Twain is establishing from the get go that this novel should not be argued or criticized because it may be offensive to people but that it should be read as a novel that shows two men who find friendship despite racial boundaries. Although there is a growing concern regarding Huck Finn as being too racist and too blunt, this novel should be taught at schools because it provides a valuable lesson about how equality and high sense of morals prevails over societal views and racial barriers. Twain created the character Huck to serve as an example of the type of person people should be aspire towards. Huck unlike most everyone in the south, ignores racial barriers set forth by society and does what he believes to be right. Hucks test of this philosophy occurs at three main points the first being when he is confronted on the river by two passer-byers who ask to check his raft for a runaway slave.
Proof: * “In discussion, teachers pointed out that since it is the policy of the Washougal School District to assign an alternative book to any student who objects on any grounds to reading an assigned one, the attempt to prevent a whole class from reading a book was an attempt to change policy, replacing free choice by censorship” – pg, 257, 1st paragraph * “Censorship, here or in Russia or wherever, is absolutely anti-democratic and elitist. The censor says: You don’t know enough to choose, but we do so you will read what we choose for you and nothing else. The democrat says: The process of learning is that of
Book Review: Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen Lies My Teacher Told Me is James Loewen’s analysis of how courses in American high schools and, more particularly, their textbooks, are a disservice to the students, and furthermore, the country said texts and courses aim to protect. Loewen begins by addressing how high school textbooks treat historical figures such as Helen Keller and Woodrow Wilson: portraying them as bland heroes sans any interesting facts societal forces might find objectionable or define as “taboo.” Next, Loewen discusses how race is misrepresented in textbooks, using the example of Christopher Columbus, who is continually portrayed as a scholarly explorer, ignoring his role in slavery and genocide of Native Americans. Identified is how the roles of European-American beliefs in oneness, and inferiority of the Indian society, go unchallenged, perpetuating myths about superiority and inferiority of such races and further promoting Whiteness in schools. Loewen then turns to the plight of African Americans, and discusses how racism remains invisible in textbooks, which allows justification of the institution of slavery as well as demand for its abolition. Also discussed is how textbooks ignore other taboo subjects such as social stratification, and also how they portray government snafus like handling foreign policy and the Civil Rights movement as rosy government triumphs.
Holt states that learning from school teachers takes away one’s individuality and teaches children that if you don’t learn things their way, then you won’t learn it at all. I don’t believe Holt’s views on school systems is correct and I think they help provide a more stable education for children. Holt, a former school teacher and education theorist, believes that homeschooling benefits children more so than going to public schools. His views from this essay go hand-in-hand with many of his other essays. In True Learning, an excerpt from Holt’s The Underachieving Schools book, he is consistent with his belief that public schools often teach kids how to be lazy and how they will only remember the information that interests them, and nothing else.
The two writers I included in this paper Andrew Ofstad and Ursula Le Guin have similar and different ideas on how technology can affect literature, but also if reading maybe declining in society. I don't focus so much on if reading is declining; I focus if technology is really detrimental to reading and learning to society. I think it is important to see that reading is important for learning, but technology also has a way for people to read and learn as well. I don't expect you as the reader to agree with my own conclusion, but to decide on your own opinion on the matter after reading my essay. Andrew Ofstad's "America's Decline in Literacy Reading: Grappling with Technology's Effects on the Print of Culture" and Ursula Le Guin's "Staying Awake: Notes on the Alleged Decline of Reading" are both essays that focus on the decline of reading in society.
Supporters of this idea state that we are stifling spiritual beliefs and teaching children to be disrespectful towards religion. There are ways I could see it disrespectful, because a child could think that not allowing prayer would mean it’s something bad or unnatural. This could easily be fixed, if the schools explained that allowing prayer could hurt children’s feelings and their religious beliefs if they are different. As for the supporters claim that we are silencing their beliefs, I can argue that the fact that prayer is not banned. Each of the children can pray at recess, lunch, and whenever they are not being taught by the teachers.
In the second paragraph, first, the living and learning should be distinguished, there are no connections between the two. Second, if the children go to school to learn, it will let him rely on someone help them to solve the problem, not to solve the problem by themselves. These are the thoughts of the author. In the third part of the passage, the opinion of the author is that the action of the children are limited, so it causes that the children is afraid to ask teacher question, so they are ashamed of it. And the school just want the right answer, and after learn many other things, they will be wrong , uncertain, confused.
There are many different reasons why schools should not force kids to wear them, but we think the three most important are, it doesn’t teach children how to get along with others, uniforms do not effect the students’ performance in school, and most importantly, it doesn’t prevent bullying from happening. The first reason why uniforms are not helpful in school, is that it doesn’t teach kids how to get along with others. For example, “It teaches kids that if you want to get along with other people, you must conform to the same standards.” Says an unnamed author, from the article “Arguments About Uniforms” on www.anglefire.com/ca/bygranite/uniforms/args.html/ . This is a great example, because it deals with one of the biggest issues in schools today, “fitting in”. And if you let kids think this way when they’re young, they will think this way for the rest of their life.
I've come slowly to understand what it is I really teach: a curriculum of confusion, class position, arbitrary justice, vulgarity, rudeness, disrespect for privacy, indifference to quality, and utter dependency. I teach how to fit into a world I don't want to live in. I just can't do it anymore. I can't train children to wait to be told what to do; I can't train people to drop what they are doing when a bell sounds; I can't persuade children to feel some justice in their class placement when there isn't any; and I can't persuade children to believe teachers have valuable secrets they can acquire by becoming our disciples. That isn't true.
Prayers in school encourage the students to believe in the value system the school and follow it. Banning prayers in school could mean depriving the school children of their freedom of religion. Banning prayers is equal to being non-religious. According to those who think in favor of prayers in school, think of prayers as an essential element of the school routine. For them, it seems quite irreligious not to recite a prayer everyday, especially at the start of your school day.