Pasadena: Revised Images of Excellence

      Pasadena: Revised Images of Excellence is a descriptive account of Mike Rose’s time spent in Pasadena High School, specifically in the Graphic Arts Academy. Pasadena High School is a diverse school in California where students from all different social and economic backgrounds can be found. The school Principal, Judy Codding, created the Graphic Arts Academy as well as the Visual Arts Academy to combine academic and vocational work for students who might not see a point in strictly academic work. The programs set up internships for the students and gave them opportunities to take college classes as seniors. 

      I think that these vocational academies were a very smart idea. They give students who might otherwise drop out of school a reason to continue: the promise of an actual job. But beyond that, I think that the best thing about these programs is the way that all of the curriculum was intertwined. Chemistry, humanities, biology, and math are all taught in ways that make them relatable to graphic arts. The teachers of these subjects meet together on a regular basis to discuss ways to connect the material in successful ways. 

      Pasadena High School’s method of interdisciplinary teaching seems to be very successful, and I can see why. I know that I find it easier to pick up new information when it relates to something that I already understand or am interested in. One of the teachers that I have the best memories of is my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Napalitano, because she was so good at making seamless transitions between subjects. There were times when I would go home and not even be able to distinguish between reading and science homework because everything was connected so well. I could never understand exactly how she did it, but I knew that it worked, and it made everything a lot easier. 

I think that all high schools should follow the example of PHS. By having teachers that actually communicate with each other, student needs can be more easily identified and learning, as well as teaching, can be made much more effortless. 

Idiot Nation

  Okay, I’m not going to lie, when I sat down to do this blog and saw that the reading was about twenty pages long, all I could think about was the insane amount of work that I have to do for this final week of classes and how there was no way that I would be reading Idiot Nation in its entirety. I figured I would skim the passage, write a quick blog, and move on to the rest of the books that I have to finish, papers I have to write, and art projects I have to complete. But when I started reading I found that I became very interested and really couldn’t stop. I expected it to be interesting since it was written by Michael Moore, (and I am a fan of most of his documentaries), but I didn’t expect to spend so much time reading and re-reading his work. 

  One of the big reasons why I enjoyed Idiot Nation was Moore’s sarcastic sense of humor, but above that I think I continued reading long after I had planned because it was so relatable. For example, I remember the “library” in my elementary school being very much like what he described most school libraries to be: a small room lined with bookshelves that were filled with outdated and water damaged books. I also see how teachers are constantly being blamed for all of America’s underachieving children since my mom is a teacher in the New York City public school system and the representative at her school for the United Federation of Teachers. I would hear horror stories every day of good teachers in jeopardy of losing their jobs because of low standardized test scores, or just because too much money was cut from the school budget to keep them. 

  Moore points out that the same people who are cutting funds for education are often the biggest critics of America’s teachers. Its obvious that more funding needs to be set aside for the public school system in order to prevent overcrowding, allow students access to up to date books, and keep good teachers in the classrooms. However, this funding doesn’t seem to be coming any time soon, and so many schools are looking to big name companies for money in exchange for advertising rights. People need to wake up and start trying to make a difference in the ways that schools are funded before the children of America are completely brainwashed with advertisements.

Savage Inequalities

     Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities describes the horrific conditions of Morris High, a public high school in the Bronx, New York. There are holes in the walls and ceilings, missing curtains, leaky windows, and even a colony of wild mushrooms growing in the corner of one room. While disgusted, Kozol does not seem surprised by the condition that the school is in. Morris High is a racially segregated school and a last resort for many children who can not get into, or fail out of, other high schools. Kozol mentions the specialized high schools in the New York City school system, and how they receive the best teachers and more funding, leaving the kids at high schools like Morris with very little. 

  While reading this I felt sympathetic with the children of Morris, but I was not very surprised by their story. I was enrolled in New York City public schools until the eighth grade, and I know from visiting different public high schools that the conditions are not always good. Up until the ninth grade, the public schools in my area were considered to be really good, better than the majority of the Catholic schools around. But for high school my parents and I knew that I would have to attend a private/Catholic school, because for whatever reason, the NYC high schools were much less successful. 

  If someone was planning on going to a public high school, they usually aimed to get into one of the specialized schools such as Brooklyn Tech or Stuyvesant by taking a qualifying exam. I remember how my friends would stress over that test because they knew that it could decide the rest of their lives. If they didn’t get admitted to at least one of the specialized schools, they could be put into a risky situation. 

  Jonathan Kozol’s ideas about having several schools in each city that are almost as good as the specialized schools to give kids more options seem very logical to me. They would eliminate the pressure that is put on junior high school students to do extremely well on the specialized high school exam. And no matter what, no student should be expected to be able to do well in a school as dilapidated as Morris High. 

What High School Can Be

   From reading Theodore R. Sizer’s What High School Can Be, I can say that I relate with Will, the high school basketball star that Sizer followed around through his day of classes, and I’m sure that many other high schoolers can as well. While I didn’t usually sail through the entire day without saying anything or opening a book, and my five foot one self was clearly not the star of the basketball team, I can still relate with the way that Will must have felt. 

   Sizer points out the waste of time of both the teachers and students, as well as the waste of resources, when students are not committed to or excited about what they’re learning. Many high school students feel this way as well, but it was never more apparent to me than it became in my senior year. By the time applications were finished and everyone had visited perspective colleges, everyone felt like they were done with high school. Many people, including myself, felt like when they went on Christmas break the school year ended and there was no point in returning in January. We all felt like we were stuck in a bunch of classes that didn’t matter in a high school that could not hold a candle to the colleges that we had visited. 

