Final Paper #3

Sheyanne Hughes

Professor Sonia Begert

March 19, 2014

English 101

Creativity in High School

What is high school for?  High school is an educational program to get you ready for your adult life and future career choices. Not only that, it’s a place where students find themselves and to be creative. If this is true, then why do so many students drop out or feel like they benefit so little from high school? Is graduation one of the greatest moments of your life because you’re finally moving on to bigger and better things or because you can finally stop coming to high school? If I were to change high school, I would make it so kids would actually want to go and would benefit greatly from it. With improving the school system to match more of the student’s personal interests and cater to their creativity, there would be more academic and personal achievement. High school would mean more to students in the sense that high school is something they want to do and not something they have to do.

The first change that should be made is to stop making so many budget cuts in the arts department. High schools focus so intently on science, math, history, and English. I agree that all of those subjects are very important by why should the arts be any different? Aren’t they just as important? The arts department is the creative side of education, while science, english, history, and math are the more technical and universal subjects of education. During my last year in high school, the arts department was targeted and was almost completely cut from my high school. Yet, students from the choir and band all stepped up and went to the school board meeting and defending the arts. If science or math was cut from high school, how many students do you think would be at a meeting defending it? The arts is a way for students to explore their minds and be creative. If schools were more understanding of students and didn't just fund math, science, english, and history, high school would be a much better place for those who want to express themselves. Keith Gilyard states, "It is not that in my own gloom I predict doom for the students. Children can learn and grow in other arrangements. I merely assert-and parents and community members who are rallying in an attempt to save the program agree-that at this point in the children's lives, afternoons they spend in the program are better than afternoons without it" (19). This being said, school should be not only an educational experience, but a fun one. Although I understand that funding for the arts is a problem, but a way to fix this would be to evenly do budget cuts from each department instead of wiping the arts clean of every penny it has. The arts are a program that are highly underestimated and should be taken more seriously for the sake of the students’ education.

The second change I would make is the teachers. In order for classes to be enjoyable, teachers must enjoy what they teach. They must be passionate about it. High schools need teachers who aren't just teaching because they just want their pay check, they need teachers who are passionate and love teaching. In the movie Chalk, there was a particular teacher who didn't much care about teaching his students; in fact, all he wanted was to win teacher of the year. And did he get it? No, he did not. In fact, one of his students was more advanced than he was, and the teacher got angry because it made him look bad and because he was ignorant. That teacher should have put his student in an advanced class. Described as the "differentiating function" by Gatto, he states, "Once their social role has been "diagnosed," children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits - and not one step further. So much for making kids their personal best" (John Taylor Gatto: Against Schools). This describes how teachers don't push their students to their full potential. A good teacher is active in their students' educational life and is willing to go above and beyond to make sure that student’s gets the education they need and not the education that others say they need. An example of this being Mrs. Gruwell from the movie Freedom Writers. Mrs. Gruwell is a teacher, who against all the odds, went the extra mile to give her kids the education they deserved because no one else gave it to them. She was passionate about her job. When one of the teachers from the school told her that eventually things would get easier amongst the rowdy group of students because eventually they would stop coming, she replied, “Well, hopefully I can get them lining up at the door.” This shows that she really wanted to teach her students and that she actually wanted them to want to be there. All teachers should carry passion to be able to push their students to their greatest level of academic achievement.

The third change I would make is the way school makes you think. There have been so many instances where students will cram right before a test, get a good grade, and then forget everything the next day. What good does that do for anyone? Instead of teachers making the students memorize subjects, they should be making students think outside the box. Of course, memorizing some things does have its place, but make it more than just memorizing. Ask questions that exceed the limit that expand your mind into thinking about things you never would consider. Instead of students being containers to fill you should make them seeds that you need to nourish to grow. As Paolo Friere stated in his Banking Concept of Education, "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor" (Ch. 2). This describes that teacher are doing nothing more than just filling a vessel, the students, and not expanding them.  Bell hooks also expands on this by stating, “Most children are taught early on that thinking is dangerous. Sadly, these children stop enjoying the process of thinking and start fearing the thinking mind” (9). This explains that the world today is taking away the passion of thinking. They’re making students dread and loathe thinking because they’ve been taught it’s pointless. Hooks states, “Those students who do not dread thinking will often come to classes assuming that thinking will not be necessary, that all they will need to do is consume information and regurgitate it at the appropriate moments” (9).  In order to make the students think, you must expand their minds. Are text books important? Of course they are, but to an extent. Don’t have the text book do the thinking for your students. Have teachers ask questions that make the students really think. Don’t make them afraid to think, let them know there is no right or wrong answer because every thought is worth thinking.

