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I really liked the speech and I agree with much of what she said. I think that it took a lot of guts for her to use her moment in the spotlight in such a meaningful and unexpected way. I did not see it as a criticism of her teachers or as a slap in the face to the institution that put her on that stage, awarded her with the title of valedictorian and put the microphone in her hand. I saw her speech as a critique of the educational system as a whole and as a personal reflection of her school experience and hopes for the future.
A quote from her speech:
Quote:
For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.
I don't see what these videos have to do with the valedictorian's speech. Sure these schools have seen an increase in graduation rates and test scores but those are the exact things that this student is speaking out against, a results based education. The increased test scores and the students compliance with following the rules and doing what they are told has nothing at all to do with an increase in critical thinking.
From video #1
Quote:
It is imperative that all students do everything that is being taught to them and that they're told to be doing in class.
From video #2
Quote:
The data is the truth. It's not what I think, feel or what it should be.
Data= test scores and teachers opinion and is used to put students in programs that will help them do a better job with what they are told to do.
I was not really talking about unit tests (although as the young lady in the video says, how many kids memorize material for the test and forget it soon afterward. That is NOT learning).
High stakes testing though is way overused and is really meaningless for both students, teachers and schools.
You are correct that memorizing for the test is not learning but those students are choosing to short change themselves and it will catch up to them. I can't stop midnight cram sessions the night before the test but they don't work in the long run and, hopefully, sooner or later, the student figures that one out. If this is what this validictorian did, I wish her luck in classes like calculus in college.
It also depends on what you're memorizing. I make my students memorize ions. Because they memorize them, they can identify them in compounds and name compounds. If they only memorize them for the test on ions, they'll do poorly on the test naming compounds. Some things do need to be memorized. Multiplication tables are one. If you don't memorize them, you're going to struggle with fractions, factoring in algebra and balancing equations in chemistry.
One of the problems with education is that it is still a one-size-fits-all idea.
Bright kids are held back by the slow learners.
There should be separate classes according to how well the students do.
The bright kids could do the 12 years of learning in 8.
When my grand daughter graduated from high school, I asked her what she thought, and she did agree, that she could have done it in 8 years.
THere is too much unneccesary repetition . The only difference is that the type in the books gets smaller.
Since the system is set up for 12 years of tax paid education, why not give those bright kids the advantage of using the other 4 doing college level work?
For those not very academicly inclined, instead of high school, how about a tax paid trade shcool?
The problem is that PUBLIC education was designed to serve the PUBLIC not the individual. Quit trying to make it individual education. Society doesn't pay for that. What society pays for is an educated society. What we're paying for is not giving the best and brightest every opportunity, it's making sure we live in a minimally educated society. If you want more, you're free to go after it, however, the system doesn't owe you more. That's not what the system is designed to do.
Fortunately, most teachers are more than glad to work with kids motivated to do more. My experience, albeit limited at this point, is that the best and the brightest do not want more work because they are smart. That makes differentiation, within the same class, difficult. While complaining that education doesn't cater to them, on the one hand, they resist doing more work than the student sitting next to them...at least without extra credit and there's only so much extra credit a teacher can give before grades become meaningless.
If our best and brightest were into learning more for the sake of learning more, this wouldn't be a problem. Having students who are eager to learn and want more isn't someting you hear teachers complaining about. We love those kids. They rock our world. They are, however, far and few between. In two years of teaching, I've seen one. He came to class prepared, asked deeply intelligent questions and thought nothing of hanging around after school to have his education enriched. He was way beyond the class but never disruptive. He'd wait until my lecture was done and then we'd engage in some deep conversations. Sometimes, I'd have to ask him to continue them after school because we were getting too far off topic and he would.
Most of the "best and brightest" just whine that education isn't tailored to them. Most of them would balk at coming after school for deeper discussion of the material. Most of them don't ask the kinds of questions he did because they don't do the ground work to get there.
That your granddaughter thinks she could have done it in 8 years means nothing. Actually doing it would be something. Anyone can say they could have done something if they're not actually required to do it. Finishing 12 years of school in 8 years requires pacing 50% faster, covering 50% more material per year and more than double the homework since you are taking away 1/3 of the class time the material would be taught in. You'd have to be a self motivated learner and if you're that, you'd do this on your own. This is why my dd is 2 years a head in school and why the school wants to just ship her off to a community college for 11th and 12th grades. You can't stop her. She learns more than is taught in every class on her own and by seeking help from her teachers after school. If the school has it their way (I'm pushing for a more normal high school experience) she'll recieve her high school diploma and associates degrees at 16. Effectively completing 14 years of education in 10 years. I haven't asked her but I'll bet she'll tell me that completing high school by 13 would be a stretch. You're talking being in high school by 10 and comleting 4 years of high school in 3 years. Have you really thought about what you just posted?
IMO, very few students are capable of completing 12 years of education by the time they are 13 and those that are capable of it, do it in spite of the current system. The time to have asked her was when she was 13. Do you really think she could have completed 4 extra years of work by that time? I doubt it.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 08-14-2010 at 09:40 AM..
