Memorization Of Education Summary

With the adoption of Common Core and the addition of multiple standardized tests children are starting to feel lost and left behind when it comes to curriculum. According to Cary Grimm Common Core standards can be compared to jumping over a fence that one knows was 2 feet but evidently was told 3 feet and missed the next level standard. When you set a standard of what a child needs to know in each grade but only used standardized testing to test their knowledge of what they know instead of using a more personal approach, this degrades the system (Stern). When the education systems makes it all based on who’s the

“Last Sunday the host of a popular news show asked me what it meant to lose my body”(Coates 5). The phrase “lose my body” is reiterated numerous times in Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The topic/theme of this piece of literature may be discernable as innocence as Ta-Nehisi profusely speaks of how his upbringing changed and affected his perspective on life. Coates uses a multitude of examples to portray this from how he witnessed another boy almost being shot at a young age to him learning and understanding the laws and “culture of the streets”(Coates 24) as who and even more who not to mess with(Coates 23). Coates effectively uses these examples as perfect representations of living in an American ghetto as well as how since birth blacks do not “own” their body and are susceptible to lose it.

After attending Howard University, Coates grasped a vision for his future and his family. “I wanted you to have your own life, apart from fear—even apart from me.” (Coates 1) discusses how he want his upbring to unparallel to his son’s life. He doesn’t want his son to live

In an oppressive society, a group of individuals are expected to adapt and be controlled by a more powerful group without question. Similar to a “banking concept” of education, at times it seems the student is not expected to think for themselves. They listen to what the teacher “deposits” into their mind, and they adapt. I strongly agree that this limits comprehension and creativity and forces you to adapt to thinking like a robot. He makes a strong case with his analogy, “Four times four is sixteen……The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four really means.” It’s easy to get discouraged in school when it feels like information is being thrown at you without much encouragement to fully grasp it. It’s nearly impossible to truly understand a concept when you’re forced to memorize it immediately for a test. In conclusion, teachers with this mindset should understand that to be a true educator is to encourage the student to take the time to comprehend the material

Coates describes his early forms of education in grades k-12 and the ways in which it shaped his views of the black body. This period of education was a time in which Coates viewed the black body as powerless based on the difficult situation he was living. This early educational experience in Coats’s life was extremely conflicting due to the fact that the

Education in the United States is in an abysmal state. It continues to spiral downward as students and educators fail to meet standards. The standards are then altered on a patchwork basis throughout the states. The goal is no longer to have a high standard educational system. The goal now is to maintain the status quo, allowing students and educators to strive for the minimum. There is no common approach to achieve success. Incipit Tragoedia, in comes the Common Core, agreed upon by educators, politicians, and

    Students and parents always blame the teacher for their failure, when students should be taking responsibility for their own education. In the article “Obama needs to speak honestly about education” by Thomas Friedman claims that teachers are held at an impossible standard while students are not even responsible for their own education. Friedman says “Teachers are held to impossible standards, and students are accountable for hardly any part of their own education and are incapable of failing”(7). Everyone learns at a different pace and there are some really horrible teachers but more than half the

“The Essentials of a Good Education,” by Diane Ravitch, questions the current schooling system and acts surrounding the system.Imagine a world where everyone was the same, we all dressed, ate, and did the same thing everyday. That is basically what the, “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) act did. In the reading, ¨The Essentials of a Good Education,” it discusses how NCLB closes the academic gaps between economically advantaged students and students who are from different economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds as well as students with disabilities and how this is not a good thing; but as you read you will start to question yourself if it is or not.

Many Americans, including teachers, are very displeased with the new standards children are having to live up to. If parents knew what the Common Core is doing to the classroom, there would be a revolt.; a quote directly from a New York high school instructor. Instead of teaching the fundamental basics of education, many teachers are too heavily stressed on the fact they have to meet a deadline and rush through important materials needed for adolescents future success.

