Savannah
When I think neighborhood, I see both the ups and downs that come with "being in it together". I see certain people enthusiastic to improve life within the small location through community service and charity events, but I also picture the grumpy neighbors that wake up everyday refusing to acknowledge the presence of any human beings within a hundred-mile radius by saying hello in the morning. Most importantly, however, each personality counts and what would our neighborhoods be without the angry elders always muttering in annoyance at the children on the street? We need diversity and when I think neighborhood I see different people gathered together in one ecosystem, getting along in one way or another, striving to make each day better than the one before. I can honestly say that I love my neighborhood, Greenpoint, even though at some point, I didn't particularly like certain people living around me. Over time, I noticed that I simply misunderstood some people, and I noticed that sometimes all it takes is a friendly smile to make a change.
A community works more or less on the same basis of support that neighborhoods do. We can't make all people have the same personalities and opinions on a specific issue, because people would all be confined to a single mindset and they wouldn't develop as a society. The purpose of a community is to bring together all the diverse personalities and to learn from them. We may not like everybody in our community, but it is important that we respect their opinions and maybe someday we will either learn from them or teach them a lesson that can change the way they perceive the world; in this way, we are always there for each other.
The environment means something different to all of us, and some would say that it is a major determining factor in the development of our personalities. The people that surround us, the flora, the fauna, and even the abiotic factors of the world around us can change how we think and act since all we can do to survive is to adapt to what environment is around us. Personally, I can credit both Pennsylvania and New York for making me the person I am now. Over the years, I have developed patience and peace from Pennsylvania, while at the same time I have come to love the busy life of New York, where there is always something to do or someplace to be; I know that without one or the other, I would be a completely different person.
Nature is just breathtaking. I chose to post this image because it reminds me of the millions of times that I have taken pictures like this during the summer in Poland, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Puerto Rico, Florida, and other areas that I have visited in the past few years. I tend to capture the sun at this angle in the same way because it illuminates the entire picture and makes bodies of water and forests, specifically look lively and bright.
Greenpoint, in Brooklyn, fits my requirement and definition of the perfect environment, community, neighborhood, and even presence of nature, which is the reason why I am so comfortable where I live. Like everyone else, I had my share of challenging experiences, including getting along with a neighbor who has only spoken to me about five to ten times ever since I moved in there (at approximately four years old) because she was one of those grumpy people who sat inside all day and only civilly said "Hello" when we just happened to see her outside. But, eventually (after years of work at this) I swept the leaves off of her side of the sidewalk, and she began doing the same; I shoveled the snow as well, and so did she. Gradually we began helping each other get past each season of the year and I began to truly like her peaceful silence. Sometimes we would even sweep together and there was no necessity for conversation, we just swept side by side, said "Good morning", then "Bye" and it was nice. Overall, I feel that one just needs to have the patience to take the time and get to know everyone around and enjoy the life around them.
My Neighborhood
This is a map of how I see my neighborhood and the nature surrounding my home, my parks, and my grandma's house. The reality of my neighborhood may not ideally match with this map, but I focus more on the natural environment around me (nature and friendship) and what it means to be a part of my neighborhood, no matter how imperfect it may be.
Ever since we first began this project, I felt like I was looking at my neighborhood differently than I ever had before. As I flipped through pages of the National Geographic, I simply put myself in every photo of the forest, the ocean, the gardens, the communities and I connected every little thing to myself somehow. For the first time, I voiced what nature meant to me in my neighborhood and i was able to share my perspective with someone else. I looked at some small details like the Tin man from the Wizard of Oz to symbolically express how I wish people living on my street could be just a little bit friendlier. Initially, I thought my neighborhood was going to be fairly simple to map out; all I needed to do was make a collection of trees, splash some glue on the paper, and smack the trees on there. I thought that maybe I would add a couple of significant attractions in my neighborhood, like a couple of popular Polish stores, or the church, or the track field in my park, but I soon found that the oddest pictures connected me to my neighborhood and displayed exactly how I saw the trees in winter, or the bikers in the park, or the flowers outside my grandma's house. As I was putting my map together, I found that the most important thing about my neighborhood was, in fact, family. No matter how many pictures I found that could potentially serve as my food store, or my church, I found that I actually didn't want to place them on my map. I felt most comfortable simply putting my house, my street, and my grandma's house on my map since most of my childhood memories came from these areas.
