Author Archives: Pablo Oliveira

Teachers Union vs. Teachers? Here we have a teachers’ union which was created to improve teachers but instead it tends to bring teachers a lot of problems. Teachers believe that the union is sort of “disorganized.” Some teachers believe that they deserve to get paid more than others and that their salary should be judged according to their performance. I believe teachers are taken for granted a lot of the times. I also believe they deserve a better salary if they are willing to study for a better degree, such as doctors are rewarded with better salaries for specialization. Watching the video in class made me come to the main conclusion that teachers are arguing about salary. I think that if their salary was better, education would be better. As we all know society today does depend on money as an incentive, and the more money teachers are offered the better job they would do in the classroom.

How can we improve teachers’ salary? Do you think education would improve if their salary also improves? Is that what our education is missing nowadays?

Chapter 12 focus on censorship and similarly to Chapter 11 it also touched base on how teachers fight for theirs and students’ rights. Both are subjects that were wanted to be taken care of years ago but apparently were not since we can see it today in our every day lives. I believe censorship affected children back then, and we should all realize that nowadays in which I believe censorship is worse than what it used to be affects our children even more.

How does censorship affect education and our children today? Could parents help teachers in their fights? How can society come together to solve the issues with education? What do we need to do to ban censorship from our children today?

Schools and tests; how are these two related to each other? Does it mean that if I ace all my tests and only focus on them I would be a better student? Or that I would know more about life and what to do to succeed? Is it possible that this emphasis on tests, and only tests, to pass a class are pointless? What does that mean if you are a bad test taker? Does it mean your future is basically done because you can not pass a test because you get nervous and don’t do well?What has the measure of education as a test come down to? Unfortunately what we, as students, have come down to is papers and grades deciding our future. Now with all the technology and advancements in our lives today, is that really the only option the school system and society can come up with? I do support the concept that meritocracy is a great idea overall. Meritocracy is the measure which is based on how hard a person works. I am however totally against the standardized test in which I see as the main flaw of meritocracy.

On the other hand, now we also have the sterilization concept. I feel this makes no sense logically since it totally violates the idea of equality and I see it as a violation of human rights.

How can we stop discrimination in schools? How can we improve meritocracy in today’s society?

WHAT IS NEW? I mean isn’t this all that we have talked about so far, on how immigration affects people lives not only socially but also educationally? Or how can our school system be improved? It is pretty obvious by now how our book shows a huge impact at education based on immigrants, as it is showed and spoken of kids back then did not have the liberty they were supposed to. First they had to obey whichever rules of segregation they had then, and now I feel the concept of them being “shoved” with the american culture still persists. In which unfortunately affects their studies and also it can be an impact on their learning abilities and fears.

Now do we all think that teaching morals have to start at school or home? Should anyone’s children go through fear from a young age so they can learn what is good or bad, what is wrong or right, or whether do you have to either always keep your culture in mind or just forget it and learn the “american way”? These are questions I believe we live with every day, but what I do not think is right is all this being throw at kids who are in kindergarden still. How hard is it to improve our school system huh? How hard is it to keep everyone in the same page? Can we even do it? How?

Once again we are back to the topic of some sort of separation or discrimination in society, but the difference in this case is that people finally realized that women could have their voices heard in society and that there was nothing wrong with them going to school and learning, so women gained the power to go to school, to learn and to teach. Some people would even say that women were better teachers than men because of the maternal instinct, just like Norton had mentioned this is how women started gaining their power and place in society since this was basically their first regular basis job women were offered.

I personally agree with Norton and I believe women getting educated and teaching not only improved the schools and kids who were being taught by them, but also for those mothers who had to stay home with the kids, it was very convenient for them to have some sort of knowledge so they could share it at home. I mention separation or discrimination earlier in a way as we all know women were not as influential in society back then and since our classes have really focused on discrimination or difference between people I thought it had some sort of correlation with our topics. The correlation is to improve and develop professional teaching and schools.

Are women better teachers than men? How so?

How have society changed since women became a “voice” for education? Did our professional teaching develop?