As I’ve been working in a school this semester, I’ve really began to wonder why there is such an increase in inappropriate behavior in younger children, which is partly why I found this study fascinating.  I mean, I’ve heard the argument time and again about television influencing people in ways, but never really got into the numbers.  This study also indicated that children spend about 17 hours with their parents per week and about 30 hours in school.  So, much of what they’re learning is from various media outlets.  I think this does make sense as it pertains to negative behaviors in certain regards.  As far as obesity, it’s a common sense link.  The more inactive a child is, the more prone they are to being overweight. But, when it comes to things like drug and alcohol abuse, I was pretty skeptical about it before. In looking at the numbers though, it does make some sort of sense.  Children learn from their environment.  While they do spend many hours in school, teachers are not assuming parental roles, as they shouldn’t, and they aren’t really spending much time with their parents.  So, much of what they’re learning is from what they’re seeing on the television, reading on the internet, or hearing from their friends. In agreement with the article, I am not proposing any kind of censorship, but parents really need to insert themselves back into their childrens’ lives.  They need guidance, motivation, and leadership.  From time to time, they may need someone to get their backsides of the couch and make them run around outside, or do their homework.

I find this to be a tragic reality that these schools are facing.  According to national report regarding standardized test scores, Catholic Schools still rate the highest across the country on average.  With the worsening economny, I fear many of these schools will not be able to survive the crisis.  If these schools close, there will be many gifted students who will have to switch schools to somewhere that might not be as adept at handling their unique skills.

I’ve examined similar circumstances in other areas, namely, the local Detroit Public School system.  There have been many accounts of fund embezzlement and/or mismanagement.  This is creating a severe disadvantage in the public school systems of the country.  There is a total lack of accountability on the part of the school boards we entrust with the power to help our children.  This problem, I feel, is because citizens and parents are not applying enough pressure and attention as to what is going on in their districts. 

While people bicker back and forth whether there is unequal funding of education from district to district, these people we entrust with our children’s educations are not holding up their end of the bargain.  I do agree there is inequality in the funding of schools, but I think the way the money is being used is an even bigger problem.  The area I’m from is not exactly a hot spot for the wealthy, but they just recently revamped the entire district. They purchased all new equipment.  The schools have all been redone, including the construction of an enormous high school that slightly resembles a small hospital.  On the other end of the spectrum, I look at certain schools that receive more federal funding, and their schools are outdated, there are not enough books, and technology is scarce.  Part of the difference is, that when things stagnated in my local district, there was an enormous uproar from the parents, which eventually seen the resignation of the school board.  Changes were immediate. 

I read an interesting article at http://b2e.nitle.org/index.php/2008/10/26/boosting_academic_profile_through_youtub, which describes the benefits of using youtube for promotion. A PhD student from Carnegie-Mellon described an invention he created through a short video on youtube.  He maintains that the reason he did this was because papers to specialists and conferencing takes too long.  In this scenario, he gained public attention, job offers and academic benefits in a very minimal amount of time.  I’d never really thought of youtube as a tool for academic self-promotion.  In further thought, though, I think youtube, or something similar, could be adapted as a valuable tool in the classroom.

There is such a push to incorporate technology into our lesson planning now I think something like youtube could be a fun assignment while also maintaining its academic relevance.  There are many ways it could be adapted to the classroom.  In government, it could be used to create a video detailing something about the political process.  In history, it could be used to in creating a documentary of past events.  In science, it could be used to record an experiment or project of some sort.  The list is endless.  This type of video assignment could be adapted to virtually any subject area in the average school district. 

The only drawback on this type of assignment is liability and security issues.  Because you’d be assigning minors a project like this, there would need to be safety precautions in place to block outsiders from viewing.  I don’t know if youtube has something like this available for classes or if there are similar sites out there, but nonetheless, this is an intriguing idea to me. 

I for one am behind the school districts in keeping their grading scales as is. Personally, I think expectations have dropped to far as it pertains to student achievement.  In all due respect, many students that do not deserve to pass from grade to grade are being shuffled off through the system.  Quite literally, students really have to put effort into failing a grade.  So, a district has higher standards that, essentially, would separate the high achieving students from the low and people are trying to force a change to that.

What is wrong with a system that recognizes its outstanding students?  Too often, systems have a low/easy bar when it comes to achieving an A grade.  In many cases, students who do not deserve or have not worked for a grade that high are being rewarded just as the students who did work for it.  That, to me, is a big injustice in the system.  It is an injustice to the high achievers who worked for the grade and the low achievers who need to know that they must work harder to get that A.

