Hello Everyone!
I thought that enough time has passed since my last post, that you would be wondering how I am doing in the whirlwind of life that is happening around us right. Well, I am loving every minute of it. As Elder Hales said in priesthood session tonight, "this is the decade of decision," referring to everyones' decade between 20 and 30 years of age. Clark is pretty much my newest bestest friend(is bestest a word?), Jan is the most beautifulest wife ever and in about a hundred years I will be the bestest doctor that I can be. I actually heard that each year of medical school is actually ten . . . no joke. Just by the time that you are finishing, it is time to retire. Oh, I shouldn't poke fun at myself. I am actually quite excited to be able to be at this point in my life and I am glad that I am making decisions today that will influence who I will become for the rest of my life. If high school graduation was was supposed to be exciting, I have to say that becoming a father, being married to a wonderful girl and finishing undergraduate school to move onto a career, makes high school look like it was graduating from kindergarten. Why do we put so much emphasis on high school graduation? Had I been smart, I actually would have studied and learned everything I could have in high school, rather, I thought I knew just about everything there was to know in life. If anyone pointed ever pointed something out to me that I didn't know, I was pretty sure that I knew that too. Anyway, point being I could have learned a lot in high school when my brain was an actual sponge for knowledge. Instead I filled it with lyrics to songs that were unbecoming of anyone and thoughts of how cool I and my friends were. Now, I sit and look at diagrams and flow charts of information and kick myself for not being a better student in high school. Every high school kid could ace the ACT/SAT if they would actually study (by study I don't mean look at some book while your favorite new band, that your parents discovered twenty years ago, is playing). Then they might get a great scholarship and could be on the fast track to success. But that wouldn't be fun and you have to have fun your senior year. I think that as the up and coming generation, we could really have an impact on the education system. I think that it is evident that a lot of people aren't pleased with the current mass education system. Just take a look at all of the charter schools that have sprung up in the last few years. Big change is on the horizon. I think that with all of the emphasis that there is from prominent church leaders to get all of the education and training we can, ie the prophet, we need to start thinking about what we can do to better facilitate teaching our children. Sure kids need to be kids, but I think that we need to bring it back more to the middle. You know that change needs to happen when one of the best teachers you know doesn't want to be a high school teacher after a short stint in a classroom because the kids do nothing but complain about having to learn. Now I am not advocating for the education system of other foreign schools, but what I am saying is that we need to do something, even if we aren't educators by profession. I had a guy tell me once that America is so far ahead of everyone else in the world as far as science and technology are concerned that no one could ever touch us. I hate to kick the legs deftly out from under your ill-informed argument bud, but it is readily apparent from your ridiculous argument that you haven't spent much time around a research lab have you? Lets put it this way, there aren't too many people with American passports in those research labs, at least not at my school, which brings in quite a few research dollars every year. Take a look at any scientific journal and see who is doing the publishing. This world is getting smaller and smaller and Americans are going to get pushed down real fast on the world playground, if people like my above citied friend don't take a look around and see that math and science are important and that we don't have a corner market on information. I had a Chinese professor who cranks out so many published papers in scientific journals, it would make your head spin and then you look across the hall at the number of papers that his colleagues have published and it makes one wonder if they have been doing anything at all. It takes a lot to get to the top, but it takes even more effort to stay there. Now what is the point to all of this argument? The point is this, we can't sit and think that our education system is superior and that our children will receive a superior education, because unless we do something about it, they may not. Give me a shout out and let me know what you think. I don't care if you agree with me or not, but what I do care about, is that you do think about it and do something to make a difference, because if we don't who will?
6 comments:
Ben,
Interesting post. I am going to leave a response on my blog because it will be a little long for the comments, but I do want to say a couple things right here.
First, you asked why we put so much emphasis on high school graduation? I believe we do because the generation of our parents had a lot fewer percentage of students graduate from high school than our generation does. Our teachers in High School and our parents want us to graduate because that is an attainable goal that we can reach if we just try a little bit.
Second, the teacher who does not want to teach after a short stint in the classroom is not alone. 50% of new teachers leave the profession within 5 years. However, I do take issue with the reason being, "I am sick of hearing kids complain about not wanting to learn." That is a flaw of the teacher. The teacher is required to teach certain things according to NCLB, but they have no requirement on HOW to teach things. There are plenty of other reasons that I can give as to why I would want to leave teaching (no support from administration, second-guessing by parents and other teachers and the administration, almost getting beat up by some of my students, low pay, little respect, and I could go on and on). These examples are just reasons I could. I think that teacher might be a little too idealistic to think that students will walk into the classroom and say, "I cannot wait to learn." You and I both know, we did not do what we should have in high school. What gives them incentive to change from what we did? They are not that much younger than us.
Third, Charter Schools. Charter schools may be popping up like popcorn in the microwave, but they also close relatively quickly (this is something that we have discussed in some of my classes, but not something that I have any references for. When I post on my blog about this, I will include references). The idea of people who are not educators being in charge of education is a very touchy subject to educators. Those who are down in the trenches working with the students usually have a very different view of how education needs to change...more on this later.