As I continued to build on my map, however, I found myself questioning whether i would actually change anything about this neighborhood, and I feel like this all depends on what I am feeling any particular day. Some days, when I return from a vacation in Poland, I miss the way I felt so welcome there; people I didn't even remember would call me by name and express how happy they were that I finally came to visit. Other days, I like the peace that comes with living in a neighborhood where people go about their business without so much as a nod in greeting when their neighbor passes by. Generally, I love my neighborhood as it is since the ups and downs balance out to create a neighborhood where I am comfortable regardless of my mood, and if i was to share this experience with anybody, it would be with my family. Specifically, I would share this with my grandma, so I could let her know how much she means to me and how important she is in my neighborhood. Going to her house everyday as a child, I remember playing in her backyard, counting all of her beautifully colorful flowers, then going inside to smell the sweetness of cake and feeling the warmth of her dinner cooking. I can honestly say that if my grandma moved out, my neighborhood would not feel the same because I wouldn't have as much family around and I would miss the sight of her flowers in front of her house...I wouldn't even have anyone to go take a walk in the park with as well, so I would spend more time at home.
Overall, I felt that the mental mapping exercise was definitely productive in answering the research questions that were asked. The map-making process, and the sharing of my perspective with others encouraged me to express connections I wouldn't usually speak about. I felt like I could easily share how I love nature, and how I see it everywhere I go, city or not, or how important my family is to me, and how my neighborhood wouldn't be my home without my family. In general, I thought this was a very effective system to get us all to share our neighborhoods and collect data because the groups were small enough to be comfortable and large enough to allow us all to consider our personal opinions on what makes a 'good' neighborhood with the opinions and experiences of others to come up with a mutual definition/theme. One thing I would have changed, however, was to possibly alternate the groups each day, so that everyone can hear the perspective of the other classmates; in this way, we could easily come up with a class theme and hear everyone's 'life story' in their neighborhood. Another way we could capture the essence of our neighborhoods could possibly be to someday record a a short video of where we live and connect the 2-3 minute videos into a collective project featuring the various types of homes of the class.
As I continued to build on my map, however, I found myself questioning whether i would actually change anything about this neighborhood, and I feel like this all depends on what I am feeling any particular day. Some days, when I return from a vacation in Poland, I miss the way I felt so welcome there; people I didn't even remember would call me by name and express how happy they were that I finally came to visit. Other days, I like the peace that comes with living in a neighborhood where people go about their business without so much as a nod in greeting when their neighbor passes by. Generally, I love my neighborhood as it is since the ups and downs balance out to create a neighborhood where I am comfortable regardless of my mood, and if i was to share this experience with anybody, it would be with my family. Specifically, I would share this with my grandma, so I could let her know how much she means to me and how important she is in my neighborhood. Going to her house everyday as a child, I remember playing in her backyard, counting all of her beautifully colorful flowers, then going inside to smell the sweetness of cake and feeling the warmth of her dinner cooking. I can honestly say that if my grandma moved out, my neighborhood would not feel the same because I wouldn't have as much family around and I would miss the sight of her flowers in front of her house...I wouldn't even have anyone to go take a walk in the park with as well, so I would spend more time at home.
Overall, I felt that the mental mapping exercise was definitely productive in answering the research questions that were asked. The map-making process, and the sharing of my perspective with others encouraged me to express connections I wouldn't usually speak about. I felt like I could easily share how I love nature, and how I see it everywhere I go, city or not, or how important my family is to me, and how my neighborhood wouldn't be my home without my family. In general, I thought this was a very effective system to get us all to share our neighborhoods and collect data because the groups were small enough to be comfortable and large enough to allow us all to consider our personal opinions on what makes a 'good' neighborhood with the opinions and experiences of others to come up with a mutual definition/theme. One thing I would have changed, however, was to possibly alternate the groups each day, so that everyone can hear the perspective of the other classmates; in this way, we could easily come up with a class theme and hear everyone's 'life story' in their neighborhood. Another way we could capture the essence of our neighborhoods could possibly be to someday record a a short video of where we live and connect the 2-3 minute videos into a collective project featuring the various types of homes of the class.
