Paper #3 Year Round School

Year Round School

            If we went back in time we would see that the school year wasn’t year round. There was a summer break that lasted two to three months so that the kids could help working on the farm. The kids don’t help working on the farm now, so why don’t we have year round school. Many other places have year round school and it goes great. As we saw in Dead Poets Society they went to school year round and they were very well behaved students. They had to follow all the rules on a daily basis. Having year round attendance would be very good in K-12 education because, it would produce better people in society, it would keep kids out of trouble, and kids would gain an understanding of hard work.

            Year round education would produce better people in society because they would be learning a lot more. The kids don’t learn enough going to school for only nine months. The kids need to learn more so that they can make it through life better. Now a days there are a lot of kids that can’t even read or write. Those kids that can’t read and write don’t do anything with their lives because they can’t, they don’t know how to. But going to school year round there would be a lot more time to work with those kids that can’t read and write. The parents and teachers need to make school interesting enough so that the kids will go year round. It has to be interesting enough so that the smart kids and the challenged kids will want to learn. The whole reason with going year round is to produce a lot more people that can at least read, write and do mathematics. You need those basic skills to do almost every job out in the real world.  Going to school year round we have a lot better chance of producing a lot more people that are ready for society.

            Going to school year round would help keep the kids from getting into trouble. As we saw in Dead Poets Society, because they followed all the rules they were able to stay out of trouble. Another problem with not going year round is that parents have a hard time finding things for their kids to do over the long summer, and they can’t take the whole summer off of work, so they end up having to pay someone or someplace to watch their kids. If school went year round there would be regular school as well as after school activities to keep the kids out of trouble. There would also be sports to keep the kids out of trouble. Going to school year round might also keep kids out of gangs a little more. Like we saw in Dead Poets Society that there were no gangs of any type. Without having year round school there isn’t enough summer activities to keep all ages out of trouble. Not all the summer activities are for all ages. There are a lot of summer activities that are just for certain ages. Plus summer activities don’t last all summer long. They just last for a few weeks or a few days. So, having the long summer off is just asking for trouble.

            Another reason for having year round school is so that the kids can gain an understanding of hard work. Like in Dead Poets Society we see them work very hard to get where they wanted to be. In today’s world, so many people, especially kids, expect to have things handed to them. They don’t think they have to work for anything, and that is just not true. If you want anything in life you must work very hard to get it, sometimes harder than other times. The young people today think that there is no reason to work hard. However,  if you want to get somewhere in life, and be able to support a family, you must work very hard to get there. It doesn’t just come to you, it has to be worked on. Going to school year round we show the kids that if they work hard they will be able to do something with their life. Like we see in Stand and Deliver, when Mr. Escalante is teaching them calculus, they see that if they work hard they succeed. Maybe we should show some of these movies in classes so that they can see success. Maybe they would be inspirational enough that they would start working really hard so that they too can succeed. There has got to be things like that that we can do to make going to school year round better for the kids.

            Hopefully the kids would see that it would be good for them to go to school year round. Hopefully they wouldn’t think that we, as parents were just trying to torture them. Overall, with all the good reasons to go to school year round that is what we should be doing. It should not be an option for them to do. It should be something that everyone has to do. They can do so much better in life when going to school year round. And if they are worried about a summer break or winter break, they still get to have breaks, just not as long as they are right now. Overall, there are so many good reasons to go to school year round. We would have young adults that come out of school ready for the real world. They are ready to succeed even more than they did in year round school. Plus our kids aren’t dying because they aren’t getting into trouble. And they have learned that it is something that is important to work hard. So, overall going to school year round is the right thing to do.

John Gatto "Against School"

I would have to disagree with John Gatto. I think that school is very important. There is so much you can't do without an education. Now a days you can't get any kind of job without some type of education. Most jobs you need to have major degrees to get. You even have to have graduated from high school. Having a GED now isn't enough anymore.
I understand that some kids get bored with school. That's fine, instead of saying there should be no school we should make it more interesting for kids at school. We should push them in what they do. Make them challenge themselves. We should have special programs not only for the students that need extra help but there should be a program for students that move at a faster pace then most of the students. If that means that we need more teachers than that is what we do.
Okay, so there were several people in the old days that didn't go to school and did very well for themselves. Well, it isn't the old days anymore. It's nothing lilke it used to be. Now it is very important to have an educatiion. Why things have changed so much, I don't know but they have. I'm sure that if we put our heads together we could come up with many ways to make school not so boring for some students. Because it isn't boring for everyone, just a few in each class. So, I have to say that it would be better to come up with new programs than to just not have school. I don't see how we could get away with not having school.

