5401 Summer blog

I have very mixed feelings about the lunchroom activity. I chose Justin in this activity and not by choice. I tried to pick Chad but the volume wouldn't work on any device I tried nor would the screen be anything but an all black screen. So, when I picked Justin, I couldn't see anything just the options on the screen but I could hear the volume. Therefore, the activity was not as useful for me as I wish it would've been; however, it was an interesting activity. I feel I probably would've done some different things in the activity like confront the people who were throwing food and possibly get into an altercation. I understand though that this was created in a short amount of time so there wasn't an abundance of options. I believe we discussed this in class as well. In conclusion, it was a worth while activity; however, more options and better visuals and audio would enhance this activity.

For adolescents and technology, when I first started noticing technology playing a larger role in my life as a child, it was when the Wii came out. Instead of going outside to ride bikes and play, we would go over to each others houses and make a Mii ( a personalized avatar) and play Mario Cart or Wii sports. I have never been around videos games much, so this was when I was first exposed. I feel today, video games are more prevalent than ever, are becoming introduced to kids at younger ages, (Minecraft and Fortnite for example), and are playing a role in adolescent culture and development. **This is my popular media review for Week 2, I unfortunately misunderstood the assignment and did not realize one was due every week**

In reading this week's book, In Chapters 7 and 8 about adolescent drinking, drug use and peer pressure, I found myself thinking about the 2012 movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It is a comedic drama in which a socially awkward freshman becomes friends with two eccentric seniors. There is one scene in particular in which he attends his first real high school party with his new friends, and he accidentally eats an entire pot brownie (no one said anything as he talked about how starving he was). "Low" by Cracker is playing as the frame zooms in on the young boy, and everyone sits in a circle asking Charlie, (who they have established has never been high before) questions, and poking fun at him. While it was comedic, I could not help but feel bad for the character as I am sure this has happened to many adolescents who did not know drugs could be made into baked goods! Most people would see brownies at a party, and assume they were not normal brownies. This is another ex...

I struggled with trying to find a popular media for some reason, but one that I think relates is the series 13 Reasons Why. This is a television show that talks about mental health and it also shows drug and alcohol use at the adolescent age. It is a controversial tv show that shows the struggles that adolescents experience in school and it shows the importance of mental health and why we must place an importance on it and be able to explicitly talk about it with our students. Another popular media, well not really popular media but another example would be the changing of the legal drinking age from 18 to 21. This is an example of the importance of not drinking during the years that your brain is developing and the government took a stance on it.

The Teenage Brain in Shameless The Showtime show Shameless revolves around a lower-class, dysfunctional family's antics as they struggle to find success in ghetto America. Frank, the deadbeat father, has many children of all ages, and nearly every one of them exemplifies different levels of adolescent brain development. Many of the kid's choices and reasoning illustrate the kind of logic (or lack thereof) that is mentioned in The Teenage Brain, and as I read the book and watched the show, it was very easy to make connections between them. For example at one point in the show, a 16 year old (Debby) decides without a doubt that she is ready to have a baby and fall in love. Any adult would look down on this decision and know wholeheartedly that she is wrong, but of course Debby fights back and assures that she is grown up enough to make her own decisions. This point in the show illustrates just how hard it is to reason with a teenager who thinks they know everything, and I wond...

I too picked Justin after watching the clip in class. I have to agree with the statement that the final reaction/decision was not the same as what I would of witnessed in my high school. There would of definitely been some sort of altercation in this situation. I don’t know that it would of necessarily been a physical altercation, but at the very minimum something would have been thrown back or words would of been exchanged. The lunch room was pretty heavily supervised, so there is a slim chance that a teacher would of stepped in and shit things down before it got too serious. There was a higher chance that a response would of happened in the hallway between class change. The halls were very crowded and as hard as the teachers tried, that is where of the a lot of the fights happened. For me personally, knowing how I react, I would of most likely shouted something back and moved on with my day. I grew up in Westerville Schools, the fights where usually very “gentle” compared to what...

