HW 41: Initial Internet Research on Schooling

Hansen, Randall S. "Choosing a College Major: How to Chart Your Ideal Path." Quint Careers Quintessential Careers, Web. 24 Feb 2010. http://www.quintcareers.com/choosing_major.html

This is a guide for those who need help choosing a major for college. They encourage you to evaluate your interests, what really want and your strengths/skills before picking a major. They say that most people change their majors a couple of times before settling on one that they are comfortable with. Even after college, people change their careers up to 4-5 times and "no major exists that can prepare you for that!" So the major we decide on in college is primarily to set up up for our first job.

This guide is pretty honest and refreshing. Usually, students are pressured when it comes to choosing the "right" major and are warned to choose carefully. Growing up, ideas of a career were always brewing in the back of my mind. Everything done in school was to benefit my future. It was always don't get distracted and focus on your schoolwork because that's what's most important and you will always have time for fun in the future. Coming this far, most of us are afraid of screwing it up by picking the wrong major or career path and end up being miserable in our little cubicles. This article relieves my position a bit, knowing that I will have the option of turning back and if anything and it'd be okay to change my career according to to my changes in interest. Still, it's hard to imagine myself making radical changes like that when my family and not to mention the rest of society is a stick in the mud about measuring success financially rather than how much you enjoy your job.

McKay, Dawn Rosenberg. "Ten Myths About Choosing a Career How to Chart Your Ideal Path." About.com Guide. The New York Times Company, Web. 24 Feb 2010. http://careerplanning.about.com/od/careerchoicechan/a/myths_choice.htm

The article gives a list of 10 myths about career choosing that people often believe to be true. It talks about how it's possible to turn a hobby into a career, how the "best career" list shouldn't be the only reason for picking a job because conditions often change, how a career that your friend is enjoying might not necessarily mean that it would fit you, and how much more work it takes to build a career than simply choosing one and expecting things to fall into place etc. It's also similar to the first one because it stresses the point of aiming for your interests and skills and that money shouldn't be the biggest factor in your decision.

The list reflects the slow decay of society's traditional values. We are all encouraged to find a job where the number one factor is how much you would enjoy working there for the next 40 years. The idea of the American dream is slowly starting to evolve. Our dream is to not only to become rich and successful, but to also achieve that through things we enjoy doing.

McGuire, Jeff. "Choosing a Major in College." College VIew. Hobsons, Inc., Web. 24 Feb 2010. http://www.collegeview.com/choosing_a_major_in_college.html

This article explains why it's so important to pick the right major because it is directly related to choosing the right career. A lot of jobs/careers nowadays have really high standards and if you want to compete, your best bet would be to go to college and earn some skills. "It is important to make yourself as marketable as possible." It also provides you with a list of questions you might want to consider while choosing your major such as "Do you enjoy hands-on work?" or "Do you like to travel?"

Many times though, people seem to have either way too many answers for these questions or none at all. Both pose a problem to figuring what you want in the long term. The article seems to expect you to already have identified yourself, to already know your strengths, personality, and interests, and to score on your first try. They don't provide much of an alternative for those who aren't yet sure about who they are or what they want to do in life.

"Classes: The Reason You’re Here." Sparknotes. SparkNotes LLC, Web. 3 Mar 2010. http://www.sparknotes.com/college/life/page7.html

This page explains the process of choosing your college courses/classes. They talk about finding a wide range of electives you can sign up for so that when it comes time to choose a major, you'd have a broader range of knowledge to choose from. It also points out the fact that most freshmen don't have any idea what their major is going to be yet, so it's recommended to have a well rounded schedule. It also brings up your academic advisor. "Think of your academic advisor as your lifeline to putting together the best possible schedule for your four-year plan... Your advisor is also the person with whom you’re going to discuss your prospective major."

If you click back on the "College Home" page, you will see a list of subjects that is supposed to prepare you for college. I think this further emphasize the fact that college is viewed as such a crucial point in life. Overall though, I think the list of articles are pretty helpful and reflect college in a realistic way.

"How to Choose College Courses." eHow. eHow, Inc., Web. 3 Mar 2010. http://www.ehow.com/how_11246_choose-college-courses.html

This how to guide offers a more basic approach to picking out classes. It recommends sitting in on a bunch of classes before "committing for the entire term." It also talks about choosing electives after you find out what your major is going to be.

I think the guide is sort of helpful but probably is too vague to help you figure out exactly what you want. Its repetitiveness sounds like the things your college would tell you. Therefore, there's not much there that you probably don't already know.

