homework 41

"Programme for International Student Assessment." Wikipedia. 19 February 2010. Web. .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment

This Wikipedia article is about a system and committee that only job is to send assessments to different fifteen year old students in different countries rating the countries education system. One really good quote from the article is at the end of the second paragraph in the section Framework "PISA claims to measure education's application to real-life problems and life-long learning (workforce knowledge)." This shows the importance of real-life problem solving skills in the consensus teaching method. also in the results section there is a list of ranks in the different sections over different years. Whats interesting is that Finland is at the top of list in every section. This page can be use to establish and defend the argument that school is just a major sorting/rating system. the teacher's rate the students, then the administrators rate and sort the classes, the local government then rates the schools, the the districts are sorted until eventually you reach a point where the countries as a whole are rated and sorted with each other. the entire education system is used as a mass rating and sorting of students, teachers, and nations.

"Realschule." Wikipedia. 8 February 2010. Web. .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realschule

The German School system primarily the realschule system puts a strong emphasis on apprenticeship and working during school. At a younger age than in other countries students are given incentive's toward certain careers. there is a bigger scientific emphasis than humanities, the school system plays a big part in preparing students for their prospective careers. This information is probably good for the argument of school as a sorting machine. This can used to say that school sorts people by their education and from their influences the rest of their lives. Of course nothing is forced, no one is saying the student has to go into a job but it significantly influences their lives.

"America's Best High Schools: Gold Medal List." US News and World Report 09 dec. 2009: n. pag. Web. 23 Feb 2010. .

http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2009/12/09/americas-best-high-schools-gold-medal-list.html?PageNr=1

This link is to a article from US news and world report that lists all of the best high schools in the US it has a pretty long list of top high schools it includes Stuyvesant hs and American studies at Lehman along with some other top schools. What i think is extremely interesting in the article is the title "America's Best High Schools: Gold Medal List" to me the gold medal list seems pretty pretentious and narcissistic. I can imagine the principles of these schools using this list to either get more money from local, state, federal governments or trying to attract smarter students. another part of the article that is interesting but not surprising is that College Readiness is ranked and listed. This article can most likely be used in the argument that everything is ranked, and systematically put in qualitative order. This article extends the argument that education is a sorting mechanism from the idea that it sorts students to the idea that it sorts both students and teachers. It also can be used for the argument that school like so many aspects of life is epical the college readiness section shows how we look at school as just a steping stone to the college, work/career and eventually retirement.

"Deschooling." Wikipedia. 7 November 2009 . Web. .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deschooling

this page is on the theory of getting an education without school, its the argument that most people don't really learn what they should or anything at all its better to learn individually at ones own pace. In that system they will learn at their own ability and will learn what is necessary for their own lives. One quote from the article that i don't particularly agree with but is nevertheless interesting is "Another common criticism is that institutionalized schooling is used as a tool for the engineering of an ignoant, conformist working class through constant schedules and prearranged time blocks and one-size-fits-all teaching methods." This is basically saying that much of institutionalized school is used to create drone citizens that only follow what they are told. This article would be best utilized when talking about the different forms of education. Which is better the deschooling or the institutionalized schooling? Is homeschooling closer related to deschooling to regular school?

Rose, Mike. "Race to the Top of What? Education Is About More Than Jobs." TruthDig (Feb 18, 2010): n. pag. Web. 23 Feb 2010. .

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/race_to_the_top_of_what_education_is_about_more_than_jobs_20100218/

this link is to an article on simply why school is so important. What exactly is it about school that shapes no only us but our countries economic prosperity as well, but also why we must not think of school as strictly economic. The article also mentions the authors view on what the correct curriculum should be (end of paragraph 5). One of the best quotes in the article is "Students enjoy the protected social setting and the connections they establish with adults. Many people, young and not so young, discover a passion. Our worlds get bigger. School is one of the primary institutions where we define who we are." this quote encompasses what school does for the student, it teaches them skills both social and academic, allows them to develop passions and allows the world to evolve. This article can be used for a lot of arguments. It is littered with quotes on what school does for the average person, how it should be taught, and why school is so important. In terms of the argument for school as sorting machine the article somewhat mentions how school vocation schools and push students into directions for careers and jobs, helping decide where they will end up.

Brown, Robbie. "District May End N.C. Economic Diversity Program." New York Times 27 feb 2010: n. pag. Web. 1 Mar 2010. .