For the lunchroom activity I picked Natasha. She seemed sort of like me that she cares a lot about school and not so much about what others think of her. She could probably be characterized as a jock even though she doesn't play sports and isn't very popular. She is approached by a popular girl, Ashlee, and through the different paths I took it usually ends with this popular girl just wanting to be friends with Natasha. Without a lot of background on the history of this relationship it seems a little bit unrealistic. I don't believe that Ashlee would be confident enough in herself to admit her insecurities so randomly one day at lunch. With that being said it is not unusual that Ashlee has a desire to be known by her peers as more than just "the popular girl". Natasha seems pretty disinterested which comes off as rude, but again, I'm not sure of the history of this relationship so it may be warranted.

I chose Natasha initially because I was interested in her "jock" attitude towards school. I chose to ignore the popular girl twice just because I wanted to see what the most "standoffish" remark would be. The popular girl replied that she thought that's how Natasha would act. It brought me back to the Mean Girls movie we talked about in class this past Friday. I understand the potential of letting someone in without knowing their intention as well as trying to not seem stand offish. Natasha, by ignoring, protected her identity in an uncomfortable situation. I don't necessarily agree with the choices because there was no room for her to explain or introduce herself .

After this week's readings in "Jocks and Burnouts" I was reminded of the classic high school film, Mean Girls . In this movie the "jocks" are the group of popular girls who run the school. The new girl Cady doesn't necessarily fit into the category of either jock or burnout until she finds favor with the popular girls and becomes a jock, abandoning her burnout friends. The movie ends in a seemingly happy but pretty unrealistic way where the jocks and the burnouts in the school all sort of blend together and get along. The popular girls no longer have all the power and Cady joins back with her burnout friends. Cady wins homecoming queen but snaps the tiara after an inspiring speech, symbolizing her breaking the social norms in the school.

     It seems as if I was one of the few people to go through Justin's scenarios. I've met many people throughout my adolescence that have traits similar to Justin so I felt I would have a good idea of how he would approach the scenarios presented, However, as I mentioned in class, I believe the activity fails to account for other contributing factors to social hierarchy in schools. The activity was very much focused on white, upper to middle-class high school dynamics. People like Justin exist in lower socioeconomic schools or maybe within these schools and I would argue that this, along with race, could dramatically impact a character like Justin's response.       I've been in all sorts of schools, schools that were divided by race when I was in the south and schools where violence could be a normal occurrence. In an inner-city New York school, throwing food at anybody would most likely result in some form of retaliation. I once was sitting in Spani...

I chose Natasha as my character she is the quiet and dedicated to her studies character. The scene started off with her entering the lunchroom and seeing an empty table. She had a stack of books and hoped that no one saw her walked over to the table alone. The popular girl walks over and the choices are not to engage or to try and get out of talking with her, so I selected to not engage because thats what I felt Natasha felt comfortable doing. And then she talks to her and asks if you want to ignore or engage so I selected to engage because I feel like thats what most people would do. And the popular girl made Natasha feel guilty for being stand off ish which I have an issue with, but this is probably a realistic scene that would happen in high schools today. I think the lunchroom activity could be a bit different but I think it gets us thinking about the importance of the situations and that is that there are very prevalent categories in high schools and the lunchroom can be a very di...

For the lunchroom activity, I chose Natasha because I could relate to her when I was in school. I was always on the honor roll and did everything I could to get into one of the best colleges in Ohio. I made sure to get good grades and get involved as much as possible in after-school activities to build my resume. I think being dedicated to school and working hard to become successful places me in the Jocks category. To me back then, I taught education was primary the only way to be successful. I also remember, there was a girl who did not like me because I was almost every teacher’s favorite. She one day approached me at the gym and wanted to fight me but after she realized I was not going to give in to the fight, she went away and never bothered to come at me again.

