Creating Academic Engagement Within The United States

According to one study, over 7,000 American students drop out of high school each day; that equals about 1.2 million students every year! (“11 Facts,” n.d., p. 1). Mike Rose, the author of “I Just Wanna Be Average” was almost included in this statistic. Luckily, Rose was “saved” by one of his teachers, who stoked his love for learning. In his story, Mike Rose effectively addresses the issues with public education by sharing his anecdote about taking vocational classes and providing “several reasons for the ‘failure’ of students who go through high school belligerent, fearful, stoned, frustrated, or just plain bored” (1989, p. 1). Rose’s purpose for writing “I Just Wanna Be Average” is to inform the general public of the current education system and how it needs to change. Through a relaxed, yet passionate tone, Rose showed that teachers need to be more energetic and engaging with their students. Because schools are unengaging and boring, student dropouts are occurring-- and for the same reasons today as they were thirty years ago. A study that was released in 2005

At the start of 2016’s new school year, approximately 60.4 million children will attend public elementary and secondary schools in America (National Centre for Education Statistics, 26 July 2007. Web). With so many children going through compulsory education every year, it is important to ask questions about the purpose, structure and success of the education system, so people can be made aware of areas that may need improvement. John Gatto is a teacher and author in America who argues that the education system here is not designed to educate its students like most people assume, but instead, to keep them in line and maintain the current social hierarchy. He begins his article, ‘Against School’, by recounting his time as a school teacher in Manhattan, explaining that the students and teachers always seem to be bored. He asserts that boredom is a symptom of childishness and that the reason students act this way is because schools are designed to prevent children from maturing and growing up. Schools do this to make sure students grow into predictable and easy to manipulate adults. It is clear from the amount of supporting evidence John Gatto is correct; the school system exists to create a conformist obedient population and it does so by reducing creativity, over medicating children, and dividing students in order to maintain class hierarchy.

Culture, ethnicity, family, sexuality, and society are all factors that can influence a person’s identity. A combination of all these elements usually result in the successful discovery of self-identity. Preadolescents and adolescents often find themselves in a constant battle attempting to find who they are or who they want to be. Adolescents are faced with questions like, What do you want to be when you grow up? What colleges are you looking into? What are your plans after high school?. In a normal process of growth, teens experiment with new activities in order to find their identity, but this is not the case for every teen. Some adolescents do not go through the normal process of experimentation for various reasons.

Twenty-five percent of American Teenagers drop out of high school each year. What does this say about America’s education system? Are students not interested or are they tired of memorizing a subject and then having a letter grade represent how much they can remember. Some articles suggest that America should decrease the number of years that teenagers spend in high school because many teenagers already know what they want to study and do not want to be stuck studying something they are not good at or interested in. America needs to redesign the school system so it can help students prepare for their future and have more classes that students are interested in.

This is valuable because if students are skipping school because they do not want to attend class, feel it necessary to stay home to finish their homework or sleep in after staying up too late to complete their homework the night before, or they simply feel unmotivated to attend; this speaks to the nature of anxiety in student culture within high school at large. Further, it reveals what kind of environment society has created and fostered for American youth to mature in. Prior to the survey, I acquired access through an associate principal to student data records of attendance. This data provided an average rate of attendance for the school population over the first 3 six-week grading periods. Of this population, I was able to identify through the survey, the proportion of students who missed due to stress. In addition to this numerical evidence, students were required to select particular classes that overwhelm them or heighten their stress. This is critical to results since it impacts the classes that influence those stressors, and the nature of these classes can speak directly to the nature of the issue. The survey then evaluated each student's overall satisfaction with their high school

A lack of motivation and engagement are two of the main factors that impact many of today’s middle grades classrooms. With all of the technological advancements made in the past few decades, our societies teaching and learning styles have changed. This generation of students are oftentimes thought of as lazy, entitled, and needing immediate gratification. Perhaps they are rebelling against the traditional “skills and drills” of educational practices by refusing to complete assignments and disengaging in classroom activities.

The overreaching goal of engagement during the instructional process is to achieve learning (J.J Keller & Associates, n.d.). Learning is the process by which a new skillset or information is acquired through review, practical exercise, and experience to name a few producing understanding or skillfulness (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). In an effort to facilitate learning during engagement of the adult learner, considerations should be applied and adjusted if needed to the presentation of the material which contributes to optimal learning. Optimal learning for the adult provides for engagement and allows retention of knowledge to transpire which is impacted by the training approach of the instructor (Kelly, 2006). The instructor’s teaching

Battling identity issues is a challenging task for anyone, especially college students with multiple other responsibilities to maintain. For a vast number of students, it is their first time away from family and on their own. The department of student engagement specifically focuses on building students’ identities and providing them with various methods to develop their inner strengths and become comfortable within themselves in order to embrace all of the institution’s

I remember going into my freshman year of high school nervous but excited because I thought I’d learn so many new things. Next thing you know I found myself dreading school. Was I being lazy? Was it my lack of motivation? I still can’t grasp why exactly I lost that excitement or that yearning to go to school. I was raised to have the idea that school was a place to learn not socialize. But at the age of 14, what teenagers don’t want to socialize and that’s what got a hold of me. I spent too much time worrying about other things that didn’t involve my education.

The author of this article feels that most high schools across the nation are losing focus on the importance of students’ time in high school. The article takes us through the average day for a high school student, which most people can relate to. It then makes the point of how very crammed the average day for a young adolescent is with a severe lack of down time and the slew of negative consequences because of this. This rushed school day, in combination with the average number of students per class which is twenty or so, causes students and staff members to miss the opportunity to connect with one another. Therefore, teachers do not get a chance to really get to know each pupil and allows for students to fly under the radar as they coast

The film The World in Claire’s Classroom, 2000, shows us an alternative first and second grade classroom dynamic that Claire helps facilitate by her teaching style and beliefs.While certain parts of the film are socially problematic, in regards to some methods when learning about other cultures, Claire practices very progressive teaching methods and concepts that our class has covered. Because of using these varied teaching methods, Claire is also creating a more indepth and engaged learning environment that appears to have a positive impact on her students. Two concepts that I will be introducing and comparing to Claire’s classroom are Self-directed Learning and The Four Aspects of Engagement. Both of these concepts connect to multiple

Active engagement occurs in the classroom when a teacher makes the connection between teaching and learning through pedagogy. The choice of pedagogy must see fit with the content of the lesson which in return will assist the teacher in constructing a more meaningful and supportive learning environment where students’ are more willing to participate and be actively engaged. The most important skill in pedagogies is relating the learning experience to real world situations in which students’ can relate too (Churchill et al., 2011).

Engagement, interaction, and communication are the things that connect people together in society. Also, it are ways that help children learn. In the U.S., schools are promoting engagement in teaching for helping students to improve. There are many methods that the teachers are using to create a strong engagement relationship between teachers and students.

There is a lack of student motivation, and lack of attendance in schools. How can we spice up the school curriculum? How can struggling students do better? There are options for students who have not responded well to traditional methods.

My observations has taught me the importance of engaging students. I am now able to recognize when a student is not engaged. They seem distracted and are not paying attention to what the teacher is saying. Whereas an engaged student is alert, discussing the material, and asking questions