Most know that the current economic state of america is low recorded as being headed towards another depression. This means anyone who is middle class may be hit pretty hard and anyone who is strugglinf is now struggling a lot more. Sadly this happens to be the case for most people in philadelphia.

In the beginning of every school year they ask parents to fill out a little slip that says how much they make and stuff of the sort. Its mainly to determine if there child can.

1. Pay full price for food
2. Pay for small discounted food
3. Pay for grossly discounted food
4. or Get free lunch

"Activists who have long pressed the District to enhance its feeding
programs are pushing changes in policy that they say will result in
students eating more free meals at school" (Dale Mezzacappa).

It would sort of work like breakfast at the public schools. Since breakfast ingredients are usually cheaper and breakfast is actual valued more than lunch by most it is free. This new policy will hopefully get lunch prices discounted.

There are still some issues though. We need healthier foods in school, but that would increase prices. So we are sort of at a stalemate. Should  we sacrifice the health of the kids to save money like we have been doing or overcharge the kids for a healthier lunch? I'm not the professional but I am someone who is affected and who cares and we all should care about the childrens health.

A while ago a Teacher, Frank Burd, had his neck broken at a local high school. The violence has really escalated to the point where punching teachers is ok.

We seriously need to check the disciplinary actions of the schools in philadelphia because if things get more and more out of hand then it may be more serious than a broken neck.

That is what can happen to the average teacher in philadelphia now. 

 Articles show that were attacked rose from 4.9% to 5.5%, while the
percentage of secondary teachers who said the same dropped, from 3.2%
to 2.1%. The we have hit the fill line and the violence keeps pouring in and falling over into our youth.

If violence isn't stopped then it will just beget more violence in our schools. 

And it is very is to decrease the violence in our schools in ways such as

•  After school programs
• Better staff members to be more attentive to needs
• increase the teacher to student ratio
• Metal detectors
• After school anger management

As you can see there are many ways to stop the violence but it can only work if proper funding is received. If you want to know about all of these things to to this website

Philly student union

Philadelphia public schools have been struggling with funding for a long time now and they need that to function. Without it schools can't buy cafeteria lunches, fund for computers(which are extrememly necesary in this day and age), money to pay the teachers, and even books.

Who would've thought that something like books would ever be this difficult to buy. Espcially when there are so many schools and not nearly enough money.

"Hundreds of Pennsylvania school districts do not have enough funding to provide all
students with a quality education"(Fact Sheet)says Philly Student union, "Pennsylvania’s current school funding system is BROKEN, UNFAIR, and UNBALANCED.  Pennsylvania needs to put in place a new system of school funding with a
larger funding contribution from the state"

The schools need more then just pity they need:

• Money for education trips
• money for books
• money for clubs

Who are we to deny kids these things. We need to rally and get the money because a healthy environment promotes good grades and less violence in schools.

If it is a public education kids shouldn't have to pay so much to receive it. 

Have you ever been in school and gone to the cafeteria and see the most aweful looking food in there world? Yes, no, maybe so?

Well even if you answered no even though the food in your cafeteria make look, taste, and smell pretty good chances are the food itself will be bad for you.

Already this school year there are apparent cases of food born illness in some of our nation's schools.(Chris Hansen)

These kids get sick and spread it all of over the food by simply breathing around them. And they food contains so maybe food bourne illnesses from being exposed, not stored right, or even undercooking it. And the good can have illnesses like the following. 

Illnesses

• Campylobacter
• Salmonella
  
• E coli.
• etc

Also not only will the kids have the this common infections they will also feel horrible. Almost every one of these leads to diarrhea and we all no that diarrhea can be quite the painful illness. (Infections)

We really need to have better courses of action to keep food stored and cooked properly. As well as handled properly so we don't get these infections and more importantly so the kids don't get the infections

Our schools have become more and more violent as time goes by and we need ways to fight it. Truthfully external influences like friends and family morphs someones personality but that is not the basis of this. There have been many violent outbreaks in school, which consist of mostly fights using weapons

A group of eight Auckland secondary students armed with a softball bat beat a 14-year-old old at Lynfield College on Monday.(NZPA)

Weapons include

• Guns
• knives
• blunt objects
• sharp objects
• pens
• etc

It would seemsome of the best courses of action can be to not only screen for these objects at the door but maybe have kids talk to counselours frequently. The movie freedom writers shows that when kids say their problems they are more prone to not be violent(Freedom Writers)

Most schools miss the main purpose of schooling which is exiting kids to love Education and think for them self. Schooling is changed very little since it stated. Schooling were formed to revolving the farmers schedule. Still in America school uses the same schedule.  Schools should change with technology.

