Mitchell's First Time, How Mind-Numbing Must They Be In 20 Years?

Throughout the article, Mitchell uses sensible experiences and statistics to back up her argument. Mitchell, a colleague, and a West Coast group called DataWorks have conducted research on the work that 's been made in the classrooms. Mitchell says “I found one out of eight assignments at grade level in two high schools.” This means that 12.5 percent of all assignments are at the correct academic grade level that the students are working on. The colleague has discovered that “about 40 English classes” he or she has “found one that the class” was teaching actual learning. Given this fact, why are the other 39 English classes not teaching the correct grade level of material? Well, the teachers say “they have to teach students where they are.” This means that if the student

The wider community believe that teaching falls under a simple banner of ‘basic pedagogy’ that involves the giving of information by the teacher, who then tests their students’ knowledge through questioning, homework and exams. Many do not know the full range of pedagogical options that can be utilised by teachers to engage students in their education. There is nothing wrong with the activities that make up the ‘basic pedagogy’ and any of

Gatto starts his paper by addressing the problem of boredom in public schools; something anyone who has ever attended a public school can attest to. Because the majority of his audience would already agree with this statement, Gatto can then effectively make a claim about why he thinks students and teachers are so bored without having to explain the context of that claim. He believes that we are all to blame for school boredom, and supports this with a personal story about his grandfather. While it can be difficult to use personal narrative to support an argument, here it works efficiently because it is the common trope of a wise old man giving life advice, making this stranger seem more reliable. However, Gatto then seems to leave this argument of being bored behind, not referring it for the rest of his essay. It functions as a good hook to get the attention of his audience, but children and teachers being bored alone is not a sufficient argument for

Gatto informs us that he himself was a teacher for about 30 years. In those 3 decades, he “became an expert in boredom.” He believes boredom is everywhere in the classroom. When asking his students, “Why they

From my school experience I have seen many teachers who seem indifferent about their teaching. Most of them just teach you what you need to pass a test, and never talk about it again, even if you do not fully understand it and did bad on the test. This experience is only from twelve years of schooling, starting in preschool and now to my senior year. This makes John Taylor Gatto’s claim that much more interesting and believable, considering he was a teacher in some of the best and worst schools of New York City for almost thirty years. He claims that the American school system as it is structured now, it is not beneficial to either the teachers or the students. The teachers are bored and unmotivated to teach, which leads to the kids being

In “Against School”, Gatto told the readers about the boredom in the schools through the teachers because the students were as bored as they, the teacher, were. In school, boredom strikes amongst both teachers and students. Gatto said it best when he stated, “Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as often as I did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were as every bit of bored as they were.” (Gatto, page 608). Most students do not want to be at school anyways so therefore, boring school work, unprepared teachers, and pure lecture class time would not help the matter. This next quote can still relate to today’s society, “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteacher, and anyone who has spent time in a teachers’ lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there.” (Gatto, page 608). When the teacher comes unprepared with a mindset of boredom then nothing will ever change. Although a teacher may have a routine for teaching , because they have taught the same material for years, they should never just recite it. The students have not heard this, because it is new information for

John Taylor Gatto wrote about the topic of boredom in his story “Against School.” He was an award-winning educator, so most believed his statements about education to be true because he was such a credible source. Gatto discusses his belief of having children learn more of what they will need to live on their own in the real world. He wants students to take their education with them out into the world instead of learning pointless material in public school that will never be applied to the real world. Gatto references this to boredom and uses it as an example of why some children do not enjoy school. Material that is required to be taught bores students easily, and does not expand their minds to subjects they are interested in. He asks, “Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years” (Gatto, page 148-149). Students are trained to become addicts of everyday school and it strips them of responsibility and independence. Eventually, once we can understand the tricks and traps of public schooling, we can avoid them.

Valerie Strauss appears to her readers as an inductive/deductive personality. Throughout this article, she shows the readers her inductive side because she has logical information that leads up to her conclusion about teachers being underpaid. Valerie thinks her information that she presents is reliable and powerful to support her point. She shows the deductive side because she gives her generalization idea of teachers being underpaid, but then moves forward to the facts and statistics to support her idea. Valerie Strauss thought this would convince her audience, in which it did not.

The purpose of teachers is to educate students. Teachers are there to motivate students to learn. However, if teachers are not doing their job and do not know how to educate students, then the students are the one who will be penalized. In the essay “I Just Wanna be Average”, Rose is subjected to go to vocational classes and within these vocational classes there are teachers that did know how to teach their students.

The work it took us in two to three hours was more than what I had ever previously considered. While Americans have an outer view of teachers, and the education system; you only begin to understand once you have personally seen it from the inside. The salary teachers receive is observably low for such a demanding job. While some argue that they have the most vacation days of any job, they spend more time working annually than most other jobs . Statistically, teachers work 10 hours and 40 minutes a day on average. Which, when calculated means they work 53 hours weekly, this is 6 hours longer than the average work week . The changes that these teachers are requesting are not only realistic, but they would certainly improve education. If we brought back traditional teaching, teaching that didn’t come from a textbook. Then we would bring back a creative, intuitive

\item The teachers always want their lessons to be interesting and they introduce the real life problem before they can go deep into the content of the subject.

For twelve years’ students do the same thing over and over again Monday through Friday for nine months out of the year, which is wake up early to go to school, take five to six classes a day, do homework, and take tests. John Gatto has taught for thirty years in many school some good and some bad, and with so many years of experience he’s learned that boredom is everywhere. Many kids where asked why they felt bored and they all pretty much answered the same way saying that the work was dumb and it made no sense or that they already knew about it. According to Gatto,” They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subject, and clearly weren’t interested in learning

Many states across the country are experiencing teacher shortages. Without enough teachers, we can not successfully educate our children. According to Glori Chaika “Forty-two states issue emergency credentials to people who have taken no education courses and have not taught a day in their lives. Many teachers are hired based solely on their experience leading church or camping groups.” (Chaika) Due to the shortages, States are allowing those who are not even qualified to teach. One can not believe that children are being educated as best as they can be, if those teaching them have no experience or training before hand. Another problem is that teachers are not being place in the fields were they can perform at their best, Glori Chaika also states that “One-fourth of new teachers -- if they are licensed -- are not licensed to teach in the field they are teaching.” (Chaika) Many teachers have very little knowledge on the subject they are teaching, “About 55 percent of students taking physics in the United States, for example, are taught by someone who never majored or minored in the subject.” ( Asimov) As a result of the current teacher shortage, the quality of America’s educational system has gone down. People are being hired with no teaching experience and teachers are being forced to teacher subjects that they are not familiar with. Adding to the current teacher shortage is the problem of teacher

Teaching is one of the oldest and most important professions in the world, but sadly many people do not see it that way and take for granted the people that dedicate their life to shaping the future minds of the world. Moore recognizes this and uses it as one of his main arguments as to why America is a nation of idiots. Moore tells of a quote by the former assistant secretary of education Chester Finn that says the teachers’ union and school faculties should be on the top of the Ten-Most-Wanted list of who’s killing American education. Moore responds by saying, “Sure, there are a lot of teachers who suck… But the vast majority are dedicated educators who have chosen a profession that pays them less than what some of their students earn by selling ecstasy, and for that sacrifice we seek

Learning is not a skill that is necessarily instinctual or easy, and therefore different approaches must be used to make learning easier and more fun for students. Teaching is not a skill that can be memorized or made repetitive, and so teachers must continue to challenge not only their students, but also themselves. Teachers that become complacent in their jobs are not good teachers. Those who can find a way to make an old lesson new and exciting will have an energized classroom, and will be reenergized themselves.