Erica Goldson Valedictorian Speech Response Erica Goldson brought up a very controversial and very interesting topic about our current education system in the US. She states that students are so focused at memorizing data and getting good grades, that they miss out on the whole idea of learning and being educated. I agree with her, students should be learning and absorbing the material, instead of memorizing for the next big test and just forgetting about it later on. Graduating seems like the top priority in students nowadays, and to me that is just upsetting. And the students who are very talented and are very motivated to learn and be driven in a non-academic subject seem to have a more negative image than the people who are driven by academics.
Gatto compares school to a factory or prison which, generally speaking, are not fun places to be. This style of diction, with Gatto consistently projecting new words of the same connotation suggests his point of view on rejection of this prison-like system. The author appeals to anyone who has or has not questioned the usefulness of education. He appeals to our common sense by asking a simple question: why do we need this? Almost every student has thought the same thing at some point, but lacks the confidence needed to express these feelings to the public.
Flunking students can be used as a positive tool by our education system. The consequence of flunking and holding students back alone can be used to motivate and encourage students to put full effort into class work. Most students fear flunking only because they’re afraid of what friends, peers and society will say or think about them; this is all wrong, the real fear should be failing and not being
He expresses that “Of course, teachers are themselves products of the same twelve-year compulsory school programs that so thoroughly bore their students, and as school personnel they are trapped inside structures… The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn't know that were childish people, to be avoided if possible.”(1) Gatto learned that being bored was an action that he was only responsible for. He learned that it was his responsibility to learn and entertain himself. That is how he began using that lesson to entertain his students. Gatto believes that schools are not allowing students to reach their own potential to gown as individuals. Gatto
“ (Moore 141). While Moore focuses more on the advertising established into school and companies promoting themselves using schools, Gatto speaks more one the effect that this way of schooling creates the adults in the world. Also he explains how marketing on the school systems is keeping the adults nowadays very “childish” or young in the mind. (Gatto 149) According to Gatto if you strip children of all of their independence, and only develop their trivial emotions, they would never truly grow up. (Gatto 154).
Though being serious topic you wouldn’t think that satire would create a standing argument but Fridman proves us wrong by making his point and opinion pop right out of the passage. This helps support the writing by attracting more readers though his unrealistic writing for the subject. Fridman connects to his readers through pathos, as many can relate this passage to their unpopular but successful experience in high school or even middle school. This association between the readers and the writing generates more feedback and interest of his work. As he says, “it is a high time to face the persecutors who haunt the bright kid with thick glasses from kindergarten to the grave.” The bullying, the teasing, and the harassing for their abilities and their “disgusting taste” must be stopped, as stated in his writing.
Since he was born, they had decided he wasn’t going to stay at home, that he would just be at home. Even while he was living with his grandparents. When he had went St. Anthony’s he wasn’t old enough for him to go to school so he had stayed there with the other kids while his brother Meiyo had went. When he was living at the detention center they had registered him into high school but he didn’t know how to read or write. He was ashamed, embarrassed, and didn’t tell anyone and just failed all his classes.
The reason why I endured desperation towards the extent of the book (1984) is, because Winston Smith has been fully and utterly defeated by the system. Throughout the course of the book, I was waiting and hoping that Winston would become victorious in some way. I truly dislike the society a lot and I agree with what Winston Smith is doing and I really want him to win. If he had won in some type of way, I would allege that Orwell is proclaiming that the human spirit will win in the extent of time.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a very important story for every high schooler to read. Although it does a little more then slightly hint at the racism in that time period, it also teaches readers. It shows racism in such a horrible light, that nobody could revert to such a thing. Our past isn’t always the nicest thing to look upon, but it’s still there. The difference is what we do in the future, and this novel teaches us that everyone is equal and shall be treated as
Making it on your own At times people tend to work well while they are under pressure. To others they simply must be under pressure to get work done and give their full effort. In her article In Praise of the F Word, Mary Sherry argues “Flunking as a regular policy has just as much merit today as it did two generations ago. We must review the threat of flunking and see it as it really is- a positive teaching too.” By making it clear to students that flunking can definitely be a result of them not putting in the time and effort in assuring they pass their class will make them more determined to learn and earn their good grades, it will also help stop those students who choose not to even try in their classes. Also by making students fear failure it will not only motivate them