A course designed to encourage students to critically think, research and write about various topics within the " Science of Happiness" as they relate to the self. This class will enable students to develop rhetoric in a variety of topics and perspectives within the theme of Happiness.
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters." Epictetus
Before I begin, I'd like to point out that I view Bill Gates with the up most respect for his work in the humanitarian, such as his aid with those in other countries who are combating disease, starvation, and war. On the other hand, Bill Gates is one of the wealthiest men in all of Earth's current population, with a net worth of 79.2 billion USD (forbes.com) (which, I might add, is only ten percent of the United States' budget for the 2016 fiscal year, (useconomy.com) but that's another story.) His children attend the same school Gates attended, (seattleworldpress2010.worldpress.com) Seattle's Lakeside school, which is one of the most elite private schools in the nation, with a tuition of $30,000 per semester. (lakesideschool.org) (Keep in mind, this school teaches grades five through twelve). Also note that Lakeside is a private school, independent of the common core (lakesideschool.org), so his children have nothing to do with the common core. While it's obvious that Gates is allowed to have a heart towards the children of America, such as I have a heart towards the men and women on the streets outside the church about a block away from Penn Station, he shouldn't be dictating what would be best for the children. His children attend a prestigious private school with an average class size of sixteen and a nine-to-one student ratio while my brother and sister are crammed into classes of twenty or twenty-five with a few kids missing, cutting class to smoke marijuana and cigarettes and drink to excess in an old evicted home to 1965 that my friends and I originally opened to the youth. Bill Gates also funds the financial aid for the students that, and I quote, "meet the rigorous and demanding educational program." And what about the children that overdose on prescription medications from their grandfather's cabinet when they mix it with alcohol during a party gone bad? What about the teenage girls and boys that are sexually harassed by classmates and teachers? What about the students that require medications for anxiety or depression, because they can't handle the stress of all of your "assessment tests." One hundred and thirteen tests from kindergarten until the twelfth grade (John Oliver). TESTS in KINDERGARTEN; remember when you sat around the table that stood a foot and a half of the ground, making lines in crayon in a three page pamphlet with an orange cover? Remember the cubbies, and how we always used to lose our stuff in them, as if they fell into some abyss that we ended in your neighbor's backpack? Those fond memories of your childhood will no longer exist in the minds of the tiny children you see in the stores, picking out candy from the shelves. Kindergarten is not a place for standardized testing, it isn't a place for math, science, and history. Kindergarten isn't a place where anything is required. Kindergarten is a place where your four year old child goes to interact with other four or five year old children who don't know the difference between the words "hello," "goodbye," "how," "why," or "what." The common core robs the heart of the educational system, driving its dagger of statistics into the heart of the soul.
Even Bill Gates and his wife referred only to the statistics, the "graduation rates," or the "drop out rates." For so long, the only thing any of Humanity's elite has only cared about was numbers: a fictitious mindset unfortunately bestowed upon Humans by men whose bones are now microscopic ash. This constant focus on numbers, and being the best, and being on top of the rest is what will kill of the planet, and all life on it. Humanity is a parasite, driven only by its lust for power, money, material goods, and whatever else won't carry into the afterlife, or existential nothing, of whatever else puts your mind at ease while you lay down for rest at night. But the one thing the Gates' never once mentioned was whether or not these people were happy. The graduation rates may be higher, and the drop out rates are lower, but what about the suicide rates among teens? What about the amounts of prescriptions for psychoactive drugs among those born post-1996? They may be ready for college, but are they ready for life? Are they ready to step into the real world, and look up at you in your penthouse, with only a fifth-hand suit and a nickle to their name? Are they ready to live in a run-down tenement from the fifties that doesn't have any of the basic necessities to live? Gates may have a large part in education, but he has no idea what it feels like to be in the shoes of a modern day teenager. The constant tests, the mindset of "if i get below a perfect score, I won't be able to go to college," the existential nightmare that one day they might just be on the street; those that made it, they work those nine-to-five jobs, with two kids and a blonde wife in a two-story colonial in a neighborhood full of two-story colonials. There are some that don't make it. When I was in ninth grade, closer to the end of the first semester, a senior committed suicide. From what I heard, she hung herself. For what reason? She didn't get into college. Her grades weren't good enough? She didn't have a sports scholarship, she didn't have enough money? Whatever the reason, it was school related. Is all of this stress, bloodshed, and depression worth it? All for a piece of paper that dictates who you are based on numbers, based on regurgitating the same material from overpriced stacks of ground trees onto more ground trees, based on all-nighters, ramen noodles, and Adderall? I am not based on numbers. I am not based on how well I can memorize the proper steps to figuring out if a triangle has an obtuse, acute, or right angle. I want to feel more than a sixty-five grade. I want to wake up and help my fellow species discover who they are. I want to show them that they, too, are not just a number. They are all human beings, with lives of their own and feelings of their own. I want to look in the mirror and for once be happy with what I see, and as long as my future depends all on how well I do on that Computer Applications class test, that day will never come.
Your response is phenomenal . We as educators like to think of true scholars as authentic thinkers. It's called meta cognition . You certainly meet the criteria. As far as the issue, there are two perspectives: personal and political. You have highlighted your ideas on both levels. Well done Ray! I think your career path in education will be as much rewarding to you as it will to your students. The goal is to care about what you say and say and do the things you most care about. What else is there? .
