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Paradigm Shift
Paradigm Shift
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The Bible on a Pedestal
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

You know, I had hoped we were over the whole "Ten Commandments and prayer in public schools" thing. I really had.

But now, apparently, a Texas bill has declared that all public high schools must offer an elective course teaching the Bible.

Okay, so it isn't as bad as it could be--it took going to the actual Texas government website and reading the text of the bill to learn that, despite media claims, it won't require mandatory Bible instruction, and that the class would only be offered in high school. And the original draft of the bill states the course "must be taught in an objective and nondevotional manner that does not attempt to indoctrinate students as to either the truth or falsity of the Judeo-Christian biblical materials." However, this moderately comforting statement--and others like it--were removed in the final draft of the bill, the draft that was approved by the Texas legislature.

Even if the Texas schools somehow manage to make these courses totally unbiased and simply wonderful in-depth studies of the literature of the Bible and the time periods it was written in, I still completely disapprove of this bill.

I have no problem with reading Biblical excerpts in schools--but in the greater context of a literature or history course, when the focus is not just on this one religious text. For example, in my World Literature class last year, we compared and contrasted the stories of the flood in both the book of Genesis and the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. However, the bill is clear that this course cannot teach "texts from other religious or cultural traditions other than the Judeo-Christian tradition."

The Old and New Testaments are important historical documents and, depending on the translation, valid pieces of literature as well. Yet by focusing so deeply on this one text during a full year's course, Texas is coming dangerously close to implying that this is the only valid text, religious or otherwise. I don't see the legislature requiring schools to offer similar courses on the Qur'an--or even a classic like Shakespeare's Hamlet or Dickens's Oliver Twist. What message does only offering an in-depth examination on the Bible send to the Muslim students? The Hindu students? The students with other religious beliefs, or the students with no religious beliefs at all?

No matter whether or not Texas fulfills its promise to keep the course unbiased, by simply having a course like this one, the Bible is elevated to a position higher than all other texts Texas high schools teach. This sort of in-depth study of only one religious text is inappropriate for a public high school, and sends the message that the United States only cares about the Judeo-Christian faiths. So much for separation of church and state.

For more information, check out a news article about the bill here: http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=10933571
And all the drafts of the bill can be found here: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=80R&Bill=HB1287

August 18, 2009 | 4:04 PM Comments  0 comments



Change Begins At Home
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

I'm standing in front of 20 or so second graders, with a sock puppet on my hand. "Bonjour," I say in a funny voice, and open and close my hand to move the sock puppet's mouth. "Je m'appelle François. My name is François." The students giggle. Next to me, another high schooler is busy scribbling "Bonjour. Je m'appelle....." on the whiteboard.

No, this is not some new form of detention. It's not a weird French version of Sesame Street. It's the product of my high school's Teaching Language club. This club organizes students from our foreign language programs and pairs them up with local elementary school teachers. For half an hour once a week, students come into classes and celebrate Cinco de Mayo with the kids, teach them Japanese animal names, or, like me and my partner, introduce them to a couple of French sock puppets.

I'm thinking about being an elementary school teacher so, when I signed up, I thought this would be a nice way to get into the classroom a few years early (and maybe look good on college apps, too). What I found was so much more.

I found patience when I worked hard to help an eight-year-oid understand nouns and verbs, so she was able to say "I am" in French.

I found creativity when me and my partner developed a stuffed-body-part scavenger hunt to help the students learn the parts of the body.

I found success when the students started replacing English words for French ones--cries of "Bonjour!" when we arrived in the afternoon, a chorus of "bonbons!" whenever we passed out treats.

I found pride when the whole class started cheering as me and my partner walked in one week.

And I found peace today, on the last day, when the students started waving the French flags they had made proudly in the air, just as proudly as they would have waved the American flag.

So maybe the students won't remember how to say "I am happy" in French. Maybe they'll forget what day Bastille Day (the French independence day) is. Maybe they'll never again speak French in their lives.

But maybe, me and my partner made school and language-learning a little less threatening to them. Maybe we showed them that there's life outside the United States, and it's not weird or strange life either. Maybe we helped them see that, even across a wide, wide ocean, there are children just like them who deserve that life.

So maybe we can't all feed a starving child in Africa, teach full-time at a struggling school, be jailed for equal rights, or throw ourselves between a child and a gun. But every single one of us can take half an hour of our time and teach 20 kids about another culture and language. By doing that, we are working to increase literacy, tolerance, and--in the end--world peace.

Change begins at home. Change begins with you.

May 27, 2009 | 7:41 PM Comments  0 comments



How Far Have We Come?
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

I'm on my school's quizbowl team. We play against other teams to see who can answer questions pertaining to English, history, science, math, and other academic subjects the fastest. It's pretty fun, and I actually like getting a bit competitive every once in a while.

There's only one problem. I'm one of two girls out of all three teams (novice, junior varisity, and varsity)--that's 2 out of twenty-something. Neither of the girls are on the varsity team.

Today, I spoke to next year's varsity captain. I had to try and convince him that it was worth it to put in extra effort to recruit more girls, and talk to more than just the 60-or-so incoming freshmen we usually speak to (that's 60 out of about 2400 in our school, by the way). He didn't listen, but that's not quite what this rant is about.

It's about the fact that I even had to mention this point.

That I even had to make a special effort to talk to someone about this problem.

That I needed to actually argue for a balanced team.

It's been a while since women were forbidden from attending universities or joining certain professions because of their sex, but in our culture, women are still seen as being the superficial members of society, too concerned about their looks and appearance to play sports or be a scientist or answer questions about school subjects.

