Formal Paper #3 Final

The k-12 curriculum in the words of sir Ken Robinson "educates you out of creativity, in school we are taught subjects in the order of their importance with Mathematics at the top followed by the Languages then the humanities and at the bottom are the arts." Is this this how we should allow the system to mold the minds of the generation to come? Is the future not to be built on ideas and creativity to ensure that every human unlocks their potential and makes the world a better place? The current k-12 curriculum in itself forces students to learn what it is believed that they need to learn other than what they want or desire to learn, this stifles their freedom and creativity it prevents them from truly working towards becoming the person they really want to become. We then teach our students that individuality is a right, a precious gem, while our system focuses on a small demographic. In reality what we are saying to our children is [Yes it is ok to have your own sense of creativity, yes it is ok to be individuals and be expressive in a manner you are comfortable with, however in the real world only people who are pursuing certain professions are focused on.] Students who have a passion for the other subjects are "...steered away from things you like on the grounds that you would never get a job doing that" and these subjects are viewed as less important. 

Here in the Jamaican education system in high schools, they rotate a set of subjects for the classes each year depending on the year you enter the tenth grade, for example a set of students from one year would have classes that focus on the sciences while the students of the year behind would have classes that focus more on technical designs; however this depends on the school. Jamaican High Schools all belong to a particular data set where a school is either a Traditional High School, a Technical High School or an Upgraded High School. The Traditional High School are the schools that every child works hard on entering, however most Traditional High School Focuses more on teaching the Sciences and Languages with the Arts being the most over looked subject area. The curriculum is geared towards cultivating Children of Law, Children of Sciences, and Children of Humanities and rarely Children of the Arts. This can be the product of the world and the places the system focuses on the Sciences, the Languages and the Humanities, and this has been so for years, every parent works hard to allow their child to be able and set goals on attending the Traditional High Schools as opposed to a Technical High School or a Upgraded High school on the premise that the Traditional High school is the better choice for every child while this is not so, not every child would like a profession in the Sciences or Languages, some wold much rather to do the Arts unfortunately the Arts in the Jamaican traditional High School are seen as an extra curricular activities and its only value is ironically to ensure that the students are well rounded. This system is stifling our children who are being forced to abandon their artistic dreams so they can be seen as 'upstanding citizens'. The most important change this system needs is to make all classes available to the students who wish to study in specified areas as opposed to being forced to learn subjects other than the core classes of mathematics and the languages. 

 In order to learn successfully the willingness to learn is usually essential, having the drive and being enthused about the things you are learning makes the process easier and feels rewarding but with the current k-12 curriculum it is near impossible to learn in this way. "Every education system on Earth has the same hierarchy of subjects, at the top are Mathematics and the languages then the humanities and at the bottom the arts" with a curriculum based on such a hierarchy students are taught what society believes they should learn based on what the society believe to be important. This can be seen in our workplaces, no longer are people eager to work, no longer are people bursting with fresh new ideas for improvement. It is impossible to do so when you are doing what the world wants you to do not what you love and desire to do, this curriculum limits the creativity of students and restricts their freedom of choice limiting their potential needed to create a society where everyone is considered a valuable member of it, instead of thinking freely we are made to memorize information only to regurgitate it which is not truly learning anything, as John Keating in Dead Poets Society says "I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself" and our system does not allow that, we see it in our classrooms on our exams there is no room for discussing the endless possibilities. Sir Ken Robinson explains "we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it, or more like we are educated out of it." The current education system isn't designed to produce better students but to; as Sir Ken Robinson says "....the whole purpose of public education throughout the world is to produce university professors" because in this era that is what is seen as a stable job or a stable form of income. Therefore imagination is no longer valuable which will only lead to trouble in the future, we are still discovering the Earth after billions of years of evolution, as we are discovering more ways to reach the corners of the universe, for this imagination is essential and the current system does not encourage the growth of it our aspirations are useless without it. It is time for a change. 

The current academic system, the k-12 curriculum is outdated "our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability and there is a reason, the whole system was created around the world, there were no public systems before the 19th century, they all came in to meet the needs of industrialism" and that age is over, we are in an era of intellectual progression that has a need for more free thinkers, imagination and creativity. In order to make this change schools need to have a wider subject range and variety that should be made available to the students so they can freely choose for example some schools are only limited to visual arts (drawing) and performing arts listed under drama or acting, other art classes such as sculpting painting cinematography dance music and wood carving would be nice additions to the curriculum. Teachers need to be more attentive to the interests of their students allow for the curiousity and the need to learn and explore to manifest and build so that the students may find a path that they wish to take professionally and help should be given to guide them to this point. Our students will be the one to take this world further, progress is needed but without imagination we will be frozen, never moving forward.

Works Cited Page

Robinson, Ken. "How school kills creativity." TED Talk: Feb 2006. Web.

