In many areas of California, there are districts in which schools do not meet satisfactory test scores. According to API (academic performance index) results in California schools however, schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District have improved their scores. There has been an increase in test scores in schools that have many low-income students, but there was mostly a drop in schools that have a lot of Latino or African American students. English learners' test scores have increased though. Many authorities are hoping to see that the school system will continue to improve with more funds.

In this article, two main points are argued. The first one is that most California schools with Latino or African American students tend to score lower in API ranks. In Savage Inequalities, statistics show that schools with more Latino and African American students tend to fail more than schools that are in communities where there are white or Asian children. Although the article did not mention it, racism comes in to play. Just like the book, statistics show that schools with a majority of students that are Latino or African American tend to be funded less, giving the students less opportunity and preparing them to fail in life. Schools where there are more Caucasian students are more prepared to help their students succeed in life.

The next point this article makes is that schools will hopefully do better next year because there will be more funds put into them. In Savage Inequalities, the author talks a lot about how schools are underfunded and how it negatively affects the students. Although the article does not go into depth about funding schools, it hints that if schools were to be funded more, they could improve. Without proper school equipment, students cannot succeed. Especially now, because we live in a world of technology students will not be able to survive without knowing how to use computers or how to read. Schools need money to operate and students need school to help them find jobs in the future.

Savage Inequalities

Tracy Truong

Williams

English 1A

25 September 2013

Teachers play the biggest role in the education system. Without quality teachers, students cannot succeed. Bad teachers will cause students to fail. In Savage Inequalities Kozol says there is a specialized class where “the curricular they follow.. ‘emphasizes critical reading, reasoning, and logic’” (132). Students in this class are given special attention by their teacher and taught skills that will help them excel and succeed in life. The class is small, so that each student has more time with their instructor. Smaller class sizes usually make a school more successful because students have more time to work with teachers individually. By working more with instructors, students can maximize the amount of help and guidance they get from adults. This will lead them down a more likely road to success than those who do not have access to any teachers or counselors. Without instructors, it is very difficult for students to know how to apply to college and try to reach high education. Bad teachers will rub off onto their students if they are apathetic. If they are bored with teaching and bring the same bored attitude to class, the students will also be bored. A teacher has to be motivated to teach and excited students about learning, as well as be ready to give advice to those who seek guidance from them. Without quality teachers to teach in schools, students will not succeed academically in life.

It's important to make sure you have passionate teachers because passion is what keeps kids in school. If a child is passionate about school, they will want to go and learn more. The more educated they are, the more they'll be able to learn about themselves and things around them. This will lead them to success in the future, because they will learn that not everything is about what society dictates. When a person is truly passionate about something, they will find a way to succeed in the future. If a teacher does not show a student what passionate is, how will students know how to be passionate in life? If a person doesn't know what passion is, he or she will not be able to live happily.

It's crucial for teachers not to be apathetic because if they stay indifferent day after day in class, students will eventually get tired of the class and not want to attend. When a person is bored, they begin to stray away from the thing that they think is boring. This leads to the person beginning to explore other things that may be dangerous and new. This new excitement may encourage the person to continue to miss school, which will result in them becoming uneducated. In the modern world we live in today, there are many bad people that plague society, all because they were never taught to be passionate about anything.

If people in society all become apathetic, there will be no way our government will hold up. Everyone will be indifferent to everything and will not care about having ambitions. Without people to strive to be leaders, there would be no government. Without a government, chaos would break out. People have to be able to be passionate enough that they strive to do what they think is right. If there are no people like that, our society would break down. That is why it is so significant that people are taught to be passionate as a young age.

TED Talk Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution

I was very inspired by this video. I strongly agree that when you're doing something you love, an hour feels like five minutes. I think it's completely true. If every student loved school then they would have no problem going every day. They'd be eager to go. I also really liked that he said not everyone has to go to college. In my family, it is expected that I go to the best college. In high school it brought on a lot of stress and in the end I failed because I hated school and soon lost the will to try. I feel very strongly about letting people live out their dreams and I think it's really important that they aren't stomped out by everyone around them. I agree that there is a linearity in the school system and that it does not help people help them find what they want to do in life.

Tracy Truong                                                                                                                      Truong 1

Ms. Williams

English 1A

2 September 2013

Conformity in Society

                         A situation in which disobedience and refusal to conform can be a positive thing is peer bullying. “Peer bullying may be considered to be a group phenomenon that does not involve only the bully and victim but also the reinforcers who encourage the bully, assistants who join in the bullying, bystanders, and defenders..” (Cho, 520). Like many things, peer bullying is something that becomes possible because a group of people enforce it. According to Cho, bullying does not only include a few people. It includes a large group of people, even those who do not actually have anything to do with the bullying. The reason why such people are part of the bullying is because they do nothing to help the situation. Without disobedience, no one will stand up to the actual bully and stop what is happening. The bystanders who do nothing do not act with disobedience and therefore are a part of the bullying because they do not try to go against it. This relates back to the idea that students in our school system should disobey apathetic teachers and stand to change the school system, instead of quietly conforming to society and its rules. Conforming to today’s society only has negative effects. It can be seen in both peer bullying and complete obedience to authority. In reality, “studies that adopted the dichotomous approach reported this proportion of aggressors to be below 10%” (Cho, 520). This means that only a few people actually try to dominate and control others. Without the support, obedience, and conformity of others, these people are really powerless.

Citations

Cho, Yoonju, and Ock-Boon Chung. "A Mediated Moderation Model of Conformative Peer Bullying." Academic Search Premier. N.p., 1 June 2012. Web. 2 Sept. 2013.