I was unable to memorize my multiplication tables for the most part. The ones I did memorize had little to do with being in a classroom. I learned the exponents of 2 by watching Hans Christian Andersen (2+2 are 4, 4+4 are 8, 8+8 are 16; 16+16 are 32). I learned the fibonaci sequence when I was examining fractal artwork on the computer. I learned the 9 tables by my dad, who showed me how remarkably easy it is to never NEED to memorize it, if you know the formula that creates it. I don't know the whole table in my head. I know the formula and can give you 9xanything to infinity, based on that formula.
10 tables was easy - just add a 0 to anything and you have x*10. You don't need to memorize the 10 tables, you only need to memorize the formula.
Unfortunately, they didn't teach us formulae in elementary school, they taught us memorization of our times tables. And so, I did -extremly- poorly in math in elementary school and as a result, never had any interest in math til I reached my senior year of high school. By then, it was too late, because I got Ds and Cs in all my math classes from the 4th grade til 11th. I was uninspired, unmotivated, and thought I was just stupid. Turns out, I just suck at memorization of numbers.
I learned how sucky I was at it, and how NOT stupid I am, because I re-discovered formulas in my last year of high school when I took R-Basic instead of Algebra II. I discovered algorithms; applying algebraic formula to write computer programs which actually DID things when you were done, rather than memorizing numbers without having the faintest idea why you should, other than "so you can get an A in class."
I still ended up with a C in programming, but it sparked an interest and now I "get it" when it comes to algebra and multiplication. I still don't "know my times tables" but I realize now, that I don't have to. I just need to understand the formulae.
There was one teacher whom she complimented, someone she described as avant-garde. I like to think that is the role I play at my school.
She was insulting the system. I was watching the audience carefully to see at what point anyone would notice. It took most of them a while. If she had been more tactful, most people might not have known they were being insulted.
I think teachers and administrators need to consider very carefully the insights and opinions from someone who so successfully played the system to get what they told her to want. This was one lamb, at least, who knew she was going to the slaughter.
But playing the system is part of learning to be a productive citizen. As long as humans have lived together in groups, there has been some kind of management system. And there always will be a "system".
Railing against the system is crazy. Changing the system is possible, but it won't be a removal of the system, and any system that I know of will always degrade to some common denominator over time.
When I became a Quaker, I was glowing in the belief that because Quaker's have no clergy there was now no system and and that everyone was on an equal basis. How wrong I was. Its just a completely different system requiring the same kind, though different in form, of working to get the system to do anything. I worked my way up in that system. I was a major program supervisor and developed a youth program that had adults clamoring to be part of. People complained that I wasn't giving everyone a chance(that is, wasn't dumming it down so that ANYONE could participate.) After 12 years, my support based within the system erroded with the loss of people who retired and moved on. I decided to let the nay sayers who complained that not everyone could participate take over and I moved on. Within 2 short years all the new system things that I did that caused the super comraderie among the staff were discontinued by the new "head". And suddenly they had trouble finding people to participate. The new person was incapable of managing the system, and of understanding what people needed from the system to want to work in it. By the third year after I left, the "head" who replaced me had had enough, and was replaced by a committee, and the whole thing had just turned into the mediocrity of a job that had to be filled.
There is always a system, and railing against the system, in my not so humble and experienced opinion, is just worthless way way to spend one's time, but also indicative of novice status when working in systems.
Railing against the system is crazy. Changing the system is possible, but it won't be a removal of the system, and any system that I know of will always degrade to some common denominator over time.
There is always a system, and railing against the system, in my not so humble and experienced opinion, is just worthless way way to spend one's time, but also indicative of novice status when working in systems.
A lot of us have a lot of experience in a lot of areas, or 'systems'. You are not any more of an authority than anyone else.
I don't know what your little story has to do with this thread, but it's nice that it worked for you.
For this young woman (the subject of this thread) to recognize what she spoke of, is a huge step. I waited throughout her speech for someone behind her to get up, put their hand over the microphone and tell her to sit down, but no one did.
Her point of knowing how to manipulate the system and what was expected for her to graduate is exactly why I think it's better for kids to wait to go to college instead of right out of high school.
When they go straight out of high school, it is simply a continuation; same habits, same attitude, same method. When they wait, they know why they are going and what they want out of their education. They know better how to get what they want out of it.
My daughter has been homeschooled so she has never had to be involved in the whole testing scene. Even going part time for art and language, she was not involved in any testing except in French, nothing standardized. I'm glad that she escaped all that the public school kids have learned so they can jump through hoops and say all the right things to get them through.
She will be taking a few years to travel before entering college, so she will know exactly what she wants college for and what to do to get what she wants out of it.
Its amazing what my 18 year old mind thought ABOUT the world and circumstances in it and what I have to do and what I should do. And that's just great.
But 44 years later after experiencing the world, working in the world, being responsible for more than just myself, and helping many others like this inexperienced, outspoken young lady, I have very different views.
If we are to progress as a society, then we need to listen to our green youth, but we also need to listen to those who spent 44 years living, working, and being responsible as a balance from the innocents who have interesting questions, but no answers.
Zarathu
Since when you've become my spokesperson? Seriously, great observation.
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Sure these schools have seen an increase in graduation rates and test scores but those are the exact things that this student is speaking out against, a results based education. The increased test scores and the students compliance with following the rules and doing what they are told has nothing at all to do with an increase in critical thinking. 
Didn't we just have a thread about how ignorance breeds confidence in your answers?
