November 11, 2005

• Topic: School

  
  

  First of all…yesturday’s quote was said by John F. Kennedy.  I discovered it while reading about “The 20th century” on wikipedia.  My politics are still forming, as I learn more about history, politics, and issues, but at the end of the day, most people vote with their emotions, and emotions are swayed by language.  My mom was telling me how there was a buzz in the air when JFK was president, because of his use of language and tone, such as the quote from yesturday. 

  
  

  “Our problems are man-made, therefor they can be solved by man.”  Acknowledging problems, acknowledging our humanity…”For in the final analysis…we are all mortal.”  Words that even teenagers can relate to.

  
  

  On the train today…I was watching two girls working on math problems in a giant soft-bound book of math problems.  Two things crossed my mind, both the magnitude of importance and the sheer irrelevancy of math as taught in school.  As an “emerging adult,” it’s clear that of the many years of math I took, maybe 1-5% of it is relevant in my life today.  ADDING.  That’s probably the most important.  Adding numbers on a deposit slip, adding the hours in the day.  Most math related things are actaully more related to things like money and the prices of the various things we by, finance and investing, time, dates, cooking, etc.  After that, algebra, geometry, calculus, I can honestly say play 0 role in my daily life, except in more practical and complex ways that I probably don’t think about (like architecture maybe). 

  
  

  So…why do I simultaneously believe that math is of utmost importance?  Because it’s ingrained into our society and our schools.  For millions of students, math is a reality of educational progress.  They may not like it because it’s sometimes boring, and parents and teachers may not like it because it’s not very relevant to real life as an adult, but, it is relevant for a child for the only reason that it is a fixed part of our society (for most traditional schools).

  
  

  With that as a given, the best we can do is to embrace math.  Embrace the obscure, sine, cosine, tangent, hypotenus, A squared + B squared =   For the majority of America and I think it’s fair to say most of the world, this kind of math is the reality of school, and we are best served by doing 2 things. 

  
  

  1) Acknowledge to kids that this isn’t important in the real world except for the fact that it’s a hoop they need to jump through to graduate hs and get into college (where they may find more hoops).  In that respect, it’s good training in hoop jumping, and learning how to play the system.  While you may not like the system, playing the system gives you all kinds of benefits (scholarships, general knowledge of the system, general knowledge of facts that may or may not prove useful in life, if not just making good conversation).

  
  

  2) Make it managable and fun.  There’s a great Family Guy episode where one of the characters (either the father Peter, or the son Chris who is a pretty slow kid), are asking for directions.  The response, “You’re gonna go down this road that runs alongside this other road.  When they cross at a perpendicular angle, you’re going to keep going on this road parallel to the first road.  Then…SOLVE FOR X!”

  
  

  So…we can certainly laugh at the hilarity of math, but we can also find ways to make it interesting for students.  Make it fun.  Make it relevant in some ways by tying it into real world adult-type situations. 

  
  

  Just as technology is progressing from landlines, to cell phones, to wireless technology, some schools are progressing.  There are schools that teach “problems and projects,” rather than addressing isolated subjects. 

  
  

  Moving on from math, and began thinking about all the subjects from school.  Fellow emergin adults out there, “How do you read?” or rather, “Do you read?”  My sisters read in book clubs, I read on the train or before I go to bed.  Usually, we read books that are popular best sellers, or certain classics, or informative non-fiction books.  We read for pleasure mostly, maybe to escape into fantasy, maybe to be armchair travelers, maybe to become intellectuals or simply to better understand this complex world. 

  
  

  Since college, I’ve never been asked to write a paper about anything I’ve read.  Never been called on to answer a question about a book.  Never had to take a test about one either.  Never had to be present in a room with my peers and one older adult who could talk for hours about the book, while we mostly sit and listen.  Instead, I’ve sat informally with people and shared the book I was reading, while learning about a book someone else is reading.  That’s basically the role that reading has had in my life as an emerging adult. 

  
  

  Most importantly…I’ve never been assigned a book to read.  I can’t stress the importance of this enough.  I’ve chosen books that appeal to me, based on my curiosity or the recommendations of others.  That way…I’ve never been stuck reading a book that I wasn’t interested in.

  
  

  One of my favorite professors (who i need to get back in touch w/) taugh a class called “Argumentation Writing.”  One of the most memorable things that happened in that class, was when our prof. asked us as a class to choose what book we wanted to read.  We chose a book called, “Class” by Paul Fussell, and it might be the only book in college I actually read.  Sad…but true.  Compare this to my freshman EComp class when we were assigned Pride and Prejudice, and I watched the movie and still pulled off a B on a paper (a paper titled Pride, Prejudice, and a Fortune Cookie…as I was also taking a class on Chinese thought and I attempted to put confucious quotes in every paper I wrote, even if it meant making one up like ‘confuscious say…man who is pride, will also fall victime of prejudice.)  I loved being creative and stupid like that at the same time!

  
  

  Anyways…what a gift it was for this one prof. to give us the choice.  Especially since most assigned books appeal to such a narrow audience like Jane Austin’s book Pride and Prejudice.  But…having addressed the problems w/ math, I also think the way to enhance English instruction is to treat students like adults, to give them the choice to choose what books they want to read (even if it’s a book that some schools want to ban from the eyes of children, such as the wonderful book The Perks of Being a Wallflower which is an extremely realistic and eye-opening look into the world of high school students).

  
  

  So…math. Check.  English. Check.  What about history?

  
  

  Describe the importance of the Algerian war against France?

  
  

  BORING!!!

  
  

  Where’s Algeria anyways?  I wasn’t even alive back in 1962.  All I know is that’s when the Mets first entered the leage.

  
  

  Now…what is you started off by watching CNN for an hour, showing the riots in France.  “Holy shit…that’s crazy stuff going on there.”  1000′s of burned cars.  Teens just like us taking to the streets.  Why?  What’s it all about?  Then…cue in the fact that many of the rioters are poor French citizens who have been marginilized into poverty and also happen to be of North African descent.  So what does France and N. Africa have in common?  Well…France colonized Algeria, that’s why Algerians speak French.  That’s why some French people are distrustful of Algerians living there, because they lost control over Algeria.  etc. etc.

  
  

  So…from current events, from something relevant, from something that adults do (read and watch the news), we can then get young people interested in history.

  
  

  And I’m spent

  
  

  -dan

  • 10:55 am
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