   There was one class, however, that I did take very seriously, especially in my senior year. To me, the only class worth staying up through the night for (or two nights in a row occasionally) was my art class. I probably spent more time on art homework in my senior year than I did on all other subjects combined. It was one of the only things that I actually enjoyed or even cared about, which was probably why I spent so much time on it. 

   When Theodore Sizer says that the way to get students more interested and involved in their work is to make it more challenging, I would have to disagree. Making something harder would only make a student frustrated if they are not actually interested in the subject. Students will get involved in a subject if its interesting to them, or if the teacher makes it interesting. Making a subject that a student doesn’t care about more difficult might only make them care even less. I think that many high school students, especially seniors, would probably agree with this, and I think that Sizer should probably get a little more in touch with his inner high schooler. 

In the Beginning: The 1893 Report of the Committee of Ten & Creating the Comprehensive High School

     So during the countless hours I spent sitting at a desk in a class that I had no interest in, trying to imagine who’s idea it was for high school students to have to learn this stuff, I wasn’t far off to imagine a group of men sitting around a table and talking about what students should be learning in high school. When I would be in physics or calculus trying to decode the seemingly foreign language that my teachers seemed to be speaking, I would always be thinking, “Who’s idea was it to make mandatory?” Well, now I know. Thanks a lot Committee of Ten. 

     There were some subjects that I could understand the value of learning, even if I didn’t like them, like a foreign language or a writing class. After all, English is not the only language in the world and learning another language could be useful if you ever have to communicate with someone from another country, and being able to express yourself clearly is important as well. But physics? The most basic stuff can be useful, but its also common sense. The more complicated things could be useful as well, but only if you need to build an elevator or know at what exact time a ball thrown into the air will fall back to the ground, and most people will never need to know these things. Which is why it was frustrating for me to have to learn them in my junior year when I had already decided on going to art school. 

     One good point that was made was by James B. Conant in Creating the Comprehensive High School. Conant stressed the importance of homerooms in any high school  to build a sense of community between students that normally would not see each other during the school day because of the different classes they take. In my high school, a homeroom, or FA (Faculty Advisory) as we referred to them, did not only consist of students from different skill levels, but also of students from all four years. This created many mentoring opportunities and made it easier for freshmen to adapt to high school life. And as Conant had said, it really did create a strong sense of community within the school. 

Beyond the Cult of Fatherhood

   “Beyond the Cult of Fatherhood” by David Osborne was about some of the author’s experiences of being a father and the primary caregiver for his son, Nicholas. Osborne is a writer and his wife, Rose, is a nurse who works around 100 hours a week giving her little time to take care of Nick. David Osbourne began to be able to identify much more with women, particularly mothers, after spending so much time taking care of Nick, and even questioned his own security with his masculinity. 

   This reading reminded me a lot of the family of one of my best friends. The first time I met her mom, she was picking us up from cheerleading practice. She spent most of the ride home on the phone with various people from her job (or jobs, as I later learned there was more than one) planning events, making appointments, and pitching ideas. I later asked my friend what her mom did for a living, because I was curious after the long ride home. She told me that her mom had multiple jobs. She was an event planner at a sports complex, a secretary at a local community college, and manager of a senior center. Not to mention that she sold real estate on the side. 

   I was amazed by her mom’s clear ambition and time management skills, and I only became more impressed when I later learned that she had a one and a half year old brother. I couldn’t imagine how her mom could juggle so many jobs and still care for a young child. But then, I met her father. He had a part time job as a photographer and he was the one who packed lunches, did laundry, cooked, cleaned, and took care of my friend’s brother. I felt so dumb to have never thought that a father could be the person in a family who takes care of the children as well as all of the household duties. Experiencing how her family worked really opened my eyes to how different families could be, and made me look at gender roles in a new way. 

Conquering Themselves So Beautifully & Woman's Rights/When Woman Gets Her Rights Men Will Be Right

   I really did not like any of these readings. “Conquering Themselves So Beautifully,” by Louisa May Alcott, was basically about four girls who complained about things like washing dishes, but then put their lives into perspective when they read a letter from their dad who was serving in the army. “Woman’s Rights,” a speech by Sojourner Truth, was just hard to read. Its not that her ideas were hard to understand, but the language was just horrible. I understand that she was born into slavery and wasn’t able to learn how to read or write, but that was almost painful to read. Thankfully, her language skills improved drastically in the sixteen years between “Woman’s Rights” and “When Woman Gets Her Rights Man Will Be Right.”

   One thing that I did get from these readings was a feeling of relief that I was born into this generation. The four March sisters had lives that were limited by what was considered acceptable for women to do in the 1800s. For example, Jo March struggled with her desire to fight with her father in war. Also at this point in history, women were not allowed to attend college, so I am very grateful that I am able to pursue a career and not have to spend my life in the kitchen. And even if I couldn’t go to college, I was still lucky enough to have some type of education, which is more than an ex-slave like Sojourner Truth can say. 

   Reading Sojourner Truth’s speech made me feel guilty as well. She, like many other women of her time, fought so hard for the right to vote and I completely take it for granted. I have been eighteen and eligible to vote for over seven moths, and until now I had never even thought about registering. Reading this really does make me want to register to vote and fulfill my duties as a citizen as well as a woman.