Final Post *Q.Q*

     Welcome; or should I say goodbye? This will be my final post on this blog, though this time I won't be ranting about the education system. Instead I'll be telling you all what I learned from this and telling you where I got all of this information from on the system.

     Alright, for starters I'll tell you what I learned. From this I have learned that not everyone sees the education system in the same way, though a lot of people seem to dislike it in one way or another. Many of my friends have told me that the reason they dislike school so much is that they lack freedom to learn as they please (self study, group, games, etc.) and I have to agree with them. If a student is not allowed to learn in the way they believe is best for them, they may struggle in the long run.

     As for all of my information, it's all self-gathered. I gained this mostly from my own experience and information received from other students and teachers. With my older sister being a teacher I have my own personal source of information  on school subjects and with an army sized amount of students at school I feel I have all the information I may need for a while.

     Within all the time I spent doing these blog posts I have learned so many different things that are wrong with the education system in America that it seems that we’re teaching ourselves how to live on the real world after a while. I’m just amazed with all the things that we have yet to fix that it might just be we’ll have to switch to an entirely new form of education system in order to have things become right as they once were.

     Hopefully one day we will eventually be back to the top in terms of education and able to be proud of how smart our children can truly be. It embarrasses me a little bit to know that when I go to a foreign country that I will seem as if I’m an imbecile just because I lack the proper knowledge that many others have around the world. Just the thought of it really saddens me, as I worry about the children of the future not being adequate enough to get a job in a foreign country or possibly anywhere due to low standards in educational terms.

     All in all I found that all of these blogs were fairly enjoyable to write and that with time I have also learned that the education system Is not all bad, but that I can somewhat have a higher trust within it, though not to the extent of complete belief. Personally, I have an aspiration to learn all that I can until the day I possibly die, so that I can share the information with others. No, it’s not a dream to become a teacher, but instead to become a walking living, and breathing source of information to share with others if need be.

                                                                                                                      ~Jordan~

Top Offic

     Today this blog post is going to be entirely off topic. What I would like to say for now is more along the lines of our crime rates here in America and ways we could possibly stop it. First off we have a lot of crime and it definitely needs to be stopped. Currently, crime is often higher in areas where minorities have a higher population, though I think this is because these areas are often lower income areas such as ghettos or boonies. We could possibly stop this by supplying the area with more money or finding jobs for the less fortunate there.

     As we all know, today in this age we have crime in the streets every day of our lives. Police sirens blaring, people running, shooting guns, killing people, stealing, meth labs, etc. We need to settle this because I think most people have had enough of it. Throughout my life I've met more than 20 people who have suffered somehow from the world of crime or were directly involved with it. I believe that if we were to make some changes we could keep things like this from happening and end up with a happier country.

     I notice that crime is often high in minority neighborhoods. This is mostly because those minorities are often treated differently and often paid less than the majority people, although businesses say otherwise. In lower income areas the crime rates should probably be expected to be higher as people have a hard time getting by every day and often times might become tempted to steal things from other people. In these low income areas housing is often unkempt and most buildings seem to be deteriorated, which may cause the residents of the building to become less than pleased with the area around them.

     In these areas if we were to increase the rate at which income would come into these places it may improve the area overall. Say that government was to step in for once and help replace missing structures within housing and reinforce the walls so that the people actually have a solid foundation to live in. Secondly if we were to help the people in these areas find jobs that paid a decent enough amount of money so that they could get their lives in order we could have less crime.

     There is also much crime in major places such as bustling cites, as the people there find that they may have less responsibility there and attempt to steal things because they have less of a chance to get caught in the process of doing so. If officers were to be stationed in areas where there are higher crime rates it could efficiently lower the amount of crime within the area.

     Now we're on to drugs. Drugs are everywhere these days and they considerably destroy the people that use them. I believe that if a police officer were to even get a small hint both on and off duty of an area that people use drugs at was located they should be able to get a warrant for the home or property. This would substantially lower the amount of drug abuse in areas and raise the effectiveness of the economy so we may get out of our 14 TRILLION dollar debt.

