They wear no shoes, or shoes other than the ones they wear to go out, in school and clean the school as if it were their house. How does this affect their learning and does it affect their point of view on school so that they feel more motivated in school? Chinese immigrants come to America, risking the fact that their children might be less educated than if they had attended school in China. Is it better to send kids to other countries to better their education or is it worth it to have kids stay in America?

I hope my research will help others in the future make the better choice in their education. They have the choice to accelerate their knowledge and have it for future use or they can take their time to develop social skills. It also seems that some countries encourage competition, to see who is good enough to be hired by large corporations. I think it is also weird to have students compete against each other in communist countries like China, where everyone is on the same level. This competition is also parallel to Darwin's survival of the fittest theory; students are trying to better their education so they will not be the ones working at Duane Reade.