Essay Reflection

I chose two essays from FHS-1500, Lifespan Human Development, coursework to share in my teaching portfolio because these two essays cover two different subject areas that I feel need change in our public school systems.

The first essay, “Overemphasis on Competition in American Society”, talks about how promoting constant competition can have negative effects on most students. The students who are achieving greatly are likely to have high self-esteem and self-worth. Self-esteem and self-worth are two of the main driving forces behind student motivation.

For students who are not achieving greatly, they feel the negative affects on the polar spectrum of that scale. These students will have lower confidence and lower self worth. This can drastically affect these student’s motivation to succeed.

I believe that reform for competition in the public school system is needed. All students should have the opportunity to be told that they are good at something. Students need to be motivated to learn. When you build up only the top achievers of the school, you are tearing down the vast majority of students who are performing at lower levels.

Were you affected by low self-esteem because you weren’t a top performer in your school? What are some ways we can motivate students who are low performers to keep at it and work hard?

The second essay, “Vocational & Educational Choices”, refers to an overemphasis on immediately going to college after high school graduation. Statistics show that 40% of college students drop out after their first year. I was part of this statistic.

When I first graduated high school, I had no direction. I was not prepared for college. I barely even knew how to enroll. Instead of emphasizing jumping into a career track in after high school, I think that more schools should provide experiences for students to understand their interests.

When I was a senior in high school, I had no interests besides my social life. That was the only reason I went to college. All of my friends went to college, and I didn’t want to be left out. I ended up taking classes that I hated and had absolutely no interest in. After my first year, I was even more lost. I had no idea which direction I should go in, so I dropped out.

It wasn’t until later, when I started volunteering and working with school aged children that I figured out what I was good at and what I liked doing. Now, I am more motivated than ever to complete school and give it my all.

I think our society and our public school systems put too much pressure on students to go straight to college after graduation. Because of the rising cost of tuition, these students, just like I did, waste so much money and time bouncing from one subject area to another, and never earning a degree. I think it is necessary to slow the college entry process for these students. Have these students take part in volunteer activities, service projects, and and internships to find out what type of work makes them feel good.

I had to find out what intrinsically motivated me to finish school. I think a lot of other students struggle with this same issue, and it is blatantly overlooked by the public education system.

When did you find your career path? How did you find out what intrinsically motivated you?

Vocational & Educational Choices

OPTION B: VOCATIONAL & EDUCATIONAL CHOICES

There is a large body of literature that suggests a high correlation between education and lifelong earning capacity.  Yet, 40% of all college students drop out within their first year of college.  You have a friend who is seriously considering dropping out of college and comes to you for advice.  What advice would you offer and why?

I am most definitely an advocate for education. There are many reasons to pursue an education after high school and also many reasons to not. It is hard to advocate for dropping out of college to most people, but I typically do. Many would argue that supporting someone’s decision of dropping out of college is the worst advice you could give a person. I disagree, and here is why: I was a college dropout.

I dropped out of college after my freshman year, as 40% of all college students do. I didn’t care about my classes. I didn’t know where my path was headed. I was there because that’s where all of my friends were. I was there to be an unsupervised adult. I was not there to learn.

Understanding why I was at college was a huge part of my decision to drop out. Because tuition was so high, I saw myself rising into student loan debt. I saw myself taking classes that I had no intentions of using to pursue a degree. I didn’t even know what I wanted my degree to be yet. I was on a very expensive path of finding myself, or my calling.

I feel that high school students have so much pressure to decide what and who they want to be by the time they reach eighteen. Eighteen is a young age to start setting your future in stone. At this stage of adulthood, a substantial amount of exploration and instability are two of the defining traits (Strassen Berger, 2010).  If you change your mind in college, that can become quite an expensive change of heart.

I was definitely a late bloomer when it came to deciding my future. So many of my friends had it figured out. I thought I liked computers. I was good as using them. I settled on computer sciences as my degree. I hated every class.

I came home after four hours a day of sitting in front of a computer screen with migraines. My homework would be to write code. I would spend another three hours, working through a grueling headache to complete fragments of code. It was absolutely miserable, but I was afraid to change my degree track because I didn’t know what else I liked.

