Blog Post 4

     When it comes to education, many students struggle and fall behind because they are not interested and engaged with the topics they are learning about in their classes. This was the case when it came to Carlos from the Ethnic Studies Research article. He was a kid who was below average in the classroom and just figured that school wasn't his thing. It wasn't until after he got back from the military he figured out otherwise. Carlos found interest in learning about Mexican culture. He ended up going all the way through school, getting a degree in Spanish. 

    A summary of the past development of the American public education system can be found in the YouTube movie "A Short History of Public Schooling - Excerpt from the film Class Dismissed". It describes how the Prussian educational model, which placed an emphasis on conformity, obedience, and standardized curriculum, had an impact on the current public education system in the United States. Prominent educators like Horace Mann used this approach in the 19th century in an effort to build an educational system that would generate productive, obedient citizens for an industrializing society. The video criticizes how public education was created with the goals of standardizing instruction, restricting individuality, and emphasizing control. It contends that this approach blocks critical thinking and creativity and ultimately promotes the goals of corporate and governmental interests.

    These two examples of flaws in our education system ties in to the video we watched for class called "Precious Knowledge". In that video kids creativity was restricted due to the material they were learning in the class. Not until things changed and they started to be taught things that they were passionate about and found interesting is when the students started to succeed. This goes to show how important it is for students to learn about topics interesting to them that will encourage them to strive and learn.