HW 51: School Essay

How do the right schools serve as salvation?

The official purpose of school is to educate the masses so that they will have knowledge and skills to use in society. In this way a student who comes from poverty can find salvation from their poor neighborhoods. Schools also have an underlying curriculum teaching behavior and obedience, skills that are needed in the corporate world. While some may argue that the lessons you learn in school won't help you in life I agree and disagree. The skills and knowledge learned in school help in society not necessarily in life, these two are not the same. In rare cases a teacher will give their students lessons that they can use in life, this is found mostly in alternative schools, since its hard to learn life lessons out of a text book.

Some may argue that school doesn't serve as a form of salvation, using the fact that a large number of high school graduates still end up on the streets and have no jobs. Schools are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but in those cases there are many aspects to consider, did the student study hard enough and really work through school? were the teachers of that school adequate and able to teach what was needed? There could have been many flaws in that system, but a well running system works to level the playing field between the poor and the rich.

School can serve as salvation from a variety of problems. It can be a salvation from poverty, racism and ignorance because of the lessons taught in school and the diverse environments in schools, (although segregated schools and schools with few ethnic students exist I choose to focus on the schools that are more diverse).

Salvation from Poverty

In several super teacher films we see young kids coming from impoverished neighborhoods, who just want to get through school or get through life, but then a teacher comes along who can inspire their students to do well in school and succeed. In these movies the students are given lessons in their subject matter but they're also given useful practical information. In "Dangerous Minds" the teacher teaches her students Karate, in "To Sir, With Love" the teacher teaches his students how to act properly, practice good hygiene and cook. Each of these skills can help the students survive on their own. On top of survival skills these students are taught conventional subjects in a new and interesting way that helps them in life. In "Stand and Deliver" the teacher has his class take the AP calculus exams which give them a head start in college and give these kids an actual chance at going to college.

Salvation from racism

Schools are good places to meet people, as a student every other student is your peer and you can relate to all of them on the most basic level because they share teachers or have the same interests etc. Public schools especially help students to see other people and, if the school is in a good area, other cultures and races. The best way to get rid of racism is to interact peacefully with people of other races. In "Freedom Writers" the teacher has her students sit next to people of other races to integrate them on a personal level. While schools don't have to be so blatant or literal in their integration, the way classes are designed, people of different races should be interacting, educating those students about those other races.

Salvation from Ignorance

In these films schools are meant to teach kids about the world, but have gotten caught up in grades or have small budgets etc. and have strayed from that goal. When the teacher comes in they re-establish the true goal of schooling, to reveal the truth to the students. In "Freedom Writers" the teacher tells her students about the Nazis and the Holocaust, the students have no idea that the Nazis ever existed and deny that they existed. However towards the end of the movie the teacher dispels these doubts and educates her students about the civil rights movement and opens their minds to history and popular literature. This is an example of how schools can get rid of ignorance, by teaching students what they need to know to function in society, things like history, knowing how we got to where we are as a country and as a people. Schools teach facts that allow students to hold their own in conversation and understand why things are the way they are.

Conclusion

The right schools and the right teachers can salvage students from poverty, ignorance and racism through education and forced integration. I emphasize the word right, because not every school is ethnically diverse and not every school will have teachers that can give students the information they need to survive. That being said, I think the system itself works and there are many examples of people who have become successful and evaded poverty by working through the school system. While schools have their problems, like the oppression of students or mandatory curriculums, these things are needed. Students need to learn obedience and discipline to function in society and a mandatory curriculum helps students to learn things and possibly find subject they love that they wouldn't have studied on their own if given a choice in their curriculum. Institutionalized schooling should be experimented with, but the system works, and functions as a form of salvation for some students.

HW 50: Reading/Interview Responses

J.T. Gatto's "6 lessons"

Gatto's six lessons describe traditional schooling in an ironic manner, addressing issues like grading and strict hierarchies in school systems and robbing children of their individuality through institutionalized schooling. He expresses the main flaws of institutionalized schooling in his 6 lessons. His first lesson talks about obedience and attendance and how children are assigned to a class and must stay there regardless of weather or not they're actually learning anything or if that class is relevant to them. The second lesson talks about treating school like a state of mind and not a learning experience, the student "turns on" like a robot, takes notes, studies and repeats the next day. The third is about submission to the institution, the fourth talks about the students inability to choose their own curriculum. Lesson five and six talk about grading and surveillance respectively.

