Final Essay

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

22 December 2013

Below The Poverty Line

Picture a world where you have to be rich in order to buy food, own an apartment or car, and everyone else is slowly falling into this pit of darkness. This darkness is poverty, people don't find a way out of it, and they sink deeper even if they try their best to get out. In the book The Rich and the Rest of Us, real life situations of people around the U.S. are mentioned in which that pit is not simply an imagination, but a reality. Each year more people are being left out of jobs and are forced to struggle in keeping up with modern day wages, which causes less people to make anything of themselves because of how bad in debt they are or how little money they have from losing their jobs.

Money, no matter where in the world, is the motivation for all families or individuals. In the U.S. everyone tries to reach the “American Dream”, in other words they want to have money to have nice cars a decent sized home and occasional vacations every year, but for all of that to be possible they need money. Of course everyone would love a life like that, so money is the main focus, in those situations greed takes place. The wealthy are the ones that show greed the most, they manipulate those who have power to make changes in the system that benefit them, like cutting their taxes. When the wealthy get their taxes cut, the middle class and everyone below it are forced to pay more, “...everyday people of all colors have grown weary of the unmitigated greed of the mega-wealthy minority who have steered the economy, not into a ditch, but over a cliff.” (T. Smiley, C. West. pg. 9), Its like those who are wealthy already do not want anyone else to succeed and live the lifestyle that they live, only they get to enjoy the luxuries while everyone else pays the dues that they should pay. Of course people are losing jobs and can't keep up with the cost of living if they are doing what the rich aren't, paying taxes! The situations is not simply greed but greatly unfair to those who live on a budget, while some of the wealthy like the Koch brothers are off on a million dollar vacation.

Although people themselves are a major reason that there is such a small opportunity for people to keep a well paying job and keep up with the economy, there is something much more advanced that ties in to the reason people lose their jobs and its right in our pockets. Technology has greatly advanced more than we would ever imagine. So exactly how is technology responsible for the loss of jobs? A machine made to put together a car can easily replace all the workers that would normally do the job, since it is faster, and less money for a company to pay leaving people without a job. Sadly it is happening much sooner than later, ‘ “You basically don't want workers. You hire less, and you try to find capital equipment to replace them.” ’ (pg. 131). The competition is extremely difficult for workers to beat, since the only thing needed for the machine is maintenance, and since companies only care about making money they rid of what they don't need. Unless one of the workers who was replaced by a machine knows how to do technical work with machines and is hired for maintenance then they are all left with nothing. They will probably not find any better jobs and are forced to join those who can't afford to keep up with the standard of living. Its pretty scary to see how quick technology advances, we never know what's next, pretty soon teachers will be replaced by a robot who can teach any subject, or robo-nurses who treat patients at the clinic, although we can be sure that the wealthy will be unaffected and stay wealthy like they've always been.

The way things have turned out over time it almost seems like things are not going to change for us middle class or lower middle class, but there are propositions that could help reduce the greediness of people mainly the wealthy, and give more opportunity for everyone. One of the simplest solutions is nothing but a minor action, its something we were taught when we were all children therefore it is not some sort of sorcery that cannot be accessed. This solution was proposed by Russell Brand in a Mind Shift interview, he said people just need to “be nice”. It sounds rather childish to think that being nice will make things better but its actually a great solution. The wealthy are being greedy with their money, they don't want anyone to have their wealth, so there are problems in the economy, people can't pay taxes, they can't keep jobs, etc. Now if they rich were “nice” and paid their share there would be much more money cycling in the economy, perhaps less taxes to be paid overall and higher pay rate to make it possible to keep up with the living wages. The only difficulty in this is getting the rich to cooperate with the idea and take part, since they want to stay up top it may be less of a possibility, but still worth a try.