Freire, Paulo. "An Incredible Conversation." World Conference on Literacy Interview. 1996. Web

Dead Poets Society (1989). Film

Rough Draft paper 3

The k-12 curriculum in the words of sir Ken Robinson educates you out of creativity, in school we are taught subjects in the order of their importance with Mathematics at the top followed by the Languages then the humanities and at the bottom are the arts. This process in itself forces students to learn what it is believed that they need to learn other than what they want to learn, this stifles their freedom and creativity, it prevents them from truly working towards becoming the person they really want to. Students who have a passion for the arts are forced into other subjects because "art isn't profitable" and is viewed as less important.

Chalk notes

Chalk shows school life from the teachers point of view.

opening scene~
Teacher asks the student what comes to mind and the student doesnt respond, teacher replies this is why we are here..

Each teacher has their individual struggles dealing with and understanding the students, especially Mr. Lowrey a new teacher at the school trying to get the hang of teaching, and working with his students, he starts out intimidated and confuse but over the course of the school year he becomes a bit more comfortable and makes a connection with his class.

Group Exercise (Friere)

Friere had a lot of experience with education because three of his children became educators. He was prisoned in Brazil for 70 days as a traitor which inspired him to write Pedagogy of the Oppressed. This gave him lots of time to reflect of education and be able to criticize the education system. Friere addresses the teacher as a “narrating subject” and the students as “listening objects”. For example he states in his Pedagogy, “This relationship involves a narrating subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students).”  He claims that “the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing” which shows how highly he thinks of himself and how little he thinks of the students, as if they are helpless individuals. He worked for 10 years as a special education advisor to the world congress of churches, during which he traveled worldwide to help countries implement popular education and literacy reforms. The website clarifies the student-teacher relationship by showing us Friere’s desire for a radical democracy.  Other than these points the website did not really clarify the ultimate purpose of his Pedagogy. The Banking Concept of Education talks about his critical view on education and the website mostly talks about his life and the challenges that he faced.

Compare and Contrast Essay: Two Educators (Final)

In the world of education there are good teachers and there are bad teachers. What makes a good teacher? A good teacher is someone who can relate to his/her students to a certain degree while still remaining professional and a figure of authority, someone who cares about teaching enough to put out the extra effort so his/her students can learn what they are being taught. A good teacher must also be respectful towards his/her students and understanding. 

For this essay i will be doing a compare and contrast between the teaches Mr. Escalante and Mr. Keating. I will be focusing on the similarities and differences of their teaching styles, environment, student teacher relationships and the results of their methods. I will also be giving examples of good teaching and bad teaching for both teachers where possible.

          Mr. Escalante is a perfect example of what a dedicated teacher is, dedicated to his students and to his job as a teacher. When Mr. Escalante first met his class they seemed mostly unruly and most of them were delinquents, instead of giving up on what seemed to be a troublesome class to teach he saw the potential in them and got them seated and began to teach. For his first lesson he taught them fractions, for this topic he used a more hands on approach using apples to teach them what a fraction is, he took apples and cut them into different pieces, he then distributed them throughout the class giving each student a different fraction of an apple then proceeded to ask the students how much of the apple they had. This teaching method is not the norm and is a perfect example of the kind of teacher Mr. Escalaent is. 
           Mr. Escalante continuously went out of his way to make sure his students were learning. When Angel, another delinquent from his class showed interest in learning math Mr. Escalante helped him instead of turning him down. Angel asked for extra text books so that he could study at home without his other friends knowing because they would think differently of him, Mr. Escalante being  a good teacher and understanding the situation gave him two extra books, one for his locker and another to keep at home to work from, in doing this he created a stronger bond with his student gaining more trust.
           Learning that the school was going to be closed if the grades of the students did not go up and realizing that his class can do better Mr. Escalante declared that he would begin teaching them AP Calculus and have them take the AP Calculus test. This would be a difficult task for Mr. Escalante along with his students because he had never taught AP Calculus before. In preparation for this he told his students that they would need to get their parents permission and that they would need to do extra hours of math work after school, on weekends and even through summer holiday to pass the test. Mr. Escalante even went as far as to sacrifice time with his family to teach them, even when they began to doubt themselves and their ability he kept pushing and encouraging them, going above and beyond to help his students. As they worked during summer break in the sweltering heat he gave them oranges during class to keep them hydrated and cool. After all the hard work they passed the test.
           After passing the AP Calculus test his class was accused of cheating due to them all having similar answers and getting similar questions wrong. Knowing that his students were innocent he did all he could to defend them, challenging the proctors who were investigating the incident, going as far as insinuating that they were racial profiling his students based on the fact that they were all Latino. Not being able to prove the students innocent or guilty of cheating they had to take the test again, Mr. Escalante told the class that the test would be completely different and that they would have to do extra work to pass the test again, sacrificing more personal time to put in the work. While teaching his calculus class Mr. Escalante also taught a English class older Latin Americans for free. During one of his English classes he suffered a heart attack and fell down the stairs and was later admitted to the hospital. After being admitted to the hospital for a heart attack Mr. Escalante snuck out of the hospital against the doctor and his family's wishes to help finish preparing his class for the retake of the test.
           Mr. Escalante is a great example of a good, dedicated teacher who truly believed in his students, he had the opportunity to get a higher paying job but stuck with his teaching job because of his love for it.


