[HW #50]

[John Gatto]: Teacher of the Year Acceptance Speech

“Using school as a sorting mechanism we appear to be on the way to creating a caste system, complete with untouchables who wander through subway trains begging and sleep on the streets.” Gatto’s point is that schooling and education are not the same. The whole point of schools, according to Gatto is that they convert humans into obedient robots that will follow the system, and the path that the system sets out for us. “The truth is that school don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders.” By going to school, we learn that we’re in a position where there are rankings, and that we are to be subordinate to those who are “higher” than us (e.g. teachers). This arrangement gives us the mentality that we are all followers, hardly ever the ones to lead. And to be a leader would a goal we all try to meet. Gatto also makes the point that school is reinforcing homogeneity. Schools conforms us, being that we are all fed the same thing. When we finally attain that conformity and the obedience, we truly become robots.

One very interesting thing, to me at least, is that we think schools are for our education and us. And to some extent it is as we believe because the fact is that we are learning something, regardless of how efficiently we do it or how arbitrary the materials. But I think that being fed those tiny bits, we have a reasoning to stay in school and to let the school do as they wish, which according to Gatto is transform us into these “formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and controlled.” But it’s not that we just follow along, but we passively follow along. The most we do is complain about tiny aspects of the school (e.g. “I hate homework”), but that’s as far as we go in terms of “fighting” the system.” And meanwhile, we are just these tiny sheep that are being herded “from cell to cell at the sound of a gong,” until we just become autonomous sheep, who habitually do what we are told, and follow the same motion that we followed for a good majority of our lives.

[Lisa Delpit]: Power and Pedagogy

Two terms that Delpit emphasized on were “codes” and “culture of power.” Codes are fairly simple. They are the formulas that you need to follow in order to “participate fully in the mainstream of American life.” However in order to do that, you must know the arbitrary rules of the American life, and Delpit argues that school doesn’t help students learn those rules, rather they are forcing students to “attend to hollow, inane, decontextualized subskills.” She argues that the material in school is not pertinent to their outside lives, and therefore that should be changed. And for “culture of power,” Delpit just means the dominant families occupying America- the lifestyle of middle class, white Americans. Delpit also gives a list of the four aspects of power:

1. Issues of power (Power of one person/group of people over another)
2. Culture of power (Codes- presentation of oneself)
3. “Institutions…is predicated upon acquisition of the culture of those who are in power.” (Distribution of power to those who are already in power)
4. Explicitly being told that one culture is the way of success- at least that way of life is the easier way to achieve power.

It’s clear that Delpit is in favor of the students; in fact she is suggesting that we mold the classes, and not the students. Schools should adjust to the students, and not the other way around. One thing that I also found interesting was when she wrote, “Create situations in which students ultimately find themselves held accountable for knowing a set of rules about which no one has ever directly informed them… Explicitness is not provided to students.” Now I think that it’s important to know the rules and the type of we are playing, but what Delpit is suggesting seems to be a bit like spoon-feeding. Lastly, Delpit finished off with/this excerpt was cut off “Those who are less powerful in any situation are most likely to recognize the power variable most acutely.” This statement kind of explains why, even though our school system doesn’t appeal to the students, our schools are still the way they are. Those with power aren’t likely to notice the power differences (though it is arguable that they do), and therefore wouldn’t want to change anything, since they’re in a position of power and any alteration might that from them. And meanwhile, those without power notice the power differences, but aren’t able to change anything because they are “those without power.”

[Paulo Freire]: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

As Freire says, “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hoping inquiry, human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” However, he argues that schools aren’t like that at all. There is no “invention and re-invention,” just a lot of depositing. It’s just the teachers filling up students with the stuff that they learned as a student. There is a clear hierarchy within school, where teachers are superior over the students. The teachers are the ones that are seen as more knowledgeable, the ones who talk, decide, “think,” enforces, and dictates. Meanwhile, the students are expected to just sit there, act obedient, and receive whatever is being deposited into them. Similar to the point that Gatto made, students are becoming these unconscious robots that are the perfect tools for society.