Our situation is pretty damaged, there is no more land of the free its more of a land of the rich, we are all just living in their world slowly falling apart into nothing. Jobs are being lost, people are suffering and the rich are just living the american dream. The corruption of the economic system is not improving at all, we do not have enough money cycling around to improve it, the rich are just sitting there allowing it to happen rather than taking a big step into saving the economy. There are solutions for out there in order to make them come to their senses and be a part of the rehabilitation of our economy but whether they participate is not in our control. Even if they did we still have the advancement of technology and the way things look it does not seem like it is going to stop moving forward anytime soon, who knows what the future will hold for us at the rate that technology is replacing workers.

Punishment Or Encouragement

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

October 31 2013

Punishment Or Encouragement

Prisons are often what we use to rid of people who are considered “bad” or “criminals” by society. We do not wonder what happens once convicts are in there as long as they are not causing any harm outside of those walls we think its good and safe. A prison takes more money to manage than a school does, as more and more inmates are sentenced to prison, the greater the cost for the prison to be kept running. When we think about it its somewhat fair, that money is in order to make sure that the inmates get the treatments they need such as therapy and rehabilitation and such work in order for them to be released eventually as better people. The truth is that nothing changes in prison, we are so quick to put criminals away somewhere for many years without realizing the true damage we are doing, we put criminals in a facility in which thousands of criminals are placed, all together the criminal minds think alike and are always up to no good.

Prison is the safe zone to us, we keep all the criminals in there and we think we are okay after that. That is all a big misunderstanding, most of the inmates there form cliques depending on gangs or ethnicity, and of course when there are various groups of people trying to be dominant there are bound to be fights in order to establish that dominance. Frank Trippett wrote a document about the prison system, he states that out of all of the inmates in a prison, on average 100 of them are murdered a year by other inmates, now if we think about it, these people are living no different than they did before on the streets, even those who are not affiliated with any groups, they still have to be cautious of the other inmates that they are forced to live with. It is surprising how people actually think that the longer a person does time, the less chance there is of that person committing crime again if they are released, “ Experts find no correlation between crime rates and incarceration rates.” (F. Trippett. Time. 5/5/1980, Vol. 115 Issue 18, p64. 4p), more time simply means more aggravation towards society, it makes the inmates feel like we consider them powerless and that is why we often see the same people go back to jail time and time again. The system is too messed up now to make any sudden changes, it would take years of failure until some improvement could finally be made in regards of stopping groups of same gangs and ethnicity and get everyone to simply do their time and change for their own benefit.

Compassionate Humans

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

October 22 2013

Compassionate Humans

Compassion is one of the simplest yet most difficult things to accomplish as human beings living in the world we do, with gang violence, drug usage, or economic stability (poor, homeless, etc.). The action of being compassionate is a moral, it proves where a person stands in the situation, those who have been through similar experiences will have more compassion to those that they see are enduring the situation. People who are less compassionate most likely have never had to be in such a situation that required compassion in the first place. In my opinion we should have compassion towards people, but there should also be standards as to where we stand with being compassionate, only when the situation is understandable rather than total insanity.

Gang violence is an increasingly big issue, especially in areas that are filled with poverty, most of these members dropped out of school at young ages and started learning on the streets. They didn't have anything for them in school, nobody to call friends or anyone who understood them, a gang to them was like an opportunity to be surrounded by people who they consider “family”, they had to deal with whatever came to them, beatings, being shot, killing, and nobody ever considers the way that they get affected when they are exposed to this as young children. In the book “Savage Inequalities” by John Kozol, he mentions how a portion of the students who are failing and dont receive any assistance in school tend to fall for gangs. This is when our compassion should show, although the majority of us are not and most likely will not end up in gangs we can still think of our children or future children, think about how we would feel if they were going down that road. Theses people that are in gangs are simply confused kids that are simply trying to belong with a group that can relate to them, if we simply call them no good thugs that should be locked up in prison. There is still good in a lot of these kids, and all they need is a chance to be accepted and allow them to turn their lives around rather than letting them sink deeper in a life that will most likely get them killed.

