Really Rough Draft

So I'm still a little unsure of just how I'm going to tackle this paper. I have a very rough idea of where I want to go with it so I posted that here but any suggestions anyone has would be very helpful.

           The key ingredient in making a great teacher is the ability to take a keen interest in your students. One Teacher who doesn’t care about his or her students can cause almost irreversible damage to one’s education such was the case for my friend Leon (name changed). To fully understand how one teacher not taking an interest in their student can cause so much damage I will have to introduce you to Leon before the terrible teacher, who we will call Mrs. Bake, got ahold of him. After this Leon struggled in school for years until finally a great teacher who actually cared to take an interest in his students came along. Mr. Krats (also not his real name) was the man who came along and saved Leon’s education, changing the course of his life forever. There is no doubt that the level of interest a teacher shows in a student directly relates to their potential successes or failures

Standardized Mind Control

After reading The Banking Concept of Education by Paolo Freire it became very clear to me that he would not approve of the vast increases in standardized testing. Throughout the text he expresses his extreme distaste for the banking concept, a fairly standard method of teaching driven by a very narrative approach. In The Banking method a narrating subject or the teacher takes a set of listening objects aka the students and proceeds to "fill" these objects with his or her narrating. The relationship between student and teacher thus becomes one in which the teacher is the all knowing authority and the students simply receptacles made to memorize and store what the teacher deems important. The more completely the teacher can "fill" his receptacles the better teacher he is thought to be and the more passively and meekly the recepticals allow themselves to be "filled" the better students they are seen as. This leads to a form of knowledge with no true substance simply people accurately regurgitating what they have been told without considering what the words they use truly mean. Standardized testing would fall right into this category because it simply asks the students to regurgitate what they have been told onto a test that will determine just how well they allowed themselves to be "filled". Students are seen as manageable and adaptable objects that are rewarded for accepting this role as it is imposed upon them. They will then be more likely to accept the world as it is presented to them and will never question or challenge an authoritative oppressor. This form of education serves well the oppressive minorities in charge as it leaves a docile majority who feel well educated and informed while having been secretly and threoly taught to never think for themselves.  These people simply adapt to the fractured world they are giving rather then look at it, think about it, and fix it. The best way to control a people is to make them think they are too smart to be tricked and then trick them into thinking they are in control. an increase in standardized testing just shows (At least how I think Freire would view it) they are trying even harder to commend students for not thinking for themselves and punishing the ones who are resistant to becoming receptacles filled with hallow mechanical knowledge.

Dead Poets PART 2

The second half of dead poet’s society starts with some of the kids starting to act out and rebel. They are doing this not so much to cause problems but more as an act of self-expression. They are really starting to understand what Mr. K is trying to say they just aren’t really sure how to express it yet. One kid is paddled for his rebellion and question on the Dead Poets Society but he refuses to give up any information. Meanwhile Neil (who previously forged his father’s signature on a permission slip that allows him to act in a local play) gets caught by his dad. The dad gets pissed and forces the Neil to quit the play the day before the opening night. “I made a great many sacrifices to get you here Neil, and you will not let me down.” The dad is so set on Neil becoming a doctor that he doesn’t even want to listen to Neil talk about how he wants to be an actor. Mr. K tries to convince Neil to talk to his father about it and express his passion for acting. Neil needs to stand up to his father and live his life. Later Neil tells Mr. K that he talked to his dad and although he wasn't happy about it he was going to let him stay in the play. Neil performs beautifully in the play and all of Dead Poets Society shows up to support him. Neil’s father even shows up to the play, which as it turns out is a very very bad thing. Neil never actually talked to his father about staying in the play and the dad takes him home telling Mr. K to stay away from his son essentially blaming Mr. K for his sons wanting to act. After some major lecturing the dad decides to pull his son out of Welton and put him into military school. He can't have anything risk distracting his son from becoming a doctor. Neil can’t take this and tragically takes his own life that night; he shoots himself with his dad’s gun in his dads study. He was clearly sending an overly strong message to his dad. He parents and the rest of the school staff however want to pin this on Mr. K and they gather up the Dead Poets Society is put under major pressure with penalty of expulsion to sign a statement blaming Mr. K and the teacher is fired. When Mr. K shows up during class to collect his personal effects from his office Todd the normally quite one stands up to explain himself to Mr. K. The principle begins immediately to scold and threating expulsion but Todd ignores him, instead he stands on his desk declaring oh captain my captain their name for Mr. K the rest of the Dead Poets Society joins him, with the exception of the one who turned on them all. Mr. K looks proud of his former class as now he know despite being let go some of his students got his message, he was able to make a difference.