I think that it is true people are becoming more and more unconscious. Going back to Gatto’s speech, between the television and schools, students do nothing but receive. Information is just being poured into their system, without much of their input. “The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as the transformers of that world.” Rarely do we, in school, have the opportunity to invent and re-invent anything. We hardly have inputs in our lives, and everything is this one straight path, arranged by some stranger. So when the comes, if ever, we wouldn’t know how to approach a situation filled with the freedom to cause whatever change, and therefore we don’t do anything to change anything. “Indeed, the interests of the oppressor lie in “changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them.” Like I said in the previous response to Delpit’s article, people with power are unwilling to change the situation that they are in, because it might lose their power. So instead, our school system is set up the way they are. Since the age of 3, people go to school and slowly learn to become subordinate. Not only does it give us the mentality that we are less, but also that there is a right answer, but someone else has it. And so we are to listen to those other people.

[HW #49]

[a]Personal Contribution
I was and am an extra. Enough said.

[b]Analysis of the Message and Tone
Our class film seem to have portrayed the message of: Reality is, despite what the teacher might say or do, students will remain the same, if not stay similar, at the end of the day.In our film specifically, Mr. C the teacher completely blows off the cover of all the students, and had this moment of revealing to the students why the role they play will get them nowhere. And even with everything said, it only took the students less than half a minute to go back to their roles, neglecting everything that was said. This film showed the audience, especially with the detail of the teacher being an alcoholic, that teachers are not flawless nor are they saviors. In most cases, teachers would just lecture the students; never go above and beyond to "save" the them. That is because the teachers themselves are trying to escape (through sleeping, alcoholism, and leaving the room in this case).

The film displayed a sense of hopelessness, as though all the characters would be doomed even after the film. The teacher would have became an alcoholic, while the students continued to be misfits, and not be well-educated. There was also a sense of indifference in this film. Regardless of what happens, people would do what they do. The students could care less about what the teacher said. Meanwhile, the teacher could care less about what happens to the students, as he is able to easily give up on them after one attempt. Overall, there was an alienated feel between the characters, and I guess that's how school really is; we're all here within the same building, but in terms of who we are as people, the students don't have much say in the teacher's lives, and vice versa.

[c] Contrast the Film With the Savior/Teacher Films

Similar to "Hamlet 2", our film had a flawed teacher, who had alcoholism as one of their his flaws. But aside from that and the carnival aspect, there weren't many other similarities. However, the message of our film was very similar to "The Class" because contrary to most other movies about school, these films had a teacher who were unable to save the students. At the end of the film, nothing was resolved but the day went on, as showed by the students and teacher having fun playing football, even after Souleyman was expelled in "The Class," and the students chatting away after the teacher left in our class film.

[d]Theorize the Connection Between Salvation and Education/Schooling in Our Culture

School as training ground. School is supposedly saving us from ignorance and poverty. It prepares us for the "real world," and whoever does the best job preparing would become the most successful. Schools are trying to polish us- to refine us so that we are the perfect contribution to society, however that might be. This is partially true; school is saving us from total ignorance at least. Although school is saving us in this one aspect, it is trapping us in another. School may save us, but it also gives us a reason for us to be saved. There are many flaws in schooling that would come at the expense of students' lives. One obvious one would be how the students are encouraged to follow this one path. Schooling in our culture is homogenizing the people in our culture. There are patterns between people's attitude, way of thinking, way of holding up a conversation, interests in conversations, etc. Regardless of who the person is, he or she would have a similar approach in doing whatever as another person. So isn't that something to be saved from?

Extra Credit Opportunity- "The Class"

1. The main issue in "The Class" is that every character was more concerned about the face they put out than the overall tranquility and the progress of the class. The French teacher, François was trying to put on the face as the authority figure. He expects respect and obedience from all his students. Meanwhile, his students who are trying to portray themselves as rebellious, empowered teenagers are expecting recognition as individuals who can get by on their own. Each of these characters was obsessed with fulfilling their roles and letting their situations dictate their actions/personalities. However each of their desires contradict each other, in that they’re both trying to gain dominance over the other. So in such cases, a compromise would be a very fitting solution. And rather than constantly have a competition between the teacher and the students (and occasionally between students and students, or teachers and teachers), they should eliminate the power struggle. In all the arguments from “The Class” each opposing sides are constantly defending themselves. They are always trying to protect their own faces that they’re not really acknowledging or addressing the other’s face. So instead of moving past these contradictions in desires, the teacher and the students are in a cycle, entering and re-entering fights , in attempts to get their identities out there. And in order to escape that cycle, both sides can benefit from each other through learning who the others really are, and what they want. Although this solution may seem very ideal, once they are able to move past that issue, the class would seem less like a me vesus you, and more like an alliance making progress.