Michael Moore "Idiot Nation"

I have to start off by saying that I agree with Michael Moore in many ways. First of all, why do our teacher make so little money. We are producing idiots because there aren't enough teachers that care to teach the students. No one wants to be a teacher because they don't make enough money and schools don't have enough money to keep things running. We shouldn't have to recruit from different countries for teachers. We should be able to find our own teachers right here in our country. If teachers just got paid more money we would have more teachers that cared about the students and weather they were learning or not. Why in the world do we start the school year off with no one running the school and in so many schools. Schools must have a principle to run them. Again, if they were paid more money we might have more people willing to do the job.
Now, why do we have to get money from big businesses to help run our schools. Schools are important enough that they should get money from the government to keep running. We shouldn't have to make deals with Coke or Pepsi so that we get money from them. Our kids shouldn't be drinking so much soda, it isn't good for you. Some of the big businesses that we get money from are because of good things that the parents are doing or things that the schools are doing. I know my son has me collect the box tops for school. I think that is great, but getting money for drinking so  much soda is not a good thing at all.
Why are some schools allowing marketing research going on in classroom. There should be no such thing going on. Mail the research to people's home, don't come to our schools and take our learning time with something stupid like market research.

Questions about Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante

1.What did Mr. Escalante think education should do?
    He thought that it should push the kids to do their very best. It should push them beyond the usual classroom   work. It should push them beyond what they think that they can do.
2. What did Mr. Escalante's colleagues think education should do?
    The other teachers thought that they should just have to teach the basics and not go any beyond that. The other teachers didn't think the students could be pushed beyond their ability.
3. What did Mr.Keating think education should do?
    He thought that education should teach the basics but also teach about life.
4. What did Mr. Keating's colleagues think education should do?
     His colleagues thought that education should teach the basics and rule and regulations.
5. What do you think your favorite teacher thought education should do?
    He thought that education should teach us what we need to know for our futures. In education as well as life.
6. What do you think your worst teacher thought education should do?
     She thought that she just had to teach the basics and that is it. She didn't have to do any more than that.

Rough Draft of paper #2

            I’m almost 40 years old so thinking of a teacher that is great or bad isn’t an easy task to meet. But I fortunately have a teacher that no matter how old I am I will never forget. I have chosen to write my paper about my 9^th and 10^th grade math teacher, Mr. Babani. He was an excellent and dedicated teacher because he cared about his students, he was always there for his students and he wanted his students to learn everything they needed to learn. He was also a very patient person when it came to teaching.

            Mr. Babani cared about his students in many ways. The time that stands out in my mind is when my best friend committed suicide. I had not returned to school since that tragic day and I received a surprising phone call from Mr. Babani at home. He didn’t call me to talk about math or when I was coming back to school. He called me to see how I was doing and to let me know that his thoughts were with me. He told me that what I was dealing with was a really hard thing to deal with, but that I would get through it in time. He also gave me his home phone number and told me that if I needed someone to talk to that I could give him a call at home. I was very grateful for that. I couldn’t believe he took the time to call me and try to help me feel better. None of my other teachers did that for me. I could tell in his voice that he really cared how I was doing. I just kept thinking what a great teacher he was for showing me how much he cared.

