HW 57 Parenting 101

When I think about parenting and myself being a mother it kind of freaks me out. I know for a fact, and I am pretty sure of my decision that I never want kids. Although everyone has told me so many times that I would make the most greatest mom in the world, I think I would be a really bad parent. I have no clue how children should be parented or what the right way to do so. I mean I have some ideas by hearing other people's ideas, television, etc. I have see results of different types of parenting like being too over protective, too unprotected, lack of communication, and the results by seeing people in school and friends. Although I am able to take notice I cannot really take what I notice and generate what I think is the perfect way of raising a child.

I do not think my parents were the best parents in the world otherwise our family would be together and perfect but I know my parents weren't complete failures either and did some things right because I grew up okay. I think. I hope. There are so many different ways of parenting, how would we ever know what the right one is? I do agree though that everyone tends to raise their child/children in some sort of way similar to the way their parents raised them whether they know it or not. Which is probably why I fear bearing a child so much.

All the things I dislike about how my parents raised me or handle certain situations, I always thought to myself "I am never going to be like that." We tell ourselves that we take what we notice our parents have done wrong and avoid it. I feel like this is the case like 20% of the time (that was a random guess). I always see these teen shows (16 and Pregnant on MTV) about pregnant young girls and the difficulty they go through. Most of which end up with a reunion of the mother crying and saying something like "I had her when I was 16, I didn't want her to do the same." Also, as I tend to get older I have really taken notice that I am inheriting certain things that my parents do that I told myself I wouldn't. One for example is that my mom has a intense shopping addiction. Its not just her being a "girl" or whatever people like to stereotype but she spends the majority of her money on designer clothing and such instead of pay for bills (she use to at least, this is not the case anymore).

Sadly, I have to admit I have started to take notice that I have been wasting money on useless things such as clothing just like my mother. Which makes me want to have a child even less! Luckily although my dad is not perfect I now sort of notice how hard working he is even at his age he is still trying to bring in the money. Which in my opinion should show me how I should be in the future. Hard working. I think good parenting is setting a good example for your child. I have heard this many times. If you raise your child and show them how to act (which I am not sure how yet) they hopefully they will grow up to be the same way. There would be no bad things your child will develop because of your genes.

And that was my huge rant on parenting which hopefully made sense because I don't even know if I knew what I was trying to say.

When Parenting Theories Backfire
I thought this article was really cute. I know nothing about parenting I think so this shows me that letting the kid do whatever they want and figure things out on their own and what mistakes not to make is not the right way to go. Although I am not sure if the child being a good negotiator is a bad thing in general, it is bad to the mother as it goes against her wishes.

It was funny how by presenting choices to her children it totally backfired as the kids ended up presenting her their choices. It shows how children can so easily pick up on how you decide to run things. I think its good to give your child some freedom to be able to learn from their mistakes on their own as well as figure out alternative choices to things. This article however shoes the cut off point, how a child may need some choices made for them.

Diana Baumrind's (1966) Prototypical Descriptions of 3 Parenting Styles
When reading this article it immediately struck me of what kind of parenting would probably be seen as the best in society as the other two would be judged and looked down upon. Not that I am saying I disagree but the type of parenting that seems the most effective or "good" is the authoritative parent. This type of parent seems to have a balance of having a good amount of authority and giving the child the right amount of "freedom". It is also weird that always in a parenting explanation that the parent is always a "she." I am pretty sure men can be parents too.

It makes me wonder if there are any other categories then these three. I think these three categories are just really general. This does really show how people tend to really get judge by their parenting ways. I think this is really why parents are so anxious about how the way their children act because it is always seen as a reflection of the parent or the parent's fault.

HW 56

1.Some Interview Questions:
-How many close friends do you have (as in best friends)?
-What are the main components of a good friendship?
-Do you think many lifelong friends come from school such as high school or college?--How did you find your best friend?
-What are some benefits of having a relationship with a good friend?
-Do you think there can be negatives to having a best friend?
-What does a relationship between two friends have that is different then a relationship between two lovers (besides from being intimate,sex,etc)?

2. Interviews
Granit
How many close/good/best friends do you have?
Three
What do you main components of a good friendship is? What do you have with those three friends that you do not have with acquaintances?
Like we show a good amount of respect with each other. We don't try to do anything to put down each other or try to impress each other too much. We act ourselves. So there is like a level of comfort being around each other.
How many lifelong friends do you think you will have from high school?
Probably two or three.
What about college if you could guess?
Maybe like 5.
What do you think college in college you will have more lifelong friends?
I think its because when you get out of high school your life tends to change a lot so you'll make more friends that have more similar interests.
What are the negatives/positives of having a best friends?
The benefits are that you have someone to always talk to and hang out with if you need them. And I don't know whats really bad about having a best friend.
What do you think you the differences is between a relationships between a gf/bf and a friend? (besides from sex,etc)
If it's besides sex and everything, basically finding a intimate relationship is like trying to find a quality that you want in a best friend. Although no one says you can't have sex with your best friends, but if your looking for a intimate relationship your also looking for sex appeal but when your looking for a best friend your just looking for someone you can just relate to and share those problems about your other intimate relationships.

Stephanie
How many best friends/good friends do you have?
I say two tops.
What makes a good/best friend? Why are they your friends out of everyone?
Because they are dependable and trustworthy because I don't think a lot of people are fully trustworthy but they are somewhat trustworthy.
How do you know they are trustworthy?
Because we have exganged information to each other that you would only say to people you trust.
What do you think the main compenents of a good friendship is?
Reliablitiy, obviously trust. And I think those are the two main things. Common interests but you can have common interests with anyone, just because you have similar interest doesn't mean you guys have to be good friends. I don't think that should be the base of a friendship.
Do you think there are any negatives to like friendships?
Yes. Well, when you have a friend you tend to share a lot of things with them and you invite them to your life. Friends develope jelousy which can lead to backstabbing and like betrayal. When you have a close friend you are putting yourself in a vunerable position, when your betrayed by a friend you get hurt. Friendships can be difficult. Any type of relationship with another person can be complex.
What do you think the differences is between a intimate relationship between a bf/gf and a friendship besides from sex, and physical attractions, etc?
I don't think there is any, I think even the bertayal between bf and friends are the same if you want to take away the sex and physical interactions I think a boyfriend and a friend are basically the same.

Christian
How many best friends/good friends do you have?
um, I think I have around ten.
How many life long friends do you think you will attain from high school?
I think three.
What about college?
I think probably like one.
So how come you went from ten to three?
I think I went from ten to three because I think you loose more friends as you get older because we want to get closer to more people but its difficult to get close to ten people and out of those ten people you can probably only get close to three.
What do you think the main components of a good friendship is?
I trust them, we are both funny. We are similar in some aspects and he/she is easy to get along with.
What are the positives/negatives of a friendship relationship?
Well there is always going to be drama. Even with a best friend. And something positive....... your good friends.
What do you think the differences is between a intimate relationship between a bf/gf and a lifelong friend besides from physical attraction and sex, etc?
I don't really know. I can't answer that but they are pretty much the same thing. If you think about it, besides from physical attrition what you share with your gf it's pretty much the same as what you share with you best friend. Issues, your daily life, etc. Although you wouldn't talk to your gf about funny shit. Like crude shit.
So there is a differences, what wouldn't you do between each?
With my gf I would go out to dinner, and with a friend I'd probably play paint ball. I think its because I am mixed up between relationship between comfortable relationships and like a "strict" bussniessy relationship.

Javier
How many best friends/good friends do you have?
Two
What are the main components a good relationship with a friend?
Trust, loyalty, honesty, communication, interaction, and positivity. There is probably more but I'm too lazy.
Do you think many life long friends come from high school or college?
I think most of them come from high school and the beginning of college.
Why do you think people mainly gain best friends in the "begining" of things like in high school or college while people are still young?
I think that not in the beginning of high school but the ending of high school. You start to realize who really liked you and who are trustworthy to be your friends. And the beginning of high school you tend to see who is still friends with you throughout college.
So you don't technique gain good friends in college?
Yeah, basically true.
What are the positives and negatives of a friendship?
Thats difficult for me to think right now because I can't think of any negatives of having a best friend, there best friends.
Then maybe why do you people want friendships?
I guess to not feel lonely, depressed and emotional. Sometimes you have to have human interaction and be able to express things to someone about stressful things.
What do you think the difference is between an intimate relationship with a bf/gf is and a friendship relationship besides etc.?
I don't know really. There is no difference. There both best friends and both honest and loyal. I think it can be more difficult to find a friend then it is to find a boyfriend or girlfriend. I know its hard to understand and maybe sound weird but I feel like people have checklists for what they see in trying to find a friend or a gf/bf. For me its harder to find a friend because my checklist for a good friend is pretty general or wide open. My checklist for a girlfriend is more specific and has more narrow cause were humans trying to find someone to be intimate with for the rest of our lives and to bear our kids. I know sounds like a stupid metaphor but it makes sense in my head.

