John Carlo M. Bienvenida

8-31-11

Reading the first few chapters of Why School was quite an experience because the author touched on some very interesting ideas. Moreover, I constantly found myself thinking about my own educational experience and what is important to me.

Being a twenty-something year old college student, I have had my fair share of horrid educators. In such cases, I walked away at end of the semester/year nothing to show for my efforts but a letter grade and the feeling that the teacher cared little about teaching the class or even the students in the class. This is why I enjoyed reading Rose’s recollection of his high school English class. Mr. McFarland was the teacher. Rose stated that “Mr. McFarland prefaced each assignment with instruction that guided us through it, and then provided extensive written feedback on our papers, feedback that could applied to the next assignment. All of this led toward proficiency in reading difficult material and skill in writing analytically (pg 15). Mr. McFarland appears to be a rather demanding teacher and I would assume that attaining an A in the class would be quite difficult. However, there is a reason for all of it. I imagine that Mr. McFarland is the type of educator that views the situation beyond the classroom. Students should finish a course with more than just a grade. They should leave, better prepared for the future. Mr. McFarland attempted to prepare his students by making a special effort to provide adequate feedback in the assignments so the students would understand how to think and write analytically.

Mr. McFarland’s method of teaching is not the only one. Neither can it be considered “the best”. There is a plethora of ways to provide students with a meaningful education yet the current school system tends to stick to only a handful of teaching styles. I believe that this is one of the points that the author is trying to make. To me, the method used and the route taken is not as important as the end result. As long as there is a feeling that knowledge was gained, that my education was sufficient and that I am competent enough to make it on my own, then I am fine. I think this is less likely to happen if my educators only care about my test scores. Mike Rose believes that “you can prep kids for a certain kind of test, get a bump in scores, yet not be providing a very good education” (pg 48). I have taken standardized tests ever since elementary school. All throughout high school, I was prepping myself for the SATs and ACTs in hopes of having high enough scores to convince colleges to admit me as a student. That was necessary. But that preparation was given to me in addition to a great education. It was given to me in order to compliment my education, not to consist as the bulk of it.