Hey guys!
I wanted to talk to you all about something that’s been on my mind. How do you think America’s schools are doing? Like do you think they put students first, or do you think they care more about getting a higher world ranking? I feel like the latter is what is happening. Do you know that a lot of schools don’t even teach cursive anymore? How does that one even work out? When these kids grow up and are asked to sign something are they just going to print their name on everything? And standardized tests? You know those are ridiculous right? I mean, I know that we have to have some way to measure whether or not students are learning, but to give everyone the exact same test is just plain ridiculous. Not everyone learns the same way. There are visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners. How can one test accurately tell us what each child is learning? The best way I can explain it is through this picture:
Another thing that bothers me is student teaching. I’m not saying that student teaching is a bad thing, in fact I think it is a great way for those going into the teaching field to get experience for when they start teaching. I’m going to tell you right now. Teaching is not the cakewalk everyone thinks it is. I love my job, I think I have the best job in the world, but we don’t play all the time, we don’t do crafts all the time, and sometimes I think my students want to mutiny. Going straight into teaching with little to no experience can be scary. I did observations and had to teach some lessons before I started teaching, so I knew a little of what I was getting into, but I cannot even imagine what it would be like to start teaching without having done any of that. Back to my original point, when someone student teaches, they are basically working full time for a period of a few months, but they don’t get paid for it, in fact, they are paying their school to let them work. That makes a lot of sense doesn’t it? Another thing about student teaching is that they basically want you to only student teach and not have any other jobs, so next year at this time, I might be completely unemployed. I feel really frustrated by this, because just because I quit my jobs doesn’t mean my bills go away, and also, I know that I need to do some student teaching with older kids, but couldn’t my last year of teaching count for anything?
I feel like colleges more than any other type of school are out to make a profit, not help those who want to better themselves. We pay so much money just to attend school, and they can’t even provide our books. That is the one thing I miss about high school; the free books. In high school you were provided books and only had to pay for them if you lost or damaged them. I’m not saying we should be getting handouts, but the whole point of college is to better yourself, not get yourself in an insane amount of debt.
Happy reading!
DeereReaderGirl
Books, books, and more books 
I think the cost of college is really the worst part about it. Have you watched the ABC Family show “Greek”? I was so jealous of Cappie because his family had some huge treasure chest and he could literally go to college forever if he wanted to. That would be my ultimate dream: to just learn forever and ever and not worry about debt or anything. But since money is just “the most important thing in the world”, even learning is another stress. I think it’s important that everyone realizes what you did in your post – that schools don’t really care if you learn, but that you memorize just enough to keep their ranking. That’s really sad, actually, because learning is one of the most beautiful things in the world.
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I know exactly what you mean about wanting to learn forever! Also, I went to a college where most all of my professors cared and wanted you to succeed, so I think that even if the schools don’t care as much as they could about students’ academic needs, some teachers do. On the flip side, even the teachers who really care can’t always help students the way they want to because if a student scores high enough on some test then they can’t get an IEP so even if a teacher can tell a kid needs help they can’t take the extra step to help the kid. Another bummer is that so often teachers teach to the test, and I understand why they do, because their jobs are dependent on the scores the kids get, but I wish there was some way that we could accurately gauge what students have learned so that teachers are fairly judged when it comes to how good of a teacher they are.
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I do feel for the teachers that have to deal with that situation. I have some really amazing teachers right now, but a lot of the time, the only things we learn are the things that will be on the test. We don’t get to just explore the subject purely out of love for it, which it pretty unfortunate. I’ve come to like so many of my classes that I didn’t before, simply because the teachers make it enjoyable and amount of love they have for it shows. It’s a little unfair that the only way success is determined is by test scores, instead of how much a teacher has made your feelings about a subject change.
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That is really sad! I’m always very impressed by teachers that are able to teach to the test, but still make the class fun and interesting and almost make you forget you’re preparing for this giant test that may or may not accurately show what you know. I think that in addition to the paper portion of the test there should be a hands on portion or something. I know when I learned to weld we had to take a safety/knowledge test as well as a “can we actually weld” test. Some of the guys in my class have always been better at the hands on than the book stuff, so they were still able to do well. Although, since they’d been welding forever I’m sure they passed the paper test too, but the point is some people are better at book knowledge and some people are better at doing, and schools should really take that into consideration. I’m sorry that you don’t get to explore the subjects for the joy of doing so. That’s always really a bummer.
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It really is!! (Although it’s amazing that you can weld!) It’s common knowledge that all people are different and our brains are wired differently, so it seems a bit idiotic and completely controversial to test them as if they are. It’s really good that your class took a safety test, but just knowing the precautions, and then remembering them in practice are two totally separate things!
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Well thanks! I only stick weld, and I’m nit awesome at it, but I welded a hook thing onto the bucket of my dad’s bobcat a few years back and it’s still there, so I guess I do okay. Ha ha! I agree that knowing and doing are two completely separate things! Like you can read that manual and know how to drive a car in theory, but actually driving a car is a whole different beast. Like I could explain to you (assuming you don’t already know how) how to rake hay, or at least how I do it, and you could memorize it and repeat it back to me and know how it should be, but actually getting on the tractor and putting what you’ve been told into practice? Yeesh. Thinking about that makes me glad my dad showed me what to do and then rode along for my first few windrows.
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