I found myself disagreeing with both pairs of readings we had. I'm not a big animal person since my family is all allergic to something except for myself. I found it hard to find any sympathy towards anything they were saying, but the articles that really stirred up my emotions were the ones on students in America.
The article "Blame the Students" was very controversial. I found myself disagreeing with much of what they were saying. I disliked the stereotypical viewpoints they had on different nationalities because there are always exceptions to these. I know of several middle-class Americans who have very strict work ethics and strive for nothing but the best. I am not an immigrant but I am of the "Asian race." I have strong work ethics and push myself to my limits. Even then, when I try my hardest, I still struggle to get as high of grades as I want or as well as the person sitting next to me. A lot of times we do blame it on the teacher, sometimes it applies and sometimes we just want to vent our frustration of ourselves on someone else. I still think we can blame the teacher though. You cannot say that if you have a high work ethic and a bad teacher you would get the same as a high work ethic and a good teacher. Your teacher does have a part of your grade and success. You need to have well-qualified people giving you correct information. In the documentary Two Million Minutes they gave statistics of how many science teachers were not even certified or were in the field of science, yet they are the ones giving us "knowledge" of this specific area. I think you have to be crazy to say that we don't have the right to blame the teacher if we're failing if they themselves don't even know the subject.
Another area in "Blame the Students" I found hard to take in was the choosing of classes. People do drop or switch classes for lower/easier standards. People have to realize we do this to suit our needs. Maybe our schedule is uneven or we have sports or activities we want to balance out so we can succeed in every aspect. It's not necessarily because we're lazy, but maybe it's because we fill our schedules to the maximum and we have to weigh our priorities. Everyone's priorities are layed out differently and we should respect everyone's rights and needs. I admire the fact that children in the documentary from India and China are such hard-workers but sometimes I wonder if they're really enjoying life. If you work so much, what are you working for? You won't have time to enjoy all your hard work. I believe myself to be a hard-worker and I want to be successful, but not to the extent where I work myself to tears. I want to see my hard-work and enjoy it while I can because life is too short for me not to. One thing I noticed in the documentary was the expressions and emotions from the kids in each country. I never saw the kids in India or China smiling, while the kids in America were bubbly, outgoing, and happy. I don't know about you, but why not enjoying life. I believe you should live it to the fullest and you can still work hard.
I liked these two works of literature. It gave me emotions and they were very controversial. I just think we should all find a balance in our own lives. We all live different lives with different morals and values. This makes it very difficult for us to judge what we should or shouldn't do. It's up to you. Live your life the way it suits you. You can take in what others say or not. Do what makes you happy :)
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Actually, sometimes the Chinese and Indian kids were smiling (when they were talking about America!!!). Or were they just acting smug? Hmmmmmm. Anyway, I agree with many of your viewpoints, although personally, I try to stay away from blaming teachers as much as I can. Whenever something doesn't go my way, I always try to question myself before blaming others (besides, most of the time it's my fault anyway.) But I was shocked about the statistics concerning teacher preparedness, student expectations, and parental opinions. It was sad, but sometimes the truth hurts.
ReplyDeleteI really like this Jackie! You made some really good points that I didn't even think of, and I completely agree with everything. Especially the part about science teachers... it's so sad but also extremely true. I mean, we've all had a teacher at some point who seems to have NO CLUE what they're doing. I also really like what you said about choosing classes and how our lives seem to be fuller than those of students in other countries. It's completely true, and I think that we'll be better off in the long run because of it. We know what we want and aren't afraid to get it, even if it means getting a C in a class that won't impact our futures.
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