Response to class 2/6

Today in class we discussed the different school classifications in society.  I came to a realization that, yes schools are classified by the area in which they are located, but that they can be looked at as being sub divided.

When looking at the classifications and how each school under that classification was ran, it made me see that the public school system has some serious problems.

When looking at the working class schools it was sad to see that the students there were being taught simple punctuation rather than more advanced concepts. They weren’t expected to amount to anything higher than what they were raised in; meaning that they were expected to be the working class Americans working the minimum wage jobs. The kids in these schools could be some of the most brilliant minds of this generation but wouldn’t be able to reach their full potential because of how they are looked at. For a student to be taught the simplest form of each subject and to be told that they aren’t going to amount to anything is against everything this country claims to stand for. What’s troubling is that these kids could have very bright futures but instead are turned into “scanners”. They simply were told facts by teachers and then memorized them for a test. They never actually committed the facts and concepts to memory.

Then we moved on to talking about the middle class schools, or the “textbook” schools. These types of schools are the most prevalent in this country. These are the schools where teachers lecture about a topic and then have the students reread what the teacher went over and then answer questions located in the back of the textbook. This is where the concept of “busy work” came from. A teacher will give the student a work load that is designed to have the student reinforce the information time and time again. My middle school was a middle class school.  I couldn’t stand the way I was taught in middle school. I hated that I was only given a basic lecture on basic concepts and then given mountains of work to do to pound the information in to my mind.

Affluent professional schools are specialty schools where creativity and freedom are nurtured. The students in these schools take pride in their work and go above and beyond the basic expectations. These are the schools that will learn about hieroglyphics and then created their own. These schools allow students to express themselves and not be suppressed by the rigid curriculum of most other schools.

The final class was the Elite class. This is the kind of school in which I attended my first three years of high school. This type is where students thrive. A majority of these students’ parents are business executives and highly successful individuals. These students are expected to achieve no less than what their parents have. They are taught to critically think as well as to be able to take a concept and adapt it to the situation at hand.