3. There was a lot of similar answers between each person. The question I noticed that they really got stuck on was the last one about the difference between a gf/bf relationship and a friendship. There really is not difference between a interactions between your friends and your intimate relationships. When I think about it with my boyfriend, my boyfriend and I are best friends. I think my boyfriend is my only best friend to be honest, even though that sounds sad I am happy with that. I think there is like a physiological thing between each person. I would like to further investigate how it affects your mind exactly. I remember talking about this in physiology class last year but I somewhat forgot. It was really hard to identify the differences if you leave out physical attraction and sex.

Although I feel like when you choose your friends you do look at physical attraction sometimes. You try to find a friend with similar clothing style and I think people tend to subconsciously choose friends on how "good looking" they are sometimes whether they know it or not. I am not saying this is everyone but most people whether they realize it. For example people tend to judge people before they get to know them. I hear this saying a lot. At times when there is like a "new" kid of person coming into a familiar zone people tend to get judged by the way they look and depending on how they look some people may determine right away if they are friend worthy. It is a stupid way of determining friendships but people do it.

For example I finally FINALLY got a job after a year of searching (the only way I got it is through connections) but when I first started three weeks ago my other fellow "coworkers" quickly determined whether they wanted to get to know me or completely ignore me. This most likely has to do with either how I look, how i dress (although the dress code is all black so there is nothing to look at), or maybe even my race. Who knows, I sure don't. Whatever it is it made me only make one friend out of the thousands of people who work there. Makes me feel kind of like crap but I see it as just a place to work, get money, and get the hell out.

It also interests me how the majority of students who I interviewed in my class figured they would have more friends in college then they do in high school. And as they get older they loose friends. I always heard the saying that friends come and go. Although are people ever in a search of finding just one best life long friend just like everyone in search of that one life long mate (most of the time at least).

4. You believe you can make a really great friend but you find it difficult to make/find friends that like you for "who you are".
Agree Disagree...etc.

HW 55

Part 1:Question (Will Most likely Change Around):
-What do you need in order to find or maintain a long lasting friendship?
-What are the main components of a long lasting friendship?
or
What do you need in order maintain close communication between family members? (might focus on siblings or specific people in family)

One of those. I kinda just splurged whatever questions I thought of. Some help on my question is greatly appreciated because I am not even sure of what question would be good or how to rephrase them to make them more precise. :)

Part 2:
Brandon:
I am making you my triangle partner because your one of the only people who posted a question at this moment.

I think this is a great questions. Although I have heard that psychologists do have their own psychologist at times. At least that is what I have heard before. Most likely wrong. It is true though, people tend to think psychologist are more mentally stable and know how to deal just because they have a degree and career in psychology.

Although this is a great question it might be quite hard to find research on this. And what kind of relationships are you mainly focusing on? The relationship between a psychologist and his/her patient? Maybe if that is what you are focusing on you can research on what people tend to need to go to a psychologist for and start from there. Yep.

Stephanie
So maybe to make it more specifically towards relation ships you can say; how does the relationship between a child and their parents effect's a child's development? Or effects how a child's emotions are growing up?

I know you may want to compare the two types of kids but in order to do this I think you would probably need to look at the relationships between each child and their parents. Or maybe you would want to look up relationships in two married couples and see how their marriage effects the whole family. Kind of like the divorce example Andy wrote accept focusing more on how divorce effects the children.

Part 3
So I think I would like to focus more about the theme of friendship. Mainly because I have more of a difficult time making friends and there isn't really anything wrong or difficult about my relationship with my boyfriend. Although I do consider my boyfriend to be my best friend, so it makes me think that you need the same components in a intimate relationship as you do in a friendly relationship. I was going to do; what are the traits or skills needed in order to have a good relationship with friends but I feel like it would be as simple as "be a good listener", be "approachable", or "be trustworthy". So I am still a little bit contemplative about my focused question. Maybe I would be something like:

How do people choose what types of people they want to have a relationship with? What are the main reasons?

This would most likely change a little bit into the unit. This is mainly focusing on what are the things that help people choose a good friend, a good boyfriend/gf. Is it Personality? Commonality? Sexuality? Feelings? If not maybe I would focus on something like;

What are the values of a good friendship demonstrate and why?

HW 54

OKAY. I took this quiz over again because I felt that the first time I took it I rushed through it because I was tired.

ISFP - "Artist". Interested in the fine arts. Expression primarily through action or art form. The senses are keener than in other types. 8.8% of total population.

I do like fine arts so I feel this part is quite correct. Again I feel like these tests kind of put me in one category which makes me feel weird. Kind of like that category activity we did where we placed certain names in certain categories. I kind of wish I did not have to be placed in this Artist category with the other 8.8 percent of the population. I am guessing that when it says expressions primarily through action or art form that it means I can be a person that tends to be more to myself. This is true.

Although I feel like this test thing can be a lie or kind of like those fake physic readings. Mainly because the first time I took this quiz and rushed through it the first result I got seemed quite accurate as well. I feel like some times people try to find whatever they get from these results and try to make themselves believe that is what they are like.

Part 2:
Brandon: I am making you my triangle partner because your one of the only people who posted a question at this moment.

I think this is a great questions. Although I have heard that psychologists do have their own psychologist at times. At least that is what I have heard before. Most likely wrong. It is true though, people tend to think psychologist are more mentally stable and know how to deal just because they have a degree and career in psychology.

Although this is a great question it might be quite hard to find research on this. And what kind of relationships are you mainly focusing on? The relationship between a psychologist and his/her patient? Maybe if that is what you are focusing on you can research on what people tend to need to go to a psychologist for and start from there. Yep.


So when I did this test with my boyfriend, the manual way instead of the computer because we did not have a computer at that time. I figured I knew him well enough because I feel he is the closest person to my life right now. His results was INTJ. I guessed this for him and I was relieved that I was correct. I felt like this test stuff was kind of phony but I guess there is some part of it that defies a certain part of your personality. It still isn't like magical and looks deep into your soul or something. It did however show me his personality a little more. And it made me kind of realize that at times although I am a introvert and I like keeping to myself, friendly, and like listening to others I often at times like surrounding myself with extroverts or people who are my complete opposites. I am not sure why really. It can seem like a really awkward relationship and people would tend to want to be with people they have more in common with.

For example, my best friend is completely opposite with me. She likes to be loud and outgoing and always drawing attention and follows her feelings. A lot of people in my family such as my mom and dad are like extroverts too (accept for my brother who no one will ever figure out). I think this shows that personality differences may not be a major factor in making good relationship with people. Especially since the very few people who I have close in my life are people who seem to have a completely different personality then I do.

HW 53 Survey Analysis

Part 2
This survey was kind of depressing. For some reason I felt like it i did not answer "yes, most definitely" to any of the questions, it made me feel like I was doing something wrong. Like I was suppose to click "Most definitely" for the majority of the questions. The questions about family and friend especially. Those questions were kind of easy to answer because I was sure about most of them already.

I cannot quite remember what questions made me stop and think and this computer would not let me look back on the survey. I think maybe the questions about other people feel made me think, like what are other peoples desires? This is kind of hard to answer because we only feel and understand ourselves as we are the one playing the roles in our own lives. It is hard to understand what anyone else wants or feels unless we are them.

Relationships was a big theme throughout the whole survey obviously. Especially about love in every relationship. The question that stated "what is love to you?" made me definitely think a lot. I really have no idea. When I was a little bit younger and heartbroken little teenager going through puberty I use to despise the idea of love and say it was a mental disorder. Now that I am in love I enjoy it more. I also realized as I got older and more mature that there was love between friends and family but why is love (feel or mentioned) differently between different people? Love is always brought up in a positive light. Love is something very popular in our culture. Why? :/

Part 3
I really liked the survey and just taking a look and analyzing it. It was something different. There are a lot of things that I noticed. One main thing that we all concluded from the analysis was that we tend to think others peoples lives may be similar to ours but in reality it is not. We need to realize that everyone has different situations in their lives. It also maybe makes me think of people's intentions while taking the survey mainly because some things seem like a lie.

One thing that kind of took interest to me is the question about how men are expected to take initiative in a relationship. I guess in my perspective I figured this was not the case. I've always tried to be a dominate person and my mom would always tell me to be a "strong girl." So I figured in our generation we would not still be expected men to take initiative. Although I think it depends on the ratio between male and female that answered this question. It makes me think if me are the ones who expect that they need to provide high expectations or is it women?