When Common Core was put into full effect, teachers were unprepared and were not given the professional development that was needed to effectively implement these standards. As Sarah Boslaugh says in her article, “the new standards are more demanding than those already in place in many school systems and teachers and administrators do not have enough time to prepare for their implementation, which would result in widespread failure among students”(Boslaugh, 2015, para.1). Common Core’s standards were poorly implemented and it is causing the system to fail. Sue Pimentel, a founding partner of the nonprofit Student Achievement Partners and lead writer of the Common Core State Standards for ELA and literacy states, “Teachers aren't being given enough time to work together to develop the materials and teaching techniques that will be necessary to effectively implement the Common Core, nor are they being given enough time to observe and critique each other's teaching” (qtd. in Tucker, 2014, para.3). Sue Pimentel is saying that teachers are not properly trained to teach their students the Common Core curriculum, so it is illogical to have these standards be implemented. Since teachers are now required to follow a step-by-step format to teach, along with a set of required criteria to be met, the classroom has completely changed both inside and out. A majority of schools are not even attempting to help teachers with this change. “Adapting to change: teacher perceptions of implementing the common core state standards” is an article written by Brooke Burks. This article discusses how teachers are coping with this rapid change of curriculum. As the article says, “fewer than fifty percent of school districts planned professional development reared towards implementing and aligning Common Core standards” (Burks, 2012, p.4). Teachers are in need of any

To all those teachers who told me I would understand something once I was older, “How much older do I need to get?” Here is another unanswered why question, “Why does the United States’ education system promote conformity instead of individuality?” I never understood as a child why being curious and searching for the unknown answers was looked down upon, but now I see our education system was established to prepare citizens to learn the same way and conclude the same way, all while developing trust in the system. The United States’ education system is a curiosity killer and causes fear of individuality and conformity in children early on in their educational journeys.

Ever since then standardized testing has been a huge part of education. Teachers across the nation had to teach to the curriculum instead of what they thought the students needed to learn. Nowadays colleges strictly look at ACT and SAT scores rather than classroom grades, because they believe that some teachers grade on a curve and are not giving the students a fair chance. Standardized tests are an unreliable measure of student performance. A 2001 study published by the Brookings Institution found that 50-80% of year-over-year tests core improvements were temporary and “caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning…”(“Standardized Tests”). Teachers are stressed over if they are teaching “correctly”. They went to a 4-year college, some even more, to get a degree in something that they wanted to do, either for themselves or for the children, and now they have to “teach to the test”. Tests can only measure a portion of the goals of education. A pschometrician, Daniel Koretz says, “standardized tests usually do not provide a direct and complete measure of educational achievement.”(Harris, Harris, and Smith).

Coats is experiencing the banking concept of education during his time in his education. “Banking education anesthetizes and inhibs creative power” (Freire 250), and this is exactly what happened when Coates was in school, and is still happening today. Coates was no longer able to pay attention, because the teacher was not interacting with the students

Another point brought up is what Professor Parsons’ opinion is on teachers in high school. He says “Teachers are not allowed to teach, but are required to focus on preparing you for those all-important standardized tests.” Coming from a high school environment I can identify with this information to teachers being more willing to give you the answer if you take up to much time of the things that they are actually forced to complete. The freedom that teachers once had is not there where they as educators can teach the things that they through life have found important. Also important is the fact that there is a difference in hearing and actually critically listening to what you are being told and learning in all that you do constantly. Education

Teachers are so focused on passing these tests that they are teaching their students only the skills needed to pass the tests, not the skills that would benefit them in the future. According to Business Insider, “...teachers are under so much pressure to prepare their students to do well that instruction becomes less individualized and critical thinking in students can be hampered” (Engel). While teachers are specifically tailoring material to fit these tests, students still report feeling “overstressed and underprepared--meeting the tests with shock, anger, tears, and anxiety” ("The Trouble with the Common Core."). It seems that all of the efforts that teachers put into conforming to these standards are for naught, because if students do not perform well on the tests, the teacher suffers.