Final Draft Paper #3

Sydney Mitchell        

Dr. Sonia Begert

English 101

5 December 2012      

Imagine a room plagued by chaos. Swear words vandalizing your ears, children screaming and running throughout, desks and chairs strewn along the floor, the students blissfully oblivious to the fact that they are being utterly disrespectful to the authority figure standing timidly by the door. Now take a moment and replace that image with an orderly classroom occupied by students eager to learn, their attention directed solely at the teacher who is standing at the head of the class. What is the difference between these two scenarios, you ask? There is a certain component missing, a key ingredient; mutual respect. Regardless of the age of the students or the subject being taught, the component that is most necessary in a classroom is respect. Respect, as a give-and-take entity, enables the teacher to capture the students’ full attention and interest while still enabling the students to explore their creativity and grow as individuals, learning in a way that speaks to them. Unfortunately respect can be difficult to cultivate in an unruly classroom. If I was given the responsibility of managing an unruly classroom and cultivating respect, I would strive to get their attention, present myself as an unwavering authority, raise the bar for my students, and strive to teach them material that they would not only enjoy but also use in daily life.

            Methods of kindling respect will vary depending on the age of the students and the subject at hand. Therefore in order to accurately mold our tactics around the situation we must first set the stage. If I were to teach I would choose to be a tenth grade English Communications teacher because as C.S. Lewis so eloquently put it, “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides, and in this respect it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” Literature is a key component to allowing creativity into academics as well as developing communication skills, which integrates into everyday life.

We must come up with some attention-grabbing, jaw-dropping antic to effectively gain and maintain the students’ attention. As Barry Boyce said it in his essay A Real Education, “attention is one of the greatest challenges for children, and perhaps only more so in a world offering so much distraction so frequently.”  As the students began to trickle into the classroom on the first day of class, I would close my eyes and remain silent as I wrote on the blackboard, allowing jagged, erratic scribbles to craft my story. I would remain completely engrossed in my work, thinking freely, writing whatever came to mind upon the board and crossing out that which didn’t please me. As the last few students settled into their seats and gazed upon their mysterious teacher, I would suddenly stop and step back, silent for a moment before reading my story aloud. The story would need to be captivating and shocking, enough so to leave an impression. I would then instruct the students that throughout the semester they would be learning to craft works such as this by letting their mind wander to the places they thought they dare not go, for it is the dark recesses of our creative brain that contain the greatest topics. Not only would the students enjoy his exercise because it should allow them be boldly imaginative, but they would also be quite entranced in knowing that I was taking them on an adventure and they wouldn’t quite know what to expect. I would certainly keep them on their toes.

            Secondly, I would stick to my word and whether I made promises of reward or consequence, I would be sure to implement those actions. By standing my ground and staying true to my pre-discussed arrangements which would also be presented on the first day of class, the students would recognize that I held to my word with the utmost dedication. Granted, there must be a balance somewhere in the middle of the spectrum ranging from dictatorial authoritarian to complete pushover. In A New Spelling of My Name, Audre Lorde writes of her experiences in the school system as a young girl, musing “my first grade teacher, Sister Mary of Perpetual Help, was a disciplinarian of the first order…a week after I started school she sent a note home to my mother asking her not to dress me in so many layers of clothing because then I wouldn’t feel the strap on me behind when I was punished.” The notion that a mere first grader would experience this form of discipline is heart wrenching. No child of any age should be treated in this way. Thus, we must take this extreme and pull it a bit down the spectrum towards a gentler touch. If we can achieve a healthy balance of authority, then we are already well on our way to acquiring the respect of students, because they will respect discipline, just as they will appreciate reward.

  Often it seems that teachers allow their students to scrape by in class, putting forth the bare minimum of effort and allowing excuses for what is best described as sheer lack of discipline. The 2010 documentary film Waiting for ‘Superman’ gives us the term “dropout factories,” which is defined as a high school where “no more than sixty percent of freshmen make it to senior year.” The school districts shake their heads at these numbers, pointing their fingers at the students. It never ceases to amaze me the way in which we tend to scoff at our students’ plummeting grades and their lack of self-motivation, because how can we expect any different if we as teachers do not expect them to succeed and believe they have the power to do so? If we raise the bar of expectations, the students will quite naturally rise to it, or at least make more of an effort to do so. The students would not only respect me as their teacher for helping them set and achieve a higher goal, but they would respect themselves for completing the task which they previously thought impossible; setting a high bar and rising to it.

            However above all else, I believe that it is of the utmost important to avoid teaching monotonous materials solely for the sake of hoping to get students to do well on a standardized test. In his essay The Banking Concept of Education, Paulo Friere states that traditional, droning education often “anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, whereas give-and-take education involved a constant unveiling of reality.” In my classroom, I would teach my students not only about English and communications, but how this subject relates to art, integrity, passion, and how these qualities would help them exceed in all areas of life. Furthermore, in his piece I Just Wanna Be Average Mike Rose acknowledges “it is true that we’ve created an educational system that encourages our best and brightest to become cynical grade collectors and, in general, have developed an obsession with evaluation and assessment.” I would strive to show my students the power of knowledge and the endless positive ramifications their dedication could have not only on their grades, but their lives.

