Here, Let Me Help You Up [Final Essay]

In this world, there are two types of people. A giver and a taker. For years, religion and philosophy have given us the benefit of the doubt in believing that giving is a better "pay off" than receiving. "Pay off" was a poor choice of words.  As the years went on our lifestyle, the American lifestyle, didn't find the "pay off"  of giving quick enough, or at least not as quick as it was to simply just take. Unfortunately the most powerful people in this country are nothing more than professional "takers". In the book, The Rich and The Rest of Us, by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, they discuss the problems of economic structures with this country. The problem with this country is that the most powerful people lack compassion for their fellow American people. The strongest educated, most superb intellects in this country would rather invest their time on money before people. Businesses here have forgotten that a job isn't just a task being completed, but that it is a person being supported from it. In this country, people have either forgotten what love is or our society never wanted us to see what it was.
In America, many of us believe that if you are poor its because you are to blame. When you are poor, it is because you don't know what to do with your money, you spend it on stupid stuff or you simply aren't someone that can be trusted with a dollar. This idea creates an assumption that promotes prejudice against the poor. In the book, they tell how, "We first judge and ask questions later. It's not that the system is is unjust or inhumane; too many of us believe that there is something innately wrong with the poor"(122). Rather than assume, we should think. We must think if this person is just poor because of the unfortunate event of a lay off or any other uncontrollable financial dilemma. We should not judge. When we become prejudice to the the lesser fortunate, we forge an ignorance from our arrogance that has us believe that some people just aren't worthy of help or of attention. More than half the time, someone isn't even impoverished because of the stereotypical reasons, someone is poor poor because they had lost their jobs or had some problems with the bank. Everyone deserves to see the evidence of the existence of love. The concerns of people in this county should start to focus on the concerns of people in this country. We mustn't judge, for the same reason someone is in poverty is the same reason anyone can be in poverty.
If you were to ask a student in a high class university, why are they in school, it isn't too likely that they would tell you that they aim to make that difference in this world. That is one of the biggest problems in this country today, it is that that best thinkers, strongest educated students take their brains to the corporations before they give them to the people. They prefer to have a capital advantage in this world, rather than finding a way to help their fellow man. In the book, they explain how, "Over 90 percent of Finnish teachers are unionized, and the top graduates of Finland's universities become teachers rather than investment bankers"(118). We should have more people in this country that are concerned for how their fellow man is doing, rather than themselves. We live in this country under a "survival of the fittest" mentality. This mentality eclipses the idea of unity. It keeps us from wanting to help each other. Its like the able bodied racing the crippled, and the abled bodied chooses to win the race rather than to help everyone get to the finish line. Unity and equality should be the idea when it comes to success, not "I'm better than you".
Another problem here is that greed has overpowered compassion. In this country, during the recession, many people lost their jobs because it was either taken over by some machine or given to someone overseas. The corporates are to blame for this. It was their greed that overcame their sense of ethics and forced them to lack compassion for their fellow man. In the book, they express how "Corporate fat cats don't see people; they see numbers-as in huge salaries and bonuses for saving money...making profits"(131). Many corporations have replaced their employees for other forms of capital, not necessarily because its a better alternative, but because their profits would increase. The problem with them is that they no longer viewed their employees as people with jobs, but as jobs with people that are in the way. It was a task, checklist, complete perspective that completely ignored the employee as a human. They ruthlessly took their jobs away without care. Corporations need to see the that an economy was developed, not as a game, but actually was meant to ensure that everyone did something for everyone else and by replacing people with other types of capital defeats the purpose of an economy. Without a job, the person has no income, cannot buy, cannot provide.
We must remember that an economy is not a game. We must not play against each other in game where someone's luck can be capitalized. We must erase the greater than and lesser than signs, and think equal. The corporal powers should notice that their bucket is overflowing, while others are going through drought. We should learn to use our academic advantages like a machete, not as weapons for defeating each other, but as a tool to get everyone through. Without compassion, we are nothing more than savages worried about our self while the others go hungry. Without compassion, you get this "survival of the fittest" mentality that is animalistic. We are people, and the ability to show love is a gift. To get to show love is the "pay off". The way this world works is fragile, so we mustn't take advantage of the people in it.

Should We Have Compassion?

