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.