            Taming a wild classroom is no easy feat, and many teachers would run with their tail between their legs if presented with this task. However I truly believe that if I were a teacher I could successfully turn the chaos into a productive learning environment, As discussed, I would do this through the use of inspiration, a firm hard, realistically high expectations and entrancing curriculum. However what all of these tactics boil down to is as simple as respect. A classroom with respect would imply that the teacher takes interest in each of his students, understands and cares about their own needs and wants, and that the students themselves are eager to listen and learn. In my classroom, respect would be the first lesson.

 Works Cited

Lewis., C.S. BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web.

<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/cslewis115363.html>.

Waiting for ‘Superman’. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Lesley Chilcott, 2020. DVD.

(quote; ‘dropout factories, no more than sixty percent of freshmen make it to senior year.’)

Lorde Audre. “From Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.” Trumansburg, NY Crossing,

Random House Digital, Inc.. Jan 1,1982 Print

Rose, Mike. Phd. “I Just Wanna Be Average” (n.d.): n. pag. English 122-35&37 – Writing

about Community Colleges Today. Web 15 Nov. 2012

            <htttp:www.middlesexcc.edu/faculty/Robert_Roth/rosetext.htm>

Freire, Paulo. “The Banking Concept of Education.” Pedagogy of the Oppreseed. New

York: Continuum 1986. Print.

Boyce, Barry. "A Real Education." Shambhala Sun. N.p., May 2012. Web.

<http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3856&Itemid=0>.

VERY ROUGH, ROUGH DRAFT OF PAPER #3

I completely lost my first draft, so this is my second attempt written in about ten minutes, please don't judge.

Sydney Mitchell

Sonia Begert

English 101

3 December 2012

            Imagine a room plagued by chaos; swear words vandalizing your ears, children screaming and running throughout, desks and chairs strewn along the floor, the students blissfully oblivious to the fact that they are being utterly disrespectful to the authority figure standing timidly by the door.  Now take a moment and replace that image with an orderly classroom, occupied by students eager to learn, their attention directed solely at the teacher who is standing at the head of the class. What is the difference between these two scenarios, you ask? There is a certain component missing, a key ingredient; mutual respect. Regardless of the age of the students or the subject being taught, the component that is most necessary in a classroom is respect. Respect, as a give-and-take entity, enables the teacher to capture the students’ full attention and interest while still enabling the students to explore their creativity and grow as individuals, learning in a way that speaks to them. Unfortunately respect can be difficult to cultivate in an unruly classroom. If I was given the responsibility to create and maintain respect in a classroom I would get their attention, present myself as an unwavering authority, raise the bar for my students, and strive to teach them material that they would not only enjoy but also use in daily life.

            Methods of cultivating respect will vary depending on the age of the students and the subject at hand, so let us first set the classroom so that we can then mold our tactics around the situation. If I were to teach I would choose to be a tenth grade English Communications teacher, because as C.S. Lewis so eloquently put it, “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides, and in this respect it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” As Bryce Boyce said it in his essay A Real Education, attention is one of the greatest challenges for children, and perhaps only more so in a world offering so much distraction so frequently.” Therefore, we must come up with some attention-grabbing, jaw-dropping antic to effectively gain and maintain their intention. (insert crazy, first-day-of-class activity to get attention.)

            Secondly, I would stick to my word and whether I made promises of reward or consequence, I would be sure to implement those actions. By standing my ground and staying true to my pre-discussed arrangements, the students would recognize that I held to my word with the utmost dedication. (Insert source from Banking Education) Granted, there must be a balance somewhere in the middle of the spectrum ranging from dictatorial asshole to complete pushover. Yet if we can achieve that balance with these methods, then we are already well on our way to acquiring the respect of students, because they will respect discipline, just as they will appreciate reward.

            How can we scoff at our students’ plummeting grades and their lack of self-motivation to raise their scores if we as teachers do not expect better of them? Often it seems that teachers allow their students to scrape by in class, putting forth the bare minimum of effort and allowing excuses for what is best described as sheer lack of discipline. If we raise the bar of expectations, the students will quite naturally rise to it, or at least make more of an effort to do so.

            However above all else, I believe that it is of the utmost important to avoid the droning, monotonous materials that are taught solely for the sake of excelling at a standardized test. In my classroom, I would teach my students not only about English and communications, but also about art, integrity, passion, and how these qualities would help them exceed in all areas of life. (I wrote a lot about this inspiration and how a good teacher will make his students love a subject regardless of their predetermined like or dislike for it in my first paper, so I will pull from that.)

            CONCLUSION TBD

           

  “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me, all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” This brilliant quote was coined by Jackie Robinsons, the first African American baseball player of the modern era. Just as Jackie had to overcome

Resolutions on Education...Wrapping Things Up

Mike Rose's resolutions resemble, in ironic fashion, the tendencies of New Year’s resolutions...you go a few weeks, heck maybe even a few months, remaining steadfast and persistent and dedicated to your resolution...and then you begin to slowly slip into your old routines and suddenly whoosh, your resolutions have been thrown out of a three-story window and crash to the ground in an unsuccessful heap.

This comparison is only viable because Rose’s list of resolutions was made in 2010 in hopes of a better 2011…but at this point in time we are creeping up on the year 2013, and it is clear that none of the resolutions held strong, otherwise we would be looking at a vastly different educational system.

            However taken out of the time period, the ideas themselves are highly synonymous with those of Lewis Black. Particularly resolution #2 - questioning what “achievement” should mean in a democratic society, getting a higher rank in international comparisons or perhaps…something more? Rose also shares the beliefs of Freire as made evident in resolution #4 – to stop making the standardized test scores the gold-standard of achievement!
            Maybe if we gathered Freire, Rose, and Black in a room and held a conference for the sake of bettering education, we could actually get things moving and changing for the better.