Another thing that really seemed weird is the drugs and alcohol questions. The fact that people say that they have never been drunk or have done drugs. From knowing all the teenagers in school and their obsessive partying I am pretty sure that this is a lie. Although in class we talked about the link between the students that actually do their work to this general answer. Most of the kids who slack and party probably did not actually take the survey to begin with. Although it could have been this weird subconscious thing. I tried to answer at honest as possible but I have to admit there was some sort of subconscious part of me that still felt like someone would know it was me who was answering the questions. Like someone was watching it which is kind of creepy. Or maybe people think of questions in different ways.

For example is the suicide question. This question is probably the most risky of questions. Though people could have interpreted it differently. Showing how everyone thinks and reacts to things differently. They could have saw this question as have you ever thought about suicide in your whole life or do you think about suicide now or have you ever thought about suicide at all as a small thought of what it would be like.

The last thing was the family questions. I was kind of jealous of all the majority positive answers there were. Yes what took me back was all the negative answers from the short questions which seemed like it totally contradicted all the positive. It seemed kind of sad that most answer were like "lazy" or "failure" but when I think about it maybe there parents just say those things to kind of motivate kids to do things. Not sure if that is good parenting or not. Its kind of like how my parents say I am not skinny enough to have me look the way they expect me to. It does not seem right. Maybe teenagers see the way their parents seem them differently then how their parents actually view them. A lot of this stuff is just really confusing and has so many different explanations that may or may not be true.

HW 52 Human relationship

Okay so I am just going to splurge about ideas of human relationships. One thing that I seem to notice is that people always seem to be really needy. No matter how many things we seem to be able claim from what we want, people cannot get enough. We are always wanting more. When we have a great family, we want friends, after we get friends, we want true love, if we have that we want something more. No one is ever content with anything. Why is no one every content? I guess this is hard because everyone always seems to think of themselves because of the fact that we are our own main characters in the story of our lives.

Another thing is communication. I was always intrigued by how people communicate with each other. How in every relationship (not just talking about intimate relationships but lovers, friends and families) there is always problems that seem to be caused by lack of communication. So what is the right way to communicate between each groups of people. We were always taught that when communicating it is best to state to the person how you are feeling and why calmly. Who the heck comes up with the "rules" of communication or what works?

Sometimes I find myself having a hard time communicating. Although now it makes me wonder what is "good" communication? Or what is the real definition of communication? Talking, having a deep conversation, small talk? I have no problem communication with my boyfriend (at least I think we have good communication, whatever the definition for that is) but I always founds myself having trouble communication among friends. To be honest I think I need to learn how to make friends and keep them first before worrying about communicating.

This brings up my other thought of how you are expected to make different relationships. Or how to make good relationships. How are you expected to find a best friend? I feel finding one of those are really hard to do as I do not really have a best friend other then my boyfriend. What is a best friend? To my knowledge a best friend is someone who you can "communicate" with about anything, emotions, secretes, humor. We always seem to need to surround ourselves with relationships.

HW 51

-Paulo Fiere --> Memorization, students not really learning.

Growing up, ever since I was a small child, school has always been like a jail or a system of keep us in line. From chinese schools to americanized schools they all have a similar goal. I have always been told to never marry a white man or a "Gweilo", get good grades in high school to go to college and get many degrees as I can so I can live a happy life because I will have a good career and be rich. It seems as if there is already a time line set out for me. So far I have only successfully completed two. I can never see my self with someone who is chinese so that is crossed off the list and because I am looked down upon by dating someone who is not chinese I have to bring myself up by being a super student. I am more americanized so I have a great passion to shove it in everyone's face that I have the ability to do good in school because many people do not think I have what it takes. Right now I get fairly good grades and I am on my way to college. Take that.

When I tell my family and friends about my A's and B's and how I have gotten into college they congratulate me and tell me how intelligent and hard working I am. At times I feel sort of guilty (which is really weird) as if I actually didn't earn these grades or that I did not work hard. I think it is because I know I play it by the rules and most of the time I am never really expanding my knowledge and abilities to learn. It is easy to be a "good" student which is like conforming to what is expected in school and getting a A.

All my life I have been told how school is suppose to effect my life and how significant it is. It's said it teaches us how to be respectful, and helps us have a successful future. This is what is mainly focused on in Obama's speech. He tells students how nothing would matter unless we took the responsibility to take school extremely seriously. He even talks about his struggles for education when he was our age, which seem to be a strategy to make us feel grateful for our eligibility to be in public school. Although students are suppose to be grateful like we are told most of the time we are the complete opposite probably because of all the things education lacks.

For one thing public school seems really similar to jail. Every time we step into school we are told what we are allowed to do and what we are not. We are suppose to respect and listen to our teachers who have the most authority and who seem to be seen as higher then the students. The students are just scum. This can be reflected a lot in many movies such as Blackboard Jungle. The students are always seen as a nuisance and hopeless in life. The teachers are great intelligent people who are meant to "save" students from there meaningless lives.

In reality most teachers are not really "saving" students and teaching them life longing skills. They seem to just be teaching what they are being payed to teach. In six lessons by John Taylor Gatto he writes about his lessons about his curriculum or how he teaches. Although it is stated as 6 lessons it seems to be more like 6 rules or guidelines. Many of his lessons seem unemotional and robotic. Some lessons include what he expects from his students; the students have to drop whatever relates to the class if the class is not in session, to sit quietly and obey rules. Which sounds much like a lifeless jail. The six lessons article really shows how maybe many teachers are not really teaching anything significant. Everything seems like it is taught from a book which the majority of the time is probably the case.

Instead of learning, according to Paulo Fiere, students seem to be more like objects that suck in information and memorize it. The teachers are the knowledge givers. In most cases students never really learn anything, and if they do it is not significant enough to remember so students tend to forget right away. This is extremely true for probably math and science classes. When taking a test or studying, students try to cramp information into their head, remember what way to write it down exactly on homework or tests. In this case this is not learning but memorizing numbers and letters.

In many cases we are always looking at our future, we are always doing things in the present that will benefit our future. Although I feel that there is no such thing as a past or a future. The past is a memory and the future is the present. We are told that school benefits our future. It is branded into our brains that it prepares us for the professional world. School is "to prepare you for society, to help you cope with different personalities and set you up a future in the professional world." Alicia Proto states in a interview about school. It seems a lot of the materials that we learn in class are not significant to our daily lives. Instead we should be focusing on things that will help us through life such as how to cope with getting old, how to communicate with different types of people, or how to budget things. None of which we actually learn. If teachers and the educational system actually took the time to design a system for individual learning needs and interests learning would probably be a better experience and maybe even fun for students.

Video I found about "Unschooling"

Here is a video about a percentage of families that believe in something called "Unschooling." It is somewhat like home schooling accept the parents lets their kids do whatever they want. REALLY. No rules, chores, discipline, time outs, text books. I am not quite sure what to think about it. Its a little bit bias I think towards it being negative but it does give you a interesting thought.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/health-15749655/extreme-parenting-radical-unschooling-19218933

Hw 50- Stuff

Against School
This was long so i read like a half to 3/4 of this. First it started out with the idea of bordem. Which is the main cause to faulty schooling. Students may seem like the mass amount of people who are the most bored, this is because they see school as unimportant. More specifically is the classes, they see that class is unimportant, not fun, that the work did not make any sense,basically what the teacher is not doing. But not only the students may seem like to be the ones that are bored during school hours, teachers seem to be getting bored of classes as well. And the reasons for the teacher's bordem is because of the student's lack of motivation. This guy also writes about some of his experiences (I am guessing he is really old as he retired teaching when I was just born) and some history about how public school teaching got it's philosophy which is primarily based around making good citizens.

This article was interesting at first but got boring. His idea that his grandfather taught him that everyone's bordem is their own fault and your the only one that can make things unboring. I kind of agree with this, whenever I'm bored at home for example all I do is complain about how bored I am when I could obviously do something to entertain myself. Although I feel it's so much easier to just be bored, this has a lot to do with laziness. I think the reasons students (speaking for myself I guess) get so bored in class is because of our disinterest with what we are learning in class. Students can usually blame the teachers for being so uninteresting and having uninteresting classes. And although students or I can never really see myself forcing to be interested in something. If I am truly unmotivated and in class it's usually because I do not have a common interest in what the class is about. I have been particularly relate able to this especially in senior year when at times I feel like nothing is fun enough, everything is forced, fake, etc. I feel like being a teenager we get bored easily. In the beginning of junior year I started to find new teachers with new teaching techniques and new things to learn. It caught my interest but now in senior year I grew bored quite quickly.
Six Lessons
Six Lessons is basically the ideas that this guy known as John Gotto has about his teachings and school. I am not quite sure if he is being sarcastic in his writing but either way this article is kind of sad. He writes about six lessons which seem more like 6 rules on what he expects from teaching/being a teacher. A lot of the rules that he states is what he expects from his students, in a way it seems as if he teaches middle school or something.It seems as if he teaches not because he enjoys it but it is merely just a job, something he gets payed for, something that he is good at because he has a degree in teaching English. His expectations include the students staying in order not because he expects them but because the school says so. He expects students to obey is commands quick as he has authority. He only teaches the students on school hours, as soon as class is over or the next class begins he basically describes it as shutting down as he is not expected to teach after school hours. He also touches on the idea that he does create his own curriculum which helps to fish out the good kids from the bad kids in class. Good kids in his opinion are willing to conform to what the class is suppose to be doing according to his curriculum. Bad kids will try to resist from conform, trying to make decisions for themselves. And most importantly is that he shows his authority and that he is always in charge and watching the students. He demands respect and that students should always be judged by their work.