     That is all.

Japan vs. America

As you can see from the title of this post, this is going to be about the Japanese education system vs. the American education system. As you know from my current posts I don't find the American education system to be very effective.

     America has a dropout rate currently at 50% and is ranked 12th most educated country in the world. Violence is high in school and students tend to lack a lot of respect for their teachers. Currently here in America we also have a 2 1/2 month break during the summer time. Because of this most students actually forget most of what they learned during the time they were gone and this has a negative effect on the students. One last thing about our system is that students tend to be held back from responsibilities such as running their own clubs or cleaning up the classroom when the day is over.

     Japan, however, is much different in comparison. In Japan the current dropout rate is just a meager 2% and is ranked within the top 5 in the world in education. There is little to no violence in their school system whatsoever and a mutual respect is shared between both the students and the teachers. In Japan multiple breaks are spread throughout the year so that students do not forget what they learned over their summer vacation and they graduate to the next grade during the spring of the next year and continue going to school as if nothing had happened at all. Also, unlike our school system they have a 3-6-3-3 grade level system. 3 years in kindergarten, 6 years in elementary, 3 years in Junior High School, and a final 3 in Senior High School. In Japan the students will stay in their class for all of the days and instead have the teachers switch to different classrooms (With the exception that they have a class which they cannot do in that classroom such as sports). After all classes are over in the day the students will clean up the classroom and then they will be permitted to leave for home.

     I believe that if we implemented the Japanese school system with just the same form as Japan that the rate of education in America would quickly rise to be within the top 10 or possibly top 5 most educated countries in the world. Though it could possibly take years for America to change its educational system and work out kinks, I do believe that it would be for the better in concern for the future children of America.

The Interview

     Yesterday I had interviews a friend of mine named Danielle on the school system and what she thinks of it. She did speak with profanity, so I will have to rephrase what she said to keep from language as I don't find it would be appropriate as this is read by a teacher.

Myself - What do you think of the current school systems?

Danielle - I think they're all a big pile of crap. They care about themselves more than they do about us.
Myself - Hmm.. Interesting. Is there anything you dislike the most?

Danielle - It would probably be the lunches I dislike the most. I can't eat that stuff without feeling sick to my stomach and I'd rather starve than eat that stuff.

Myself - I don't think it's that bad, but I do agree that most of the time it tastes mediocre. Alright; now for the next question. If you could, what would you change?

Danielle - Everything. I would change it so the other students would actually have a chance to apply themselves in school instead of sitting around being bored because of some lousy teacher lecturing students on something they'll most likely never use in their life.

Myself - Hah; Agreed there. I think most of our teachers really don't understand us very well. So now, what do you think of the current teach-to-the-test standards?

Danielle - Huh? What's that?

Myself - It's how the teachers only teach you a chapter at a time so you'll be able to take a test and know all the answers

Danielle - Umm... It seems pretty stupid. Instead of doing that they could just teacher us things worthwhile that we're actually going to use instead of learning something unneeded.

Myself - Eh, I don't mind it. Tests are usually my excuse to sleep in class because I finish them pretty quickly. Alright, last question; Did you know that they clean the desks only once a semester?

Danielle - Ew; that's nasty. It's no wonder so many people are always sick. They should really do something about that.

Myself - I think so too. When one person at school gets sick we all get sick. It's really nasty.

Student Issues

      I'm making this post about yet another opinion on the school system. I believe that the school system is deteriorating and that students are quickly losing all interest in school whatsoever. I find myself in class these days with a blank expression on my face, half-awake in class with drool flooding out of my mouth because I'm to bored to even close my mouth. I don't think it's only me with this problem, as I find that most other students have the same faces and expressions as I do when I'm listening to a teacher ramble on about some nonsense they'll be teaching 2nd graders in 10 years time.

     Both myself and my fellow students seem to have the same opinions about the school systems; that they do not teach us well enough and give us meaningless material which will not benefit us in life. I've talked with plenty of students over the 3 years I've been in high school and all of them seem to have the same idea that school is pretty much like a jail, but with worse food. If anybody can change their opinions on this matter I think it would have to be another student or them by themselves.