John Taylor Gatto....my hat is off to you, sir. For you have managed to put into words my true regards for education and the schooling system, the corrupt, useless, failing body that it is...

This essay was brilliantly written, wonderfully supported, and all-together captivating. I agree wholeheartedly with Gatto’s philosophy. He states the public schooling, which has been in practice for roughly a century, has six main functions:

1.      Adjustive …destroys the idea that useful/interesting material should be taught

2.      Integrating …makes children as alike as possible

3.      Directive…logs evidence mathematically and anecdotally on your permanent record.

4.      Differentiating…sorted and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits (not exactly rising to full potential)

5.      Selective…establishes the pecking order

6.      Propaedeutic…teaches a small group to manage the continuation of the societal system and how to continue cultivating a population that is deliberately dumbed down

NONE OF THESE “FUNCTIONS” ARE DOING ANY GOOD!!!

Gatto said that the solution is “simple and glorious; to let them manage themselves.” Amen, brother. As someone who was able to bypass the drama of high school and shrink five years of what would have been time wasted sitting in a classroom into just two years jam-packed with useful information and skills, I love the idea of allowing kids to learn at their own pace, have a say in their curriculum, and be forced to hold themselves to a higher standard! I am certainly ‘against school’….are you?

"You Can Silence My Voice But Never My Spirit"

The Mexican American Studies (MAS) program in Arizona was a booming success, an anomaly within the No Child Left Behind era, the Tucson Unified School District, and the state of Arizona itself. With a fifty percent increase from the national high school graduation average of 44% (that’s a 94% graduation rate, for any of you who have trouble with math – an incredible feat), and a 70% percent college enrolment rate compared to just 24% nationally, the success of the MAS is undeniable. However the success frightened people. As Deb, the author of the article, so eloquently put it, “Young people being empowered is scary to many people, institutions and establishments.”

The very idea that these students were becoming capable of so much robbed “institutions and establishments” of their security and confidence…and they didn’t like that one bit. It wasn’t what the MAS was doing that was causing this uncertainty…it was who they were. It saddens me that school authorities/boards are so insecure that they would shut down such a successful program because of its success. Not to mention the fact that it is “frustrating to see someone who doesn’t have a background in education setting education policy.” They cannot be trusted to make good decisions for school programs.

At this point, our only hope for the MAS program lies in the perseverance of these bright students themselves.

How Does Art Impact Students?

When I think of art, I imagine abstract finger paintings, swatches of canvas dripping with watercolors, paper covered in erratic scribbles, and of course the ever-baffling “modern art”. However after reading Keith Gilyard’s article Children, Arts, and Du Bois,  I understand that art is not something that always takes place on a canvas. Art is anything that involves an element of creativity and ingenuity that goes beyond the norm and pushes boundaries. Art is speaking, art is writing, art is poetry, art is singing and dancing and loving and thriving and learning…art is LIFE.

            Art is hugely beneficial to students because it allows them to be unabashedly, daringly creative; art gets you thinking and moving. It stimulates the brain and gives students the courage and confidence necessary to take that creativity into all subjects. Math, science, English, history; these subjects can be horrifically boring, or, you can be inventive and challenge yourself to look at them in a new light and make them interesting.
            So, is art “good” for students? Absolutely.

"The arts provide a more comprehensive and insightful education because they invite students to explore the emotional, intuitive, and irrational aspects of life that science is hard pressed to explain. " – Charles Fowler

Five Things I Would do to Make a Difference in Education…

Wow…tough question! The educational system is in such a deep rut, the damage done seems nearly irrevocable. As someone with very little credited education in the way of education, I suppose all I have to rely on is my own personal experiences. I am also answering this question with the assumption that there are ample funds and resources available:

1.      Get rid of standardized testing altogether. No good comes from them; they are the antithesis to creativity and innovation, and attempt to conform students inside an intellectual box. Abolishing standardized tests would allow teachers to teach their students actual useful information that they could utilize in real life, as opposed to teaching them useless, mind-numbing material just for the sake of passing a test.

2.      Combine the boards and eliminate the conflicting codes. There are thousands and thousands of school boards throughout the country that remain stubborn in their so-called brave attempts to right the school system. However with so many school boards competing, each of them convinced that THEY have the best ideas, we aren’t getting anywhere. Two heads are better than one, right? I say we work together and create a single board with a few satellite boards to implement the communally created ideas that might actually work. We need to all be on the same page for anything substantial and long-lasting to get done.

3.      No more tenure!!! Tenure allows teachers to practically sleep through class, because after just two years of teaching, teachers are granted immunity. They get paid whether their students learn or not, and that means most teachers take the easy road, grabbing the paycheck and leaving their students to fend for themselves. Tenure is the most FRUSTRATING, SENSELESS, HARMFUL invention. Ever.

4.      Make free tutors available after-hours. Often, teachers flee the school as soon as the clock strikes 3:00 (or whenever school gets out) and high-tail it home, making it nearly impossible for struggling students to get the individual attention they need. Tutors cost money, and private tutoring is not an option for most families. Perhaps if we put a bit of funding towards supplying free tutors for struggling students as opposed to using funds to buy more vending machines filled with candy, students might be doing a bit better.