With And Without

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

October 8 2013

With And Without

A child is affected in various ways when it comes to not having the materials, or resources that other wealthy schools are lucky enough to have, they get the feeling they are being pushed aside because they aren't capable of handling these resources. A poorly funded school with thousands of students, more than it should have requires much more than what a private school has to offer. Since these schools are surrounded by poverty and there really isn't much to be done in order to provide more resources, the students take the effect by feeling unworthy and like they can not succeed in school. With no materials for students, they can't possibly learn at the pace they are supposed to be at, making it take way longer to reach the standard skills that schools aim for. Slowly falling behind more and more each time, a student feels like they can't learn and feel very unsuccessful in school, “Slow readers in an eighth grade history class are taught from 15-year-old textbooks in which Richard Nixon is still president. There are no science labs, no art or music teachers.” (J. Kozol 77.), nobody can be expected to learn up to date events or read better with books that are way past due, the text of the book could be much more complicated than in the present, and at the level they are reading would not be so helpful. With the resources these students have anybody would feel pretty much helpless in school, having to struggle twice as much as wealthy students would. The problem here is that the students are just trying to catch up to where they are supposed to be, rather than also learning from what they read and incorporating it as part of their everyday dialect.

The following outcome of these materials not being present for the students, especially when they are already feeling discouraged of success in their education is missing school. Children are unaware of how to deal with these things, in their head its best to not show up in class, they feel like they shouldn't bother since nothing has changed and they are already failing. They feel like the easy way out of dealing with this is to simply give up on their education since nobody will help them or offer anything to them in order to motivate them to keep going. After constant truancy in school with no excuse or any notice it is safe to say that the student will drop out if it hasn't already happened. As drastic as it may appear, it is actually a big consequence of schools not having what the students require in order to be successful and move forward in their educational career. These signs all start in early ages, its not like they all happen during high school like we would imagine, many students who attend very poor schools with nothing but the walls holding the building up tend to start the signs that lead to dropping out, “By fifth or sixth grade, many children demonstrate their loss of faith by staying out of school.” (J. Kozol 70), students who have not even had a chance to experience school properly the way they should drop out, they make their new lives on the street uneducated. The fact that 12 year old's are already thinking so negative about themselves reflects how bad the conditions in middle schools are, with no way to help these poor helpless children. The presence of materials in schools actually do matter when it comes to keeping students focused on their education, and also in providing the help they need to improve weather in reading, or math, dropping out shouldn't be a solution to consider especially from young middle schoolers.

Another possible effect of not having the necessary resources can be that the students feel like they are unworthy of having more things in order to succeed, as if they did not deserve such resources because they are not at the same academic level that the rest of the wealthy suburb schools are at. Since these schools are located in cities full of poverty the students may figure that they will not get any better materials than what they have because none of the rich schools want to get involved with the poor schools, so they may feel that they are not considered important just because of living conditions. The reactions of parents say a lot of when it comes to being asked to help fund the less fortunate district schools. These parents do not realize how they affect the students, “By a nine-to-one ratio, according to a recent survey, suburban residents resist all efforts to provide more money for Chicago’s schools.” (J. Kozol 83), selfishness roams around those neighborhoods, keeping all their money in order to give only to the schools which actually have good reputations and isolating the fact that other schools need the funds much more. The students take this as them not being good enough to receive help from people in the suburbs, therefore making them feel like they don't deserve it. The way the districts see the children that live in poverty affects how the students think of themselves, so when they notice that the wealthy don't think they are capable of ever improving, the students themselves start to think the same way and begin to bring themselves down as well.