2. I don’t think that teachers should be held completely accountable for the students’ failures in school. Both the teachers and the students themselves play a role in that. On one hand, the students are lacking interest in school- for the most part, they choose to not engage in school. And on the other hand, as a teacher, it is their job to make sure the students learn, which may require gaining their interest. Rather than the teachers responsibility being to teach, it is their responsibility to have the students learn. However, just as it is the teachers job to do so, the students should have an active role in schools as well, afterall it is their education and their life. So perhaps our educational system should be one that is more interactive- one that requires more of an input from the students. In this , it seemed to have work momentarily, where the French teacher gave the assignment of self portraits, and Souleyman finally engaged in a school activity.

In this movie, I think that teachers are responsible for the students’ failures. It seems like they are in the school for themselves and are going through the motion just to get the pay check. Most of their concerns go towards their own selfish needs. For instance, when the teachers had what appears to be a late-night meeting, they were talking about rules and leniency and how they affect the students and their attitudes. And this discussion went on for about one hot minute, before one of the teachers say “we can’t spend all night talking about this” and moves on to another topic: the coffee machine and the profits of the coffee machine. This went on for the rest of the night, or so we assume through the scene ending with that conversation going. It shows how the teachers are prioritizing their own desires over the students’ needs. Another example would be when the teachers were notified that Wei’s mom got deported. Of course, everyone shows a bit of concern at first. But soon after, before any solution/plan was discussed, one of the teacher diverts the attention to herself, and tells everyone she’s pregnant. Of course, it works and everyone instantly forgets about the lives of one of their students.

Although it may be more efficient to view this as a systematic issue, where students get punished and seperated if they’ve done wrong, it does not however solve anything for the students, and do anything for the purpose of teaching. It merely pushes the issue and and the students aside. It causes school to be a filtration system, where only the students who start off strong with interest and has no problems outside of school would succeed (and in many other ways as well). But seeing this as a individual issue has its own flaws as well, because if the teachers were to go through each student and addressed each of their issues, they would be spending a lot of time. And whether or not that time spent is worth it is another discussion, which depends on what each student/teacher values.

3.One of the crucial similarities that I’ve noticed between this film and our school is that if the students ever verbally attacked a teacher (i.e. yell at him/her for something that he/she did wrong), the teacher would instantly go on the defensive mode. Of course, this may apply to most people, but being that teachers are supposedly playing their roles as teachers- as the authority figure, it is interesting to note how they momentarily break out of their roles, to justify their other role as a person. However, one difference between the teachers in this film and the teachers at our school is that the SOF teachers wouldn’t attack back at the students (with the exception of the two senior institute social studies teachers), or they wouldn’t justify themselves through a wrong-doing of a student.

In terms of the students, I think one major similarity is that there are certainly a lot of people who puts themselves out there to appear as cool. Once again, this can be applied to a lot of people, not just those who are within school walls. People make remarks about how much they like the opposite gender, or portray themselves as tough/gangster through their word choices. But similarly there are also some people who follow Souleyman’s mentality: “If your words are less important than silence, then keep quiet.” In that one class, there seems to only be Souleyman and a few extras who keep quiet for most/some parts. And in our school, there is also only a few, some which people may view them as extras as well.

Teacher-wise, I don’t think SOF needs to change it, following the path of the teachers in this film. But perhaps, they should be aware of how much of the class/their working hours are dedicated to themselves and what they want, and how much is dedicated to the students. Student-wise, it is the same- we do not need to follow their example. When watching this movie, I couldn’t help be overly annoyed by the students and how obnoxious and whinny they were, particularly Esneralda (guess she played her role right). But meanwhile, I noticed that some, if not most of the people in our school are just as whinny as they are. People, including myself, are constantly complaining about a few extra problems given to us, constantly complaining about how much pain school is causing us. So we really don’t need to learn how to be like the students from “The Class.” However, I really wouldn’t mind if we had a few more Souleyman’s in our school.

