Dear Carrie,
    I have been having a hard time trying to decide on exactly what I want to research, so I will explain the two ideas I am stuck between. One of my ideas dealt with college/life readiness after high school and the other with high school testing. They are both topics that I could possibly preach about for years but I do know that I can only chose one.

College/ life readiness:
    My main idea for my college and or life readiness topic was along the lines of classes offered in high schools. In on e of my old high schools they offered culinary classes, auto shop, horticulture, and cosmetology as classes that anyone could take. With those classes being offered instead of just science, math, English, history, and art: students were able to be prepared for their world outside of high school. I am just simply trying to figure out if those classes should be offered in every high school for students that do not want to go to a four year college. High schools put so much work and money to make sure that everyone goes to college, not just college, but a four year college. Though the whole going to college thing is pushed they also want to make sure that you are ready for life once you're out and into the real world. If the whole reason for high school is to prepare kids for college and life, why not offer them classes that will help them be prepared no matter which direction or pathway they chose after graduation?
    Though all of that sounds fantastic I know this idea can raise many questions: which high schools should be offered these classes?, how will we be able to figure out which classes to provide?, how will each high school afford new teachers, materials, and class rooms?, and how effective will these classes be? Those are just a few of the questions that come from my idea. I know for a fact that I can not have a defiant answer to all of those questions but I think I can figure a way to work it all out. I will begin by interviewing the graduates of my old high school that did that the classes such as cosmetology and see how prepared they were against someone who did not take the class but still went into the same field of study. Also, I will interview the principal and ask how they actually have these classes available. By interviewing those people I will be able to understand if these students that are not going on the usual four-year college pathway are as prepared as the other students. I also will research of the government gives high schools money that do offer said classes and try to figure out which high schools are eligible to have these classes.

High school testing:
    My high school testing idea also reverts back to "college readiness" but it would be way too much work to put them together. At least right now I can't think of a good way to put them together which is way I am stuck in-between choosing one topic. I am a horrible test taker. I know their are people out there willing to debate "bad test-takers" are fact and that that is just an excuse to fail tests. I am a really bad test taker though. I can do homework, in-class assignments, and even quizzes, but I always freak out during tests. The sad thing is that there are millions of people out there who are bad test takers as well. Myself and all of those other people basically get thrown under the bus when tests determine our chances to get into a certain college or even if a test determines our grade in a class. If a student can show how well they understand a class or classes through their work in the class, why should a test have to back up what they can all ready do?
    I do not think that all tests should be banned, I just think that SATs, ACTs, and AP tests should be banned. I took an AP Biology class and did fantastic in class. I passed the class with a 92% average, when it came time to take the AP exam I did not to so well. Not because I did not know the material but simply because I freak out during tests and erase all of my answers because I think they are wrong. Seeing as I did so well in the class without any extra credit given, shouldn't that be the evidence needed to assure my understanding of Biology? SATs are tests that mosh basically all of the information that you are supposed to know  out of high school. That would be great if everyone took the same classes and went the same pathway. Some students in high school don't needed to take a certain level of math classes do to what their major is going to be in college. Why can't we just base someone's acceptance on their GPA and extra curricular activities? To find out how well accepting students into colleges with out looking at their SATs or ACTs I will research colleges that don't look at that kind of stuff. I will also compare the graduation rate and rate of students who get jobs out of college between those who look at SATs and ACTs to those who don't.

    So there you have it. My battle between two intense topics that could possibly work together. I still don't know which one I would like to start a paper about even after figuring out all of the steps needed for each. I do hope that you like my suggestions. I look forward to talking to you about these complex topics and figuring out the big winner.

Thank you and have a great day!
                        -Chez




    
    