            Mr. Babani was always there for his students. The time that I remember him being there for me was the first day returning back to school after my best friend had passed away. Mr. Babani was aware of how mean other kids were being to me, and the one’s he knew or had in his class he would talk to. He would lecture them about the proper way to deal with me and that the way they are acting towards me is not the proper way. He would make sure everyone understood that asking me questions about her death was not a good thing to do. He not only dealt with the kids that were being mean, but he would keep checking on me. He constantly told me that he was there for me to talk to if I wanted or needed someone to talk to. He would also check on me when I was in other classes by asking my other teachers how I was doing. It seemed as though every time I turned around he was there for me or checking on me. I thought it was pretty awesome how much he cared for me as a person, not just one of his students. I was more than a student. He really cared how I felt and was there for me in many ways. He also gave me many pep talks when it came to dealing with my friend’s death. That doesn’t even count any of the pep talks when it came to understanding what he was teaching us. He was always there for all of his students. He would have done the same for anyone else too. It wasn’t just because it was me. It could have been anyone and he would have done the same things.

            He always wanted to make sure that his students learned everything they needed to learn. There were several times that I can remember meeting with him after school and before school. He would meet with students before and after school when they weren’t getting something in class. But, even in class he would go over things as many times as we needed him to. He would also try several different ways of doing something. If there was more than one way of doing something and the class didn’t understand what he was doing, he would try a different way. He would try all the ways until we got what he was doing. I remember one particular time that I stayed after school to have him go over something I just didn’t understand. He had shown us a couple different ways in class and I still just wasn’t getting it. I felt so bad. I was so frustrated at myself, but not him. He was determined to have me understand it. He showed me the couple of ways he had shown in class and I still wasn’t getting it. I was starting to feel so bad that I wasn’t getting it. But yet again, he wasn’t getting upset at all. He just kept showing me different ways to do the problems. It was amazing at how many ways he could come up with ways to do the problems. I couldn’t believe it. Then out of nowhere I started getting it. Finally, after 2 hours of working hard I was finally understanding it. He wanted to make sure that I was really getting it so we worked on several other problems for the next hour. I was getting it. We were both so happy. So, finally we were done. We both went home and when class began the next day he gave me some of the problems I was having trouble with and I was still able to do them. He was so happy for me. I was amazed that he never gave up on me.

            So, needless to say, Mr. Babani was a very patient man. He was the most patient person I have ever come across in my life. He was a teacher that I will never forget no matter what other types of teachers I encounter. I was and still am very grateful for everything he ever did for me. He was an outstanding teacher. I wish that there could be more teachers like him in the world. If there were more teachers like him in the world it would be a much different place.

Day 2 of Dead Poets Society

I am very glad that we got to watch this movie as well as Stand and Deliver. I think that both movies will help us greatly to write our own papers. Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante have a lot of the same style of teaching. They both use humor as well as being serious. They are also both fun teachers.
I think that it is wrong when Mr. Keating is being questioned, and told that he is to teach rules and poetry and nothing more. He couldn't teach them anything that has to do with life and finding themselves. According to the headmaster, they aren't able to find themselves. They are to follow rules and not have any fun in the meantime.
I think that the Welton school for boys is very strict and could change a little bit for the better. They should have more teachers like Mr. Keating. They need to learn about life too, not just all the different subjects. The kids took to Mr. Keating and it was great when they stood up for him at the end. When they all stood on their desks and said, "Oh Captain, My Captain." They all came together and did something together that Mr. Keating taught them. He taught them to stand up for themselves.
I was very sad at the end of the movie when Neil shot himself. I can totally relate to how everyone felt when Neil did that. My best friend committed suicide in high school too. It isn't an easy thing to deal with. Neil's father should have listened to his son and maybe he would still be here. His father was way to strict and didn't care about Neil's feelings or what Neil wanted. Neil was great in the play and his father couldn't even tell him what a good job he did on the play.
Overall, I think that the movie was a very good movie and I'm glad we had a chance to watch it. I think that it will help us with our own papers.

Dead Poets Society

I am finding that Dead Poets Society is much different than Stand and Deliver. The Helton school for boys is completely different than Garfield High School. The surroundings, the environment and the teachers. The kids from Helton are all high society people where as the kids from Garfield are all low society kids. The kids at Garfield come from low income families and the kids from Helton come from high income families. Another difference is the teaching. At Helton all the teachers are very strict and expect a lot from the students, where as most of the teachers at Garfield didn't have high expectations for the students. Even though they are both very different, they are both very good schools. The teaching at Helton is very strict teaching, and there are a lot of rules to follow.