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/28raleigh.html?scp=1&sq=school%20busing&st=cse

this is an article from the New York Times on a school district in North Carolina that is going back and forth deciding whether or not to bus children around to different schools in attempt to achieve economic diversity. The article mentioned how in a recent election for education board member republicans won the open seats as a result of frustrated parents seeing their children going to bad schools. an interesting quote/stat in the article that defends school busing is "Across the country, research shows that students of all races and backgrounds perform better in diverse schools, said Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Diversified schools typically have higher graduation rates, more college acceptances and fewer students in the criminal justice system, Ms. Mickelson said." Unlike the anti-busing argument that it impedes on learning.

An article like this can be used to defend the argument that school is an institution that solely prepares students for the rest of their lives. the idea of school busing apparently not only creates good schools that are open to all economic classes but it also teaches students how to prepare for a diverse world.

Ruiz, Rebecca. "What if High School Ended After 11th (or Even 10th) Grade?." New York Times 01 mar 2010: n. pag. Web. 2 Mar 2010. .

http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/grade11/?scp=5&sq=school&st=cse

this is another interesting new york times article on a system of education where mandatory education ended a few years earlier. it is a plan that is gaining some momentum in a few states particularly Utah to shorten high-school, there are some plans to eradicate 12th grade completely, and even a plan where leaving school early is incentizied with financial grants. I think some of the change stems from the bad economy, for instance The plan from a state senator from Utah which will cut senior year completely can save the state roughly 102 million dollars, and if the system without 12th grade teaches the same things at 102 million dollars less its fiscally sensible, that money can go to a lot of things to improve the state. This article falls under the category of how you learn and how school prepares you for college and or life. This is a "new" education system that emphasis's moving on to the next stage of life. an interesting part is the question that if 12th grade is removed will all the social parts of it be transferred down to 11 or 10. the change it eliminated some grades changes the education playbook completely, and in someways helps the students think more clearly on what they want to do in life, proving that school is often used as a sorting machine that just sets students on an epic like path.

hw 40

INTERVIEW with self
how does school's social situation prepare us for interaction and functionality for the rest of our lives?what way is this good and what way it is bad?
school naturally conditions us to be prepared to social interactions. Even in Kindergarten we learn how to share and be polite. constantly school is giving us lessons on how to live normally. whether it is intentional or not living normally and blending in is a major part of education. This is obviously good because it teaches how to live. it helps us define what is normal behavior and what is not. in certain extremes it can tell us when someone may have a mental issue. this system sets the norm, it creates our culture. however this system is also bad. Those who are less social and spend more time on the education aspect of school rather than social interactions tend to accomplish more. The social situation in school is preventing us from learning academically

In your experience is the importance of school sometimes extrapolated?
Yes and no. school is obviously important and necessary but it seems like there is less emphasis on basics, what is truly necessary, like reading and comprehension and more emphasis on things that no one really uses, like calculus. It seems like we value those who know useless information because we assume they must know everything else perfectly. We do like to exaggerate the importance of everything learned at school, but that doesn't mean school isn't entirely a waste.

If you had the choice between going to a name recognized private school/college or an unknown school with a better educations what would you choice and why?

I think that i would probably pick the name brand school. For what ever reason when someone sees that you went to a known, brand school like any Ivy league school they immediately assume you must be a genius but any kid whose father is well connected can get into a brad name school. It seems like the education system and our lives afterward put less meaning on you problem solving ability and more on your knowledge of rules. and the brand name schools that are awarded such a high value take students that know rules and formulas.

Interview #2
How does school condition us to function in society outside of academics?
School fosters competition which is good and bad. the real world is full of competition is nearly every field. its good because it forces you to interact with lots of different people, some of whom become your friends which is always good to have. basic interaction skills are something we use everyday and school is in some ways practice for the rest of our lives.
If you had a choice between getting a college education from a name recognized school or an unknown school with a relatively unorthodox pedology which would you choose?
If the quality were the same he would probably go to the recognized school. But if all he would get from the recognized school is a name degree and the unknown is really good he would go to the alternative school. Although it may not seem fair name matters and he said he doesn't see the point in giving up my possible success for a message.