Additional Research

• http://www.ehow.com/how_4462027_choose-right-major.html
• http://www.university-college.net/articles/choosing-college-major.php
• http://homeworktips.about.com/od/preparingforcollege/a/majors.htm
  

HW 40: School Interviews & Synthesis

Part A:

Rowena

How has education benefited your life so far, if it did at all?
It taught me morals and the reality of life. It also taught me history so that I'm not ignorant of what happened prior to when I was born, and math is also important because everything in this world is revolved around math.
So you're genuinely interested in learning about those stuff?
Yes, just not repetitively. I think history's interesting. Math is interesting. English is kind of useless after 6th grade.
Would you go to school if it weren't necessary or if your parents weren't there to pressure you into going?
I'd still go, just not high school, 'cause high school's kind of useless.
Do you agree that the structure of public education is dictating and propagandish in a way ? Or no ?
That depends on the class. Like Math can't be but I think History can be biased sometimes.
Can you list your mood in order from the beginning of your school day to the end ?
Well, I'll tell you about tomorrow (day after break) how I would feel. Walking to school, I would feel like crap and I don't want to go. First 3 periods won't be that bad. Then English comes along and it's like FML 'cause it's so boring. Then it's Math, and it's alright because the teacher's fun. Then it's lunch/ Then I have government and it's like "ughhhhh" again. Sometimes it's interesting so it varies, but majority its like "blah."
Okay so I take it that your general feeling about school is negative and only positive when you're learning about stuff you like ?
Uh yes! That's why I loved middle school and elementary school 'cause I actually did something and took classes I like. The classes I take now is like pointless 'cause I would forget it in like 2 years. It's like whats the point..
So if you had the chance to create your own curriculum you would ?
Yes, and I would like school wayyy wayy better.

Sweetie

How has your education benefited you so far in life?
Okay I'm a classical pianist and really, I'm just good at music, so I guess I would speak in a situation of music. Music makes you smarter, because of all the theories behind it. I read from a book that females are born naturally smarter than male because of their brain structure. But music helps males achieve an intellectual balance with girls. So I guess music makes me smarter? Also, every single musician who studies music is SMART in math 'cause of the music theory we learn. (Gives example, but its really long and I don't think it's really necessary).

About the way your music classes are structured, do you think it encourages creativity or do they expect you to learn stuff a certain way?
In LaGuardia, I think the music classes are well structured. I mean for performance classes obviously everyone expects to learn by playing instruments and showing the skills we learn. Everyone participates. But theory class is like normal class; you sit in and listen. In terms of creativity, really you would only see that in Jazz or composition, if we are still on music, since jazz includes so much improvisation which you need to know a lot of things to pull off. Composition allows creativity, but there are a lot of theory rules you can't break. Classical musicians don't have much freedom; we are all slaves of music.

If you had a choice, would you rather stay learning in the structural environment you're in or switch to something that would allow more creative freedom?
Since I don't really know if there's a better/more creative way for our classical music training...I would say stay in 'cause looking at all the important famous composers, Mozart studied Bach. Everyone needs to study Bach 'cause he's a genius. Beethoven did to. And then, modern composers study Beethoven, like Stravinsky. So it's really like, if you study these, and if you are the one to master things, then yeah you are a great musician. There's nothing such as good and bad in terms of music, 'cause it is art. Everyone has different perspectives. But in order to be "good" means getting the popular vote. I hope you know what I mean haha.

Imani

How have your education helped you so far in life? Has it helped you find out what you want to do?

Education has helped me to be more focused on my future and aspire to be better than those who choose to do nothing with their lives. If I wasn't in school, I doubt that I would ever want to go to college or learn new things. School made me grow to love learning and maturing. It didn't help me figure out what I want to be.

I want to be a singer actress author and those don't have much to so with school. But it is because of school that I want to major in the music industry. I see the importance of learning to read music, music theory, music production and all that stuff. Without school, I would've gone into the field with my raw talent as the only thing I could offer.

Are you content with the way public schools are structured or would you aim for a more flexible curriculum?

I think that high school, at least the last two years should be structured like college. Seniors should be able to if not pick their classes, then be able to pick whether we have class Monday Wednesday and Friday, or twice a week like in college. We should have the chance to get used to doing our own scheduling and taking classes that we like as well as classes we need. It's a hassle, boring, and ineffective to take classes that have nothing to do with life in the outside world or with what we want to do in the future.

Do you agree that school has a way of just dictating all the information that goes into our heads or do you feel more like it encourages free thinking?

I think in general though, the public school system hammered us over the head with knowledge. It isn't fair because it doesn't allow us to experience what it's like to think for ourselves and question things. These are things we need to do in order to really learn and in a lot of schools people don't get this chance.

Part B:

My first interviewee seems to be a lot more against the idea of public education and the courses she's subjected to take. But she knows that's what her future requires and she's doing the best she can to just go through the motion until she graduates and have the chance to pursue what she really likes. My third interviewee is similar in the same way that after a while, things tend to get repetitive and that we should have an earlier chance to pick out classes of our own interests. She seems to be more aware of how school has created a foundation for her to build up on, how it has matured her as a student (someone who wants to learn how to think as opposed to someone who wants things blown into her mind).

