Goals for Schools

The Goals for Schools survey that we had to complete this week had many important topics on the subject of "Why we have schools". There is more to school than the old slogan of reading, writing and arthimatic. The elimination of racism and hatred would be wonderful, but in reality something like that would never happen. I believe if schools were to increase diversity awarness by educating students about diversity (racial, sexual, religious), would be a good start for the resolution to some of these issues.
The elementary school that I attended was a magnet school and it happened to be the school that was in my district. I grew up in a tough city in the suburbs of Boston, MA. My school district was considered the "good" side of town. The idea of magnet schools in my city was a really good opportunity for those that were receiving a lesser education. Our school would send buses to the "bad" side of the city and pick of students that either had certain needs that their district school was not serving or smarter students that were not being challenged enough at their local school. This made for a very diverse learning experience. We not only had the students who lived in the good district, but we also had some of the less fortunate children from a lower socioeconomic background.

In our small, but largely populated city there were three junior high schools. Due to the fact that I lived the better side of the city, the junior high that I attended was the best of the three. Although the school I attended still had fights and drugs, there were less at my school than the other two schools. Being subjected to the problems with society at an early age, in my opinion, helped to shape me as a person. I saw things that I was not going to become i.e. homeless, a drug addict, a gang member, etc. While reading about home schooling and other alternatives a major issue that advocates had was violence and negative things they did not want their own children to be subjected to. I have to say, I was subjected to all of those things and I did not fall into those categories. I think my parents and my family definitely had a lot to do with helping me to succeed. But overall, it was me who had to turn down the peer pressure and no matter what my parents had taught me, it did not matter, it was up to me and me alone.

I think an effective teacher really makes the students want to be there and want to learn. I think I will incorporate different things and activities that I enjoyed as a student. Teachers that tend to lecture the whole period usually loose a lot of students along the way. I want every child to succeed in my class. If some do not, then I will have not done my job properly. If a teacher can make class fun and interesting, then chances are the success rate will increase.