I have many mixed views on Thomas L. Friedman's piece in the New York Times. Many people are out of jobs and Many companies are either closing or looking for workers that are outside of America. The problem Friedman says is that we are slipping with things that make most countries competitive. If we added in "I.T. infrastructure, economic performance and so on" more job opportunities will be created and once jobs and such settle down, our economy will start to heal itself. In my opinion more and more of infrastructure is a bad thing. We have so much of it already but we are not using it to the full potential. If we create more and more our world will become more and more industrialized and I fear our environment will pay for it. It is already in danger of being polluted, and cut down, and etc. And most of the cases it " just slowly enough so the crisis never seems acute enough to take urgent action." I dont really see school as being the solution for all of this. Schools will better educate students and we learn everything the government wants us to. Perhaps if school's get better there will be some hope for schools to better get the kids to do what they want them to and what they expect them to. But even with school, many students would still be doing and learning what they choose.
I think schools do have the potential to be better and that they should. Education is important for many reasons that people have listed and many reasons that it isnt. For some it is a place to stay off the street, for others its a place to have their first steps of being successful. Schools are all of these. They are what ever the student, teacher, parent and officials want it to be. Though I think there should be more freedom within a school. I feel like that if more and more people put their opinion in schools and how they want it to be, students will only become more and more like the tools of the government. Grownups are always saying that students and children are the future of our society. They hold so many expectations and want so much for us that they push more and more for certain things to be learned. The only trouble with this is that the whole economy is screwing up the schools. Schools are closing down, teachers are out of jobs, student metro cards will soon be gotten rid of and this will cause more and more students to drop out of schools for ones closer to them. if we are truly the future of our nation and whatnot, then the government and officials should take better care of the schools.
I think we can always count on schools to teach us something. But not just the regular curriculum but also important life lessons. Children are always going to be pushed or pulled by the people around them. There will always be influences from every direction, parents expect certain things, other family member too, teachers, grownups, other students. At home its much more of the parents influencing the students with their views and beliefs. I am not saying in school that this wont happen, Im saying there will be so many more views and beliefs that the child is exposed to so much more that they can open their mind and decide what they believe in and view. School gives kids this option. But more and more I feel certain schools arent thinking about the students but what they want out of them. Even Obama goes into discussing what is asked of us. What responsibilities each role has in terms of schools. He doesnt mention what is in the students needs as children to learn and do. Yes we are students but we are still kids and we cant be expected to act like adults and learn everything and act like little robots. We are human and these needs such as wanting to play outside, more creativity, gym time, music, and such can not be taken from us. Schools have the responsibility to the students to play to their needs. Not just to sit there and learn what they are told to. The best teachers I had were ones that actually made the courses interesting by relating them to things we are interested in. It may be false to lure kids in with this but if it gets them to learn then why not especialy if after a while they actually want to learn.