5.      Raise the bar. We cannot allow our students to be scraping by with C’s, D’s, and F’s. We need to set the bar a bit higher and implement serious consequences for falling grades. If the students have good teachers, tutors, and specialized/individualized education available to them, there is no reason for them to be failing. We need to get not only students, but parents and teachers as well, to understand that students will rise to expectations, so what is the harm in setting them higher?

A Real Education...?

As soon as I was directed to a site by the name of “Shambhala Sun” with a vast inventory of articles on meditation, Buddhism and culture, I became skeptical of the credibility of the article on education. However A Real Education, written by Bryce Boyce, proved to have some real truth to it. Boyce states that “attention is one of the greatest challenges for children, and perhaps only more so in a world offering so much distraction so frequently.” He raises the point that no matter how much education and preparation a student has, there will come a time where he or she is inadequately equipped. However remaining calm, being able to control one’s emotions and taking the time to think through problems will enable you to project confidence. And one thing is for sure; confidence is always a good thing. Every student will have different methods of calming/centering themselves, but having the ability to do so, regardless of how they are able to do it, is an absolute advantage. 
This act of regrouping and reorganizing thoughts in the midst of flummoxing circumstances and emotions is hugely beneficial to any student.  

Gift of Grit

“Hug your kids and kiss their boo-boos, at least until you have to step back so they can develop grit. “          Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large presents the idea that character, a key component to a child’s success, is in fact a learned quality. That is to say, character can actually be taught. Although the column itself is rather short, Jerry gets his message across rather well and presents the idea that while it is perfectly fine to show affection to your children throughout their lives, the excessive coddling must stop early enough for them to gain the courage to peek out from behind their mothers skirt and face the real world.   A key component to character is grit; the ability to role with the punches, stand your ground, and make your own way.           Grit in relation to students K-12 is a tricky balance. We must know when to “cut them off,” so to speak, and let the students have the necessary freedom to learn for themselves, while maintaining encouragement and support all the while. If we are able to achieve this balance, grit (and in turn, character) will surely develop.

Waiting for Superman....Unfinished Business

In her essay Handlin our (Unfinished) Bidness, Geneva Smitherman takes a look at African American Language curriculum, a sub-category of the overall mess that is the educational system. While reading Smitherman's essay, her personal hatred for the dysfunction that plagues education becomes very evident. The disappointment displayed in this piece of writing directly links to the problem posed in the 2010 documentary film Waiting for ‘Superman”. The film takes an in-depth, daringly honest look at the failures of the American public education system by following the difficult journeys of several underprivileged children as they strive to be accepted into a charter school.

The school system has become trapped in a state of cyclical failure; it is hard to tell where the failure began, but it is easy to see where it has spread. With thousands upon thousands of school boards with conflicting codes of conduct, the law providing tenure to practically any teacher that remains living and breathing for two years in the classroom, and teachers that live by the motto that they get paid whether their students learn or not, it is no wonder that the educational system is spiraling downwards.

Smitherman commented that “schooling should not be about convincing students to play the game, but helping them understand how the game’s been rigged and more importantly, how they can work to change it.” Standardized testing is perhaps the most corrupted component of this “game,” forcing students to adapt to a rigid idea of what knowledge is. The American educational system is in need of a serious overhaul, and we need to act sooner rather than later if we want to make a real change.

Final Draft Paper #2 - Revised

Sydney Mitchell
Sonia Begert
English 101
9 October 2012

Chances are you had a favorite teacher when you were in grade school. That one class you looked forward to going to, where you felt empowered and capable. The teacher whose mere voice captured your attention because you knew something magnificent and profound was bound to escape their mouth and you could not bear to miss it. What was it that made that teacher so memorable? It was most likely the way they inspired you. The defining role of a teacher is to inspire; whether it be through acting as an ally, an enemy, or perhaps a parental figure, what sets some teachers apart from the rest is their unique ability to light a fire of desire for knowledge in their students. The question is, how do they do it? Let us examine Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante, two teachers who live and breathe inspiration.

Keating strolls into the room on the first day of class, whistling a tune that displaces the stern air of silence at Welton Academy. In this scene in Dead Poets Society, the first tenant of inspiration becomes evident; the element of surprise. Keating managed to catch his students off-guard on the very first day of class by taking the lesson out of the classroom. Throughout the year he persists to come up with effective, albeit unconventional, ways of getting his students’ attention. In particular, Keating makes his subject exciting by animating poems using character voices, literally ripping apart the traditional curriculum and introducing new styles of interpretation. Keating also combines physical activity with learning, which according to study done by the Department of Exercise Science at the University of Georgia “facilitates information processing and memory functions.” Not only was Keating giving his students a good workout, he was increasing their capacity for new information.

When examining Escalante’s means of capturing his students’ attention in Stand and Deliver, we see that he also possesses an indescribable tone of ingenuity in his teaching style. On his second day of class, after witnessing the raucous riot of students the previous day and coming to realize that this was no traditional classroom, Escalante strolls in wearing a butchers cap and wielding a thick German accent as he proceeds to slice an apple in half, silencing the class with a loud bang! In the following weeks, Escalante gives each student the same material in different ways, enabling them to learn in a way they understand. This ingenuity that both Keating and Escalante possess is what began kindling their students’ curiosity for knowledge.