        Mr. Keating is also a teacher who is dedicated to his job as a teacher and his students. Mr. Keating's class was completely different from the one Mr. Escalante had. Mr. Keating taught at an all boys boarding school which he also attended when he was younger. His class was filled with boys that seemed well mannered and disciplined due to the strict nature of the school. For his first class to change the mood he takes them out of the classroom and into what seems to be a hall or lobby, a change of environment to stimulate learning, here he jokes around with them to help them get comfortable with him, he tells them they can call him Mr. Keating or if they are feeling more daring they can say "oh captain my captain" a reference to a poem by Walt Whitman.
         Mr. Keating's teaching style was unorthodox compared to the other teachers at the school. During one of his classes he asked a student from the class to read the introduction of the assigned poetry book they have for class, in the middle of the student reading he told him to stop and told the class to rip out the entire introduction from the books, that there should be no equations or formula for poetry as the book stated, he told them that poetry should come out naturally and feel natural, he was teaching them that learning should not just be memorizing formulas and facts but should also include free thinking and promote personal creativity. Mr. Keating did many things to get them out of the classroom while teaching them, to put them in different environments to stimulate them, in one exercise he made them read a line of poetry then kick a ball as hard as they could.
         Mr. Keating was always willing to help his students in any way he could possibly. For his first assignment to the class he had each student write an original poem read it in front of the class, one of his students Todd Anderson who is very shy did not do the assignment due to his fear of public speaking, Mr. Keating had him stand in front of the class and shout to loosen up, he then pointed towards a photo of Walt Whitman that was hung in the class and told him to describe him, Todd began describing him and Mr. Keating told him to close his eyes and use his imagination and go with the flow, and Todd ended up creating a beautiful poem on the spot. This exercise helped break out of his shell and strengthened the relationship between him and Mr. Keating.
        Mr. Keating is a perfect example of a teacher who loves teach, who promotes free thinking and is willing to bend rules and tradition to help his students learn.


While Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante were from different era's and taught in different environments, Mr. Keating in the posh traditional all boys school and Mr. Escalante in the public school in an area with plenty of crime and delinquents, both teachers were dedicated, kind and understanding teachers who put their craft and students first. They are both passionate but Mr. Escalante was more hands on and personal in his encounters with his students and their life and education, Mr. Keating on the other hand provided more mental support and advice when asked, keeping his professional distance while continuing to help his students learn and grow.

Is Mr. Escalante a good teacher?

Mr. Escalante for the most part is a really great teacher. He is dedicated to his job and to his students, he has a lover for the subject he teaches, he has a love for his students and believes in them like no one else does, he genuinely wants them all to succeed and make something of themselves, to break the trend of what is expected of them based on their race and where they live. Some examples of his good teaching are:

When Angel came to him asking him for an extra text book to work at home from so that his friends wouldn't see him working and think differently of him, instead of refusing him Mr. Escalante provided him with 2 extra books apart from the one that is allowed for class, he gave him one for his locker and one to keep at home.

Believing in his class and seeing their potential and proving this by having them work towards taking the AP Calculus test, when no one else believed they could do it, not even the students themselves, he made them believe they could do it, had them put in the work and he made the sacrifices to help them succeed. He went as far as to check himself out of the hospital early after having a stroke and falling down a flight of stairs, to come to class to prepare them for their exam.

How did your high school experience compare to Gatto's claims about high school? In what ways? why?

My experience of 6 years of high school (i repeated a year) was very similar to what Gatto claims. The Classrooms held around 30-35 students at a time, all being taught the compulsory classes, these consisted of Mathematics, English, the sciences, a second language, religion and the arts.  with the exception of the Arts we were all taught the same things, but it was less learning and more memorization, not much free thinking involved if any, you get questions/problems and there is an absolute answer, so we were to memorize the formula to get to this answer.

As students we were all graded and ranked based on our grades, there was always a person at the top of the class in terms of grading and someone at the bottom, those who score highly are regarded as the good students, the intelligent ones, the best, while those at the bottom are seen as slackers, dunces and unintelligent, this method in a way dictated that a certain group of people will always be successful and another is doomed to fail, further separating them in the future into different social classes, this all based off a common grading scheme across multiple subjects, when in reality good grades do not make you smart, everyone is smart in their own right, everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Someone who isn't "school smart" can still be a genius in his/her own right. This system also uses the "integrating function" forcing children to think alike, and ultimately be predictable. An example of this is group work/assignments where students are supposed to work together to solve the problems given, what usually occurs is the person who is most extroverted with the strongest views takes charge and everyone is forced to conform and go along with his/her's opinions/orders, opposed to when someone works on their own, especially someone who is introverted, they are more likely to be able to think freely, to be unpredictable to a certain degree. Free thinking results in progression, while conformity leads to a stagnant society.

This method is practically, in my opinion, used so that after the separation into different classes, the upper and the lower, the upper class has more control over the now con-formative lower class and is free to do as they please with little to no contest or resistance.