HW 44 - Big Expectations for School

Obama is demonstrating the responsibility of being a student in this society, and our job is to learn and go to school, not only for us, but for the country. If we do well at school, we are on the road to attain success and be able to graduate from college. Our responsibility is not only to do well at school; we have to consider the country as a whole. We have to contribute by doing our best at school, and later on to be “something” that will benefit the country. “I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make?” In my own opinion, Obama’s speech is supportive but in a bad way that sounds more like a manipulation of hard workers for school as a factory instead of a place to achieve your dream as a valuable experience in your life. He depicts school as a challenging place for students and for him by getting up in the early morning to study when he was little. But this is the only way to success in his opinion, and we should never take any shortcuts to success like the ones we saw in movies. We shall never give up, and just keep climbing for the fruit at...... school.

In his perspective, successful means to be able to graduate from college and has something to offer to this country and lastly “make us all proud”. In order to do that, school as an institution is the place where we should get started. His argument was strong that before we try anything at school, we will not know what ourselves are good at. However, he gives an image of all the students as workers for this big factory, or puppets for the country instead of fulfilling our own dreams to be self motivated. His major reason for all students to go to school is not to let the country down. “When you give up on yourself, you give up on your country”. (WOW) As a student, I take this like a threat more than an encouragement. No matter how supportive Obama tries to feel for the students by sharing lots of the difficult experiences of himself and others, he never really seem to focus on how much pressure school has given to students other than telling the students to value the opportunity to be able to go to school. “So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down.” We as individuals in this society should aim for Obama’s definition of success other than fulfilling our own desire. Furthermore, we shall never think for ourselves, but the others as a big family – unity.

“But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying. Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.” My future? My destiny? This is totally a false statement. Where I am right now, whether doing well or failing at school, as relating to what he said earlier, it does determine where I’ll end up. Simply, school is the only choice and in this case, Obama refuse to suggest any other alternatives than going into this institution for success. My future or the country’s future? As relating back to all the films we watched in class, Obama’s speech totally neglected some of the students that might not ready or want the “escape ladder”. Is this a speech or a threat or just some big expectations from the country or is just simply pressure on students to know what to expect in their future?

Similarly, in the texts of "Where the Bar Ought to be" and "Liberal Arts education: why it still matters", both follows the same idea of school just as Obama's view of the purpose of this institution. From the Liberal Arts article, it suggests the importance of this major. “The most straightforward answer is liberal arts colleges, at their best, provide an exceptionally effective learning environment for developing the kind of intellectual power and propensity for action that the world needs to tackle the daunting challenges we face.” Simply, going to school will benefits the country or the world as a whole and it always seems relevant and correct that is the way to start. Furthermore, going to school seems to provide an image of guarantee getting a job to start our career. Just like the article “Where the Bar Ought to be” describing Ms.Kenney’s core things for her kids, “I wanted them to be wholesome in character. I wanted them to be compassionate and to see life as a responsibility to give something to the world. I wanted them to have a sophisticated intellect. I wanted them to be avid readers, the kind of person who always has trouble putting a book down. And I raised them to be independent thinkers, to lead reflective and meaningful lives.” All the texts including Obama’s speech is about responsibility of being a student. It almost seems as a commitment when going to school, that someday we will graduate and starts to contribute what we can to the world or country, not really enhance the importance of fulfilling the self.

I personally did not fully disagree of what the texts suggests about school, but I think there is some simple alternative that all of them fail to suggests in the article/speech. I feel like all these texts are only suggesting the benefit of their self or long term interest as for the country more than the importance of getting the student to be self-motivated. I think school primarily is for students to learn and soon to start their career. However, I think school should also suggest the value of experience at school as everyday life experience. Other than deciding for the students such as “there is no excuse for neglecting the homework…etc.” or like Ms.Kenney suggesting the five cores, I think they should look at the whole situation as considering the student’s perspective. They act like they understand what is going on at school because they are students once before, but they totally neglect student’s own self worth and life experience as a whole.

I think school should teach students not only to be trained to be “something”, but suggesting the importance of having these great experience. Why do we always have to aim for success other than looking at the situation that we are experiencing during the present? Obama claimed that he is successful because he failed a lot. This shows how most people at school are being taught to look forward to the benefit of the situation other than putting more worth or value into their present state of what they are actually experiencing. Simply shaping the students without their own self motivation to be there will just worsen the problem of increasing hatred for school. Other than trying so hard to shape everybody to benefit the country as a whole, why can’t we learn how to determine our self worth at school by looking at the present? I believe learning to value our life experience at school, or anywhere else, should be top priorities and that’s why we are there at wherever we are in the situation. Only focusing on majority success for the country’s own benefits will just letting the students down, then the country. We all might be somehow a tool, but the very least, we should and needed to be valuable.