I took a total of six years off of college to find out what I wanted to do. I traveled. I volunteered. I tried so many new things. Today, I don’t know my path exactly, but I know my destination. I know what I want to study. I know what I love. Most of all, I know what my goal is.

If a person doesn’t have a goal, and is blindly taking classes to find out what they want to do with the rest of their life, I will always advocate to take some time off. You can always go back, but you can’t always get student aid, or your money back from taking classes that don’t pertain to your degree. To stay in school without a goal will drain your focus, it will drain your motivation, and it will drain your bank account.

References

Stassen Berger, K. (2010). Invitation to the Lifespan

New York: Worth Publishers

 

 

OVEREMPHASIS ON COMPETITION IN AMERICAN SOCIETY

Sarah Radcliff

FHS 1500

Professor Robinson

23 October 2015

 

Question

Based on your knowledge of American culture and child development, respond to BOTH of the following: sets of questions:

1.  Is competition over-emphasized in American Society?  Why? What are the advantages of such a competitive attitude?  What are the disadvantages?
2.  Identify situations that you have observed in which competition has actually interfered with people achieving a goal.  Is competition emphasized in children?  What recommendations would you make to parents regarding their child’s participation in soccer, baseball, etc.?

 

Answer

The emphasization of competition in American society causes an array of troubles for school aged children, as well as adults. Though there can be some advantages of a competitive attitude, I think that over-emphasization of competitive attitudes can truly cause long term negative effects for students from elementary school level to the college level. There have been many instances where competition has interfered with actual academic goals, because most competitions for school aged children focus primarily on physical and athletic abilities.

I feel that the over emphasization of competition in American society has forced many children to try to succeed in other competitive activities rather than academically. On average, public universities spend six times more money on athletes than to educate their students (USA Today,  2014). Frivolous spending on athletes sets a tone in the mind of students that competitive sports are more important than academics. Students try harder to succeed at the competitive sports than to succeed academically.

Public schools are no different than public universities when it comes to spending on athletics versus academics. There are some competitive programs that can be found at the high school level that push students to be academically competitive as well, such as scholars bowl or debate, however, the amount of funds put into academically competitive programs is far less than the money allocated to athletic competitive programs.

There is research suggesting that high school athletes tend to have a higher GPA as well as a much lower drop-out rate. However, only allocating enough funds to support athletic competitions is segregating success to athletically competitive students.  Wouldn’t it be wise to create equally competitive programs for children who were less athletic?

When it boils down to it, I don’t think it is the competitive nature of our society that is causing problems to our school systems. I think the subject area of which we push competition is what should be addressed.

More scholarships for sports are given to graduating high school seniors than academic scholarships. This instills in the minds of our students that in order to be successful, you must be competitive in athletics, not just academics. It almost feels as if academics is coming second to athletics. First you must achieve excellence athletically, then, if you meet the academic guidelines, you will be awarded a scholarship.

Stassen-Berger explains in our text the importance of children belonging to part of a team, however, what happens when parents can’t afford to pay for their child to be on a team? What about students who aren’t well coordinated? Shouldn’t each of these students have the opportunity for success and scholarships as well (Stassen-Berger, 2010, pg. 238)?

By over-emphasizing competitive sports, students are losing out on chances to be competitive in other aspects of their education. I think it is important for students to have a chance to compete in activities that are not only sport related. Students should have equal chance and support from school districts to compete in other activities that stimulate the mind and promote academic success. Rather than suggest spending the extra money to place your child in little leagues, try placing your child, or starting, a more academically centered activity for children to compete in.

Competition can create a wonderful drive in students and can encourage them to do well academically. However, all competition should not be focused on a student’s physical capabilities. There should be equal opportunity for programs that focus on student’s academic competitiveness and drive.

 

References

 

Stassen Berger, K. (2010). Invitation to the Lifespan

New York: Worth Publishers

 

USA Today (2014) Division I Colleges Spend More on Athletes Than Education

Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/01/15/division-i-colleges-spend-more-on-athletes-than-education/1837721/