Judging by your academic life and career afterward do you think people take the importance of school to far?
Without a doubt, its a part of his job and see's it all the time, Everyone is learning trigonometry but the average job will never incorporate anything like that. However what he calls the argument against the idea most of school is a waste is that the process of Learning is valuable in itself not the subjects.


Interview #3
How do you feel about the policy of rating and grading students? Is it an advantage to those who are good test takers and unfair to those who are not?

he said he had mixed feelings about grading, there's a difference between rating and grading. He put rating as the extreme of grading. according to hi rating students is wrong because all it does is cause competition between students, which can be good but not all the time. it also gives the impression that if your not in say the top 20 your not smart which is not necessary true. Grading on the other hand although it seems cold doesn't just cater to good test takers. grades are a composite of a lot of things other than tests, like homework or participation. he said grading shouldn't be abolished in its entirety but maybe rating students compared to their peers beyond valedictorian and salutatorian should be stopped.

What do you think of the argument that school is too stressful, or that its a cause of lowered self esteem? Are we just preparing students for work or is it too early?
he basically brought up the point that as long as you care school at any level becomes stressful that is no surprise and there are some people that just handle that better. And from his experience as a student it couldn't hurt if teachers and administrators understood that. There is however stress in the world outside of school and school is helping to alleviate the shock that might come from a stressful work life. On the self esteem side he said yes a bad grade or even a bad social situation can lower self esteem but so can a good grade or a good social situation can raise it, so it's really hit or miss.

interview #4
You're a product of a public school system correct?
yes public school through high school
In your opinion does the education system do its job?
It like any other system has its ups and downs. there are a lot of successes, people leave the public school system and do great things. however it fails far to many. For a lot of students there is less incentive on academics and more emphasis on social interactions. School just doesn't seem to do a very good job keeping education a priority in most students mind. Its probably a funding issue but private schools seem to do a much better job at getting students to retain information and want to learn. There is defiantly a lot of waste in schooling, a lot of what it learned seems irrelevant to any job

interview #5
What type of school do you go to?
by his definition its a pretty standard school a sort of "a,b,c" learning very by the book. There is nothing about the school's style that's very different.

do you think that type of school is better than school with a more liberal type of teaching?
He said that for him it probably would be, he went to the more conservative type schools all his life so he's used to it. the more liberal schools tend to give of the appearance that their not as strict or don't take education as seriously resulting in their students not doing as well. It seems like the standard schools are more demanding. he ended my saying hat for him the conservative "testing reliant" type of school are good for him but he understands why a lot of people might feel more comfortable at a more liberal alternative school.

PART B

These five interviews all brought up interesting points, I didn't interview a single person that truly believed everything learned in school is important. From the interviews i have seen a basic consensus that what we are learning isn't always important and in many cases pointless however the only way to predict everyone's job and future is to condition them but then we become too much like Brave New World. I do think the idea brought up in interview 2 that its not always what you learn but also the process of learning is very interesting. There is definitely something to the argument that school's learning process is more important than the subjects themselves, they can teach problem solving skills and logic, in this sense the subject is just a means of teaching an everyday lesson.

The interview's caused me to think more in depth as to why we hold getting education so highly even though there are plenty of ways to be successful without a top school degree or diploma. I think we put education on such a high pedestal because there are so many in third world countries without access to a school. To a large portion of the world education is rare, thus giving it the appearance of being valuable, its almost treated like a commodity.

hw 39

Please write 3 each of the most interesting, fascinating, powerful questions, ideas, and experiences you've encountered about school. So please make three lists of three items each.

questions

Is the grading system of awarding and naming an individual with a letter or number a causation of decreased incentive?

how is school utilized as a place for us to enact our cool actions and social interactions?

what is the education system so systematized? in other words why is school treated like such an epical journey, where everything is categorized into grades and abilities?

ideas

school is treated like a necessary part of our society from pre-school to graduate school because it is deprived to so many. since it is hard to come by in the third world we like to make calculus look like the most important thing in the world.

I also think we hold school at such a high value because those who are at high political jobs in both the private and public sector nearly all went to higher education and did well in school. but how many congressmen need trigonometry.

