Dear Carrie,


           
My research proposal is how the educational system is stifling creativity
and enabling people from following their dreams. My interest was sparking in
this topic after reading an article in class from Mark Edmundson. From the many
other articles we’ve read in class about education and our class discussions it
was commonly agreed upon that schools have fallen victim to the business side of
the system and now seem to be advertising themselves like Toys R Us commercials
on Nickelodeon. This pressure of money has affected the students thus causing a
lack of creativity and pursuing of dreams. It’s all about making more money or
preparing for money to be made. Edmundson stated that, “It’s also about dollars.
Students worry that taking too many chances with their education will sabotage
their future prospects…There’s a sentiment currently abroad that if you step
aside for a moment, to write, to travel, to fall too hard in love, you might
lose position permanently. We may be on a conveyor belt, but it’s worse down
there on the filth-strewn floor. So don’t sound off, don’t blow your
chance.”
             
This quote hit home to me and influenced me to do more research on the
subject because I too have a dream that I would love to pursue more intensely
but I cannot because I have class and a job to attend. In class, it was stated
that success stories like Bill Gates’don’t exist anymore and that his kind are
the thing of the past. However, Bill Gates had the courage to drop out of
college in order to focus on his (back then) small company called Microsoft. The
reason why people with success stories similar to Bill Gates are a thing of the
past is because people with great ideas don’t have the bravery to act on them
because they feel they must go through college first and they’re afraid to fail
and end up on the “filth-strewn floor.”
             
I’m also interested in researching the rebuttal for this topic. I already
found a great article about a study done on four Asian leaders that renowned for
their creativity while in office. They break down the components that stimulated
their creative minds and what also hindered them. A big aspect that many of the
leaders talked about was the support from their parents or loved ones. Even if
they failed, they would not be frowned upon but uplifted to learn from their
mistakes and move forward. I believe this is what the educational system in
America is lacking the most: support systems that say try and fail instead of
just do it.

I honestly have no clue how to help the educational school
system, it’s so large and we only know about the surface of the “business”. I
personally think that responsibility of school and learning should be put on the
student. It seems like it’s very hard to determine the quality of a teacher
before a school decides to allow them to teach a large amount of student before
realizing…wow this teacher can’t teach out a brown paper bag! When this happens
(and I’m sure everybody has dealt with at least one of these teachers) it is up
to the students to take the textbook home and teach themselves the material. If
this happens as often as students complain about it happening then we seem to
already be leaning in that direction.


The responsibility of
the teacher is to provide information to students on precise subjects that the
teachers are specialized in. It is then the students’ job to take that
information given and understand it, practice it, and master in order to move on
and learn harder more complex material. If the student is being provided with
the information but not try to fully understand it and build on it then the
information given from the teacher is a waste. I think teachers feel that and
that’s why we are starting to have too many indifferent attitudes towards
teaching from teachers. They watch every day as they provide pertinent
  information to students and then watch it wash away the next day.

I think that the 5 paragraph writing template was very helpful in
the beginning stages of writing. Every concept needs a base to build on and that
is exactly what the 5 paragraph writing technique is. The only problem is that
it started to be looked at as more than just a base to work up from. Students
and teachers alike started referring to the 5 paragraph essay in too many
assignments. It was a good method to understand introduction, thesis, main
ideas, and conclusion. But things started to get out of hand when students tried
to use that basis for everything and teachers required that basis for
everything. Common sense says if you have more information then what three body
paragraphs will allow, then make more body paragraphs! The five paragraph essay
is not conducive for research papers, or creative writing, and other essays. I
think that teachers could have done a better job with letting their students
know that this method of writing is not the only one and should not be looked at
as such. Now that we’re in college and five paragraph essays are scarcely asked
for in assignments, students are looking around confused like they know no other
way.

It
is hard to find a solution for system that is so stuck in its ways like the
educational system. I don’t mean stuck in its ways like won’t listen to
anybody’s ideas for reform or simply won’t change. It is hard to change such a
large system in the quick amount of time that people want. A lot of emphasis is
put on the role of the teacher but I think everybody needs to put their focus
back on the student. You get out what you put in and if you do not put in enough
effort then your results are going to be subpar and you can’t blame anyone but
yourself. I like to think of it this way, you can’t choose your manager in the
work place and you can’t blame them when you do something wrong. So why can you
do that in the educational system? Even if a teacher has a bad style of teaching
or is lackadaisical, it’s up to you to put in the effort to understand the
material no matter what. That’s why we buy $500 worth of textbooks a semester,
so we can go home and teach some of the material to our self.

I do not want to be normal, or fit in, or
be like everybody else. But I could only imagine how being normal could be a
step up for people like Mike Rose and others who are looked down upon and
treated differently because of certain aspects of the individual. People strive
to set themselves apart from others, but when the thing that sets you apart from
everybody else is looked upon as negative being normal seems like the best
option.

“Students will float to the mark you set.”
This reminds me of what my World History
teacher used to tell me in high school. He said that students will fill time,
meaning if he gave us twenty minutes to complete a ten minute assignment we will
fill that time and take the whole twenty minutes even if it’s unnecessary. I
think this is same concept. If the teacher has low expectations from their
students then the students will fill that low expectation and never try to go
further. This is why I love the saying, “when someone tells you that you can’t,
proving them wrong is the best revenge.” If a teacher has low expectations of
you then that should be your determination to prove them wrong and do even
better then the teacher or yourself
expected.


“My folks would say that they wanted me to go to college and be a
doctor, but I don't know how seriously I ever took
that…”
I can honestly and proudly say that my parents never chose a
career that they wanted me to pursue. That’s why I chose this quote because it
seems that many parents project that onto their kids, almost like since they
didn’t do it, they want to pressure their kids into doing it. My parents always
told me that no matter what I choose that they will have my back and support me.
I think this is very important for students to understand that their parents
support their pursuit for the perfect career for themselves. I once watched an
episode of Nip Tuck where a doctor crushed his hand in a car door on purpose
because he “shamed”his father when he made a mistake in surgery. He destroyed
his career because of the pressure from his parent when it should have been
support that he received instead. I think this plays a big role in the problem
of education too.