Reflective Essay On Unconventional Learning

As both the standards of school work and stress levels of student’s rise, the American school system remains unaltered, unchanged, and unaffected for over a hundred years. School is an institution that can serve as a massive gate in life granting you access to a job, stability, and a future or it can become a giant pillar in the way of everything you wish to achieve. While we recognize that a student’s own motivation, study habits, and will to learn, are cardinal in any schooling system, we must also understand the issues with an institution that is fundamentally unsound from the ground up. In today’s world, students are shoved with the hands of docility, and amenability as they render themselves in a system that has inadvertently failed them, by neglecting to celebrate their differences, and varying learning patterns. Conformity in the education system has shown to damage the personalization and

In Joan Morgan’s “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos,” her feminist point of view addresses the problem of degradation and sexism in rap and hip-hop music. Through this passage, Morgan looks at the deeper meaning and connects rap and hip-hop music with the African American community. Between the beats, the lyrics of this specific genre of music show listeners various situations the African American community deals with, like crime, drugs, alcohol, relationships, and their day-to-day life in America. With Morgan’s feminist criticism, she states that the blame is not only on rap and hip-hop artists, but also other women because they should be speaking out against being called “bitches” and “hos”. Through the rhetorical strategies of description,

Most schools have a set list of courses with a strict curriculum to follow throughout the year, allowing students to choose their courses, but within the limitations of what the school offers and requires. This stifles a student’s creativity and his or her ability to “huckleberry,” or “scrambl[e] for ideas the way we hunt for huckleberries in the woods,” as described in Thoreau’s Night in Jail by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (Lawrence and Lee 18). Thoreau’s ideal learning method is much more free and natural than that of today. He would be opposed to the AP system and lecture-based classes that are strictly based on memorization. Thoreau would prefer alternative techniques such as Socratic Dialogues or Harkness Discussions that allow students to learn from themselves and each other through discussion. Emerson agrees with Thoreau on this, proclaiming that “[t]he intellect is vagabond, and the universal system of education fosters restlessness” (Emerson 25). The use of the “vagabond” metaphor and the word “restless” imply that Emerson believes that students are much more intelligent than schools give them credit for. Schools undervalue students by forcing them into classes that fail to interest them instead of letting them take the more stimulating path of self-discovery, which would benefit them more over the course of a

In her article “The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto: Negotiating Spaces for Women,” Imani Perry argues that the objectification of women in the music industry is normalized in our society. Her purpose is to persuade us that most feminists who fight against the objectification and exploitation of women are ultimately colonized by the sexual fantasies of men. As a law professor at Rutgers Law School, Perry structures her text in a very effective manner. Using a general-to-specific organization scheme, she begins by outlining the recurring image of sexualized women in music videos, then presenting various cases of prominent feminist figures in the music industry.

Graff shares with us his personal experiences on how reading intellectually converted him from being street smart to book smart. Graff now urges colleges and schools to teach students the importance of reading intellectually as well as writing. "If I am right, then schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study. It is self defeating to decline to introduce any text or subject that figures to engage students who will otherwise tune out academic work entirely" (Graff, 270). By this, Gerald Graff means schools should encourage students to take their areas of interest and apply them to their education. All in hopes that students will one day feel comfortable enough to step outside

In his article “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff writes about how “schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study” (par. 18). In is work Graff describes the ways school associate the “street” topics as unintellectual. Graff goes to show how a healthy balance of studying both “book” and “street” topics in school is a healthy way to learn. Graff then talks about his childhood and how Graff came to be a professor of English and education of the University of Illinois. Graff then goes back to say, like in the beginning, that schools need to encourage the students to use their hobbies as academic study. With all of this, Graff successfully portrayed his main idea throughout his article.

Learning is the process of gaining knowledge about various issues that affects our lives and wellbeing. The learning takes place each and every day of our lives at any place and time. There are two ways in which learning takes place. There is the formal learning and informal learning. In most cases, the formal learning is got from various learning institutions which indeed have set rules and regulations on how the running takes place. Various tests are set to help in gauging whether the student is ready for the next learning sequence or not. Institutions therefore has a bigger influence on formal learning and development of these students. On the account of the informal learning, this takes place within our social context. This form of learning is based on the societal norms and beliefs of various communities across the world. The teaching of the culture and norms that any society holds dear are indeed made possible through informal learning. Here, there is no need for a classroom which would mean that they can be done any place either a house, under a tree or as people interact in the societal setting. This paper looks into the impacts that the societal and institution constraints have on learning processes of various individuals. It gives much attention to the factual connotations of how these two sets of learning have impacted on the growth and development of various students across the world. Notably, this research uses the connotations from two articles that dwells on

Education should not only be looked at as attending college and passing exams to succeed in school. It should be seen more as the complete development of one's personality, intellectual development, and moral evolution. The system tells everyone to learn the same material, even if the students are bored and even if they’re sleeping during class. In the article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto states, “teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subject and clearly weren’t interested in learning” (Gatto). This shows the teachers and the students disconnect from the context because either it’s irrelevant or not being taught in inspiring ways.

