HW 44 - Big Expectations for School

"What school is primarily for" is preparement for a world that as a child we are truly not ready for. This preparement is shapes us in a way to fit in with the others. In our perspective this preparement is essentatial as a human being. This is because we are aware that as people we must have an education. In any place in the world, a child receives an education from older generations. According to the diccionary, education is the knowledge attained from teaching and instrcution. We receive this knowledge that meets our cultural expectations, and therefore become part of that culture. In some places, this given knowledge is less than in others. And the methods used to provide it depend on how much knowledge is intended to give to the child. In our society, it is believed that the more knowledge the better. Therefore, similarly to all cibilized cultures, we have a system by the name "School" to educate all children with the suffiecient knowledge to not only fit in, but to outstand other people.


This paper is based on my own perspectve as a student under the common system of school. Throughout history generations and generations have gone through and completed this system after many years. Some of these people choose to encourage children follow the system with a great performance. Others, discuss methods to change the current school system. And others are simply not interested. In this paper, some articles about school will be discussed. This information is communicated by an adult point of view based on his past experience in school. At some point, an author's point will be compared to my own as a current student. Perhaps former students felt the same way students feel now in school, even though times have changed. This can help demonstrate how the school system affects everyone in a general way. But most importantly, it can help discover our need to follow this sytem, although some of us are against it.


At the beginning of this school year, Obama gave a truly inspirational speech, which I wish I could have heard before. Unfortunately do to the length of the speech and predictability, I did not pay attention to at least half of it (As shown in the video I was not clearly the only one, seen when the audience was filmed, some were even more focused on getting Obama videotaped then actually listening. "Hey guys, look! Obama came to my school and gave a speech! Doesn't that make us cool?!") However, the following quote caught my attention...

"So today I want to ask all of you... What is your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about what all of you did for this country? Your families, your teachers and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions...I expect great things from each of you. Don't let us down. Don't let your family down, your country down, and most of all don't let yourself down. Make us all proud."

Now that is pressure...
According to President Obama there are hundreds of people expecting something from me and all students in this country. And, it is our responsibility to not let anybody down. Although Obama may see this country as a united community, and intend to communicate his vision as best as he can, we are not able to see such a thing. I am not absolutely sure about every single person in this country, but I can confidently state that other than family, friends, acquaintances, and ourselves we do not give give much importance about the future of other people. This personal idea seems to be awfully accurate. Therefore, listening to Obama's "encouraging" speech seems as the usual and constant message delivered from most adult to students. Based on the previous quote from Obama's speech, I definitely ask myself: What will my contribution be? What useful discoveries will I make? How will I be needed? These questions remain until today, and personally I do not feel anyone is actually helping me with any answer. I have always considered looking for our purpose in life as a one man mission. And that will be the only way we convince ourselves that we must contribute to this world (our own individual world) no matter what.

School will never be united. Judging is one of our natural bad habits that will never go away. We must divide everything into groups according to what we perceive them not according to what they are. Perhaps through years judgement has lessen among schools, or perhaps people have simply stopped expressing it as much. The following link, shows a NY1 News video about violence in school.

"School Violence Hotline Goes Live"

This news represent the state's concern on children being safe in school. The interruption of their studies must be prevented. Although the measurements that will be taken on the student who disturbed the system are unknown, it is clear that something will be done with the purpose of permanent "peace" in school. In other words, adults do NOT want rebellion from confused children. It is not only the wrong decision in their point of view, but it is also a waste of time. It is known by everyone that school system will never be terminated. Therefore, there is no purpose on going against it. If gone against it, consequences will be severe as that person experiences the great limits of being uneducated.

Also children are encouraged to help maintain school development by reporting their classmates actions. For instance, if one student reports another student who he suspects from, then precautions will be taken on the student reported on. If that student is emotionally struggling, and expresses himself the wrong way, then instead of receiving the help he needs, he will be under suspicion. As a student myself, If i were struggling, the least thing I would want for myself would be being under supervision to prevent me from being a bad kid. That would cause me to eventually make the wrong decisions, due to being already seen as Wrong, and give up. There is no way those children will be encouraged.

Why do we want an education?

Not only adults want to educate their children, but children also want to be educated. Looking back in History when the black community was not being educated, they ran numerous protests demanding an education. Today, students also want to continue on being educated. This is because their future depends on their education, or so we believe. It is not as if we will not have a future at all, it will only be dissatisfying. Most people would feel they failed when their education was interrupted. We see no good life, unless we are prepared to have one.

I believe that answer to this question is because we want to be needed and school provides the necessary tools to make it happen. Unfortunately, as part of this culture, I think that school is the right place for me. I belong no where else, but in school. I must finish my education and become SOMETHING. I cannot live without being Something that someone else could count on. The more they count on me, the more I express myself through my work, the more satisfied I would be. We all want to be part of the world, and we are, but at some point being just part of it becomes not enough. As time goes we are hungry for more, and we want to make our lives meaningful. We want to be remembered, in a way saying that our birth was not in vain. I think this is the reason we want to go to school.

But still...

And cannot wait for Friday.