I agree mostly with the subtext of these lessons. Because they are written so ironically you can tell that J.T. Gatto means the exact opposite of these lessons. I agree that students should see school as a learning experience and choose curriculums that are relevant to their lives and that they should learn for the sake of learning and not just for grades or test scores etc. However school is also meant to teach obedience and behavior, in an ideal school system the students would be watched and taught to behave so that in the real world they'll conduct themselves properly and actually be able to get jobs and function in society, since obedience is a major part of the corporate world these lessons in behavior can't be ignored. I disagree with grading as well, but I have yet to see an alternative system that works on a large scale, it's difficult for colleges to interview every student who applies so grades are a must to see if students do their work, while a number isn't an exact representation of a student its logistically impossible for schools and businesses to get to know all their applicants personally.

Paulo Freire "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"

Pedagogy of the oppressed literally means, how the oppressed are taught. this text talks about how people are educated for oppression, from the day we're 3 years old in preschool to our college years, we're being bread to work for "the man". This is done through vague explanation of material and through obedience training. one example that Paulo Freire gives is how capitals are taught. "The capital of Para is Belem", the student knows the basic fact but they don't understand what a capital really is, and without that specific knowledge they can't really pursue a career in politics if they don't understand what a capital truly is and how their country is divided and why. The schools are designed to teach just enough that the students can get jobs and work for the rich people, but the lessons are so vague that the information learned can only be used used in a specific environment, the information can only be used as an employee, not the employer. This in turn creates less competition for businessmen who went to fancy, expensive schools and actually know what the information is and how to use it.

This model seems very convincing, however this system is mostly geared towards the education in South America (not to say it doesn't apply at all to the US), where there is less room for radical education and opportunity. In America it's possible to do well in school and get to go to good colleges that will teach the proper use of information. However this may just be my own personal narrow mindedness towards the way the majority of schools are set up in the US. In the south it's probably harder to get an alternative education and learn to use information learned in school to get a more successful career than a small business owner unless the student is born with connections and money.

Lisa Delpit "Power and Pedagogy"

Lisa Delpit talks about how black students don't do as well in school as white students do because they come from a slightly different culture than "the culture in power". "The culture in power" is the dominant culture of an institution or society. Most schools are based on middle to upper class cultures so the customs of lower class cultures are frowned upon, and students coming from these cultures have a lower rate of success. Because a large chunk of black students come from poverty they don;t belong to the culture of power, because of their culture they speak in ebonics and have a certain behavior representative of their culture. Having distinct cultural mannerisms is fine, but when it comes to getting a job or succeeding in school the student must emulate the mannerisms of the culture in power. Its hard for most black students to succeed in school because they talk in ebonics and harbor certain cultural traits that are frowned upon by the culture in power.

I agree with this theory, the way society is set up people from different cultures have to pretend to be a part of the culture in power. However this presents a problem, how do students succeed in school without losing their cultural heritage? If a black man speaks in proper english and wears a suit and tie and gets to work on time he's now an "oreo", black on the outside, white on the inside. The culture of power dynamic creates a binary opposition, white culture equals success and black culture equals failure. Because of the way society is set up it's impossible for black people to succeed in the business world without giving up their culture.

Interview with Mr Fanning

In the interview Mr Fanning gave his own personal philosophy on teaching and education. In the interview he said that "an education is the greatest gift you can get", indicating he has a very optimistic outlook on education. The goal of education is to "level out the playing field between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'" according to him. and using education as an equalizer he wants all of us to go to college eventually and become "life-long-learners".

I agree with Mr Fanning's goal and intent, however I don't think that every student will be able to accomplish this goal (I don't think he realistically thinks this either). Our school has an impressive college acceptance rate meaning that part of his goal is accomplished each year. However I don't think that every student will become a life-long-learner or have a passion for what they're learning, although some will in college or already have at SOF. The reason why students may not cultivate a passion for certain subject in SOF or in any school is because the subject is taught on its own. In my personal experience a concept or subject is far more interesting when it has relevance to the students life or when it connects to another subject. The reason why this is interesting is because the student gets to see that the subjects you learn in school are actually little pieces of a larger picture and that history and literature and math and science aren't gated off in their own separate domains, but that they're actually all connected to each other and to your own life and to the world.

HW 49: Film Analysis

Esther's "super teacher" movie was interesting and realistic. It explored the super teacher as a fantasy, and realistically students aren't so easily inspired and their problems can't be fixed with poetry. The teacher fantasizes about a disruptive class where he teaches them about poetry and exposes their inability to communicate naturally. In this scenario the teacher teaches the students about poetry and exposes a flaw in their lifestyle, truly educating them. However in reality the teacher is really just a drunk who teaches a group of well behaved, but uninterested kids. The fantasy of the teacher is to take the worst possible group of kids and turn them into educated adults, subconsciously showing his excellence as a teacher.

