Another Brick in the Wall
Watch the video from Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall", then choose a quote from the list. Once a quote has been chosen, it is no longer available, so first come, first serve.
Relate the quote to the video and or song lyrics in some way. Consider that I am providing you with two resources, a quote and a song/video about the topic of education.
Talk about the topic of education. What do you think about it? Talk about education as a philosophy, or a practice, or a responsibility or ????????
When you respond to a classmates blog, do not comment on whether or not you like it. Rather comment on how you might challenge it or validate it with another point.
I am looking for posts that are full of thought about the topic. Perhaps you chose a quote that contradicts the lyrics or the video. On the other hand, perhaps you found a quote that drives home an important point brought up in the lyrics or video.
Most of all, I want you to think, deeply about the topic. You may also pull in any thoughts from pieces we have read in this unit.
Relate the quote to the video and or song lyrics in some way. Consider that I am providing you with two resources, a quote and a song/video about the topic of education.
Talk about the topic of education. What do you think about it? Talk about education as a philosophy, or a practice, or a responsibility or ????????
When you respond to a classmates blog, do not comment on whether or not you like it. Rather comment on how you might challenge it or validate it with another point.
I am looking for posts that are full of thought about the topic. Perhaps you chose a quote that contradicts the lyrics or the video. On the other hand, perhaps you found a quote that drives home an important point brought up in the lyrics or video.
Most of all, I want you to think, deeply about the topic. You may also pull in any thoughts from pieces we have read in this unit.
When I was in elementary school, I was considered a very bright kid. I loved learning about anything and everything. I was a straight A student and made the honor roll every year. When I moved onto middle school, I had a rude awakening. I wasn't just repeating what my teachers taught me. Instead, I was using what knowledge I had to learn more in order to produce my own answers. High school was even more surprising for me because almost everything had to be done on my own. Mrs. Anderson's biology class was such a shock to me because everything before hand had basically been spoon fed to me. Looking back, I think it was a great leisure to have a class like that!
ReplyDeleteJust a few weeks ago during the cross country season, I was riding in the car with WeeJ. We were talking about what I planned to do in the future; I want to go to college for early childhood education. I was telling WeeJ that up until the ending of last year, I was just going through the motions of school. I was only putting in the effort needed to help me pass. The straight A elementary school student was long gone. The new student was okay with B+, maybe even a C in some cases. On of my biggest struggles then and now in school is any kind of math. For some reason, it takes me a lot longer than most to understand what probably should be a simple idea. I honestly believed that I was bad at math and there was nothing I could do about it. I learned from WeeJ that this is a fixed mindset, which we learned about in track hence the reason my thinking changed at the end of last school year. I began to realize that this fixed mindset was disabling me to reach my full potential. Now, I wish I could say I became a great froth mindset kind of person and I became the straight A student again, but I'm not. I still struggle with putting in the full effort I should. Sometimes I slack off or get discouraged and think I'll never understand the subject. But just as A. A. Milne stated, "To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks." Idid make the decision that I was going to try my best to put forth consistent effort to make myself a better student. I've leaned that no matter where I go in life, I'm always going to be the student. I'm always going to continue to learn new things, so preparing myself as much as I can right now will only benefit me and make things easier in the long run. The song, "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd made me kind of mad. While listening to it and watching the video, I got the impression that all education, teachers, and even authority is bad. This is far from the truth, as authority is important and necessary in order to have a well educated generation. Education is so much more than the subjects offered in schools. Education is learning how to work with others, how to pick your battles. Education is the fundamentals of society and without it, all will fail! I truest believe that it is every persons responsibility to obstinate as much education as they possibly can. That sometimes means you have to work for it, just as Ben Carson did. If he had just accepted that he'd never go anywhere because he was a poor black boy with no father, he'd end up just like many other poor black boys without fathers do. It's something we have to work at, and it's not always going to be easy. But who ever said life was easy?
Abby, I don't necessarily agree with you that without education we will all fail. There has been instances in this world were yes education is important however it is not necessary to move forward with life.
DeleteI have to agree with Nichole. Many people have succeeded in life without formal education. Some of us do need it, but some are fine without it.