Advertisements Are Everywhere!
Introduction: Influence of Advertising
Have you ever just stopped what you were doing to think about how many advertisements you have seen since the morning? Whether or not you actually take the time to pay attention to the advertisements thrown at you either on the internet of or the street, these small posters, pop-ups, or text messages influence us no matter how we fight to avoid reading them. I decided to take a couple of pictures of advertisements that caught my eye on my way home two days in a row. Surprisingly, everywhere I looked, I found a picture worth taking; on nearly every other building, an advertisement hung on the window, every telephone booth had at least two advertisements on each side, and so on. I even took a couple of snapshots of the advertisements that popped up when I was on YouTube or when I was playing a game on my iPod and I was surprised to find that every single website I went on, with the exception of two or three, had an Ad on the side or on the front.
Methodology:
-Data Collection:
My picture-taking was actually non-random for the reason that I tended to focus mostly on the advertisements of the streets, even though I took a couple of pictures at home. I made the decision to avoid paying attention to the advertisements on the Subway since not everyone takes the Subway everyday, especially people who own cars, take taxis, or live far away from the Subways. I also preferred to take pictures on the street as opposed to taking shots of the internet since there are some people who don't know how to operate computers, cellphones, iPods, or tablets, especially the older generations. So, I figured I would keep my research on the streets, where most people are heavily influenced by advertising
My picture-taking was actually non-random for the reason that I tended to focus mostly on the advertisements of the streets, even though I took a couple of pictures at home. I made the decision to avoid paying attention to the advertisements on the Subway since not everyone takes the Subway everyday, especially people who own cars, take taxis, or live far away from the Subways. I also preferred to take pictures on the street as opposed to taking shots of the internet since there are some people who don't know how to operate computers, cellphones, iPods, or tablets, especially the older generations. So, I figured I would keep my research on the streets, where most people are heavily influenced by advertising
Data Analysis:
-Content Analysis:
After taking a long look as many of my advertisements, I noticed that there was a recurrence of image and sometimes, of words, depending on what the advertisement was trying to sell. As I flipped through each one, I began to note that many words popped out at me, specifically: Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi, and sometimes Coca Cola. More than once I saw "Let's go Mets", Budweiser, a phone number to write down, a time frame (date) for which stores had discounts, or the term "new" and "exclusive", as if it really mattered to the producers whether this product was legitimate; the object was just to persuade and sell. The most common term I noticed was "FREE". What popped up was either "free download" or "download at the app store...free" and it's interesting how many people including myself, I must admit, actually consider downloading something because its free. Never mind that the game may be boring; it's worth a shot when all the other games have become boring, and there's no catch. The game is free.
As I took note of these common terms, I began to categorize each advertisement into a series of themes or content components, beginning with the basic presence of food or drink all the way to the appeals advertisement make towards children. I came up with fourteen categories that satisfied my findings of the presence of certain objects and themes in the 52 advertisements I took pictures of and I placed each picture into as many categories as the advertisement fir into, and the results were fairly unexpected in some areas more than others.
-Critical Discourse Analysis:
One specific advertisement caught my eye as interesting because most of the commercial is made up of outside factors that hardly have anything to do with the topic at hand. This advertisement is the 2014 "All-New" Nissan Versa Note "Door Trip" commercial which features a newer model of the car with the slogan that it is a car redesigned "for whatever you love to do". The entire commercial focuses on the people in a variety of overwhelmingly beautiful environments. The camera captures a beautiful camp, beach, city, etc., then it zooms in on the car at the last possible moment, only to reveal another boldly adventurous scene that pops out at the audience, not to mention all of the people enjoying themselves in the scene, paying little attention to the car at all, as if it didn't really matter if the car was there or not. Then, of course, the car takes up the podium, as if everything that came before actually persuaded the audience that the car has good mileage, is fuel-efficient, or has a four-wheel drive, and the advertisement ends with a subliminal "Here's the best car for you! Buy it as soon as you can."
