HW 41 - Initial Internet Research on Schooling

Topic: Why school is the choice that most parents made? Do they really know why they send their kids to school other than just going with the flow among the other parents? Most kids cry on their first day school experience (or nervous as moving on to an unfamiliar environment like middle/high school) but parents still choose to send their kids to shape by school systems that unsatisfied them. What is a persuasive or satisfied answer for students who attend to school, so it can lower their level of denial and hatred for going? Or in other words, What is the purpose of school and how students should see it?

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Perspective of parents

This article talks about how a couple make decision for their bad behavior kid (“manipulative teenager who cursed out her mom and dad and had started failing in school” as described) by sending her away to a program call Therapeutic Wilderness that made her “hike three to five miles a day with a 25-pound pack” and “learn to make a fire with two sticks”. In their case, their daughter was successfully transformed to someone that they can live with again. The reason why parents decided to send their kids away according to the article claimed by psychologists was that parents are admitting their failure as a parent. Which it seems to be true, because one parent said, “I can provide all the love in this world, but I don’t have skills to treat my son”. Therefore, even sending your kids to some strangers to take care of, it requires "a leap of faith" for the parents.

This article brought something that might not be what most parent do to their kids by sending them away completely, but it is worth for the parents to know and be aware of what they are doing. Such as sending kids to school, it did not only reveal their inadequacy in certain areas, it also shows that they are trap in a situation that they need to seek help from – school. School has professionals who might be able to solve their problem, and often times it did help their kids which seems to be one of the satisfied answer for kids to know that school are there to help, not to harm. However, I believed parents do have something to offer to their kids that the teacher might not be able to, and school is not the only thing that shapes the youth.

Deborah, Netburn. “Sending Your Child Away”. The Los Angeles Times. Web. 23 February 2010.

Perspective of Students

An interesting statistics done by an organization or program call “The Japanese Youth” regarding on youth from varies of countries (Japan, Korea, U.S.A., U.K., and France). The report/research that this program has done only focused on currents students and former students. The first focus that they did was the “significance of going to school”, and they provide 11 choices for those still attending school. For the U.S., 79.1% of the students think the significance of going to school is for “general and basic knowledge” which is the highest compared to other countries and is the highest choice that students in U.S. choose out of the other 10. Follow up, from the second to greatest to least were:

“Better education background and qualifications” (54.1%),
“Specialized knowledge” (50.5%),
“Learned from the advice and good example of teachers” (45.0%),
“Work skills” (42.6%)
“Improved my friendship with others” (39.2%)
“Cultivated my talent” (27.3%)
“How to enjoy free time” (26.8)
“No particular significance” and “Don’t know” and “Refused” (1.9%)

Note: Since I am only focusing on the U.S. and reason why students attend to school, I will just analyze the data for this country to narrow down the topic although it will be interesting to see the different perspectives of students from different countries in varies of areas.

This research reveals that most students who attend to school are for "general and basic knowledge”. Not only this was the most chosen one throughout U.S., it was also the highest out of all the other countries. Not only this proves that students values learning at school, it shows the most students in the U.S. are being shaped in certain ways, and to think in certain ways. Most significance out of this research was that it shows students do know why they go to school for, and they do enjoy school in varies of perspectives. As seeing the orders from greatest to the least, it implies that U.S. is definitely competitive in terms of education, and it did play a major role in the society.

“Going to school: significance and evaluations”. The Japanese Youth. Part 2: Outline of the Survey Results. II. School. March 2009. Web. 23 February 2010.

Perspective of John Dewey

This is an article(II) written by John Dewey arguing that school is a “social institution” where is just a “form of community life” that gathers the children to share what has been passed down which he called it the “inherited resources of the race”. Therefore, be able to use what they have learned from school for “social ends”. A powerful statement, “I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living”, meaning school should teach things that are relative to “life as real and vital”, so they are able to make use of it wherever they go. Since school is an institution, it’s responsibility is to “simplified existing social life”, so students are able to see their relationship with the material being given at school, then make use of it for their own. However, he argued that lots of the present education fails this mission because of ignoring the fundamental principle of school. He believed that school is not a place where students take lessons, and learn certain required information given by teacher because that’s forms a pattern for them as john said “stepping stones”. By forming this habit of “doing something for the sake of something else s/he is to do” will disable the students to be part of the life experience and thus they are not “educative”.