For my second scenario, I chose Natasha. She seems like a Jock in the sense of she is smart and involved in mostly academic activities. A common misconception about Jocks in everyday life I feel is that they are the athletes, when in reality, they are a group that benefits the school and goes along with the institution of education. Natasha would probably be considered a nerd in a modern day high school, but a Jocky nerd if that makes sense. Ashlee started walking up to Natasha's lunch table, so I had Natasha ignore her. This irritated Ashlee, so I continued to ignore her--again just to get a reaction. The result was Ashlee seeming to have hurt feelings, and say that is exactly what she expected out of Natasha. I am not sure what she meant by this, but I got the impression she wanted to talk to Natasha kindly. This was an interesting interaction between two different types of Jocks.

For the lunchroom activity, I chose Ashlee. She stated in her introduction that she is popular and it is her and her friends job to keep the school "on point". This gave me the impression that she was a snotty queen bee type of Jock. At lunch, Ashlee got quite disgusted that there was someone new sitting at her lunch table. At first I took the polite approach, (what I would do if I were a rude girl I suppose) and went over and ignored the girl. I decided to be rude to her to stir the pot just to see what the girls reaction would be, (Ashlee was quite brutal)and Ashlee's comments made her cry. This made me think of the polarization between the Jocks and Burnouts, and one group not being particularly found of "intruders" trying to enter their established friend groups. I believe this is a characteristic of Jocks and Burnouts may be more welcoming to outsiders.

For my second choice in this activity, I went with Chad. Mainly because most of my friends experienced similar situations for having arrogant classmates and believing that getting a teacher involved would help us take care of the situation. We believed that our staff just did not want to tolerate those particular students themselves. So they claimed that it was our problem and to just deal with it. It is hard for other students to take care of classmates rudeness if they were had home training. If Chad were to go up to those students and stand up for himself, there could have been a very likely possibility of a break out. Instead, he believed that the right action to take was to report them. For the teacher to shut him down upsets me deeply. I know personally that the friends that I surround myself with would technically fall in the "burn out" category because many of them have basically stated before too that they wont allow their grades to define them. For my case, I would...

For this activity, I chose Natasha as my character. Mainly because her main priority in high school was her school work and trying to show that she is good for the colleges that she was currently working towards. I believe that she relates to me because not only was she confusing on school, she still cared about her social life. Natasha was able to find balance and realize that you can do extra curricular activities and have a good number of friends because of them. From reading this book, I would definitely say that we are Jocks.  During this activity, I was able to understand personally when someone that is kind of not in your "social group" to approach you but trying to dodge them as well. I did that during the beginning of high school because I was just scared I was going to make a fool of myself or didn't want to go through the hassle of them maybe making a smart remark to me Eventually, I decided to give the next person a try and realize that their intentions was g...

"Sierra Burgess is a Loser" on Netflix is what I think, a good example using the terms jocks and burns outs. This is about how Sierra (both a jock and a burn out) ends up getting an actual jocks phone number, Jamie (a jock), by accident from a snotty cheerleader as a prank. Jamie is a typical high school football quarterback that seems to do every good deed in the world, having different groups of friends, with keeping good grades. Where as Sierra on the other had, is an outsider. Even though she is a legacy student because of her father and was able to inherent the same talents from him in the arts, she is still seemed as the "loser" to the whole school. She is considered the typical nerdy, non-athletic, fat, ugly teenager. During this time, she had only friend, her best friend at least. Over time however, Sierra was able to make peace with the cheerleader by tutoring her in english in exchange to help play temporary catfish on Jamie since she was insecure of her a...