After taking a long look as many of my advertisements, I noticed that there was a recurrence of image and sometimes, of words, depending on what the advertisement was trying to sell. As I flipped through each one, I began to note that many words popped out at me, specifically: Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi, and sometimes Coca Cola. More than once I saw "Let's go Mets", Budweiser, a phone number to write down, a time frame (date) for which stores had discounts, or the term "new" and "exclusive", as if it really mattered to the producers whether this product was legitimate; the object was just to persuade and sell. The most common term I noticed was "FREE". What popped up was either "free download" or "download at the app store...free" and it's interesting how many people including myself, I must admit, actually consider downloading something because its free. Never mind that the game may be boring; it's worth a shot when all the other games have become boring, and there's no catch. The game is free.
As I took note of these common terms, I began to categorize each advertisement into a series of themes or content components, beginning with the basic presence of food or drink all the way to the appeals advertisement make towards children. I came up with fourteen categories that satisfied my findings of the presence of certain objects and themes in the 52 advertisements I took pictures of and I placed each picture into as many categories as the advertisement fir into, and the results were fairly unexpected in some areas more than others.
-Critical Discourse Analysis:
One specific advertisement caught my eye as interesting because most of the commercial is made up of outside factors that hardly have anything to do with the topic at hand. This advertisement is the 2014 "All-New" Nissan Versa Note "Door Trip" commercial which features a newer model of the car with the slogan that it is a car redesigned "for whatever you love to do". The entire commercial focuses on the people in a variety of overwhelmingly beautiful environments. The camera captures a beautiful camp, beach, city, etc., then it zooms in on the car at the last possible moment, only to reveal another boldly adventurous scene that pops out at the audience, not to mention all of the people enjoying themselves in the scene, paying little attention to the car at all, as if it didn't really matter if the car was there or not. Then, of course, the car takes up the podium, as if everything that came before actually persuaded the audience that the car has good mileage, is fuel-efficient, or has a four-wheel drive, and the advertisement ends with a subliminal "Here's the best car for you! Buy it as soon as you can."
Findings/Results:
-Content Analysis:
Tallying in all of the data I extracted from my advertisements, I was actually shocked to see that males defeated females in the head count of the number of males present in the advertisements, whether as promoters, or background actors on the commercial or picture. More advertisements actually appealed to men (Advertisement Appeals Graph), and a majority of them promoted masculinity (Advertisement Visuals Graph), more so than femininity. I expected that possibly females would dominate advertising since they are so often used in promotional advertisements like music videos promoting a new song; many singers have women as their background attention-grabbers, and I expected this to be the same for most other advertisements. Another thing that shocked me about the data was the prevalence of entertainment as a major component of the public's interest, and a target for advertising. I expected technology to be a major component of advertising (Advertising Consumption), but I didn't expect entertainment and materialism to be so well advertised, when other popular categories like clothing and food could have been better advertised. Instead, I noticed that many advertisements were basically using technology to appeal to the masses: downloading a free game could target an adult as well as it can a child or an elder. Food/drink or even clothing/fashion cannot always appeal to everyone if the focus is on a specific age group, because the youth either cannot drink alcohol, or the elders cannot wear baby clothes. Meanwhile, a game or a nook, or a cell phone can appeal to many more of these age groups. Finally, I noticed that as expected, the majority of advertisements I encountered had some stunning scenery in the background or a series of intriguing pictures to better persuade the audience to buy something even if the background had little to do with the product.
-Critical Discourse Analysis:
After watching the Nissan Commercial another time, I noticed that this advertisement also focused on appealing to the masses much more than it focused on elaborating on the efficiency and authenticity of the actual product (the car). I saw that the first scene appealed to the "family man", or the group of happy people: parent + parent + child=happy family, and the car was zoomed in on later, after the genuine satisfaction of the people dominated the advertisement, in an attempt to convince people this was the car for a family. Next, there is a beach that appeals to friends getting together. Then, a date which appeals to the teenagers and couples getting together to share a moment. Finally, there is the city that appeals to businessmen, highlighting the classy, sleek, style of the car to attract those who hate taking the taxi everyday, and convince them this is the car for them.