For some reason these set of "lessons" makes me sad. To me this guy seems to only teach because he gets payed to do it. He describes in the beginning how school is kind of like a business. At times I agree with this. I feel at times most teachers only teacher not because they enjoy it but because it is a easy career to them. They only assign what they are told to do assign the students, and whether the students enjoy it or not (most cases not) the teachers job is to force the students to enjoy it and to enforce what they are suppose to do. This makes me wonder how many of the teachers that teach me think in the same way as these six lessons.

In the Paulo Freire reading is basically about the teacher who is the narrator or the knowlege giver and the student who is the receiver and basically just listen to the teacher's narrations like lifeless objects. Instead of students really gaining knowledge or learning, students seem to be forced to listen and memorize what the teacher says. Students do not get the ability to search for any creativity and don't have any critical consciousness. Education oppresses students to adapt to the world as they are deposited information into their heads.

I think this theory is definitely true mostly all the time. This reminds me of how every time there is some big test I tend to be forced to study. Every time I study it is not really me learning but I tend to notice that when I look down at notes and worksheets I am just processing the information into my head to memorize. So when I do take the test I am just splurging everything in my head into the test. Although I feel like background information is significant, sometimes memorizing information is not the same as learning about background information. I feel as if in every class there is something lacking. For example in social studies I lack general knowledge about things but we are able to be creative and have an opinion. In math and science it is mainly about memorizing things and receiving information. It lacks the part where we learn things on our own. And in english I am never sure what goes on.

For the Lisa Delpit readings, I read the short interview mainly because it was short and good enough to get information from, I had a long work orientation and develop a huge headache so I do not feel up for reading a huge text. This interview starts off with her idea that tests do not determine a child's brilliance. Teacher's should not and should be taught not to judge a student by their test taking skills because if they do they will misunderstand a students true learning potential.

Instead of tests she states that in order to discover a students true potential can be found through a student's art and their behavior outside of school. Although this seems as if she may be talking about small children I do agree that teachers and educational system should not always be primarily based on tests and finals to discover whether a child is learning. This is the part that seemed more significant to me.

In class we weren't able to interview Mr. Fanning but we were able to interview Cope. Most of the questions and information we got from this interview was mainly his view/ goals when teaching students and his opinion about super teacher films. It seems his views of good teaching is bringing social justice. Each teacher has a different way of going about this. He personally likes to teach his students about different oppressed groups. Maybe by teaching students about oppressed groups in the past they won't think to judge groups that are oppressed now.

When asking about Cope's opinion about "saving students" which has a lot to do with super teacher films he responded with "from what?". Although he is a teacher, not everyone knows all the knowledge there is in the world. Being a teacher he finds himself learning more. For example he needs to keep updated with the news and whats going on in society. Although he feels super teacher movies are ridiculous, archetypes are ridiculous. He has though learned from many times of students, but saying that you saved someone is pretentious.

I think his teaching and learning ideas are more realistic, it was better to actually hear a real teachers opinions and teaching styles and goal than to watch it through some unrealistic film. I thought it was amusing for him to ask what students should be saved from. Although he does say that hopefully by saying he saved someone its better to teach a student to be better then some kid causing trouble on the street which is ideally more realistic. I don't think one single teacher can save a room full of students from their own personal lifestyles if it may be troublesome but it is more realistic to teach the students something worth learning depending on the teacher. For Copeland its more about not passing judgment, he does this by teaching history about the oppressed.

49-Class Film

Okay so apparently our class doesn't have the abilities to produce a class film because someone lost our tape or something, so I have to use the class A film. Which means I obviously was not able to participate in any making of this film. Although I wish I did have some sort of part in the film, it would have been fun.

I am not quite sure exactly what the message of the play is because I wasn't in the class but from watching the video it seems a little bit similar to the direction of what our class film was suppose to be like. Where the teacher is the one that seemed to be "saved". The teacher seemed to start out sad and depressed, he was drinking what I think is probably alcohol and it begins in some sort of dream sequence. In his dream he talks about poets, kids around him are laughing and goofing around but he seems to be able to get there attention by joking with them and relating what he was teaching to their lives. The fact that he was dreaming of this seems as if he wishes he was able to teach his class like this or maybe it is a memory of how he use to teach his class.

When woken up by a student asking if they were going to have class he brushes her off. This goes back to his real life, where his teaching skills don't seem to match up to his teaching skills or motivation in his dreams. And instead of trying to relate and teach to his students it seems as if he gave up. He has no more will to teach and just determines the faith of all the students based on their archetype. After insulting each of the students he completely gives up and walks out. None of the kids seem to care, probably because he didn't really try to make an impact.

If comparing this to a typical teacher film it seems that the first part of the short film where he was having a dream would be how a real typical teacher film would be like. Where at first the students would reject his authority but then the teacher gets their attention by kind of targeting the rebel or the most popular students. After that he kind of gets most of the students on his side.

When he wakes up the next day in the second sequence it kind of showed the opposite of a super teacher film. Instead of him using different tactics to relate to the students and start bonding with them he seems to gives up. It feels like he has a steaming hatred for the students and kind of tells them their path they will end up in. In most teacher films they are made aware of what their life can turn out in but the teacher is usually the one to let them know how they can "be saved". It seemed like this was like a harsh and probably unaffected way of doing that. And because the teacher gives up, and the students are made aware of their possible future, in the end the students just carry on not caring.

Well for one I am not sure if a teacher would ever get drunk and do that in real life, although I should say that cause you never know. There are some strange things that happen in school that I probably never know about. And I think if a teacher would go up to a student's face like that and insult them and tell them they were nothing they would probably talk back and say something. Although it depends on the teacher, if a really quite and mellow teacher were to one day just snap and tell a student that they were worthless then it would definitely be surprising and make some awkward silences.

Something that didn't happen in this film is someone being educated or realizing their true potentials. Students are kind of seen as roaches and pests. Kids who don't give a crap about their future. In most films the teacher and being in school is suppose to prevent teenagers from being total failures, at least that is what students are taught. By the teacher giving up on the students in the film it basically shows how the students have affected the teacher into being a drunk and not caring, while the students are just left to be failures in their lives. Education seems to always show that people need to be in school and pay attention or they will ruin someone's life including their own. Although I'm pretty sure this is not always true. :/

HW 48

So in class it seems that the direction for the class film in my class is more of where the teacher being "saved" or taught more by the students. I guess I see the teacher as being kind of unmotivated, he most likely feels the way students do when they wake up for school in the morning. So I just imagined a morning scene.

Morning.
The alarm sounds, beeping and beeping. Bob (or whatever name we end up giving the teacher) opens his eyes. The sun shines from his window and glares straight into his eyes. He squints and grunts with annoyance as he covers he shades his eyes with his hand. He slowly pulls himself up and tapping the alarm clock off. Bob feels tired and unmotivated to get up. Thinking to himself why he really needed to get up for the first day of work teaching high school juniors.

Eventually after a few seconds of thoughts and staring at the floor he gets up and grabs a pair of jeans and a button down shirt from his pile of clothing and throws it on. He slowly walks to the bathroom sliding his feel against the floor. In the bathroom he splashes some cold water on his face to wake himself up. Everything to him feels and looks hazy. He looks at himself in the mirror, widens his eyes and sighs.

After spending some time in the bathroom he head to the kitchen. Grabbing a bowl and a box of Cinnamon toast crunch cereal (or whatever cereal) and pours some cereal into the bowl. He turns to the fridge to get some milk but sudden realizes there is a note stuck onto the fridge. He squints his eyes and takes a closer look. "Be home late tonight...xoxo" it reads. He studies the note, thinking how his wife has been home late a lot lately. He then turns around and walks to the living room to sit and watch television, crunching on his breakfast. He frequently looks at the time,trying to use as much time as he can till the very last minute he has to leave for work. He figures if he could leave at the very last moment, just making him on time for work he won't have to be early dealing with the new loud and obnoxious set of kids.

And that is my crappy part/vision a part of the movie so far i guess. Man i suck...