In comparison to how students feel without the resources they should have in school, students like the wealthy who do have these resources feel way more positive than ever in school, with all the technology and new books who could blame them. In the case that students in poverty did obtain these materials they need and had more money for books, computers, and more classes to add to their schedule, there would be a great gain in confidence from these students. There would be no reason to drop out if they were to have everything they need. There would be a great amount of improvement in the academics of the students, and a whole world of opportunities would open up for them with all the help they would receive. Most students that are actually committed to learning would walk with their heads up high after reaching the levels of the rich students, “By the time they enter ninth grade at New Trier High, they are in a world of academic possibilities that far exceed the hopes and dreams of most schoolchildren in Chicago.” (J. Kozol 79), students education would be good enough to make them attract four year colleges, rather than two year colleges which most students in poor neighborhoods can't get into. When schools have all these resources available, students do not have a reason not to succeed in school, other than it being their personal choice, but with help and all the materials needed at a students reach they can manage to make something of themselves.

With the availability of so many resources for students, the performance level expected is much greater, especially as students enter higher grades. Schools will always see that a student meets the expectations and once they have they set a higher goal for the students to reach. The resources available make students more competitive towards each other because they all want to prove who is more intelligent and of course they want to be rewarded. Since schools in the poor districts do not have any outstanding students because of their lack of materials, they are forced to compete with one another because they are already at high academic levels. With all the help provided these students gain knowledge that is beyond what they should know, competition within the school will increase the chances that a student will be granted scholarships and go straight to a university, “They will compete against each other and against the graduates of other schools attended by rich children.” (J. Kozol 82), these children are already on another level, they are competing for their future in order to keep obtaining all the help they are offered once they head to college. The more resources a school has to offer the better chances a student will have to go to a higher school with even more to offer, its like a cycle that only keeps improving and increasing the chances of a student being successful in the future. Simply having more books in a school can really change the performance in a child's academic skills, the wider the variety the wider the knowledge for the schools students.

Everything seems like it is positive when it comes to having all these resources, students feel more confident in their learning, the can trust the teachers to actually educate them with what they need to know, they have enough resources to outshine most schools and compete with one another in order to get into great colleges. To every good there is a bad, in this case it would be that with so many resources, funds and new materials the students may feel superior to the rest of the less fortunate schools. It can possibly get to their heads and make them feel like anyone below them is not worthy of having an education, or at least one as high as theirs. Its a big issue because if there were a student who came from the projects and attended one of the rich schools everyone would feel like the school is losing its value, “The parents from Dearborn Park insist that, if the school is attended by the children from the projects-these are the children who have lived there all along-the standards of the school will fall.” (J. Kozol 74), the parents as well as students don't believe that anyone besides the wealthy can be successful, and will go out of their way to make sure the children from the projects stay out of their schools. Since the wealthy kids have always been ahead in school from day one, they feel like they can simply treat students from the projects like they are nothing but poor, dumb kids, which is very ignorant because they all have the potential to overachieve if they simply had more funds to provide for materials. Sometimes having all these resources isn't as great as it seems due to the fact that students will let them get the best out of them instead of the students getting the best out of what they are offered.

Many people or schools will not worry about any other school rather than their own, or in the parents case the school their children attend. Wealthy schools funding money to low income schools is out of the picture, since they want to improve their own school of course they won't lend out a single sent for another school. It is up to the school itself to take action, together all poorly funded schools can demand that all schools should be equally funded, rather than giving out money based on scores for tests that do not prove anything. The Board of Educations may see everything just fine with the way schools are funded, but in reality it is only because they pay attention to the schools with the most potential rather than building the potential of another. The students are all capable of the same knowledge, so therefore they should all be given an equal chance, “ “Why...,” asks the city's Board of Education, “should our students receive less” than do “similar students” who live elsewhere? “The inequity is clear.” ” (J. Kozol 102), it is not fair that simply because of the area where the students come from they have to receive less money for their education, it should be the wealthy kids who should receive less since their parents have plenty of money. Equality in schools is what would need to occur in order to balance out the funding issue, and to do that all the schools who are in the projects would have to unite and make a statement, that they want to be able to achieve more and have more to offer their students in order to have them succeed.

