A Young Valedictorian Who Gets It

[mrjarrell]

Erica Goldson, a recent graduate of Coxsackie-Athens High School in New York gave a truly inspirational and insightful speech concerning her time at her school and in the American educational "system". Somewhere along the line, (no thanks to her school) she became educated.

via America via Erica

Here I Stand
Erica Goldson

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years . ." 
The student then said, "But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast -- How long then?" Replied the Master, "Well, twenty years." "But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?" asked the student. "Thirty years," replied the Master. "But, I do not understand," said the disappointed student. "At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?" 
Replied the Master, "When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path."This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.
Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.
I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I'm scared.
John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don't do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.
H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not

• • to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States. (Gatto)
    

To illustrate this idea, doesn't it perturb you to learn about the idea of “critical thinking.” Is there really such a thing as “uncritically thinking?” To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?This was happening to me, and if it wasn't for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.

Read the rest at the source. It's really good. I wish her the best in her future endeavours.

(Menckens full quote: Comment: The full passage reads: "The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever pretensions of politicians, pedagogues other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else." )

 

[SSGSAD]

AMEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Que]

This has been the problem for a very long time. Those with imagination, forward-thinking, and drive, are usually drugged and made to cease thinking. It's become enough just to pass a test, but leave the K-12 system without knowing how to do basic math and write a cohesive sentence.

I found that many truly intelligent students drop out of school, frustrated. I'm not saying that is the case with all of them, but many of them are placed in a box everyday and told that 2+2=4, but they can't ask, why that is the case.

This young lady saw the facade at an early age and avoided being frustrated. I may work for her someday.

 

[balorg]

I read this speech on lewrockwell.com. I was amazed that it was even allowed.

 

[hornadylnl]

You can bet her former high school won't go out of their way to help her in the future. My mom was a teacher. She'd hold a grudge at this student if she felt this was directed at her in any way.

 

[downzero]

I hate to say it, but I think she's completely wrong--for a high school student.

There are plenty of people on this very forum who have high school diplomas and don't even have sufficient command of the English language to know that possessives are not plurals. Simple logical operators like "or" and "and" escape their grasp.

Some are exceptionally bright, will go onto great colleges and be transformed by that experience. But the place for that is not high school.

High school students who need to enrich their education need to be encouraged to take college courses on the side, or in the evenings. High school itself needs to continue to be a place where basic life skills are taught.

I'd like to live in a world where everyone had the attitude that this woman has. I know I feel exactly the same as her...even about college.

In the end, I don't have the answer.

 

[jblomenberg16]

I think there are a lot of valid points in her speach, but there is also some signs of the immaturity that all of us had at that age.

As a high school valedictorian myself, I had a lot of the same experiences she did...work as hard as possible to get that A. Take as many of the AP classes as possible. Do the extra credit even though I didn't need it.

While that made me really good at memorizing things, I did in fact also learn some pretty important stuff. A key difference is that I was not just learning enough to pass the test or complete the assignment. I was, because of my inate curiousity, learning about things I didn't otherwise know about.


Off to college I went and found that it was a bit tougher, but with effort I could still do quite well and graduated *** laude. It wasn't until about 5-6 years out of college that I finally got it. The education we recieve growing up isn't going to teach us everything. But it will give us a basic skill set that will enable our adult minds to continue learning and to solve problems as we progress in our lives.

Ever here the "when are we ever going to use this" complaint from a student? The answer is almost always going to be "never." I highly doubt a high percentage of the folks in the US have to solve complex algebra equations on a daily basis, just as most folks in the US probably won't have to diagram a sentence, or remember how many valence electrons a carbon molecule has.


But in studying an learning those things we did learn about our personal methods for solving problems. Some of us just "get it," and others don't. Some of us have to take a lot of notes, and others can look at something or read it and retain what is needed.


So, we do in fact learn a lot in public education, but when we look back at it, we think we aren't using much of it because what often stands out is the memories of painful tests, homework assignments, and term papers that resulted in nothing we really use in our day to day work. But what we fail to realize is that we learned how to solve problems, how to communicate, and discovered what efforts we were willing to take to find out an answer to a question we didn't already know.


I wish this individual the best of luck in the future, and hope that here ability to think outside of the traditional thinking serves her well.

 

[Que]

I hate to say it, but I think she's completely wrong--for a high school student.

There are plenty of people on this very forum who have high school diplomas and don't even have sufficient command of the English language to know that possessives are not plurals. Simple logical operators like "or" and "and" escape their grasp.

Some are exceptionally bright, will go onto great colleges and be transformed by that experience. But the place for that is not high school.

High school students who need to enrich their education need to be encouraged to take college courses on the side, or in the evenings. High school itself needs to continue to be a place where basic life skills are taught.

I'd like to live in a world where everyone had the attitude that this woman has. I know I feel exactly the same as her...even about college.

In the end, I don't have the answer.