My second interviewee's responses from a music student's standpoint was especially interesting. Her definition of a great musician seems to be a person who has absorbed all the theories and knowledge of music, and plays music within these boundaries. She even says "we are all slaves of music." She brings up the names of a few famous classical musicians and points out how each of them have been through musical training. I'm assuming that these musicians did more than just learn and imitate art because if that was really all there was to it, then they wouldn't be so well recognized. Mastering a subject just for the heck of mastering it shouldn't be what education is about. It should be about using the things you learned to go off in different directions and critically thinking about them, as opposed to worshiping and being satisfied with just knowing the facts.

HW 39: First School Assignment

Questions

• Should education be optional? Is it fair that opportunity is given and measured by how many years you've attended school and how many degrees you have?
• Does school limit or liberate your thinking?
• Is the government more of a parent to us than our own parents are?
  

Ideas

• School puts so much unnecessary pressure on students (ie. SATs) that we, both students and parents become so obsessed with the idea of being academically perfect that we are blinded from a larger sense of purpose
• School has created the illusion that a high GPA = a successful future. This road to success has been put up onto such a high pedestal that a lot of people have failed to recognize that there are many other ways to achieve your dreams. It's not all about book smart.
• Everything's a competition. In school, we compete against other students. At work, we compete for promotions. Collectively, as a nation, we compete against other nations. Education = money = power and dominance, therefore school is sort of like a military training camp. Instead of fighting a physical war, we're trained to fight financially and economically.
  

Experiences

• I feel like school occupies too much of my life. There's always too much information being crammed into my head and it gets so hard to handle. When I do get information down though, I forget it once the unit is over.
• I used to always find at least one happy reason to come to school but now everyday feels like a drag.
• School encourages a lot of participation but I don't like talking aloud in class or presenting.
  

School can be seen in two of the extreme ways. One, it raises kids to become successful leaders of the future. Higher education usually equates to higher knowledge and intelligence. I don't think that's necessarily right though. School can only do so much. Some people have natural intelligence that others who have been to school for 20 years still can't achieve.

Two, like Vincent said, "It's a factory." It encourages kids to only achieve their dreams through their system. School is good in the way that it surrounds us with a diverse group of people with different ideas and opinions to offer. But I also feel like that cushions us more so than it liberates us. We are literally stuck with same group of people for years. We start to feel pressured into thinking, talking, and acting the way our peers do. This shuts us down from the potential person we could've been had it not for the box we've been cooped up in. So in a way, school does tend to create like-minded students.

Einstein used to be the worst student. He sucked in school but still he ended up being the world's greatest genius. This goes to show that thinking is something that we can learn on our own and doesn't need to be taught. Students usually end up thinking somewhat in the same way because they are taught by the same teacher and with the same ideas. But learning to think for yourself and figuring out what way suits you best aren't things that can be taught.

HW 38: Art Project Cool

The Cool Fool

The Cool Fool from Sandy G. on Vimeo.

We decided to shoot the video from the point of view of the new kid's classmates. Originally, we were going to shoot two different scenarios, one where everyone would think he's cool and the other uncool. But somehow, we ended up mixing the two and had a range of characters with different opinions about him because that just seemed more realistic. Instead of the nonchalant guy, we replaced it with someone who tries too hard to capture attention. He captures some and he hardly others. The ones he do capture though range from lust and admiration to annoyance and disgust. We were aiming for an The Office feel with the interviews. We hope that our portrayal of the scenario was realistic enough because hardly do we see anyone who is admired fully by everybody or hated by everybody. For every hater you earn, you earn someone else who likes you and vice versa. Cool is based on opinion and point of view and although that point can't be made any more obvious, we wanted to show a reenactment of how the situation can be like.

We didn't really do the video in order. We filmed a bunch of clips in random order and then edited them together into a storyline. We recorded a couple of the interviews first, then the gym scene, then the cafeteria scene, and after that a couple more interviews to link the scenes together. It was a little frustrating at first because we weren't sure what to say in our interviews given the fact that there was no scene to refer to but we ended up adapting the scenes to the interviews. I did a little of the filming, and helped with the editing as well.

Making art is cool, but I think it's only considered cool when you do it well. Art is basically self expression aka originality in the making, which is what Cool is all about. Cool is knowing yourself, being able to define yourself, and being different from the crowd. It's cool to be artistic and being good at expressing yourself through words, painting, film etc. I don't think I'm the creative type. I used to think I was and then I saw how much better people were at drawing, making videos, writing poetry etc. For example, Rachel and I came across a guy at Union Square the other day making a picture on the ground with nothing but colored sand and his hands. There was a big crowd surrounded his artwork and everyone was just in awe, taking pictures and stuff. We found out the next day that his picture was in the newspaper. When people create something we've never seen before, it makes us curious to know where the idea came from. I think having creative skills sort of shows how much more original and abstracted minded you are as a person.