Is it just me? Or have other students noticed this kind of thing at their schools?

May 7, 2009 | 1:15 AM Comments  1 comments



Priorities
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Every 10 years, my district buys all the schools new texboks. This is to ensure that science classes are teaching the newest discoveries, history classes can teach right up to the present day, and foreign language classes have the most accurate, most up-to-date cultural and linguistic information available.

Next year is textbook renewal time. But the school board wants to use the foreign language textbook money to pay for other things (I'm not exactly sure what).

Luckily, there was enough disapproval of this idea that the school board is reconsidering the issue. However, my French teacher is still furious. She's finding it hard enough to keep up a good French program, and keeping the old textbooks will make it even harder. She has to struggle to keep smaller advanced classes open to upper-grade French students and since she's the only French teacher, sometimes lower-grade classes can reach up to 50 students. At the beginning of the year, there weren't enough seats in my class for everyone, and students had to sit on the floor.

Our French textbooks are about 10 years old, and I don't even know whether to trust the many cultural readings it includes anymore. Are young French teens still obsessed with motorscooters? Are dogs still allowed in French restaurants? Technology included with the textbooks that was once innovative and exciting (videotapes of kids speaking French to each other, audio activities on CDs) is now passé. According to my French teacher, the edition we have isn't even sold by the publishing company anymore.

However, my parents say that it's not that horrible if we need to keep the textbooks for another 10 years. After all, the language hasn't changed in 10 years, and probably won't after another 10. The district is strapped for cash anyway, and needs the thousands of dollars that would otherwise be used to purchase new textbooks. Anyway, most schools don't even have foreign language programs!

I don't really know what to think now. I mean, the textbooks might be out of date, but at least we have the textbooks. And maybe the district needs the textbook money to hire new teachers, though it's doubtful that's what they'll spend it on. What do you think?

May 3, 2009 | 12:56 PM Comments  1 comments



Cramming for your future?
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

As anyone who regularly reads this blog probably knows, I am no supporter of standardized testing. So why on Earth do most weekdays recently find me buried in testing guides and review books? Two letters: AP.

AP (Advanced Placement) classes are the brainchild of the College Board (the same people who bring you the SAT and PSAT), in an attempt to teach high school students at a college level. However, most teachers of AP classes concentrate on having their students pass the multipart tests at the beginning of May.

There are about two more weeks until Advanced Placement testing starts at my school, and in every single one of my classes at least half the students carry around AP prep books to dip into whenever there's a spare moment (me included). Conversations center around whether or not you feel prepared for the tests, and how many practice essays your teachers have made you write.

What if (heaven forbid!) you don't get a "good score" on the AP tests? Well, then, you obviously aren't going to get into college, make any money, or fulfill my little suburban neighborhood's idea of success. Even I've bought into this mindset, to a point.

Again, I'm guilty of criticizing opportunities that most students don't have. If you walked into a random school in America, it's unlikely that students are worrying about "college level" classes in high school. Depending on which high school you walk into, it's just as possible you won't find the kids worrying about college at all. It's sad that these students don't have the opportunities to take challenging courses and further their education in college. But maybe you can have too much of a good thing. How?

1. The focus on the Test. While most AP tests include an essay or free-response section (making it a better assessment of student ability than basic standardized tests), prepping for a test is not going to help students actually learn the material. It's more likely they'll remember the most important (read: most likely to show up on the test) information, and then forget that over the summer. In fact, many former AP students I've spoken to have forgotten the material they crammed into their brains in time for the tests. This does not equal learning. This equals test prep (for more on how concentration on standardized testing hurts students, see my article "Testing, Testing...." at http://www.youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=6184).

2. Instructional approach. As in all subjects, one can get a really good teacher, a really terrible teacher, or (most likely) a fairly average teacher in an AP class. However, no matter how good your teacher is, it is unlikely that they will run your class as a "college course." If you're "lucky," they'll spend the whole year prepping you for this one test, destroying all your opportunities for actual learning you could do.

Thankfully, the AP tests do have sections such as essays in the history and English tests, or lab procedure questions in the science tests, which encourage teachers to implement true college instruction. However, how much can you really learn when your instructors focus on making sure you can write the standard five-paragraph essay the AP tests will grade you on, or only running through the standard labs you'll be tested on?

3. The concentration on future success. Maybe science isn't your forte, and you don't really want to attempt AP Chemistry. Or maybe you are really active extracurricularly, and you just can't fit AP American History into your schedule. Or maybe you're not planning to go directly into college (or into college at all), and you don't see why AP Psychology is really relevant to your future. Does this mean that you're doomed to failure in your life? Of course not!

However, the way AP programs are run means that only students who take as many APs as possible (whether they really like the classes or not) will get into good colleges. And only the students who get into good colleges will be successful. All of this, when you think about it, is so completely wrong, but it's the theory that seems to propel the educational system.

At my school, it leads to kids taking only APs not because they are genuinely interested in the courses, but because they just want to get their GPA up and get into Harvard. Anyone who doesn't follow this mindset and take as many high-level classes as possible is seen as an anomaly--like a fellow student of mine who didn't take an advanced chemistry class because she knew she would do poorly at chemistry, but just because it wasn't a subject that particularly interested her.
When we turn students into machines that go through life in a ingrained routine just to make more money, we are raising a generation that doesn't know how to follow their dreams or think outside the (test) bubble.

April 23, 2009 | 10:57 PM Comments  0 comments



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