Towards the middle of Dead Poets Society in what can only be described as a moment of righteous anger and indignant if not crazed honesty, Keating clamps his hands over the eyes of a student struggling to invent a poem, and the student responds by being confused and angry at first, but soon shouting out a string of brilliant verse. This is perhaps the most astounding example of the second factor in true inspiration; getting students riled up, angry, and imaginative. By allowing his students to use class time as an opportunity to be unabashedly creative, Keating creates a subconscious thirst for further freedom, a break from the monotony of Welton, and true individuality. In his essay, The Banking Concept of Education, Paulo Freire argues that traditional, dictatorial education “anesthetizes and inhibits creative power.” This is exactly what Welton was doing by having such rigid curriculum. However through encouraging the otherwise insane ambitions in his student’s minds, Keating was breaking free from this tradition and instead fueling their passion and inspiring students to achieve levels of greatness beyond imagination.

In a parallel, although the setting may be different at Garfield and the students are not aching for freedom, Escalante addresses the fact that they are indeed aching for discipline. Just as in physical combat it is sometimes possible to use the opponents increased weight and strength to your advantage, Escalante used the school board’s doubt and the student’s own insecurities to push them to desire success. By using what is best described as reverse psychology and employing the notion that his students couldn’t succeed, Escalante’s students subconsciously desired to prove people wrong and show the world that they could rise above their stereotypes and flourish. In her essay A New Spelling of My Name, Audre Lorde describes herself as being “black and nearly blind…different.” However, throughout her schooling, Audre learned to use her disability instead as an opportunity to thrive. Similarly, both Keating and Escalante utilized their students’ disabilities, discrimination, subconscious anger and rebellion to their advantage. These teachers used their students’ desire to spite their family, friends, and other teachers to instead cultivate a personal desire to thrive.

Wit, surprise, ingenuity, fiery passion; they crescendo to bring us the third and perhaps most important component of inspiration, relentless pursuit. Even as hope seems lost as Keating’s star student Neil is ridiculed by his father for pursuing his love of acting, and even as despair and seemingly inevitable defeat begin to settle in, Keating remains invested and dedicated to his students, encouraging them stay strong.

Comparatively, even with doubt, racial stereotyping, blatant lack of support, and unfair mistrust clouding the intellectual sky, Escalante and his students remain steadfast and persistent. We see that these two teachers, and their students as well, possess a candor and unfaltering persistence that gives them a truly admirable quality.  Throughout Stand and Deliver we watch as Escalante devotes more and more time to his students. Studying weekends, coming early and working late, resolving to stay and study until his students understand the curriculum, even going so far as to invite them into his own home. All in the name of dedication. In The Banking Concept of Education Freire also addresses the notion that often, traditional education “turns students into ‘receptacles’ to be ‘filled’ by the teacher…education becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor.” That is to say, often in education teachers not only devote as little time as possible to their students, but there is no give-and-take, no pursuit of a relationship between the student and teachers themselves. This dedication is the marrow of inspiration, which in turn is the foundation of success. When this pursuit and relationship are present, there is no stopping a student.

So what is it that makes a teacher memorable? Their wit, their dedication, their ingenuity, their “wow-factor”? It is all of these qualities lumped together which produce a priceless product; inspiration. Inspiration comes in many forms, but when it is delivered from teacher to student, and this bond is as rare as it is to find orchids growing in the arctic, it is to be treasured. In Mike Rose’s essay I Just Wanna Be Average, he describes the way in which a single teacher by the name of Jack MacFarland had managed to turn his entire educational experience around. Rose sates that he had “logged up too many years of scholastic indifference.” Yet all it takes is one great teacher willing to go the distance to change everything you thought you knew. Escalante and Keating, are not the perfect teachers, for there is no such thing as a perfect teacher. However they are two of the most resonating examples of inspiring educators I have ever been presented with, and I believe they should forever stand as models for inspiration.

Works Cited

"Result Filters." National Center for Biotechnology Information.

U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12595152>

Freire, Paulo. “The Banking Concept of Education” from Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970 Chapter 2                                                                              

Lorde Audre. “From Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.” p. 65-73

Random House Digital, Inc.. Jan 1,1982  

Rose, Mike. “I Just Wanna Be Average” Parts I & II, p. 6 (quote; ‘logged up too many years of scholastic indifference’)

Rought Draft For Paper #2

Sydney Mitchell

Sonia Begert

English 101

9 October 2012

Chances are you had a favorite teacher when you were in grade school. That one class you looked forward to going to, where you felt empowered and capable. The teacher whose mere voice captured your attention because you knew something magnificent and profound was bound to escape their mouth and you could not bear to miss it. What was it that made that teacher so memorable? The way they inspired you. The defining role of a teacher is to inspire; whether it be through acting as an ally, an enemy, or perhaps a parental figure, what sets some teachers apart from the rest is their unique ability to light a fire of desire for knowledge in their students. The question is, how do they do it? Let us examine Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante, two teachers who live and breathe inspiration.

Keating strolls into the room on the first day of class, whistling a tune that displaces the stern air of silence at Welton Academy. In this scene in Dead Poets Society, the first tenant of inspiration becomes evident; the element of surprise. Keating managed to catch his students off-guard on the very first day of class by taking the lesson out of the classroom. Throughout the year he persists to come up with effective, albeit unconventional, ways of getting his students’ attention. In particular, Keating makes his subject exciting by engaging his students in sports (insert random facts about how sports can improve brain function and learning capacity), animating poems using character voices, and literally ripping apart the traditional curriculum and introducing new styles of interpretation. Similarly, when examining Escalante’s means of capturing his students in Stand and Deliver, we see that he also possesses an indescribable tone of ingenuity in his teaching style; on his second day of class, after witnessing the raucous riot of students the previous day, Escalante strolls into the classroom wearing a butchers cap and wielding a thick German accent as he proceeds to slice an apple in half, silencing the class with a loud bang! This ingenuity that both Keating and Escalante possess is what began kindling their students’ curiosity for knowledge.

