When will I ever shut up? Probably never...

Okay so today in class, I felt like I had so much more to say on the topic of tracking (I know you're not surprised!). So I just reread my blog that was due Tuesday and I'm now thinking about class. I remember when Professor Bogad handed out the sheet and I started laughing when I saw the first question. I wasn't necessarily insulted only because I knew that there was a point behind this. Professor Bogad never gives us something without a reason. So I thought I was playing the game (just getting through the assignment) and wait around for everyone to finish. I will say I was pretty surprised and amused by everyone's reactions to the assignment. Some were stressed, anxious, worried because they didn't print the article and bring it with them. I, ironically, actually printed and brought the article with me. Something I never do. I'm usually all about saving the trees. It was pure chance that I even had the article with me. So we were supposed to rip the paper up and refuse. Unfortunately, we were, yes raised to obey without questioning. Can you blame us? We have been taught the codes of power our whole lives. Interestingly enough throughout the conversation of tracking, again some felt like it works some felt like it didn't. Again, I bring it back to personal motivation of each student. Also, Professor Bogad I am very intrinsically motivated which partly another reason I went through a lot of hell at the end of my middle school and beginning of my high school years. The codes of power come down like a hammer against kids like me. blah. I was always the kid who pushed to be the best at everything I did, in sports, in school. I got trophies and awards for academics and sports. Everything I did, I had to be the best at what I could be. It didn't matter to me that I could get treats at the end. I rarely cashed in by the way. Having more stars showed myself and others that I was that awesome. When I was in 8th grade, I was 14 I think, I began to have a major idenity crisis for many reasons. I won't go in to all of them. But one of these crisis was my self worth. I had realized somehow at the age of 14 that my trophies and awards MEANT NOTHING! Why did I need them, I didn't. I threw them all away. My awards for school, I ditched those too. I had realized that all the motivation I needed was inside of me. I didn't need stars, I didn't need stickers and all that stuff that teachers handed out. Unfortunately around this time, I had other issues, and my desire to learn a certain way was not being matched by my education system. Quite frankly, it completely sucked. I didn't appreciate that I couldn't listen to music while I did mind numbing unfulfilling worksheets like the one we did in class today. I didn't appreciate that I could not be critical of things we were learning in social studies or even why we called it Social Studies. For my MCAS testing, I wrote an entire essay of why we shouldn't be told what essay to write for the test. That my ability to write critically and analytically should have been the importance. That I didn't appreciate being told that MY OPINION was the wrong one. For years I fought with my so called "educators". I was kicked out of classes, labeled, punished, relieved of all my responsibilities as a student because my teachers felt no responsibility for teaching me. I was written off as a great failure. My former teachers who expected so much of me wondered what the hell happened. They didn't realize that I had the strongest desire to learn, and was extremely motivated in the most important way. I just didn't want to learn the way they wanted me to. Again there were other aspects that I didn't particularly at the time share with them. They figured it out eventually but thats another story for another time. I took it upon myself to learn the stuff without them. So they kick you out. I moved across the country. I learned that if I wanted to get through school, I had to play by their rules. So I played the game. I just added my own twist. I found ways to sneak my points of view, my sarcastic humor in a history paper. I wrote proverbs up on the board in my government class at least once a week that allowed me to display things I felt should be shared with the class. A class that was so drummed into read this chapter and answer these questions. I still have the list of proverbs that I posted. In my math class, I showed up determined to do more objectives than anyone else in the class, without breaking a sweat. I had a competition with another student for two years. I made that class bearable by reminding people I would never use the quadratic formula and if I ever needed to know how to problem solve that included imaginary numbers, I would retire from my job and spend my life doing all of those equations that I skipped. I appreciate the math that I do know when I'm tutoring the fifth graders who have no clue by the way to multiply a simple equation such as 524 x 8. I loved science because instead of learning the dumb periodic table like at my old high school, I got to take Marine Biology and Astronomy. We were taught by an amazing woman who challenged us every day and brought science into my every day life. I think we need more classes like that. In my old high school, I had to memorize the dumbest things in science and I couldn't tell you any of them. But I can find the stars in the sky, and I am an avid believer of not killing marine animals. I can even name crustaceans. We didn't just sit there and read books. We went to Sea World! Did I mention that at this high school we weren't separated by ability except for in Math. In fact most of my classes were a mix of freshman to seniors because of the size of my school. Like I said in class, I feel like most classes can be taught around different abilities, I just haven't figured out how to get around that in Math. Most school subjects can be taught without the useless inane homework assignments (though, math, how do you get around the 50 problems per night?) See this is where I get torn in two about Tracking. On one hand it may help, other hand is that it may help. Why does all the articles in this class have to make me think so much about everything. I even talked to one of my friends about it over lunch. He said it can be detrimental to lower ability students and positive for the smarter kids. He also said that mixing can be detrimental to both groups. Something I agree with to an extent. I would say it depends on the subject, depends on the teacher. I am also starting to think WOW thank god I want to be a P.E. Teacher and not a math teacher. I think that if we're going to get rid of tracking in schools, we'd have to get rid of standardized testing. I'm thinking about other countries now. We read all kinds of articles about the education system in America. I want to know what people are writing about their education system in other countries. Are we the only country who thinks we have so many things wrong with our education system. I think it would be interesting if that was included. I will probably when I get a free moment one day, after this semester is over because I have no free moments this semester, to take a look around and see if I can find articles like these that we read for countries like Spain, Italy, England, Canada, Mexico, Peru and et cetera. HEY that should be a class offered here. It could be the multicultural credit or whatever that's called. I would totally take that class. Okay I am going to class now.