You are able to look at the pass fail percentage on Newday and the district that i graduated from has a 23.3% passing rate from 3-8 grade and that is just the percentage of the kids that actually took the tests if you added the students that took the test the average goes down to between 10-15%. If you wish to find your old districts percent passing go to http://data.newsday.com/long-island/data/education/common-core/#o:c=;|
Before I begin, I'd like to point out that I view Bill Gates with the up most respect for his work in the humanitarian, such as his aid with those in other countries who are combating disease, starvation, and war.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Bill Gates is one of the wealthiest men in all of Earth's current population, with a net worth of 79.2 billion USD (forbes.com) (which, I might add, is only ten percent of the United States' budget for the 2016 fiscal year, (useconomy.com) but that's another story.) His children attend the same school Gates attended, (seattleworldpress2010.worldpress.com) Seattle's Lakeside school, which is one of the most elite private schools in the nation, with a tuition of $30,000 per semester. (lakesideschool.org) (Keep in mind, this school teaches grades five through twelve). Also note that Lakeside is a private school, independent of the common core (lakesideschool.org), so his children have nothing to do with the common core.
While it's obvious that Gates is allowed to have a heart towards the children of America, such as I have a heart towards the men and women on the streets outside the church about a block away from Penn Station, he shouldn't be dictating what would be best for the children. His children attend a prestigious private school with an average class size of sixteen and a nine-to-one student ratio while my brother and sister are crammed into classes of twenty or twenty-five with a few kids missing, cutting class to smoke marijuana and cigarettes and drink to excess in an old evicted home to 1965 that my friends and I originally opened to the youth. Bill Gates also funds the financial aid for the students that, and I quote, "meet the rigorous and demanding educational program." And what about the children that overdose on prescription medications from their grandfather's cabinet when they mix it with alcohol during a party gone bad? What about the teenage girls and boys that are sexually harassed by classmates and teachers? What about the students that require medications for anxiety or depression, because they can't handle the stress of all of your "assessment tests." One hundred and thirteen tests from kindergarten until the twelfth grade (John Oliver). TESTS in KINDERGARTEN; remember when you sat around the table that stood a foot and a half of the ground, making lines in crayon in a three page pamphlet with an orange cover? Remember the cubbies, and how we always used to lose our stuff in them, as if they fell into some abyss that we ended in your neighbor's backpack?
Those fond memories of your childhood will no longer exist in the minds of the tiny children you see in the stores, picking out candy from the shelves. Kindergarten is not a place for standardized testing, it isn't a place for math, science, and history. Kindergarten isn't a place where anything is required. Kindergarten is a place where your four year old child goes to interact with other four or five year old children who don't know the difference between the words "hello," "goodbye," "how," "why," or "what." The common core robs the heart of the educational system, driving its dagger of statistics into the heart of the soul.
Even Bill Gates and his wife referred only to the statistics, the "graduation rates," or the "drop out rates." For so long, the only thing any of Humanity's elite has only cared about was numbers: a fictitious mindset unfortunately bestowed upon Humans by men whose bones are now microscopic ash. This constant focus on numbers, and being the best, and being on top of the rest is what will kill of the planet, and all life on it. Humanity is a parasite, driven only by its lust for power, money, material goods, and whatever else won't carry into the afterlife, or existential nothing, of whatever else puts your mind at ease while you lay down for rest at night.
ReplyDeleteBut the one thing the Gates' never once mentioned was whether or not these people were happy. The graduation rates may be higher, and the drop out rates are lower, but what about the suicide rates among teens? What about the amounts of prescriptions for psychoactive drugs among those born post-1996? They may be ready for college, but are they ready for life? Are they ready to step into the real world, and look up at you in your penthouse, with only a fifth-hand suit and a nickle to their name? Are they ready to live in a run-down tenement from the fifties that doesn't have any of the basic necessities to live?
Gates may have a large part in education, but he has no idea what it feels like to be in the shoes of a modern day teenager. The constant tests, the mindset of "if i get below a perfect score, I won't be able to go to college," the existential nightmare that one day they might just be on the street; those that made it, they work those nine-to-five jobs, with two kids and a blonde wife in a two-story colonial in a neighborhood full of two-story colonials. There are some that don't make it.
When I was in ninth grade, closer to the end of the first semester, a senior committed suicide. From what I heard, she hung herself. For what reason? She didn't get into college. Her grades weren't good enough? She didn't have a sports scholarship, she didn't have enough money? Whatever the reason, it was school related. Is all of this stress, bloodshed, and depression worth it? All for a piece of paper that dictates who you are based on numbers, based on regurgitating the same material from overpriced stacks of ground trees onto more ground trees, based on all-nighters, ramen noodles, and Adderall?
I am not based on numbers. I am not based on how well I can memorize the proper steps to figuring out if a triangle has an obtuse, acute, or right angle. I want to feel more than a sixty-five grade. I want to wake up and help my fellow species discover who they are. I want to show them that they, too, are not just a number. They are all human beings, with lives of their own and feelings of their own. I want to look in the mirror and for once be happy with what I see, and as long as my future depends all on how well I do on that Computer Applications class test, that day will never come.
Your response is phenomenal . We as educators like to think of true scholars as authentic thinkers. It's called meta cognition . You certainly meet the criteria. As far as the issue, there are two perspectives: personal and political. You have highlighted your ideas on both levels. Well done Ray! I think your career path in education will be as much rewarding to you as it will to your students. The goal is to care about what you say and say and do the things you most care about. What else is there? .
ReplyDeleteYou are able to look at the pass fail percentage on Newday and the district that i graduated from has a 23.3% passing rate from 3-8 grade and that is just the percentage of the kids that actually took the tests if you added the students that took the test the average goes down to between 10-15%. If you wish to find your old districts percent passing go to http://data.newsday.com/long-island/data/education/common-core/#o:c=;|
ReplyDelete