In what can only be described as a moment of righteous anger and indignant, if not crazed honesty, Keating clamps his hands over the eyes of a student struggling to invent a poem, and the student responds by being confused and angry at first, but soon shouting out a string of brilliant verse. This is perhaps the most astounding example of the second factor in true inspiration; getting students riled up, angry, and imaginative. By allowing his students to use class time as an opportunity to be unabashedly creative, Keating creates a subconscious thirst for further freedom, a break from the monotony of Welton, and true individuality. Through encouraging the otherwise insane ambitions in his student’s minds, Keating is fueling their passion and inspiring them to achieve levels of greatness beyond imagination. In a parallel, although the setting may be different at Garfield and the students are not aching for freedom, Escalante addresses the fact that they are indeed aching for discipline. Just as in physical combat it is sometimes possible to use the opponents increased weight and strength to your advantage, Escalante used the school board’s doubt and the student’s own insecurities to push them to desire success. By using what is best described as reverse psychology and employing the notion that his students couldn’t succeed, Escalante’s students subconsciously desired to prove people wrong and show the world that they could rise above their stereotypes and flourish. Both Keating and Escalante utilized their students’ subconscious anger and rebellion to their advantage, using their desire to spite their family, friends, and other teachers to instead cultivate a personal desire to thrive.

Wit, surprise, ingenuity, fiery passion; they crescendo to bring us the third and perhaps most important component of inspiration, relentless pursuit. Even as hope seems lost as Keating’s star student Neil is ridiculed by his father for pursuing his love of acting, and even as despair and inevitable defeat begin to settle in, Keating remains invested and dedicated to his students, encouraging them go for the gold. Comparatively, even with doubt, racial stereotyping, blatant lack of support, and unfair mistrust clouding the intellectual sky, Escalante and his students remain steadfast and persistent. We see that these two teachers, and their students as well, possess a candor and unfaltering persistence that gives them a truly admirable quality.  Throughout Stand and Deliver we watch as Escalante devotes more and more time to his students. Studying weekends, coming early and working late, resolving to stay and study until his students understand the curriculum, even going so far as to invite them into his own home. All in the name of dedication. This dedication is the marrow of inspiration, which in turn is the foundation of success.

So what is it that makes a teacher memorable? Their wit, their dedication, their ingenuity, their “wow-factor”? It is all of these qualities lumped together which produce a priceless product; inspiration. Inspiration comes in many forms, but when it is delivered from teacher to student, and this bond is as rare as it is to find orchids growing in the arctic, it is to be treasured. Escalante and Keating are not the perfect teachers, for there is no such thing as a perfect teacher. However they are two of the most resonating examples of inspiring educators I have ever encountered, and I believe they should forever stand as models for inspiration.

Paper #2 First Three Paragraphs

Sydney Mitchell

Sonia Begert

English 101

9 October 2012

To Inspire and to be Inspired

Chances are, you had a favorite teacher when you were in grade school. That one class you looked forward to going to, where you felt empowered and capable. The teacher whose mere voice captured your attention because you knew something magnificent and profound was bound to escape their mouth and you could not bear to miss it. What was it that made that teacher so memorable? The way they inspired you. The defining role of a teacher is to inspire; whether it be through acting as an ally, an enemy, or perhaps a parental figure, what sets some teachers apart from the rest is their unique ability to light a fire of desire for knowledge in their students. The question is, how do they do it? Let us examine Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante, two teachers who live and breathe inspiration.

Keating strolls into the room on the first day of class, whistling a tune that displaces the stern air of silence at Welton Academy. In this scene in Dead Poets Society, the first tenant of inspiration becomes evident; the element of surprise. Keating managed to catch his students off-guard on the very first day of class by taking the lesson out of the classroom. Throughout the year he persists to come up with effective, albeit unconventional, ways of getting his students’ attention. In particular, Keating makes his subject exciting by engaging his students in sports (insert random facts about how sports can improve brain function and learning capacity), animating poems using character voices, and literally ripping apart the traditional curriculum and introducing new styles of interpretation. Similarly, when examining Escalante’s means of capturing his students, we see that he also possesses an indescribable tone of ingenuity in his teaching style; on his second day of class, after witnessing the raucous riot of students the previous day, Escalante strolls into the classroom wearing a butchers cap and wielding a thick German accent as he proceeds to slice an apple in half, silencing the class with a loud bang! This ingenuity that both Keating and Escalante possess is what began kindling their students’ curiosity for knowledge.

In what can only be described as a moment of righteous anger and indignant, if not crazed honesty, Keating clamps his hands over the eyes of a student struggling to invent a poem, and the student responds by being confused and angry at first, but soon shouting out a string of brilliant verse. This is perhaps the most astounding example of the second factor in true inspiration; getting students riled up, angry, and imaginative. By allowing his students to use class time as an opportunity to be unabashedly creative, Keating creates a subconscious thirst for further freedom, a break from the monotony of Welton, and true individuality. Through encouraging the otherwise insane ambitions in his student’s minds, Keating is fueling their passion and inspiring them to achieve levels of greatness beyond imagination. In a parallel, although the setting may be different at Garfield and the students are not aching for freedom, Escalante addresses the fact that they are indeed aching for discipline. Just as in physical combat it is sometimes possible to use the opponents increased weight and strength to your advantage, Escalante used the school board’s doubt and the student’s own insecurities to push them to desire success. By using what is best described as reverse psychology and employing the notion that his students couldn’t succeed, Escalante’s students subconsciously desired to prove people wrong and show the world that they could rise above their stereotypes and flourish. Both Keating and Escalante utilized their students’ subconscious anger and rebellion to their advantage, using their desire to spite their family, friends, and other teachers to instead cultivate a personal desire to thrive.

