Reinventing the Education in America part 2

" In today's social stratum, a good education is the ticket for someone to transcend their current rank into the upper echelons of society. This is America, where everybody is supposed to get the same shot at success, regardless of the income level they are born into. Marking education available to everyone is the best weapon against social division and will ultimately bring this country closer together. "

- Nick Scotti

" The act of "working your way through school" is non-existent in this country anymore. We have become the United States of debt and the only way to get a better future is to sign away your life to a bank. If you are one of the unlucky majority to put yourselves through school, loans offer the only bridge to get you to your degree.

After graduating college I found that without my knowledge my loans were sold to banks I had never heard of and separated between those lenders. Now I pay banks that deliberately obscure payment information from me so that my account incurs fees. Loans should not deter people from educating themselves, and they do. "

- Jackie Puwalski

Boston Partners in Education*

So last Wednesday before class I went to my training session with Boston Partners in Education :) I was looking forward to it because I got to learn how to be better at something for free.......huh I feel like that should be happening more offten!!!!!!!!

Anyways, it was interesting and helpful, I feel more prepared to step into a public Elementary School system & see how I can help the teacher, students & environment of the classroom.

Some things that we talked about in our training session was what exactly makes a great mentor. I think one of the most important qualities of the mentors that I have had in my life were to be able to explain something in a different way that will be more compatible with my brian & to be able to sense when there is a problem. I hope to accomplish these two things among many others. We also discussed tips on how to communicate with children which lets hope will be effective. They said to begin with a foundation of the child's life & to ask a few simple questions about them to understand more so of what kind of a child you are working with. I hope this will help me understand what kind of teaching the child will respond best to. They also said to begin with praise but specific praise on what the child has done successfully and then go into asking them what they think they could of done better and then guide them into improvement.

I am excited but a little nervous to get started, hopefully the children, teacher & I can all benefit from this!

Education in America

So it didn't take me very long to pick an issue that I am passionate about to work on for my service project. The way that $$ limits education for many people is sooo detrimental to our country for countless reasons. Having to work all the way through college is a great way to stay busy but takes away time & energy from studying. You can not truly dedicate yourself to one thing which many times means you can not reach your full potential in either school or work. Hard work is essential for everyone but struggling to get a college education is unfair & harmful to our country.

" There are some major flaws in the education system in this country. More and more people are finding it harder to pay for all of the expenses that college brings on. I just turned 20 and I've been working since I was 16 still don't have enough money for a college education. Since my parents never had a college fund for me I am forced to go into the Army to further my education. Education should be significantly cheaper, if not free for most Americans, so we can join the workforce and start our lives."

- Justin Warren

American Faith: week 7

My reaction to the readings about American Faith this week were pretty simple. I believe that religion helps & guides many many people into proud lives but should never be used to judge and fight. I strongly disagree with people that preach to others about how they are going to hell if they do not believe in their God. To me that is not what religion should be about, I do not think that people should hate & kill others because they have different beliefs. People killing for their God is so absolutely backwards and makes me back away from religion.
One line that stood out to me from our Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God reading was "In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites." This represented to me exactly what religion should not be, it makes me very upset to see religion creating & spreading hate. I wish that religion generated only feelings of acceptance & understanding.

I believe that American Religion should be unrelated to politics and our government, they are two very very different things that should not overlap.

War & Protest: "We are saddened, we are stunned, we are perplexed."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Ve5GoHFDg#watch-main-area
Silence is betrayal (MLK anti-war speech)


It was difficult for me to get through all of our selected readings and videos this week, there were so many powerful ones that grabbed onto you and would not let go. Barack Obama's 2009 Nobel Peace Prize speech was humble and realistic. he talked about how we have now come up with such a thing as a "just war" which reasons the wars that we fight for years. Instead of invading I wish we could hire & train people of that country to mediate and reason with their own people. I think the country's we are fighting and killing would respond to something like this instead of American troops putting their feet down on their soil and shooting away.

"Violence never brings permanent peace, it solves no social problem it merely creates more complicated ones"

The speech from Patton that was givin in 1970 makes you understand more so how many Americas view war as the way to solve & govern the world the right way. He talks about how traditionally American's <3 to fight & how all real American's <3 the sting of battle. People think they are doing right & solving important issues with their weapons but instead we are created deeper rooted issues that are much harder to undo. I wish people were not so PROUD to fight & kill. I wish people were proud to stand up and guide, reason and teach. I wish more people were proud and had the ability to not jump into their tanks when threatened.