The educational system in high school is in dire need of change. With the arts becoming less important, students’ minds not being expanded, and passionless teachers, high school is going downhill. High school should be a fun place where students want to attend and want to learn. It is a milestone in a person’s life, so it should be an experience worth experiencing. If these changes were to be made, students would benefit greatly with their educational success.

Citations:

Chalk Dir. Mike Akel. Perf. Chris Mass, Troy Schremmer.
          Arts Alliance America, 2007. DVD.

Freedom Writers. Dir. Richard LaGravenese. Perf. Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey and Imelda                                                                                                             Staunton. Paramount Pictures, 2007. DVD.

Freire, Paolo.  "The Banking Concept of Education." Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York:                   Herder and Herder. 1970. Print

Gatto, John. "Against Schools: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids, And Why." Harper's    Magazine. Sept, 2003. Web. 13 Mar, 2014

hooks,bell. Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom. New York: Routledge.  Print

Gilyard, Keith. "Children, Arts, and Du Bois." National Council of Teachers of English, n.d.                                                     Web. Sept. 2012

6 quotations

“Those students who do not dread thinking will often come to classes assuming that thinking will not be necessary, that all they will need to do is consume information and regurgitate it at the appropriate moments.” 

 “Most children are taught early on that thinking is dangerous. Sadly, these children stop enjoying the process of thinking and start fearing the thinking mind.”
 

"Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor." 

"Once their social role has been "diagnosed," children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits - and not one step further. So much for making kids their personal best."

"It is not that in my own gloom I predict doom for the students. Children can learn and grow in other arrangements. I merely assert-and parents and community members who are rallying in an attempt to save the program agree-that at this point in the children's lives, afternoons they spend in the program are better than afternoons without it."

"Well, hopefully they'll be lining up the door" Freedom writers 

WS pp 32-37

This pertains to the assignment because one of the sections shows you that it's okay to argue your side as long as you acknowledge the other side. But you shouldn't acknowledge the other side too much because it might lose your point.

Large, Boyce, Gilyard, Aronson, and hooks

Large:
Large talks about a book by Tough who indicates that you need to build character in your children and the rest will follow. This meaning, you can't always be their for your kids and they need to learn to get along fine without you. They need to experience the trial and error and overcome failure in order to truly build grit and character. Children can't be pampered by their parents all their lives.

Boyce:
Boyce brings up an interesting point when he says that traits such as; " being able to calm yourself and regulate your emotions in a variety of situations; understand your own emotions, accurately perceive others’ emotions, and empathize; listen attentively to what someone is saying, negotiate, and confidently persuade; think through problems effectively while considering others’ perspectives," are some of the most important things one should learn in life. He believes that these traits are what makes a person human and that these traits are what people use in the real world. One can't always rely on math to solve everything. Sometimes it takes special attention and true human emotion to become successful in the real world. He believes these things should be taught in classrooms to students who can benefit from these traits in the future.

Gilyard: 

Gilyard writes on a topic that is very near and dear to my heart; the arts. He writes about how he went to an elementary school and talked with very bright and creative students who were into arts. He talked about a young student who did poetry. Something that caught my attention is when he said that the arts was recurring less and less in schools because of lack of funding. He believes this is wrong and that students deserve to have creative freedom and not do a class that doesn't interest them in the slightest.

Aronson: 

Aronson talks about a successful program where many students graduated from high school and went to college. It was even higher then schools that didn't have the program. Yet, it was shut down and the books were banned. Yet, their was an uproar and the books were brought back into the library but not the classrooms. It's crazy to think that these kind of programs can be shut down with no second thought no matter how successful the students become. It's almost as if it's not about the students at all. 

hooks:

hooks main point is critical thinking. She explains that critical thinking is great because it gets students to use their initiative and not just something they've been taught is right "just because someone said so." They figure out solutions with evidence.It also brings out the passion in students and their passion to share their ideas and not be afraid of being put down because their is no right or wrong answer! It's their initiative! I agree that critical thinking does in fact empower us. 

