Failing Schools

                Schools that are in lacking funds and resources will have a hard time teaching the students and helping them understand the courses. Students in this type of environment will not learn anything and will be thrown into the real world without the knowledge that they need to succeed. In Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol its states “I visit four classes taking places within another undivided space. The room has a low ceiling. Again no windows”(105). The students in these classes will not learn anything because of the type of environment. The information that the teachers are trying to give to the students will not be heard because of overlapping voices from the teachers and the noise from the four classes. These circumstances force the students to fail and destroying their future after school.

                Tennyson High in Hayward is a great example of a school that is struggling because of no funding. Tennyson High is scoring 658 API which is 148 less from the statewide goal of 800 API. Since of the low scores it has received less funding than the school that are scoring higher than them leaving them with few resources to help their students. If they receive little funding because of the low test scores then they will not have the resources to help the teachers to teach more thoroughly and help their students so they can get a higher API score the next time. This system is only hurting the schools that have low test scores because it will be harder for them to break the statewide goal because of they are lacking the resources and funds and in the end get them to fall farther and farther from the goal.

                Tennyson High is fairly similar from the schools that are talked about in Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities. These type of schools are getting little funding because of the system that belittles the schools that have low test scores. The system needs to be change so that the schools that are struggling get more funding so they can help students that are in their schools. If this system continues to thrive then we will see a lot more schools that will fail the students in their institution because they have no means to help them succeed. 

One Paragraph

                Education is something that is vital for a person to succeed. Without the proper education the person will have a higher chance of falling in poverty and not getting back up. This is why it is important for people in schools to have the proper funding and resources to have the best education that they can get. In Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol he writes “Chicago does not have a junior high school system. Students begin Bethune in kindergarten and remain here through eighth grade”(57).  The students that are subjected to this type of system are more likely to fall into poverty than a person who had all the years of schooling completed. Without going to junior high school the student are lacking the information that they need to do good in high school. In the end they end up failing high school and then college so in the end they get stuck with low paying jobs. It is not the fault of the students or the schools but fault of poorly funded schools. The government should give more funding to the schools because it will make or break a student’s future. 

Negative Teachings

                The tools that we need to succeed later in life are learned while we are going to school. Most of our time we are in school trying to gain knowledge from the teachers, they are there to teach us the tools that will give us a better life after high school. This is why it is important that the teachers that are teaching the students are well equipped so the students' future will not be squandered away. Teachers that don’t have any passion and respect for the students that they are teaching will only destroy their ambitions and expectations of the student when they finish school. These teachers will only poison the young minds of students and lead them into a stray life in the future.

                Students who are exposed to unqualified teachers tend to fall behind in class leaving them to be behind in school as well. If a student is behind in one class because of a teacher that does not care about their class and is not capable of helping students then the student will have a harder time in school because of added pressure from the threat of failing a class. The domino effect comes into play because he will give more time to the class he is failing to pass it but giving less attention to other classes. This might lead to him/her to fall behind in other classes since all their time is directed to the class that they are failing. It is the teacher’s job to get a student back on track and help them to have a passing grade on the class but there are a lot of teachers that does not care enough to help struggling students.

                Having the wrong knowledge is more harmful than having no knowledge at all. If a teacher who does not know anything about what they are teaching and are giving out wrong ideas and teaching the students then it would just harm the students listening to it than help them in any way. Everything you learn in class is attributed and is required to pass the class that is higher that one, but if you have been taught misleading teachings and ideas then you will fail the class because of major confusion and contradicting teachings. If this happens then the student will need to undergo a reboot to  unlearn the things that he learned that is not helpful and is unrelated to the class that he is in. 

What we see at school

Mirror Neurons are very helpful since it affects our emotion, attitudes and action without us knowing that it is there. It is greatly used by the media to set trends and social movements by showing things on T.V that we sublimely follow because we saw on T.V done by famous people. If mirror neurons are used to brainwash our society then how come schools never use to persuade the students in this country to be more active in school. In the Passion Project the narrator talks how mirror neurons can be used by teachers to greatly influence their students because they are very close related throughout the whole school year. Teachers are there to not only teach the students but to sway students to be more into education. Students unconsciously use their mirror neurons and copies what the teachers is doing. In the article “What do mirror neurons mirror?” by Pim Haselager it states “the activity of mirror neurons is often conceptualized as a form of representation”(2). If a teacher is lacking in passion when teaching, then a student might copy them and mirror the same feelings that the teachers is showing and this will lead to students falling behind in the class or school. But if a teacher show excitement towards the things that they are teaching then the students will act and feel exited too. It also states that “neurons are said to represent action means, action ends or goals, and intentions”(3). Students in any level of school have different intention but if a teacher’s goal is just to get paid and not to teach then the mirror neurons in the student’s brain might affect our own goals and change it so we are not leaning towards learning anymore. Since goals and intention is mirrored by mirror neurons then teachers should re-evaluate their intentions toward teaching so they can be a major influence to their students and not be a hindrance and bad example to them. Mirror neurons is a major asset to teaching so teachers should be more aware of how they act in front of their students because in the end  they might mirror the bad things and not the things that will help them from succeeding in school. 

Pim Haselager, et al. "What Do Mirror Neurons Mirror?." Philosophical Psychology 24.5 (2011): 607-623. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Sept. 2013.