My first tutoring session at I Have A Dream
was very exciting. While I wasn’t completely sure what was going on, I really
enjoyed working with the students and seeing how bright they are. I was
surprised to find the students ready and willing to learn the new material. As
a math major, it is very exciting to watch young students learn how to solve
simple algebraic expressions. I expected my student to go through the process
using the designated steps assigned by most teachers to solve for x, y, or z,
but they did not use these steps. Instead, they went about the problem in a
more intuitive way, actually considering what the expression represented and
then solving. People think about numbers and math in extremely different ways,
and I have always found the methods people use to be interesting. A huge
concern of mine, however, is the negative attitude people have towards
mathematics.
In Waiting for “Superman” Davis Guggenheim cites a student’s aptitude for math and science as
an indicator of their future success in academia and in their career. This is
certainly something echoed in our government and the media when discussing the
success and failure of our public school system. If this is the case, why do I
STILL hear students, even those in my classes RIGHT NOW, say it’s not important
to know basic algebra? And why do I quietly listen to these individuals say how
math is something you’ll never use in college? Is it really that humorous to
not remember how to graph a line on the Cartesian coordinate plane? How can we
teach students that math and science is important if we do not believe it
ourselves? I know this is often said, but a person would never brag about poor
reading skills, while bragging about poor math skills is commonplace. I was
thrilled to see a number of the students at IHAD proudly say that their
favorite subject in school was math or science. I hope their enthusiasm lasts
through high school.
After finishing the algebra homework with a
student at IHAD we began the reading portion of tutoring. This is when the
student either reads out loud to me or we read together. The books they read to
me was a biography of Malcom X. I found this to be a fascinating choice for the
child, making me feel like I was in exactly the right place at the right
moment. I couldn’t quite place the feeling I had as I helped the student read
this biography, mostly listening to them and occasionally helping to pronounce
a word. I am sure that to the student it was simply another reading check on
their nametag, but for me it was something much more meaningful.
While The Shame of the Nation brought to light the segregation polluting our public schools, Waiting
for “Superman” demonstrated how the very system
that creates our public schools is failing. It bothered me how Guggenheim
seemed to believe that charter schools were the only solution to the problems
of the families he highlighted during the documentary. Shouldn’t there be a
focus on how to help fix the public schools rather than simply abandon them?
According to the film, a main reason for the problems within our schools is the
process of tenuring teachers. Something I noticed was the lack of any
perspective from a teacher on this topic. The film made unions seem completely
evil institutions committed to keeping lousy teachers in the classroom despite
the obvious harm. It would be helpful to list some of the benefits of the
unions for teachers along with how they are helpful for the schools.
Here’s an interesting clip of Michelle Rhee
on CNN:
My friend, a Teaching Fellow, said that the
film was “touted as this great inspirational movie, but it didn’t offer any
information … there was no educational philosophy or solution to fix the
problems” and to a certain extent I agree. While it is important to raise
concerns around our public school system and its need for improvement, Waiting
for “Superman” does a poor job giving realistic
solutions.
I truly think that the past economic
success of this country was a result of the well education generations before
mine that pushed for change and development within the United States. The
future of our country will quickly be in the hands of my generation and
generations after mine. If Americans are not well educated then I can’t imagine
much economic and social progress will be made, especially if the United States
wants to stay a world power. A book review by Bill Gates points to the need for
educated adults, “This is especially worrisome because more than half of
jobs today require a college education, and that trend will continue. By 2018,
the demand for workers with college degrees will exceed the supply of college
graduates by an estimated 3 million. Meanwhile, dropouts and workers with only
a high school diploma will have an ever harder time finding fulfilling work.”
There is a problem with our public school system if students cannot get the
required education to gain admission to a four-year university.
What we are doing with I Have A Dream is
important because it helps to give these students a leg up on their education
and hopefully help them progress into high education, but there needs to be
more work like this in communities. Waiting for “Superman” shows us that something is broken in our educational system and we
need to take action to change it. This could be within a community or on a
local, state, or national level.
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