School helps us social skills. so not only does school teach us how to read or write, it also develops our ability to function in society civilized and rationally.

experiences

I have had mostly the same average experience in school that most people have. its obviously not the funniest time but i do believe the certain aspects of education are necessary. However when i was in pre-school i did suffer from anxiety. I simply didn't like going to school. It to me as a still young child school was extremely scary and simply bad. although i was really just playing with blocks and now would love to go back in time to enjoy it i was scared to death of school.

another experience in school that arises often and is pretty common, is the worries that stem from tests. even just two weeks ago when we had midterms i was extremely nervous about how i would do. I treated the midterms like they dictated the rest of my life. i was controlled by the systematic epic journey school caused, if I don't do well on the midterm, then i will get a worse grade and so on.

a similar experience/idea about school that i have realized is that our education isn't really our choice. I don't mean that we don't get to chose our curriculum, i mean that we really just give the administrators or the department of education our preferences but have no real say. Our grades do most of our talking and even that isn't saying much. An example of this in my life is my entrance into high school. Not to say that SOF is a bad school, comparatively its a great school. but it wasn't my first choice. even though i felt like i deserved to go to my first choice and worked hard to improve my chances, i didn't get in. Four years of my life weren't chosen my me nor my parents. Just an interesting part of how the education system works.

PART B

One aspect of the education system that i find interesting about school is the grading policy. Everything is graded and those grades are put together to make another grades, then all of those grades are put together to give you another grade. Its strange that everything from your communication to "contributions to the community" are given a number. and your number encompasses you, you become that number.

I have also noticed that the older you get the less sincere, and personal education becomes. For me in elementary school i was given a letter grade but along with that i had a detailed report on what i was good at, and what i struggled in along with about a paragraph from my teacher but the further up i go the less personalized grading i receive. The policy has put more emphasis on my number than on my actual ability.

For instance last semester I took a college now class at Hunter College and once it was over i tried to get my grade, when i figured out how and got a copy of the grade it just had my name and the letter "B" under it. It honestly seemed like it wasn't real. I find it really interesting that four months can be summed up with one letter. And that this is accepted.

I don't really have any good ideas on what evaluation should like. They all follow the same basic principle. Some schools do it more than others, for instance SOF doesn't rank but other schools do. the grading policy is basically a hierarchy, your grade is your group/class, it defines you.

hw 38 cool art project

this is a picture of the archetypes of the Joker and comedian. each of the four stick figures has dialogue that i know is hard to see:
Person 1:He's so funny

Person 2:I know

Person 3: Everyone loves him

Person 4: Look at all the attention he gets!







this picture is a depiction of the "successful" man. I understand it is hard to see what the stick figures are saying so i will write it out.

person 1: He's so successful

person 2: Everyone must love him

person 3: He must be so proud









this picture is of the archetype rebel. i know like the other pictures it is hard to see what the stick figures are saying underneath him so i will write it out:
person 1:Wow look at him!

person 2:I know he's just amazing

person 3: want to be just like him

person 4: You can

1. What insights about cool does the art integrate? What do you hope people will realize or question from their encounter with your art?

This art project was used to integrate the fact cool and being cool isn’t about who you are or what you think, its simply what you portray. Each one of the archetypes provides us with a character to perform so we can seem heroic. The drawings depict some of the archetypes people fulfill. The thing I would like people to realize from looking at the art is that cool is a replicated look that people use to cover themselves so they will either attain attention or receive approval. I think my project helps one to further think about how cool is an external look to suppress our inner insecurities.

2. Describe the process of making the project - how'd you do each step? If it was a group project, what did you contribute?

Each one of the detailed archetypes has a featureless face, this was done on purpose to show how the versions are taken and replicated by anyone and everyone. The stick figures one the bottom who look up to the archetypes are purposefully without detail, this further shows how the archetypes who are mirrored by everyone else are superior. This is also why they are placed above the stick figures. I chose to use the rebel (the one on the bike) the joker (the comedian) and the successful man (the one in the suit with the briefcase) because they all are one different sides of the cool spectrum. Even though they are all different they accomplish the same goal.

3. Does making art seem cool to you? Why or why not?

The archetype of artsy or hipster is seen by a lot of people as cool. Being a revolutionary artist like Warhol made him cool in the eyes of millions, but that falls under the rebel category. I see my art project as more political than a cool look. It’s more about the ways of society and our culture than a way to look cool myself. In some respects making art can make you immensely cool and popular but that isn’t always the case, does finger painting in kindergarten make you cool? Making the project gave me a sense that I was making a statement more than I was being a rebel.