Abbys Lament Reaction Paper Every day, society is changing by setting new laws, political structures and upgrading everything around us. Who’s really in control of this power? After reading Abby’s Lament: Does Literacy Matter by Robert P. Yagelski, it seems correct that at a young age kids are all “irrelevant” after all, what’s the purpose of learning to read and write if it has little power in the life outside of school. I agree with Yagelski even though Abby feels irrelevant in the “political and institutional society” there is no reason for her to stop her education “Literacy does constitute power.” (pg. 4) I remember in elementary teachers would tell me “You can be anything you want to even the President of the United States.” I know I’m sure not the President now, but that did not stop me from pursuing a higher education and moving forward.
In his opinion, college students should try to find evidence, investigate, and speculate differently about the material they have learned. “In other word college deals with the rational justification of belief” (Meiland). Also college professors should present and examine the basis of the material in order to give basic information to the students. Meiland says “college simply reflects the legitimation of belief by inquiring into the rationality of every belief to find out whether each belief is supported by good reasons”( Meiland). He wants college students to keep
Taking Responsibility For Education Students rely on a number of things in their pursuit of a higher education; teachers, accredited institutions, and textbooks containing correct information. James Loewen, who wrote Lies My Teacher Told Me, brings up concerns for students stating US History lower-learning textbooks are not equipped with factual information. In Loewen’s text he brings to light some very significant US events he believes are not factual. When we think of studying history we think about learning specific dates, events, or wars that impacted our country. Not many people stop to question if the information they are reading or being taught is factual.
Autobiographies and memoirs are commonly misinterpreted and can sometimes be not very insightful for students, but the truth is that most of them are very insightful for a student of history. They offer a look into the past from their perspective. History students cannot truly just look back into textbooks and just see what happened. Students need to look more closely at memoirs or autobiographies. These pieces offer the insight to the past, that help explain the often troubled or misinterpreted times that students need to understand what really went on in the past and see what shapes our world today.
According to John Taylor Gatto and Michael Moore in “Against School” and “Idiot Nation” the American Schooling system deceives the public into believing that it is being educated when in fact both men agree the system is conforming Americans into childish consumers bereft of truly significant learning. Both of the authors discuss consumerism in their stories; John Taylor Gatto does not discuss it as indepthly as Michael Moor, but he does mention it on page 154, basically saying that school trained children to almost not think at all… (Gatto 154). Michael Moore speaks on consumerism for about a length of 22 paragraphs at a minimum. “The schools aren’t just looking for ways to advertise, they are also concerned with the students perceptions on various products… Companies conduct market research in classrooms during school hours. “ (Moore 141).
Inside me I think they are insane. My abuelita tells me many stories that I didn’t believe they were true but after reading the selections I came to see abuelita was not lying to me about my childhood place. As a freshman in Bowie High School I got to learn a little more about my culture than what my abuelita would tell me. I always thought
I didn’t realize this book went over so much different things, like how the Ku Klux Klan got started, and Drug dealers living with their parents, I would recommend this book for everyone to read it was very interesting to me. I didn’t realize Macroeconomics would fall into this. One thing that I didn’t know was that teachers would cheat to get there grades up to get a better bonus; I guess I just came from a small school. I would have to agree with the Author of this book, that there is so much stuff that goes on in this world that we don’t think about. We stay in our own little community, and not think what is going on outside of it as long as we are happy and safe.
One of the Hirsh’s weak supports is providing the opposing view at very subjective form. He writes about supporters of “learning-to learn skills”, “critical-thinking skills” and “problem-solving skills” (Guidelines 2007, p.116), but he did not explain why the students in the Bronx need more academic knowledge than thinking skills. This is fallacious argument because we do not know why “street-smart children in the Bronx” demonstrate their critical thinking. Maybe they develop critical thinking because they spend most of their time outside of school; or, maybe, being critical thinkers, they leave the schools and went to the street. The author did not challenge his view in the trusty way, but uses sarcastic and subjective tone.
I wanted to know all the little details, especially the “whys”, and in school, there was never time for those types of questions. We had a certain amount of time to cover a certain amount of information and asking additional questions was an impediment to getting it done. So I find this week's readings and the questions posed to actually stop to think about it very interesting. I was surprised to hear how many of the World Bank's projects have backfired on it. For example, Sobradinho Dam was built thanks to the World Bank's financial help.
So that, I asked these questions to find the best answers to help me solve this issue and overcome it. The first question is; should we have segregated schools? And if we have a segregated school, are we going to have better education? Also, what are the common pros and cons for the coeducational school? I have been studied in a coeducational school when I was in the elementary and middle school.