HW 51 - School Big Paper

Intro:

School as an institution that offers education to kids, always seems to be the top priorities for parents to consider for their kids. Ever since their kids are around four or five, they start to decide what school their kids should go to in order to have a “good future”. As time goes on, school has transform into a great institution that ease the parents’ trouble and they don’t even have to over thought about this decision anymore. All they do is simply sending their kids to school to be educated or shaped by other adults that seems to be more suitable for their kids to grow up as a better person in the society. Yet, they never put too much thought into what school is really doing to their kids other than having lessons in certain subjects. While school as an institution that portrays the image of salvation for the youth to be a successful person that is suitable for the society, students are slowly being dehumanized that they are no longer a fully human.

Argument 1

Teachers as one of the most important “depositor” at school that deposits information to the depositories, students slowly train to become containers that stores what they learn at the mechanical institution instead of being an active learner that learns how to think to approach reality in the world. In most of the classes, teachers as the educators are suppose to give tasks to students and teach them something new every day within the time limit. Students are train to adapt to these environments that they are only there to perform for only certain amount of time. Once time is up, they pack up and leave to begin their next task. In this short period of time, students suppose to take notes and receive what they have learned in class into memories. In order to do well and get a good grade, all they have to do is to remember what they have learn and be able to show their teacher that they do understand the material being teach in class. However, this whole process of learning is just “filling containers” as what Freire claimed. This means the students never process thinking at all, but being exposed to a fragment of what reality really is.

In forming these type of compulsory education at school, not only students become passive and adapt to the world as what they have learned, they never encounter their own consciousness of realizing what reality really is in the world that they are living. Although students are doing well at adapting and fitting the world, these forms of learning are lessening the students’ creativity and critical thinking skills. “Translated into practice, this concept is well suited to the purposes of the oppressors, whose tranquility rests on how well people fit the world the oppressors have created, and how little they question it.” Refer to this whole idea demonstrated by Freire, not only students are not questioning about the world more other than being a strong fit for their “oppressors’ world”, they are no longer fully human because of the detachment that they have with the world that they live in.

Argument 2

Teachers other than being great depositors, they are also view as the saviors at salvational institutions. Yet, school as an institution is never a community, but a network that sorts people mechanically into numbers that they have to stay at where they are at other than being a fully human that interacts with other people. As what John Taylor Gatto claimed, “Our school crisis is a reflection of this greater social crisis. We seem to have lost our identity. Children and old people are penned up and locked away from the business of the world to a degree without precedent - nobody talks to them anymore and without children and old people mixing in daily life a community has no future and no past, only a continuous present. In fact, the name "community" hardly applies to the way we interact with each other.” Not only what he claimed is true that school is a reflection of social crisis, a place that sorts people like numbers. Just as different roles belong to different place, people no longer interact with each other.

Looking at the society as a whole, the community is unhealthy because of putting people aside and disconnecting relationships. Nevertheless, sorting is necessary but is not balanced. This means, school has dominate too much time from students that they are only interacting with peers that’s around their age that they have less chance to interact with their family or people that’s not their age. In addition to that, school is only offering lessons by teachers which have limited the opportunities of what students can learn. Other than doing arithmetic, reading, and writing, students should be exposed to more life lessons through community service, or other forms of learning other than taking lessons at school portraying teacher as the only major saviors towards the youth. Based on Aristotle’s claimed that only a person who is functioning in a real community through interaction with all people is fully human, students who attend to school is not fully human because of the lack of connection with the others.