DeleteAbby I agree with you that education is a fundamental necessity in this day and age. People need to know the basic fundamentals of education such as reading, writing, persuasion, and math. Without any of these abilities, it would be quite a challenge to even just get a job.
DeleteAbby, I love how you not only did everything that needed to be encorperated in this weeks blog, but I also like how you put in your own personal experiences. I can tell you you put a lot of work into this blog! Nice job!
DeleteI disagree with Nichole and Nick. In my opinion, Abby, I feel you hit right on the dot. Education prepares and establishes an individuals state of being. There is a difference between disagreeing that college education isn't necessary to that of well a taught education in general. Naturally, not every individual goes off to college and studies a certain field. But living a life without a well prepared, and profound education would be quite difficult when the work we live in is nothing but math, science, and history.
DeleteAbby, I agree with you that education is soooooo important, especially at this age! I don't think college is necessary but high school is for sure!
DeletePink Floyd have always been brilliant songwriters, that's a proven fact. Many of the lyrics from this song are ridiculously iconic. He one that always stood out to me as a fan of the band was "we don't need no thought control." I was always able to connect to this lyric, and not exactly for all the reasons people would assume. Everyone in this class knows I'm a free-thinking individual that happens to stir up controversy with his new ideas. My actions relate to this lyric perfectly. I also found the quote "a child educated only at school is an uneducated child" by George Santayana. If we simply go by what we learn in school, we lose the ability to explore the world around us. This is especially true in a catholic school, where all unanswered questions are filled in with "Jesus" or "God." When we tell children this, we eleiminate the ability to explore the world and find the hard truths of our society. In a sense, I'm calling for a drastic reform of the education system in this nation. Am I saying that Catholicism should be completely eliminated? Of course not. It's not the only danger to our education system, and sometimes not a danger at all. Teachers have a tendency to focus on the "important" subjects in school: math, science, and history. However, many schools, especially ours, fail to recognize those who wish to pursue liberal arts in the future. I know this is a struggle for me personally. Our school has an abundance of math and science courses, but no real way to formally educate students and music, theater, or even extensive art study. Mr. Winklbauer and Mr. Knight do an excellent job, but they can't show us everything in the field of liberal arts. We are so limited, leading everyone at Elk County Catholic to take science courses extensively because it's pretty much all we offer. This is ridiculously discouraging for me personally. All of my musical education has been extracurricular because my school doesn't seem to care as much about my pursuit of music. Every school should have equal opportunity, and our school clearly doesn't. Education is important for the advancement of our society, but it doesn't help everyone. They're should be an equal amount of liberal arts courses in schools and science/math courses. The more we hold back on this equality, the less likely people such as myself are to succeed. People know how important music, art and theater study are at ECC, but why haven't they done anything about it? Education needs to be more expansive, and stop focusing solely on what most students want. Schools should account for all students and allow all of them to succeed in their respective fields. Our school is far too restricting, and I urge schools like ours to be changed for the betterment of everyone. To quote Pink Floyd again, "teachers leave them kids alone." Teachers need to step in and make the change. They need to stand by their students in pursuit of educational reform.
ReplyDeleteI agree that school is not the only place where a person can become better educated, but I don't think we've been taught every answer is "Jesus." Try to write that for every question on a test and let us know how it goes, because I'm sure it won't go well. You do try to stir controversity with this blogs especially, which is okay, but why is your only argument religion related? I'm just wondering, why is that always the problem?