47 Class Film

I always kinda sucked at this kinda stuff. But I am excited and looking more forward to this then anything we've been doing. I'll be fun :)

*One idea we seem to bring up in my class is basically switching rolls. In a lot of the films we see its the teacher "saving" the students. But we wanna see the students save the teacher.
*I think i'd be cool to figure out whether we want this to work or not, meaning does the teacher get "saved" or does he just end up failing.
*I'd be cool if the teacher had some type of problem, I see this in movies all the time. Like the main character is a lonely soul, or he has a drug problem, or or or he has trouble at home. Some cheesey thing like that.
*I don't quite know what kinda tone I would think the movie would be but it always depends on my mood so that doesn't really help at all. Its 2am right now and I'm feeling kinda mellow, sleepy, and my eyes sting so I'd probably want the movie to have that type of mellow and sleepy hollow tone to it just cause that is how I'm feeling write this post at the moment. If I was in a happy mood I'd probably want it to have more of a comic feel to the movie. Something like Superbad but probably more PG would be fun.
*So in every movie there is always some climax or some big conflict that happens just as everything seems to be going well. Like just as soon as the teacher or the students seem to be finding peace and are all getting along, something comes in to totally shoot it down to rock bottom where the characters are tested to see if they can climb back up, reviving themselves once more.
*We should also maybe follow that trope of the badass rebel kid, but maybe are movie the kid would be seen more of someone who pushes the teacher and challenges him where the teacher realizes he can teach more then just what the books tell him/her.

HW 46

So I ended up giving up on finding a book and just somewhat read Catcher in the Rye. I wasn't really excited to read this in the first place and was not excited trying to get my way through it either. It was kind of boring to be a seemed a little bit unrealistic but maybe that what the book seemed to be like. But to be honest I did not finish the book because for some reason it annoyed me and I roll through what I did read.

To make a short summary the book was about a guy named Holden who is kind of an exaggerated failure kid who goes to some school known as Pency.Im not really sure where that is but I think it is somewhere around New York because he travels there later on. Hes one of those kids who generally seem to not give a crap about school. He seems to judge everyone and get annoyed at everyone a lot. There is a whole bunch of what seems to be like teenager drama around the beginning of the story like whether his roommate had sex with some girl he likes, Jane. After having a fight with his roommate he decides to quit school and go to New York.

In New York he stays at some Hotel. In the Hotel he watches people outside his window that he can see in other rooms and they do really unusual things like cross dressing and doing weird sexual things. He calls some girl that he wants to get to have sex with him and gets annoyed and just hangs up. I didn't really get the point to this part of book but I guess its maybe to show more of Holden's character.

Later on after going out and being foolish and then going back to the Hotel he ends up hiring a prostitute that the elevator operator at the Hotel suggests for him. As the prostitute Sunny starts to prepare herself for sex Holden begings to kind of hesitate I guess and starts to just talk to her. He ends up making excuses so he does not have to have sex and offers to pay her anyways for her services. She tries to convince him but he resists and she just gets annoyed and goes to Marice to try to get Holden to pay more money. Marice beats him up and the prostitute takes 5 dollars. And this is where I kinda left off at.

This book seems over exaggerated. Its as if its saying if you do bad in school and drop out you'll become like this kid, sad, kinda rude, and being beat up by some prostitute's pimp. It shows a lot of the experiences of what being a student is like although it kinda seems a little over exaggerated to me.

HW 45

I read part of what I could for E. D. Hirsch’s Curriculum for Democracy. Besides from being kinda a time line of what Hirsch did. Hirsch theory is the idea that in order to have full advantage of something such as reading an article or a book we must have full knowledge and facts first. Students need to have more common knowledge first then they would be able to progress and be better thinkers. He is against the fact that students should teach themselves, students should be taught more of the facts and have more knowledge on subjects like the history, science, etc. It basically talks about how Hirsch idea of having knowledge is better. For example is when the writer asked a bunch of kids about the civil war and in return the children has no clue what he was speaking of or what the civil war really was despite being in what was known be be one of the best schools. When complaining the school shot back saying "Our kids don’t need to learn about the Civil War. What they are learning at P.S. 87 is how to learn about the Civil War." I guess in Hirsch perspective he would say that the kids couldn't learn HOW to learn about the Civil war without knowing what it is in the first place.

In the Faculty Shack reading which talks a lot about the list of principles which includes main points like learning to use your mind well, depth of coverage, basically that kids should be taught the skills on how to learn better rather then just be given facts and information. Sizer first researched about what was insufficient in schools it seemed before figure out the main principles for teaching students. Although many agreed with the fact that "students need to learn how to use their minds well" it seems that the outcome is what he described as "machine that they designed and operated" that was supposedly suppose to achieve this but in reality it doesn't. Which in result is why the principles were created.

At first I figure that Sizer's idea is what I agreed with most. I definetly think that students need to be taught skills to learn think logically and have the skills to actually learn better. This is something that I think I was always taught being in SOF. Although after thinking about it a lot I also kinda agree with Hirsch's theory too. Mainly because in many classes, especially social studies I tend to find my self unaware of what the teacher is talking about at times. The fact that I lack so much knowledge really puts me at a disadvantage or being able to learn or do things without actually bullshitting it sometimes. Or sometimes I just find myself doing it the way I see. Kinda like monkey see monkey do. This is definitely negative for me because it actually makes me feel stupid at times sadly. I feel dump or not as "educated" as other students who can practically say a whole time line accurately of a certain time period or something. I kind of wish I was taught more knowledge on certain subjects, that way the teachers can then teach us skills on learning and guiding us with everything else. I'm not agree with just telling us what to do and students just doing it or waiting for the answer which in most cases is like that in many classes. But some common knowledge could have probably definitely help me a lot, especially in feeling less stupid in my time in school.

44 Expectations

Its interesting that Obama's speech starts out with telling everyone his own personal difficulties with school. The fact that he had to be personal taught by his mother at 4am in the morning feeling tired and miserable. I am sure most of us, well from my perspective, I have the opportunity to go to school and I do not have to be forced to get up at 4am in the morning although 6:30am is bad enough. It seems like he is trying to manipulate us to think "well you think you have it bad, when I was younger..." to feel "appreciative" what education we have.

He also uses the whole idea of being responsible and how nothing else would matter, the teacher's responsibilities, governments responsibilities, or your parents would not matter unless YOU took responsibilities. It is put in our heads all the time how we have to be responsible for our own education. He makes us feel "special", how we are good enough to be someone important in the world like curing cancer but not unless we do our work in school. After the responsibility part of his speech he then blends it into helping United States. How we can help United States by maybe curing aids and junk. But to be honest, what are the chances that everyone is going to be some great researching to cure cancer and be the president of the USA just by doing that lab report in chemistry class.

In the Liberal Arts article, I understand where its coming from with how school and certain liberal arts classes teach us skills. I the worksheets or problems and junk we are given in class do help our problem solving skills, critical thinking, analysis, etc. Its the fact that the way we have to approach in learning these skills I think really unmotivated kids. In my opinion, I feel like I've learned most of the skills the best to my abilities only because I am bored. I know I am sure I can improve certain skills but feeling unmotivated or feeling like I am running a obstacle course over and over again (taking that metaphor from Andy) makes me feel tired. I know the tricks, when to jump, when to crawl, but it just gets repetitive and unmotivated.

Also being diverse is definitely not a problem for me, coming from the fact that I live in New York city and I come from a very diverse public school. And its great that Gettysburg students students can travel abroad to experience other cultural living but I doubt many public schools in New York can afford to do that if we can't even afford cups in the cafeteria for the shitty canned fruits. Why do we have to be taught later how on to "translate what they have learned into a potential career direction" when we should have the option to just get started on learning how to start the path into a potential career. I'm tired of being told that finding correlations in math has a lot to do with business companies. Why can't we just learn about business companies, how to start our own business and then about correlations instead (that's if I wanted a business career).


The License plate says "I was a high school drop out."

42 Significance

I think the main ideas I want to focus on with this school topic is basically the school curriculum. Why it was created the way it is with math, science, english, and history and the basic classes that are needed to be taken in high school. And with the interviews, other student's views, and personal views of what can be replaced or added on to the classes we already have. What are some things that should be taught or what would be primarily more helpful then what we are already learning. I mean what is the real point behind learning the quadratic functions formula or the formula to find the gravitational pull of a free falling object?

I feel this is kind of personal to me because I get really tired of sitting in class, day dreaming, always wondering why exactly I need to learn certain things or why I need to be in school the long amount of time that is needed in order to move on to college. At times I feel so unmotivated and disembodied mainly because I know that most of what we are being taught is not significant. And when we ask how of what we are being taught relates to the real world we are told some BS explanation.