Tallying in all of the data I extracted from my advertisements, I was actually shocked to see that males defeated females in the head count of the number of males present in the advertisements, whether as promoters, or background actors on the commercial or picture. More advertisements actually appealed to men (Advertisement Appeals Graph), and a majority of them promoted masculinity (Advertisement Visuals Graph), more so than femininity. I expected that possibly females would dominate advertising since they are so often used in promotional advertisements like music videos promoting a new song; many singers have women as their background attention-grabbers, and I expected this to be the same for most other advertisements. Another thing that shocked me about the data was the prevalence of entertainment as a major component of the public's interest, and a target for advertising. I expected technology to be a major component of advertising (Advertising Consumption), but I didn't expect entertainment and materialism to be so well advertised, when other popular categories like clothing and food could have been better advertised. Instead, I noticed that many advertisements were basically using technology to appeal to the masses: downloading a free game could target an adult as well as it can a child or an elder. Food/drink or even clothing/fashion cannot always appeal to everyone if the focus is on a specific age group, because the youth either cannot drink alcohol, or the elders cannot wear baby clothes. Meanwhile, a game or a nook, or a cell phone can appeal to many more of these age groups. Finally, I noticed that as expected, the majority of advertisements I encountered had some stunning scenery in the background or a series of intriguing pictures to better persuade the audience to buy something even if the background had little to do with the product.
-Critical Discourse Analysis:
After watching the Nissan Commercial another time, I noticed that this advertisement also focused on appealing to the masses much more than it focused on elaborating on the efficiency and authenticity of the actual product (the car). I saw that the first scene appealed to the "family man", or the group of happy people: parent + parent + child=happy family, and the car was zoomed in on later, after the genuine satisfaction of the people dominated the advertisement, in an attempt to convince people this was the car for a family. Next, there is a beach that appeals to friends getting together. Then, a date which appeals to the teenagers and couples getting together to share a moment. Finally, there is the city that appeals to businessmen, highlighting the classy, sleek, style of the car to attract those who hate taking the taxi everyday, and convince them this is the car for them.
Discussion:
Clearly, advertisements affect us everyday, no matter how hard we try to fight their influences. When I saw this Nissan commercial I honestly didn't even look at the car. What I saw was the beach, the camp, all of the happy people enjoying their vacations. I couldn't have cared less about the car's style or its color-I loved the advertisement and I wanted the car. Obviously I don't plan on buying it but the uplifting music and stunning scenery did its job; I liked the ad and I didn't even notice that the advertised product was the car until the end of the commercial. This only goes to show that persuasion is the way to go. After analyzing my data, I found that any company could sell just about anything, good quality or bad, so long as they place the perfect music with the perfect happy people in the advertisement, and this means a great deal considering that nowadays people buy so much.
The majority of people see an advertisement for a laptop, for instance, and they buy it because it is "new" and "highly recommended", not to mention, it is also "amplified by Pepsi"- bonus! They buy the cheaply made laptop, something breaks shortly, and they need to buy another one because repairing is much too expensive. The world of advertising is teaching people to consume and consume again until all the resources may be used up and there will no longer remain anything to consume. Meanwhile, most highly advertised things wither end up in the trash in a week, broken, or in an attic, unused and replaced by "newer" technologies.
Among some of the questions that came up during my research and have not yet been answered, however, I still wonder why many of the advertisements I found on the street were so dominated by males, or why food and drink didn't rank as the most popular ad when our very survival depends on food/drink; now it appears that technology is the all-powerful category some people claim they cannot live without. This goes to show how advertisements will always affect us, but they are only a reflection of the masses and the public's interests.
The majority of people see an advertisement for a laptop, for instance, and they buy it because it is "new" and "highly recommended", not to mention, it is also "amplified by Pepsi"- bonus! They buy the cheaply made laptop, something breaks shortly, and they need to buy another one because repairing is much too expensive. The world of advertising is teaching people to consume and consume again until all the resources may be used up and there will no longer remain anything to consume. Meanwhile, most highly advertised things wither end up in the trash in a week, broken, or in an attic, unused and replaced by "newer" technologies.
