Homework 41- Initial Internet Research on Schooling

Kennedy, Robert. "Private vs Public Schools". The New York Times Company. February 23, 2010 http://privateschool.about.com/cs/employment/a/teachingcond.htm

This article explains the differences between public and private schools. It contains pros and cons on both sides, and also explains how private school education and teaching defer. However, this article is very broad, and does not focus on one city. It focuses on the generalization of private and public schools. What was very interesting about this article was the fact that it stated that there is no clear winner in the game of public versus private schools; it is more based on the personal preference of teaching style a student prefers.

This short article deserves reading for its simple and easy to read context. It has subtitles and text underneath the subtitles to detail what each paragraph is about, and is written in simple English, a language anyone can understand. With resources listed on the bottom of the article, readers can understand where the author pulled his information together from.

Kelly, Melissa. "Teaching at Private Versus Public Schools". The New York Times Company. February 23, 2010
This article explains the differences between being a teacher at a public versus a private school. It also contains pros and cons on both sides, and explains how even though private school teachers get to choose their own curriculum to teach, they still have guidelines to follow. It also explains how private school teachers receive less money than public school teachers in salary earnings. However, this article also is very broad, and does not focus on one city. It focuses on the generalization of the pros and cons of teaching at private and public schools. However, one can assume that the pros and cons are mostly the same for each city across the United States, except for a few differences.

This short article also deserves reading for its simple and easy to read context. It, like the first article, also has subtitles and text underneath the subtitles to detail what each paragraph is about, and is written in simple English, a language anyone can understand. With resources listed on the bottom of the article, readers can understand where the author pulled his information together from. There are also links in this article that send the reader to other articles, with information that may be relevant to the topic.

Vitello, Paul. "14 Catholic Schools May Shut Down". The New York Times. Feburary 23, 2010 .
This article explored why fourteen Catholic Schools in New York City might close down. Two of the reasons were the enrollment figures were declining, causing a decrease in budgets. With a decrease in budgets, the schools are not able to maintain their teacher’s salaries and state of the school. One very interesting fact stated in this article was Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, a school in Jackson Heights, Queens, currently only has 180 students enrolled, when decades ago it had 2,500 students. The article than went on to list other schools that were scheduled to shut down or merge with other schools at the end of the current school year.

This article was also simple and easy to read, and had the writing style of a typical New York Times article. The article listed statistics and included a photo, making the reader engaged when reading this article. This article also included a text from a Bishop, giving the reader a sense of understanding how a school official is reacting to this news.

Hernandez, Javier C. "Secular Education, Catholic Values ." New York Times (2009): n. pag. Web. 1 Mar 2010. .
This article explored how Washingtown has transformed catholic schools into charter schools, and how Mayor Bloomberg has unveiled a plan to transform four Catholic Schools in New York City into charter schools. The article also explains how this change has happened in Washington, and how it has affected the students whom attend the now reformed charter schools. Since the change has already happened in the state of Washington, this article explores how schools were affected, and how the community has reacted to this change.

This article was also simple and easy to read, and even though it focused on schools in Washington, it tied together the plan Mayor Bloomberg also has in turning catholic schools into charter schools. It gave several examples, but focused directly on one school and explained the students and teachers reacted. This article also had the writing style of a typical New York Times article, like the article above. It listed statistics and included a photo, making the reader engaged when reading this article. This article also included a quote from a senior scholar at Boston University, and quotes from parents of children who attend the schools.

Chen, Grace. "God, Allah, Christmas, and Ramadan: Should Any Religion Be Expressed in Public Schools?". Public School Review. March 01, 2010 .
This article explored the pros and cons of having religion be expressed in public schools, and whether religion should be able to be taught in public schools. Along with listing the author’s thoughts, the article also has quotes from newspaper articles and journalists. The article does not stand a conclusion as to whether religion should be taught in public schools; rather it provides enough information for the reader to decide the answer to that question.
This article was extremely simple and easy to read because of its subtitles and topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph. Written as if it was a speech for a debate, this article plays devil’s advocate, and explores both the pros and cons of religion in public schools.

GreatSchools Staff. "Private versus Public". Great Schools. March 01, 2010 .
This article also explored the idea of public versus private schools, and which is better in a parental perspective. This article explains the differences between tuition costs, the admissions process, and benefits of, teachers, curriculum, and class size between public and private schools. This article is written catered to parents, and offers advice based on what is best for their child.

This article was more towards the bias side, stating facts mixed with opinions. The subtitles make the article easy to read and follow, and since it is a rather long article, the subtitles make the article easy to skim if needed.


Additional Works Consulted
Mascia, Jennifer. "Teachers Strike at 10 Catholic High Schools." The New York Times [New York City, NY]. The New York Times Company, 15 Apr. 2008. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. .

Postman, Andrew. "What's the bestw ay to go-private school or public? A parent on the brink of the big decision does his homework and parses the alternatives." New York Family Guide [New York City, NY]. New York Family Guide, 2004. Web. 23 Feb. 2010. .

