The fear of debt from student-loans has caused kids to avoid getting the education they need. There were 64 colleges last year with more than 90 percent of graduates had debt. These numbers are insane and scare many people away from going to college. If we are lucky enough to have an ascribed status of entering into an upper class family, student loans aren't an issue. But most families' statuses are achieved through their hard work and sometimes these families aren't able to afford sending their children to college. It is a shame that some kids are not able to attend a good college because they fear their inability to pay for it. Not all kids got a fair shot at a good education. Another factor to consider in analyzing the effects of student loans is location. In previous years, the high debt states were concentrated in the Northeast and the Midwest. Low debt states were in the West and South. It seems that the more populated the states are the more debts it has. Student-loans are something to fear, but I sure hope it stops holding people back from receiving the education they deserve!Thursday, October 25, 2012
It's All About the Money
As upperclassmen in high school, college begins to become the major topic of conversation. Where will you go? How will you "pass" the SATs? Another not so common conversation is brought up- "How will I pay for college?" Many kids must resort to student loans in our country since most colleges are too expensive for parents to afford paying 4 years fully. There's a problem of course- many kids are left in debt for a significant period of their life. The average student-loan debt of borrowers in the college class of 2011 rose to about $26,500. This is a 5% increase from the previous year. About 2/3 of those who earned bachelor's degrees last year had loans. The effects that student loans have on students are insane!
The fear of debt from student-loans has caused kids to avoid getting the education they need. There were 64 colleges last year with more than 90 percent of graduates had debt. These numbers are insane and scare many people away from going to college. If we are lucky enough to have an ascribed status of entering into an upper class family, student loans aren't an issue. But most families' statuses are achieved through their hard work and sometimes these families aren't able to afford sending their children to college. It is a shame that some kids are not able to attend a good college because they fear their inability to pay for it. Not all kids got a fair shot at a good education. Another factor to consider in analyzing the effects of student loans is location. In previous years, the high debt states were concentrated in the Northeast and the Midwest. Low debt states were in the West and South. It seems that the more populated the states are the more debts it has. Student-loans are something to fear, but I sure hope it stops holding people back from receiving the education they deserve!
The fear of debt from student-loans has caused kids to avoid getting the education they need. There were 64 colleges last year with more than 90 percent of graduates had debt. These numbers are insane and scare many people away from going to college. If we are lucky enough to have an ascribed status of entering into an upper class family, student loans aren't an issue. But most families' statuses are achieved through their hard work and sometimes these families aren't able to afford sending their children to college. It is a shame that some kids are not able to attend a good college because they fear their inability to pay for it. Not all kids got a fair shot at a good education. Another factor to consider in analyzing the effects of student loans is location. In previous years, the high debt states were concentrated in the Northeast and the Midwest. Low debt states were in the West and South. It seems that the more populated the states are the more debts it has. Student-loans are something to fear, but I sure hope it stops holding people back from receiving the education they deserve!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
3rd Grade: Make it or Break it
3rd grade: a grade I briefly remember. But some say that a kid's whole educational career depends on third grade. (This first seemed very silly to me too). 32 states have recently adopted policies specifically targeting reading skills. These policies have caused many third grades to be held back from going on to fourth grade. But does this actually prove to work well? Studies show that 1 in 6 kids who couldn't read at grade level by third grade didn't finish high school by age 19. Therefore, everyone would conclude that it's better to hold them back while they're young to help them catch up for their future. This all sounds good...right?
There is a very negative sanction associated with a child being held back. Students who are held back are often bullied by their peers and have other very detrimental effects on their overall future. Studies have shown that children who are held back have less confidence and less attachment to school, which makes them more likely to drop out. So if holding these kids back seems to help the children who don't finish high school by 19, what about the children who drop out or suffer from bullying? These kids have probably been in the same school with the same kids all the way up to third grade. Now all of a sudden, they are held back and lose all of their friends. These old friends begin to make fun of them for being stupid. This child in third grade is not likely to respond by saying that he or she will be benefited in the long run, instead they are embarrassed and begin to hate school. This can really counter the intention of holding the child back. So should third grade really be the make it or break it year?
There is a very negative sanction associated with a child being held back. Students who are held back are often bullied by their peers and have other very detrimental effects on their overall future. Studies have shown that children who are held back have less confidence and less attachment to school, which makes them more likely to drop out. So if holding these kids back seems to help the children who don't finish high school by 19, what about the children who drop out or suffer from bullying? These kids have probably been in the same school with the same kids all the way up to third grade. Now all of a sudden, they are held back and lose all of their friends. These old friends begin to make fun of them for being stupid. This child in third grade is not likely to respond by saying that he or she will be benefited in the long run, instead they are embarrassed and begin to hate school. This can really counter the intention of holding the child back. So should third grade really be the make it or break it year?
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Pills to Help in School...for Everyone!