John Dewey’s Pedagogic Creed did made a lot of strong arguments, such that school itself should be part of living experience, not preparing for the future. This is something that most of the students don’t see school as; including myself, I often think school is preparing for my future, and that’s why I am here. I agree with John Dewey’s perspective on this, and I think by helping the students to understand what is the real purpose of school, they will be clearer of what they are doing other than, “I am just here because is the law”. Overall, I think people should practice to have the habit of learning throughout the rest of their life. By doing that, they will know that even though someday they are not at school, they are still learning, it is part of life. Although John Dewey said that school should not give people the image of “certain habits are to be formed”, I believe that school is somewhat an institution that still shapes other than simply learning as experiencing life.

Dewey, John. My Pedagogic Creed - Article Two "What the School Is". School Journal vol. 54, pp. 77-80. January 1897. Web. 23 February 2010.

Perspective of Daivid Warlick

What is the purpose of education?

Perspective of John I. Goodlad

A Place Called School

Perspective of research professor of psychology at Boston College

This is an article by Peter Gray who argued that the book by a “cognitive” scientist, Daniel T. Willingham, call “Why Don’t Students Like School?” fails to answer his own question that was used as his title of the book. Nevertheless, Peter Gray is suggesting that the answer is simple, school is a prison. But most people who been to school or still attending to school do not often say it because that was not polite or they have been brainwashed that school is good for them, therefore should not say anything about it. Lastly, he argued that if we continue to ignore this elephant in the room, or refuse to face the fact that school is a prison, no one will ever be able to improve education.

Peter Gray seems to try very hard to put his shoes into the students, totally defending for freedom and encouraging the students to admit that school is a prison. Although it might be true that students do want freedom and just like to play and learn along through social experiences, he never seems to provide any effective suggestion of how to fix this problem. In addition, he never opposes the school system also but blame the ones who avoid elephant. I personally believe that a lot of us do say this and do admit this, but we are just powerless to change this school system. I don’t believe simply by admitting school is a prison will help improve the education to make it more interesting and appealing to students. Yet, freedom is not the biggest reason why students don’t like school.

Gray, Peter. "Why Don't Students Like School?" Freedom to Learn. Psychology Today. 2 September 2009. Web. March 1 2010.

Perspective of Bestselling Author - Seth Godin

On Seth Godin’s blog, although he did not talked in depth into what he thinks of school, he raises up a discussion for people who cares about education to consider. A simple question “What is school for?”, but hard to answer in his opinion. He argued that we spent so much time and money on school, and if we do not know what school is for, we might not be able to figure out how to use what we have learned to market ourselves to compete with the others. Thus, he provides a long starter list of “purpose of school”, with 27 reasons to start with. Then he ended his post by suggesting others to think about it, or maybe forward it to school board or principals for discussion.

In this list with 27 reasons, most of them make sense and are authentic to me. Such as “to become an informed citizen” and “homogenize society, at least a bit”. I found out that most of his list about purpose of school reveals an interesting point that schools are there to shape us. Such as his other reasons like “be trained in the rudimentary skills necessary for employment”, “teach future citizens how to conform”, “teach future consumers how to desire”…etc. A lot of these not only reveals how school will sort us and shape us in many ways, it also gives me a thought of going to school is not simply for “future”, there’s more into the word “future”, and by listing them with many reasons, it avoids the vagueness of the word.

Godin, Seth. "What Is School For?" Typepad. 31 January 2009. Web. 1 March 2010.

Perspective of Passionate Marketer

What is school for Part I

What is school for Part II

Perspective of a reader from Seth Godin's blog post, passionate about education and schooling

What is school for?

HW 40 - School Interviews x 5 & Synthesis

Part I

Mama (translated by me, and I edited her answer because she has too many examples and metaphors, side note: she got offended at the end)

Do you like going to school?

Yes, I enjoy going to school a lot. School offers the chance for people to learn and find their interest. Without the basics, the most fundamental knowledge, is hard for someone to build up (learn more). Even you are learning something that you find it useless, is still worth to learn it because school is all about finding and understanding your own strength and weakness.