The traditional way of learning requires memorizing and testing students on whatthey can memories on, which letter on could be forgotten by many.  The traditional way schooling is basically brain washing students, which is a motivating for many. Motivating kids could be challenging because they are immature. As they say it takes a crook catch a crook. You got to think like kids to teach them. Kids have the lowest attention spam. Making things interesting to the kids by doing a lots of activities toengage the students and teach them to think for them selves would help much better then just telling them “stuff”. By making them reenact and engaging themin to the activity would serve them a lot. One they might grow an interest tothat filed two there is a much chance that they are going to remember it justbecause they engaged in it.

School should be a place where kids are free to express their ideas and opining and to experience things. School should be longer hours. From lots of research we know 75% of brain develops when they are below 5. Teach them things when they are blow that age such aslangheges instead of waiting until high school when you know they would not be interested on it hard for the students to understand or learn it. Scientist comes up with lots of study on what could be better for kids to learn but none of it is on practice at the moment that is just a waste. Some Canadian researcher(heard it on radio) he did a research on urban parents and middle in comefamilies on how they raise their kids. He actually find out that the urbanparent hit their kids and use inappropriate word around their child when the middle in come family try to reason with their 2 or 3 years old child. He foundout reasoning with the kinds and spending time with them even for half an hour will have a big different on the kids life. So kids should learn good ethic skill from home and school should be where they in enhance there knowledge and parntes should be as much involve in there child acandamic as much as theteachers.

You have done your job after you hook students to knowledge they would not going to let go. We would not going to have a problem who done there home work on not because students have a good working entice. School would be transform for the better.

 My vision of school kind of collides with many, but at the same time differs from others. My vision is quite simple. School should be a place that exposes students to many different things, so that they may be well rounded when entering into the world beyond that building.  It should be a place of options and opportunity, but have basic concepts that everyone should know.  A school should be able to take the interest of an individual and help them to explore it and if that happens not to be the career path they wish to pursue, then they should have other options to turn to. When a school to has plenty of options and be very helpful towards a student, it helps them. It assures them of a lot and it opens many doors for\ their future.

An open school is good for an individual because in a society where everyone has to compete for everything, the best thing to have under their belt is something that can separate them from the rest. A society and a school within that society should be like partners.  The school would educate the youth, thus giving the society educated and skillful workers. The society in return would give back to the school by being part of funding, activities and things of the sort.

My vision of school main priorities are personality, creativity, and the understanding that not everyone learns the same way. The school would value the importants of ones opinion, social interaction as well as a student having a chance at
finding their element.  The way my vision of school differs from the traditional school is that it welcomes creativity and individuality with open arms. The school that I have in mind will interact with the students on a professional level as well as a personal one. It will help kids to do better then just make it into the world; it would equip them with the knowledge to succeed and conquer anything that comes their way. My school would have the option of tests for that parent who wants it, but it would not require it. My school’s version of a test would be a project that reflects what the students understood, what they obtained over the course of months.

The way that I picture a school should be is free thinking and that the students should question and challenge everything that they possibly can, it’s more of a free spirited environment but gets what they have to get done. 

How is "do you know" a call for change and what change is it advocating ?

- it is calling for a positive change in education.

What is, therefore, the implied vision/purpose of school?

- it is supposed to prepare students for the change in the near future, the world, and the  competitive society.

High school should be the place that people go so that they can find, or get more passion for their element. Schools should have an individualized plan of study so that the students who know what they want to study can directly do so. Kids should not be forced to take “standard” classes if they are willing to commit to a specific study. In every curriculum there should be a “shopping period” of classes, so that students can test out the structure and context of the class before they commit.

High school is often seen as the level of schooling where students discover themselves, and what they want to study. However students should be given the responsibility of making this decision earlier. A student should have an idea of a field that interests them when in middle school. Discovering what you like, and what you’re curious about is an essential part of development that should be advocated through one’s entire school life. By the time a student gets to high school the focus should switch from discovery to experiments.

High school should consist of real life experiences incorporated in the curriculum. Kids should not be asked to simply learn the theory, but they should be able to practice the theory. After high school a student should have enough information about a specific topic, so that they can begin to teach, and apply it by the time they are 16. If the process of discovery starts earlier, then students would be prepared to experiment about topics they are curious about at a younger age, and gain more expertise in it at a younger age.  If the process of helping kids discovers their element is done correctly pre high school then students would be able to start high school earlier. High school would be able to start in the 7th grade. Every student should have the ability to identify what interests him or her by the time they are 12, and be prepared to indulge in these interests in high school. If students were focusing on a specific topic then they wouldn’t need 12 years of schooling to test the waters of everything. The length of high school for everyone would change, because different careers require different lengths of study. A kid studying theatre might spend more time acting, rather than learning what it means to act, so they would go off to an acting institution earlier than someone who is studying to become a brain surgeon. A person, who doesn’t know what they want to study, can take classes in the field or fields that interests them the most.