Don't Judge....

Pornography vs. Princesses

Is it possible that two topics that are so irrevocably bipolar as pornography and princesses, rather the content of the films that portray these things, might have a sliver of common ground? As it turns out, there is more than a sliver.

Pornography and Disney movies are strangely similar in that Disney films feature scantily clad damsels in distress and large, strappy heroes coming to save them; often this is the first experience young boys have with sexualized characters. For example, in an article on Fanpop.com, a journalist writes, “Ariel, perhaps not entirely meaning to but with an obvious tone of sexual manipulation, uses her physical charms to win her prince. During the 'Kiss the Girl’ sequence Ariel employs what I can only describe as bedroom eyes and even in their first encounter her fall into his arms seemed somewhat calculated, particularly in the knowing smile she shot to her friends.” Pornography is simply the evolution of those “romantic” stories, with a focus on the between the sheets scenes that hold an adult males interest. This is evident by the increasing degree of sexuality in boys’ entertainment, with Disney as point A and born as point B, with everything from Romeo and Juliet to Bodice Ripper novels in between.

Another obvious similarity is the shallow plot of these different types of films; in the former, they are something along the lines of starting with a problem, finding a “prince charming” to fix this problem, and ending with a happily ever after. Pornography fast-tracks the plot, connecting a series of shallow scenes with the end result being the man and woman in bed together. The plot in pornography is along the lines of, “Pizza delivery guy shows up, lonely wife answers the door, they wind up in bed.” Although shallow, they are also undoubtedly satisfying, whether the audience be young children or adult men.

Disney movies are always aimed at finding true love and eventually having a blushing bride, singing birds fluttering around in the cathedral, walking towards her soul mate. Some examples of this are movies like the little mermaid, Cinderella, and a more recant Disney princess film, The Princess and the Frog. All these films end with basically the same result of overcoming all obstacles, falling in love and tying the knot. Pornography is much different in this sense because its purpose is for lust and short-lived desire. There is no sense of love in it and teaches nothing about spending a life together. Disney focuses more on setting the foundation for a lifetime of love for their characters, whereas pornography is simply a moment of passion.

Yes, they cater to different audiences and present very different morals, however Disney movies and pornography both have a blinking, blaringly obvious factor that bring them to a synthesis; they are both fantasy. Disney movies cater to children’s fantasies, being princesses or princes, speaking with animals, finding true love and living happily ever. Pornography caters to the intense, hormonal-driven desires of men – seventy percent of whom watch pornography, a rather large number in comparison to the small thirty percent of women who indulge in pornographic material – satiating their needs through visual fantasy. They are drastically different types of films, and yet they both end happily and provide an entertaining, satisfying realization of what would otherwise be a simple desire.

Works Cited

Lee, Patty. "Thirty Percent of Women, 70 Percent of Men Confess to Looking at Online Porn: Study." New York Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-02-11/entertainment/27056038_1_study-big-issue-problem>

"Sexuality and Disney Princess Movies: An Opinion and Analysis." - Disney Princess. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2012. <http://www.fanpop.com/spots/disney-princess/articles/116912/title/sexuality-disney-princess-movies-opinion-analysis>.

Thesis on Teachers and the Titanic Impact They Have on Teenagers Today

The gradual accumulation of my personal experiences with teachers and their effectiveness, in addition to the material we have recently read/watched in class, has crescendoed to form my thesis statement for this paper;

The defining role of a teacher is to inspire; whether it be through acting as an ally, an enemy, or perhaps a parental figure, what sets some teachers apart from the rest is their unique ability to lite a fire of desire for knowledge in their students.

If you are reading this statement and thinking, “hmm...seems like a bit much to bite off,” you may be correct! However take into consideration that this statement is a rough draft and I will likely refine it to a more manageable, concise focus as I write my paper.

D.P.S. Part II

We watch as the pressure Welton forces onto its students finally begins to take its toll. Neil, rosy cheeked and still beaming from the dress rehearsal for his play, bursts into his room to find that sitting at his desk, looking resentful and indignant, is none other than his father. His father berates him for pursuing the arts and leaves the room before Neil has a chance to refute. Neil then goes to Keating, exclaiming “I love acting!” Keating responds by saying, “Prove it to him by your conviction and passion, and if he still doesn’t believe you, then you’ll be out of school and free to do anything you want.” Taking Keating’s advice, Neil goes on to reveal to his father that he has been chosen for the lead in the play and has every intention of performing on opening night (the following evening).

As Neil is delivering the last few lines of the play, his father emerges into the back of the room, stone faced. After the tremendous monsoon of compliments and applause slow to a drizzle, Neil is dragged to his father's home, where he is told that he is being withdrawn from Welton and enrolled in a military boarding school, where he will study to become a doctor.

Eerily calm, Neil waits until his father goes to rest and then sneaks into his bedside table, steals his father’s revolver and commits suicide. The demands of school, family and rigid expectations had finally crushed Neil to the point where the only escape he could envision was death.