How Chalk relates to Friere and Gatto

Chalk is a movie about a dysfunctional school with dysfunctional teachers. Friere and Gatto also agree that many schools, like the one in chalk, are totally dysfunctional with the teachers having a lot to do with it. Gatto states that, "The differentiating function. Once their social role has been "diagnosed," children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits - and not one step further. So much for making kids their personal best." In Chalk, one teacher in particular gets angered when one of his students actually knows more than him and is a lot smarter. He gets mad that he's usuign words he can't understand. He tells the student to not act that way because he didn't want to look dumb in front of the principle. He even threatened to tell his parents he was failing the class if he kept it up. The teacher is not pushing his student what so ever and is just keeping him stuck in this place where he can't academically achieve because of his own ignorance. Friere also agres with Gatto when he states "The teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects." Meaning that to the teachers, the students don't mean anything to them. Just like the teacher I was just referring to. He only used those kids so he could get best teacher of the year. He even took time out of the class to have them make posters for him. He didn't even care that it was their educational time. But I guess it wouldn't of mattered since the teacher is completely ignorant and could care less about their education so they probably wouldn't of benefited from his educational teachings to begin with.

Freire and Gatto

Both Freire and Gatto agree that most educational instructors don't take that extra step to push their students or give them an initiative to do it. They also don't give them a complete learning experience such as actually experiencing it. Friere explains, "Liberating education consists of acts of cognition, not transferals of information." This means that students aren't personally experiencing the education they need. It's not about just writing in a text book and listening, it's about hands on and trial and error. Gatto also explains the differentiating function by saying, " children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits - and not one step further. So much for making kids their personal best." This being that children aren't being pushed and can't experience the education and personal experience they deserve. They both agree that teachers need to actually do what they're paid to do and that's giving their students the education they need and deserve. 

Something else they'd agree on is how schools are trying to conform their students. Freire explains, "Education must begin with a solution of the teacher-student contradiction.." Meaning teachers and students must have an understanding of their roles. Not just "The teacher teaches and the students are taught" or "The teacher knows everything and the students know nothing" or even "The teachers talks and the students listen-meekly" all of these are Friere saying that teachers and students conforming to their known roles is totally wrong. You don't need to conform. Or how Gatto states that, "The integrating function. This might well be called "the conformity function," because its intention is to make children as alike as possible. People who conform are predictable, and this is of great use to those who wish to harness and manipulate a large labor force." How the teachers who are conforming are predictable just like how the students being taught become predictable. It all becomes a vicious cycle. 

Lewis Black and Mike Rose

When it comes to education, both Lewis Black and Mike Rose seem to be very well on the same page. Black believes that too much money is being put into the way schools look and not the education itself when there are kids trying to win the lottery to get into a charter school. Black also believes that the media is totally changing the way people see education, but in a terrible way. "We rank 21st in math, 25th in science, but we rank number one in confidence." Black states that this is completely ridiculous. Mike Rose agrees on this subject when he writes, "..stop the accountability train long enough to define what we mean by “achievement” and what it should mean in a democratic society. Is it a rise in test scores? Is it getting a higher rank in international comparisons? Or should it be more?" Rose is saying that test scores shouldn't define the way we determine if a teacher is good or not. Like when Black takes another look at the media and shows a man saying that if you're driving by a school you should "walk in and ask how you can help." Okay, this is completely ridiculous. Why should you let a stranger teach when so many teachers are being let off for budget cuts? The new reality television series "Teach: Tony Danza" is about a guy who always wanted to teach but wasn't even certified. Even the children knew he wasn't! Personally, if I had a teacher who didn't know what the heck they were doing I would be completely outraged! Rose also talks about the media when he says, "To have the media, middle-brow and high-brow, quit giving such a free pass to the claims and initiatives of the Department of Education and school reformers. There is an occasional skeptical voice, but for any serious analysis, you have to go to sources like The Nation or Pacifica radio. Journalists and commentators who make their living by being skeptical – David Brooks, Nicholas Kristof, Arianna Huffington – leave their skepticism at the door when it comes to the topic of education." He is also agreeing with Black in how the media blows things out of proportion.