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