In the other films most of the teachers actually had a class full of uneducated and misbehaved kids. The teachers did however, use these kids to solve their own problems. In "Freedom Writers" the teacher uses her students to get over the fact that she can't have a child with her husband and treats her students as surrogate children, in "Hamlet 2" the teacher uses his students as a way to make up for his failed acting career. In each of these movies the teacher-student relationship is romanticized by showing that there is learning on both sides, the students affect the teachers and the teachers affect the students.

I also noticed in Esther's film that the students in the real life scene suffered from a lack of interest and not a lack of obedience or discipline. this idea isn't addressed in many other films but is vaguely addressed in "Dead Poets Society". The students are very obedient and well behaved but they lack the passion for learning and the passion for poetry. In the fantasy and in "Dead Poets Society", all it takes is a charismatic and passionate teacher. However the one realistic quality that both of these movie's have is inspiring the students through learning real world applications. The teacher in Esther's film exposes the student's flawed lifestyle, teaching them that through poetry you can improve your life. In "Dead Poets Society" the teacher reveals life lessons to his students through poetry.

These films reveal several things about education. For one, teachers see students as a way to feel important and valuable in society, the students have an impact on the teacher as well as the student having an impact on the students (if any). Realistically there may be no impact on either side, but it is important to note that these life lessons are learned by teachers and students alike. Secondly, teachers have a certain expectation from their students, in Esther's video the teacher wanted a disruptive class to tame, so he could feel good about himself. The teacher expects a certain class and teaches them based on their perception of that class, it's important to consider the goal of the teacher and what they want their students to learn and what they think their students need. One realistic aspect of these movies is the super teacher connecting the student's subject to their own lives, in my own experience I feel more willing to do school work when it is convincingly applied to an aspect of my own life.

HW 47: Film Ideas

1-Challenging the "leader" of the class: In each of these movies the class has a leader of some sort and for the super-teacher to gain their respect they must first gain the respect of their leader by beating them at their own game, understanding where they come from and why they act the way they do, or showing them the respect that no one else in their lives have shown them.

2-Using visuals and metaphors that the students can understand: the kids in these movies will have a hard, in our film we could connect the subject to the students life. As a parody this could be relating math to drug dealing and drive-by shootings or if we do a serious movie this could involve using simple physical objects to illustrate an abstract concept, much like the apples used in "Stand and Deliver".

3-Teaching non-traditional subjects or ideas: In "Dangerous Minds" the teacher taught her students karate and in "To Sir, with Love" Sidney Poitier taught his students cooking and many different subjects that aren't traditionally taught in core classes. In our movie we have to have some sort of subject like this to show that the teacher wants their students to survive or enjoy life. The teacher needs to give their students practical skills outside of the core classes

4-Going against curriculum: The teacher needs to reject some sort of standardized text book or a certain way of teaching to show that they have more faith in their students than the school board does, showing the teachers ability to see potential in their students.

5-A rival Honors class: Having the teacher make their students smarter than the honors class will show how great they are, that they can take ghetto ignorant kids and make them smarter than the rich intelligent kids. The honors class must have an average teacher to show that the students are easily manageable by comparison and to show that the main teacher is above average.

6-A test/performance: To truly show that the kids have learned they have to take some big scary test to show how much they've learned. This can literally be a test that they take that every one thinks they're too stupid for or participate in a science fair, play, art exhibition, whatever. As long as everyone doubts the students whatever test they take will work. Weather or not they pass or fail depends on how realistic the movie is going to be, failure might be a good idea for a parody.

7-Teacher Sub-plot: We need to see what the teacher is like outside the classroom, in serious movies the teacher still thinks about their students showing that they care about them and sincerely want to make a difference in their lives. A funny idea for a parody might be to have the teacher completely forget about what happens at school and live a completely separate life showing they don't care about their students.

8-Field Trip: This shows the students the outside world and their possible future, this shows the kids that they can leave their homes and go somewhere better. In serious movies this will show the students possible careers they could have if they go to an office building or science lab, in a parody the teacher might take their students to a meth lab or jail to show them their possible future. Or the teacher would take them to those places to discourage that future and educate them about how horrible those places are, tone is a major factor in deciding how those places are viewed