Should We "Let Teenagers Try Adulthood"

The essay, Let Teenagers Try Adulthood, was written by Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College. The essay states that we should send teenagers out into the world earlier to get jobs and/or continue their college education. This would allow the students to learn to contribute to and join the  society.  Botstein also wrote that the current education system is outdated, both culturally and biologically, and that is why he suggests that students instead graduate at the age of sixteen. I do agree that the education system is desperately outdated and needs reform, but I do not completely agree on his new education system setup.

Is sixteen too early for students to be sent out into the world? Maybe. Some students need the two extra years to mature. Others are ready to start their lives separate from their parents. Would changing the graduation date, two years earlier, change how we, as a society, look at who is an adult? Would a teenager, at sixteen, be legally an adult? Changing our education system, so that students graduate at sixteen, would be a huge change to our society and even to some of our laws. I believe that we should keep the graduation at eighteen, but allow for more freedom and exploration into the future. It would allow for the teenagers to have more time to mature and prepare for their future.

In the essay, From Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Horace Mann wrote that the people with the higher education get the majority of the wealth. Botstein wanted to forgo middle school, add 6th grade to the elementary schools, and lesson the amount of time spent in school by two years. I do agree that middle school was rather like a place holder and not worth the time and may be eliminated. Would our students, with less time in school, still get the same knowledge, will they leave high school with a better education, or will they leave with less than those who are using the current education system? I would worry that with a decreased time limit, the students would obtain a lesser education. This could also effect our wealth, with so many people obsessed with their own wealth, it would be something to address.

Both Botstein and Todd Gitlin, author of the essay The Liberal Arts in an Age of Info- Glut, complain that the education system is outdated. Gitlin wrote that it is because of the thousands of images that a person sees a day, by television or otherwise, that the majority is garbage and it causes a disregard for the liberal arts. Both also addressed that the world is different and our education should resemble that fact. This is something that I completely agree with. The times have changed and so have we.

While Botstein's idea of students graduating at sixteen is not the most appealing, his thoughts on modernizing the education system is ideal. Also allowing teenagers to 'try' adulthood is a great way to create a brighter and better future. Reforms are necessary, but more thought should be put into our ideas before we make any changes.

 

Literary works are teaching values?

In the essay, I Know why the Caged Bird Cannnot Read, Francine Prose criticized the use of literary works to teach students values. She wrote that focusing on one aspect of the challenging and extraordinary literature, takes away from the actual writing piece. I have to agree that Prose is correct in her allegation.

Most teachers focus on the values: good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, racism, sexism, and it continues to include everything wrong or right in this world.  We push these novels on students, not because of their ability to challenge our students on a more literary standpoint or to increase the students' reading ability, but to teach them our values. Teachers have students read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird to teach students about racism. To Kill a Mockingbird also has the ever present good vs. evil with its simplified characters. Why are they talking about ethics, when the point of reading these novels is to learn to appreciate the writing?

When did reading a novel in Language Arts class become less about the language, the style, the characters, and all of its complexity, to become more about teaching lessons that most students at the high school level should have already learned. Teachers have to show what is beneath the surface and what is above it. In the novel Gone with the Wind, Scarlett's character has much more depth than being just a selfish woman. Her character was a modern woman placed in a time that being a business woman and a woman that fought for what she wanted was not something that was accepted in the late 1800s. Teachers should not simplify novels, just because they are a harder novel to read and understand.

Teachers should have students read classic novels and intricate modern novels. They should show the students the elaborate plots and complex characters. The Style and the language are also important elements, that should have more time dedicated to them. If these aspects are not addressed, are we really surprised that many students do not like to read? The reading lists of the Language Arts classes should be changed and the lower number of students that like to read should also be addressed. What happens in Language Arts classes can and will influence some students' future reading comprehension or if they read at all. Language Art teachers, especially in high school, should leave teaching values to the students' parents or elementary teachers and start focusing on the writing itself.

Queen of Education

The question on many people's mind is what we should do to improve education. How do we change our education system? Many people have, over the years, complained about our education system and they want change. They keep so- called "reforming" the school system, but everything looks the same, all the books are the same, the children do the same things, it is the same as it was before. Reforms are needed to create a competent and successful new generation. This new generation is, many people hope, going to pay off our debts and lead the country to prosperity and happiness and even allow us to compete with other countries in all areas. Reforms for education are a necessity for a brighter future.

Our students’ effort and participation in schools should be recognized and they should be appreciated. Everyone has a different area that they are good at. There are also many different kinds of smarts. People can be horrible test takers or just bad at school and still try just as hard, if not harder, at school work. We say that effort, hard work, and perseverance will be rewarded, but where is that reward in the education system? We should award those that work hard at it, not just those that get the best grades.

Grades should not be everything to students, but they are. Grades help decide your future, your collage, and your future occupation. The importance of grades has been related with an increase in cheating in schools around the nation. In recent years, teachers and parents have been stressing that cheating is unacceptable, but that is not enough. Our schools should crack down on cheating by at least changing their policies to have stricter consequences for cheating. When the consequences are harsher, less students will attempt to chea

 Advanced placement classes should also be reformed. These advanced placement (AP) classes are supposed to prepare us for collage, but do they really? The AP classes do help you learn study habits and how write essays. Many of those classes are not structured like a collage course, so it does not prepare you for that aspect. Reforms should be made to recreate the structure of a collage course and use that structure in the AP courses offered in high schools.

 Everyone in this nation believes that reform in the education system is needed. Everyone in this nation also can't agree on how to accomplish these goals. I believe that reforms are essential in the AP classes and in our grading system. Schooling is all about you and your future. AP classes are the best college preparation classes that we have at this point. We should maximize their potential. The students' efforts should also be accurately shown and rewarded. Education has never been more important, than in today's society.