The following are three specific educational experiences from my past. I will describe the event, analyze it critically, and make relevant, explicit connections to the concepts, theories, and issues discussed in Education 162: Education and Opportunity in the United States. I will also comment on the significance of the event in my own education.

McFarland 2003 argues that the origin of Misogyny in music, not only in hip hop is the society and culture it has for so long endeared. Normally, people in America have valued the boy child, to endowing men as adults (McFarland, 102). At the same time, they have considered women as subjects to men who should show total submission. This argument has found many backups, with scholars and authors arguing that the American culture is the force

Stanford mentions, “This song, this performance, is the epitome of Nashville womanhood: active, empowered, and take-charge,” (Stanford, 279). Stanford argues that women can be both feminist and feminine at the same time. Also, it shows them that they can be equal to the men in the society. Even though both articles is successful at presenting their point about social commentary, Stanford’s article is more effective at providing evidence and clarity, while Serpe’s

When one hears the word “feminist”, many different things may come to mind. One may think of the “bra burning” feminists of the 1960s or the “riot grrrl” feminists of the 1990s. It can bring to mind issues such as abortion, birth control, and unfair wages. There are many different aspects of feminism, some of which are understood only by those involved in the movement. But like most things people are passionate about, feminism has held a strong place in music since its very beginning, and can be seen in its festivals, its politics, and in the average American’s everyday life.

The premise of this article is who has rights in the female body. Though the most obvious answer that most people would say is the female, seeing that it is her own body. However, that is not what is really seen in music, or even in society in general. Hooks believes that women believe that are taking control and liberating themselves, but we are actually doing the exact opposite. Naturally, I would agree with Hooks and say Anaconda was quite boring. I understood the message Nicki Minaj was trying send, but I do not think it was as effective as she may have hoped. Her image, or at least the Hip Hop music that she does, is all about women doing what men can do. In Anaconda she is speaking about the effects of her appearance and sex on men, but

Student academic success is a direct reflection of how a particular school system is run. From kindergarten until fourth grade, I attended large public schools and I performed poorly in all of them. I was placed into learning support services that would clarify new concepts and reduce the amount of class work given to me. However, it did little to help me, and after fourth grade I attended High Point Academy, a charter school that changed me entirely. During the first month of fifth grade, I was given daily reading assignments that I got no help on. For the first time I could think on my own, and I was passing with perfect scores; my teachers took notice and placed me in advanced classes. Taking advanced reading let me think critically about an argument and craft my own thoughts. This inspired me to love learning. From fifth grade to a current freshman at McLennan Community College (MCC), I have been an avid learner because I went to High Point Academy. The charter school experience allowed me to learn without being told how to think; my teachers ultimately pushed me to become a better student. Reflecting on this, I

“Nicki-aesthetics” (McMillan, 2014) is a term coined by McMillan as Minaj’s “unorthodox performances” (McMillan, 2014) that contribute to the “reframing of the aggressive machismo present in hip-hop” (McMillan, 2014). Uri McMillan’s “Nicki-aesthetics: the camp performance of Nicki Minaj” highlights the idea of strong women deconstructing perceived gender-identities in music, particularly hip hop, culture- stating that Nicki Minaj’s “vibrant form of black performance art, centered on her body as art object and herself as representation…continually violate[s] and exceed[s] the gild-like frames of hip-hop aesthetics” (McMillan, 2014). These “gild-like frames of hip hop” (McMillan, 2014) such as the mainstream and sexist hegemonic masculinity and oppression of female power and sexual expression, are defied by Minaj, who challenges emphasised femininity and the heteropatriarchal music industry and society. This is shown through lyrics such as ““If you weren’t so ugly, I’d put my dick in your face” (Minaj, 2011) , deconstructing gender-norms in the hip-hop industry by exerting male sexuality, and showing confidence in her individual sexuality, to challenge machismo power in a genre, and society, that consistently stigmatises female sexual expression