My boyfriend is in college and he takes radiology classes because he wants to be a radiologist. Besides from his major classes he is allowed to pick as many elective classes as he want. He has taken Italian, French, Piano, Philosophy. At times I get jealous because I would love to learn things that actually interest me as well as classes that teach me about a career I want to pursue. Plus there are many things I need help me that would benefit my daily life, my self esteem, etc. For example, I would love to learn how to better my reading skills. Although we have english classes, Kinory seems to be teaching us the colors of the rainbows more then he does how to improve your reading skills (but that my opinion of course).

Also, my family is not the ideal family. I would love to have a class on how to keep a good relationships with family members or just how to have a good relationship with anybody. Just so I do not inherit to selfish traits my family does so that I can have a better family (if I do) in the future, or at least have good bonds with people I like instead struggling, trying to figure out how to not have a awkward conversation with someone I am not necessarily comfortable or know very well.

I would like to also maybe have a class or someone teach me how to manage my money or how to get a part time job because for some reason that seems to be more difficult for me than all my friends. I am how hard is it to get a minimum wage job? Apparently I am not doing something right if it is so difficult for me. Sure we have Internship classes and we go over how to do a resume over and over again in internship class but it feels more like we are told how to do things in classes but are not taught and taken through the process or what to expect.

Besides from me I figure it would be good if there were classes on helping kids get out of the ghetto or to teach them how to not end up homeless. Helping kids choose the right path or notice that there is another path to take. What to expect in the future as we get old. I am sure I am not the only kid who can use a class on something that would benefit them as a individual.

Sorry for ranting...

Research About School

http://www.universityparent.com/2009/02/18/class-rank-unimportant
This is mainly about the importance of class rank. Or more specifically how it may not be very important. The main point of a class rank is basically for students to be top 10% of there class. It is mainly used for college admissions. Colleges assign a admission officer that checks for a person's high school rank in there classes and with that and other requirements they determine whether you are "worthy" enough to be accepted into the college. It also talks about how it would effect a students performance in school if class ranking was removed. It seem as if removing class rank does remove actual evidence of who is in first place but it still does not remove the fact that a grade A student is still the best in class. They would continue to keep working hard to be the best in their class whether they have a piece of paper or knowledge of their class rank. Although it may also encourage students to try to do better.

I think I can really relate to this article. Mainly because I think high school is complete bull at times but it makes me feel like a hypocrite because I do so well in school apparently (according to my grades). I think it is the fact that school at times seems to be like a competition with other students. I feel the appreciation of getting a good grade and getting A's in classes. Maybe it is because growing up I was never real praised a lot or noticed for any abilities that I had so I keep trying to be the best at what I do or maybe the most organized at what I do. Proving to myself that I can do good, getting the A on the report card at the end of the semester gives a sense of accomplishment. As if all the hard work was worth it. Although it is weird that I would put in so much hard work for a little letter or number on a piece of paper. I do not know my class rank, and although I do not know it still does not stop me from doing really well. Neither does cause me to slack.



http://www.almightydad.com/education/things-they-dont-teach-you-in-school
This article talks about this guy and his dad discussing about what are some key things that should be taught in school besides from choir classes such as math and English. There are many skills that should be being taught in school that would be actually helpful throughout our life. It talks about the difference between Book Smarts and Street Smarts. How Street Smarts may help us throughout life, these street smarts can otherwise to known as common sense. Some skills that this guy thought are life skills that should be taught in school include; How to Make Friends, How to deal with aging and he fact that we are going to die, and child care (how to take care of children, I guess when we have them). May not be something we are actually interested or relate to what we want to do in the future as a career but are actually basic skills of living.

I thought this was really interesting, there was so much discussions about schools teaching classes about things we need to know in our future such as how to do taxes and stuff I myself never really thought of classes that teach basic skills. I think these skills mentioned would be great. I mean a class to how to make friends, this would help me greatly for I do not have many friends, like really good friends (more then just a acquaintance), life life long friends. And I am not really good at making friends because at times I consider myself social awkward when I am not making small talk. So basically I think classes that directly help me as an individual would be of great interest such as how to great close bonds with family members or self defense classes or how to travel.


http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/8-essential-skills-they-didnt-teach-you-in-school.html
This is the 8 essential skills (apparently) that is not taught in high school or "Skills they didn't teach you in high school." This one is a little tiny bit different then the internet source above. As the previous one talks about stuff that needed to be taught such as how to make friends and how to cope with aging. This article relates a lot more to what was discussed in class. Things more broad such as how to speed read, how to manage time, how to negotiate and not get taken advantage of (much like Anias's idea), etc.

This is basically like an expanded idea of how school may not be teaching us significant life skills and things that we need in order to survive physically or mentally. Instead we learn about how to make a line of best fit on a graph, I mean a lot of the stuff in class may help us learn basic problem solving skills and think better but it is not as important as learning thing that can be seen as an everyday ritual. Like how to make sure you have good hygiene or how to clean things so its completely germ free. It makes me think of my boyfriend's foster sister who is 11 and just got her period a little while ago. She did not know what and I am guessing she was never taught by her parents as she is a foster child obviously, she figured there was something wrong and got scared, thought she was sick. My boyfriends mom had to explain and teacher what a period was, what to use during a period, and all the basics of what a women should do when they get there period. If there were a class like; what to expect in different stages of your life was taught then maybe things like this would not happen. Boys and girls would be less frightened or self conscious, etc.

When I was younger I had to travel back and forth between Hong Kong and New York since I was about 9 years old. I was never taught how to travel, what things to look out for, what to do if i felt sick, what foods to bring, where to look for gate numbers, what I was not suppose to bring on planes then I would have probably had a lighter time traveling and less of a scary one. I mean now I taught myself how to travel and it comes pretty easy to me when I travel being 18 and all but that was through all the crying cause I didn't know what was happening when a plane flight was delayed, I thought I was going to get lost in the middle of know where. Or what it meant when the guards check through all your personal belongings,or that you can asking ask the plane stewardess to bring you food and drinks. There are many life skills that should be taught depending on a personals individual role, needs, and lifestyles.

Add On
http://www.hkis.edu.hk/contentpage.php?type=wg&workplaceID=211&appid=237&apptype=2
So I was just thinking about when I went to school at HKIS in "lower primary" (thats what they called it) and how much fun it was and how much I actually enjoyed high school. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been life if my parents did not divorce of if my dad didn't go broke and was able to afford such an expensive school like HKIS, what would if have been like if I actually stayed and went there as a high school student. I was curious so I looked up the high school curriculum, my friend from Hong Kong who I knew since my days at HKIS would tell me how lucky I was I did not have to take sewing classes or cooking classes or modern technology classes or whatever. And in my mind I figured I would kill to take cooking, sewing, technology classes. So I wanted to compare the curriculum they have to School of the Future that primary only has Math, Science, English, Social Studies, and one year of electives which can be chosen from around 5 different subjects. Unless you failed a class of course.

Many of the courses at HKIS are pretty basic just like SOF. They have Math and Science. Although they have certain things different such as Modern Language which is something I could probably use. It apparently helps you have "Effective communication skills" which I could possibly use at times. They also teach Mandarin which I never stayed in HKIS enough to learn fully. My brother is able to speak cantonese and Mandarin. Unfortunately I was not, I would have liked to learn. There is Information Technology which I think teaches you how to use modern technology and Health and Well being which is definitely something that should be taught to kids. I personally would have liked to stay in HKIS i guess because it seems like it would better help me as a individual student. I doubt it would for a different student but for me it does so I guess there is always different schools or curriculums that is needed to fit each students individual needs.

http://www.briankim.net/blog/2007/03/top-5-things-that-should-be-taught-in-every-school/
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-School-Teaches-Us-to-Fail-at-Everything&id=633496

School Interviews

Interview 1- Male- 23 years
Did you enjoy school when you were in high school?
No I didn't because in my generation the education wasn't good, they did not have up to date technology, and it was unsafe.

What do you mean by unsafe?
There were a lot of gangs, violence, they a lot of weapons being brought in such as knives and such.

If there was something you could have changed to make your high school days better, what would it be?
Have the same kind of quality that a high school in Manhattan would have such as more teacher, more safety, more opportunities such as being able to get scholarships to good colleges or internships.

So what do you think the real point of school is?
Knowledge to get you ready for the future. Although I think high school should be 2 years rather then 4 years because a lot of the classes are not necessary to get into college or a program you want to get into.

If you could choose what classes you were able to learn in high school what would they be?
English because its really important. Chemistry or science because I want to be a radiologist so I would want to take a class that further my knowledge or get me ready for that.

Alicia
Do you like school?
No

Why?
I don't feel like its a uncomfortable environment because I can't always live up to the standards that teachers have of me which makes me feel like a failure but I am looking forward to college because I am able to choose my classes that I want.