     Lets take a look locally.  The DPS has many schools that are in dire need of complete renovations.  Why is it not possible to organize something like the “makeover” for these schools?  Instead of trying to educate these students in pigpens, people should ponder this “makeover” concept and try to fix up some of these schools.  How are students supposed to be interested in and proud of their educations if they can’t even get the nerve to look at their surroundings?

     One thing I think that could be possible is for the school districts or Department of Education to form a partnership with the court system.  In this scenario, they could organize a community service program with offenders that would see them truly giving something back to the community.  Rather than community service that doesn’t really help anybody, they should be using something that could help others, such as fixing up schools. 

     As I look at proposals from Democrats and Republicans regarding education, I can’t help but shake my head.  Over and over again, I think they are overlooking a great number of problems.  Recently, I looked at yet another education proposal, at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312323,00.html, from Barack Obama, and I walk away with the same impression.  It does have its upsides, such as getting more involvement from parents and increasing funding to schools.  Both of those are big reasons for a decline in our education system.  His plan also calls for more stern look at teacher evaluations and a rewards system for those teachers whose classes are performing well.  Like John McCain’s, Obama’s plan similarly fails to look at some underlying problems that contribute to our declining test scores.

First, when are test scores are compared to those of other countries, the United States is at a big disadvantage.  Countries like Japan, for example, do not include special education students and low track students in their education system.  Conversely, the United States does.  Thus, when the test scores are averaged out, this skews the numbers.  Japan’s scores should be higher if they’re including only the middle and higher tracks. I’m not insinuating that we should exclude are lower track students, but I think it is something that should be looked at more when trying to keep pace with other countries’ education systems.

     Also, teachers’ salaries need to be increased. Though I do have a personal bias on the matter, I think this fact is common sense.  Students like myself come out of school with much accumulated debt. Realistically, it will be difficult to pay it off.  Teaching is a rewarding field, but debt is not an easy stress to deal with, which is causing our education system to lose many good teaching candidates. There either needs to be a special debt forgiveness program established for graduated educators or a sharp increase in teacher salaries. 

     Lastly, I think politicians like Obama and McCain are putting too much blame on teachers.  I do agree that there are a lot of teachers out there who could use some work, but the education system has changed.  Students have changed.  No longer do students sit in class for an hour and listen to and hour-long lecture.  They have the expectation that teachers are supposed to be entertaining them. Somewhere along the line, student accountability and responsibility have been de-emphasized.  It is a privilege to receive such an education.  In many countries there are still children who do not receive any education at all.  Students need to be put back into the mindset that they are in school to receive an education, not a show. They need to remember that an education is something that will prepare them for life, not six-hour trip to the babysitter’s.

     So, as I mentioned above, I am just sick of hearing about all of these superficial education plans.  Politicians are overlooking, or downright ignoring, the underlying causes to the decline of the United States test scores.  We need to start looking at the real causes to the problem.  Skewed number, extreme under-funding, wasteful funding, lack of parent involvement, and student accountability and responsibility. These are not the only problems, but nonetheless they are serious problems;   Serious problems that need to be corrected.

As I was browsing through google reader, I found an interesting article at http://hickstro.org/2008/09/23/props-for-wikispaces/ that talks about wikispaces.  In light of what we’re discussing in class, I found that article very relevant.  Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. It supports hyperlinks and uses simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross-links between internal pages.  Wikis are quite simple to maintain and edit, which makes it even more encouraging for those that are technologically challenged.   The article references that wikis are increasingly becoming a tool used in K-12 classrooms.  The author stated that their class only does their work through wikis. 

     I am personally not an advocate of technology in the classroom.  I am of the opinion that it allows students to bypass certain challenges, essentially missing out on the point of many exercises.  That said, though, I do think technology has to be used in the classroom.  Students need their education to have meaning in their lives.  If I ignored technology, I’d be ignoring a big part of their lives. 

I think the wikispaces could be used in a way that could be very beneficial.  Students would learn responsibility through the creation of their wikis.  They’d also learn different methods of research.  In turn, their application skills would develop in using the research data. 

Lastly, wikispaces could be used in a variety of ways.  Personally, I like the idea of students using their wikispace to create a portfolio-like project.  They could post papers, articles and other things they’ve collected from class.  They could also keep a memoir of sorts, describing their thought processes about the work that they’ve put into the class.