Wealthy schools tend to have more than enough materials than they need, some which they do not use because they’ve replaced with newer materials. If they have no use to these resources, they can do a small good deed and donate what they do not need to schools who actually need materials. The idea is that instead of having greed in the education system there should be a connection, where the schools can help one another out rather than try and outdo each other for money that the government makes off of them. Simple donations of books could greatly help students who have very low reading skills, and no books that are academically fit for them to learn from, “While a suburban school library is likely to have 60000 volumes, a Chicago school library “is lucky to have 13000 volumes,” says the Sun-Times.” (J. Kozol 94), wealthy schools have an enormous amount of materials that they most likely won't use due to the fact that they frequently improve their materials. Wealthy schools can take all the old stuff they don't want and distribute it equally to the schools most in need, like computers that they don't have use for anymore, things that can definitely boost less fortunate schools. This solution would also put the wealthy school on a new level that doesn't involve high scores on tests or reading, but in a new level of kindness in a way, it would be more respected by those who do not live in the suburbs.

Further action to be taken which is quite more adequate for a situation like this is to simply show wealthy schools what its like to not receive any funds. It may seem unfair for the wealthy schools, but in reality it would be the best fit solution since the schools in the projects have always had nothing and still continue to have nothing, its only fair to do the same. Since parents already pay high amounts of money there may not be too much a difference in the schools performance or resources except that they would no longer receive aid from grants. Cutting aid for schools by the Government may have its toll on both ends of the schools, both rich and poor, but with time there would have to be a situation where the parents cannot keep funding and have to realize how other schools in poverty have had it and possibly requesting an equal fund for schools. The problem is that the parents pay for most of the schools expenses through taxes, “Nonetheless, Town and Country gives New Trier’s parents credit for a “willingness to pay enough . . . in taxes” to make this one of the state’s best-funded schools.” (J. Kozol 81), this could cause a downfall for other schools who have no funds besides that of the Government. Regardless it is worth a try to cut everyone off just so they can realize how much a struggle it is when there is no financial help to obtain the resources needed in school.

Present Vs. Past

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

October 1 2013

Impacts Of Poor Funds

The State Board Of Education has named a vast amount of schools around the counties which are categorized as the worst achieving schools. The schools are claimed to be “bad” schools due to the poor test scores on Government tests used to make money. The reason for the poor test scores isn't necessarily that the teachers aren't proper educators, or that the students are not capable of exceeding using what they are taught at school, but the fact that plenty of schools have very little to use. Numerous schools use outdated textbooks, have very old equipment if any, they can't afford to provide the materials or technology that is needed by the students. Poor funding in schools that are located in low income districts matters because it makes it difficult for these requirements of resources to be met, thus having the students fall behind or not have the information they need, causing the students to struggle and enjoy school less.

Schools that don't have funds for class materials risk the students education and ability to succeed in school. Boards Of Education may underestimate the issue as something that doesn't have much to do with the achievement of students, but in reality its more than important to have resources available for the students to study, or do homework and projects. The subjects change over time, and new information is included in textbooks, a math book from ten years ago can have different strategies than a newer generation of that same math book, which would be more useful for the tests because the students would be up to date with the information. In the book “Savage Inequalities” by Jonathan Kozol, students that live in rundown poor districts are forced to use what they have, which is not even close to what they need, “We have no textbooks yet. Im using my old textbook from the seventh grade.” (pg. 105), these are situations that cannot  be tolerated in schools. Till this present day school districts don't receive the funds they need to have enough new textbooks required by all students, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary in Compton, Ca. has 7 different grades from preschool to fifth grade and only one small library with very little books to offer. The amount of books compared to the amount of students is not near enough the amount that is needed. Both the schools in the book and King Elementary are in need of help in order to keep the students well educated in the correct manner, this affects the time it takes for the students to learn, they fall behind and are then placed in lower classes because they cant meet the expectations of the school boards of education.

