Essay Project #1

So I feel like my problem statement doesn't really explain where I want to go with this essay, help would be much appreciated.

_________________________________________________
                                                                                                                                           Victoria Dillard

January 18^th, 2012

English 101, Ms. Lauren Feller

What are the Consequences of our Family Teachings?

Problem Statement

            From the time we are old enough to walk, most of us are taught that education and school are the most important things in our lives. Our family and teachers all tell us that if we want to be successful in life, we have to be educated. We work hard in elementary school so that we can make it to middle school. We strive to succeed in middle school so that we can continue on to high school. Once there we struggle and take difficult classes so we can get into the college of our parents dreams. If we get into college we’re a success, if we don’t we’re doomed to a mediocre life as a fast food worker. Throughout this educational process we subjected to different standardized tests (ex. SAT, WASL) that test our abilities in subject areas that are needed for us to move on in the educational ladder. Macrorie states that “Naturally, the student thinks that the textbook is the model of the language that the teacher wants, so she give that language to him.”, but it is important to point out that not only is it the teacher that implies that engfish is the desired mode of writing, but that the parents and family of that student make it necessary for that student to use engfish on these standardized tests. For most students college is the only option presented by their parents.

Idea Chunk #1

            Gatto says in his article “Against Schools” that “We have been taught (that is, schooled) in this country to think that ‘success’ as synonymous with, or at least dependent upon, ‘schooling’”. While school is important to a child as they grow up, a child’s number one role model is their parents. Children strive to grow up to be like their parents in every way possible. Most of these children’s parents have a college education themselves, so naturally students grow up wanting and expecting to have a college education. In addition, parents teach their children that education is the only way to be successful, so for most students, their parents only ever let them consider college as a valid option.

It is the parents of these students that make it necessary for them to use engfish. Students know that the only way to get into the college that their parents want them to get into is to score high enough on the SAT or ACT to get in. In order to pass these tests, one has to make it sound like they are intelligent and have a higher capacity for learning than they do in reality.

Idea Chunk #2

            Our grandparents went to school, our parents went to school and now we are expected to go to school. The idea that college is the only way to get a “real” job has transcended from generation to generation. And maybe when our parents were growing up, college was the only way to get a decent job. However, the times have changed and now a college degree doesn’t guarantee a job anymore. Sometimes people end up being more successful without going to college, it certainly makes sense, because they don’t have those nasty student loans to deal with at the end of their education. Unfortunately this teaching that the only way to be successful is to be educated will continue because our children will be taught the same thing by us, by the generation before us and by their school teachers.

Idea Chunk #3

            It takes a certain degree of creativity to think “outside the box”, in fact it takes amazing powers of imagination for people to think that anything other than the norm is possible. In today’s society, college is the norm, people go to school so they can get to college, and that’s the simple fact of things. Freire points out in her article “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education,  “The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the students’ creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the opressors, who care not to have to world revealed nor to see it transformed.”  The public education system in the United States is causing students to loss their sense of creativity, so that by the time the students become the age to start college that is the only thing they know. Whether this is a master plot to keep citizens from rebelling against the government or other oppressors, or whether this is a tragic side effect is unknown. However, we do know that students are suffering, and one of the ways that this can be prevented is for the parents of these students to demonstrate that there are other options available to the students besides college. But, parents are unlikely to do that because they themselves have gone through the public education school system and have been taught that college is the only option.

Idea Chunk #4

            Freire suggests a solution to this problem of students not having the creativity to think outside of college. Freire suggests that “Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the –students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with student-teachers.” When a teacher learns from her students and the students teach their teacher something new, creativity can then be harnessed and those individuals in turn become better people. Through this process people grow so that they might one day become important members to society through various ways, either with or without that college degree. Albert Einstein is quoted to have said “Most teachers waste their time by asking questions which are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning has for its purpose to discover what the pupil knows or is capable of knowing.” Even one of the most intelligent people that ever lived knew that in order to education to be successful, the students and teacher must both ask questions of each other.

Idea Chunk #5

            We must take into account those students that don’t decide to go to college. Have they beaten the man by refusing to go to college, or can they just not afford it? Unfortunately, the latter is often the answer, but there are still those that can see through the lie that college is the only way you will make any money or be happy in your life. Some of the most famous people we know never went to college, or dropped out soon after starting. Bill Gates, one of the richest men alive and the creator of Microsoft dropped out of Harvard after 2 years. Bill Gates was only 10 points away from a perfect score on his SAT. This goes to show you that education definitely isn’t the only way to be successful in life. Other people that join the ranks of successful people without college degrees include Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors, Steven Spielberg, a world famous director and producer, and Mark Zuckerburg, founder of Facebook and a billionaire. Obviously college is not going to guarantee success, and not attending college isn’t going to guarantee failure. There is an unknown factor that contributes to a person’s success that has nothing to do with school at all. Maybe this is drive, or maybe it’s a matter of intelligence, but one thing we do know is that the notion the school is all important is wrong.