Argument 3

Schools being set up as a mechanical institution that sorts people, the teachers as saviors/depositors have too many authorities over the students that lower their self-esteem that they can hardly be fully human. In most schools, students are responsible to do work and get a grade based on how well they meet the standards created by their teachers. Teachers are the ones who ultimately decide the students’ future depending on where they go next. However, every student learns differently. Regardless of the education given at school are immanent or transcendent, both Hirsh and Sizer’s beliefs seem to agree on students with different backgrounds have different knowledge on materials, and whether they should learn basics to form commonalities or should learn how to have critical thinking to value learning is another question. As this is also true to Lisa Delpit that different cultures affects the way that culture learns in the perspective of the culture that has the most power. All in all, through all these beliefs do concern on the problem that student performs differently as a whole. Thus, it requires all different forms of teaching or learning environments for kids. If this stays true, either grades or other judgments in terms of the child’s intelligence are therefore impossible to sort based on one curriculum.

As most parents rely on the number or letter grade to view their child’s intelligence, not only the child learn that only other’s opinions on themselves are the ultimate truth and the one and only that should matter, any judgments on the child under one curriculum is dehumanizing the students’ ability and intelligence. Not only these grades do not mean anything as a whole for students, they are “evaluation of certified officials” that determines the students future that caused them to have control over their own life other than conforms and meet the “oppressor’s” standards. Within the inability to control your own destiny other than conform reflects that students cannot be fully human due to the imbalanced of power between teachers and students.

Alternatives

In order to make students to be fully human at school, I agree with Freire that there should be more communication between students and teachers. “Yet, only through communication can human life hold meaning. The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thought on them. Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication. If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible.” I do agree with him that through more communication other than having the teacher putting information into the students’ brain will help the students more. In addition to that, this creates interaction between the two to make students be able to be fully human. Not only Freire’s suggestion is helpful, this will also lowers the teacher’s authorities over students to make it balanced. I believe the ultimate goal at school is simply to learn, and through learning, authorities are very unnecessary in my opinion. Not only has it distracted students’ to learn, it often evokes the “bad students” to challenge the teacher whereas people can just create a peaceful place to learn among each other through communication.

Another way to help students to be more human is to break through the tradition of teacher as a savior to help students to learn, but also provide more chance for students to have a view of the society. Other than learning arithmetic, writing, and reading, students should be able to do internships, community service, or all other forms of learning that can create more interactions between people as a whole in a community other than just among teachers and students. In order to make this happen, I think we should have less school, not more. I believe in Gatto’s theory that students can learn faster when they are in the mode of learning, and we wasted too many time at school forming unnecessary tasks such as teacher chasing after students’ to pay attention in class or students wasn’t even in the mode to learn but being force to be present at school. All these times could have been open to students to interact with more people such as their families, the old and the young.

Connection

As a student, I hate school. Not only I felt I spend too much time on it that I could have done something else, I think the way school is being set up limited what a student can possibly do . Every day, I can see myself just going through motion, and being force to go to school having the notion of “I have to go to school”. I believe I do well at school under my teachers and school’s standards, and I fit well to that world that they have created. But looking at my life spending most of my time at school, I felt the sense of inhuman in myself. I enjoy learning, and I believe I am curious. However, the school curriculum has shaped me into a student who hates school. If I have the ability to make my own choice since a kid, I would not choose to go to school, but still learn as much as I can. School has too many unnecessary rules that have nothing to do with learning or helping the students to do better but to shape them into zombies to conform. Not that I am agree with Gatto’s six lessons, I believe school does dehumanize students as a whole.

I believe there are values in learning, and I am glad that there are institutions that try to help people to be more educated. However, there are too many unnecessary things that are within these institutions that drives students crazy. It creates pressure and meaninglessness life for students most of the times other than learning. Students always felt pressure because of grades, or afraid that they did something that is against the school policy that will keep them in trouble. Or students have to act in certain way at school whereas the whole point to go to school is to learn and connect this knowledge to our own lives to find the meaning of living. School did not only fail to teach students to motivate themselves to go to school, they taught students to feel the sense of hatred and pressure towards school that students always look forward to weekends and vacations.