The lack of materials in a school leads to more conservative actions that arent too beneficial for the students. The possibility that classes get cut from school is very likely to occur, leaving more money to “improve” the school in its weak areas. The problem with cutting these classes is that school loses a lot of its uniqueness since all that would be left to offer are basic classes like math, English and science, there would be no electives. The issue being that these elective classes aren't considered of much importance and are simply taken away leaving the students with no other knowledge, they have no way to express an unrevealed talent without these classes, “Many public schools are facing a stark  lack of resources, not only for arts classes but for other activities too. Over time, arts have been pushed lower and lower on the list of importance with regards to public schooling.” (Lack of Resources), just like in the book, none of the poor public schools offered any extracurricular classes except those that were in the suburbs and had money to afford these classes. I believe when a student doesn't have the option to choose from many different classes other than the standard subjects like Math and English, they get bored and don't really enjoy school, they have nothing to explore or use to relieve stress from classes. On a different note, if they did have these classes available with funds, then the students would be more enthusiastic about school, even if its only for one class, as long as they have something to look forward to and chase their dreams.

Funds towards schools will always be a great deal for the students, there is always something that is needed in schools, some more than others. Rather than putting schools down and categorizing how bad a school is, help should be provided in order to prevent more schools from being “low achievers” and also a consideration should be taken on whether the materials available are good enough for the students to use. Though there have been quite a lot of improvements in schools, there are still problems from the past that have stuck around to this present day and affect our school districts possibilities to fund for more books, libraries, computers, etc. We all need to join as a nation and settle these inequalities together rather than competing for the top, we all can achieve with the right actions.

Segregation In Schools

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

September 26 2013

Segregation In Schools

            Being separated apart from others because you are different than the rest is an intolerable situation that many people face. Till this day segregation still exists, especially in schools, not by race but by academic performance compared to the rest of the students that attend a school. When students are not at the proficiency that they are expected to be at, they are sent to a different school often called “continuation school” which is meant to help a student catch up, the problem with this is that when a school is filled with students of poor academic proficiency the chances of improving are very slim. In a class there needs to be a variety of academic skills, in order to challenge one another and motivate to try harder, separating all the less proficient students from the rest of the school doesn’t really help in improving the way that they perform. Segregating students will never help them achieve in life, it’s not fair that students have to be sent to a lower school simply because they aren’t at the level that everyone else is at, this is the chance that schools have to get more involved with students and offer more help instead of just getting rid of the student and making a lower school full of more segregated students sink deeper in the school district. Many parents with highly educated children also try to keep out students with low academic achievements by insisting to the board of education that only kids of some level of knowledgeable potential should be allowed in the classes, Jonathan Kozol mentions in his book, “The city is noted, had refused to build a new school for the project children when they were the only children in the neighborhood. Now that a new school has been built, they find themselves excluded.” (Kozol 74), the lower level students are never given a chance, so therefore they can never improve or advance in life if they always get excluded. The major problem is that these kids are not being helped to reach what they are capable of, and their hopes are dragged down which makes them skeptical about what they can achieve. Schools should really begin to take action for their students instead of sending them off to other schools that are going nowhere.

 

