Hwk 40

Part A:

Me (Interview 1):
How do you think the neighborhood around a school have an affect on a student’s learning?
A neighborhood can have a big affect on a students learning. For example if the school a student goes to is a school that belongs to a neighborhood known to be full of sexual offenders and people doing drugs, then the child will either feel uncomfortable going to school or pick up from other peoples negative behaviors. If the school is located in a kid friendly environment where the others surrounding the area have a positive impact for younger individuals, then they will feel safe and look forward to going to school. Also pick up on their positive behaviors.

How would your ideas about college be different if no one had influenced you to go to college?
I guess I wouldn’t be too serious about going to college. Right now for me college is mandatory. If I wasn’t influenced by others and society about college I would be doubtful about my future and wouldn’t see myself doing anything productive in the future.

Do you think you would go to college/grad school if you could get the same job without going?
Yeah, I would still go because going to college and grad school helps you determine if you are really capable of doing what you want to do in the future. You will be trained and experience what you are interested in doing. This will help you feel as if you really gathered all the knowledge and insights you needed to be where you are. If you skip college and grad school and start to work in the field you are interested in, then you wouldn’t be performing tasks using prior knowledge and experiences taught to you by professionals.

If school was reduced to three days, how would that increase your desire to go to school?
Hmmm, I think I would be happy and relaxed for the first week or two of school, but it may cause some negative effects one me. For example I would get lazy about doing my school work, I would start to slack off and try doing everything on the last minute. It would increase my desire to go to school because I would want to actually be doing something and consider myself doing something productive more often. I would get to learn more insights from others and socialize as well with the people I see in school everyday.

Mom (Interview 2):
Do you think by going to a private school instead of a public school a student will have a better chance of succeeding?
It depends on how willing the student is in learning and how caring they are about their education. If you are not committed to your studies then it doesn’t matter what school you go to because you will not get far in your studies. The material taught in these two types of schools may be different, but it depends on you and how serious you are about learning.

How does success in school connect with success in society?
In school we are all taught many things that we will use in some part of our life. It may not be all the things taught by the teacher, but we will remember our experience of being a student in school. By taking all the things we have learned in school, we will be able to make decisions in the outside world. Hopefully these decisions will make a positive impact in our society. Since we have been familiar with schooling since we were all very young, it has helped shape us into who we are now. We take away many things from school and they help us play our part in society.

Nabil (Interview 3):
What type of an environment does a student need to succeed in school?
A student needs an environment that is filled with others that are willing to help one another. Teachers that are always there pushing for their students to do their best in and out of school. Adult figures that are there for the child when they are in need for any type of problem and providing them with a solution.

How does success in school contribute to success in society?
When you do well in school you become a smart and positive person in life. This leads for you to be successful in the future which means you will be successful in society because you are doing your part.

How has the influence of others affected your decision to go to college?
Even though others have made my decision to go to college un-doubtful, I would still go to college if others hadn’t pushed me. I guess they have made my decision to go to college more permanent. If I wasn’t pushed to go to college, I wouldn’t be too serious about college; it would only be an option.

Do you think you would do better in school if you were to construct your own curriculum?
I think it depends on what the school has to offer you. If it’s all the basic stuff, then I wouldn’t be too excited about constructing my own curriculum. If they had to offer a wide variety of subjects then I would feel that I would do better in school because I would be focusing on something I am interested in and might be using in the future.

Nedra (Interview 4):
What type of environment does a student need so they can succeed in school? Why?
A student needs to learn in an environment that they will feel safe and comfortable in school. Students need to be surrounded by people that will offer different skills to help them out. They need to be able to relate to others and be able to grow from them. They need a sanctuary that they will not mind spending long periods of times in. All these things are important for a child to succeed in school because if you do not feel safe then there would be no way you will be able to learn much. You need to be surrounded by others that you can relate to, and also differentiate from so it will help your mind expand in all directions.

In what ways does success in school contribute to success in society?
School is an atmosphere that provides us with skills. If we master the material they teach us in school, then that will lead many of us to have an advantage in society. We will be able to build off of what we learned in school and try to make our society better for all of us. It will help us know more about the system of society and together we can overcome problems that we have to deal with. With gathering ideas from others we can create solutions we can all agree on.

How has the influence from society and others affected your decision to go to college?
Part of succeeding in society is that your level of knowledge is primarily looked at by the years of education you have received. How much you spent your time on learning new material and how well you did in doing so. College is very important to me because I want to go into a field that will help me get good money. To do that in this society, I have to stay in school for a while and do well. This will help determine where I will end up in the future. Our life now days depend on our education; no education then you’re screwed.

In what ways do you feel a Private/Public school teaches interesting material?
In my experience different schools seem to focus on different things. I was in a private school when I was younger, and I noticed that there was not a lot of test taking or diversity in the classrooms. It was pretty laid back, they weren’t very strict. They looked at me as a person not as a student. In my private school (Calhoun) the classes were much smaller, less people in total and there was more interaction with the teachers. Personally, I don’t think going to a private school benefited me. In public schools they offer learning from students as well as teachers. They push us to do better as well.

Michelle (Interview 5):
Do you think you would be better off in school if you constructed your own curriculum? How so?
Yes, because I will be able to choose the material that I would like to learn. I wouldn’t be learning any of the useless stuff that I will not need in the future. If I choose my own curriculum, then I would be more interested in school because I would be learning the topics I like. This will hopefully help me do better in school. I think that we all need to know the basics to survive the outside world like math, but still be able to choose what we are interested in as well. For example taking a life skills class and taking algebra.

What do you think about the idea of school being reduced to three days a week?
As long as we are able to learn everything we need to know in those three days then I think it would be better. We will be able to get more time to do homework and study for tests and quizzes. It will also give us more time to do more extra-curriculars, and spend more time with our family and friends.

How does success in school contribute to success in society?
The society views education very highly, which will lead us to having better careers and being successful at we do. When everybody is happy then we are all able to contribute positive things into our society.

Part B:

I wanted to focus on one of the questions I asked a few people throughout my interview: How has the influence of others affected your decision to go to college? Most of the answers stated that they would still go to college, but they wouldn’t feel too serious about it. They feel as if the decision to go to college is made permanent because the society asks for it. If they weren’t influenced to go to college, they would still go because they wouldn’t feel as if they would be able to succeed in what they want to do with their life. The option of college would still stay in the minds of many, but only a few of us will actually get to go if we weren’t pushed to do so.

I think society plays a big role in our education and how we will end up in the future. If we weren’t pushed to succeed in school then our generation would suffer with many problems in the future. Our education seems to be priceless because it determines our future in many cases. The competition is rising year after year and it is getting harder and harder for all of us to receive the best education out there. In some cases, many of us are lucky that we are able to receive an education. The individuals that never receive a good education don’t do well later on in life in many cases.