When reading Jocks and Burnouts, I was reminded a lot of Grease, if it had taken place in the 80's. For those who are unaware Grease is an iconic movie staring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, in which Travolta's character (Danny) continues a summer romance with Newton-John (Sandy) after discovering she now attends his school. In describing Sandy and Danny in the high school setting, Sandy is absolutely a Jock, she is clean cut and focuses on school and even cheerleading. Whereas Danny and his friends priorities are on cars, hair grease, girls, and partying. Danny is incredibly popular so he has that aspect as a Jock, but otherwise I would categorize him as a burnout. Sandy gets wrapped up in Danny's world, becoming friends with the "Pink Ladies" who transform Sandy into a leather-wearing, cigarette smoking burnout herself. I feel like Grease really ties together the two worlds of Jocks and Burnouts and displays that there is not always a clear line between t...

I chose to use Chad for my character in the lunchroom activity.  He seemed to be in situations like I was in high school when his teammates were acting up and he did not want to be with them.  I chose to go away from them because that is something that I would likely do.  I am not one to usually be involved in causing trouble or picking on any other kids.  I would also be upfront if someone confronted me about not sitting with the team, as happened to Chad.  I thought this differed a little from Jocks and Burnouts.  The athletes tend to be the ones with the school pride and Eckert stated how they would typically respect authority.  This activity was more like what I see in movies and what high school athletes are stereotyped as.  This is kind of the opposite Jocks and Burnouts.  The jocks were the ones who were being the "rebels" by bullying and causing trouble.

In the lunchroom activity I choose Raven becomes she kinda seemed like me, but a little too much involved with academics and less with other activities, but that is who I chose. During the scenario I was just picturing what I would do in Raven shoes. I decided to not really confront the "queen bee" popular girl and just ignore her. It pretty much ended up like expected and what would probably happen in a middle school cafeteria. If there was a confrontation, it would probably just end up being that Raven get embarrassed, its the big talk for about a couple of days and then something new and exciting the middle schoolers can talk about comes along. Either way, this did remind me of mea girls a lot, and I think this activity did show what kind of choices go through an adolescents brain when trying to figure out what they should do in a confrontation and the consequences of each.

This situation brings me to reflect on a similar happenstance in a class a few years ago when I was arranging a study session with a college classmate.   A few seats away was a student from my former high school who was academically talented and while my intention was not to ignore him, apparently, he was offended that I didn’t reach out to include him in the study session as I later learned from a tweet to another former high school student.   Worse was that when I met up for the study session at the classmate’s residence hall, I learned the former high school student was his roommate, making the situation a bit more uncomfortable.   Exclusion was never the intention and it could have been resolved easily with the former high school student simply asking if he could join the study session.   In fact, I know that he could have probably added much to our discussion should he have initiated inclusion even though I failed to recognize his wanting to join the study gro...

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about the teenage brain today is the effects technology has on them. We discussed in the most recent class technology and how addicted kids are today to technology. For the popular media review I'd like to discuss the game Fortnite in particular. Kids are playing this game non-stop and there is so much hype around it. You don't see kids playing outside as much anymore or doing other physical activities, you see them taking on their headset to their friends at their own houses playing Fortnite. This in my opinion effects the adolescent brain and also as we've discussed this week, effects the amount of sleep kids are getting which in turn effects their performance in school. Technology today, especially Fortnite is definitely shaping our adolescent students.

A popular media connection to this week's book Jocks and Burnouts would be Riverdale. This is a popular tv series right now that takes place in a white middle class town with its focus on the students in high school. The focus is on the jocks, the over involved, in the school and community but it also shows the burnouts. Which in this case is gang related and so the burnouts are typically burnouts because they are involved in a local gang. I am actually a huge fan of Riverdale and I think that this is a dramatized version of the book but it also shows Eckerts work as well.

In regards to the books Jocks and Burnouts, the first popular media that comes to mind is the movie The Breakfast Club. In the movie, there are people from all different backgrounds and social classes. Theres the athlete, the nerd, the burnout, the shy girl and popular girl. The one difference I would say from the book to the movie is that there are more than one category for social classes in the movie. The book Jocks and Burnouts only gives us two categories and they seem to be very strong strictly laid out categories with little to no interaction from group to group. Prior to the Saturday detention in the movie, those groups did not talk and thought poorly of each other. They all come together and become friends by the end of the movie. Both the book and movie are all about the social classes in school and I couldn't think of a better example than the Breakfast Club.