The interrogation following Neil’s death results in the expulsion of Mr. Keating, who is stricken with guilt, for he believes the death of his student is his fault. As Keating packs his bags and walks to exit the classroom, Dr. Nolan (who was currently teaching the class) asks the students to turn to the introduction to poetry. One student whispers, “it’s ripped out sir…they’re all ripped out.” Keating smiles, remembering the first day of class. He nears the door, but suddenly Todd Anderson, Neil’s prior roommate, abruptly hops atop his desk, watery-eyed and righteously defiant. “Get down!” Dr. Nolan yells, but the only response he gets is the gentle pattering of feet as half of the classroom rise atop their desks in a silent salute to Keating. “Thank you…thank you.” He whispers, and exits the room.

What a wonderful, albeit heart wrenching, work of art this movie is.

Educational Banking

In Freire’s essay, he compares education to banking; “narration (the teacher as the narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically…turns them into “receptacles” to be “filled” by the teacher…becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor.”

‘Banking Education’ dictates that the students must be meek and submissive, whereas teachers are the all-knowing, authoritative disciplinarians. After wading through the titanic amount of information in this essay, I have come to the conclusion that if you asked Freire his opinion on standardized testing, he would begin an angry rant and most likely lecture you on how standardized testing is simply a widespread attempt to conform students to a biased idea of what intelligence is. It is clear that Freire desires an environment where teachers and students can have a give-and-take dialogue, allowing the teachers to “teach while being taught and become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow.” According to Freire, banking education “anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, problem-posing/give-and-take education involved a constant unveiling of reality.”

Standardized testing is the antithesis to problem-posing education; the test is designed to trick students and degrade their sense of intelligence. Personally, I agree with Freire’s view of education as ‘banking,’ however who knows if the student-teacher imbalance will ever come to peaceful resolve? I believe that in some situations, a resolution is already in sight; as students grow older and become more independent and assertive, they make a give-and-take dialogue more possible. Yet in all reality, despite the amount of equality between teachers and students in the classrooms, standardized testing will always drive a wedge in the relationship and make it much more difficult for problem-posing education to preside.

The Schools, The Teachers...Their Similarities, Their Differences...Their Ultimate Success

The powerful warbles of bagpipes resound off the stone walls of the dining hall at Welton Academy as we see a droning sentiment of religiosity being doled out among the men. Welton is plagued by insufferable rigidity; the teachers are strict and lackluster, the parents of students are overbearing and dictatorial, and the students themselves seem to be grasping for control, for freedom.

Mr. Keating pokes his head in the door and weaves through the desks, whistling all the while. He exits the room, whistling still, and pauses for a moment; ”Well, come on!” he whispers. The boys look around at each other in confusion, their eyes filled with wonderment. They follow Keating to a hall in the school where he begins to speak. The short speech he gives commands attention and respect, but more importantly, it lit the flame of passion that would eventually drive his students to resurrect the Dead Poets Society. At the end of their first class, Mr. Keating whispers, "Carpe diem; seize the day, boys. Makes your lives extraordinary.” And that they did.

Now when examining Mr. Keating’s circumstances in comparison to those of Mr. Escalante, the most immediate difference between the two is schools at which they teach. As previously explained, Welton Academy For Boys is a rigid, religious, prestigious school with the intention of supplying a wealth of students to the Ivy League, whereas Garfield was struggling to meet standards and had set a very low bar for their students to meet, if any at all. The pressure at Welton was immense; the students were struggling to please their parents, who had gotten the idea in their head that in order for their children to succeed they had to become doctors or engineers or scientists; and no time could be wasted on frivolous things such as the school newspaper or acting! However the parents were conforming their children to an intellectual box, and inside this box the boys were rattling around, screaming, struggling to break free and be themselves. On the other hand, at Garfield, in most cases the parents were completely absent from the students’ lives, and the pressure wasn’t to do well in school, it was to not do well in school. If you were studious, you were a nerd. If you had good grades, you were a nerd. If you cared about school at all, you were a nerd. And if you were a nerd, you were not socially accepted, and there was no place for you in a gang. Furthermore, the teachers at Garfield were poorly educated in the subject matter which they were teaching, whereas the professors at Welton knew their material backwards and forwards, and lastly, we come to notice that Welton made school the students’ lives, whereas in Garfield school was an afterthought; a joke.

Upon further inspection of the teachers themselves, they of course have the same passion, wit, and knowledge which lit the fire in their students’ minds. Both men utilize unconventional teaching methods that really captured the attention of their students and made them listen. For example, in Stand and Deliver, Escalante strolls into the classroom wearing a butchers cap and wielding a thick German accent as he proceeds to slice an apple in half, while in Dead Poets Society Keating takes the students on a field trip, animates poems using character voices, and gets them riled up, angry, and imaginative. In each movie, we see that the teachers had a way about their teaching that went beyond educating their students about the particular subject. In Mr. Keating's case, when presented with his students’ concerns regarding how poetry could possibly be so important in their own ambitions (i.e. med school, engineering), he validates them by stating that poetry is love, it is passion, it is truth. And that plays into med school and engineering and science and all aspects of life, because it is life.

Escalante and Keating have their differences also, for example Keating has a more intellectual wit, whereas Escalante has a more searing, condescending sense of humor. They teach different subjects, they teach at different schools, they have passion for different properties; however underlying these petty details stand two incredible, inspiring educators. To find teachers such as them is as rare as it is to find orchids in the arctic.