In my opinion, compassion is a beautiful thing. It seems to be one of those elements that separates us from being savage. I mean, for one, our concern in compassion isn't ourselves but the rather the focus is in the love and desires of others. Having a sense of compassion reminds us, as people, that another has needs too. Its respectful to be considerate for what others expect. those without compassion go off and do harm to people. They are usually ruthless and aim to only have things done or dealt with. Its not to say this person is wrong in anyway, but something about it just sounds ugly. It shows an animalistic behavior or "survival of the fittest" or being savage. To be compassionate means having the ability to love. There are people in this world, as well as history, that can't do that. I have met people that don't care if someone falls or if someone goes without as long as they still get to have what they want. I mean, the way the world works is fragile. We mustn't  take advantage of it and the people creatures it. So do we need compassion? Probably not, but it is  one of those things in life that is there for our comfort and pleasure. To ask that question is like asking, must we have joy? must we have desires? are pleasures worth anything? Its true, we don't need it, and even often, its lack of compassion that gets things done. But to not have compassion takes away the some juice from the fruits of life. So I guess to that question I answer: We are not savage, we are not machines, we are people and the ability to love is one of our gifts.

My paragraphs for POORly FUnded School paper, so far

When society is trying to protect the wealthy by lowering the education of the poor, it have it so that some teachers don't teach all types of students. When I did my research on some of the top schools and some of the lower schools, I noticed how regardless of the type of school, the higher level subject students do well in them, and the lower level subject students do poorly. At Mills High school in Millbrae, the school exceeds the state in average in high level high school mathematics, however, the students in lower level mathematics are doing poorly. This is one way society is trying to protect the wealthy without really realizing it. Because some teachers don't want to teach below level students, these "good" teachers end up giving that kind of elite attention to the students that technically might not even need it. In other cases, the majority of the school is full of first generation immigrants that may not know the language. Willbrook Middle School in Compton has about 53% of thes students there are in some type of ESL (English Second Language) class. The number of students in this school that are in need of English education is far to vast in the age they are in. These students should be recieving better instructors to perhaps reduce the number under ESL programming. Not many teachers want to be part of that because the effort isn't worth what they'll get paid. Overall, the teachers main concerns with education seem to be about how much it is that they will get paid in the outcome. A teacher in the book states, how where he works now he gets paid less than where he really feels he is supposed to be working(30). Society is making it so that teachers main concern is getting paid. Even if they did want to help a student, they show off how rewardless the effort would be, at least in some areas.

Another affect that comes from this favoratism is that schools become poorly funded. What happens when schools become poorly funded is that children don't have the materials to recieve a proper education. In the book he writes,"Blackboards at the school...are 'so badly cracked that the teachers are afraid to let students write on them for fear they'tt cut themselves'"(99). The student has now become detained from education just because of the condition that his materials are in. If the teachers, in this case, are afraid of having the students write on this board, that only means that the teachers themsleves feel limited as well. Schools where the school provides more funds for the students tend to have better educated schools. In the research I've done about the better and worst schools, schools like Sequoia High Schools in Redwood City has very high averages averages in their test scores. Sequoia High School spends at least $12,000 on each of their students. When schools are properly funded, the children just do better. Another thing that happens when schools don't recieve proper fundings is that the areas that have a lot of people don't have enough space to hold all the students. [QUOTE FROM THE BOOK}. A student not having a spot in the classroom doesn't allow the student to focus in the classroom. They would be too busy trying to adjust the congestion of the atmosphere. In other words, it becomes a disctraction.

A style in with society tries to protect the wealthy from the poor is through a . incognized segregation. Some schools in certain neighborhoods do exponentially better than some in a nother. Eldridge Elementary, here in Hayward has been rewarded as a blue ribbon school with many alumni that go on to do well in school, whereas down the street, Tyrell Elementary has low performance rate and not many alumni can take pride in it. Both schools come from the same city, but the chance that the students from both schools succeeding is farely slim. One has a much higher rate at success while the other doesn't as much. That's not to say that success and failure is certain depending on where they both come from, just that for the probability of chance, it is. Another thing I've noticed about segregation is that the schools that are doing poorly are made up of certain ethicities and the ones that are doing well are made up of others. Out of all the schools I've researched, the low level ones had at least a majority of 53% Hispanic and the the school that did best on my list had a majority of 66% Asian.{QUTE BOOK}.

