Double Journal Entry #4: Changing Education Paradigms

ONE:

A degree equals a job??? This was the case for so long that I think people just got stuck on it. I understand that for a person to have a job like mine (in the education field) that a degree is necessary! This is also the case in other fields such as medical, law, etc… Being from a rural par t of West Virginia, I know that a degree doesn’t always equal a job. I know of people who have worked until retirement on an eighth grade education! Higher education is not for everyone. A good example of this comes from own family. My brother-in-law and sister did not go to college but run two successful businesses here in our town. Neither had a want to go to college but have still been successful in their lives. Another good example is people working at places like McDonald’s after graduating college because they can’t get a job in the field of their degree. So, I have to really agree that just because you have a degree doesn’t mean that you will have a job.

TWO:

I want to talk about the idea of an overload of ADD/ADHA diagnosis!!! I feel that it is just an excuse because teachers can’t control children in their classrooms or children are not taught to behave in the needed manner. There are so many other ways that behaviors can be dealt with besides giving children medications. These diagnoses seem like excuses instead of preventative measures or actions that need to be taken!

THREE:

The idea that schools are likened to a factory just fascinates me for some reason. I think it is because this is something I see every day in the education field. We talk about how changes need to be made, to give students the help they need in order to be successful…yet some schools just sit back and slide the students through. Are the students prepared for higher education? For working in a non degree field? Most are not and struggle to catch up in order to become successful!!! Too many students just slip through the cracks because no one takes the time to make sure that they have every skill needed in order to be successful in whatever they want to do in their future. This needs to come to an end!!!!