    Many people just complain and complain about all of the things wrong with the schooling system. Some blame teachers, others blame students, and then there are the few people that blame the government. Though it is important to figure out where we went wrong, we need solutions. There really is no need to point fingers if you're not going to figure out how to fix it. I personally think that one solution to amplifying America's intelligence for the future is to get rid of “No Child Left Behind". Yes we live in a place that just has education given out to people like candy but that is one thing that hurts us. Due to the fact that teachers, mostly in high school, do not like to fail students we slowly lower the bar. One teacher doesn’t fail a student but passes them with a D just to get them out of the class and then it happens again the next year or with a different student. Slowly it becomes the norm that you don't have to do well and you'll still pass. If the teachers just failed the people that really need to fail, it will show them that you actually need to do well or you will just be wasting everyone's time. Just think about it, in Japan students hit rock bottom and everyone lets them. People do that to show them that your education is in your hands and we are not going to walk you through it. I believe this is why we are behind them in education, because we baby students.Though students need less attention and more responsibility, I think that teachers need more attention. I think that teachers should get paid far more money than what they do. Teachers may not be performing intense surgery but they are technically saving someone’s life. They save people’s lives by providing them with the necessary education needed to prevail in the real world. There are teachers out there that love to teach yet hate their job due to the pay. That reflects in their teaching habits and it affects their students. Sure the students could really teach themselves everything if they really wanted to but teachers are there to help. If s teacher hates their job and doesn't want to help any students after class that sets the students back. Not only do teachers need to be paid more but more money needs to go into education to provide everyone looking for an education the proper materials or lowering the price for schooling. If everyone really could afford college I feel as though more people could go. I could not go to my desired college not because I didn't get in, but because I couldn't afford it. With all of those things being done I think that may help our system. I’m not saying that the solutions I thought up are correct or would even be effective but you never know.

    Paulo Freire at first explains how students "learn" something just to use it for a test and then never remember it again. That students simply listen for the moment and then dump all of the information away (Freire Lines 13-16) . We (students) just sit and eat the bitter tasting lecture stuffed down our throats by teachers. I have to agree with him on that point. There are so many teachers out there who lack to properly communicate with their students causing us to just write down what we need to know to past the next test without actually knowing what's going on. He also lists the different scenarios where the teacher teachers and the student is taught and where the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing ( Freire lines 25-26). Just those two  scenarios play over and over again in my mind because they had all the time. Students sitting in a classroom having no idea what is going on while the teacher is going about their own business " teaching". In Mike Rose's article he draws a great example of this in his Vocational classes. Students paying no attention while the teacher is just going with the flow.
    Freire then talks about how we are all "in" the world and not with the world. I'm not going to lie, I did not understand what he was talking about. I did understand the next paragraph about how teachers must fill the students (Freire Paragraph 19). He (to my understanding) is stating that it is the teachers job to teach students the needed knoeledge in a way that it will stay in their heads. So that the students don't just know the material but understand the material. By doing this students will be  more prepared for the educational world. I again agree with Freire ( if that's what he is trying to say). If teacher did teach in a way that made the material stick in their students minds, they would have a greater understanding of what college or any high level education will be like. I'm not saying that all teachers need to reevaluate their teaching but a good handful of them may want to think about it.
    "Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers. The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself  taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach" ( Freire Paragraph 30). That is what I believe would make the perfect educational system to achieve the highest level of understanding and readiness for further education. If teachers AND students stared and taught each other different things then everyone would be on the same page. If teachers interacted more with their students there would be no need for that on random person to always be lost in the classroom. I feel like I am always that student, the teacher explains something in some way that apparently I don't understand where everyone else does. I had one teacher in high school who made sure every single student understood what was going on and how to do what we were doing. Thanks to her, I got a B in AP Biology like a beast and I can still remember everything in Kingdom Protista ( it's algae by the way).
    

    Mike Rose’s article was great, as I read it I thought of what I had to go threw to just get into “normal” classes. When I was in elementary school I was placed in classes for kids who had a learning disability, the only problem was I did not have one. I could calculate all mathematic equations perfectly, comprehend any piece of literature handed to me, and tell you anything you needed to know about science. The reason I was placed in such classes was because I could hear about 75% than the other kids around me and I could not read every fast. I was not deaf, I could definitely hear someone if they were right in front of me or yelled my name across the classroom. I was in the second grade reading books for fifth graders and completely understood the book. I tried to fix in because when you are in a disability class, things are a lot easier. I would only half way do what I was told and demand that I did not hear what the teacher had said just so I would not get in trouble. I did as Rose put it; I shut down and acted dumb. I rejected intellectual stimuli and had a simple vocabulary (Rose Page 6 Lines 8-14).

            Though I was happy about being lazy, my hearing was retested and I tested into “normal” classes. I hated it as Rose struggled with being in his college prep classes I at first struggled with normal classes. I could not just say I could not hear the teacher or I did not understand, I sat in the front of the class. My mom helped me recuperate from pretending to be incoherent. Though my hearing still was not 100% normal I could do as well as anybody else. Now look at me, no one could ever tell that I used to be in “special needs” classes.