Consequence Of No Emotional Connection

Max Serna
Ms. Williams
English 1A
September 13, 2013

Consequence Of No Emotional Connection          

When teachers don't have that emotional connection with students, they risk having more high school drop outs and less successful students. The students need a certain amount of help from the teachers in order to succeed. The student alone cant figure out what to do, they don't know how to learn with no help, its up to the teacher to be connected with them in order to teach the class properly, where a student can feel comfortable when asking for extra help. If there is a lack of communication in a class the students wont feel like they can seek help in the class and most likely wont seek for help outside of school causing them to fall behind or pick up bad habits like not doing homework because they don't understand the material. Help is always needed by students, no matter how independent they are in class, and a teacher should make sure the class feels safe to ask for it by knowing how to be connected with the students.
A similar issue to not obtaining help is that the students wont learn in class, they will not know whats going on once they start to fall behind. A teacher needs to keep in mind that kids are sometimes afraid of asking questions because they don't want to feel dumb, which is why the teacher should know how to speak to the students in order to have them know they can ask the teacher anything they need help on. When the students see that the teacher doesn't connect with them in such a way, they wont ask questions and they wont learn in class and will struggle with work, leading them into failure. A child that doesn't learn in school and fails a class will then feel like they should just give up, they don't think they can make it anymore and their state of mind begins to change causing bigger problems like not even trying anymore or cutting class and accepting failure as a choice.
Once a student begins to accept failure in school everything goes downfall. The biggest issue with failing is that students will drop out of school without even trying to redeem themselves from the failures, they see that its a lot of work to complete to get back on track and prefer to stop where they are and quit. Teachers need to be cautious of the possibilities of students dropping out of high school, because they can be the ones to prevent it as well as cause it. If a teacher focuses on having a great emotional connection, they can change a failing students mind, and help them achieve more in school and possibly push them to go further, as a teacher they should never settle for a failing student, because when a student fails the teacher fails as well, they didn't help enough to prevent from that student from failing. There are students who do things for attention, like cause trouble or fail on purpose because they don't have anyone who will talk to them and be a role model, in which case a teacher would be the excellent person to deal with those types of students by showing her or she cares about the success of those students by being emotionally connected with them.

Libraries Gone Out Of Date

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

September 08 2013

Libraries Gone Out Of Date

Libraries have never been the same since technology has been improving, more and more resources online lead to less visits to a local library for information on people, or for school assignments. Education has taken a big step away from using old fashioned research at libraries due to the fact that there are so many computer labs available for students to use, and all the free wifi areas like starbucks that allow students or anyone conducting research to use at no cost. Part of the reason that I believe libraries have gone out of date in educations is because people don't really have time to go to a public library and actually take time to gather books with information, instead they can go on a search browser like Google and have a chunk of information from different web sites. Using technology is way more convenient as well because the majority of kids have laptops or smartphones that are capable of being used literally anywhere so they can easily look up information rather than heading towards the library. Research may be easier but it also has its downfalls, information online isn't always correct, and some websites also allow for users to change and add their own information as well which could be a problem because the information would be inaccurate. We tend to depend too much on technology to give us the answers instead of doing the research ourselves and obtaining information the right way, and actually learn from what we research. The way technology is rising we use less things in school such as libraries, notebooks, etc. its all digital technology now, its crippling our capabilities of doing such things on our own.

Teacher Interaction

Max Serna                                                                                                                   Serna 1

M. Williams

English 1A

09 September 2013

Teacher Interaction

    There are many dreams, and goals that are never chased by students because of how society discourages them, they don't think they are supposed to be different and explore all the different paths they can take.  The Passion Project movie is a film that was created by college students who were scared of what to do because they felt like they were expected to be whatever it was the media said they should be.  Out of the many ideas that theses students had about how they could possibly avoid these issues from happening, one stood out to me about how teachers should interact with the students and try to really connect with them and motivate them as well.  After a little research, I found some interesting connections between an online article, and the Passion Project movie.  Teachers who begin to build connections with students starting pre-school tend to help build good habits of communication with future teachers as they feel safe knowing they can speak to an adult that wont judge them or not believe them.  According to the Passion Project, students found it hard to understand the material that was being covered in class, there were not enough explanations or thorough enough to understand with a simple lesson.  With that communications being built at early ages, students can feel free to be confident enough to ask and not be afraid to stay and speak to the teacher one on one.  When teachers actually communicate with the students, they build a bond that makes the student want to be in school, and actually want to look forward to studying and exploring new knowledge that can possibly help them figure out what they want to be when they are older and not drop out or give up on themselves, "Teachers who experience close relationships with students reported that their students were less likely to avoid school, appeared more self-directed, more cooperative, and more engaged in learning (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Klem & Connell, 2004).", the teachers can get to know the student and then do their best to help a student build his dream and get an idea of what he/she wants to make of themselves instead of struggling and feeling like they are on their own to sink or swim.  These types of communications can be extremely benefiting for students all ages, and grades.  The more they can communicate with teachers, the easier it is for them to ask questions and also learn to overcome a fear of failure and keep going instead of giving up,
“Central to this theory is that students with close relationships with their teachers view their teacher as a "secure base" from which to explore the classroom environment. In practice, students with this "secure base" feel safe when making mistakes and feel more comfortable accepting the academic challenges necessary for learning  (Bowlby 1969).”, the students learn how to strive, not just fail once and think they cant make it in life, from failure comes success in the long run.  I personally believe that with the connection of student to teacher, a student will find it less stressing to decide what they want to be or what path to take as there are infinite amounts to choose from.

