This TedTalk completely had me speechless. I agree 100%
with what each of the presenters spoke about and I think that their thoughts
are right on the money (meaning the solutions that they are proposing ARE the
answer to bettering our education system).
John Legend (an R&B singer) was the host and it was
his first time on a television TV show. His opening statistic was shocking,
which was: 1 out of every 5 kids drop out of High school before they graduate.
Rita Pearson, author of “Thinking on your feet: 10
lessons to be a master teacher”, is from Texas and she comes from a family full
of teachers. She understands that some children drop out of school because of
poverty, negativity, family situations but she feels that all of those students
can be helped. One thing that stood out from her speech was when she said that
she once had a colleague tell her, “They don’t pay me to like the kids, they
pay me to teach a lesson, the kid should learn it, case closed.” This stood out
to me because in my years of learning, I had plenty of teachers that have said
this. I had a teacher tell me one time in high school, “I don’t care if you don’t
listen to me because I get paid sitting here in this chair whether I am
teaching you or not.” And sadly, this is the mentally of a lot of teachers.
Pearson also said that she thinks it is important to
help build the self-esteem of her students. She shows encouragement to her
students and she said that teaching should bring joy and that students need a teacher that will
empower them and make sure that as a student, you will make a different.
The next speaker was a teacher from San Francisco, Dr.
Ramsey M. (I couldn’t catch his last name). Ramsey is a chemistry teacher and
he showed a video in which one of students went home and did an experiment
based on something that they had learn3ed that day in class. He said it is
important to spark questions in your students and you want that creativity to
take place so that the students will learn and remember, and want to learn
more.
Angela Lee Duckworth is a psychologist from Pennsylvania who started out as a 7th grade math teacher. She taught math based on the curriculum that was given to her and she didn’t really change it. She noticed that some kids passed and some didn’t and what made her curious was that those that were “smart” were sometimes the ones that weren’t doing so well and those who were “less” smart were doing better. She was convinced that all of her kids can learn and so she set off to figure out what is the difference between the “smart” kids and the “not-so” smart kids. During her studies she asked the question, “Who is successful and why?” and came up with the conclusion that GRIT was the answer. Grit is passion, stamina, desire, sticking with your future and wanting to achieve. Student who had grit are the ones who were successful. IQ and social skills played no part in it. The only thing that she hasn’t figured out is, how can you build grit in all kids so that everyone is successful?
Bill Gates made his point clear that, “everyone needs a
coach”. His main idea was that we need people to give us feedback so that we
can better. China has the best education system because their teachers coach
each other. They help one another and they sit in each other’s classes and then
give feedback so that that teacher better him or herself. In America, our
teachers are given back feedback with one word, “SATISFACTORY”, and that is why
all of our teachers don’t know how to help children and be there for them. They
are given a curriculum and taught to just “teach it”, whoever gets it, gets it
and whoever doesn’t, tough luck.
Geoffrey Canada from the Harlem Child Zone, said one
line that stood out to me. “The real safety of our nation lies in the education
of the next generation.” He said that when he was growing up (56 years ago) there
was a school that was a “lousy” school. 56 years ago, it is still a lousy
school. Nothing has changed and he said that the way they are teaching is with
the mentality of “one size fits all”. He said America cannot wait another 50
years to get it right and in his school the graduation rate was 100% last year and his college acceptance rate was also 100% and
this year his acceptance rate for his kids into college is 93% and he working
on the other 7% to make it there.
Pearl Arredondo, a teacher from Los Angeles, comes from a
negative background. Her middle school was filled with gangs and drug dealers
and she witnessed her father die by overdosing on drugs. Her teacher had already
considered a “lost cause” and she had given up on school as well. Her mother didn’t
give up on her and sent away to a school that was an hour and a half away from
home and there, she met teachers who saw her potential and helped her graduate
middle school. She then went off to graduate high school and college and then
went back to old middle school and decided she wanted to be a teacher. She
wanted to “save more kids” and she wanted to help kids who “were just like her”.
She ended up opening up her own school that has the freedom to hire teachers
that will be effective in teaching children and she believes that kids deserve
a school in their own neighborhood and not have to travel and hour or two to
attend a “good” school. She closed her speech by saying, “It’s time for kids
like me to stop being the exception and become the norm.”
This stood out to me because children that have to deal with
struggles, whether family issues or person issues or mental issues, are usually
the ones that do not do well in their classes and those are the ones that
shunned by society and end up being drop outs. If those kids were to become the
norm then there wouldn’t be such a high dropout rate because there would be
help for them and they would be able to accomplish their goals, instead of
being given up on by the same people that are supposed to push them and help
them strive for better.
Educator, Sir Ken Robinson, moved to Los Angeles 12 years
ago and has learned that alternative schools are becoming more common “it spite
of the dominant culture, not because of it.” This is important to note because his
point was that these schools that we call “alternative” shouldn’t be called
alternative at all when they are the schools that helping out a majority of our
kids. He also said the rule “no child left behind” tightens the curriculum
teachers are given when in fact, students need a curriculum that is open and
wide because they learn better. They need teachers that can help stimulate
ideas and questions and spark that curiosity because when something sparks curiosity
you care about it, and when you care about it, you learn and retain
information. His closing statement was very powerful when he said, “Standardized
tests should be help. Not dominant. We need a movement.”