DeleteSomething that has always made me extremely happy is traveling. Even a weekend spent in Pittsburgh is a refreshing change of scenery. When you travel, you are able to witness the different forms of culture that people live in. Like I said before, a trip to Pittsburgh shows the difference in the culture of St. Marys and a big city like Pittsburgh. One of my favorite weeks of my life was my time in the San Francisco area. I was able to try new types of food, visit famous sights, and meet different people. Even here at Elk County Catholic, the school takes students on many trips to interesting new places such as Washington D.C., Wallops Island, and other senior class trips. I would even go as far to say that they should take students on more trips to new places through the high school grades. So many people's first thoughts on education is a classroom environment. That isn't wrong, but everyone forgets about the other meanings of education. So to me, education isn't just the various subjects taught in school, education encompasses experiencing and learning about the other cultures and people of this country and world with a sense of adventure. The Pink Floyd video depicted a school were everyone was learning the same boring subjects that were being drilled into their heads the same way. No one looked happy. The teacher in the video was discouraging the young boy from being creative and writing his poems. The teacher clearly doesn't value teaching individuality of his students. The first thought that came into my mind was that the teacher was not exposed to much creativity in his life. He must not have traveled much in his lifetime to experience how creativity is found in all parts of the country and world. Will Durant says, "Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." The teacher was ignorant to the other aspects that many people are interested in pursuing, such as the boys want to express himself through writing, as are many people in this area. You don't see many high school graduates going on to pursue "Hollywood" careers from this town, but the ones who have, must understand the value of creativity. In a school like the one in the video, there is no room to explore their own interests to create a unique personality. If everyone was taught that way, would we have any of our greatest inventions that are so commonly used today? Do you think Steve Jobs never thought about the other cultures and people of the world when he was inventing the iPhone? Of course I believe we need the traditional school environment and the subjects taught in it, but teaching in more innovative and stimulating ways will show students how real world experiences of creative and new places can only enhance the classroom teachings.
ReplyDeleteI like your approach to the teacher being deprived of traveling and exploring new things having an influence on his teaching. That's not really always the case, but it could be in some instances. Traveling does allow us to explore the world around us in a whole new way. It's sad to see that some teachers are still like that one though.
DeleteI am interested in the way you explained the video and said the teacher was not exposed to much creativity in his life and some people are not but travel isn't always needed for creativity to flow, many people are happy where they live and use the people around them to gather experience and creativity.
DeleteSchool has never been a favorite of mine. I have always tried to get out of school by faking being sick or just trying to get out of it any way I could. In elementary school I remember vividly always getting yelled at for just being myself. A big moment that shows a example of this is one time in first grade I was fiddling with a magazine fundraiser toy that was wrapped around my wrist I received and the teacher walked up to me, took the little toy from me and I never got it back because she threw it away. This moment is the time I started to truly hate going to school, I see myself as a creative person and I hate not being able to express myself. I cannot stay trapped somewhere for long periods of time without getting bored or doodling somewhere on anything. Teachers have not taken papers of mine because of doodles that have been on them while some teachers accept them and even go as far as to comment on the doodles. This song by Pink Floyd shows a great example and outcry that schools are seen as confinements that force everyone to think the way everyone else does. I believe school kills our creativity and tries to form students into robots that think the same and act the same. These schools give us our knowledge for college or the job we would like to pursue, however not every job knowledge is available in school such as ceramics or music because not every school is the same or has a good art department or music department. These students are left to their own devices to find the resources they need to help them pursue their dreams.
ReplyDeleteAs said by John Updike in his book The Centaur published in 1963, "The founding fathers...provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called education." That is exactly what we can compare schools to, jails. There has been research done that compared the food that is given at schools and at prisons that showed prison food being better than school lunches. I'm sure we all can agree on how the old middle school looked and felt like a prison because of the bars on the windows and the whole feel of the building. I have never truly felt like school was a amazing place that gives me huge opportunities that will lead me far in life, even though I know that school is a place that will help me in the long run but when will I be able to tell that school has helped me? Ten years in the future? Maybe even no time in the future, there is no single way to tell.
Nichole, how does school make us all robots that think the same and act the same, while you are seeing for yourself on this blog that we all have different perspectives and ideas. Anyway good job!
DeleteWhy are you talking about food? How does it relate to education? It's irrelevant to even bring up this topic. Are teachers really shutting down your creativity or are they pushing you to use that creativity in other ways that actually involve what is being taught. The only way your creativity could be shut down, especially at ECC, is if you let it be shut down. You cannot say school takes it away when many other people find outlets for their creativity at school, such as creative writing, art, and music.
DeleteNichole, I don't think that school makes us robots and I'm not sure why you are talking about food in this because you didn't relate it to anything. Use more examples to explain what you are thinking!!
