HW 45- More Big Thoughts on School

HW 43- Journaling about School

My first memory of school comes from way back when I was in pre-school. I was in pre-school and it was nap time andeverybody was sleeping. I of course wasn't, but it was because I needed my blanket from my backpack. So I climbed over everybody sleeping and onto a table near the cubbies to get my bag and my blanket, and after I got it, I went to climb down but I fell and broke my arm. Everybody freaked out and I went to the hospital and got patched-up, and 5 weeks later I was all healed up. While not as scholarly relevant as other events, it has always stood out as one of my strongest and earliest memories.
My first memories of elementary school are pretty vague for the most part. I can imagine going around iin the circle and sharing and I can somewhat remember some of the first writing activities we had, but these can also be simply re-imaginings I can assume based on scenary and such. However, I do remember that I felt very alone for a lot of kindergarden. I wasn't very popular and a lot of the kids bugged me. In fact, in kindergarden I bit this one boy, Miles, and I had to be taken out of class and placed in another class for a short period of time (Under and hour I believe). I felt even more alone in this other room, but I knew to act better afterwards.
First and second grade had plenty of vivid memories, some of them beginning to include actual classwork instead of just playing like before. In first grade I remember being transfered from one class to another, from one that awas average to a "TAG" (Talented and Gifted) class. This new class was much better and I met one of my best friends in this class. However, this year was also one of my least favorite, because my teacher did not like me. I didn't liek her either, and every day I would go to the bathroom for long amounts of time whenever we had English class because I didn't like it very much. However in second grade, I really started to like school and I made more great friends that I still have today. In this class, I remember learning a lot through hands on activities and taking trips around the city to the many museums and landmarks that could be found. First grade did not feel as isolating as kindergarden, but I felt very upset about learning because the teacher didn't treat me as well as she did the others (Even the kid that would put boogers on everything got treated better than I did). Second grade was when I really started to like school though, but there is something to note. My teacher took special interest in me that my first grade teacher did not. She would bring in my parents from time to time if something happened and even kept contact outside of conferences to help my learning. Through this, I began taking a medication that helped to calm me down and allowed me to concentrate better than I had before. This eneded up being incredibly helpful for me up until 8th grade when I finally stopped taking the medication, as I had gained enough control over myself that I didn't need it anymore.
In third and forth grade I had the same teacher, as she took my class and continued for an extra year with us, which she called "leaping". In these two years I ended up with mostly the same class and I learned a lot in math and I began to take science. I also learned a lot about the world in these two years, thanks to what our teacher taught us and the events of 9-11. I learned a lot about mortality and the bad things people can do and how things aren't always fair. This made me feel a little afraid but I was hopeful that things would be okay since things seemed to be okay at the time to me. Overall these were important lessons that stuck with me for the rest of my developemental years and still do.

HW 42- Significance

Should high school curriculum be flexible? Should the students be able to adjust their classes to learn what they are interested instead of what the system says? Should teachers gear their classes towards their students interests?

Personally I feel this is crucial to every student but that is besides the point. I am interested in this specifically because I personally feel like much of what I am learning is not very important to what I want to do in life. Take for instance math, which is teaching things about polar coordinates and derivatives. Regardless of personal interest, neither of these are particularly relevant to what I want to do in life, which is to either be a writer or an artist (Painting or drawing). Now, while math might not be a class that be flexed to my interests, it should be replaceable with another course based on interest, and be a non-mandatory class. S.O.F. in particular is one of very few schools to require it, but schools in California only require two years of Math, while New York requires three. I feel it is largely irrelevant at this point and we shouldn't have to take it.

In terms of society, much of what we learn in high school is also irrelevant. A large percentage of jobs do not require knowledge of projectile motion or derivatives. So why do we learn it? I feel that making students learn these things is like trying to breed us towards a specific path, which makes me feel controlled and bottled up, unable to be myself. While this feeling is minor for myself, I know many people feel this same sensation on a larger scale so why does the school system force this? Do they really need everybody to be an automaton to their demands?

Will be finished as soon as possible, sorry for the delay, my computer broke and the home desktop does not work for editing existing posts or linking.