Significance

I know is it complicated to change the systems of school in a short amount of time, but at the very least I think parents and students should be aware of what is happening at school. I believe a lot of parents do not really put too many thoughts into what schools are doing to their kids, and they are just following the mainstream of sending their kids to school. As for students, I believe lot of us do not notice what schools are doing to us also. What most of us do is complain, but never try to make a difference at these institutions that we are attending for twelve years. I think students should understand the situation that they are in more, and try to make a change other than just complain and leave it to shape them in to robots or numbers. Students should not just let school to shape them to live a twelve year meaningless life but to put more thoughts into this to really try to make a change with action. I believe school can be a better place for students to learn, but students are being a little bit passive and just let things happen to them. I think students do have the responsibility to make choices for themselves; especially it is an institution that is supposed to be beneficial to us.

Conclusion

School in general, it always seems as a necessary and there should not be much question or thought into it. It is “good” for us as students, and it definitely portrays the image of salvation in the society that it is beneficial to the youth. Although this is true, there are lots of issues and contradiction in these institutions that has never been resolve. Not only the way school is being set up, just as what John Gatto said, is schooling students instead of educating us, I think school is dehumanizing us as a whole. Due to the detachments of the reality in the world and lack of interaction with people in a real community with an imbalanced of power between students and teachers, it reveals that school is definitely more complicated then what we think it is. The teachers wants to share their wisdom to shape students’ identities while students are building their own identities which often seem to against what the teacher wants to do as their job All in all, different roles wants different things at the same place, and no goal is being reach and the problem has not yet being resolved. Who is responsible for this and is it even a major problem that prevents students to learn in a healthy environment? Before answering these questions, I think students should recognize their situation and starts to realize that school has prevent them from being a fully human. Without being able to live fully with meaning, nothing seems to matter and indifference goes on.

HW 50 - Response to Gatto, Freire, Delpit, SOF Educator

Gatto - The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher

John Taylor Gatto specifically mentioned the six lessons that all students learn in school, and argued that school is "a 12-year jail sentence in which bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned". All the lessons that he lists have nothing to do with school materials but hidden curriculum that we might not even realize but learning them as a conformist. Not only Gatto has demonstrates the way how school runs, he emphasizes how these lessons are dumbing the students down. Of course, we are learning, and still might be rich in knowledge. But simultaneously, we are forming bad habits as what Gatto mainly claimed. Because of the bells, we learn that nothing really matters ultimately. We are just like the light switch, turning on and off at certain amount of time. More importantly, we no longer self motivate ourselves to learn but being a conformist as a learner. Since the teachers are the ones who plan the lessons, we are losing curiosity. Throughout the text, Gatto did not only point out the hidden curriculum that most of the students are learning in compulsory schools, he also specifically in favor of depicting school as a prison that kids no longer have their own privacy, and they are just numbers. All the points he emphasizes mainly falls to the category of systematic learning are bad and dehumanized.

I do agree with Gatto’s point that school at certain levels do really look like a prison. However, I think he went a little way too extreme, because realistically, that’s not what he’s teaching every day after day. It is true that students are forming these habits of learning because of the way school has shaped them, but students are learning on the other hand. No doubt that all the six lessons that he point out is true to most of the student I believed, nevertheless, it does not mean these lessons did not help the students learn. There are many ways to shape students in the way that is best for them to learn, and being able to train kids to be able to handle many different tasks in a day is also important. If kids are to be train like he said, to just continue learning the same subject for hours, instead of switching to other classes, it also reveals the student’s inability to handle multi-tasks. Lots of the points that Gatto points out are strong, but it seems he never really consider the benefits of these six lessons. He just went too extreme in a way that it seems there is only one best way for kids to learn whereas there are many different ways that fits varies of kids.

Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Throughout the text “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, Freire basically demonstrates and compare the two educational concepts between banking and problem-posing education. Banking education simply means that the teacher as depositor keep practicing the act of depositing the students as depositories. They treat students like containers and just fill in the students’ mind with facts while the students play the role as ignorants who just keep storing these deposits. Thus, students slowly fit /adapt themselves with these facts back to the world as their consciousness of reality without questioning too much about the world. On the other hand, problem-posing education deals with communication between teachers and students where both shares their ideas back and forth which makes “authority” invalid at school. Not only it helps the students of the teachers and the teachers of the students to see the reflections of each other, it helps them to reach their own conscious of consciousness within their own perceptions of the world that they believe is the reality based on their own situation. Through these dialogues between the teachers and students, the “act of cognition” eventually will “unveils reality” within themselves. Freire seems to be in favor of this concept because this type of education inhabits “creativity and domesticates the intentionality of consciousness by isolating consciousness from the world”, so people can be more fully human.

Based on my understanding of reading this piece by Freire, I really enjoy his unique way of looking at education and his critiques. I strongly agree with him, and find it amazed how he has come to a thoughtful solution towards “authority” at school. I like how he emphasizes the two concepts of education, and his concepts of problem-posing education is totally sophisticated. It seems this way of learning among each other is way better than just having the students to play the role of ignorants to reveal the teachers’ existence. By sharing ideas among each other within communication, I believe this way really will make authorities no longer valid at school which I think is ingenious. Sometimes I really find authorities unnecessary among learning environments because simply we are just there to learn. By taking out these roles off from each other and simply just enjoying learning seems phenomenal to me. Not only is a brilliant idea, I think it makes the whole situation of learning more pure. It did not only help people to have a better sense of reality, I think the idea of sharing your own perceptions with each other will make ourselves better individuals as a whole.

Delpit - Silenced Dialogue

Lisa Delpit has this very interesting idea where she sees school as the “culture of power”. By saying this, she meant school itself has constructed a set of rules where many things are “enacted” in the classroom, and in order to sort your intelligence or “normalcy” as she described, you have to follow that sets of rules of the culture created by the ones who have power. With that being said, she believes that different cultures should have appropriate strategies for students to learn especially the ones who are different from the others in terms of ethnicity or social class. She argues that she does not “advocate simplistic basic skills”, but school needs to ensure that they provide these contents or “codes” needed that helps the students to “fully” fit into the mainstream of American life. By doing this, it is the only way that can help the diverse groups to fit into one as a whole, so they can understand what they are learning better. If not, the poor or lower class group will just be learning things that do not even belong into the rules of culture of power, therefore, they are not even given the chance or being invited to the table to the same culture among the middle or upper class.

I think Lisa Delpit has a very good point that lots of the diverse groups might not even be train to practice to fit into the mainstream of American life, which means the lower class will never even be able to fit into that culture, or in other words the group that have power. Therefore, even the diverse groups are doing perfectly fine in terms of their own sets of rules of culture of power, they are not going to the same direction. I think she did point out a very good issue, but it seems she did intentionally tried to say that everybody should have a basic knowledge just as Hirsh’s idea. It is true that people with different culture learns differently, but instead of saying providing codes that is needed for these groups, why can’t the class provides same materials but with different learning technique? Or teach the diverse group the culture that they are experiencing instead of having the sense of "being cheated". As for me, when I just came to the U.S., it is absolutely difficult to fit into the mainstream of American way of learning, but as you try to understand other’s culture, I believe it is easier to fit in other than providing certain “codes” for the diverse groups to fit in. Because at the end, you are here to learn the same material, is just that different cultures have different way of teaching.

SOF Educator - Manley

Interviewing Manley in our class, he shared a lot of his own school experience with us and told us how those have impact his way of teaching. Although he did not clearly explain to us why he became a teacher, he did tell us why being a teacher is better than an office job. He mentioned how different it will be if you compare the teachers’ working environment to the ones who work for companies that just sat there the whole day with not many interactions. As a teacher, he thinks it is a “real humanistic job” that not much career offers. Being able to interact with students and colleague is the part that makes him enjoy teaching. He also told us that how his teachers used to lower his self esteem by making him stand under the flag makes him will never do that to his own students. He said he will try to make the student feel as comfortable as he/she can be while in his class. He went off sharing more of his experience at high school and about his teaching experience. He said SOF is a school that is very different from the others which makes him loves teaching at this school. He also mentioned how when he was at other school, he was not suppose to share any of his stories, or experience with the students, but teaching grammar, which makes him feel like teaching at that school “sucks”. He ended it the interview by telling us how important it is to teach the students something that actually mean something to them, instead of just giving them lessons that students should learn, because that is the way to make teaching fun. He enjoys teaching 11th and 12th grade, because it almost makes him felt like his part of it and he can feel how the importance of that turning point in his students’ lives.