"Frequently Asked Questions About Our Issues". Americans United for Separation of Church and State. March 01, 2010 .

Homework 40- School Interviews

Part A
Interview with my sister, Kayla:
Do you think by choosing or constructing your own curriculum, students would have a larger desire to learn and attend school on one's own free will?

Yes , because it would be more fun and you don’t have to associate yourself with subjects that you do not care for. I would like to study what I enjoy. Such as history, English, and science to name a few. But I could do without math, because I am not a big fan of it.

At what age do you have the right to choose your own curriculum?
College is the correct age. While you’re still developing you don’t know what you want to do, or what you want to pursue. Once it comes time to college must make a decision because adult, and you know what you enjoy and like learning about, and have a sense of what you want to do with the rest of your life.


What are some of the major ways school has contributed to our lives?
It helps you get a job and it helps you learn how to socialize with others because you are around others a lot.

How has influence from society and others helped influence your decision to attend college?
I want to attend college because people don’t look down on you, look at you as an equal on an intelligence level with a college degree. If you don’t people look at you as if you are not as smart as they are.

Interview with my friend Billy
Do you think by choosing or constructing your own curriculum, students would have a larger desire to learn and attend school on one's own free will?
Yes I think that students would deffinitly have a larger desire to learn=)

What are some of the major ways school has contributed to our lives?
Of course has basically taught us all the skills we need to be successful in life...without a good education your doomed.

How has influence from society and others helped influence your decision to attend college?
Encouragement from friends and family helps people gain confidence in themselves to attend college.

Interview with Adam Wardas:
Do you think by choosing or constructing your own curriculum, students would have a larger desire to learn and attend school on one's own free will?
Yes, because you'd be interested in the subject, so you'd want to learn more about it

What are some of the major ways school has contributed to our lives?
School has helped me see the differences in people... it gave me problems that I had to solve.

How has influence from society and others helped influence your decision to attend college?
Society has made college look fun, however i still see it as an institution of learning.

Interview with my friend Yang:
If no one influenced or pressured you to go to college ever in your life would you still consider going, why or why not?
Yes because i want to be able to have a career and life of my own when I’m older. i don’t want to have to depend on others and i feel a college education is essential to having a better future career wise.

Do you believe you would receive a better education at a private school versus a public school, and to what extent would the education be better(if it is)?
i don’t think it is a matter of private or public school, I think it’s a matter of each individual school. there are some public schools that have given kids a better education including better range of class choices, better staff teaching them, more available extra tutoring, etc than others and then there are some private schools that don’t teach well or much at all but have kids with better grades because the teachers are easy graders but the kids don’t even learn anything. It’s all about each individual school but i feel a majority of my friends in public schools have gotten better educations.

How do you believe the material we learn in school affects our society and workforce?
hard to answer....not sure how to answer this. i'd say yes and no, depending on class. example: economics teaches us a lot for investments and such...i don’t know this question confuses me.

Interview with myself:

If no one influenced or pressured you to go to college ever in your life would you still consider going, why or why not?
I would still consider going to college because I feel that without a college degree, you can not succeed anywhere in life. Even though I had college drilled into my head since I was a freshman, I still believe that college is a huge milestone in our lives. Without a college degree I feel as if people would judge you, and it would be harder to get a steady job.

How do you believe the material we learn in school affects our society and workforce?
I believe that what we learn in school helps prepare us for our future. Even though algebra, trigonometry, and physics might not seem as if they play a big role, I believe that it is better to know these things. But having a variety of knowledge in each core subject, one can be extremely diverse.

Do you believe you would receive a better education at a private high school versus a public high school, and to what extent would the education be better(if it is?
I don’t believe that a private high school education differs from a public high school education. The core subjects are still taught. In some particular private schools, religion is taught as a class. Religion is not allowed to be taught at public schools, because of the diverse student community. Except for the price tag on a private school, I highly doubt private schools are any better than public schools. In the case of high school education anyway.

Part B
After conducting my interviews, I realized that even though people complain about going to school all the time, they still believe it is a big part of our lives. If given the choice to not attend college, people would still attend because they believe that a college degree helps them succeed in life. Initially, I thought that people would feel that if they did not have to attend college they would not. From what I hear from my friends and others, school is such a hassle for them. All the school and homework, all the stress of receiving grades, the waking up early in the morning. But here I was, giving them a chance to throw all that away. I told them they would not have to listen to others pressure them into attending college, but here they are telling me they would still attend. I have to admit I was rather shocked, but I was also proud.