Among some of the questions that came up during my research and have not yet been answered, however, I still wonder why many of the advertisements I found on the street were so dominated by males, or why food and drink didn't rank as the most popular ad when our very survival depends on food/drink; now it appears that technology is the all-powerful category some people claim they cannot live without. This goes to show how advertisements will always affect us, but they are only a reflection of the masses and the public's interests.
Critical Educational Autobiography
Looking deeply into my hopes for the future, somehow I feel as if my decided bio-medical major has been heavily influenced not only by personal desire to help people, but also by the limited opportunities I was given in my initial years of school. Starting in elementary school, my creative and artistic classes were trampled upon while math, English, and science was fed to our minds in quantities too difficult to swallow at once. I actually remember when I took a music class early in the first grade. I loved it so much I anticipated it every morning. Although it was the general introduction to rhythm and sound, we got to pick up any instrument we wanted, making any sound we wanted to make that day. It was a wonderful way of expressing myself when I had not yet developed English fully. Earlier, I found that my thoughts and emotions flowed so quickly that I could never focus on one specific thought to translate into English; I simply observed the behaviors around me and reflected to myself. So, instead of sitting in class, staring, smiling, and muttering something briefly to my friend, I could simply go to music class, pick up an instrument, and make some music, joining in with other classmates to make a collective sound. I remember picking up the triangle once, because all of the other more popular instruments were already taken, and even though I felt put down at first, scowling at the silver looped triangle in one hand, and the long slender silver pick in the other, I patiently tested it and played with it. Soon enough, I learned how to apply every instrument in its own unique way to contribute to the class' wild musical noise. That turned out to the only year I ever had a music class. Walking past the music room in the fourth, then the fifth grade, on my way to gym or lunch, I remember peeking in, wishing I was one of those first graders pouring their colorful emotions into their music.
What just made my pre-school experiences even less colorful and creative was the absence of my art teacher. When my class found out in the fourth grade that she wasn't going to come back and that art class would be suspended-just "suspended" temporarily-I wasn't too upset. I figured that I would miss my favorite art teacher, but I could always learn a thing or two about art from a new perspective. So I waited. Disappointment fell heavy on my hopes, and I became devastated when I found out that there wouldn't be a replacement. For whatever reason, financial problems or poor teacher availability, art was gone. Guess what replaced my hour for art class? English. So now I sat in class for an hour extra, sitting stuck in one setting for so long that I could practically feel the creativity slipping away from my grasp. I loved English and I still do very much, but everyone needs a class where they can splash colors gently over a paper and spill their feelings into every color, meshing the moods in various assortments. Now, trapped for long periods of time in my regular class, studying English, then math, then English again, I was deprived of the ability to take a brilliant array of pastels and smoothly smear away some time.
Additionally, I find it interesting that while the interactive music class and art class was suspended, computers prevailed as a mandatory class (even then, technology was more emphasized than artistic interaction because it was easier, less messy, and of course, supposedly much more likely to pay off in the future). Computers and gym turned out to be the only break the school offered to us young elementary students, while we spent the rest of the time preparing for the standardized tests. As expected, I reached out to computers to ease my artistic predicament. Putting in all my effort on every project, incorporating the most detail and color than anybody else in the class, it seemed, I was proud of what I created in computers. Each time the hour approached for computers, I skipped happily into the class, smiling at the teacher (she was a favorite) and rushing on to get straight to work. I never really wondered why I was fine with technology replacing my hands-on experiences with art and music, but now I notice how much simplified my learning became through technology. I could learn math by playing a game where I had to manage my own arcade, I would practice reading and writing through a research project, and I would incorporate art and music briefly in a presentation I made. Since the opportunity to be artistic was taken away, replaced by a poorer technological substitute, all I could do was make the best of computers and get used to it.
Of all the traditional classes, not surprisingly, I loved science the most. Although the teacher was a bit weird at times, I loved the class because it opened my eyes to a science where I could actively participate in magnetic reactions and electrical generators (Whoo- a new way to be creative!). Sometimes the class was so demanding in terms of experimental thinking that now it seems to have been more intriguing and active than the lab classes I just took in high school. Although high school focused more on controlled experiments, I recall learning so much more playing with alligator clips and batteries and conductors back then; I could play and truly experiment on my own as opposed to following a detailed lab that was already proved and answered on the page on the table before me.
