The Obama Effect in educational test scores

January 24, 2009 at 8:01 pm (Education, News & Politics) (, , , , , , )

Apparently, during the height of Obama’s campaigning, many African American students tested similarly to their white counterparts of a similar educational background.  This is not the first I’ve heard of African Americans, especially children and teenagers, being inspired to take their academics and careers more seriously because of Obama’s success, but previously these reports have been largely anecdotal.  Though I hate the amount of testing done in this country, how exciting to see documented evidence of Obama’s positive effect as a role model!

I would argue that he’s not only a role model for African Americans, but also for men in power (or even for women in power, considering that there still seems to be a belief that a woman must be pushy and bitchy to climb the ranks, especially in male-dominated fields).  He’s courteous, patient, reserved, and obtains his influence by inspiring others rather than fear-mongering.  One of the most obnoxious things about many male Republican candidates is their inability to remain polite and reserved while still being influential.  I may not agree with the Republican party, but at least I could respect them more if they acted with a little more decency.  Even though it may be much more difficult to document quantitatively, I wonder if we’ll see an increase in polite, reserved behavior in politics?

However, after reading some of a friend’s blog entries about government officials in South Korea, I’m thinking that maybe Republicans aren’t so bad after all …

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I Offered My Two Cents to Barack Obama

November 6, 2008 at 9:03 pm (Education, News & Politics) (, , , )

On Change.gov (President-Elect Obama’s website), there’s a fabulous place to offer your ideas.  So I offered mine, which I am also putting here for the record (though I put in links where, obviously, I did not in the text box to Obama because they should know their website enough to know what I’m referring to).

You should offer your ideas too.

Here’s what I wrote:

I would like to respond to your America Serves page/initiative ideas.  First of all, it’s so fabulous that these plans is in the works, especially for young people (teenagers and 20-somethings).  As a 22 year old who has recently graduated college and focused in secondary level education as an educational concentration and career path, I’ve witnessed two major issues with young people: one is railroading recent high school graduates into college (who may or may not be ready for college due to education or maturity) without seeing many prospects for alternative experiences before or instead of college.  The other is few opportunities or encouragement for young people to become engaged in their communities.  Society values getting rich quick more than community engagement/service and holistic education.  This is unhealthy both for individuals and for society as a whole, and I think that creating more opportunities and transparent systems for service work will be very beneficial to everyone involved.

However, one thing concerned me: the required number of community service hours for college students.  I personally graduated from a college that had a community service requirement, but there are two things that make this work: the definition of community service and what that opportunity could be for a specific student was left to that student and his/her academic advisor alone to negotiate (which would not be so easily possible in a standard nation-wide requirement), and also there is no set number of required hours.  Furthermore, the community service requirement is something completed sometime over the course of one’s second and third years in college (making the timeline more flexible), and while some students do a significant amount of community service during their time at the school (and probably would do the same without a specific requirement), most students do not do such substantial amounts of community service as 100 hours.

The requirement of 100 hours a year is huge.  If my math is correct, that equates to about a course a semester, in addition to their college or university’s requirements.  While more time outside of the classroom and engaging with the non-academic world would undoubtedly be a positive change for college students and academia, many students are burdened not only with a rigorous academic program, but also jobs of all esteems, both during the academic year and more intensively in the summer.  To imagine they must also tackle a significant community service requirement when they are barely able to fit in time to work so that they may afford the education they are completing — it’s frankly unfair.  As this website indicates on the page about the economy, college tuition is rising, and loans are not only harder to get than previously but also a huge burden on a recently-graduated college student looking for work in a depressed economy.

Please consider revising your proposal by lowering the required number of hours, making the timeframe more flexible (perhaps over the course of one’s undergraduate education rather than within one year), and including scholarship assistance to those needing to fund their college education in addition to a community service requirement.

Also, thank you for providing this system for easily submitting ideas.

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The Drive for Academic Success, a.k.a. Insanity

November 6, 2008 at 7:02 pm (Education, Musings, News & Politics, Personal Life) (, , , , , , )

(originally written June 19, 2008 on Blogger)

I recently found an interesting article (linked from Eduwonkette) about the disadvantages of elite, Ivy-league education, not only for the students of this education, but for the society that bears the consequences of their actions. A particularly poignant paragraph:

The world that produced John Kerry and George Bush is indeed giving us our next generation of leaders. The kid who’s loading up on AP courses junior year or editing three campus publications while double-majoring, the kid whom everyone wants at their college or law school but no one wants in their classroom, the kid who doesn’t have a minute to breathe, let alone think, will soon be running a corporation or an institution or a government. She will have many achievements but little experience, great success but no vision. The disadvantage of an elite education is that it’s given us the elite we have, and the elite we’re going to have.

Well that just fills me with puppies and sunshine. The article definitely strikes a tone with me because, while certainly not of Ivy-league “caliber”, I definitely have spent a lot of time these last five or six years trying to work past my crazy drive to perform well academically, no matter the cost: health, happiness, personality, life, etc. I remember a high school teacher encouraging me to apply to Harvard, just to see if I could get in. I remember feeling particularly adverse to this idea, though the only thing I could pinpoint is the suicide rate at these hyper-elite schools. I now realize what it was: people there didn’t live lives, either literally (morbid, I know) or figuratively. They lived through their number-driven goals of being the traditional stories of success: make lots of money, get lots of esteem. Ugh. Not for me — though I wouldn’t argue against a little more money than I currently have.

My nerves about graduate school have kicked in again, though not as strongly as before. Previously, I was getting some serious anxiety about not doing well, but the blessing of thinking for two weeks that I could just do this a few years from now when I have a greater Chinese ability was that I stopped worrying. I just got comfortable with the idea that I could do things in a non-rushed way. The curse of getting a sweet financial aid package and actually going to this uber-intensive graduate school program this year is that I’m worrying again. The materials are blunt: it is intense, it is difficult, and if you don’t pass with a B- or more in all your classes, you are dropped from the program (because technically, students aren’t candidates for an M.A. until after successfully going through the first summer).

So, like I did when nervously anticipating my acceptance/rejection letter earlier this spring, I’ve started thinking: what if I don’t do well? What if I do my best, I work my ass off, and in the end I don’t pass? Well, I probably won’t die from it. PROBABLY. I don’t think I have to report the “summer of failed graduate school” to anyone, so that’s also a plus. I’d go to China next fall like originally planned. I’d look for teaching jobs. After beginning to teach, I’d probably apply to Middlebury again, along with some other graduate programs, because in MA you have to have a Master’s (or maybe just be enrolled in a Master’s program) within the first five years of teaching to get your license renewed. Would it be that bad? Would I be worse off, other than the cost of gas to drive me to and from?

In the end: no, the world would not end. My life and career would also not end. I’d be okay. I’d certainly receive a lovely jab to my self-esteem, but I would still have improved my Chinese, still would have given it my best, still would have a job, and still would be coming home to my boyfriend and lovely apartment and delicious food.

My goal for this summer: to stay healthy, sleep enough, exercise enough, laugh enough, and not fall into the trap of going off the deep end in the name of academic success. I will try my best, but not at the expense of my own sense of self worth. Because I don’t want to be the student that all the colleges want to cherish and brag about. I want to be someone interesting, someone valuable, someone content with their existence, and if I have to fail grad school to do it, so be it.

I do NOT want to be George Bush.

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