Week 5 - Lunchroom Scenario Activity Reflection This lunchroom scenario activity was a fun and unique representation that fit well with the jocks and burnouts book. I went through each character at least one time and you could see the stereotypes behind both groups rather quickly. The most interesting for me was how the characters change as they interact with different social categories. Take Ashlee for example (with 2 e’s). In appearance she is dressed up in comparison to the other students. She labels herself as being popular but, she of course can’t help it she just has so many friends. Overall, she would be a Jock as she cares about the social side of school and is involved in clubs. She comes off as a mean girl who belittles others, gossips, and doesn’t allow just anyone to sit with her. However, as she interacts with others you see that she feels a bit lost and alone outside of her social group. She thinks the intellectual group ignores her for example. That character worrie...

For the lunch room activity, I went with Natasha (the brainiac) for my character. She was going to a table in the library, and saw the other queen bee girl (can't remember her name) approaching. I chose the "do not engage" option when she came near, and she said "you do know I'm standing here don't you?" I then chose to acknowledge her presence but to proceed with caution. Because I chose to acknowledge her presence, she explained that she just needed someone to talk to. In regards to the book, I think one thing that really stuck out to me was when I was trying to ignore the queen bee girl, and she said "I'm human too." Though this is really simple, I think it is also extremely profound. I think whether we are jocks or burnouts, we are longing for acceptance. Jocks find it within schools, families, and friends, whereas burnouts tend to keep to their close social burnout networks. Either way, I think in order to break down these walls that e...

This week’s discussion about social groups in high school made me immediately think of a song from High School Musical – Stick to the Status Quo. I’ve pulled some lyrics that exemplify high school stereotypes Look at me And what do you see Intelligence beyond compare But inside I am stiffing Something strange is occurring It’s a secret I need to share Hip-hop is my passion Throughout the number, various students stand up and first identify themselves by their group (basketball player, nerd, etc.) and then share something that sets them apart from their group. The whole-cafeteria reaction is as follows: No, no, no Stick to the stuff you know If you wanna be cool Follow one simple rule Don’t mess with the flow, no no Stick to the status quo Of course, being a teen musical movie, these high school cliques are overly-dramatized, but the general message holds true for most high schools. By venturing outside of your social group (and its norms), you risk gettin...

I did the scenario a second time, this time as Ashlee. I noticed that, in this scenario, I made the choices that fit my mental image of a popular girl. A lot of my stereotypes about popular students came not from my own experiences but from movies/TV. So, for example, I would have Ashlee react like, say, Regina George would react. Each group forms biases about other groups and even if you privately disagree, you must go along with your group to fit in. This was also seen with Chad, who didn’t want to participate in the harassment of other students but had to pretend like he was cool with it due to his status as an athlete. This problem can be further exacerbated by teachers and administrators who use these stereotypes as a way to interact with different students.

I really enjoyed the lunchroom activity because it made me reflect on my high school experiences and the perceptions of other groups that I had. For example, the first time I played as Natasha, whom I think was most similar to me. She talked about being involved in academics and journalism. Similarly, I also cared a lot about my grades and classes. I was also really involved in marching band and a couple clubs. When I played through as her, I chose the options that matched the decisions I would make (ex: try to ignore the popular girl, interact with her cautiously). One of the endings showed an interaction between Natasha and Ashlee, who felt as if Natasha and her friends excluded her because they thought she was stupid. This really resonated with my because it highlighted how quickly we form biases about other groups and don't really stop to think about how those biases impact them. I never thought the popular students in my school were stupid, but I definitely didn't think th...

