human/nature

Human/Naturemailto:kpan@pdx.edu
10-08-09
A brief paper on UNST readings on critical thinking and education. ; “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths” challenges us to think critically. Telling us to be prepared for the vast differences in high school and college. Columbo challenges us to put ourselves in an El Salvadoran person’s place as he reads the title of a the book “Rereading America” and reminds us that The United States is not the only country in North America and it is the arrogance of we in the United States who take it for granted that it is the only country. Something of which I can say with pride that I am not guilty. The fact that people do not know what North America includes is evidence of the dubious quality of our education system. Columbo’s example of cultural myths was very profound in “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethk. Which to today’s generation sounds like a perverted, abusive situation, turnsout to me to be quite a sweet memory a boy has of his father. It took some critical thinking onmy part to get over the afore mentioned.Second; “Against School” by Gatto showed us one man’s opinion of the inadequacies of the public schools. Having worked in the public schools in Houston, TX, I agree wholeheartedly. The main focus for the school year was to pass the state test. Further the state test was a testfor the teachers as well. If a teacher had failing students they were seen as incapable of teaching his/her students and were not considered for promotions etc. It was holey the fault of the teacher. It was the main focus of the principal to bully teachers to pass their kids. However his opinion seemed to say that formal and or public education is not needed. He did make the point to say that the teachers and students are to blame. He did not say anything about the parents being to blame which they are more than the lion’s share of the problem. No discipline. Parents do not want to take responsibility for their childrens’ actions. Gato asked the question, “Do we really need school?” and I believe we do. I think it teaches children regimented schedules, usually good conflict resolution skills, how to get along with others, other than their own siblings and most importantly an education.Third; “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is Freire’s point of view how we are a factory of teaching and learning. The teachers are forced to teach facts and students are forced to learn by memorization. An assembly line of mindless repetition. What Freire calls “Banking concept”. They deposit i.e. teach, we learn i.e. earn dividends (dividends to be earned later in life with a successful career). I personally find nothing wrong with teaching people to memorize facts. That is how it done. When I was in grade school we were taught to memorize times tables up through 12. Yes, there is a logic behind 12X12 but if you let a child count on his fingers/toes to figure out his multiplication table using his appendages 5X4 is as far as he will get as I know of no one who has 144 appendages. The student will have to start pulling out hair!I have met too many people from other countries who know more about our country than we do about theirs or even ours. When someone says she is from New Jersey, there is nothing wrong with knowing; “The Garden State, must grow lots of fruits and vegetables one of the wealthiest states in the country, coastal state, must have lots of tourism, closely situated to New York City and Philadelphia, lots of suburbia………………….”The object of these articles is to teach us to think critically and to think critically about education and whether it is important or not. I believe that education is the most important thing you can do for a person of any age, creed, color, etc. We cannot live whole lives without it.These articles have given me an opportunity to reflect on my own life as a student. I hated school most of my life. I bucked the systems which the authors spoke of. I ended up taking one boring, dead-end job after another because they were easy to get. Every time I get tired with one job I go to another. Every job change made me think about “what do I want to do when I grow up?” I attempted college when I was right out of high school but dropped out after 2 semesters. Then later when I became interested in the world around me I decided to go backto college, first for political science, which I finally realized that I’d never get a job as politician in such a place as Houston, TX. Second, for teaching, until I worked in a public school and realized how much I disliked children It is my deepest desire that every person in the world receives a good and thorough education so they don’t end up like me; going to college at my age with a resume as long as my arm. It is sad to find out about how low our country ranks among the other world countries ineducation, 15th in math and science and 11th in reading. This was on the “Steven Colbert”, acomedy news program which does actual news stories with a comedic twist. Being the 3Rdmost populated country in the world, with the most wealth and one of the highest GNP makes it embarrassing to be so low on the totem pole. These are just a few silly facts I’ve memorized!


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