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.