I personally very like the part where he said teaching is a “real humanistic job” because I am surprise how important it is to have a job that you actually get to interact with people other than just sitting in front of a computer. I also like the way how he has put his own life experience into his career of being a teacher that he will not do something that he does not like what his teacher has done to him. As a student, I feel like this happens a lot. Such as what teachers or parents did to you that you find it discomfort, you will always end up saying you will never do this to your kids or students. I like how he has put his perspective as teachers into the students and really try hard to put his shoes into the students to understand them. It makes me feel like he is not just there to do his job as being a teacher, but he actually enjoys to be there at school teaching and be part of us through interaction. It almost seem as he is not just there to teach, but also to live his life meaningfully at the same time enjoying his job and living. Which I personally think is very important to have teacher who loves teaching as passion other than just be there doing their job.

HW 49 - Analysis of Savior/Teacher Film

For our class film, my role was to be part of the smart Asian kids who is just in the class to “learn” or to get good grades. We don’t cause troubles or mind what’s going on in the class such as the rebellious kids disturbing the teacher’s lessons. All we do is just to be “present” in the classroom and do what we need to do to get the grade or perhaps learning sometimes, and then move on to whatever is next. Basically, we are just there to meet standards to move on, anything else like the chaos, we are just the outcast who’s observing what’s going on. When the rebellious students are making jokes or being disrespect to the teacher, we don’t react back to it much. Even when the teacher thinks he is saying some smart things, to us, we just act normally and blank stare at each other. There is another scene where the teacher is criticizing the different groups of students in the class, and me and Devin were suppose to have our notebooks out getting ready to learn like what good students would do. But the teacher ends up coming over and making fun of how we just follow the rules of the game, and other than that, we do not know anything more than that, as the way he ended his criticism “pathetic”.

I think the main message of the class film was to show that the teacher sometimes might not be the savior of the next generation’s future or not even should be the one who is responsible for the youth. As we see in the film that the teacher is an alcoholic, it reveals another side of the teacher that students normally don’t see. This shows that teachers are human too, and they do have their own life other than just teaching. There are two ways of looking at this teacher, either he did try to teach and help the students but it didn’t really work. Another way to view this teacher is that he is just doing his job, and after all it is just a little part of his life. Either way, the teacher in the film did give up after making a stunning speech to the students, which we can view him as “the teacher who is there to do his job, and get the paycheck”. After the speech, the students are just looking at each other, and going back to their normal attitude towards school. Are the students really impossible to change? Or the teacher is not a good teacher who is there to inspire the kids and make a big difference in their life?

We did see the teacher having some insights about life, something that the students don’t normally hear in the classroom. But ultimately, we can see that the students are lost in these institutions. We’re not sure if the students understand what the teacher said, but I think the big message throughout the film was teachers might not always be the “savior” figure in the society, and students certainly need help other than just the teacher being there to give them lessons. Obviously we can see at the end of the film the students are a bit confused but back to the normal very quick when the teacher left the classroom. This did not show that teacher might not be the “savior” of the next generation, it suggests that students as individuals should learn how to be the savior of their own life. Teachers are just there to do their job to offer as much as they can, either way both need to contribute to make things work.

