What Are you Really Learning at School?

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What Are You Really Learning at School?

You sit in math class while the teacher drone on about basic math such as how to add, subtract, divide, and multiply. You think to yourself, “Why I am still learning this, I learned this like in elementary school?” You’re afraid raised your hand knowing what the other kids will say, “Why’d you have run your mouth, we could of being doing the easy stuff instead of this hard math. I actually could have passed math for once in my life since elementary school.” You as this unpopular person sure doesn’t want to get more unpopular than you were before. Instead, you sit back listen to sounds of kids rustling their notebook paper or homework to form spitballs to shoot at peoples’ heads or the endless beeps of text messages being sent to each other or the mini screams of girls after they receive a request for prom date. Parents wonder why their children’s report card is so amiss and unacceptable when they receive them but parents really don’t know what teachers are teaching their children in school and something needs to be done about it and change for once and for all. Many reasons lead up to what are we really learning in school such as unacceptable scores on MSA and HSA, not enough skills to succeed, and not being able to use their own imagination.

When parents receive the child’s MSA or HSA report, the results are shocking. Children come to their parents with scores of low average and average but on their regular school tests, they would get above 90% never below 80%. Scores taken from elementary schools since the MSA have plummet, The Baltimore Sun states, “The percentage of third-graders at the school who passed the state reading test plummeted from 100 last year to 50 this year. The percentage of fourth-graders reading at proficient or advanced levels dropped nearly 43 points, from 100 percent to 57 percent. Fourth-grade pass rates in math fell from 100 percent to 68 percent, and fifth-graders’ pass rates in reading dropped from 100 percent to 80 percent at Abbottston Elementary.” From Abbottston Elementary School in Baltimore City, MD to Baltimore Liberation Diploma Plus High School, MSA and HSA test scores have dropped leaving other schools ahead of them and putting them behind in the dust. In this particular elementary school, scores were higher last year than this year, their school’s scores overall decline more than 50% . Which means what are those teachers teaching that made those children do worse than before. Or maybe teachers had the books altered last year to cheat for the students because they knew their students weren’t prepared. Now, this year maybe they decided forgot the “cheating part” because they knew they would eventually get caught and probably prayed that their students would be able to pass with the same high standards. But they didn’t happen so, the school is now under speculation. First of all, The Baltimore Sun also states, “Baltimore City schools’ results on this year’s Maryland School Assessment tests are a terrible disappointment. Although the overall declines in reading (3.3 percentage points) and math (4.9 percentage points) are not catastrophic, the results from individual schools paint a more troubling picture. Of the 50 schools that showed the largest combined drops on math and reading scores since 2010, 45 were in Baltimore, including 19 of the bottom 20 and all of the bottom 10.” Reading averages and math averages are decreasing steadily unlikely in smarter schools but what are the teachers teaching that’s making test scores drop. Parents, have you checked your child’s regular school tests coming home, aren’t they passing with high B’s and A’s but now, you receive your child’s MSA scores. They unacceptably low actually below average especially in reading and math. You think what are these so called teachers teaching my child. If they are pass in regular grades, why couldn’t they pass this MSA? Are the teachers making test easier for their job or what? Maybe they just do it for the money or is the principal checking up on their students and teachers’ progress making sure no one is slacking?

Do you seem to find that your child or now full-grown teenager doesn’t have the right skills to help them succeed in life to able them to get a high-paying job? Do they find themselves working a local store as bagger not as a manager? Well, not having the right skills to succeed in life being taught in school is a problem too. teachers don’t understand what a child goes through or doesn’t understand. In an article called, Cultural Diversity and Academic Achievement”, The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) reported that, “Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and many children of color consistently achieve below the national average in mathematics and language skills, with the gap widening as children continue through their school years.” Teachers aren’t focusing on that one child that needs help, they’re too worried about how they class is going to react to something. Studies show that, “1 out of 10 children are afraid to raise their hand, ask questions, and seek help because they’re afraid of what they’re classmates will say.” It’s not always the child’s fault either because if a teacher sees a child failing, they need to help by being more encouraging. This one of skills that needs to be successful in life, other skills are leadership, honesty, imaginative, and trust. Secondly, a psychologist, Jean Piaget did research about child development said, “Over the past half-century, child development research has provided an increasingly comprehensive knowledge base to explain how young children acquire skills and knowledge and define the environmental supports needed to stimulate and sustain development.” Schools have ignored or rejected different cultural expressions of development that are normal and adequate and on which school skills and knowledge can be built. Consequently, children from poor families have been judged to be inadequate because they do not already know nor do they easily learn the school curriculum. .

The world needs more and more compassionate creativity to solve difficult problems confronting us. Creative students do not have answers, but they habitually question the status quo and think about alternatives and improvements. They discover and invent possible answers. A Doctor of Education, Marvin Bartel Ed.D.speaks out and says, “As teachers, we are often partly to blame for the diminished inclination to be creative as children become socialized and aware of their own limitations.” In creative teaching, assignment limitations can provide a way to change the student’s habits of work. However, the student needs to be given autonomy to make choices about what seems important. Otherwise, the motivation to be creative is lost. Third and most final, Marvin Bartel Ed.D. also says, “Teachers abandon their imaginative and creative curiosity about life in favor of a more secure, but imposed and programmed kind of thinking habits.” The accept answers from the Internet as correct (without enough thought). When this happens we miss many good ideas as well as risk injustice by manipulation.

You sit in math class while the teacher drone on about basic math such as how to add, subtract, divide, and multiply. You think to yourself, “Why I am still learning this, I learned this like in elementary school?” You’re afraid raised your hand knowing what the other kids will say, “Why’d you have run your mouth, we could of being doing the easy stuff instead of this hard math. I actually could have passed math for once in my life since elementary school. Some child development experts are concerned that schools today are unacceptable scores on MSA and HSA, aren’t teaching kids the skills they need to succeed, not being able to use their own imagination.A culture of testing, they say, is inhibiting the development of “life skills.” Curricular content aside, what do you think you are really learning at school? Are you developing skills that will carry you through life.