Creativity really goes a long way with me and it took me a while to realize that over the years, after elementary school, I wasn't truly learning so much because I was focusing my efforts on study techniques that didn't work with me as effectively as active kinesthetic participation did. Throughout most of middle school, I was taught in my honors classes that being the fastest at everything meant being the absolute best student, even if it meant throwing thinking and learning out the window by acting like a copy machine. My teachers used to project their outlines on the board, and whoever finished mindlessly copying, word for word, everything on the slide, was awarded and considered academically ahead. After a couple of fast writers would copy, the slide was moved over, leaving the students with slower writing capacities behind, marginalized because they couldn't keep up. From personal experience, I remember how helpless I felt, struggling to be the first one to finish; whenever I finished early, however, I had no idea what I'd just written. Even in honors English, the objective was to complete a grammar assignment as quickly as possible-the reward was a sticker and, of course, free homework passes!-and the whole class struggled to finish, never mind that they might have guessed just to turn the assignment in before anyone else. If students are encouraged to compete so intently without thinking early on, completely ignoring the whole purpose of learning as a process, then how are we supposed to advance our thinking and expand our capabilities?
Conditions seem to be improving, as I have noticed, and the younger generations have more opportunities that I missed out on. In elementary school I was given that one music class and there was no way for me to take another one later on. My sister, on the other hand, had the opportunity to take the class again because the school, conveniently when I had just recently graduated, created what was called "enrichment" where students were allowed to participate in several different artistically creative classes each week. My sister came home, describing the wonderful things she sewed, or painted in class that day. While nothing had been available to me just a year before, my sister had so many activities to choose from that she never felt creatively neglected in school. Additionally, I recently heard that the SAT tests are changing into simpler tests focusing more on "high school" terms rather than those SAT words we've never even heard of before (college board deems them impractical now).
Still, technology is infiltrating education more and more. So, as opportunities open, not all of them may actually be beneficial to my kind of learning. Every so often I encounter the commercial encouraging parents to buy their toddlers computer programs that teach the basics they could have learned in pre-school. Even the new SAT guidelines may actually allow students to, for the first time, take an SAT test on the computer-could taking tests have gotten even less traditional and even easier? Can these people not take the time to physically bubble in their answer? Why are we supposed to be so dependent on passive learning? I loved computers but it was too easy. I like physically working on something and testing its limits and nowadays, I am more and more limited to technology, as is the future generation. Looking back to when I first became dependent on my computer class, I realize now how much I grew to hold back my creative, kinesthetic abilities in learning, accepting instead the passive note-copying and half-hearted textbook outlining that never did me any good. Combining my interest in science with my creative impulses, maybe I can work on truly learning in the future because I enjoy it, not because the guidelines say so.
What just made my pre-school experiences even less colorful and creative was the absence of my art teacher. When my class found out in the fourth grade that she wasn't going to come back and that art class would be suspended-just "suspended" temporarily-I wasn't too upset. I figured that I would miss my favorite art teacher, but I could always learn a thing or two about art from a new perspective. So I waited. Disappointment fell heavy on my hopes, and I became devastated when I found out that there wouldn't be a replacement. For whatever reason, financial problems or poor teacher availability, art was gone. Guess what replaced my hour for art class? English. So now I sat in class for an hour extra, sitting stuck in one setting for so long that I could practically feel the creativity slipping away from my grasp. I loved English and I still do very much, but everyone needs a class where they can splash colors gently over a paper and spill their feelings into every color, meshing the moods in various assortments. Now, trapped for long periods of time in my regular class, studying English, then math, then English again, I was deprived of the ability to take a brilliant array of pastels and smoothly smear away some time.
