Teachers Who Earn Tenure (Waiting for Superman)

It’s not fair how teachers with tenure can’t be fired from their job. Tenure is defined as a policy for teachers that restrict the ability to be fired from their teaching privileges. Instead they are protected from getting their job taken from them. There is no process where the unmotivated teacher is taught a lesson in some way to correct their ways of teaching. It is unbelievable and hard to accept that many bad teachers still have the privilege to teach and supervise many students in the school system. It’s difficult as is to try to fire a teacher who is considered very bad at teaching and has tenure. I am only referring to the teachers who are bad at their job of teaching and earned a tenure for the sake of security in keeping their job.  

            I consider bad teachers as those who don’t care about teaching a class, who is just present in the classroom to earn money, which thinks “If the students don’t care, then why should I”. A bad teacher is lazy, unproductive, unmotivated, no where near self disciplined, sees no hope in the future of their students and does not put in the effort to teach students. They don’t enjoy their job, period. Teachers who don't find teaching a privilege or some kind of positive motivation in teaching other students should not continue to teach and find some other job to do. Students depend on teachers to help guide them for their own future. If a teacher just lazes around and ends up leaving the classroom then don't teach and find some other productive task to do some place else.

            The problem is the teaching job is difficult. Not many people want to teach for a living. Teaching in elementary is difficult enough. A classroom filled with young students who have yet to learn the realities of the real world. I deeply admire those who teach in elementary schools, it’s a very difficult job. Compared to teaching in middle and high schools, where students have a mindset of what the real world is like and what kind of future they want. In elementary schools, young students have yet to fully understand the world they live in.

            Although, I understand it’s hard to differentiate between a “good” and “bad” teacher. Teachers who provide their own school supplies and volunteer to give their personal time to their students outside of school is looked down upon by the education system. Teachers must go by the book, follow the syllabus and the policy which students must learn from. What the school gives is what everyone must use. Yet, they are many schools that don’t even have enough materials, resources and other supplies to be used to teach the students.

            I would like to further learn of what tenure is, how it works, and how it affects students and other teachers.  What will happen if tenure didn’t exist, will that effect the generous teachers who use their personal time and materials for their teaching methods? Why did tenure happen in the first place? Did the board of education, at the time tenure would take affect, ever consider the bad teachers who don't even teach their students properly?

How do we raise awareness for the less fortunate?

            People need to put into consideration about how the less fortunate are living compared to their lives. Many people probably don’t even see a reason to why they should put money down to some person who brought himself or herself to live on the streets. The less fortunate did not choose to live in poverty, although their path in life had leaded them to it. No one wants to live poorly. People who have the money and the wealth need to step up and help the unfortunate. Although, there are many charities that go on with the wealthy people simply donating a sum of money, is not enough.

Not just wealthy people need to be more considerate with distributing the sum of money they make to the less fortunate, but the poor/middle class needs to step up as well. To those who are facing poverty probably ran out of options to leading a better life. People who have the means, resources and the ability to help the less fortunate can create a huge difference. What people in communities do now is great: Organizing non-profit organizations, create volunteer work, donating, having charities etc. But more help needs to be done. What we do now are like inside jobs, people collect and distribute. We need to find a way to really learn about the poor areas within their neighborhoods and learn their lives, their means of living. Examine and analyze the true damages within the cities, towns, and living environments. Most people just don’t care anymore. People ask for help every single day and they never receive the help they need, the help they pray for, the help they beg others for. This type of ignorance is another issue people need to resolve in order to help the less fortunate.

Know which schools need more funds for better resources to let the kids within the school to have a better education. Many cities have a huge poverty problem that most people in the word don’t even realize. To the extent that cities shut down, because it was just becoming a terrible city to run, use that type of resource to find out why that happened and how. Apply that to what we can do better; to be sure another city can be prevented from shutting down. 

A video I watched in class about the way money is distributed to Americans is very unequal and unfair. That is another issue that needs to be address in order to create awareness for the less fortunate. An average, hard working American needs to work at least a whole month or more in order to match a CEO’s paycheck made within an hour. This is the sort of problem desperately needs to be looked into and further examined to help America become a fair and equal country.

To raise awareness is just lending a hand when someone needs it. If no one will hear their cry for help, who will? Their voices have reached us, but we're not answering back. It is never too late to start helping the less fortunate.