So do grades matter? Would you do better without grades?

No, grades give you something to look forward to. Without them, you don't know how well you did which you do not know your strength and weakness at that subject.

So will you learn something that is not going to help you (now)?

No, I won’t. But because you guys (me, my brother, my sister) are still young, you should give a try for everything. If you see people playing piano, maybe you should try to play it too. If you find out that you don’t like it, then go on to find the next thing that you like. Until you find your own strength and interest, build on from there.

So if you don’t have to work, you will learn something new?

Of course, people have to keep increasing their knowledge. Learn something that you like, make yourself worth it. Even is something that might not help you to get a job, just keep learning to improve yourself.

If you have enough money to travel, enjoy life, will you choose not to go to school and not be able to work?

Of course not! Life is not all about money and enjoying life by not doing anything. Even you do have a lot of money, without knowledge, you can’t even communicate with others in the right tone. Such as drinking wine, other than drinking it, you know nothing about it because you don’t have knowledge other than wealth. Now a day a lot of adults still goes to school to graduate from college. Why’s that? Because life is all about making yourself worth more, and to achieve the sense of pride among the others.

But school doesn’t teach you that, school often times teach people things that they are not interested, and we are force to learn something that might not even help us.

Well, learn them. The basic is important; you might not like it because it is difficult for you. But sometimes these fundamental things are the way to start learning something more difficult, there’s always a way to make things interested to you. If you really don’t like it at last, then move to something that you find it interesting.

Okay, I know the basics are important. But why you choose to let your kids [us] to go to school? Or if you have us again now, will you still send us to school or just home schooling us?

Of course school! School is like a community, just like when you having projects and teachers put you in groups, others ideas are important. You might not have that much voice if you are learning at home. School allows you to meet people and learn how to work with others. Also those people are all there to learn, so you can compare yourself with the others and see your own strength and weakness better. In other words, school allows you to understand yourself better by having interactions with your surroundings.

Well, we can meet people in the society also. Such as going to super markets and shop with you, we can learn math that way. We also interact with the bigger group that we will end up when we graduate. Why not this choice? Do you think parents are busy working, that’s why they send their kids to school to let other adults to teach them?

My mom got offended, mumbling and left my room. :(

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Cousin from China (translated by me)

Still on your mid winter vacation celebrating Chinese New Year?

Yes.

When does school start again?

Tomorrow.

Oh, how long was the break?

1 month.

Do you wish to have a longer break?

A little.

So are you looking forward to your first day again?

Yes, just hope teachers don’t give us a lot of stress.

What kind of stress?

They always want us to be the best (test, grades), first place.

Compare with who?

The other classes that are in the same grade as us.

So what if you guys fail the mission?

They will give us a lot of homework.

Until you guys get to first place? Do teachers encourage their students frequently?

Yes, they tell us to work hard and get first place next time.

So what happens when you guys got it?

Not much. Normal.

Will other classes look up to your guys when you guys got first place?

No.

Do teachers’ salaries increase?

Yes, when our test average is above the city’s average.

Wow, do you think you will do better without grades?

I don’t think so.

So grades motivate you to go to school?

Yes.

Aren’t learning is more important than grades?

Well, in china that is not the case. All schools look at grades to accept students. If your grade is bad, then you can’t get into good school, then your future is being ruined.

So what about no homework? Would you prefer that and do you know what homework is for?

Is nice to not have homework. Teachers told us that school is to help us review back the things that we learned on that day.

So is it worth it to review all the things that you have learned? Were they really that helpful?

Errr…I don’t know.

Do you think the stuff that you learned at school might not help you in your daily life?

Some does some doesn’t.

Do you know why you have to learn something that might not even help you in the future?

To expand from different areas, offering choices to allow you to choose what you want to be later on.

Okay, last question. Can you describe your school routine?

Get up, breakfast, morning reading, class start, class end, lunch, class start, class end, dinner, shower, class start, class end, sleep.

Okay, thanks and good luck on your first day of school.

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My friend who goes to Baruch College Campus High School (who does not really want to do this interview, and don’t want to put too much thoughts in it)

How does school shape you as student? Do you enjoy school overall for the past 10 or more years?

