Why I hate school, but love education

After watching the above entitled video I found it informational, entertaining and interesting. It makes you think. All the people mentioned in the video were or are among the most successful people in the world. The thing they have in common other than being extremely successful is that they did not graduate from college. College is not a prerequisite to being successful. College is a vehicle that helps prepare your mind to think outside the box. It gets you ready for the hard work required in the outside world to be successful. Being educated does not mean you obtained a college degree, but rather means you have common sense, have a strong work ethic, are motivated and are able to think for yourself. "It does a fool no good to spend money on an education, why because he has no common sense." If you are not a self starter and possess some level of intelligence you will not succeed. "Redefine how you view education, understand it's true meaning." I define being educated as learning things that you will help you going forward in life. In school we learn about a variety of subjects, some of which are not going to be used in everyday living. We need to figure out what is important to us and focus our knowledge in a particular area. "Now I'm not saying school is evil and there's nothing to gain, all I'm saying is understand your motives and reassess your aims." We have to understand what is important to us, where our passion lies. If you're are passionate about something it will not seem like work or a chore. You will be fully invested in it because it has the attention of your mind, body and soul. I agree with the title of the video. I personally do not enjoy school very much, never have. I do however enjoy learning about new things that I find interesting.

Why I Hate School But Love Education||Spoken Word

Kicking remediation out of universities

In the book Why School it asks the question if we should eliminate remediation out of universities. It is the argument of some that high school should have you prepared for college.  While ultimately that would be the ideal situation in a perfect world, we do not live in a perfect world. I feel remediation is essential for a large segment of the students attending universities. College is an extension of high school, it is just a place of higher learning. In order to get to that place you need to have a solid foundation. That is where remediation comes in. It's purpose is to refresh and lay the basic groundwork so that you can proceed forward. If there was no remediation in college I truly believe the graduation rates while dismal now would be astronomically low if remediation was not offered in universities. If there was no remediation immigrants and older people trying to go to school would be at a huge disadvantage. I know for me it is essential as I had been out of school for twenty years. That is a long time to be away from school. There is a lot of things you forget over the years. Things you do not use in everyday life. Harvard's faculty "lamented the spending of much time, energy and money" teaching students "what they ought to have learnt already." If that was the opinion of the educational system we would be in a far worse predicament than we are now. Schools are essential for getting people ready to enter the workplace. It is where you learn how to become a responsible individual and become a successful contributor to society. It is how we become successful and competitive with the rest of the world. Already we are falling behind other countries in education. We can not afford to fall any further behind. "It is a terrible thing that so many students, especially those from poorer backgrounds come to college unprepared." Remediation is essential for these types of students to succeed. If there were no remedial courses offered I believe the amount of people attending schools would drop exponentially and the crime rate and poverty levels would rise dramatically.

Focusing the lasers

When it comes to what category I fall into as far as a student I would say traveler. I really do not know what I want to do. I am taking general educations classes until I get a better understanding of what I want to focus on as far as my pathway. I need to find something that I am passionate about and that I can make a living it. I met with a counselor about the classes that I should be taking. I originally thought I wanted to do something in the computer field, but after learning about all the math that I would need I decided that it would probably not be a good fit for me. I am not as proficient in math as I would like and do not enjoy it. Right now I am thinking about focusing on business. I am not sure if that will be the path that I will eventually follow. I also feel like I am also a seeker. I look for classes that will meet graduation requirements, but also want to take something that I have an interest in. It's real hard to keep your focus and stay motivated if you're not interested in the subject matter. I'm ok with categorizing myself a traveler and a seeker. The reason I am ok with that is I am working on getting to a place where I ultimately would like to transition into a laser. I decided four semesters ago that I needed to go back to school after twenty years. I hope the further I get in my educational pursuit that it will become clearer to me of what I would like to do. Each students story is different from one another. That's why there are so many categories one could define themselves as. Me being 39 I feel like it's now or never for me. I have never enjoyed school, but realize that in order to better my life it is something that I need to do. I think the educational institution and the student have to take some responsibility in the part they have played in where the student is in their lives. I think the majority of the responsibility lies with the student, it ultimately is their lives and future at stake. I do however think that school as an institution can do a better job of reaching students by finding out more about the individual and finding out about how they best learn and where their interests lie.

Jeff Duncan-Andrade

After watching the video of Jeff Duncan Andrade speaking about our education system I came away impressed. He brought up a lot of interesting points that make you think. I agree with him when he says the education system is designed to do what it's supposed to do. He mentions how the institution known as school has taught the same way his whole life, but in the mean time computers have been introduced to our society and gotten more advanced, but we are still learning the same old way. We are not connecting with the youth and making them want to learn the material. Schools are presenting the material in a straight forward bland manner that does not touch the students therefore making it hard for them to become engaged in the learning process. We are failing the next generation of adults because we are not taking the time to find out about the individual. We are not creating the curriculum around the students, rather we are trying to force feed the students information that they are not passion about. We need to integrate the material in a way that the student feels like the things that they are being taught have some kind of relevance in their lives. If a student has a vested interest in a topic they will participate in discussions and have opinions that they can bring to the table. If they have no interest they will not hear what the instructor is trying to get across. I like his example about giving a kid a phone. They will play around with it until they have mastered everything about it. The reason is because they are passionate about learning something that they feel is going to be of use to them. A lot of times children become bored in school because it's hard to stay focused at that age. You need to capture their attention by teaching in unconventional ways, not just by reading from textbooks, but by giving them real world examples such as current events that are or could be impacting their lives. Children should learn about the past, but a lot of things that are taught are irrelevant today. We should be talking about issues from the recent past and things that are happening in the world today. Jeff Andrade Duncan talks about how we carry cell phones on us that contain all the knowledge that we could ever want to know in seconds. In the meantime we are still teaching students in an old antiquated way. He mentions a quote from Einstein in which he says the definition of "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." What he is saying by this is we need to change how our schools operate fundamentally. They have to adjust their way of teaching to better serve the students that they are trying to reach.