DeleteNichole, I understand where you are coming from. But I don't think I can agree that schools are exactly like jails. I have personally been able to experience a public school and a private catholic school first hand. I know what it's like on both sides. I don't think anyone can fully appreciate what is offered at ECC until they have experienced first hand what other schools are like. When you talk about the foods aspect, I can't help but think of my old school specifically. We never had the tons of options like what is offered at ECC. They don't have the anual food fair like we have now, to see what kids want for lunch. It's hard to understand how good something is at ECC until you really hear about other schools.
ReplyDeleteEducation is a vital part of human life. A school is like a tool, while education is like how one uses the tool. In "Another Brick in the Wall" song, Pink Floyd portrayes how the teachers in the system try to control the students into following a set path of learning, and creativity is not promoted, even something as little as a poem is looked down upon. The teachers are adding another brick in the wall to the students, walling them off from outside ideas. Such a system for schooling, I would not think this would still be happening to the majority of schools in our country. Schooling systems are not terrible in and of themselves. Creativity is everywhere in our school education, from creating arguments for blogs to finding concepts that are new to the individual, and I'm 99% sure no teacher would mock a student in front of the class for writing a private poem. Think of education and schooling like a person learning about how to paint. If the beginner at painting did not spend countless hours studying: the history of art, the ways to portray meaning into art, how to personalize art, and so on...how would they be able to think creatively and effectively play it out? The path to creativity isn't just about thinking of your own unique ideas, but also learning from those before you. "Education is learning what you didn't know you didn't know ~George Boas." In the Pink Floyd video, the children weren't learning, but rather just repeating what the teacher is saying and not giving it a second thought. The purpose of schools is to give the students knowledge that they didn't have before and to better prepare them for the future. Creativity isn't given to anyone. They have to actually reach out and take it.
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DeleteTimmy, I had to read your blog a couple times because I couldn't initially find anything I didn't agree on. However on the fourth round, I question you on this. It's hard to imagine any other school system rather than the Elk Count Catholic school system, and even the St. Mary's School Distrcit. Howver, do you honestly believe that school systems that are in deep crime, heavily lived cites do not have aspects such as the school in the music video? I understand it's an opinion, but the level of school systems can differ in location
DeleteTim, okay to be honest I deleted my last comment because it wasn't totally accurate due to the fact I missed the last two sentences of your blog. I do agree that school is a tool and yes people need to be educated on techniques of how to do things. I really just have to argue with you on your last two sentences. By saying "given" do you mean no one is born with creativity? If so, creativity is something that a person always has. It's what they do with it and how they express that creativity that is taught. The definition of creativity is "the use of the imagination or ORIGINAL ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work."
DeleteOne of the most important aspects in a child's development is their education. Education allows people find their passions, challenge themselves, and strive to meet goals. I believe that education is a responsibility. Every single person has their own talents and gifts. Therefore, it is our responsibility to discover these gifts and use them not only for an individual's benefit, but to also use these talents to help others. Without education, it would be difficult to discover these gifts. The quote, "The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows," stated by Sydney J. Harris is a perfect explanation of the true meaning of education. Mirrors allow people to look at themselves which can be referred to as looking inward. This not only allows a person to look at themselves, but it also blinds them to what is ahead. Windows allow people to look out at others and of the world rather than of themselves. This can be referred to as looking outward. By looking out a widow one can explore different realms of life and discover what the wold has to offer. This is how education works. Education is not just restricted to what is taught in school, but one can be educated by parents, doctors, priests, or friends. Education is everywhere, but especially in schools.
ReplyDeleteI picked this quote to by Harris because I felt that it contradicts the video by Pink Floyd. This video is a complete exaggeration of school. In this video the brick wall acts like the mirror from Harris's quote. The teacher in the video was making children look at life one way and one way only. The title "Another Brick in the Wall" makes me think that the teachers and the school were those bricks building a wall in between the children and their true gifts and talents. For example, the main boy in the video wrote a poem and the teacher read it out loud for the class to hear. His peers laughed and the teacher called the boy's work "absolute rubbish". That action from the teacher was just another brick put in the wall that blinds the child to know his true potential.
In my experiences of school, I do not believe that this is how teachers in real life act or view their students. I can admit that there have been some occurrences with teachers in my life that have reasonable this video, but will not put that stereotype every teacher. In my seventeen years on this earth, I have had some of the most amazing teachers that have changed my life. Without the those teachers, I would not have the knowledge or education I have now.