Just a quick story before I talk about how I came upon this topic. One of softball coaches is a teacher for special education kids in grades 7 and 8. Last week, I was talking to her about school and she brought up the topic of showing her kids the Presidential debate. She told me that they did not know what a president was or who the president of the United States was. The only concept that they knew was that a debate was a type of "fight". We then got on the topic of the medicine these children take, and she explained to me how so many children take drugs like Adderall, whether they were diagnosed with a disorder or not. This week I was inspired to look up an article about this topic.
The title of the article reads "Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School". The article mainly focuses on the drug Adderall, which is commonly used to treat children with ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. More often now, this medicine is used in children who do not have this disorder, but struggle in school and seek aid in this medicine. Parents who cannot afford tutoring to help their kids, turn to Adderall to help their children succeed in school. Medicaid pays the full price of the medicine, so basically parents are receiving free "tutoring" for their children. The part of this topic that I do not like though, is that some kids who already receive high grades, use Adderall to boost them even more. The children who do poorly in school without ADHD have a better justified use than these kids who use the medicine to make them geniuses.
A cultural universal shared by all parents is the need for their kids to succeed in school! Who would have thought that they would go to such extremes as to putting their kids on medicine to achieve this? The part that bothered me so much about this article was that using Adderall for kids academic acceleration is becoming a norm in some parts of our country!!! How could our education system be coming to this? I don't think it is morally correct that some kids in school are succeeding with the aid of drugs, while others are succeeding solely on hard work.
The title of the article reads "Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School". The article mainly focuses on the drug Adderall, which is commonly used to treat children with ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. More often now, this medicine is used in children who do not have this disorder, but struggle in school and seek aid in this medicine. Parents who cannot afford tutoring to help their kids, turn to Adderall to help their children succeed in school. Medicaid pays the full price of the medicine, so basically parents are receiving free "tutoring" for their children. The part of this topic that I do not like though, is that some kids who already receive high grades, use Adderall to boost them even more. The children who do poorly in school without ADHD have a better justified use than these kids who use the medicine to make them geniuses.
A cultural universal shared by all parents is the need for their kids to succeed in school! Who would have thought that they would go to such extremes as to putting their kids on medicine to achieve this? The part that bothered me so much about this article was that using Adderall for kids academic acceleration is becoming a norm in some parts of our country!!! How could our education system be coming to this? I don't think it is morally correct that some kids in school are succeeding with the aid of drugs, while others are succeeding solely on hard work.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
It takes a little more grit...
This week while reading Time magazine I came across an article that automatically caught my eye. It read "Failure Is Not a Bad Option". Almost any student cringes at the sound of the word failure. So how can failure be a good option? Parents strictly believe that children should get good grades will do well at a university and ultimately be successful in life. This is the common belief among all parents, but this article challenges that and states that a little more grit is what kids really need. Grit is a firmness of character which allows kids to actually succeed at a university, instead of just being qualified based on IQ and SAT scores. The article also focuses on the mental affects education has on children. A family therapist named Madeline Levine counsels young kids to emphasis less on grades, more on values, less on homework, and more on sleep. Levine captures the idea of the article that failure is not bad! To succeed in college, we need to work on skills like the ability to persist, focus, and adapt. Therefore, unlike most people belief, it's NOT all about the grades!
This article was so appealing because it breaks the social norms of education. This topic was one that I hoped I could focus on while blogging about education. I thought that it was interesting to first look at what parents value for their children: great grades, attending a university, and having a successful life. Our parents' values directly affect our approach towards our education. We rely on memorization and cramming to achieve the perfect score on a test so that we can get into the best college. This article challenges these norms though. Instead, it takes the approach that scores are not what is going to get us through college. It takes a firmness in character, otherwise known as grit. SAT scores associate a student with just a number, which is not a very good basis of whether the person is well-rounded or not. I think it was interesting in this article to see how contrasting norms of society are to what is actually valued in the long run in college. The agents of socialization such as our families and peer groups have direct influence on our behaviors in our studies. Levine shows how we value the wrong things and should focus more on getting sleep and staying healthy! SLEEP...every student's dream (no pun intended). I loved how I was able to gain a different perspective on the valued aspects of education through this article!
This article was so appealing because it breaks the social norms of education. This topic was one that I hoped I could focus on while blogging about education. I thought that it was interesting to first look at what parents value for their children: great grades, attending a university, and having a successful life. Our parents' values directly affect our approach towards our education. We rely on memorization and cramming to achieve the perfect score on a test so that we can get into the best college. This article challenges these norms though. Instead, it takes the approach that scores are not what is going to get us through college. It takes a firmness in character, otherwise known as grit. SAT scores associate a student with just a number, which is not a very good basis of whether the person is well-rounded or not. I think it was interesting in this article to see how contrasting norms of society are to what is actually valued in the long run in college. The agents of socialization such as our families and peer groups have direct influence on our behaviors in our studies. Levine shows how we value the wrong things and should focus more on getting sleep and staying healthy! SLEEP...every student's dream (no pun intended). I loved how I was able to gain a different perspective on the valued aspects of education through this article!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)