One reason that we need to notice that this is a problem is because there are many familes that lie underneath the poverty line in this country. Many families, to begin with, don't live in areas where there are alot of work available. In his book he writes,"Fiscal shortages have forced the layoff of 1,170 of the city's 1,400 employees in past 12 years"(8). Unemployment keeps people at the bottom. When the parents can't provide better things fo their children the children also stay at the bottom. Another reason this is a problem is because there are many families living in unlivable conditions. In his book he writes,"the problem is all worst because the chemical plants in East St. Louis...been releasing toxins into the sewer system"(9). The living conditions that some people are forced to live in is simply unjustified. When people live like this, they are more likely to get sick and diseases which can detain you ability to recieve education. The main reason people have to live like this is because they don't have any other choice. They don't have any other choice because where they come from they don't recieve the education that would benefit them for the better working world. In the documentary Waiting for Superman, they explain how many families from Latin American countries couldn't keep going to school because they had to go out to work fo the families becuase they had other siblings to look after. When people like this get into this country they are unprepared for the better working world, therefore have to resort to what they been doing back home which, unfortunately, doesn't pay much and leave them with the little choice to live with low employment and high pollution.

Another reason this has become a problem is because many of the students are being under educated. One of the major problems that better clarrify this is how teachers have to many rights. In the documentary, he explains how teacher earn whats called a ten-year that prevents them from getting fired. A teachers with ten-year basically doesn't have to worry about what they do or don't do and that iisn't fair. Teachers, like an other worker, should have to deal with consequence, when they don't they get the freedom not do anything. But a major factor to that is the freedom we give the educational system to do with their money. In the documentary, they also describe how the Feds give money to the schools and from there the schools have the freedom to create and manipulate their own rules with it. It isnt wise to allow one individual district to decide what is right for a class of students. It is rather biased and leads to low qualifying education. Overall, the teachers aren't really good. In the documentary he describes how a good teacher overs 150% of the material and a bad teacher only cover 50%. If a bad teacher is to continue their methods, and if every teacheer in the area is also doing as bad, than we can never expect students in the area to ever be fully educated.

Regardless of bad teachers, another problem is that the teachers that do want to try feel that they don't have what they need to teach. In the book, a teacher states,"'Its very difficult,' says the music teacher, 'to have concert rehearsals with the choir'while ten other classes try to study in the same space"(159). To reach the point to where a dynamically increasing volume of choir students is forced to mash in with the space of people studying, it becomes havoc for the people studying. They obviously lack the essential necessity of space. Teachers don't feel confident in the supply that they have. A teacher in the book says,"'the equalized 75 percent[money] buys just enough to keep all ships afloat. The unequal 25 percent assures that they will sail in opposite directions"'(176). Teachers don't have the most confidence in their supply. They believe that whatever they are given will unmotivate the student thus leading the into the path of failure. A teacher not only has no confidence in what they have but also feels that because of that, the student will lose confidence in themselves. In the book, the teacher better explains when they say,"... the government can't find the money to provide them a descent school, they don't believe it and they know that it's a choice...about how much they matter to society"(179). The teachers feel that what the governent provides for them simply isn't enough. They know a student needs enough that thells them that they are of value, that the education they receive is out of some type of passion.

One way that they also keep the people separated is by insuring that certain type of people fill in certain types of jobs. One example of that is the situation with illegal immigrants. Because of the way the law is built up, illegal immigrants are unable to do "regular" work due to the law demanding some type of work permit or citizenship. Because of this, they are left with little choice in work other than cheap labor. Although this example carries nothing in the sense of education, it does however better indicate the outline of the American working idealogy. It shows how this country desires people to do things they wouldn't do and they expect to pay what they possibly feel is an ethical minimum for it. A more emphasized example of this would also be when foreingers come to this country with degrees from their countries. I had a friend tell me that in his home country of the Phillippines, he came here with a degree in business. However, no where that he wanted to try and look for work would they accept his degree as a concrete degree. This situation almost implies that they should look for different type of work. It creates the image that they are academically worth less than what the demands call for. In a way, forcing a surrender to a more remedial job. Overall, this society we live in has an affection for cheap labor. Only few people are allowed to be on top, a few more below them, and a bit more underneath them. Many refer to it as a pyramid scheme.

