Not sure why, but half of my final draft posted highlighted white

I've tried, but i cant find anyway to fix it! Sorry for the inconvienience

Paper #3- Final Draft

Looking at our K-12 education system in the modern day, one might say there are many changes that could be made to benefit our students in public education. Since students generally go to college, or start a career in the real world after high school, ethics classes should be infused in the grade school curriculum, and then taught as stand alone class in high school. A class in ethics would teach the students how to treat each other respectfully as human beings, how to communicate with each other, and what proper ethical decisions to make during a real life situation. Requiring ethics classes in school would make our schools much safer, and make students realize that they need to respect each other. It seems like these days, our schools are continuously stuffing information into the student’s heads. Generally high school students take classes in math, science, language, and history, but nowhere in the school curriculum is there a class where the students can communicate and express their feelings through talking with each other about ethical concerns.

     Making our schools safer, more comfortable environments is the first step towards creating a more educated, and driven youth for our future workforce. If teachers incorporated proper ethical challenges in to everyday lessons like arithmetic and social studies, having ethical standards would come naturally to the students as they move on in school. “Ethics, as an educational life skills component, is essential in teaching tolerance to young children. The ability to use logical reasoning skills in common situations encountered by young children will promote open-mindedness in children and prepare them to be better decision makers in the future.” (Allen-Kyle, 2011)

     Teaching ethics to young children doesn’t have to be as obvious as presenting them with real life situations, and then helping them make logical decisions. In order to teach ethics in grade school, you need to start at the very beginning by pulling out ethical decision- making examples in everyday lessons. If students grow up learning what is morally right or wrong in a situation from the very beginning, it will help those students resist peer pressure and effectively make their own decisions in the future when they move on to high school and college. Teachers could cover everything from ethics on the playground, to basic ethical decisions made by our countries leaders in history. By providing them with basic examples all throughout their education, students would be more open-minded, and more accepting of change.

     Ethics is something that should be introduced at the youngest age possible. As the students mature and move further along in school, the focus on ethics in the classroom should grow more intense in preparation for moving on to high school. Once students get to high school ethics would still be enforced through every subject, but high school students should be required to take a stand-alone ethics class for all four years. In this class, students would be presented with many different real life situations, and would be forced to collaborate as group in order to look at the situation from all different perspectives. This would make high school students work as team, much like you do when you have a job in the real world. An ethics class in high school would be the best kind of education to prepare students for going off to college, and having a successful career later in life.

 As John Gatto said in “Against School”: “School has done a pretty good job of turning our children into addicts, but it has done a spectacular job of turning our children into children again…if children could be cloistered with other children, stripped of responsibility and independence, encouraged to develop only the trivializing emotions of greed, envy, jealousy, and fear, they would grow older but never grow up” (Gatto, 2003)

     Social Media is probably the biggest, most dangerous thing that students are exposed to in the modern day. From a research study in 2012, Lauby states: “active social networkers show a high tolerance for activities that could be considered unethical.” (Lauby, 2012) As students are getting into social networking at younger ages, they need to become aware of what is right, and what is wrong. Students are often over-exposed with wrongdoing on the Internet and they need to realize that what they see isn’t always what is ethical. But this issue can be taken from a different standpoint, What if schools actually used social media as a teaching tool? Sites like Facebook and Twitter are where many ideas start to surface these days. There are so many people dedicated to staying connected, and this creates a place where differing opinions can be expressed, and critical thinking questions can be raised. Students are able to establish a community online, and express their opinions in a way that makes sense to them. This isn’t saying that physically getting together as a group is less affective, but social networking provides a comfortable environment where students are able to put their thoughts out there and get an opinionated response from others. Many different examples of ethics can be pulled from social networking, and this would prove a good teaching tool for ethics teachers.

