hw 51 paper

School. We have all been there at some point in our lives. It has been something that we are forced to do and we are expected to do well with no problems, a bit of struggling, but thats it. What i was wondering is why school has to be such a threatening place to be at. We spend most of our lives at school learning about life. In certain places though, schools is a scary place. If you fail in school, u basically are starting on ur failing life. Why do schools have to threaten students with failure or with exams?

This question madwe me think about the school that i go to. usually we are not given test, unless we act bad, but is that really a beneficial strategy for a teacher to use. In my book "What are my rights?" there is a section in which the author speaks about school and how long someone has to go ands what happens if they do not go. The thing that did not stand out to me was how the author put a statistic chart showing salaries of muliple classes of people. You had the high school graduate, the college graduate , and the person who didnt graduate high school. The stats showed that these people who didnt graduate high school earned an average of 16,000 dollars per year, and that was for the male population of non highschool grads. The number for wonen was lower by about 5,000 dollars. This makes me think about the reasons why they couldnt graduate school. Did these people feel threatend to do good, and as soon as they began to fail, did they just give up? I think there is a fear factor in school that everyone goes through. In highschool this is very popular, and also high school is the place where people usually do drugs and experiment, is that how they can cope with their stress in school and in their outside lives? I think it is and it is an epidemic in America in which kids are getting lazier as there are advances ini the ways we live. Like what John Fanning stated about how soon schools won't need to be arounds, because of the computer age. This can relate to the idea of going to school and being miserable there, or taking classes online. The benefit for some kids is that school provides a social zone. This is common with about 99 percent of kids. But what an online school does, is that it creates a threat, and stress free area in which you learn in the comfortability of your own home.

In the book, there was an interesting facrt that stood out to me. It was this statement that in a colorado school, a person who wants to drop out has to sign a paper stating that they will not have the necessary skils to survive in the 21st century. This was crazy, but the crazy thing was that most kids dont sign this and their parents also have to be with them to. I think this is thew biggest threat. The school saying that you will not survive in the 21st century is kind of pushing the limit. There may be some times where you may struggle but will you be happier in the long run. Why do we have to live the way that is traditional and the way that everyone expects? it is like we are not living our own lives but the lives of people around us. The main part of this was that the kids dont sign it, but instead they take counseling in school to cope with passing and doing good. This threat in which basically tells you to sign your future away, was very interesting.

schools are always forcing us to do things and we have to learn these things or we wont be successful. This brings me to lisa delpit's point in that kids will probably be more involved if school was about the kids showing their artistic creativity. This would make schools more of a want for kids, instead of a need. Schools as an institution are sort of psycological rollercoasters that make you think and be scared, is this what the masterminds of controlling schools want to acheive. As long as we graduate, it doesnt matter how that school affected us. The threat of not survivng without at least a high school degree is very scary, especially now that everything is getting expensive and it is harder to live. soon it will be hard to survive unless you have a college degree, and not a jopb, but a career. I feel threats everyday i go to school. Its either i do good and get out of school on time, or i fail, and where failure will mean me being looked down on, i have no choice but to be miserable, as long as i pass, its all good

hw 50 readings

Gatto reading

I feel that Gatto and his ideas on school are very interesting. I think that i would actually like school more if there were more people who thought like Gatto did. Schools shouldn't be awful places, they should be interesting and keep u awake. The ways that gatto decides to teach may be able to keep more people interested in school while learning about the outside world around them. Gatto says that schools sort of trap a students mind and sort of their ability to be free in the world.

Freire reading

This was a bit hard to interpret but i think the clearest part was the part where he talks about how the teacher is the one in control. They know everything. He sort of relates his theories to the banking ideas and the way how we are what the teachers are depositing and to me that is like the teacher teaching us, to deposit means that we are sort of being put into situations and we need to sort of live in these situations until the the teacher takes us out

Delpit reading

Delpit sort of only approaches the African American society in schools. She focuses on kids who are less fortunate than the other people that surround them in school. I agree with her that by giving a student a test, you are not seeing their brilliance. A test is sort of an intimidating factor in which it is suppose to make you memorize things within a certain time frame, and then you have to dig it back up and apply it to what you are being asked to do. she feels that a great way to see brilliance is to let the children show you their creativity. Using the arts to show that a person really is smart and they just show it n a situation that they are comfortable with.