I would say I enjoy school because I meet and I learn. Through communicating and learning, I learned stuff that is not taught in books.

Do you think school size matters? (Population, circumstance, school size, etc.) If it does, in what ways?

Of course it matters because it affects how a student behaves, learns, and grows.

Without grades, do you think you will learn better regardless of the school surroundings?

To some circumstances, it does not because grades motivate you to work harder to get a higher grade to satisfy yourself. However, to some people who do not care about grades, obviously, it is not going to affect how they learn.

If you have enough money to just enjoy life, but cannot go to school, work, will you choose still choose to go to school?

Yes because money does not equal to knowledge in this case.

What do you think school is trying to get out of students?

To be educated. To be learned.

So being smart is important?

Being smart is not important, being knowledgeable is important.

Okay, thanks. Now you are released.

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Sister (who offers me 10minute of her busy time rushing to finish her homework)

Do you like the title “student”?

Yes, because being a student means you are not out there yet. You don’t have to work; all you have to care about is school in general. Also sometimes you get privilege like discounts when buying supplies, going to movie…etc.

Do you often feel stress going to school?

Yes, because I don’t get to sleep as much as I want. Also people at school always compare each others’ grades and teacher always tell us that grade is important because that’s what your future is all about. Although you know bad grade is not the end of the world, there is the stress like the mission to go to school is to get high grade. Homework is the biggest thing that bothers me because it takes off a lot of my time, and I am very bad at time management. So I felt like school took a lot of my time to prevent me to do something else in life because of homework.

Since you said homework is your biggest stress. What time do you prefer going to school?

It doesn’t really matter to me. I just think school is really getting on my way. If I can just go to school and learn, maybe small amount of homework that could be done in a short amount of time, then the time when school starts does not really matter. But because they gave a lot of homework and I am not very good at self control and time management, then I am screwed. I really rather go to school for another 2 hour than having homework to do at home.

So what do you prefer, what will be helpful for you?

I think school should have a study period between classes so student can join together and digest what they have learned other than going to physics, then math without even really digesting the material that the teacher gave. Also be able to do their homework at school other during that period will be helpful and I think student can learn better that way too. I personally prefer the moment I exit school should not be doing school work, just like people who work in companies can just leave and go home and have their free time to do whatever they want other than still bringing the work from office back to home to do them.

Okay, so what advice will you give to your kids about school?

I will tell them to manage their time WELL, and school is important.

Thanks.

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Me

If there are no grades, will I do better at school? Why or why not?

No, I don’t think I will do better at school because the standard of “doing well” are created by school, and without grades there will not be anything to allow me to know where I am at. Since I am present, there to learn, commit to it, then I will prefer to know how well I did, like my mom said to know my strength and weakness.

Did school really teach me how to make good choices in life?

I will say yes, school is part of my cultural map and just like Plinko. It really did lead me to be who I am today since throughout my life time until now I am at school most of the time. In terms of making choices, I think school did give me some great advice, but in order for me to take that advice and still having to decide for myself, it seems school did direct me to make GOOD choices, but did not really teach me how to make the right choice. At the end, I am still the one who has to make the choice although I am aware the materials that school has offer has limited some of them. (ex. Telling you that candy is sweet, so everybody pick candy, but what flavors of the candy you will pick is still up to you. They are all good candies, but not necessary the right one for you)

If I get to make one difference about school, what will that be?

I will add more subjects/ choices for students to choose. Overall school structure is acceptable in my own opinion, but the choices/course that is given is limited. If there are more choices for students to choose what they want to learn, then students will be more motivated and interested. Also before going to college to major at certain things, students can try out different things to find their interest. I know there are art high schools, but I think all schools in general should offer more choices for students to choose other than categorize the student in different areas.

How does school make me feel overall?

Miserable! To be honest, I never really enjoy going to school, but I like learning. Not only there is certain amount of stress, it often makes people feel that they are in prison. There are schedules to do certain things, and you have to behave in certain ways. Being formatted. All these trainings that school offers train you to be fit. Then go on and try to figure things out in the bigger picture, and perhaps able to have a good life. But why everything has to be so miserable? Why many things that people do often seems to be a force other than doing out of people’s own will? Why can’t things be happier since everybody just wants to be happy? My own thinking was, these imperfect systems only fulfill “some people”, and others are there to suffer. Not really fighting for freedom, but just want to go to school with a happy face every morning. I know school is not the only thing that makes me unhappy, but school was the majority. Why can’t I learn with a smile?

