NCLB, Education

After watching the CNN news, I was like.. WTF (on McCain's plans). I haven't finished the video at this point because I just have to write about it before I forget what I'm going to write. Right now, I just finished watching the two candidate's plans for education. For of all, WHY IS MCCAIN ALL UP ON VIRTUAL SCHOOLING? I think that is NO way to teach someone, especially if they're in middle/high school. Having classes online just creates more problems I think. People become more lazy and wait till the last minute to do things, people don't really learn if they ask someone to do their homework for them, and how do you know if they're really learning to begin with? I think online classes are a good way to keep yourself busy and productive during the summer. For example, if you're home all summer, it'd be nice if you take a class that way you can get a head start on the next school year and what not. I took a class during the summer, not online though, because I knew I was going to be sitting on the couch watching TV all day, so I went to FIU and did dual-enrollment. If you let kids take online classes during a normal school year, they would sit at home and put everything off till the last minute. There are kids who REALLY need to go to school everyday so the teachers can MAKE them do things. There are kids who just don't want to learn and don't want to do anything, and if they're allowed to take online classes, that's worse for them. According to what the news said, it seems like McCain only cares about funding money for online classes and teachers who increases the student's performances. It is important for the teachers to increase student performances because then, they're doing their jobs and what not, but they get rewarded? Shouldn't they be increasing their students performances to begin with each year? I mean, it's like their pointing out that the teachers that will be rewarded are GOOD and the others are BAD because they didn't have a bigger increase in performance than the others. I don't have a strong argument against the teacher thing because I just think it looks bad for them in the long run. I don't know how well that system will work.

So.. I just finished watching the other two videos on the site. The 2nd one (the teacher), she's funny. I don't know why but I just felt like laughing, not that she's talking nonsense or anything but I guess it's just funny to me. Anyhow, I liked the video. She talked about the Act in a way that most people would understand. There's not much facts or evidence or anything but with her experiences and what she thinks, it makes me understand it. I think that what she said is right. You can't put "fear" into the kid's head. I mean, progress is good and all but if there's no progress, would taking money really help? It's like, oh, you didn't pass the test, therefore I'm taking money from you so you can't buy books, supplies, etc etc. Is that good? I don't think so. There should be a punishment I think because it's not fair to the other schools who really push their kids to do well and teach and what not (I'm not saying that the other schools don't teach and push their kids), but I really don't think taking the money away would make things better. Imagine that you're a hard working teacher at your school and the school as a whole was punished because of their test scores. You, yourself is very hard working and the kids in your class improved but the school as a whole didn't. I think this would cause the teacher to think, oh, maybe I should just not worry about the kids so much, they should do whatever they want, I don't have to work so hard because I'm not getting paid well, etc,etc. The teacher can also be like, I did my part and I'm not getting recognized therefore I'm leaving the school and going to a better school. Well, the school just suffered a loss of a good teacher, without the teachers, who will teach the kids? I know this scenario is not the best but my point is, TAKING MONEY AWAY IS NOT GOOD, PERIOD!! I've met teachers and know teachers who doesn't get paid well, and don't give a shit about teaching because they make crap money. It's sad.

To me, education is really important. My parents moved here for opportunity and my parents want us to have every opportunity we can. In middle school, my parents made my brother and I go to tutoring sessions after school not because we were dumb, it's because they think we can learn faster, get help if I didn't understand something, etc,etc. They wanted us to learn more and it's not as bad as it seems. I learned a lot from just talking with my teachers, not necessarily stuff that they were teaching in class but about life and all. My parents knew that if we didn't go, we'll be sitting our butts at home on the computer doing nothing so they wanted us to spend that time learning useful things instead. Education in China is not bad. According to my parents, teachings in China is way faster than the U.S. A kid in first grade in China is almost equaled to a kid in maybe..third grade in the U.S. I don't know what it is about China but those people teach like crazy. Well I kinda know. When I was in China, we didn't have breaks. We had school during the summer, classes 6 days a week. Unlike the U.S., you go to school for 180 days a year, in China, you go 6 days a week for 12 months, at least when I was there. You had homework during small breaks (usually a week during Spring, summer and winter). I think going to school was ok in China, my parents didn't really come here for the schooling. It's more for the "life". In China, it was hard finding jobs, get an education (back then, before I was born), make a living. Most families in China are made up of parents who never graduated high school because they had to support their families and start working, kids who goes to school and come home to help clean, cook, etc. That's a typical family and that's why my parents moved. My parents want us to do well in school, have a good life so we don't have to live like them. So I guess at the end, it's for the opportunity and education as in why they moved. I am proud of my parents for moving here and I am grateful to be in such a country. Even though this country is hated by others and the economy, education systems, etc etc sucks, it's still better than a lot of the other countries in this world. I wouldn't go anywhere else for what I can have here.