The Underdog by the Coup

       Boots Riley is voicing out the concerns of everyday people living in today’s society. The underdog refers to the people who struggle throughout their lives to earn a decent living, to put bread on their table, to keep a home, to stay with family, to take care of kids, elderly, to keep life going. Everyday people are fighting for their life in this chaotic world, hoping for a small chance in a better life than what they live in now.

      “Saying pray for a change from the Lord above you. They’d tear this motherfucker up if they really loved you”. Many people look up to the Lord, and pray for a change to happen in their life, for a miracle. People pray everyday for a better life or seek the answers as to why they ended up in this type of life, in the life they’re stuck in. “They” is referring to those above, in heaven, that being God, the Lord, he who has the answers to prayers. If all prayers were answered the world would have been lead differently, possibly better but not every person's prayer can be answered.

       One of the lines in his poem that struck me the most was, “Lights turned off and it’s the third month, the rent is late. Thoughts of being homeless, crying till you hyperventilate. Despair permeates the air then sets in your ear…” Many people struggle to live by, to pay the bills on time, to save money, living paycheck to paycheck. I can relate because, I have been there and done that and still to this day. Helping my family to pay bills, living expenses, saving money to buy only groceries, limit the usage of utilities and to do whatever it takes to keep a roof under our heads. Just as Boots Riley said “I got love for the underdog”, I strongly agree and feel the same as well.

       Another line that struck me was “’Crosstown, the situation is identical. Somebody’s getting strangled by the system and it’s tentacles”. Nobody is alone in this messed up world. Almost every person shares a similar lifestyle or at least, an understanding of the life struggles they go through daily. The government holds the power and people live under their rule, listen to what the authorities tell us. The tentacles refer to the government and they can easily manipulate the world. Many people believe that there is no one else in this world going through the same struggles. In reality, there are millions of people going through the many hardships in this world. Although, they may not be the same story, the same life, the struggles are similar.

What was significant to me was the chorus that Boots Riley says throughout his poem. “This is for my folkers who got bills overdue, this is for my folkers, um check, one, two, this is for my folkers who never lived like a hog, me and you, toe to toe, I got love for the underdog”. That specific line is like a reminder, Riley keeps reminding his audience that he feels for them, he understands, he knows the pain, the struggles. “Me and you, toe to toe” people like you and me, people who are similar to one another yet we turn a blind eye to our selfish struggles in life. We don't take note that there are so many people around the world who may live a similar lives or have a life that is ten times worse than ours.

I feel touched with this poem, because it gives the sense of reality, the concerns of everyday people, the poor, the middle class, those who can’t voice their problems to the world. Everyday life problems. This poem reassures the readers that they’re not alone in this godforsaken world.

Recycling the Gift: The Passion Project II Response

            I strongly agree with the video and how it addresses of how society has drifted away many people from the real meaning of “education”. Many children as they grow older throughout their educated lives have this whole belief system to go to college right after high school, earn an outstanding degree, and work for the rest of their life. Sure it’s common knowledge to play such a role in life, but there is more to life than just being a chess piece in a board game, having your every move being controlled, this tends to happen to most students. As people live through this orderly life of competitive learning, people tend to drift away from the fun of learning.

            Emily Mather and Carmen Johnston explains, “Emily Mather: It’s so competitive you kind of lose the enjoyment of just learning” “Carmen Johnston: That setting up-again-a culture of competition rather than a culture of appreciation. That I think would help build community on this campus-on any campus” Just like how Johnston says, society needs to drift away from being a culture of competition and lean toward being a society with a culture of appreciation.

            What blocks most people from appreciating their cultural life is education itself. For most parents they want their kids to earn the best education, some want their kids to end up in good jobs, others want their kids to live successfully. Although, they all sound similar in a way, parents wanting their kids to live there supposed life, freely and successfully. Is it considered free? Are a majority of students leading successful lives out of their own personal happiness, their free will? Or is it someone else’s happiness?

            Unfortunately, what most parents don’t realize is that this whole “educational system” is what keeps kids away from their own culture, their own beliefs. But most parents can’t educate their kids, so they rely on schools to educate them. And to add on, many teachers who teach at these educational facilities, most of them, don’t even teach properly. Just as Alex Neikirk tells as it is “I hate the way the teaching method works: you have a standardized test; everybody gets tested on the same material. I am the professor so I know all the material and you’re the student that I try to transfer it to you and if you don’t understand it then that sucks and I’m failing you”. They teach like robots. Read the assignment, do the homework, if you do poorly in school you end up a failure. There is no fun into the whole works of learning. This needs to change.