It is important for students to understand that failing is an option, if one is willing to try again. When I speak of failure I mean it in the sense that students are comfortable trying something else if their initial interest lost its appeal. Students must understand that careers are different in theory than in practice. One might love being a doctor – a person who helps another, but one might not enjoy studying the chemistry, and biology that is mandated. If a student were given the necessary exposure in a specific field then their horizons would expand. Him or her would see that there are many careers where one’s main job is to help someone become better. It’s the jobs of teachers, counselors, and coaches to administer help. When given real life experiences to explore their area of interest, students would see the common themes in careers.

When you’re young you’re likely to be adventurous, and study the thing that makes you happy, rather than the thing that makes you more money. Youths possess a degree of recklessness that if molded correctly can help them become adults who are passionate about their careers. A person under 18 is more likely to keep searching for a career that interests them than a person who is 25. When you’re a young adult most of the things you engage in is for your own self-satisfaction. If we allow students explore careers as young adults instead of  when they are adults thinking about the career that will help them pay off their students loans, then we will have more passionate people in our work fields. Passionate people are the ones who educate people. Society needs more passionate educators. Also if students failed to like something while they are still in high school where it is free to have an education, then they will not be reluctant about switching their interests and trying something
entirely new.

If I were educated in the type of school described above then I would expect to be given the responsibility of choice. I would’ve chosen the courses that I wanted since 9th grade and not until 12th. I would’ve been able to sufficiently explain physics beyond the basics to someone, because I would’ve taken it for four years instead of one. Schools that have to follow a traditional standard assume that students do not have the ability to make good choices. A school with a traditional curriculum undermines their student’s ability, and creates cloned students with the same academic background.  In a school that I mentioned above the curriculum is designed to show a student’s interest. A transcript would become something that
told you a student’s academic interest, instead of piece of paper with grades on it. Classes would be more interactive, because it would be a room full of people with common interest and common curiosity.

Students should
get something that they think is useful out of school. We choose the things
that we find useful. So the only way for a student to believe school is purposeful
is for them to choose what they want to study.

My vision of school is to offer a curriculum that helps kids find their passions and goals. (Ken Robinson’s concept is “to find your element”.) Now how this school might differ from any other school is what it has to offer. Recently schools have been very focused on things such as math, reading, sciences, and history. Which are indeed very important but avery narrow way of teaching and learning. These subjects are just one aspect of intelligence. Intelligence is a very broad thing and how we learn is just asbroad. Some students learn be moving, seeing, hearing, feeling, etc.

One thing that is very similar about education from country to country is what is valued in the today’s curriculum. Such as the subjects listed above. Is this bad? No that’s not what I’m inferring but whatschools should focus on more is the arts. Why I say this is because there is aquote by Picaso “All children are born artists, the problem is to remain and artist.” Why this is so important is that school is essentially killing creativity. It is showing the kids very clearly from what’s wrong and right.And if you’re wrong you don’t get disciplined, you get a lower grade. Now what’s interesting is a quote Ken Robinson says is that “If one never leaves room for error then you leave room for creativity.” An example of this is not just by Ken Robinson but also all over the world. Another great example could be Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan talks about how throughout his career he has failed so many times. And that is the secret to his success.

What a school should offer a student are very specialized things that students would be very interested in. Such as architector dancing culinary arts. The arts basically, I can see these schools being oneof two things. A very small specialized school and a very large school thatoffers a very wide variety of different things. The large school would have a very diverse workload since it offers many different things. I believe one ofthe most important things, as a kid is to try as many different things as youpossibly can. So that it allows the child to grow and at the same time increasethe chances that he or she will find their passion or what their good at. A very good example of this could be a new school that opened up called Science Leadership Academy. The school allows students to do internships for 3-4 hoursa week minimum. The internships are programs that the school offers that thestudents might be interested in. The programs range from college courses, unions, computer science courses, to hair salons. It literally offers up to anything that students might be interested in. This offers a lot of opportunities forthe students to explore. This serves a lot of different purposes but most offopens doors to students that they might never have known.

All of these things would not typically be in a typical high school. But I do know that because of schools like Science Leadership Academy it fundamentally changes the way that we all look at schools. What we need is more schools that offer these sorts of programs. The school should be shaped to work around the students and not the other way. What the moral of this paper is that we need to change the way we teach kids. Whatwe need to do is teach kids a different way of learning and engaging in school. 

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