Treatment for Savior/Teacher Movie [HW #48]

[Scene I]
His hand quickly moves the mouse. With his index fingers, he clicks the left button, and instantly he hears, "BOOM! HEADSHOT! RakShot wins the match for Red Team." As he watches the replay of his final shot, he gives the computer screen a giant smirk. Soon he hears, "Timothy, it's bed time." So he signs out of the game, turns off his computer, and goes into his bed. His mom comes into his room, tucks him in, and says "sweet dreams."

[Scene 2]
Timothy wakes up, and gets out of bed. Naturally, he goes to the bathroom, brushes his teeth and washes his face. Following the same routine everyday, he mindlessly goes to his closet and wears the same outfit that he wears everyday. After he is done, he heads down the stairs. He goes ahead and eats the breakfast that was already at the table set up for him. (Cliche scene). After a while, his mom says "Come on, it's time for school. I'm going to start the car." Timothy finishes his breakfast, and heads outside and into the car.

[Scene 3]

Timothy exits the car and starts heading to school. And as he is walking, his mom yells out "Have a good day at school." Naturally, Timothy pretends to not hear her, or at the very least not know her. So Timothy continues to walk up the stairs, through the crowded hallways, and finally gets to his classroom. Knowing that it will be an extremely long day, he gives an exasperated sigh just right before he enters the classroom.

[Scene 4]

The moment that he entered the classroom, he hears everyone talking- multiple conversations occurring at the same time. He sees people not sitting on their chairs, but on their desks. There is laughter everywhere. He also takes notice of how much taller everyone is compared to him. It does not take long before everyone sees Timothy walk in. They stare at him, and suddenly becomes quiet. Timothy looks around, scanning across the room with his eyes, and sees that all these people were silent because of him. And so, with his head down, he continues walking towards his desk, and sits down. He pulls out his notebook and pencils. As he is doing so, everyone returned to their conversations. So he just sits there and waits. Until suddenly, the clock strikes 8:30 and the bell rings. And all of the students falls silent and properly sits on their chairs within instants. Of course, Timothy was already doing so and all he did was wait. And once everyone was perfectly silent and still, that is when Timothy says, "Good morning class. I am Timothy Oswell and I am your professor for Psychology 101."

[Scene 5]

Timothy gives instructions to the students, and begins to teach the material. Meanwhile, all the students are chatting with one another, refusing to listen to Timothy. Timothy gets annoyed and puts down the books. He tells the students to listen to him and lectures them. He was always aware that his age might be an issue, in that it would result in a lack of respect from his students. So he addresses that issue without the students having to say anything. Right in the middle of his sentence, the bell rings indicating that the period ended. And instantly the students pack up their books and leave the classroom.

[Scene 6]

Timothy enters his room, and goes straight to the power button on his power. He takes off his bag, and changes his clothes as he waits for his computer to fully load. He sits down on his chair. He puts on his headset and pulls down his microphone. He signs onto his server, and enters the chat room. He says "So who are we dealing with today?" He begins playing his game, and as usual, he is dominating the other team.

Class Film Preparation I [HW #47]

• What if we were to make John's short story into a film?

• In each of the movies, the teachers went to extraordinary lengths to "save" the students in order to show they care. Like Hilary Swank and her diaries, Robin Williams and his unorthodox lesson plans, Anne Francis and her visits to the students' homes. Matthew Morrison and his monthly payments of $60 and his temporary job as janitor. Each of these actions were very obvious. I think it would be interesting to try more subtle ways of show that the teacher cares (if we decide that he/she is the type of teacher that does).

• Being that, there really is no climax in our story as students in schools, it would be more realistic to not have one in our movie. That does not, however, mean there is no conflict. But maybe, we shouldn't hype up this one event or have this ultimate solution. Most things would be at an even level, with a few bumps here and there. This may be boring, but realistic.

• Silent film? Have everything be expressed through physical movements, possibly dancing?

• [Inspired by American Born Chinese] Have multiple stories going on, each of which would seem completely impertinent to one another, but still somehow connect at the end. And maybe less emphasis on the time spent in school/classroom. Not only is that the obvious binder that connects all of these students' lives together, but it's not really the part of the day that most of us remember.