Succeeding in the community

When an individual achieves success they usually have had someone help them get to that place. We all could use help from time to time. A successful person will be someone who is usually a self starter. You need to be motivated in order to get things accomplished. Family can also help you along your way to success by being supportive of you through the good and bad times. We all could use someone to lean on. Religion can play a role in one's success. Living your life in a decent manner and having faith will prove useful to you especially during trying times. Being able to travel, be it by car or mass transit will also help you succeed in your community. Having the means to travel outside your community will open up yourself to many more job opportunities and life experiences. If you were relegated to staying in your same neighborhood your whole existence it would be hard for you to succeed and grow as a person. Things that hinder you from succeeding in your community would be poverty, crime and no programs in place to show you a way out. Poverty leads to desperation which leads to crime. If you look at high crime areas, they are places where money is hard to come by and people are struggling to put food on the table. Being successful in your community is about being a good role model for the youth of today. Children learn by watching the example adults set for them. In that regard children are like sponges. Whatever you put out there is what the child will absorb. If you are setting a good example, chances are they will follow in a similar path. If your life is filled with negativity it filters down to the people of your community. We need to all strive to be better citizens and take a more active role in our communities. That is the only way we can truly succeed.

Surfacing with a dream

After watching the movie Surfacing with a dream I believe in the value that ESL classes bring to the community. It provides immigrants the necessary tools to improve their understanding of the English language. These immigrants are trying to improve their lives and those of their family by getting the instruction needed to be able to communicate on a basic level. They are able to get this help from the teachers, tutors and other students attending the class with them. If they are going to live here it is very important that they learn the language. Learning English will open many more opportunities for them.
They will have more confidence if they know what other people are saying to them. When you don't understand a language someone is speaking in front of you it can lead to paranoia that they are talking about you. Teaching people English in ESL classes is important so that they become more involved in the community that they live in. Seeing how much the teachers believe in the ESL program and how students spoke in glowing terms of the class shows it's importance in community college. Some students in the movie wanted to learn English so that they could communicate with their child's teacher. Even though this isn't the mission of the college it is beneficial because this will enable the parent to understand better what help the child may need. ESL is very important in community college because it will prepare people to be more productive citizens in their community. It will let them understand what is going on around them.

Am I successful?

Am I successful? What defines success? I am successful in that I am surviving everyday. Success to me means excelling in life. I am not where I would like to be, but I am working hard to get there everyday. I could be in a lot worse place. That's one of the reasons I decided to go back to school after graduating 20 years ago. I felt that I needed to improve my education in order to compete with other people for jobs.
Success is when you are good at what you do. Successful people are people who take chances in life. That is the only way to advance forward. You will fail in most things that you attempt, but the important thing is to keep going and not give up. Perseverance is the key to success.  If inventors stopped the first time that they had a great idea that didn't work imagine how different the world would be. It is only through repeated trial and error that they eventually find the right formula. Being successful means being at a place where you are content.

I found the movie Passion Project an interesting and informative film. It talks about the things that make you want to learn and grow as a person. The things that drive you and give meaning to your life. Without passion life would be a long boring journey.Tiffany from the movie says "It's something that drives you, that excites you, makes you feel good." To me something that you're passionate about is something that you are fully committed to physically, emotionally and spiritually. It's something that you put your whole heart into.

The movie spoke to me because it was from other students perspectives. Everybody is a unique individual and has different interests and things that are important to them. It is these interests that make you feel good and enjoy life. You have to find out what makes you happy in this life. What's your purpose of being on this earth? Without passion we are like rudderless ships lost at sea with no direction. Passion is what gives us purpose and a direction to follow. A lot of people get into a career because they want to make a nice living . While it is important to make a nice living being passionate about what you're doing is much more fulfilling.
It will make you want to get up in the morning to go to work and not just for the paycheck. Passion gives you great satisfaction. Karina says"They'd rather me be a nurse because they get money or they're in high demand or something and I don't wanna do that." If Karina were to follow her parent's wishes for her she would likely be unhappy. She needs to find that thing that burns deep inside her and put her energy into whatever that is.

Students want to learn. That's why we decided to come to college. We are trying to better ourselves and our outlook in life. Life is hard. You never know what it has in store for you. You could have everything mapped out and it will not go the way you had envisioned. There will be bumps in the road and obstacles to overcome. Having passion gives you focus. It's kind of like having tunnel vision where nothing else matters except for what you are driving towards. It is the job of teachers to make learning fun. If a teacher believes in what they are teaching and have a zest for it, it will come across in the energy that is given off to the students. The students in turn absorb that energy. It makes them become more interested in what they are being taught and more involved in the learning process. Ray says "a great teacher is always like a student because they're always learning so they're always learning new and better ways to do something." If we knew everything there was to know that would be boring. We are constantly striving to learn more. We are learning from the time we are born to the time when we take our last breath.