Saturday, October 6, 2012

to learn or to meet requirements

Prompt 1: What if there were a superior life form to humans living in our galaxy or even on our planet Earth. Would we as humans be more united? Would we be able to eventually defeat this superior life form by working together?

Prompt 2:What if there were no such thing as wealth, and one could not accumulate money, wealth, land, or any  material items, only the necessities to live. wouldn't that be awesome.

Prompt 3: How has education so drastically evolved since humans were able to communicate and teach and share ideas to present day?

I choose prompt 3.

An alarm wakes us up with a sound of which we abhor. We proceed to prepare orselves for a day of an exciting day of learning? Is this really the case? Perhaps it was in Ancient Greece and Rome and even early America and Europe. Perhaps it even is for a kindergartener or a first grader with their fresh little bodies which have not once toiled and pushed past their limits, the world of "education and learning" is so new to them learning the basic principles and skills which will carry them through their next 12 and in some cases 11 or 14 or 14 years of required "learning".

I am not writing this because I hate school and am not saying that learning and teaching do not take place in todays schools because they obviously do in copious amounts unloaded on "students" everyday. The thing is we end up not using so much of what we have learned or at least what has been taught to us and we have forgotten because of its lack of signifigance or we were working on homework while the material was being taught or were asleep or in a daydream.

At this point I realize I have bitten off a rather ginormous amount of  a TOPIC that I can't do so much as to fit it all into my mouth let alone chew. And I probablt could come off as naieve or liberal depending on who reads this but whatever. I hope I used those words in the correct context because I might have been daydreaming about who knows what while they were being taught. Anyways, requirements. Everything is required. We are required to go to school by the government. Many may argue that if we were given a choice the younger generations would not be educated and the future we fall into the hands of unintelligent childeren., but why not make it the decision of the parents and eventually the child once they are mature enough. Definitely the biggest most controlling, stressful, make kids cry, make or break kids futures are grades.We must get all A's or A's and B"s "if you wanna go to college and be successful and be rich and be happy" and then die. Although our first grades in elementary school really don't matter as we go up in grade level our grades and test scores become more and more a look into the crystal ball of our future.  Grades and scores have too much power. students will do whatever it takes to earn that A or bring this or that grade up orpass this test. Why? because it is required. It doesn'y matter if we actually learned a single thing as long as we get those most valuable A's which we will cheat, copy, lie,  and do extra credit assignments that have nothing to do with what we are "learning" (or that help society in any way for.) Honestly at this moment I am enjoying myself letting these words out and at the  same time impoving my writing skills, but as I began to write this I had no intention but to meet the minimum requirements in order to get a good grade. In fact as I was writing this my sister said that is way more than 50 words why are you still writing? because I want to and I am learning and impproving my writing which will help me in my future. We have all these requirements to meet  but why? are they really necessary so that we can learn. I believe if extracurriculars were not of no significance to a college resume that at least one third if not greater of the population of kids in these extracurriculars would cease their attendence to the meetings ad activities.Students have done so much as to have other people take tests for them so that they may get into a college where specialized learning and teaching takes place of the material that the student pays to be taught. We have lost the true meaning of education and learning and why we teach and learn. If you look to early America education was not required in fact a priveledge and in many places it still is. But if you look those who was learned bac then learned what was necessary and what would help them in their futures and what they needed and wanted to learn.  Ben Franklin, Tom Jefferson, Isaac Newton they were alleducated in what they needed and wanted to learn and look how influential they were. George Washington was not very educated in his upbringing but learned to be a surveyor and found later he had a knack to be a leader in military and in politcs. Imagne if he hade been educated in military tactics and politics at an earlier age....
 Maybe we need to start specialized learning earlier so that students will able to choose the subjects that they actually desire to learn because they would like to pursue a career in that subject giving them even more experience and knowledge to greater improve society and the world instead of using valuable time ande effort on material students do not need we would be so much more intelligent as a whole improving America  and if we become smart enough the whole world.
I hav lst my train of though because I had to eat dinner: a necessity of life for survival.
So we need to tech what we need to learn and want to learn. Some students weren't gentically wired t olearn high level math classes ,but are very good sculptors or athletes or chefs or lyricists and there is nothing wrong with that. We used to learn what we were passionate abut so that we could become the best at what we do. Now we are mediocre at everything so that we may be "Successful" what is successful. To have a lot of money, big house, nice car, a family? Is that successful to some maybe. But who is anyone to laugh at (and I see this a lot  especially in the academy and higher level classes) the kid who goes to BCTC. He might just be the first person in his family to go to college,  and why does he go to college? not because it is expected of him but because he wants to because he is passionate about learning about what he wants to pursue a career in. "You better do this if you don't want to be flipping burgers when you grow up" What is wrong with flipping burgers?  If you wanna flip burgers go right ahead and learn about burgers and be the best Burger chef in the world rather than a college graduate with a degree (which nowadays is "required to get a "well paying job".) in a subject you really don't like.
All of this of course means nothing at all and I apologize for going on past the required length and also sorry for the lack of correct grammar and punctuaton but it wasn't necessarily required.
We should learn what we need and want and are passionate about but thats not how it works and thats how the chips ahoy crumble.

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