Additionally, I find it interesting that while the interactive music class and art class was suspended, computers prevailed as a mandatory class (even then, technology was more emphasized than artistic interaction because it was easier, less messy, and of course, supposedly much more likely to pay off in the future). Computers and gym turned out to be the only break the school offered to us young elementary students, while we spent the rest of the time preparing for the standardized tests. As expected, I reached out to computers to ease my artistic predicament. Putting in all my effort on every project, incorporating the most detail and color than anybody else in the class, it seemed, I was proud of what I created in computers. Each time the hour approached for computers, I skipped happily into the class, smiling at the teacher (she was a favorite) and rushing on to get straight to work. I never really wondered why I was fine with technology replacing my hands-on experiences with art and music, but now I notice how much simplified my learning became through technology. I could learn math by playing a game where I had to manage my own arcade, I would practice reading and writing through a research project, and I would incorporate art and music briefly in a presentation I made. Since the opportunity to be artistic was taken away, replaced by a poorer technological substitute, all I could do was make the best of computers and get used to it.
Of all the traditional classes, not surprisingly, I loved science the most. Although the teacher was a bit weird at times, I loved the class because it opened my eyes to a science where I could actively participate in magnetic reactions and electrical generators (Whoo- a new way to be creative!). Sometimes the class was so demanding in terms of experimental thinking that now it seems to have been more intriguing and active than the lab classes I just took in high school. Although high school focused more on controlled experiments, I recall learning so much more playing with alligator clips and batteries and conductors back then; I could play and truly experiment on my own as opposed to following a detailed lab that was already proved and answered on the page on the table before me.
Creativity really goes a long way with me and it took me a while to realize that over the years, after elementary school, I wasn't truly learning so much because I was focusing my efforts on study techniques that didn't work with me as effectively as active kinesthetic participation did. Throughout most of middle school, I was taught in my honors classes that being the fastest at everything meant being the absolute best student, even if it meant throwing thinking and learning out the window by acting like a copy machine. My teachers used to project their outlines on the board, and whoever finished mindlessly copying, word for word, everything on the slide, was awarded and considered academically ahead. After a couple of fast writers would copy, the slide was moved over, leaving the students with slower writing capacities behind, marginalized because they couldn't keep up. From personal experience, I remember how helpless I felt, struggling to be the first one to finish; whenever I finished early, however, I had no idea what I'd just written. Even in honors English, the objective was to complete a grammar assignment as quickly as possible-the reward was a sticker and, of course, free homework passes!-and the whole class struggled to finish, never mind that they might have guessed just to turn the assignment in before anyone else. If students are encouraged to compete so intently without thinking early on, completely ignoring the whole purpose of learning as a process, then how are we supposed to advance our thinking and expand our capabilities?
Conditions seem to be improving, as I have noticed, and the younger generations have more opportunities that I missed out on. In elementary school I was given that one music class and there was no way for me to take another one later on. My sister, on the other hand, had the opportunity to take the class again because the school, conveniently when I had just recently graduated, created what was called "enrichment" where students were allowed to participate in several different artistically creative classes each week. My sister came home, describing the wonderful things she sewed, or painted in class that day. While nothing had been available to me just a year before, my sister had so many activities to choose from that she never felt creatively neglected in school. Additionally, I recently heard that the SAT tests are changing into simpler tests focusing more on "high school" terms rather than those SAT words we've never even heard of before (college board deems them impractical now).
Still, technology is infiltrating education more and more. So, as opportunities open, not all of them may actually be beneficial to my kind of learning. Every so often I encounter the commercial encouraging parents to buy their toddlers computer programs that teach the basics they could have learned in pre-school. Even the new SAT guidelines may actually allow students to, for the first time, take an SAT test on the computer-could taking tests have gotten even less traditional and even easier? Can these people not take the time to physically bubble in their answer? Why are we supposed to be so dependent on passive learning? I loved computers but it was too easy. I like physically working on something and testing its limits and nowadays, I am more and more limited to technology, as is the future generation. Looking back to when I first became dependent on my computer class, I realize now how much I grew to hold back my creative, kinesthetic abilities in learning, accepting instead the passive note-copying and half-hearted textbook outlining that never did me any good. Combining my interest in science with my creative impulses, maybe I can work on truly learning in the future because I enjoy it, not because the guidelines say so.