"Idiot Nation" by Michael Moore

"Our challenge...to find a way to make politics as gripping and engaging as sports." 

    Today people are fed up with poltics because they are all crooks and liers. People are used to the way they are and are ignorant for a reason, to get their mind off our nation falling to pieces is to watch sports. It would be impossible to get the public to engage in politics again because that would mean that politics wouldn't be corrupt anymore. 

"Walk into any public school, and the odds are good that you'll find overflowing classrooms, leaking ceilings, and demoralized teachers."

   Government money doesn't give schools enough to rebuild or repair their schools adequately, so after 15-20 years the school falls apart again. Schools up North have no air conditioning in the summer and no heating in the winter, instead they have a air blower that puts out room temperature air. It's only if a school qualifies for a grant that they may receive it with proper paper work.  

"Our problem isn't just that our kids don't know nothin' but that the adults who pay their tuition are no better."

   Most of the subjects adults learn in high school are long gone by the time they have children. Parents can't help their child with trig homework because they have no idea how to do it either. When people go to college and take courses about their profession everything else is forgotten. 

"Yes, I, Michael Moore, am a college dropout."

   The author of this paper is bashing the education system but couldn't even handle it himself. He is really a hypocrite because he calls everyone idiots but doesn't look at himself, a college dropout, and wonder what he is then. He acts so much better than everyone else he is writing about, but really 45% of the population is probably smarter and more successful than him. 

  

"Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, 1848" by Horace Mann

"...the health of the race is dependent upon the conduct of the race." 

  The conduct of the race controls every aspect about it, with out the conductor the race isn't happening. Just like a mother and a child, without the mothers control and guidence the child isn't going to have a healthy lifestyle. The mother controls every aspect of the child just like the race and the child has no say.

"The vassal had no shelter but such as his master provided for him."

    The vassal is nothing without it's master, it cannot provide for itself. But the vassal also must accept what the master has provided no questioning or concern. The master has a mass power over the vassal while the vassal is helpless. 

"Education...is the great equalizer of thr conditions of me,- the balance-wheel of the social machinery." 

   Without education men would run wild and have no order, they would have no way to process ideas or thoughts about a topic. There would be no society without education because it's a building block of humanity. Education balances man, every man is equal in the eyes of education. The cycle of pupils learning is the wheel of society and education, it keeps going as generations go on. 

"...yet they must, understand something of the true nature and functions of the government under which they live."

  Education is vital because inorder for our government system to work properly people need to comprehend the politicians stands. The forfathers planned that the American populations needed to be educated so the government would not have absolute rule over the people. With education the government runs properly and the people aren't taken advantage of. 

"The "Banking" Concept of Education"

"Education is suffering from narration sickness." 

   I think this quote is very true in the classroom environment because every teacher lectures the class about a topic. In every subject the teacher has a monologue on the topic of the day leaving very little discussion or argument for the students, it gets banal. It's as if there isn't any other way to teach a class because in all grades a lecture is the main form of education. Only when you begin to take college courses the teacher changes the traditional monologue to independent studies. 



"The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four really means." 

   When teachers constantly drill information into a students mind, the student only memorizes the information. They don't really put the information into their longterm memory because they just have to memorize it till the test or quiz passes. After the test the student forgets the information because it was only in their short term memory because they didn't actually learn and comprehend the subject to put it in their long term. This happens with any subject the student doesn't put time in to study. 


"The teacher chooses the program content, and the student (who were not consulted) adapt to it;" 


   The student never gets to decide what books they would like to read or what topics they'd like to learn in a class. The teacher or now government decides for the student what they have to learn. I believe the student should have the freedom of deciding what topics and subjects they want to learn that year, because when you're learning about something you're interested in it isn't boring. When a subject catches your interest and attention the information goes into your long term and will be with you for the rest of your life. If students were able to choose their subjects, the failing rate would decrease and the graduation rate would increase. 


"Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning." 

   Life is not just about communication, their is so much more to life than that. Their's art, sports, hobbies, and much more that can fulfill you and you can become passionate about. Communication is necessary for interacting with society but communication doesn't hold life meaning. Something that you're passionate about that makes you want to wake up every morning is what holds meaning in life. Human life can hold meaning with out communication because before languages and art people hunted and gathered and lived for other reasons. 


"He loves control, and in the act of controlling he kills life"  


   Life is something that no one can control, fate is a part of life that humans try to interfere with to make things go their way. But no matter what humans cannot predict or control what life has to offer next. If you try to control life, you are killing your own life. It's not free, it's not unpredictable, it's not natural, it's control and humanized. Nothing about trying to fully controlling life is natural you're trying to rewrite your destiny and redirect fate which can hurt you in the end. 

Summer Vacation

This summer was one of the best summers of my life because I went to Australia for 3 weeks! It was so interesting to see how much the USA has in common with Australia, their native people the Aboriginals went through similar hardships like our Native Americans did. The beaches were absolutely beautiful and their lifestyle is so laid back, it's great. This school year I expect the SUPA English to be different than the normal english class because I feel that it's going to be more interactive and creative. I'm excited to have class discussions about certain topics that interest us students.