Homework 39 -First School Assignment

Part A
People are always talking about how much they hate school, and how they can’t wait until we don’t have to go anymore. I have to admit I had this same thought at times, but when you actually think about me, school helps us develop and grow. This sounds really stupid now, but honestly, if we were not in school what else would be doing with our time? When you actually think about it, up until we are about sixteen (if you’re lucky), you can not get a job, meaning you will not have a source of income to support yourself. Sure you can live off your parents, but what about once they kick you out? School helps us develop our minds, and teach us things we will need to know in the future. Sure learning quadratic functions or the formula for a circumference of a circle seems stupid now, but maybe you might need it in the future. It’s not a definite possibility, but it is always better to be safe than sorry. What I’m basically trying to state is the fact that without school, we will have nothing to do with our lives. Sure you can sleep in late and not have to worry about homework, but you also won’t have your friends you met at school or learn how to use your brain to think.

I also believe that school is the government’s way of civilizing us. Every since we were young, we were taught manners, how to interact with others, and how to share by our elders. But what better way to actually work on these techniques then by surrounding us in a room with others our age, for five days a week, approximately six hours a day. By surrounding us with others our age since we were young, we were able to understand the proper way to interact, the proper way to be kind to others, etc. The school system helps young minds learn to become civilized when all they care about is themselves, and think everything belongs to them. We also learn how to speak and write, further continuing our ability to interact with others.

One of the most interesting and powerful questions I believe was raised in class was how is school similar to a hierarchy, where the teachers are the ones in command and we but simple followers? Another question I had was how do private schools compare to public schools; do private school students receive a better education? Another question is how does religion play a role in our education system?

Part B
Sitting down, tapping my pencil, my eyes room to the clock on the wall. Ten more minutes until I am free, I think. The teacher writes some more formulas on the board. More note copying, isn’t it wonderful? This my friends, is what I call a classroom setting where we the students sit down quietly and copy the notes our teachers so kindly write on the boards. Civilization at its best is how I think of it. We all sit down at our tables, copying down notes that we will never again review once the school year is over. We act like we are listening to the teacher giving a lecture in the front of the classroom, but really we are thinking about our plans for afterschool or how adorable our crush looked today in the hallway. It’s a strange experience in my opinion, how we all so cooperatively sit down and write down facts that we could rather not care about.

As Andy so kindly puts it, our classrooms we sit in are like boxes that we are always trapped in. We travel from box to box, learning different things in each class. Rather robotic in a sense, we arrive at school, follow our fellow classmates to our next class, and maybe shoot out a smart comment at times. This all goes back to my theory that school is the government’s way to civilize us. Somehow, without us even realizing it, they managed to trap us in a boxed building, letting us out only for lunch, which is less than an hour. They managed to keep us occupied for six hours of our day, making sure we are all safe in a contained building, learning useless information. When you think about it this way, school doesn’t seem so interesting now does it?

Of course there are consequences to trapping us in boxes, without giving us an opportunity to think on our own. We become so use to having things told to us that we lose the ability to think on our own. We forget how to process something, how to analyze and further develop our thoughts. Without any free space to think and learn on our own, we become trapped in our own minds.

Homework 38 - Art Project Cool

The Cool Fool from Sandy G. on Vimeo.

This project actually turned out differently than from what we planned. In the beginning, we wanted to have a scripted video, showing cool vs. uncool. Andy would play two different versions of Mike. One as the cool kid who everyone wants to be friends with, and one as the uncool kid who tries too hard to fit in. After a bunch of takes, we decided to just scrape that idea and put together a video portraying what we thought was cool, along with some of our old ideas. We put in scenes about people playing basketball in gym, us hanging out and playing cards, and us just having fun in general, because we felt that was our definition of cool. Our definition of cool is just having fun and not caring what people think, and our video portrays that. Of course, we did play the roles of our characters, me being the one obsessed with Mike, Carrie being the one who doesn’t know who he is, Sandy the one who doesn’t think he’s cool but will act like she does, and Kate just thinking he’s a loser. We wanted our video to be funny, and portray coolness in school.

In our art, we just wanted people to understand that there are many definitions of art, not just one universal definition. In our video, we showed people that being cool is just having fun with the people around you. When people watch this video, they won’t see an obvious structure or a scripted story, because to us that is fake. We didn’t want to have to script our something in order to show people what we believed was cool, we wanted to show how cool can be found in our daily lives. By scripting out what each person says, and how they try to act cool, we are not truly representing how cool directly affects us. In my opinion, our video helps people understand that they don’t need to act a certain way to be cool. They don’t need to follow unspoken rules, and act like someone they are not just to fit in. “Just be yourself” is an overstated statement, but I believe that we should instead be who we are, and act the way we are. We shouldn’t have to act like someone we are not in order to be deemed “cool”.

Making art does seem cool to me. To me, art is a portrayal of an individual’s creativity. When someone puts themselves out there, whether it is in the form of art or others, I think it is cool because they are showing the world what they want people to know about them. I also believe that making art is a talent, and talents are cool. Although an individual’s art varies because their taste varies, the essence of making something important to show the world is still there. I believe that being cool means portraying to yourself who you want to be, and art is one form of doing just that.