Poorly Funded Public Schools

I believe that what may be happening with schools today is that they are protecting the wealthy by providing lesser education to the poor. One way they do this is by having some schools spend less money per student. At some poor rank schools, the average spending rate on a student ranges between 8.5k and 10.5k where as for richer schools they go from 11k to even 12k per student. This is pretty much saying that not every student is receiving the same amount of books, materials, and resources. Like in the book, these students in better schools have the resources that other schools lack. Many of these cities that have poorly funded schools also tend to have a higher drop out rate. Tennyson High School has a 5% drop out rate, whereas a school like Mills High School has it in the decimals. When a school has more dunding, the student is more likely to want to attend. When they see things that are broken, torn or don't work, they a sense of respect for it.

Another thing I have noticed in doing research about the "bad" schools is that the majority tend to be either Black or Hispanic. Willbrook Middle School in Compton has a majority of 97% of the students being Hispanic, and a 13% drop out rate. I also noticed that over half of the students need to take some type of ESL(English Second Language) class. What this is saying is that these students might be first generation immigrants and struggle in learning the English language. They probably don't feel any type of motivation in learning it if they see everyone doesn't want to either. The schools probably don't provide enough materials, teachers, or even time and effort into teaching these kids how to read and write in English. Though a Hispanic majority tends to be common in schools that do poorly, that isnt nessicarily a factor. In Sequioa High, of Redwood City, they have a 61% Hispanic majority. In this school, they exceed the state average in most subject, especially mathematics, and come from one of the state's better districts. The main difference I noticed between these two schools were that Compton is far below the State average in income, and Redwood City exceeds it by plenty. In other words, ethnicity does not play a part in the stability of the students, but rather social class does. When these kids come from poor, they are likely to stay poor, and when they come from richer, they are likely to stay richer.

The main thing I think I noticed when looking at the test scores for all the schools of my research(both rich and poor) are the test scores. Be it, the schools exceeds or lacks their ability in higher materials, the students in lower level subjects never do well in them. Mills High School in Milbrae has some the best math scores in the state for their high school mathematics, however, the students in basic or low level math are doing so poorly, it doesn't look like the same schools scores any more. What I'm suggesting is that the teachers that can teach well, aren't teaching every type of student. A teacher can't just prove to be an excellent teacher and gain appraisal from teaching students that, theoritically, might not need them. The teacher needs to use their talents in teaching students of all types, especially the ones falling behind. There is a separation there. Either the separation is from the teachers preference, or its from their fear of experimenting a different teaching method to approach a different type pf audience, the division is still there. I, personally, remember going to Tennyson High School hearing students, that had higher level classes, talk about their teachers and having any of those names allign with my lower level classes. The division is there. They have it so that good students get good teachers and so bad students get the bad teachers. That's how they maintain that whole rich stay rich poor stay poor philosophy.

Savage Inequalities Paragraph

The main problem I seem to notice with the story in this book is that the poverty surrounding is what affects the children's capability to learn. One major problem with poverty in the area is that studnets don't often have the proper supply and space to work. Kozol states in his book Savage Inequalities that,"There are no science labs, no art or music teachers...There are two working bathrooms for some 700 students"(63). Without the proper material a student is very unlikely to have any type of motivation in learning. Another problem with poverty is that it makes the living conditions in the area hard to focus on school. He talks about the raw sewage and diseases being caused from the raw sewage making its way into the lives the of the people(21). This makes it very uncomfortable for the kids to get educated. If half the time the students are sick than half the time the students are unable to go to school. Another problem when poverty strikes the way of education is that there is very little funding for proper educators to teach the class. In the book a teachers says,"'I get $38,000 after nearly 30 years of teaching...If I taught at Chicago suburbs, at a wealthy high school like New Trier, for example, I'd be getting close to $60,000'"(30). When teachers make less, they don't feel they should have to do as mucb of the work. It gives the teachers, almost, right to be unmotivated.