     The idea that parents and teachers educate the younger generation about ethics is no longer relevant in the twenty first century like it was in the past. “In the early days of our country, teaching character education was uncomplicated by separation of church and state issues” (Clouse, 2011) Schools have cut programs in humanities to focus more on the “important” subjects, and most teachers don’t feel comfortable teaching the students about ethics anyways. If it isn’t improving test scores, why would schools begin to invest money into this sort of thing? Well, its more simple then you think. Even though schools may not see results right away, including ethics in the schools curriculum will be very beneficial to the schools graduation rates, and success of the students. Since students would be given the chance to collaborate, think, and make decisions as a group it would establish learn term relationships, and trust within classmates.  These values are very important when these students go to interview for jobs. They will know how to communicate, and they will know how to present themselves in certain situations.

     “Philosophers believe that ethics should not be treated as something remote, to be studied only by scholars locked away in universities. We believe that teachers need to know how to teach ethics and instruct their student’s on ethics so that a foundation of ethical behavior is established in our future citizens” (Pass, 63) Pass says it well, it’s important to shape our younger generations for the working world, so they will make the right choices when they are faced with difficult decisions. By providing basic ethics lessons through grade school, and then opting for more advanced ethics classes in high school it will shape our future citizens and prepare them for their future careers in modern society.

References:

Allen-Kyle, Portia. "Is Preschool Too Young? (PART 4) - Teaching Ethics to Young Children." Examiner.com. N.p., 1 Aug. 2011. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.

Gatto, John T. "Against School." Against School - John Taylor Gatto. Wes Jones, Sept.- Oct. 2003. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.

Prestwich, Dorthy. Character Education in Americas Schools 14.1 (2004): 1-12. Institute  of Education Sciences. Web. Nov.-Dec. 2013.

King, Edith Myrtle. Fifty Hints and Helps in Character Education,. Painesville, O.: Educational Supply, 1931. Print.

Pass, Susan. "Exploring Teaching Ethics in Social Studies." Exploring Teaching Ethics in Social Studies 21.2 (2006): 62-78. Print.

My Rankings (i forgot about hooks)

1- Deb Aronson

2-Barry Boyce

3-Jerry Large

4-Keith Gilyard

Note's while reading Boyce, Large, Gilyard, and Aronson

Jerry Large-

Focusing on two different schools- KIPP academy, a middle school in the south Bronx, (most students are black, Hispanic, mostly from poor families)

At KIPP academy, the students would be very motivated in middle school, and then they would fall behind when it came to high school

At Riverdale, the kids worked hard, but they weren’t as academically stressed. As a result, the students at Riverdale did much better when it came to high school and college.

Grit is one of the characteristics of successful people. Here is a list of others- self-control, zest, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity

Study’s show that children who were stressed at a younger age do worse in life overall

Barry Boyce-

-He is saying schools do not give students gifts like being able to calm yourself and regulate your emotions

-Kindness, Caring, Empathy, being able to decenter your own point of view and listen deeply to others”

-He thinks the key to success is having a welcoming education. A comfortable environment.

-He believes yoga is a good way to cope with your emotions and find peace within your body

Keith Gilyard-

-He believes that humanities MUST be included in the school’s schedule. The students have no time to calm themselves down and relieve themselves of the stressful day.

-Getting a chance to communicate with others is important

-The life chances of students in the United States are more dependent on the education and income of their parents more than in any other developed country.

Humanities classes are vital to the process of shaping the critical and productive citizens that we need

Deb Aronson-

-The Mexican American Studies program in the Tucson Unified School District has been a real success story

-97% of students participating in the program graduated from high school, 70% entered college, compared to 20% nationally

-The program got shut down because the government said it was too directed towards that school specifically. Probably got shut down because they thought it was too racy

-The legislature passed a billed in 2010 making it illegal for courses of programs “to promote the overthrow of the government, to promote resentment toward a race or class of people, to be designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group, or to advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals”

-The governor can withhold 10% of the school districts state aid per month if found violating the law

-2010 was also the year that Arizona sought to tighten the border and drive out unauthorized immigrants

-Acosta thinks that they were targeted because they were blacks and Latinos

-The state wasn’t aware, and still isn’t aware of what the students were being taught. They got scared when black and Latino youth had power. That was scary to them.