During the show they showed an excerpt of a video by a girl named Melissa, from the Bronx, NY. During this excerpt I became very emotional because she faced a similar problem that I struggled with as well. Melissa went to a school with metal detectors and the school environment was just a bad one. She had teachers that didn't care and eventually she just dropped out completely. Melissa would only got for 3rd period and leave 4th period because she knew that she would be marked present for the day. At 17 years old she gave birth to her daughter and soon came to the realization that she needed to graduate because she wasn't going to go any where in life without her high school diploma. She went to back to high school and had a math teacher who helped her through it. Her math teacher made her feel special and encouraged her and always told her "I see something in you". Melissa said it was not easy, being a mother and in high school but she made it through and is the first person in her family to graduate from high school.
Now all though I do not have a child, I faced a very similar experience during my high school years. I attended John Dewey High School, in Brooklyn and it was a bad school to begin with. The way the school was built was to help prepare you for college by giving you "free periods" through out your classes. For example, you would have a class from 9-11 but you have a "free period" from 11-1230 and then have class again. Now as a 14,15,16 year old girl, this was terrible. We also had a huge campus and when it was spring time, no one would go to class because every one would be outside hanging out on campus. Just like everyone else, by my sophmore year I was failing. By my junior year, I was a complete drop out. They added metal detectors to the school and as a teenager, "I just couldnt travel all the way to school and back without my phone." My friends and I would only go to school for 4th period because thats when they took attendance and then we would leave school and go all over the world, EVERY SINGLE DAY. Eventually all of my friends who were seniors, graduted and so my senior year I didnt even make the effort to go to school at all. I was not going to graduate with my class and I was so behind that it would have taken 2 years to graduate, which means I would have graduated high school at 19 years old (thats my age now). I didn't want to be the laughing stock of all my friends and so I transferred to an alternative school where I went to school at night and I graduated in a year and a half. My guidance counselor there, gave me the hardest time EVER and I hated her the first few months I attended this new school. Until I realized that she really cared about me and she helped so much and gave me confidence that I can actually go to college and become something of myself. She helped me build self esteem and till this day we speak and she is still on top of me, making sure I am doing what I suppose to be doing. She helped me and I think that all of the people that spoke on this show, have it right. Students need encouragement, they need to be pushed and they need to be told that are something, that they will make it in life and become something, that they are not a product of their environment, that they are important.
During the show they showed an excerpt of a video by a girl named Melissa, from the Bronx, NY. During this excerpt I became very emotional because she faced a similar problem that I struggled with as well. Melissa went to a school with metal detectors and the school environment was just a bad one. She had teachers that didn't care and eventually she just dropped out completely. Melissa would only got for 3rd period and leave 4th period because she knew that she would be marked present for the day. At 17 years old she gave birth to her daughter and soon came to the realization that she needed to graduate because she wasn't going to go any where in life without her high school diploma. She went to back to high school and had a math teacher who helped her through it. Her math teacher made her feel special and encouraged her and always told her "I see something in you". Melissa said it was not easy, being a mother and in high school but she made it through and is the first person in her family to graduate from high school.
Now all though I do not have a child, I faced a very similar experience during my high school years. I attended John Dewey High School, in Brooklyn and it was a bad school to begin with. The way the school was built was to help prepare you for college by giving you "free periods" through out your classes. For example, you would have a class from 9-11 but you have a "free period" from 11-1230 and then have class again. Now as a 14,15,16 year old girl, this was terrible. We also had a huge campus and when it was spring time, no one would go to class because every one would be outside hanging out on campus. Just like everyone else, by my sophmore year I was failing. By my junior year, I was a complete drop out. They added metal detectors to the school and as a teenager, "I just couldnt travel all the way to school and back without my phone." My friends and I would only go to school for 4th period because thats when they took attendance and then we would leave school and go all over the world, EVERY SINGLE DAY. Eventually all of my friends who were seniors, graduted and so my senior year I didnt even make the effort to go to school at all. I was not going to graduate with my class and I was so behind that it would have taken 2 years to graduate, which means I would have graduated high school at 19 years old (thats my age now). I didn't want to be the laughing stock of all my friends and so I transferred to an alternative school where I went to school at night and I graduated in a year and a half. My guidance counselor there, gave me the hardest time EVER and I hated her the first few months I attended this new school. Until I realized that she really cared about me and she helped so much and gave me confidence that I can actually go to college and become something of myself. She helped me build self esteem and till this day we speak and she is still on top of me, making sure I am doing what I suppose to be doing. She helped me and I think that all of the people that spoke on this show, have it right. Students need encouragement, they need to be pushed and they need to be told that are something, that they will make it in life and become something, that they are not a product of their environment, that they are important.
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