Fourth, Math and Science. Yes, we may be lower than others in math and science but there are reasons for that. We say, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." and we don't turn them away from public education. We have all those underachievers and those who hate school adding to our internationally reported test scores. In Japan, they excel in these subjects. That is great. Sadly, it leads to an inability to produce a creative thought. They know how to answer questions on a test correctly. Is that what we want? Nope. For an example, look at the Nobel Prize winners in the last 50 years. How many of them are from the glorified nations of China, Japan, Korea, and the others that are so much "better" than the US? In Physics, since 1960, There are ttwo from Japan (one that says, Japan/USA), and one from China/USA. Look at how many are from the USA: a lot more. I don't think we need to worry as much as test scores would lead us to believe.
I wish to say one thing in response to my own personal post and then in response to Jethro's well articulated comment, I am still waiting for his post on his own blog. First, I hope that no one is offended by my comments. I read a passage on the MCAT about how different cultures look at arguments. Some cultures (and I think that Americans are generally like this), tend to look at argument like war and you have to fight til the death to prove your point. Some other cultures tend to look at argument like a dance, where both partners are engaged in trying to make something beautiful come out of the interaction and its not about winning. I think that we need to shift our mind sets to the second type. I merely bring this up as a side, because I know that I don't have a corner market on understanding and knowledge of anything, let alone education. I believe that unless we come to see argument as an interaction that can be synergistic, we will never get anywhere in regards to gaining more knowledge and understanding.
Second, I think that Jethro brings up some interesting points. I think that he is right, if a teacher is too idealistic then they are just setting themselves up for failure. Moving on, had I needed to focus only on math and science in my early education I would have burned out a long time ago, luckliy I was introduced to ceramics and because of that I am a better person today, intellectually being included. However, I wish to further distill my thought of education--will we be able to continue to produce Nobel prizes and advancements in all fields if we continue on the same path and philosophy of education? Or does the current system need to be seriously looked at and revamped to allow for us, as a nation, to continue to be at the forefront of advancement in sciences of all types?
Think about what Jethro has said, because this man knows his stuff. He told me on Friday night that the reason he is in education is because he believes that he CAN make a difference. He has the right motivation. He is very intelligent and I think that we would all do well to learn from him.
The main goal of this post is to help us all come to a better understanding of just how important education is in our lives and what we can do to help it be even better. Once again, it should be a dance and not a war.
Yeah, Ben, I like dancing more than waging war.
I want to weigh in. I completed my degree in secondary education along with several of my friends and none of us have decided to pursue it further. At least for now. My one friend Kristin, who is one of the most intelligent and clever people that I know, just finished her student teaching and decided to go on to Grad school so she can teach at a higher level. I am heading in that direction as well. Its sad that so many of the most qualified and prepared teachers are being driven away--as Jethro noted--within the first five years. Most of my peers didn't even make it past student teaching.
So who is choosing to stay? Heros, like Jethro, and then people who really can't do much of anything else. I honestly don't want Clark to attend public school, after my experience seeing it from the teachers' perspective.
I think teachers need to challenge their kids to think higher thoughts, be more responsible and treat their education as an asset for their future. Like Ben said, we are being outpaced by countries all around us. If the rising generation doesn't take education seriously, we are going to be like the Brits, looking back on their glory days of the empire and world conquest, but now not even able to get a few hostages back from Iran.
They used to OWN Iran (at least, Iraq).
Anyway, this is rambling, but my recommendations are to: 1) make teaching a more competitive field, as in MORE MONEY. Make people want to be teachers. make it difficult to get in, so that it weeds out those who just can't do anything else. Then make the pay worth the effort. Teaching is HARD. It has its own benefits in seeing lives changed and lessons learned, but in the in-between times when it is just correcting papers and creating lectures and fun assignments, make the pay check worth the effort.
2) Demand respect and accountibility from our students school-wide. That is the hardest thing about student teaching--they are constantly comparing you to the cooperating teacher. And if you are harder (which I was--I didn't just pop in a movie every day) then they don't like you. Its exaggerated in that context, but throughout the school, teachers need to be more consistent in what they demand.
Okay, this is way too long. If you want to hear more, just call.
Jan
Wow. You guys are really smart. I would like to add a little bit too. First of all, all us Gillespies went to Timpview High School. It is known partly for its excellent academic course possibilities and amazing faculty. We all took the honors type classes and have done really well. I think that is only because we had parents who were in school the same time we were. Learning had a huge emphasis, and doing our best was expected. Public school is as good as we make it in the home. I don't think you need to worry about Clark going to public school because you two are life-long learners. He'll pick that up and do great things. As a recent high school graduate, I'm not sure why we put so much emphasis on it, it sure felt good to "complete" that project. I work as a tutor back at Timpview now where most of our students are minorities and on the free or reduced lunch list. The reason we accepted them into our program is that they will be first generation college students. Maybe high school graduation is more of an achievement if that's as far as you ever got. These students are, for the most part, still struggling to understand english let alone geometry or Nathaniel Hawthorne. Not being a part of the honors courses presents a completely different learning environment. One that I've only just begun to be exposed to. The education my students are taking is not as advanced as it could be, and I see that as a direct result of the example set by their parents. I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but most of their parents haven't made an effort to learn english either, how can their kids be expected to?
It's cool to see you and Jan so concerned about this all of a sudden, as if you've been thinking about the future Clark has to look forward to. He will do fantastic because he has fantastic parents to follow.
Beet, you are so smart. I guess public education isn't so bad. . . it worked for you.
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