What is my motivation going to school?

To level up. For now at SOF, is to finish what I have to finish and move on. Looking forward to a life that I need to schedule it by myself more and see if I could be happier that way. Although I know the game is not created by me.

Part II (aspect: why people do not think about their existence at school other than just deal with it - school experience shaped by the school system)

For all these interviews except the one that I interview myself, I did not really come up with particular questions to ask the person because I think that will disturb the overall conversation. So in order to keep with the flow, I decided to ask one question that relates to that person since I know them, then ask follow up questions to get them thinking about their experience at school and to see if they really think about why they are at school. What I found out after all the interviews were that people aren't really thinking about their experience at school and they do not want to think about them. Many people just go with the flow, and they do not really question themselves why they are at school? Therefore, when I asked them many think I am a little weird and do not understand why I am doing this (assignment#40) at school.

Going to school seems to be something that is natural to most people just like eating everyday and I wonder why people do not question themselves about going to school or people should not even be questioning such questions seems it is supernatural. Like my mom, she kept saying school helps you to understand yourself better in terms of strength and weakness, but she is unable to have an answer that satisfies me to make me think school is really the right thing to do. To me, it really seems my parents do not know why they send their kids to school. They do know going to school is to make their kids learn in certain ways, so they can live their life. BUT they do not know why they make such choice for their kids. Like my mom, she got offended and avoids answering this question. They just know is the right thing to do, but don't know why and don't really want to put much thought into school other than pushing their kids to go.

I also realized that people actually enjoy going to school other than the system(whatever that can be) that is bothering them or do not fit them particularly. This shows people do like to learn new things of any sort, but they do not like to be shaped in certain ways which what most school do. Like my sister, she enjoyed learning the materials that school has provides, but she HATES homework. She thinks homework prevents her to do many things since she has lots of after school programs to join every day. By the time she got home were already 7, after some rest she has to start doing her homework. If she decided to have some of her own time doing something that she wants to do, maybe video games, face book, cooking, TV...etc., then she would not be able to get her work done which it makes her hate school because of the system. (Sometimes teachers do not even hand back the homework or mention it which makes you wonder what happens to my work?) It seems school gives student some sort of stress and pressure that make us dislike school but at the same time wanting us to learn the materials well. If going to school is to be knowledgeable and be fit in the society, why we have to learn in certain way if that’s not even be the best way to help us learn? Why school has to make everything so miserable, and so little of happiness and joy? My prediction about this was that because we don't really have a say about how school works or should be structure since the day we go to school, we develop a habit or an image of "school", something that is already being set up, and you shouldn't change it other than just deal with it. Thus, we don't question why and just treat it as a supernatural thing to do in life and we shouldn't question why because that really helps us, somehow.

HW 39 - First School Assignment

Most interesting that I can come up with:

• How do students in general adapt to the transitions of the school schedules?
• Without school, how will everything turn out to be? Will it be hard for people to communicate, and is hard to gather the similar perspective to view the world or life in general? Or before school exists, how do people live? Will parents play the role as teachers?
• What makes the youth to believe in these stories, even we doubt about it, question it, we all just live in a world of unknown. If it is impossible to know the ultimate truth about the world, why certain format or structure are so valuable in the society. Does it really make sense or truth does not matter ultimately?
• Why adults are the only ones who can teach legitimately?