I do not like this option very much. Because of the substandard curriculum in my township, my daughter has had to skip two grades. Now, she is days from becoming a 12-year old high school freshman. Additionally, she is being recruited by another township to enter a "special" high school where she will graduate in three years, with an associate's degree. If those classes only counted as high school credit, I wouldn't mind, but a student should not enter college with 30 credit hours behind them, IMO.

I have tried for five years to encourage the board to institute a more rigorous curriculum, but they insist on improving their graduation rate, by allowing students to graduate, lacking the most basic of skills. So, students who are serious about their education must take college courses. Consequently, these actions harm all students, even those who are a bit above average.

High schools really don't care about the basic life skills needed to survive. That is why I have college students who cannot get to class on time or bear to sit in the library for more than 30-minutes. They are used to their schools not giving them homework or providing assignments that require more than a Google search or Wikipedia cut and paste.

 

[downzero]

I do not like this option very much. Because of the substandard curriculum in my township, my daughter has had to skip two grades. Now, she is days from becoming a 12-year old high school freshman. Additionally, she is being recruited by another township to enter a "special" high school where she will graduate in three years, with an associate's degree. If those classes only counted as high school credit, I wouldn't mind, but a student should not enter college with 30 credit hours behind them, IMO.

Your daughter is just good at gaming the system. There is no way a 12 year old girl is ready for high school unless the school system here in Indiana is remarkably different than the Illinois school system in which I was educated.

For a bright college student, 30 credit hours at entry is the bare minimum. Many college students are entering with Calculus I and II, as well as Biology, Physics, Literature, History, and Chemistry course credit. I entered with zero (because my high school didn't offer college-level courses in these subjects or any other for that matter) and still graduated in 4 years, even though 2+ years of that was part time and I had a full time (career, not just hourly) job for over half of it.

If your daughter is exceptionally bright, she needs to be aware, NOW, of the opportunities that await her in grad school. High school students' heads are full of crap about what fancy college to go to, but what they fail to realize is that 1/4 of Americans have a college education. MUCH fewer attend and finish a graduate program, and obviously very few will ever earn a doctorate of any kind.

I wish I knew in high school that I could get paid to attend school after college if I wanted to continue to learn and do research. I'm 26 now and just starting law school, but if I'd known about how higher education really worked, I'd be done with law school and halfway done with a Ph.D by now.

Most people aren't even aware of what the education system in this country has to offer. I know I wasn't. I don't come from a heavily educated family and this stuff isn't exactly common knowledge.

 

[Que]

Your daughter is just good at gaming the system. There is no way a 12 year old girl is ready for high school unless the school system here in Indiana is remarkably different than the Illinois school system in which I was educated.

For a bright college student, 30 credit hours at entry is the bare minimum. Many college students are entering with Calculus I and II, as well as Biology, Physics, Literature, History, and Chemistry course credit. I entered with zero (because my high school didn't offer college-level courses in these subjects or any other for that matter) and still graduated in 4 years, even though 2+ years of that was part time and I had a full time (career, not just hourly) job for over half of it.

If your daughter is exceptionally bright, she needs to be aware, NOW, of the opportunities that await her in grad school. High school students' heads are full of crap about what fancy college to go to, but what they fail to realize is that 1/4 of Americans have a college education. MUCH fewer attend and finish a graduate program, and obviously very few will ever earn a doctorate of any kind.

I wish I knew in high school that I could get paid to attend school after college if I wanted to continue to learn and do research. I'm 26 now and just starting law school, but if I'd known about how higher education really worked, I'd be done with law school and halfway done with a Ph.D by now.

Most people aren't even aware of what the education system in this country has to offer. I know I wasn't. I don't come from a heavily educated family and this stuff isn't exactly common knowledge.

You make an assumption without proper facts. Is she is emotionally ready? I doubt it. Is she ready academically. I'm more than sure. I wouldn't define it as "gaming the system". She is very bright; however, I will not allow the school system to define how smart she is based on test scores. We moved our daughter to higher grades, based on our own assessment. She could pass their tests easily, and was becoming bored with school, but she did not move forward until she passed ours. My comment was simply how the schools are not interested in ensuring the kids understand the basics and how they drain creativity. School has become about testing and not learning life-skills.

I'm sure all of us on this site has an "If I had known then" story. I'm so proud of the young lady in the OP because she either learned the lesson on her own, or she listened to some very astute parents who did not let her fall between the cracks. Now that you know better, I'm sure your children will be much more knowledgeable than you were and will not be lead astray.

 

[96firephoenix]

gotta say, this pretty much sums up most of my schooling, even at parochial schools. we always had some test to study for like the ISTEP. I don't know how much stuff that we skipped in my AP classes in high school because "it's not on the test"

kudos to this young lady, and I hope she continues to be able to perceive the BS that surrounds her and adapt.

 

[ATOMonkey]

The best you can hope for from public education is to be taught to learn, not taught to think.

 

[mrjarrell]

Prometheus posted the video of her speech (good find, Prom!) and hadn't seen this thread yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M4tdMsg3ts&feature=player_embedded