http://www.apa.org/education/k12/relationships.aspx

Jeff Bliss Vs. The Perils Of Obedience

Max Serna
M. Williams
English 1A
August 26, 2013

Jeff Bliss stood up to his class teacher because she would not teach the class properly, she would not put any effort into her teaching according to Jeff, and she had not interactions with the students whatsoever.  Jeff spoke on behalf of the entire class when he stood up against the teacher, his purpose was to make the teacher realize that she needed to actually do more than just hand out packets of work for the students to complete.  In addition she had to show the students she actually cared about their educations and their future so they could be successful in life.  In "The Perils Of Obedience" by Stanley Milgram, an experiment is being made using two people, the learner and the teacher.  The learner is a subject who has to memorize a group of words and then say the second word in that group, for everyone he gets wrong he must receive a shock from the teacher who is controlling everything from a room.  The Experimenter is telling the teacher what to do, even though they are inflicting pain on the learner they are forced to obey the Experimenter since he has the most authority.  One teacher, Gretchen Brandt sees that the learner is having a really hard time answering and has a heart condition, she then asks the Experimenter if she may stop because she does not want to be responsible for the death of the learner.  She is told to keep going, but she refuses, its ongoing until the Experimenter calls of the experiment.
The relationship between these two situations is that both Bliss and Brandt stood up to the person who had a higher authority than them to make a point.  Bliss's point was that the teacher had to make a better effort to teach the students, while Brandt's point was that she was not going to keep going with the experiment and be held responsible for the learner whom she and the Experimenter both knew had a heart condition.  Both disobeyed to reach what they wanted.

Max Serna
M. Williams
English 1A
August 20, 2013

Electric Vibe

This blog reflects me because of my main taste of music, which is "EDM" (Electric Dance Music).  Ever since I first heard it, my whole perspective on music changed.  The different types of edm that are out there sort of reflect the person I am.  The music can also describe how I am feeling at times.
Although music is really important to me, my success in life will always be number one in importance.  Being successful is what will help me, my family, and future family.  Pursuing my career as a psychologist is what is always on my mind, its not my passion to be a psychologist, but it is a career I would love to have.  My passion though is and always will be music, listening to it, making it, exploring it and so on.  In the case that I changed my mind about majoring in psychology, I would definitely take my passion to a new level and strive to become a famous producer and share my love for music with the world.
There are many reasons why I am in school, the most important reason to me is simple because there is still a lot for me to learn and a lot of experience for me to gain still.  With the current knowledge that I have I wouldn't go very far, I wouldn't be able to have many of the luxuries I would like to have for myself, and for my family.  Being in school will also help me find myself, at the moment I may think I want to major in psychology but perhaps i'll realize that its actually not for me, therefore i'd try new classes and explore different areas until I find my true major.
I hope to have a way better understanding of critical thinking, and improve in my essay writing and strategies.  I hope to push myself to get assignments done ahead of time so I can have spare time to proofread my work and add extra detail or edit, because I usually always procrastinate and don't have time to reread it and make any changes.  I also hope to get an A in this class but I know its all going to reflect on my effort and completeness of my work.
What I value most is the support of my family, meaning that their support is what will help me throughout my college career.  Just having them help me with what they can and showing their support is enough
to encourage me to give college my all and make them proud, and in the long run I will make sure to do what I can to repay them for all they did for me.