Jocks and Burnouts in The Outsiders By this point in our college careers, most of us have probably read or seen The Outsiders at one point or another. While this book (I'll be focusing on the book rather than the movie) takes place during the 1950's-60's era, it still highlights much of the societal divisions mentioned in Jocks and Burnouts. While Jocks and Burnouts was approached from a more observational, or educational perspective, The Outsiders is a very realistic fictional work about what class divisions were like for adolescence in the 50's/60's. I think this time period was much more violent than what was exemplified in Jocks and Burnouts, but the divisions are still there. The Socs in The Outsiders are still Jocks, and the Greasers are still Burnouts. Society as a whole evolves, and while gang violence still exists today, The Outsiders paints a picture for how and why it particularly impacts adolescence. In fact, The Outsiders is considered to be adolesce...

I felt that the lunchroom activity was a nice way of illustrating many of the ideals and observations made in Jocks and Burnouts. I went through each character's scenario at least once, and it was easy to spot which would have been considered "jocks" and which would have been "burnouts." Like the book however, I felt that some aspects of the scenario are either outdated or a tad bit unrealistic. This of course is only in relation to my own past experiences, as I cannot speak on issues with bullying and cliques in every school in America. I'm wondering if another student will observe the lunchroom activity and claim that in contrary to my feelings towards it, it's very realistic. Whether or not you can relate to the students in it however, there's still something to be gained from this kind of activity. Although the dialogue may not be very realistic, the underlying themes might be. In viewing this activity I was picturing myself in a few years time. ...

So, just out of curiosity I chose to go through a couple scenarios with Justin (burnout) who walks into the lunchroom and sees "those meatheads" who clearly represent Jocks at his table taunting his friends. In one scenario the jocks start throwing food at them.  He goes to get a teacher in one scenario who basically shrugs it off and tells him to "ignore these silly little things".  This is a clear example of a jock terrorizing a burnout.  Because Jocks have better relationships with authority figures and are seen as school leaders they can, "basically do whatever I want because they just figure I'm doing something for the school.  And they know me, that I'm not going to get in trouble." (pg 115, Eckert).  This scenario definitely speaks to the book regarding autonomy and how Jocks are given more freedoms as they have a sort of alliance with the authority figures (teachers, etc.)  Justin, a burnout, appropriately tells the teacher that he is bei...

Your assignment for reflection is to do this activity and then write about your reactions especially in relation to the book. So I chose to go into the lunchroom with Natasha.  She is one of the "nerd" and she is approached by the popular girl, Ashlee with "two e's".  Natasha finds an empty table in the lunchroom and clearly wants to be left alone but is approached by Ashlee.  She is hesitant to engage. The first time I chose to ignore Ashlee and this scenario ended with Ashlee getting her feelings hurt and asking Natasha is she sees her standing there, stating she just wanted to talk. The second go around I chose to engage with Ashlee and Ashlee just wanted to ask Natasha why she doesn't talk to her and if she feels she's not smart just because she's popular. In these two scenarios, the point is essentially the same --> Natasha is clearly uncomfortable because she feels she's being approached by someone in a different ...

The biggest things that I would change is the staff at each school. The teachers are the front line of the education and make the biggest differences and impacts. That being said, it would be necessary to go around, examine, administer, and record classes held be current teachers to see what would be best for the students. If it is apparent that the teachers or staff isn't committed or even completing their duties, it's time to change up the staff. After changing the forefront of the foundation itself, I think it would be best to integrate the most creative classes in the curricula given out for every grade. Depending on the age groups, gauge the creative challenges given, forcing them to expand themselves mentally, possibly finding interest in other fields aside from science, math, or literature.  There are insurmountable opportunities and jobs for individuals outside of those three main fields of work. That being said, the more creative opportunities given to these kid...

Ashlee comes across as a hot mess of negativity. She seems to fit the stereotype of the popular girl that stays on top by treating other girls horribly and knocking them down. I would guess she operates out of fear. Her reaction to Natasha is telling. She probably views Natasha as a threat that needs to be dispensed immediately. Natasha could be a threat to Ashlee's standing at the school if she is seen associating with the "nerdy" girl. Natasha could be a threat to Ashlee's friendships as it would seem that Natasha felt comfortable enough to sit at "Ashlee's" table with one of Ashlee's friends. Ashlee seems very sad to me...like someone who has fleeting happiness at the expense of others and is unable to experience true joy.