Do you think you would enjoy high school more if you could choose the classes you were learning? Any classes you want?
Yes, much better because then I would actually have a interest in the classes that I would have compared to being forced to learn something uninteresting to me.


What do you think the point of high school really is?
uhh...to prepare you for society, to help you cope with different personalities and set you up a future in the professional world. Although I don't always think that school does this justice.

Dad
How was school different in the past then to school now?
Well remember that I am two generations before you. I went to public schools in new jersey and in my opinion is that schools there were good in educations like what your learning (math, science, biology and all that stuff) but there are more individualized attention for kids now then now. And the work that are done today are more creative, the teachers are more creative.

What do you mean creative?
I think they try to make it more interesting for there student. When I went to school teachers taught more about whats written. The subjects were not as done creativity as it was done now. Although I never finished so what do I know?

Why didn't you finish?
Well I didn't really have a choice, I was forced to go to work to survive. My parents were divorced and I was put out to make a living for myself at the age of 16. I did finish, I finished high school at night and got a GED.

What do you think the point of school is now in my generation?
I think the point should be to keep the interest up for the students for the kid to go on to college or have a good oppourtunity to find a good career beyond Mcdonalds. Here the problem today, unless your creative your generation and the next one has problems because the manufacturing jobs that I would go into in my generation has disappeared so we've become more of a service country so it means you have to be more well prepared.

So do you think schools is actually doing so?
Well, there was something I think was better in my age. The schools had technical programs; people who didn't go to college, there were classes that were provided, they had technical classes like building,plumb, electrical, etc. They have that in France and Germany I think where you make a decision early on. Although college people use to look down on those classes, mean while a guy taking plumbing classes would grow up to become some great plumber with a great job inventing great plumbing stuff.

Me
What do you think the main point of school is?
I think the main point of school is to keep kids off the streets and from home, keeps kids from doing nothing and taking real jobs. For example, I've tried going job hunting for minimum wage jobs that would seem easy to get but its much hard when you don't have any experience of a high school degree. I never really understand what that is about, I'm pretty sure I do not need a high school degree to work at a clothing store arranging clothes. I am not too sure about why or what kids are being kept from but a little further explanation I can probably get a better idea.

Do you enjoy school? Why or why not?
I particularly do not enjoy school. I'm not sure why because there are so many specific reasons on different days. The majority of days I dislike school but there are some unique days that I wake up feeling good and wanting to go. There are many reason such as: needing to wake up early, needing to play a certain role that I usual feel uncomfortable, learning really tiring and probably unimportant subjects in school that will not help me later on in life, the amount of annoyance and stress from other students personalities that I for some reason cannot relate to, stress from homework when we already do work in school, the expectation of "doing good" because I'm Asian or the "normal" on in the family, or not being seen as a "failure" if I don't graduate. I hate that it is put in our heads that if we don't do school we are complete losers that fail at life.

Do you think you would enjoy school more if you got to pick the classes?
Maybe. I think I would enjoy school more if I was able to pick classes that I enjoy such as learning about animals, art, etc. Although I would most likely want to learn about stuff like how to do taxes which most likely I would not enjoy but at least I would have the idea that it is something that is important and useful.

Megan-18-
So I know you had a hard time in high school and got your GED, do you regret not graduating from a real high school?
Umm, not really. I mean I am in college and doing a lot better in college then I ever did in high school. The GED was SOOOO easy, the only thing that sucks about not graduating from a high school is that I have to take math and English classes for no credits to make up for missing out on it in high school. Not a big deal though.

What about high school that made you not want to go or made you decide to just get your GED?
I don't know. I mean I was having a hard time in my life with like [my boyfriend] and like my dad passing away and stuff. I think it was just so annoying because I had friends from my school but I just could not connect with them. And also because my boyfriend was in college already and I guess it was as if I wanted to catch up with him. I just slacked in high school so much, I couldn't find myself to like go to class and stuff.

Well, if you are taking basic english and math in college, how come you are doing so much better in those classes in college then in high school?
I don't know, I never thought of that. Maybe its the way it is scheduled. Like I like college because you can kind of pick most of your classes in what major you want to go in or like your can pick what time you have your classes. In high school you are given you classes and forced to go to them. And also I think college is like more important since I get to take classes in child education since I want to be a teacher and stuff.

Do you think you would have enjoyed high school or finished high school if you were able to pick your classes?
Maybe. Although I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with my life back then. Also I probably wouldn't like needing to pick classes to last for 9 hours a day. So annoying.

School Assignment #38

Part B
"I hate school" I do not think I can count up how many times I have heard that since I first started school in what? Kindergarden? I started out with school with a really negative experience. I went to a really tradition chinese school where everything was really strict, we were never aloud to speak unless spoken to, we had to walk in line, and it was my idea of a prison as a little kid. I was so unhappy. I did not have nap time, recess, play time, and I was bullied. It was until I entered 3rd grade into Hong Kong International school which was a british based school. It was a totally different experience for me, it was actually fun and I did not have to speak chinese and do assignments in chinese where I would fail all the time. And people noticed I was a lot more happy, I smiled more and laughed more. This is when I actually enjoyed school. I never thought about why I was in school or what the point of school was. I just figured it was something you had to go to, I think it was mainly the fact that I enjoyed school as well.

When I moved here to New York I went to PS183, it was also a drastic change. There was diversity, I was use to seeing mainly chinese and white kids at school. It was really weird but all I remember in fourth grade being the new kid coming in the middle of the semester I thought about making friends and the first thing I remember was thinking "I wanna make friends with the popular girls". Which I did sadly (one of them being my best friend still who is like my complete opposite). I think this was the part of school where I kind of thought that school was mainly for socializing and making friends. We were needed to be taken to school every morning and picked up from school every afternoon. I never really had a choice about whether I wanted to go to school or not.

When coming to SOF I was a complete looser. I had no friends and I was bullied. I started to develop a hate for school because I figured out I could. Thats pretty much all I remember about middle school. I don't remember the specifics of anything before 11th grade, I try not to remember. Being in high school now I dislike school. I dislike waking up in the morning, I think I always have at least one thought of "nah, you shouldn't go to school to day". But I end up always voluntarily going. I hate school when there is school, although I get so bored when there isn't school. I hate the long hours, long hours of seeing the same faces everyday and learning different insignificant subjects. I could get a job but I can't find one, which definitely concludes the idea that we are kept in school so we don't take labor away from older people. I think the idea that we are in school to keep us out of trouble is stupid. I hate how much germs there is in school for I have gotten so sick so many times because I think I have a pretty weak immune system. I hate the drama and unnecessary attention in school. I hate the higher authority figures that is given to the teachers. I pretty much don't hang out with anyone from school. I really don't like anything about school.

Although I primarily hate school, its weird to say I still go to school. I am a really good student, I follow the rules, and am involved with my schedule to graduate. Why? Why is it that I know school is most likely bullshit and a waste of life but still go to school and still follow all the rules and assignments. I am still making sense of why myself. I know this may sound sort of dumb as well but I guess maybe its because I am aware of my ideas of school but still do everything school expects me to do because I'm not one to be involved in all the drama and all the annoyance of everything if I didn't follow up to the expectations of school. Or maybe thats just an excuse, I have really concluded yet...

Cool Video Project

Me and other people in my group (Samantha, Anias, Granit) made our video in the gym. Anias's scene is by far the best in my opinion. He did a great job. :) Its not the best video every but basically shows all the points of views of certain people and how they interact or what Andy calls "face".

Untitled from Cloe on Vimeo.

I guess one thing I would like people to notice more is how people interact or try to act cool or what people see as cool. One place that a lot of "coolness" takes place is definitely the gym. My idea of this video is either to show what people feel is cool for them during gym class. And to really show how people are separated into different groups in the gym which is like different roles they are playing. For example, there are the guys playing basketball trying to make the shot to impress each other and the people watching, there are the girls who sit on the side doing homework, listening to music, talking and gossiping. There are the athletic kids/ girls who play volleyball, sing, dance, and basically project their voice for people to hear the best they can. And then there are the people playing settle games like ping pong that isn't a game like basketball, it doesn't involve showing up your skills and each taking turns with the paddle. These are basically some of the roles people play and the way they do it in the specific setting of the gym.
We all definitely contributed a good amount to this video. We were all in the video (our point's of view) obviously doing different things. Mainly doing what we would usually do during gym which made the shooting process pretty easy. Anias did a really impressive job being able to do a layup with a camera in one hand. :)
We basically came up with an idea of different perspectives and interactions during gym. We then distributed which parts we would shoot and the order we would put it in. My contribution was the second scene in the video, I also did the majority of the really amateur editing of the video using Windows movie maker.
I think making art is cool. I come from a really artsy family so growing up I felt it was uncool if you did not have some sort of artistic talent like singing, dancing, painting. My artistic talent that is more noticed in my family is sketching and paining. My dad's is singing, and he use to play the guitar when he was younger. My brother's (if you consider a type of art) is making ware hammer pieces and painting them, he is actually really good at sketching too surprisingly. So I always tried to show off the fact that I can be artistic to try to be cool. So yeah, I think art is cool. My ability to do videos though is not that cool since I am not that great at it, so obviously filming is not my type of art.