In most of the films that we saw in class, we often see the teacher as the savior of the youth who ends the carnival and succeed shaping the students in the way they wanted. They often give up transcendent education paradigms, and switch to immanent to get the students’ attention to believe the teacher is really there to help them. In our class film, when the teacher gets everybody’s attention is when he is giving some insights about life to the students. He walks to different groups of students and told them something revealing that students do not often see or hear in the classroom. Both the film that we saw in class and the one that we made, both show that in order to get the student’s attention, the teacher need to make connection to the student’s personal life. Another similarity between the class film with the movies that we watched in class is that the teachers are always view as the savior figure at school. Students do not know what to know other being present in the classroom, all they do is waiting for instructions from the teachers. When the teacher does give orders, students start to rebel against the teacher. As I mention in the previous paragraphs, are teacher really the savior of the next generations or they are just there to do their job?

For our class film, we did not end it as most of the movies that we watched in class. The “savior teacher” did not succeed winning the students, but give up and left the classroom after the speech. This is the biggest difference between the film that we watched and the one that we created in class. Although this might not seem realistic that the teacher will just walk out to the classroom and left the students in the class, I think the general message did successfully shown in our class film. Instead of showing how teacher always ends the carnival and make a big impact in students’ life, we show how teachers sometimes are just there to do their job and give up on the students. Just like the movie Dead Poet Society, the teacher just left and we do not know who is next there to educate the kids. If all teachers just give up on the students, does school ultimately work for kids? Or the students are just there to wait for their “Mr/Ms. Right teacher” to be the savior in their life? Our class film strongly shows the students are just like cubes that need someone to kick it, in order to make a little move. When the teachers left, students will just get stuck in the situation without help. Now it left with the question, whose responsibility is it?

In this American culture, going to school seems to be the only way to succeed. Even though there is alternative to make the best out of your life, not much people will take the chance to choose another route other than going to school wishing there might be a higher chance that they can get a decent job. Therefore, teachers always have the savior figure in most people’s eyes especially parents, who decided to send their kids to school. Many of us will think it is the teacher’s responsibility to be the savior of the next generation to lead the kids to succeed in their future. But never thought the students are responsible for their learning also. We often see teachers are always willing to offer and teach, but students sometimes go to school not doing their part as what we see in the film as the rebellious kids. Students choose to go to school and have the thought of “I have to go to school” lock into their minds that even thought they aren’t doing much at school, they still go to school to just be “present”. Most of us view school as salvation in lives, and teachers must be the saviors of the next generation. Although this seems true, I believe this have to do with faith and hope between the teachers and students. It almost seem as a bet, as for parents sending their kids to school. Ultimately, school is no longer a place for education that taught students the value of knowledge, but an institution that provides the image of salvation to the ones who are seeking for a sense of hope for a better future.

HW 48 - Treatment for Savior/Teacher Movie

1. ___1____was cleaning his room in the morning and he find a letter in one of the boxes with all his old high school stuffs in it, full of dust. While he is cleaning and putting some of the stuff in the trash, he sees the yearbook and he opens it up and starts to think back of his memories at high school. Flip through the pages with photos and friends that he has not seem for more than 4 years. He just graduated from college.

2. He spot one of the photos of his class picture with old friends and classmates, moreover, teachers. Flashback memories of how Mr.________ has made a big difference in his life. He thinks back to how he uses to act in class as one of the popular student at his high school. How everybody cheers for him when he make a shot in the basketball games. All the smiles from friends and how much they have went through together.

3. Mr.__________cleaning his classroom to prepare for the next year, and ready for summer vacations to come. While he is cleaning, a whole big stack of paper fell from the bookcase, and he sighs while picking them up one by one. When he picks up the class picture of 2010, he sits down and starts to think back to how he uses to teach these kids. Flashbacks of different students that he remembers the most, and how they use to act to speak to him. He take a deep breath in the classroom all alone, staring around the classroom with chairs, boards, and how lively his classroom use to be and now after class, the silence bothers him. Feels a little sorrow that he only get to meet these kids for a year or two, and once they get along with each other, they have to go and move on to their life.