Ideas:

• I think school has to be with trust a lot and kids from young (blank piece of paper) to teenage, then young adult are all train to believe in the "stories" that their teachers taught them. Even they doubt and are skeptical about it, where do they go from that if figuring out the ultimate truth seems to be an impossible miracle? Why didn't the students come up with their own rules of doing math? Instead of following the convenience of "1+1=2", why didn't we make up something that we wanted, so is easier for us? Not saying to abandon the history, but perhaps we should revised it wisely?
• School often receives massive of respect from people (especially the elders, parents), and usually when people bring it up, or happen to be an educational person, it seems like they have a higher status. Why do people base knowledge on this? Why school is all about popular, rumors, friendship, grades, respect, discipline, books, smart...etc. Is the basic structure of theme of school similar to the society?
• People who goes to school every day like zombies, often times don’t really think or be aware of what they are doing. Such as rushing to class, but doing nothing particular interested, just knowing consciously that is necessary. Or going to gym, all of a sudden the next minute sitting down doing math. We will never do something that is so unusual like this during the weekend or break. Living in general should has a format I believed, but I think the “school portion” of it play a super weird role in our lives.

Experiences:

• I went to school in China from Kindergarten to 6th grade, and I am always the youngest one in class, because I never gone to Pre-K like others. So I was always behind, and never have a strong basics background. It feels like building lego, if you do not know some basics, you can't move on the next grade and learn more difficult things. Especially now, I am still aware that I think slow compare to the others, either I born with it, or is being shaped to think differently than the others since I was little. Personally, I do believe without a strong basic did impact my life A LOT.
• Why the math in the U.S. seems to be so easy? My math is horrible in China, never understand it and always question why without an answer that satisfies me. But when I came to the U.S., it's a piece of cake through middle school to high school, things seems to be easier to understand (not just giving lessons through books like China, but with some others ways to really understand why is this, why is that. Until I learn calculus, is the first time I struggle doing math (why’s that?)
• Before coming to SOF, never imagine I will have a good grade because is my first time going to a school that speaks complete English. But surprisingly, it worked out okay for me and I only get 80 once throughout the 4 years of high school. But in terms of feeling, I never understand my grades. Sometimes I even think that I do not deserve it? But either way, my parents never ask me for my report card, everything regarding school I would say is pretty independent and self-motivated.

One aspect : Age affects the way I look, act, and feel at school

My feelings about school changed a lot especially when I got older. I do not hate school as much as I used to be when I was a kid, but to be honest, deep inside my heart school is never the choice if I get to choose. Just like having breaks between months/weeks, people are always excited either from a transition or having something different. I don't really know why or know how to analyze these emotions towards school, but after so many years of hating school, I come to a conclusion that I learned how to adapt to the school system without complaints. Looking back at this 11 and half year of attending school (probably more than that), it looks like a training of behaviors. It trains people how to be certain ways, and it is not all about learning the material. But also learning how to accept and overcome things that come up in lives depending on situation.

I think school is not as bad as it is all the time, sometimes having massive of work is not just stressful, but also challenging in terms of due date. But I do enjoy these stresses, and it really trains me how to organize my time and challenge myself to do vary of things at the same time. Regardless of what the assignments are, I do see my future as having many things to do just like these assignments (perhaps even more complicated). They all come at the same time, and I might not even have someone to push me to get it done, which will make me slack off. So looking at school as a metaphor of something else, I think it helps me to handle it pretty easily. It is also a way to get me motivated and not complain about school but enjoy. Sometimes the subjects are really not that interesting, but often times I train myself to still get motivated by not asking why or the meaning of leaning it, or not question whether is useful or not. All these techniques did help me a lot personally to get over with school every day, and I do feel more connected to the subjects.

In terms of grades, it is something that I believe what most people is concern with. For me, it doesn’t mean a lot unless I feel like I did accomplish something during the process of getting them. I would say many times I do not understand them, or maybe I should put it this way, I do not think I deserve them. Ever since I came to the United States, the feeling of accomplishing something in order to get the number grade is rare. When I said accomplishments, I meant going through some sort of struggles through emotions, the work at school...etc. Many of the times I feel like some teachers gave grades because of impressions, and not based on my improvements. But 12th grade I would say is the most challenging year for me in SOF, every grade that I received is understandable and I know I deserved them regardless it is high or low. For me to feel accomplish, is really to learn something and get stuck then figure it out by myself with the help of the lessons. But mostly, the level of challenging matters a lot to me especially in SOF, since I been doing easy math for 2 and a half year while my sister who’s 1 years younger than me already learn something way harder.