Cool Paper

Introduction
Being called fake is probably one of the biggest insults known to teenagers. It is a term used to imply that someone is not being someone you are not, or in other words you are not being "your true self". I have used my share of this statement before our exploration of cool. For instance I have told a friend to be herself when she was nervous about meeting a guy, looking back on all the moments I have sad "be yourself" I come to think; what does that even mean exactly? Who is your true self or what is it?There is no explanation of what this "true self" is. According to Goffman, we all are performers that play a character in certain situations. The concept of being "our true self" is an incorrect concept which is seen as the same level as being cool but it is a way for us to subconsciously cover up our empty feeling from acknowledgment of mortality. In reality we all just play roles and perform to fit what we call/ or want to call "our true self" to receive attention.

The Emptiness(Where it May come From)
Human beings have this feeling of emptiness, it is not sure where it is located but this feeling can branch out to many things, I think it depends on the person. It can be a feeling of loneliness, sadness, anger, melancholy, disappointment, un-importance, or a mixture. It can also depend on the social situation and people a person is surrounded with. For example is the idea that was brought up in class of "face", based on our cool status we are either credited or discredited during social interaction which can directly affect a persons coolness and dignity. Being able to identify that this emptiness exist does not thoroughly explain what it is, to get closer to what it is can be found by exploring where it comes from and/or why.

If you really thought about our significance, we are all just specks in this huge world, out of around 6 billion people thinking for yourself you are just one tiny speck that will probably never be famous/recognized by the masses out of 6 billion or have any importance. Shrinking this idea down to high school size, even in a high school of 400 teenagers you are just 1 of 400. This can make someone feel vulnerable and worthless, along side with not knowing the meaning of one's life or ones identity, this is when we generate a identity depending on certain situation thus calling it "true selves". We all are basically looking for our hero's journey which is the idea of being a main character and venturing out to seek "fabulous forces" and returning with wisdom and power. This idea of a hero's journey can also be identified with Joseph Campbell's term "Monomyth." This making one reason to why we may thrive for being cool, we generate identities for ourselves that are comfortable enough to wear and everyone is seem in their own perspective as the hero on their journey. Creating a character will give us some sort of recognition out of the large mass of people. Giving a feeling as if the hallow space of emptiness is being filled by a speckle of matter.

The second reason from which this emptiness comes from is from Becker's Theory of acknowledgment of death. If everyone was asked if they wanted to do something significant before they die they would most likely answer "yes". Everyone has to feel as if they are doing something important before they die, whether it is fulfilling a long thriving goal or feel significant to others. Everyone wants to fulfill some sort of important roll or do something that seems worth living for before they die. This can be caused of actually realizing that one day we are going to die. Thus making great new shows such as the Buried Life on MTV about 4 guys traveling the world to fulfill their '100 things do do before you die' list and helping others fulfill their choice as well(http://www.theburiedlife.com/about/). Knowing that we are just temporary make us feel insignificant which causes us to have "lists" or "accomplishments" or it makes us see ourselves as the main character struggle in this vast world trying to find their "hero's journey" before we die which is what causes us to want to be cool. Being able to be cool is a sense of fulfilling something on our list before we die. We cover up being scared of death with coolness.

Role Play
As we are the main character in our hero's journey to make our life meaningful before death, we create certain roles that fit our overall preferred character. Some of these roles can commonly be seen or related to fairytale stories or cheesy teenage television shows. For example the overall cool person to Alicia Proto is a caring guy, the sweet hearted ambitions kind of characters in her cool story. Or maybe the radical character from ali jo's story. Some other roles played in real life at SOF for example is the comedian which Conor plays well, Stephanie; the cool girl, or Victor; the video game nerd. We develop these roles which at times is expected from us. In Goffman's Presentation in Everyday Life shows the idea of how when someone walks into a room they instinctively analyze what the people around him/her are doing and immediately develop a persona or play a role that fits with what the others are doing. It is basically like we ourselves develop a own script and according to Goffman we choose our own props, costume, and play it for specific audiences. And if we play different for different audiences, which role are you playing is really you? Or what are you like when you take of the costume and stop acting? This is why the the idea of being our true self is incorrect, if we have so many different roles that we act out to different audiences then there is no such thing as true self. We would all technically be two faced, or have many faces.

There are many props we use in our acting career to project the role we are playing. The most common prop we may be using especially for teenagers is clothing, piercings and tattoos. More popular this year is tattoos. Getting a tattoo can give the person getting the tattoo a feeling of coolness and they are able to show certain ideas or experiences that may be cool to others. For example Mr. Fanning (who is actually pretty cool to me) states how when he got his first tattoos it was mainly for a rebel image he was trying to portray in a very conservative lifestyle. It was also as if it was some type of right of passage, becoming a man. His tattoos gave him the feeling of accomplishment as getting a tattoo is a long and painful process. His tattoos also show the experiences he has been through such as his experience on the operating table. They are like reminder to him of what role he plays or what roles he has played in the past. And with every tattoo there is always some sort of cool story behind it. In my own opinion I thought Mr.Fanning's story was quite cool.

Almost done......

Comments

Conor:
1.Hey Conor, I like where you are going with your paper. I think it is a tiny bit similar to mine. I would suggest that in your thesis to state maybe why we humans have a need to feel important and memorable. I am not sure if the idea of "the wrong things" is your reason why people have a need to feel important or the empty feeling inside us? I am not a great editor or good and giving feedback and it was a little confusing but maybe you would want to write: We concentrate on the wrong things such as our desire to dress, appear, and react certain ways, which is a way to be cool to fill our feeling of emptiness inside.

2. I agree with our need to obtain attention. Although many of us try to pretend as if obtaining attention is the last thing on our minds. In high school there is a good type of attention and a bad type. You want to get the type of attention that makes you seem "cool", meaning you being recognized by a large population of teenagers in high school as well as being admired. And there is gaining the type of attention that is looked down upon such as "people talking smack" (I think thats how it is said) or gaining attention in a "fake" way by not being "real", whatever that really means. This type of attention is seen as uncool. Also there is a need for attention among families as well. Gaining attention is like a competition. Many of the youngest kids in the family gain the most attention from their parents because they are more innocent, cute, and more likely to not be a "lost cause". At least that in the majority families that I have seen, my family is the perfect example. Just between my brother and I, I manage to gain the attention of my parents the most because I did what they expected me to do, go to school, graduate (not yet), be social.

3. You might want to split up your arguments into bits:
-Role Playing (We all are writing our own scripts)
-The Cool Rules, Anatomy of an Attitude (One of the articles we read in class)
-Tattoos (Mr. Fanning, you and write about how we use tattoos as a way to gain attention)
-Becker's Theory of death (emptiness)
-Separation from the mother theory (emptiness)
-Whatever emptiness feeling theories you might agree with. I like Becker's Theory the most.
Good Luck :)

To Jin:
I hope you don't mind that I comment you because my other triangle partner failed to do her rough draft yet and you did yours most recently. :)
I am a little bit confused about your thesis, I feel like it cuts off a little but maybe it is just me. Are you trying to say that our need to be cool affects us mentally and physically? Maybe thats how I would have wrote it; our strong need to be cool affects how we act physically and mentally.

In the first paragraph, I think I see where you are getting at. You might want to include our need to be "unique" and "different" but not too different or it would be seen as uncool and weird. We take this idea and we formulate a character, when we have choosen a character we play the roles that this character would play out, kind of like a script. For example Stephanie Adames in our class plays the popular girl, Conor plays the comedian, I play the "who cares" role. The cowboy hat dude who you interviewed wanted to play the role of maybe a badass. In doing so he comes of conceided, being well aware that he is "obviously cool" and smoking a cigar. In result he is able to portray this badass cowboy image. I like that you put the little part about the effects of smoking. It kind of shows how his result of trying to come off so cool maybe not be very healthy for him, the results may not be good.

List of stuff you may want to include:
-Peoples stories (you can talk about the roles of different people and compare them, what really cool. What is "fake" cool.)
-Maybe talk about why Mr. Fanning got the Tattoos- trying to fill a certain role he was playing.
-How may these roles help us or not help us?
-Self Presentation- The Presentation of Self in Every Day Life (An article Andy passed out in class, this would fit well in your paper I think)

Keep it up, semesters almost over. ;)