4. Going back to ____1_____, still flipping through his year book. He is on the page where people write him messages and wish him good luck in his future. He thinks about now after 4 years has pass, what changes does he has. Looking at the mirror, he thought to himself, not much difference. But externally, he is more mature than before externally. Going back to his year book, and sees the message that Mr._________has wrote on his yearbook.

5. Flashback of how he is only passionate to be a basketball player and nothing else interests him. Fails almost all the classes, but has won lots of trophies for school. Miss his team, how they use to come up with their secret tactics to win over the other teams. But because of this teacher, not only has helped him to be able to graduate from high school. Now he even has graduated from college.

6. Still flashbacks. Mr.________thinks back to his first day of school while holding the class picture, which is his first group of students in his teacher career. Think back to himself, as a new teacher who just come to school and thinking he will be able to inspire these kids and be passionate about learning, knowing the values of knowledge and the importance of life and meaning. But turn out that, he is teaching the dumbest class of the whole grade. Walks into the class, girls chatting among each other, some are texting, listening to their ipods, some are drawing on the board, some are sitting on the table crowded around laughing and joking around while class suppose to start. Walks in, the students go back to their seat, and waiting for instructions. He wrote his name on the board Mr.______, and he gives them a diagnostic on their first day to see how much they know. Realize only a few passes with a 65. Ruins his original plan and he has to plan a whole new lesson to teach them.

7. Mr._______starts with the basics, and he realize that the class is not motivated to learn. They don’t take notes, and they don’t ask questions. They are just there, in the class, not doing much. Some even sleep in the back of the classroom, and some are just listening to their ipods, or texting. He thought to himself, what’s going on. The students are not disturbing or being ruined or disrespect to the teacher. They are just not learning. When the class is over, he sit in his class and plans to understand these students by walking through the hallways, or walk around the school to see what these kids usually do. He did not only realize all these kids have talents, they are so passionate to do things they like. ____1_____, the popular kid in the class that always got crowded by bunch of students; he is so good on basketball. Some of the other kids are so talented that they are in art clubs all the time drawing. Some are playing music in the classrooms when there’s no class. Some even rap very well also. Mr._______is shock!

8. The next day in class, he stops his lesson and finally got the class’s attention. Not only he presented his ideas to the class, he move all the tables to the side, and makes the class sit in a circle. He starts a discussion of a relevant topic, and the class starts to talk about their feelings more, express how they feel about life more. The class discussion goes on everyday for more than a week. Not only this is the first time Mr.______realizes how much he has misunderstood these kids; his heart is broken that these kids have been given up by so many teachers all these years.

9. Mr.________decides to abandon all the textbooks, and be patient with the class. He did not just put notes and the board and keep on the lesson. He teaches the class while making jokes sometimes in the middle of the lesson. The student slowly allows the teacher to enter their world. The year goes on, and the class makes a big progress on their midterms, and has a friendly relationship with this teacher. However, the other smart class starts to challenge this “dumb class”. They make fun of these kids learning simple things, and they laugh at these students that they will never graduate from high school.

10. ____1_____, as the popular kid in the class, almost like a leader. Calm the class down, and he tells the class not to fight with these kids. He learns that the only way to prove to these kids, are by working harder than these kids. He decides to talk to the teacher, and asks if they can extend their class time longer. Can they have an extra class after school, or even have a class in the library or at someone’s house to have more time to study. The teacher did not reject them. Mr._______ tells the principle, and the principle finally says yes, and also offers them the classrooms on Saturday also. (revealing learning should be self-motivated, and learning new things should never just be on schedule from mon-fri., thinking minds should always be developed)

11. The relationship of the teacher and the students are getting closer and closer, is like a family. One day, the teacher proposes an idea of asking these students to write a letter to themselves, and he will send them back these letters when they are in college. By doing that, the students will see the difference of themselves comparing the 18 year old to the 20, or 21. As the school year goes on, the class has pass all their finals and the class average compare to the other class is not so far behind.

