Second Draft Yall!

Madeline Allen

Megan Keaton

English 112-12

February 6, 2013

Exploratory Proposal

What is it that makes a “good” school? Is it the teachers, or the students? Is it the amount of money funded to the school? Or the amount of time taken to learn the best way to pass a state test? Through articles and readings based on schools today, in America, what can we find that’s missing? And more importantly, what should change?

Because of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 the entire country thought funding for our schools would finally be fixed. Students pass the standard tests and test scores start to raise, then the title one school can finally get the funding it deserves (NCLB 2). Children should be tested right? They should all be created equal. Even the ones who barely make it to school because problems at home, outweigh the importance of school, in their parents eyes? They should be tested the same as children who live in a household where paying tuition, for their eight year old, every year is no problem? The level of equality was clearly not shown in President Bush’s eyes, when he passed this act.

Obviously testing must be in schools, but maybe funding shouldn't be based off of the performance of test scores. Teachers are beginning to teach students to just pass the test. Students can feel the pressure from the teachers; after all, it’s now the teacher’s job on the line. There isnt much I remember from middle school, but I do remember EOG day. I also remember having two weeks left of school after the test where we just watch movies and play games. All that mattered was that stupid test.

In a video from Ted.com called Why Standardized Testing Fails, Bob Sternburg talks about how Standardized Testing Started in the early 1900’s.” Tests like this are out of date (Sternburg). We are using the same education techniques we used in a time where blacks drank from different water fountains as whites, much less didn't go to the same schools whites did. No computers were even remotely anywhere near being invented, and college was only for those who didn’t want to go to war. Times have changed, but this standardized testing is till around. Why?

“Test scores match socio-economic level” (Sternburg). What another lovely problem. “In working class schools, work is following the steps to a procedure” (Anyon 2). So children listen and do what they are told, maybe by reading along in class and then answering questions directly from the text. But, in “affluent professional schools, school work is a creative activity carried out independently” (Anyon 6). Children in these schools are learning the same content, but doing activities in different ways. Most likely in working class schools children are bored of following procedures and steps. However in affluent schools children are able to be creative: a much less boring lesson. They are taught to be independent in their studies; they can take these skills home and use them in their study techniques. I know something as small as learning a certain way and carrying it out one or two times may not be a big deal. But if every day you are learning this way, it can make a big impact on how you think as an adult. Everyday these students wake up, listen to the teacher talk, follow the steps on a worksheet, finish the lesson and never think about it again. They don’t think about it again, because they hate learning. I know, because I was the exact same way.

I cannot relate to different types of creativity in classes like Math, English, and History, however I took three levels of photography and art. In these classes we were able to almost pick the lesson activity or exercise we did. More often than not, the teacher would talk about a famous artist in history, we would learn the techniques they used and put it down onto a canvas, or paper, or even into clay. Given a few guidelines, art teachers wound us up and let us run with our ideas. We were able to learn the history of art and connect it to ways we learn today. Often times they would play music, which was a huge treat. I used to think of my art classes as an escape from “real school,” but I was still really learning. I remember the bell would ring and I would be sad. In other classes, I’d look at the clock more than the teachers face. How can we make children sad, when the bell rings in history class?

Everyone likes thinking on their own, and doing their own thing, why teach children to be the same, by answering all the same questions that only have one right answer. Obviously it’s hard to teach creativity in classes like social studies and math, but instead of cramming dates and places into their heads, why don’t we start asking different questions. Instead of asking “when did the civil war start?” we should ask “WHY do you think the civil war started?” Or in math, insteaad of asking “what’s the answer to number three?” we should ask “How did you get the answer to number three?” Using their own words to explain, and having their own ideas, they will actually begin to teach themselves and learn on a higher level.

Anthony Browne wrote an article called Creativity in Schools, Every Story Needs a Picture. In it, he explains his time at a school, “Where children are two years further ahead in their reading compared to those in other schools.” These children are coming to the stage where they are encouraged to begin reading “chapter books” instead of picture books (Browne 2). Browne then makes an incredibly excellent point. The illustrations children see in books are some of the first pictures they see, and these continually frowned upon picture books can really help a child. A child takes in everything they learn at a young age (2). “If Children are encouraged to think that pictures are for babies and that to become educated is to leave images behind and concentrate purely on words, we risk creating a country of visually illiterate adults,” says Browne(2).

In a video called Schools Kill Creativity, Ken Robinson tells a heart touching story about how a Woman named Jillian Lynn, who was thought to have a learning disorder. They said she was too fidgety in schools. She was sent to a doctor and he asked her a ton of questions. He then decided to talk to Jillian’s mother outside of the room, but first turned on the radio on his desk. He then asked the mother to watch. Within minutes Jillian was on her feet dancing. The doctor said, “Mrs. Lynn, your daughter doesn't have a learning disorder, she is a dancer.” She then auditioned for the royal ballet, became a multi-millionaire and produced the famous musical CATS. “Somebody else might have put her on medication, and told her to calm down” (Robinson). Is that what we’re doing to our children now? Telling them to calm down, when they could quite possibly be the next Jillian Lynn?

I cannot picture a world where human beings aren’t creative. More often than not, the most influential people in the world are also the most creative. Students who are constantly taught to read and answer questions, and just get by because the questions are word for word from a textbook, are less likely to get a higher paying job. Students who think for themselves are challenged and like being challenged, so they continue that way of thinking. These students become the owners, managers and bosses of the companies that the students who master a simple worksheet, work for.

I want to research if qualities can be taught in schools. How do learning techniques and lack of funding affect who a child, when they become an adult. Do private schools really put better graduates into the world? Are people who attended schools that offer more creative classes such as dancing, acting, art and music, better and well-rounded people? What is better? Creativity in classes? Or standardized Testing so we’re all equal, and we can all be measured in a way that getting into college might be easier? What if students are bad test takers, yet understand the concepts?

Should we be taught to pass a test? Or should we learn to be creative, to solve anything life throws at us?

Works Cited

Anyon, Jean. “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work.” Journal of Education.
       Vol. 162, no. 1 (1980).

Browne, Anthony. The Gaurdian. Web. 29 Jun2009
       http://www.gaurdian.co.uk/education/2009/jun/30/creativity-schools-children-laureate

NoChildLeftBehind.gov. “No Child Left Behind Act 2001.”

Considering Literacy: Reading and Writing The Educational Experience. Ed. Linda
        Adler-Kasser. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 308-312. Print.

Robinson, Ken. “Schools Kill Creativity.” Ted.com. California. Feb 2006. Lecture.

Sternburg, Bob. “None of the Above-Why Standardized Testing Fails.” Ted.com. Oklahoma.

      3 Dec. 2012. Lecture.