Education is the spark to a new beginning, and a new future. Parents send their children to school for them to learn the fundamentals of life that incorporates math, history, literature, science, etc. Throughout elementary school, I was not the best student. My grades suffered, and it wasn't because I wasn't preparing for tests, or completing different homework assignments. It was because I suffered from convergences insufficiency. To generalize, it is basically when your eyes do not work together nor cohere to the brain. I would study for my reading test, but would get a grade of 68%. It's weird that I can remember this particular instance very clearly. I was in fourth grade and Miss Herr was my teacher. We received our tests back and I just started to cry. It wasn't necessarily because I failed, but rather me failed with studying hard for it. I could not understand why I was not do well on tests. I had shown early signs of convergence insufficiency when my mother and I would read together; I would start right to left, rather left to right. My teachers had tried giving me extra reading classes to see if they would help any. During that time, my parents started sending me to a vision development institute in Pittsburgh where I no sooner diminished my insufficiency. From elementary school grades being extremely low, I now find myself on the honor role. If it wasn't for my education, there is a high possibility my condition wound not have been fixed, and my success in high school would not occur. I'm not saying that there are not times I do struggle in some subjects because there are. However, I would most definitely have a harder time if I still had the effects of the insufficiency. With education comes two surfacing issues; students who don't work with teachers and teachers who won't work with students. As said by Martin H. Fischer, "The tragedy of education is played in two scenes — incompetent pupils facing competent teachers and incompetent teachers facing competent pupils." With this, education tends to have contradicting results. Watching Pink Floyd's music video to "Another Brick in the Wall" began to make me feel uneasy. I didn't realize I knew the song until "we don't need no education" was sung. Learning, believe it or not, should be an enjoyable thing. With teachers that are polar opposites to what the teacher in the video was, it provides the students the desire to learn. Using Mr. Daghir as an example proves that bold, unique, free, personal education can go a long way. He provided his students the opportunity to do learn by doing the unusual, like dressing as a talk show comedian to explain the important aspects of a novel. Along with recreating a chapter of a book by making a movie with the scenes, characters, and plot. Formtis these are a few examples, education tends to be more successful when it is not so "strict to the expected, written out curriculum." Teachers that strategize their curriculum as Mr. Daghir had, it shows the teachers responsibility to the students. It shows them that they are willing to be a different kind of teacher that allows them to learn "the books" along with "the street." Create a student to is book smart, but also street smart. Giving lessons of curriculums knowledge with the smartness of life can give a student enough push in their life to be successful.
ReplyDeleteThe lyrics "all in all you're just another brick in the wall" relates to what an individual becomes if they believe education only takes place at school. Truthfully, at school, most students, specially in public schools where requirements need to be met in order for someone to "pass", are taught the same basic subjects/ideas. Therefore, everyone is just a plain brick, the same as each other. What makes all of us different is our education outside of the classroom. G.M. Trevelyan once commented, "Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading." This statement may be true as far as scholastic education goes, but outside education is what helps people with that extinguishment. I think the biggest problem with this quote, blog, and argument is that education has not been truly defined. So what is education? According to Oxford Dictionary, education is "an enlightening experience." Using this definition, any experience in which an individual learns something new is education. If you take anything from this blog this is what it should be: EDUCATION DOES NOT ONLY TAKE PLACE AT SCHOOL AND IF IT DOES, THATS WHEN AN INDIVIDUAL BECOMES "ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL."
ReplyDeleteP.S. I meant distinguishment not extinguishment!
DeleteEducation has always been very important to me and I am so thankful to be able to go to school. Learning and listening at school is very important and can help everyone in life. However, is this enough? Quote by George Santayana says " A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." In my opinion, his quote is full of meaning because I have analyzed it carefully. It is simply stating that people NEED education not only at school but also at home from parents and siblings. In the video that we have all watched, a song by Pink Floyd, it is stated that "all in all you're just another brick in the wall". When I heard this I related it to he homily I heard today at mass. The priests homily today was about how people are afraid to be different and being different is the best path to go. Don't be just another brick in the wall!! Go out in the world and get the education you need and diserve. Learn EVERYTHING your brain can take in and be different.
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