Most students throughout high school and college wonder if what their learning will help in their supposed career life in the future. I understand that from kindergarten to high school that is where kids find out what they want in life, they learn general education and gain insight of the real world. Yet, most students end up in repeat when they enter community college. Some students don’t know what they want to be in life right away. Other people don’t realize what they are capable of and end up in a regretful life. Life is life, but many people don’t know that it’s never too late to change it even just the smallest change can make a difference.

“Assumptions about competition plaque our thoughts. We think we must isolate our growth, but the systems of life never create anything in isolation. Instead, they foster cooperation and dynamic linkages. Yet the institution of school rarely supports complex linkages and is entrenched with the idea that separation, isolation, and individual competition is better” stated by the narrator. The educational system brainwashes people into having this whole idea that if you have a degree you’re considered successful which in turn creates competitiveness in colleges. People feel the pressure and the stress to be at the top and to earn the best education. But not everyone can get the education they dream of and for others who are lucky to have an education, it ends up being wasted. Society needs to teach people to appreciate what they have, not to compete for the best just to show off.

President Obama gives the example of what the belief system is and what every person in society is expected of accomplishing. “From the time our kids start grade school, we need to equip them with the skills they need to compete in the high-tech economy-in science and technology and engineering and math, where we are most likely to fall behind. We got to redesign our high schools, so that a diploma puts kids on a path to a good job”. Obama gives the perfect example of how society is being forced and brain washed into becoming complete robots. “…to compete in the high-tech economy”, “..so that diploma puts kids on a path to a good job”, is having a title everything? In today’s society it is difficult to even land a job, even with a college degree. Work hard to nothing.  President Obama is only hoping to win the hearts of America. Forcing this idea that to be successful means having a diploma, but what about the minority? What about those who have the potential, but can’t afford school? Or to those who aren’t book smart, and they can’t apply for scholarships but they are capable of learning.

Society needs to set its ways to be more reflective of what it has become, what it has turned into. Just as Eric Heltzel says, “I mean I think culturally we’re very reflexive and not reflective. We don’t really think about the repercussions it would have on other people or the immediate environment or anything”. This is what society and the educational system has turned humans into. I completely agree with Heltzel, people can live there way around things or in the least come into terms of what they have, accept most of reality. Society doesn’t need to completely perfect.

People should learn at their own pace and don’t let some educational system make them into products of society. It’s great to learn, but it’s even greater to learn naturally.

Ken Robinson: Bring on the Learning Revolution!

What struck me the most in the video “Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the Learning Revolution” from TED talks were concepts about people making poor use of their talents, the way some educational resources dislocates people’s natural talents and how most people take things for granted.

            I won’t say the name, but I know someone who has a raw artistic talent. This person can sketch cars of any kind, any motor vehicle including motorcycles. He never took an art class; he’s just simply naturally and artistically talented. And yet, to this present day, the person I speak about is a normal businessman working an office job nine to five, Monday to Friday every weekday of his life. He doesn’t even use his talent as a hobby or to further polish his artistic skills.  What surprised me the most was that he was content with his life. This made me think “What a waste of talent”. If only I were as artistically talented as he was I would definitely take that advantage.  But it was his choice, the path he chose to live. Even so, there is a majority of people who make poor use of their talents. Many people receive a decent education and yet their natural talent is never put to use or their talent just distances away from the individual. 

            Many educational resources take away people’s talents and dislocate them to a different path to live their life. I believe that if you know you have a talent, use it. Take the advantage to show the world what you as an individual can do. I understand for other people that they know what they want in life, but for others they don’t even realize their talent until they reach old age or never discover it at all.  If a person knows they are talented, show that talent and take it to use in their future life.

            A majority of people, especially the younger generation, takes things for granted.  Ken Robinson uses the example of people over the age of twenty-five wear a wristwatch, a single functional device. He then goes on saying that if a person were to ask a class of teenagers, all of them would not be wearing one since time is considered to be everywhere. People of their own generation are use to their own ways. Most people can easily adapt to the new technological era, but as the saying goes “Old ways never die".

            The world needs to follow the agricultural model, instead of being fixated on just finishing school and live life meaninglessly. What I meant as I mention agricultural model, just as Robinson explains, people need to live an organic process of life, to flourish their living skills. There is endless learning and every person should take advantage or discover their talents, polish every skill they have and be mindful of their surroundings in the world.