12. Going back to present, the _____1_____finishing up his cleaning and sees a letter in his mailbox. Forgets about the letter until he opens it and realize that was his 18 year old letter to himself. Sits down with a cup of coffee, and starts reading. Thought back to all these memories (fast flashback of previous class scenes), and realize how much impact this teacher has in his life.


Extended version will be kids going back to the school on their alumni day, meets everybody with the letter. Visit the teacher while he is still teaching another new tough class. Students share their experiences in life and express the values of learning, and how these “new generation of bad kids” should make the best out of their high school life. Because it is worth it!

HW 47 - Class Film Preparation 1

*have something symbolic in the film, maybe the teacher plants something in the classroom and give some meaning to it, the student will think it is impossible (is not going to bloom), but somehow the teacher did it, and got the students attention as a theme, even you are a bad student or you are not a genius, if you work hard for it, you can achieve it

*a very mean teacher who gives massive of homework, discipline the students with little tiny things such as talking in class, lateness, everybody pays full respect to him/her, then the students starts to get overwhelming with the teacher’s attitude of cold, and careless for students, and the students changed the teacher by keep defending other students when the teacher only discipline one or two students, last teacher finally feel that as being a teacher is not just mentor, but the class is a family as a whole – warm, care for each other since people spend most of their time at school

**a very competent teacher, who got a lot of great feebacks from parents and students, and he/she is just like a noraml regular teacher that we see around school, but one day, a student kill him/herself because of pressure, and the teacher at first thought everything is fine, and the student can pick up the class pace, but soon he/she realize the students often time have lots of intangible pressures that they do not know or have learn how to handle, the teacher thought the students will be okay and know how to code with these pressure, but that is not the case, so the teacher has to change the way he/she teach, and realize school is not all about knowledge, is more to that...maybe have to do with the student's family, friendship, relationships, job, success...etc. students express their own stories, and the teacher is surprise and realize he never understand his/her own students that he sees almost everyday...

*costumes – uniforms might be fun, as to show school is part of conformity, and how everybody tries to be different, maybe students do wear the uniform, but still try to modify it to make it look unique, and the teacher make the students realize that they are actually all the same

*a teacher who always takes the students out of the classroom to learn, always go on trips to museum, outdoor to teach, and has his/her own method to teach – immanent

*a passionate teacher who treat all his/her students as “kids”, but unable to get the students trust, and students do all different kinds of things (pranks) to piss the teacher off, but this teacher did not choose to leave but stay, change the students, carnivals over

******a teacher who has all the students’ personal information before entering the school (like a detective), and his job entering the school is to change the students one by one , getting into the student's personal life

*no special or new teachers, all the teachers are kind of the same, and no matter how hard the students try to be part of them, the teachers reject them, students realize there are boundaries between teachers and students, and no matter how nice the teacher are, they should not be close with these “adults”, teachers are just there to teach

*horror movies, teachers lie to students that he/she can actually see the ghosts at this school who are complaining how regret they are, and he/she can actually prove it to the students, and he/she uses the ideas of meaning in life to scare the students that they will only live for once, and they should live the best they can to find their own meaning of life

**parents always have the notion of school is the most important things for their kids, but soon when their kids met a special teacher who has his/her own teaching methods, the parents first oppose to it becasue they are afraid that their kids are not learning something that's important for them, but soon realize, those are the most valuable lesson that their kids should have in life, other than just books and basic knowledge...

***set up a situation that in the future there are not enough space to have school, so people starts regesiter an account online to learn the teacher's lessons. So everyday they would check the website to follow directions and do their homework online so the teacher make sure they actually get it. By doing this, it shows how perhaps students and teachers are just a distance relationship that might not even require to see each other. It also reveals that students can still learn might even perform better without having the notion of "going to school", but wake up, check the website, and just to learn something. In terms of interaction, the teacher might set up meetings in museums, or a park to meet the students so perhaps the students do not feel like they are in jail or feel like society itself is just another jail. but all in all, it gives the audience a different view of how students can learn in a different way other than being force to go to school to follow certain schedule.