The United States educational system strong and weak points
By interviewing four different students with distincts high school backgrounds in
different parts of the United States it was possible to identify some aspects that make that should be reinforced in the school curriculum and also some points that need to be revisited in order to provide a better environment for learning and for the students to improve their academics learning and also their social skills. I chose to invite people with different social and economical backgrounds in order to make an average of what the United States public school can offer according to the areas that the schools are located. My first interviewee was from upstate New York in a town called Poughkeepsie and now he is a Berklee student. He told me that the most difficult part in school was to keep up with his classmates learning pace.That happened because he had ADD and other learning disabilities. In order to be prepared for class, his family was recommended to as for professional help with a psychologist and private tutors. The school he was going did not provide those services, and luckily his parents had the financial conditions to provide him the extra help required for him to improve his learning skills. He also mentioned that the school had a very strong music program, and since he started to have music classes in middle school the other subjects started to become easier, since he developed a better mental focus and learn how to be more disciplined. Besides the regular courses, he mentioned that one of the most important classes that he took was home economics, where he had learnt activities that are useful for his daily life, such as cooking, writing letters and cleaning in general. Music was also present in the second student school environment. But differently than the first one, he never had difficulties in learning other subjects. Although, besides the music department his social interaction was not considered ideal. He claims that it was difficult for him to fit in the school environment because he didnt have the social tools that were appreciated by students outside of music classes. Those tools were based on physical appearance (clothing and hair style) and skills in sports, which he said were areas that he did not have interest in. He also said that although the music program had a lot of different ensembles, such as Jazz Band, Martial Band, Symphonic Band, the theoretical music knowledge teaching was poor and he had to look for private lessons to improve his music skills. In the regular courses, he felt that the teachers were more interested in give all the content that was programmed than in the students learning per se. When asked if the educational system should focus more in the areas that the students were more interested he said that it would help both teachers and alumni to improve their interest in show up for classes. Different than the first two interviewees, who were raised in middle class neighborhoods, the third person who participated this research was raised in a low income area in West Philadelphia. The only program besides regular courses was sports. He claimed to be a very dexterous athlete and because of that he got a scholarship playing football. Unfortunately he got injured in his freshman year and was not able to play football anymore. Because of that he lost his scholarship and was not able to stay in college due to the high tuition values. That fact unmotivated him to keep studying and he opted for the simple life, as he calls it, working as building concierge in Boston, where his wife that he met at college is from. He said that growing up as a black male in a violent area such as West Philadelphia was very difficult and the school environment reflected that violence, when it came to relationships with classmates and also teachers and school administration. One of his complaints was that the government provided investment in metal detectors in the school entrance, but never tried any policy to prevent the violence that was happening in the neighborhood. Those conditions made teachers and students unmotivated to attend classes with one or two exceptions, most of his classmates did not finish high school or ended up succumbing to crime or drugs. In a different area, but with a similar background the fourth interviewee also did not have a variety in the schools she studied in North Shores, Miami. First generation American, daughter of Haitian immigrants, she said that the school experience was far from ideal. In the 90s bullying towards Haitians in Florida schools was a serious problem. She affirmed that the other students even elected a day to beat up Haitian students, the event was known as Haitian Fridays. Because of that, the Haitian students started to walk in groups in order to defend themselves, what ended up in the formation of gangs that now are feared in an area named Little Haiti. When I asked if the school did not take any measures to fix this social problem, she said that most of her teachers and the school principal hadnt any interest in get in the way of violent students, considering that most of them were already involved with drug dealers and other criminals. Despite all this terrible environment she was immersed, the literature classes were the area that she found the biggest interest in, and she was able to have a scholarship at Barry University, located nearby this area. Her major was African American Literature and now she gives english classes in the same High School she studied and she also teaches academic english to foreign students, where I met her last year. After compare all the iterviewees experiences it became evident one of the major problems related to the educational system in the United States of America. It seems that the lack of investment in low income areas is evident and also there are no policies of inclusion of people who have a violent background. In the first two cases, the families were able to provide all the tools to fill the blanks that the educational system had. For example, if my first interviewees family were not able to pay for private lessons and psychologist sessions, it would be probable that his school life would not be as profitable as it was. The third interviewee's school did not have any alternative than sports for their students, and also the universities, at least at the period that he was studying did not provide any support for its injured athletes. I sincerely hope this fact had changed. The universities make a huge profit over its athletes and dont give them any guarantee back, in my opinion those agreements must be revisited. In comparison with Brazilian public schools, the US schools are way ahead in terms of structures, but I think that the context in low income areas are similar. Unfortunately, I still think that the root of this problem is racism. The contexts presented to me in the interviews cant make me think otherwise. In both countries, congress and city administrators show no interest in change the the chaotic situation that poor people have to deal with. Art and sports as a solid tool to insert people in a health coexistence still seems to be the most powerful solution although those are the first programs that are cut off the budget. Both arts and sports are not more important than the other courses, but in my view those areas are the ones that improve peoples self esteem easily, and that is essential for someone to improve their learning and interest in classes, especially if you live in a society where most of the values are based in the amount of money and materialistic items that one has. In conclusion, I would suggest that education specialists should aim in a more global form of thinking about the school, because if the focus is on technical aspects, the student as an individual will never improve. It is essential for educators to consider that their compromise does not end at 3PM, and to do whatever it is possible for make the students motivated to show up in class and learn about living and coexist.