Trying Something a Little Different

I am going to do a post on education this week and will hopefully get back to my reviews soon. My teacher wants to try something a little different for blogging. I hope you like it and hopefully it will just be for this week.


Reader Anonymus

Next Time in March

I recently started reading the two novels, Emma and Dead Witch Walking. Emma is a classic novel and was written by the famous author Jane Austen. I am about a fourth of the way through the novel. It is not my favorite Jane Austen. The book that holds the title of being that is Pride and Prejudice.  It introduces a lot of characters in the first few chapters so I would suggest taking some notes on who all the people are. It has a lot of description and has that old English way of talking. Emma also has a movie, which I saw several years ago.  The movie is, so far, a lot like the book.

The other novel, Dead Witch Walking, is a novel that I finished just a couple of days ago. I found it to be very entertaining and I really liked the plot. It is the first in a series, named after the main character Rachel Morgan. It is in the supernatural fantasy action genre. The author is Kim Harrison. I would highly recommend because I could not put the novel down. It was extremely good and its characters are well written. A perfect first novel to the series.

Next month, I am going to review the novel Nightseer written by Laurell K. Hamilton.  This is the first novel that I read by this author and I did not particularly like it.  Something was just missing for me, to really enjoy reading it. It was Hamilton's debut novel. This novel is a supernatural fantasy novel. This novel may not have given readers a great novel, but it did give readers a great new (then) author.   I may not have liked this novel, but I really enjoy reading her series, the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novels.

I am also going to review the novel Guilty Pleasures. Guilty Pleasures was written by Laurell K. Hamilton. It is the first novel in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. It is a supernatural action, crime novel. I reviewed the third novel, Circus of the Damned, in January. It introduced the story and the characters really well and had a great fast- paced plot to create an amazing novel. The novel has a rather dark setting, with characters that all have a dark aspect to their personality. This is perfect because this aspect of the novel shows up in all parts of the novel- the romance, the action, the mystery, the crime, the supernatural. Guilty Pleasures is a very good read.

Blood Before Sunrise review

Blood Before Sunrise was written by Amanda Bonilla. It is a supernatural action fantasy novel. Blood Before Sunrise was published last year in 2012. It is the second novel in the Shaede Assassin series.

As the second novel of the series, it builds on the characters and their relationships. This novel particularly builds on to the main character, Darian, and  her relationship with those closest to her. This novel starts several months after the end of the first novel.  Darian and her boyfriend, Tyler, are having problems in their relationship. Both of them want to protect the other and in doing so it makes the other angry. Darian also has problems opening up to Tyler and ends up lying to him, while she is trying to find her friend's daughter.  Every time she lied to him, I felt like screaming at her and then at the end Tyler leaves her, which was an absolutely awful ending.  I really hope that the next novel resolves this and that they get back together.

In this novel, I also discovered a progress in Raif, Darian's friend and mentor, and Darian's relationship. Raif become a best friend and a brotherly figure in Darian's life. He helped her with her issues and in this novel, she wanted to help him finally find his daughter. She is successful in her endeavor to find his daughter and helped reunited them, but not before discovering a plot to destroy all humans.  She is strong, independent (almost too independent), and a loyal character. She is only just discovering her full potential and is still discovering who and what she is.

I would recommend this novel, if you enjoyed the first novel, Shaedes of Grey. I thought this novel definitely could have been better and enjoyed the first novel much more. I would also recommend this novel to those that enjoy drama, romance, action, and the supernatural.  Blood Before Sunrise will hopefully just be a stepping stone in the series and that the next novel is better. I hope the next novel also brings Darian and Tyler back together, permanently. The author brought the two characters together in the first novel and she can bring them back together in the third. Blood Before Sunrise was not especially good, but it was not bad.

Touch of Frost review

Touch of Frost was written by Jennifer Estep. It is the first novel in the Mythos Academy series. Touch of Frost is a young adult supernatural fantasy novel. I read this novel a couple of months ago, and it was extremely good. I  could not put this novel down and read all the books, in the series so far, in a couple of days.  It was released on paperback in the middle of 2011.

I really liked the myths that were incorporated into the plot and the setting. The author used a lot of references to Greek, Roman, and Norse myths, in particular their gods and goddesses and  the different cultures warriors. These warrior included the Amazons, the Valkyries, the Vikings, and the Romans.  The main villain of the novel is also a myth, Loki, the Norse god of chaos and the main character, Gwen, is a gypsy.

Gwen is new to Mythos Academy, which is where people with abilities come to train and learn to protect themselves from Loki and his followers. Gwen has to adjust to this new system and culture that they have at the academy. She has not made any friends yet and just lost her mother before going to the academy. She is very curious and it shows throughout the novel. She uses this curiosity to get into dangerous situation and soon becomes aware that there is someone at the school that is dangerous. This curiosity also allows her to finally make friends with some people.

There is a little romance in the novel. There is not a whole lot because it gradually progresses throughout the series. In this novel, Gwen meets Logan, a Viking warrior. Logan has the image of a player, a bad boy, and one of the best fighters at the academy. Gwen initially does not want his attention and changes her mind about him several times throughout the novel. Logan does try to protect her when she is struggling to figure out who stole an artifact and murdered a girl in the library.  I hope this relationship between the two characters grows and that they resolve some of their issues. The author does not have a lot with Logan in this novel and I would like to see more parts of the next novel to include Logan.

I would recommend this novel, Touch of Frost. It was very good and I can not wait for the fifth novel, Midnight Frost, to be released. Touch of Frost is a must read.