• I think one thing that sets SOF teachers away from other teachers is that they "chill" with the students. There's a lot more student-teacher interactions outside the classrooms, afterschool and such in SOF than in other schools (that I know/hear of). So I think that's something that we could bring out.

Research and Writing [HW #46]

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Within American Born Chinese, there are three stories. And within each of these three stories (which eventually intertwines) there is the theme of escapism. However each of these stories took a different approach in doing so. The book begins with the story of the Monkey King, who denies his identity of being a monkey. As an attempt to escape that, he trained multiple disciplines of martial arts... AND, he even changed his name. But after all was done, his denial was only to be denied. Meanwhile an American Born Chinese, Jin Wang has just moved into a new school, where he is the only American Born Chinese. After being told that he does not fit the role of boyfriend to a certain girl, he tries to become who he's not. Eventually Jin Wang the American Born Chinese became Danny the American Born Chinese, minus the "Born Chinese," which leads into the next story. Every year Danny gets a visit from his cousin Chin-Kee. Just from his name, you can probably tell that he is a Chinese person. But he's not just any Chinese person, he is a the epitome of the asian stereotype- accent, good at every subject, highly inappropriate, pupils that cannot be seen, etc. And every year, Danny tries to escape the shame of being cousins with Chin-Kee by transferring to a different school. We later find out that Chin-Kee is the same Monkey King from the first story, watching over Jin as his "conscience- as a signpost to [his] soul".

With my focus being alternatives to school, this book would be why those alternatives are significant. Considering our other options are important, but we should understand why that is- why would we even need alternatives to begin with, and are they worth trying? Although American Born Chinese (at least 2/3 of it) is specifically about ABCs, it describes the student life. And like I said before, each of these stories portrays some sort of need to escape. So in the same sense, are we looking to escape our current situation with schooling? This book gives several options (I might be missing a few):

1. Shape yourself into something for fitting for the situation (when Jin became Danny, and when Jin got the new haircut, and when Monkey King became "The Great Sage Equal of Heaven" and told all the other monkeys to wear shoes)
2. Jump from place to place, school to school so that your current situation isn't a lasting one (Danny transferring)
3. Say screw it all and do as you wish (Wei-Chen deciding to no longer be Tze-Yo-Tzuh's emissary)
4. Claiming to be better than the institution and try to override it (Monkey King fighting everyone who denied his self-proclaimed title)
5. Submit to authority (Monkey King becoming Jiang Tao's disciple)
6. Isolate yourself and improve on your own (when Monkey King locked himself underground and studied Kung-Fu

Many of these, we can apply many of these options to our schooling. And in fact, the last one is similar to one of the alternatives that I researched, autodidacticism. And some of these we are already applying, mostly options 1 and 5.

One thing from American Born Chinese that I thought related to our situation was when the Monkey King tried to fly away from Tze-Yo-Tzuh on his cloud. It said that even "he flew through the boundaries of reality itself," Tze-Yo-Tzuh was still able to find where he was, and follow him there. And the reasoning was, according to Tze-Yo-Tzuh, "All that I have created- all of existence- forever reamins within the reach of my hand. You I have created. Therefore, you can never escape my reach." In the same sense, we as students are created by schools. So would that mean that we can't escape this institution? Or perhaps only our minds can't escape school, since we've gotten used to having its development depend on schools. Even in our situation now, the inability to escape still seems to be present; it does not just apply to monkeys flying their clouds away from Tze-Yo-Tzuh.

In each of the stories in American Born Chinese there is not only the theme of escapism, but also the motif of the figure which each character appeals to, just like the ones that we have. In Jin's story, he's trying to appeal to Amelia, his crush. In Danny's story, he's trying to appeal to all his peers in school. And for the Monkey King, he wants to appeal to himself, but eventually to Tze-Yo-Tzuh. In all these stories, there is some sort of satisfaction that needed to be met. And that is exactly how school is. There is some sort of bar that we need to jump over in order be considered successful. And none of these characters, nor we have escaped this obstacle.

The format of this book portrays how schools and our lives are. Because in both cases, there are multiple stories going on, simultaneously. And although none of them seem to relate as they're going on, it would appear that they do. After all, they are all in the same book.