When I was little, I lived under the pressure of being "tools" for my mom to compare with other kids. I heard a lot of the phrase like "if someone else can do it, you can do it too" or "what is your rating at school, was it the top 10". (My grandpa would even pay us as a reward for getting high grades or some awards!) These pressure towards grades being put into my mind at least for ten years, and it seems like going to school is all about GRADES. But as I transit to middle school and high school, parents have different expectations. My mom starts to say something like "try your best". Perhaps as the grades goes higher, my mom feels she has no control over it, and by then she never asked me for grades. (maybe keep a constant high grades for a long period of time would earn some trust over parents?)

I don't know if this is right or wrong in terms of not sharing grades with my parents, but I think grades should be self motivated, not really to get it to show it to the parents. As growing up from sophomore to senior year, many of the times when I get my progress report, I barely show it to my parents and it work out okay for my situation. Even I show it to her, she has no comments. Also, whether the grade is high or low, to me is just a number to self reflect on how well I did for that quarter and see if it matches with my progress of accomplishing certain things. If I were going back 3 or 5 years, grade is definitely something that I will struggle and care about the most. However, as getting older, it doesn't mean that much to me. I am sure is not because of my parent's reaction towards it, not because the similar grades through high school years. My guess was something else matters more than these "numbers" that does not exceeds 100.

HW 38 - Art Project Cool

On the Trail from B1z， on Vimeo.

1. What insights about cool does the art integrate? What do you hope people will realize or question from their encounter with your art?

My video is basically trying to bring out the message of “don’t be afraid to change your own map”. In this cool unit, we did talked about cultural maps and how people are live off based on their roots, and whatever their maps shaped them is their meaning of living. So in my video, I am trying to advise others to cross over the boundaries, and modify their own maps if it is necessary in their lives. I want other viewers to question themselves and ask whether if they know “what’s going on in their lives”. I believe a lot of us are born to this world without being ready for it most of the time. We might wake up in the morning, and not ready to live since no one ever left us the exact answer. All we can do is to try to make sense of things and live with it. Since we don’t know, it seems many of us are just blind in a way while living, interacting with the others. Such as the scene from the video when I was lost in the hallway, then transit to a great sight but still did not recognize the beauty of our lives until the very last. It reveals how most of the time people take things for granted, and do not really know how to live cool. To sum up my point is to make people realize that although there’s no right or wrong answers of how to live our own lives, or in other words, a way to live cool, what we can do is to choose the best we can – live for the moment, and don’t stuck on the same trail unless that’s the direction that you want to go. Look at things in varies of perspective! (I personally think the video is a little unclear to some reviewers)

2. Describe the process of making the project - how'd you do each step? If it was a group project, what did you contribute?

The process of making this project is fun, but also frustrated. Since I am the type of person who’s having a hard time to work in groups, I often end up doing my own since it will come out to be the way I wanted, or is easier to do it without compromising. So I start out videotaping a lot of the random clips and try to make sense of it. But lots of them end up being useless, and the final product always end up to be something else. The most difficult part is to connect the art and make it relevant to the topic, which I struggle a lot making decisions of what to film. But once the idea came up to me, I start filming myself, and often times choose angles…etc. After filming every part, the editing part is a long process (more than 7 hours editing). Deciding which part to cut, how to keep with the flow, what effects and transitions, music, subtitles, many of the decisions are hard to make because it will affect the overall product. But I do enjoy the whole process of making this piece, and the filming part is definitely something that I never thought of doing. I am glad that I get to try something new, and be able to spend time doing something that I actually enjoy doing.

3. Does making art seem cool to you? Why or why not?

Absolutely! Having the chance to spend a lot of time to do something that I normally do in spare time makes the assignment seem to be less stressful. I love editing videos/photographs, and being able to do it and submit it as homework assignments is more challenging and cool. By saying that, doesn’t mean words are not as good as images, both do reveals great opinions in many ways if it were expressed relevantly. But making art requires more creativity in my opinion, because writing sometimes could be very flat and bored, and still send out the meaning. Art in the other hand is more challenging to bring out the meaning and to make sense to the others. Moreover, art is way too universal and is often easier to curve into people’s mind if it was powerful and successfully depicted.

I also did a video with Dinorah (her project). For more explanation, check it out from her blog.

Art Porject Cool from B1z， on Vimeo.