-“We have people so poisoned against us that they wont even sit down and talk about what we particularly did that may have offended them” –Acosta

-The students were reading very current material, and some of the authors happened to be black and Latino.

“It boils down to legislative control over classroom content and curriculum and teacher voice” he says “The state took over our space, and then can happen to anyone”

Thought's on Boyce, Large, Gilyard, and Aronson

-Jerry Large has some very interesting points in his article. He found that students that were very academically stressed in middle school did not do as well when they got to high school. He believes that middle school is prime time for building character, but the character needs to be developed at school, not outside of school.  At KIPP academy the students were under so much stress because of the possibility of failing that they really didn’t focus on building the traits and building character. At Riverdale high school the students worked hard, but they were more successful later on because of their comfort in middle school.  He thinks teaching at home is the most important, that is where the learning, and growing start.

-Keith Gilyard writes about how humanities courses greatly affect how the student does in school, and later in life. Humanities classes are extremely important when building character and personality. If students don’t know how to deal with real life situations, how will they survive when they grow up and start working a job and living on their own? Being able to communicate with your classmates and let your creative side free is important

-Barry Boyce’s article talks about how humanities classes should be required at schools. It gives students a chance to take a break from their day, and focus on communicating with their peers. Barry Boyce thinks every student needs to be able to cope with their emotions, and find peace within themselves.  “Mindfulness is not just a series of practical techniques. It helps us have the ethical character we need to live in the world. It carries with it a world view of not harming others”. He thinks working with the student’s parents to also improve the student’s life at home is also important to the student’s success.

-Deb Aronson’s article was the most interesting to me. She talks about how the program she started, The Mexican American Studies Program was banned by the government a couple of years ago. The program focused specifically on educating blacks and Latinos effectively. She used many articles and books by Chicano authors, and as a result the students were extremely successful. 97% of the students participating in the program graduated high school, and 70% went on to college.  Even though the program was a major success it got shut down because it was said to be plotting against the government. Just as the black and Latino youth start to get more educated, the government gets scared and shuts the program down. The point of the article is that the government controls everything that schools teach. If the lessons are geared towards certain individuals, it is simply unacceptable.

Comparing Rose and Black

I think Lewis Black and Mike Rose both agree that education in America has really gone downhill in the past few years. Lewis Black says that a surprising number of the teachers in public schools today are not as qualified as they should be. He thinks it ridiculous for schools to be as nice as they are today. Some public schools can cost up to 500,000,000, and it just doesn’t make any sense for our economy.  Lewis Black supports charter schools, but he doesn’t think that there are enough of them for the amount of public schools that aren’t doing well. Mike Rose doesn’t exactly believe in charter schools like Black does. Rose says that charter schools are only a temporary fix to our failing public schools.“Stop looking for the structural or technological magic bullet – whether it’s charter schools or value-added analysis – that will improve education. Just when you think the lesson is learned – that the failure of last year’s miracle cure is acknowledged and lamented – our attention is absorbed by a new quick fix.” –Mike Rose. He also thinks we might need to think beyond test scores and international rankings in order to fix our educational system.

What do you think high school is for? What would you change about it?

Well I guess it really all depends on what you are going to use your high school diploma for. If you are going to continue on to college, I guess high school would be preparing you to take harder, college level classes. If you are going in to the job market, it is teaching you the basic skills you need to survive. Whether you are counting out money at a cash register, or taking a college calculus test, you are going to need to learn how to do math. I think high school is also a time when you establish long-term friendships, and really start to become your own person. I went to O’Dea high school in Seattle, and I think our teachers put us under a lot of stress to go to college. I don’t think there was a single person in my class that didn’t go on to college right after they graduated. Honestly, I think students need a break in between high school and college just to decide what they really want to do with their lives. I did go to a private school so things might be a little different, but I would want to change how much the school pushes you to move on. Some people really aren’t meant to go on to college, and I think students really need a chance to think about it before they commit themselves.