Mr Fanning

Fanning said that computers and the age of technology is making it tougher to keep kids interested. What really struck me as interesting was how he said that this computer age is taking away books and that he was told that liberal arts isn't important. Also how he said that computers are organized in a way in which you are not focused on reading one thing, but there are readings all over the screen and that is why we struggle to read texts when they are placed in front of us. Also how there may not be anymore schools in about 20 years because this computer age will eliminate schools so that you can get your degrees at home. He also said that we do not respect our education and everything that we are taught and we take it for granted. He said that liberal arts is the foundation to learning which i agree on because liberal arts is sort of the beginning to where we begin to deepen our understanding of the world.

hw 49

A. My personal contribution to the film was to be an extra and act all excited for the first day of school. i felt like the little parts that i probably will show up in, hopefully they will be good.

B. The message that i got from my section's movie was that even the authority figures have flaws and that sometimes the savior needs to be saved. I felt like our script was really a depressed script, considering that the savior was a drug addict who needed help to control his life. I felt like this was a depressing film.

C. My section's film could compare to the ones that we watched becuase, in a majority of these movies there is a savior. There is also a class full of kids wanting a change, or at least acting like they want a change. The big contrast was how the teacher was the weak one in this situation and there was only about one movie that i remember seeing that was like this, and that was Hamlet 2. This was similar to my movie because we both showed the authority figure as a mess, someone who was lost, and their only guidance came from their jobs, teaching kids. Whether that was from teaaching kids theater or philosophy.

D. I find this idea of salvation and schooling very interesting because it really depicts what we are like. We all think that wer want change, is it us who want that change or is it our parents trying to get that change so they can feel better about what their situation was like. Why is it that the place that many kids hate most, is the place where they are suppose to succeed in? This idea of finding a savior in school is very crazy to me because its like we really have no other people to help us out. we are always going to be alone and really when we are young, this is our chance to find that one persone that will help you out with what you are going through, its stange how schools always have that one person who majority of kids find as a savior. I guess it has something to do with relating to that person on a mental level, if you can impact that child with a story, then you have become like their guardian away from home, the little voice in their head saying, "well what would my teacher think about this?" I think these savior teachers are like programs in our heads that can run our lives. Our minds literally belong to our saviors at least for a part of our days, and maybe for a majority of our lives. Just like my 5th grade teacher was my savior. For little things like that she was spanish so i guess my mom and her could relate. She has seen crazy things throughout her life, so i guess by my teacher thelling my mom her storuies, she sort of became her savior and eventually mine. Was that why i bout the gift for her when i graduated? Was that my appreciation to her for shaping me up to live in this world. I really still try and make my 5th grade teacher proud iof me, even if i havent seen her in like 11 years, i sort of feel that if she was my savior, i have to succeed and be someone elses savior, or i will fail.

hw 48 treatment for savior/ teacher movie

A good way to start would sort of be like:
a security guard walks teacher up to his class in which nothing is ordinary and these kids are just drained from skool because their libes have gotten to a point where its time to think on their own and not follow what everyone expects of u. so the teacher walks in and is greeted by the sounds of multiple conversations bubbling up. There are papers being tossed around to most students. teacher sits down and has some inner thoughts and then realizes that he needs to impact these kids with some wise words, because he knows that these kids are going to mold the future. teacher stands up to the alphas in the class and realizes that what thes kids needed was some guidance and that setting their minds free was the key to living happier lives

another way to treat the film:
the teacher is introduced to the wrong class and the class he goes into is very obedient. he demands that they take out their notebooks and assures them that by june, he will have made them see the world differently. the teacher grew up in a rough area, he sees the kids who all look different, some come from upper classes while others are surviving on the edge, recognizing the class barrier he decides that everyone in his class is determined as one, under his reign. so he ha total control of the class and they realize that he is a smart person but something is wrong with him. Now before the teacher can hide his past, the students uncover it an shape his future.