Dead Poets Vs. Stand: The Teachers

Despite all the glaring differences in the schools Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante share a lot in common. Right out of the gate in both movies it starts off with them being a new teacher at their chosen school. Both decided to go back to their roots to reach the students who are in the same educational situation they were when they went to school. Both teachers also have very unorthodox teaching methods that at first the students reject but slowly come to admire and respect. Their teaching methods and goals in teaching make both teachers targets for angry parents and school faculty. They are both striving to reach these kids in a way no one else deems correct but the kids themselves have needed all along. The passion they are able to instill into their students on subjects the kids have always been told that they shouldn't or couldn't learn is astounding! Not only did they develop a passion for these new found subjects but they excelled in them. I believe the ultimate message from both of these teachers was "don’t lead a life of quiet desperation" Mr. K said it and Mr. E expressed it. Live life to the fullest, let nothing step in the way of what you can achieve, and let no one tell you otherwise.  “Carpe Diem!”

Dead Poets Vs. Stand : The School

Welton Academy (The school in Dead Poets Society) is almost the polar opposite of Garfield High school (The school in Stand and Deliver). Welton is a very prestigious prep school filled with the rich and upper-class, Garfield is an underfunded high school filled with the underprivileged and destitute. Each school as extreme expectations of their students as well, why this is still opposing views is Welton has extremely high expectations and Garfield as extremely low expectations. At Welton the students are expected to be obedient and focused purely on their chosen (or chosen for them) doctorate. They are treated so strictly and are so strongly pushed away from the arts such as acting or writing they are almost slaves to their academics. Garfield students are expected to achieve nothing but being prepared for the work world pushing them into algebra was seen as too much for them to handle. Here the smart are seen as weak or prey not as superior or gifted. Hell even down to the locations, Garfield being in crowded East L.A. and Welton being on a huge Vermont estate, are completely opposite of each other. It’s strange how students from two completely different worlds can have such a similar problem; the retardation of certain scholarly subjects.

Escalante vs. Macfarland

Mr. Escalante and Mr. Macfarland were different in a few ways, most notably their teaching style. If you dig a little deeper however it becomes clear that they share much more in common with each other than first glance suggested. They both went beyond what was required of them to help students they, when no one else did, saw potential in. They were able to look passed what other teachers could not and help their students to achieve much more than even the student themselves thought they could. They were both also very determined to reach their students and strived to help them get into college. Mr. Escalante with his constant pushing and pushing to get his kids ready for the AP test that would earn them college credits and Mr. Macfarland with all the extra time he put in to get Mike into a school despite his poor marks. He even helped Rose get the student loans he needed to be able to afford the school that Mr. Macfarland was able to get him into. So despite the differences on the surface it boils down to the fact that both were great teachers that changed the lives of their students.

Stand Part 2

So I was right about the tragedy and the ultimate success of the students however the tragedy did not take form of a death as I had predicted. Early in the second half you see Mr. Escalante doing what Mr. Escalante does, pushing everything (himself included) too far. He is now working through all his breaks, through all his vacations, and through all his weekends! It seems he has taking on trying to save the whole school by himself! He then goes as far as to take on another task, teaching English night classes to adults. During one of these night classes his body finally said enough and he suffered a mild heart attack. This is where I thought maybe the tragic death would come in but no, Mr. Escalante survives his ordeal but must take time off and so the students are stuck with a sub 2 weeks before the AP exam. To make matters worse the sub they get is a music teacher who has never even tried to teach math before let alone calculus. All is lost! Right? Well no, Mr. Escalante ignores his doctor’s orders and goes back to work early so he can do some last minute drilling with the students.

The Day of the test is upon us and the students are pumped up from their last minute cram session with Mr. Escalante. After the test they all go out to the beach to confidently celebrate their hard work and success. The class has almost become a family at this point with all the time they have spent together. Then the good news comes, every single student in the class passed the AP exam and Mr. Escalante is awarded a plaque for all his hard work and determination.

This happy moment is short lived however as the foretold tragedy finally rears its ugly head. After reviewing the tests the ETS (Educational Testing Services) determined that the students must have cheated because all the students made the same mistakes they also did better than the rest of the more privileged schools and took less time to do it. This hits the students hard and they react very badly, quickly starting to revert to their former angry and not wanting to try selves. Angel tries to get himself arrested and the "family" the class had become breaks. They all begin to self-destruct  do to the fact that despite how hard they tried and how well they did people wouldn’t accept it from them and still tried to shut them out with accusations. Fortunately the students don't fallow this path to long and realize despite this ordeal they still earned those scores, they were still able to learn. The ETS Drills and drills the students trying to force a confession out of them, but no one cheated so no one will fess up to it. Other teachers think the kids must have cheated too and eyes are starting to look towards Mr. Escalante himself. Finally Mr. E decides to get the kids to take a retest to prove their scores. Mr. E warns his students that it won’t be easy and the ETS will be looking for any excuse to call them cheaters. He is convinced it is a race and social status issue. The kids do very well on the retest and all 18 of them pass it again setting a precedent for future generations at Garfield high. Because of the model that their success set by 1987 there were 87 students who passed the AP test at Garfield high!