Education

            The process in which the school systems are set up today is inadequate.  It is setting up both students and faculty for failure.  Teachers are being laid off and having their salary cut in massive percentages.  Standardized tests are increasingly becoming the focus of the education system.  Schools are spending the government funded money on unnecessary things that are not beneficial to the students.  The school system we use today was designed for the characteristics of the past.  A lot of changes have occurred in the last several decades that are not essential to the educational needs of today.

            The article, “Teachers Wonder, Why the Scorn,” explains how teachers are getting salary cuts, or even laid off because they don’t have “seniority.”  Why is this happening to the people who dedicate their lives to help shape our futures?  Seniority privileges should not be an excuse and have nothing to do with laying off.  As a student, the younger teachers are the ones I find more relatable and active.  They can incorporate more activities in a whole new interesting way.  If a teacher can’t hold the students’ attention, the students are going to have a lot harder of a time learning the needed material.  If the students don’t learn the needed material, they won’t be prepared for the tests; which now does not only affect the student themselves, but the teacher as well.

            Like Ken Robinson says in “Changing Education Paradigms,” the school system is set up like a factory; with ringing bells, separate facilities divided into separate subjects, and students being grouped into “batches” by age.  Students are being tested on what they are expected to know because of their age.  Not every seven year old should be held accountable for knowing what another seven year old knows.  Everyone learns at different paces and some students are better at different subjects than others.  Students should be tested on what they know and placed accordingly, rather than placed by age.  Students also need to be taught how different subjects connect to one another.  Just because math and science are broken up into two different classes doesn’t mean that you won’t do some math in science class.  All of these subjects can relate to one another, but students are often taught differently.

            Standardized tests not only put pressure on the students, but on the teachers, too.  Teachers can now be penalized for students not doing well on standardized tests.  By giving these tests, it teaches students that there is only one right answer.  It doesn’t teach us to “think outside the box.”  Teachers focus on just teaching what is on the test, and nothing else.  Learning about how these subjects connect with the world, rather than just learning what’s on the test, expands the students’ horizons.  It is important for students to know how to apply what they learn in school with everyday life, which makes it also very important for teachers to tie in “current events” with the lessons they teach.  Rather than forcing a student write about something pointless that they do not care about, why not let them write about something happening in the world or something that interests them?

OJ All Over Again?

If you live in the United States today, you have heard something about the Casey Anthony trial.  Two year old Caylee Marie Anthony, daughter of Casey Anthony, went missing three years ago.  Deputies have confirmed that the last time Caylee was seen by anyone, other than her mother, was on June 15, 2008.  It is not until just recently this year that the case became the “center of the media” and people started taking an interest in it.  Although it may not be the intentions of the media, their constant coverage is providing Casey Anthony with so many opportunities and attention from the public.

            Society is seeing flashbacks of the 1995 OJ Simpson trial.  These two trials show shocking similarities with the same devastating outcomes.  They gained public attention because of the obvious circumstantial evidence proving their involvement in the crime.  Our country would be distraught to see the same effects come from the Casey Anthony trial as the OJ Simpson trial.  This could result in Anthony’s fame from multi-million dollar interviews and book endorsements, just like what happened with Simpson.  For them to make money off of these cases is sick.

Many followers of these cases are beginning to scrutinize what the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States stands for.  In these particular cases, the Fifth Amendment has essentially let the accused off with murder.  The way the amendment has applied to both the OJ Simpson and Casey Anthony trials is not the way the Constitution intended it to be.  Double jeopardy has prevented Simpson from going on trial a second time and will do the same with the Casey Anthony case.  I would rather take away the laws of double jeopardy than have the lives of innocent people be taken, and have the guilty murderer be found not guilty only because there wasn’t enough evidence to prove it the first time around.  It is not right to let a guilty person get away with murder, or anything else for that matter, if detectives are able to provide the evidence after a non-guilty verdict.  If later evidence comes to prove that Anthony for a fact is guilty, she cannot be tried again.  Majority of the time, the amendment serves justice and works for our judicial system, but these cases are the exceptions.

            With what has come of the Casey Anthony case, the only good thing we can hope for is the attempt for Caylee’s Law.  People are petitioning to make a law that basically states that if your child goes missing, you have to report it within 24 hours of their disappearance.  There is no reason to not report a missing child right away, so why shouldn’t we have a law to support that?  If this was a current law, this case could have ended differently.  Caylee Anthony could still be alive if police were searching for her before she was killed and it was too late.

            Whether people like it or not, Casey Anthony is getting her fame from this case.  There are a lot of people in this world that absolutely despise the women, but at the same time, people will pay the money for the interviews and pay to buy any book she wrote if she happened to do so, all out of curiosity.  I believe that something needs to be done to prevent cases like this to be possible in the future.  Whether it alters the Fifth Amendment, or new laws are made, change is needed.  No one should ever be able to get away with murder in the United States of America.

A Little More About Me...

I am from Louisville, KY, where I have lived my whole life, until the beginning of last school year. I now have an apartment in Lexington and am on my second year at BCTC. Last semester I took a Writing I class and am now in my second writing class.  Between school and work, I don't have much time to watch the news so I appreciate when teacher's bring current events into the assignments.  I have not decided on a major yet, but my criminal justice and communications class always seem to keep my interest.  So I am in college to decide what I want to do and to make sure I am successful in whatever career I choose to pursue.

My Political Compass Test