I picked Chad for the lunchroom scene. The lunchroom is probably the place where social cohesion will be on high display. Chad seems to be working through the difficulties presented by being in the "popular" group when that group has decided to showcase their popularity by acting obnoxious. Chad appears very uncomfortable and unwilling to participate in their behavior or be associated with it. To decide to physically extricate himself from the group, and to then tell his girlfriend why he chose to be away from the group took courage...and there might be a lot of backlash for his action. He could be shunned by the group and possibly become a target of abuse if the group is abusive. I think Chad is experiencing a double bind where no matter which action he takes, he's either risking his well-being by condoning behavior he doesn't respect or by rejecting the group's behavior and risk being denounced by the group. Being in the so-called "popular" group see...

One popular media that I think relates to the modern 21st century schooling would be the show Victorious. This was a show I watched growing up, and it was based on these teenagers going to the same school but their school was for musically and artistically inclined students. They still learned their basic needs, but they were focused on arts. This is something that I always thought was cool because they all enjoyed going to school because it focused on what they enjoyed rather than forcing them to go to school and sit for 7 hours and learn about things that have no interest to them.

For some reason I have really struggled with this prompt. I have found myself sitting and staring at it several times and I haven't decided if I truly found the answer that I was trying to find. If I were to re-organize schools in a way that it made sense in the 21st century I would first start with the seating. Students shouldn't have to sit in hard seats at a desk for 7 hours. I am a firm believer in flexible seating. So flexible seating would be a requirement in all classrooms. I would keep the structure of the school. Meaning that students would come in during the morning hours when their parents were going into work and then they would get out of school around the same time they do now. We would still have summers off because this allows for students to rest their brains and enjoy their time away from school. I feel like summer break should be July and August - only two months and then they would have more breaks throughout the year. After each quarter we would take a week...

A movie that came to my mind while reading Between the World and Me was the Blind Side. For anyone who has not seen it is a movie about a homeless black teen who is taken in by a wealthy family, both of who's lives are transformed. His potential in football and school are recognized through the help of the family who take him in, and he is today a very successful man who was a professional football player. I cannot help but think of what may have happened if he remained homeless, and if his life would have turned out the same had he not been given the opportunities he was. This makes me think of Coates argument in which he states if you are black you have to work twice as hard and be three times as good. I wonder how Coates would analyze Michael Ohers situation in reference to being black in America. Would would he think about Michael needing to protect his body before and after success?

I would love to get a chance to re-organize schools to accommodate the 21st century, as I feel certain aspects of the school system are outdated, and certain important parts of life nowadays are omitted from schools. For instance, I would add more knowledge about computers and coding as a general subject, similar to math or English. Not everyone will use it but it will be beneficial. I would also like to add a financial literacy aspect to the necessary curriculum, as this is needed information but is often learned on the fly. In order to take into account diverse populations I would recruit people who have been through a similar experience as the minorities in the schools to share their experiences and recommend what they think would be beneficial. Additionally I would survey the students on what could be done to better their learning experience and update the school system every five years for how the world is changing.

This is probably my favorite question for review. This is something I would love to talk about in-depth if given the opportunity and I have written at length about it but I will try to keep this as brief as possible for reading purposes.      When it comes to educational theory or system structure, I am very interested in a concept introduced by Plato in The Republic. When reading Plato’s Republic, a central idea is always present when discussing the education of the citizens of the Republic. That idea is specialization.      We have many different systems in places such as charter schools, public schools, private schools, homeschooling, and other experimental types of schools such as Sudbury schools. Americans are preoccupied with the idea that more choice allows for the creation of effective schools. I would argue the contrary. Having multiple diverse types of schools using a variety of systems only works to the detriment of both students and society....