America's Value Of Extroverts In The Classroom

America is commonly characterized as the greatest country in the world, the glorious “land of the free and the home of the brave”, “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”. This idealization of the American identity conveniently focuses on what people want to hear and blurs out most everything else. In reality, Americans do not live up to the dreamscape created by our views, and we never really have. America is no longer characterized by its freedom and democracy, nearly every first world country can afford that luxury. Nor are we set apart by the great opportunities given to our people, for those are far from universal. We aren’t equal, we aren’t unified, we aren’t kinder or smarter or richer than any other country across the board. It’s easy to find the shortcomings of American culture, all the things we aren’t, but the things we are have proven to be more elusive. First, let’s examine the nots.

Alfie Kohn discussed multiple fabulous points in his article, “Degrading to De-Grading”. The author suggests more effective ways to assess students’ progress other than numerical or letter grades. Kohn goes into detail about why our current grading system is flawed. Grades can cause students to lose interest in learning which causes them to stop taking challenges. If students are not engaged and interested than they are not retaining the information they are being taught. The grading system can also cause students to develop unhealthy competition with one another for instance, “I got a better grade than you!”. Indeed, grades are a wonderful concept, but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. In some cases, grades can have positive effects on students. For example, setting goals for various assignments, or receiving help where they are struggling. Though, there are alternatives that could make positive changes in the system.

Kohn elaborates on the grade-orientated school system as he states, “Learning doesn’t have to be turned into a quest for triumph, and students don’t have to be made to regard their peers as rivals. In fact, there’s good reason to think that students truly flourish, intellectually and otherwise, in schools that are less (or even entirely non-) competitive, those that feel more like a caring community than a rat race” (Kohn, 2). Kohn describes how the current grade-orientated and competitive education system poses a problem as this learning approach is not an accurate representation of education. A major issue that is present in this type of learning is that students are too focused on grades and are missing essential information required for post-secondary. As a student who has taken many classes throughout high school, I have noticed that the best courses are the ones where diverse methods of teaching were

"America Needs It Nerds" by Leonid Fridman talks about how the American society looks down on "geeks" or the intellectually curious and academically serious people. Fridman believes that if America continues to do this it will lead to a negative on how other countries look at us. Leonid Fridman made his argument using ethos, cause and effect, rhetorical questions, and pathos.

Not only could grades improve, but so would the school's attendance record. Mr. Principal, students are more willing to come to class if there is something to look forward to. Instead of school being boring and torturous, it could be viewed as an opportunity to put the skills learned in their Critical Thinking class to the test. There would also be less problems waking up and therefore making it to class on time. No more napping in class, instead students would be note-taking and teachers would see the increased enthusiasm in their class. The teachers would be motivated to work even harder to teach their students all they can. Why would teachers want to teach if they know that the students couldn't care less? If teachers see students participating and not acting out then they would also be motivated to help the students learn even more than what is specified in the curriculum. Regular and advanced students would surpass any of the other schools. The school would work at least ten times more efficiently and productively. Everyone would be enthusiastic and successful in school. Mr. Principal if adding a class could determine whether your school is average or above average, would you take the chance?

This is important for those students are they can contribute when they are comfortable sharing personal experiences and beliefs and when they are comfortable to use the English language thus avoiding confrontation with the teacher. For students that have difficult behaviour the intention of using class discussion to provide a space where they can learn to empathise with other people in the classroom and engage with the discussion as an outlet for their need of attention. Class discussions are used widely because they can provide benefits on so many different levels for classroom management and for differentiation.

I agree with the authors, “It is precisely through information of these kinds of social activities that we identify funds of knowledge that can be used in the classroom to help improve academic development” (Gonzalez, Moll & Amanti, 2005, Pg. 80). We start teaching at the beginning of the school year holding biases towards certain students. Sometimes we heard in the office or teacher lounge that student XYZ is a “nightmare”, we are scared of those students because we are afraid they will ruin our classroom environment. This was my mentality when I first stepped into a classroom as a tutor.

“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” - Harry S. Truman. Without the diversified Americans that contribute to the constant modification of America and it’s various cultures, and without the continued belief that there is always improvement, America would not be half the country it is praised as. America consists of several different types of individuals that each play their own part within society and are able to express their views without fear of repercussions.

Citizens of the land of the free and home of the brave are known to be patriotic and opportunistic souls, but that is not all that they are, it seems. From an outsider’s perspective, the average American is as brash and raucous as cannon fire and twice as violent, and these infamously American traits are nothing but breeding pools for a militaristic and bigoted nation. However, while the American stereotype - inconsiderate, conservative, brutal, exceedingly patriotic, and possessing a low tolerance for things outside of one’s control - can be perceived as an impediment to progress and an insult to foreigners, not all citizens of the United States behave in this manner, and indeed, such traits may not always be a hindrance.

Misbehaving has many consequences. Children are taught to keep quiet when in silent places, and when they disrespect this rule, they are reprimanded. This is what happened today. Meredith entered the class and began speaking with her friends as she wrote down the agenda. The bell had not rung yet, so she believed it was still acceptable to socialize. She normally behaves this way before class begins. Many times during class she will make side commentary on the subject matter at hand, such as the book the class is reading or the practice

Much of the class seems to be primarily discussion-based, and the emphasis on talking with my fellow classmates about subjects such as racism, white privilege, sexism, homophobia, and other social issues helps create a very productive environment in which these topics can be discussed openly and with maturity and respect. The method of having students talk to other, individual classmates before the class as a whole reconvenes for discussion allows me to express and refine my thoughts about the readings, assignments and activities from class while also getting to know more about other students on a more personal level. I believe this has been invaluable in helping me learn because it establishes a sense of trust amongst students and creates a

The United States has always been a country of rapid growth, improvement and change. The transformation America went through for a few decades in the past century marked critically important events that influenced history to the fullest. Facing good and bad times, every citizen would agree to say the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream.” Whether it was fighting for change and personal rights, or entertaining oneself to ignore the feeling of being deprived of daily necessities and ability to afford them, there came a time of social unity to address the substantial issues. Popular Culture impacted each decade in its unique and inimitable way, which brought forth changes critically necessary for the United States to be formed into

There are two main theories that help identify a person’s personality type, the introvert or the extravert. These ideas became popular by: Carl Jung, he also believed that people at different times showed both characteristics of the introvert and the extravert. Most people are neither introverts nor extraverts they share a mix of the characteristics that define an introvert or an extravert.

A student can be excluded from their peer groups because they have a bad grade. Being left out can make a student not want to improve academically. If they get bad grades others will see them as a poor student and will expect them to do poor in life. The process most schools use to evaluate student performance is grade point average and class rank. The academic recognition programs that exist in the United States are driven by a student’s grade point average and class rank. Those measures serve as the primary method in establishing student recognition. If this ranking is not the sole factor in the recognition program, it is always included in the student’s assessment. The school culture recognizes individuals that are in the top one-third of the school’s class rank

According to many psychologists and other social experts, there exist two major social behaviors that are widely adopted globally by a person as they mature into young adulthood: extraversion or introversion. Extroverts are expressive individuals who appear to be energized and enjoy seeking activities that involve socialization with others where as a reserved individual (introvert) prefers solitary pursuits where he or she often partakes in a favorite pastime. In her novel Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life is Your Hidden Strength, Laurie Helgoe statistically explores the fact that more than one half of the American populace claims to be reticent and encourages those folks to embrace their natural selves (“Book Details” 1). Introverts