My Three Paragraphs

What happens with homework is that teachers will start to get the chance to become lazy. Let's say the situation is that the teacher's lecture doesn't finish on time, so, whatever the student did not get to, the students are to do their best to improvise when they get home and open their books for homework. If this "situation" keeps occuring, then the student will never recieve any education from his educator. Rather, what will happen, the student will teach himself entirely using the same book the teacher is meant to be helping him understand. Teachers are also given the chance to assume the student has learned all the material by the time they get to the exam. Teachers are meant to follow some type of criteria, or in other words, meant to to teach by the book. It is the teachers' responsibility to assure the student understands the read material, not just go off on some assumption. When they go off some assumption, the process of teaching and learning isn't occuring anymore, but rather a perspective of say and do. Teachers need to get more active in the part of actually teaching. Jeff Bliss states,"If you would just get up and teach'em instead of handing them a packet"(1). Not all students learn from the process of individual assessments, some need that extra reach of attention to feel that they have reason for learning this.

What else happens when teachers become lazy is that the teachers become less motivated. Teachers should not lose their motive for teaching because then the students empathize on her emotion. The narrarator in the Passion Project states,"If we recognize a universal feeling like boredom or being loved our mirror neurons return us to...being bored or loved"(7). When teachers lose their motivation, students lose their motivation for trying. The students can pick up on the teacher's vibe. It is most important that the student has their enthusiasm in class or they will not be able to focus. Also when a teacher feels less motivated they are likely to show poor teaching skills. Karina in The Passion Project states that,"Really a lot of teachers think that content is enough. Like it's not enough...I don't see value in it"(13). Knowing the material simply doesn't do enough for the student. Not only is it required for the teacher to know the material, but to be able to express it into the mind of the student for the best understanding. Usually if a teacher is less motivated, they are less likely to show up to class. I remember having a teacher that would never show up. Teachers need to show up. When they don't, the student never gets a full connection with the educator he is given thus never gets the full connection with the content they are expected to know.

When a teacher gets lazy she won't usually pay attention to the classmates as individuals, but as the whole class. Meaning that if a teacher gets upset at one student, they are likely to get upset with the whole class. I have seen situation where a student starts to give a teacher a hard time and the teacher starts giving the other students disrespect. It isn't fair for another student to feel disrespected for something another student did. It shows the good students that they can still receive bad treatment for their cooperation in the class. Teachers also shouldn't view the class as a whole because then the teacher expects the entire class to be at the same pase. Studies show that students that are behind in class are usually behind because they say the teacher goes to fast and doesn't allow anyone to keep up. A student has the right to learn at which ever pase they need. The teacher should not expect their student to be at the same level as the other students just because they don't have the energy to go back.

My thoughts on Sir Ken Robinson's: Bring on the learning revolution

His ideas in this lecture were extraordinary. What really got me was when he says how the educational system's format had not been really updated since the industrial revolution, which was when the objective of teaching was to insure you will be able to perform for what the working world asks.  I also like the part where he discusses how," If your not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original" and the educational system in a way contradicts that idea by making it so that a mistake is the worst thing that can happen when in fact being wrong is in fact a more superior teacher. He does a very good job at claiming his case that the educational system should view creativity as important as reading and writing.

Reeling in Research

1. The topic that I focused on from the video, "Passion Project" was empathy. In the article, The Psycology of Empathy, by Saberi Roy, she explains how empathy is the capability to feel for another person. If you see someone being sad, you are able to feel their sad. Empathy relates to my own essay because I mention how teachers shouldn't give students homework because a student wants to feel the feeling of completion and relief after the exhausting day of school. Roy states,"Empathy is thus described as recognizing other people's emotions through intuition and is marked by a feeling of connecting to the other person." The teacher should be able to feel the same feeling the student is feeling. The teachers themselves don't want to have to feel like their day isn't over either. The article also relates to my essay because I mentioned how teachers giving homework gives them a chance to get lazy as educators, allowing them to not care, and not motivate their students. Roy states,"Empathy is about motivating or influencing the other person by tapping in on his or her emotions." This means that teachers would get the chance to better focus on their students if they didn't need to worry about grading a homework assignment.

What I am passionate about is my writing, I like to write comedy, stories, poems or songs, I mean they aren't that good but I like them, or whatever I have done, I never finish any of the pieces.

I am in school because I hope to take advantage of the education I can receive here in America and the opportunity my parents tell me they didn't have the chance to get.

In this class I just hope to pass or if not be taught well enough to where retaking it would be an ease.