there can also be a treatment like:
the kids are segregated into various groups and there is really no one who trust anyone in their class. the race barrier and the economic barrier becomes a major problem in his class and people begin to become victims to insults because they think they are better than most others. the teacher comes in with a very powerful story to tell the class and the students begin to realize that they have ben paying attention to the minor details in life and have not yet seen the big picture which is reveiled near yhe end of the movie. the teacher saves some students while becomin envied by others, because these kids wish they could speak the way that the teacher did. ther is a big fight and some students get the idea that, maybe the teacher is a bad influence on the students for being too outspoken and causing problems within classes.

these are just some treatment ideas for the movie that i have thought of.

hw 47 class film preparation

5-10 ideas
1- i think a good idea would be to have an alpha male or female in the class, as it shows authority and a threat to the teacher.
2- the classroom should be very disorganized and not attentive to instructions at all. maybe to even have people who arent in the xlass come in and sit down, while other kids leave the class to hang out somewhere else
3- i think also having a smart person in the class will also be good because it shows that the person wants to succeed, but when put in the situation of chaos, their voice cannot be heard, and their talent cannot be seen.
4- the teacher should show dominance about halfway through the class, either by yelling, or even sitting down with the students to make the feel akward and quiet down to see if the teacher will explain what he just did
5- have some people who never listen and who walk out when they please, because their social life is more important, maybe having someone say eva's line from freedom writers
6- ultimately we should have the alpha male be broken down and admit that they want change in their life, but people expect them to maintain their way of life because that is how they have been portraying themselves for so long
7- ultimately i think the teacher should have a mini speech about what school and their lives have to do with eachother and finally the teacher is listened to and has become these student's savior.

hw 46 research and writing

2. my book is called "what are my rights?" it is a book all about the individual and what the law says and how we are suppose to obey and stuff. the part i was focused on was the part about schools. mainly how many kids dont like school but go anyways because of fears of what will happen in the future and that schools can use techniques of threatening students in a way to make them think twice about doing bad. the passage that stuck out to me most wast the part about ditching school and what happens if you do. the main idea of this section is to infotm the reader about the consequences of ditching school. one page includes a whole chart of salaries of a highschool graduate and of a droput, also with someone who went to a 2 year or a 4 year college. Ultimately it is telling the reader that school will benefit and basically rule what you are capable in doing in life. If you choose to dropout you will not have many positive things in your like and will have to stuggle. If you go through with school, you will have a great sucessfull life. One passage that stuck out to me was when the author added a side note about what happens in a colorado school if you decide to dropout. the passage says, " the school requires the student and his or her parents to sighn a certificate that says: " the undersigned student an guardian accept full responsibility for the listed student being a high school dropout. By signing this disclaimer, i realize that i will not have the necessary skills to survive in the twenty-first century." Most students choose to remain in school and participate in counseling or tutoring programs."
3. This was very interesting to me and it related to my topic, because when the students see that it says they may not be able to survive in the 21st century, they get scared and think of what the future will be like, so schools are sort of like a psycological institution as well. this will relate great to my topic as i can further my understanding of how schools and the people running schools are controlling our lives to a point that once they let us free, we are suppose to continue on a postive path and run society, but we threaten the people who don't do good, as we higher powers can determine the paths of our lives if we didn't attend schools, and how it scares us into staying in school and maintaining excellence.
4. this text can also relate to my topic based on the graph that is given depicting salaries and how people vary depending on how long we went to school for. I noticed that for a persom who has less than a 9th grade education, their salaries aren't even over 20,000 dollars, and for females it is less that 13,000 dollars. now these stats are from 1994 so i'm guessing they are paid a bit higher. Compared to someone who went to a 4 year college and obtaining double or triple the salary of someone below high school knowledge. These stats weren't surprising to me as of course someone with a higher education will get paid more because they have more skills, but someone with below 9th grade education can't survive a whole year, and can barely have any wants or any pleasures in their lives. obviously the threat of dropping out of school back then was way weaker than now a days where it is forced upon us to go to college and become something, or we are viewed as lower and looked down upon by friends and even family.