     School has quickly become dull and with less excitement students feel they have no motive to learn, causing them to drag behind and become mellow and underachievers. I really think that the school system should really stand up and take a part in the system which they decided to create for our learning experience. Then again, what would happen if no students were motivated enough to do anything and the school system rotted altogether? We would have a new school system them and definitely some changes....

What do you feel?

     I want all of your opinions on the subject. Good bad, neutral, hatred, or love; it doesn't really matter. My personal opinion on this subject is that the school systems are, right now, outrageously  out of shape compared to what they should be. Students are failing left and right, I know plenty of dropouts, and grades can slip very easily due to teachers who don't seem to grade things students do good on.

     If schools were in shape right now students would be on par with those of both  Japan and India and we could easily be #1-3 in the field of education, but as of right now we're #11. Our country is quickly becoming lethargic and lazy as well as the average student becoming less intellectual compared to the average foreign student in most well-developed countries. I say it's time we step up to bat and make a large change to our school systems now.

     Just as annoying to me there is failure and dropouts everywhere these days. Two of my best friends both dropped out in 9th grade and another in 10th grade, so I've come to be incredibly annoyed with the schools as I know that both of my friends were incredibly intelligent, though the school system seems to think otherwise as they both were branded as bad students for their low performance.

     Next we have teachers who don't grade properly. I currently do have a teacher (Names shall not be spoken), who does not grade the work that students do painstakingly and manage to usually get all the answers right. (If you're wondering, the students grade each other's work, though none of us actually get a grade for it....) This annoys me heavily because it implies that both I'm able to do the work in this class, but I fail the class due to some minor assignments that are made incredibly hard to finish. It seems to me like they're purposely trying to make us fail...

Well, that's all I have to say for now, so I hope you felt what I feel through this rant. It feels good the vent everywhere once in a while ^.^

How to change the system

     Alright, so we need to find a way to change the educational system in order to better the future lives of America. As some rough ideas we should first focus on how the information is relayed to the students themselves and how to improve their studies. Secondly we should focus on school hours and lastly work out the kinks that could keep a student from learning correctly.

     If first we make it so that information given to students and how to improve their studies is implemented I believe that students will effectively rise within the system. Doing this would require revising all current student work material and putting it into an easy to understand format that most people would not have a hard time understanding the material. Doing so would require a long time, I realize that, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Now it comes down to note taking. Students today usually seem to have hard to read handwriting and some even have chicken scratch, though some like myself write in cursive and that can also be hard to read as well, but if schools were to apply a system in which we type down our notes and have away to access them during class, if we needed them, it would effectively deal with the time it takes to both take down notes and decode whatever handwriting that student has.

     Next is school hours. Currently a student's school hours are roughly 7-9 hours depending on the school which they go to. Honestly I think this is to long as it takes up much of a student's day and time in which they could be doing homework, or just as well hanging out with friends. Students get stressed out too you know... To fix this problem a 6 hour schedule could be implemented with 4 classes a day consisting of 1HR15Min. class a day with a 30 minute breakfast period before first period and a 30 minute lunch period or an hour lunch period altogether.

     Last, but not least we have the issue of solving the problem of how to fix problems students have with learning. A student can either be hands-on or one who learns from reading a book, but this hinders the hands-on students as most schools lack the required material to teach a hands-on student how the material functions. This could be fixed by adding more physical classes and hopefully a larger school budget to all schools in the country to run these classes. One other problem is behavior, as it can be affected by other students, teachers, or personal problems. Being a student myself I've had my fair share of run-ins with both problematic students and senile teachers and honestly, it's a rather perplexing problem to fix because rowdy students are simply misunderstood and have grown that way through life and senile teachers are just becoming old. For the students problems, getting either a stricter or kinder teacher could solve the problems in which the students are facing. For the senile teachers.... they could be disposed of if enough reports of the teacher had been turned in by the students. A good 150 reports within 3 years maybe?