Being the Bad Guy/ Educational Responsibility

As much as I like to pretend I am a mean person, the truth is that I am not, and I hate to have to be the bad guy. I took a position of vice president of scholarship in my sorority, and basically my job is to be the person who tells people to get their act together...or else. Some people just don't care about their grades though.

I don't mind the telling part, I just dislike having to carry through with the "or else" part. I hoped that they would get their act together and I wouldn't have to, but sometimes people just don't care about anything but the present. In fact they probably know how much I hate enforcing "or else" options.

Now the thing I understand least about my whole situation is why somebody would come to college with no intention of actually learning something. Is it just because mommy or daddy pushed them into college, because it is the only way they will be successful (in the minds of the parents)? Or did society tell them that's what they needed to do? Even worse, did they think college was only about the partying?

Many parents barely scrape by because they want their children to have a good education and then the child throws the parents money out the window because they are unwilling to attend class or do the work. College is not meant for everybody, and it should not be required in order to get a good job. My mother has her associate's degree and was head of the alzheimer's wing of an assisted living home. She was an integral part of that facility, because she was trained through working rather than school. Looking at her I feel very proud because despite the fact that she says she doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, she values all people and understands their needs. That is a skill that she learned from living, and it didn't cost her 20,000 dollars a year.

If people would begin to understand the importance of their future as well as their present, many of the people capable of great things would actually achieve them rather than sitting and watching their life pass them by.

About Me

Well, since I have been writing to the billions of people who read my blog, I suppose they deserve to learn a little about me. I am a college student and majoring in mathematics. Most people think I am crazy to major in math, but then again most people have an irrational fear of math. You know the saying "Guys are like parking spots, all the good ones are taken." I have to admit that I am one of those jerks that already took one of the good ones, so nobody else can have him. Bryan and I met and he was just a big distraction from my studying, but one that I have fallen in love with, so I suppose that's acceptable.

I come from a ridiculously sarcastic family. Once my younger brother made a joke about Bryan and I gave him a high five for it. Bryan exclaimed, "Don't give high five for that!" To this my brother looked at me very seriously and said, "He's right......Ten?" Because of growing up in that type of environment I am probably one of the most sarcastic people around.

That's about all I feel like typing right now, so I guess you millions of fans will have to wait by the computer for another post.

Respect

I believe that one of the main problems in society is a lack of respect. I don't mean just "respect for elders" or respect for people in positions of authority. To have a successful society respect has to go much deeper than that. The president has to respect every citizen of the country he serves. A teacher has to respect every student he teaches. A doctor has to respect his patients.

Last week I set up an advising session with one of my teachers for 3:30. At 4:15, she showed up and told me that she had to do an impromptu meeting with somebody else that would probably last about 30 minutes. So I ended up waiting over an hour for a meeting that never even happened. She did not think of me, nor did she think of the other two students waiting for her with me whose meetings were at 3:45 and 4:00. She had no respect for us as people. That incident is making it very difficult for me to respect her, despite the fact that she could be a deciding factor in whether or not I have a future job.

If there were respect between people; if everyone valued others as much as they value themselves, there would be considerably less crime, poverty, and other things detrimental to society. I realize I am dreaming of a world that will never exist, but without dreams there would be no progress, so I will continue dreaming of a world where everybody respects everybody else.

"Learning" Art

Something that has always puzzled me is why somebody would go to college and major in art. Note that I am not talking about art history, restoration, or commercial art. I am talking about the teaching and learning of methods for the creation of art. I believe that art has become a college major because of our push for everybody to go to college. Somehow apprenticeship (which is the option I would favor concerning art) has fallen by the wayside. If a school has thirty art majors graduate in the same year, all taught by the same professors, wouldn't those thirty majors be creating at least moderately similar art? Art today is about uniqueness and standing out from the crowd. If somebody is taught some formula of how to create art, the same is being taught to several other people. Wouldn't that hinder the individuality factor? It is possible that I just know too little about art, but I believe that too much education in something creative will cause somebody to follow "approved methods" rather than unique methods, thereby destroying chances of innovation in art.

Problems of Teacher Education

I feel moderately nerdy posting a new message already since I posted my first only two hours ago, and know that such a trend will not continue, but recently I was thinking about the state of education in America and why it will never improve.

In order for a great education system to exist, we must have teachers who are among the best of all of society. Current teacher education programs do not seem to encourage such high standards. Yesterday when I was angry about the fact that I had to take thirty hours of classes that I could have achieved the same result if the program were better in only twelve or fifteen I sat down and wrote the thoughts below.

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There is a current trend in society that believes that more is better. In education this idea produces almost damaging results. The definition of a "highly qualified teacher" is one who has taken several hours of professional education requirements and has passed a test. Based on the trends I have seen, I would not consider many of these people to be "highly qualified." The requirements of an education class are the lowest of any other department outside of fitness. Students who struggle in both basic English and math are still able to maintain a 3.0 GPA in education classes.

Instead of increasing the amount of time spent in low expectation classes, there would be a more rigorous pace with high expectations that not everyone can achieve. I would feel much better about leaving a child at a school where the teachers only had five classes in professional education programs that had high standards, required genuine thought processes, and had a rigorous curriculum than I would about leaving a child at a school where the teachers had twice as many classes that they could pass with little effort.

If we are truly looking for "highly qualified" teachers then we should start by looking for highly qualified people. If the reason somebody is going into education is because that is all they can do, then we aren't truly helping students or schools.

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I just get frustrated with the efforts being taken to improve our schools, because in actuality, all they do is add more people to the teaching profession that don't understand what high achievement is.

PS-There are in fact many wonderful teachers, and this is not at all an attack on their abilities.

Introduction

I guess I am a little late jumping on the bandwagon of bloggers, but I recently realized that I have many ideas and thoughts that I wish to share with others. I am passionate about more topics than I realized, and hope that the readers of my blog will feel free to either wholeheartedly support what I say or downright disagree.

My plan is to slowly reveal to whoever reads this blog my views of the world and society today. I believe that the world has a lot of problems that need to be reckoned with. Most of my ideas are based in individual responsibility to the community. If people would understand more than what belongs directly to them, the world would be a safer, more caring place. However, I do realize that there will always be those who will always see only the path directly ahead and never stop to notice the people they are destroying on the side.

Please feel free to respond to me and share your views with me. Thank you for stopping by.