Task: For this assignment, you will need to critically analyze a cultural or social issue that matters to you.

• Make the case for why this is a worthy issue and offer some solutions.
• Relate your topic to some of your life experiences.
• Support your ideas and arguments with at least 2 reliable sources (i.e. academic journal articles, books).

Assignment details:

• 8-10 pages
• MLA format; 1” margins, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 pt (APA is acceptable but please check with me first)
• Word or RTF; I cannot open .pages
• I use Turnitin and other plagiarism prevention tools. Make sure you cite properly!
• Proper grammar, spelling, and syntax are a must!

Tools & Help:

• Our wonderful embedded librarian, Deborah Stanfield will help you with your research. Reach her via email deborah.stanfield@mga.edu. She can meet with you in person or online. Don’t hesitate to call on her. See also this page for help on evaluating the credibility of your sources: Evaluating Sources.
• The Student Success Center also has online tutoring appointments. You can also visit the Writing Centers in Macon or Cochran.

Checklist:

• I chose to analyze a cultural or social issue.
• My title is compelling. (i.e. it is not ‘Critical Thinking Paper’)
• My introduction clearly states what my topic is and presents my thesis statement or research question.
• My arguments are supported by research from reliable sources.
• I use quotes to support my ideas. The quotes I use are not too long and there are not too many of them.
• I do not simply report on my chosen topic, nor do I just give my opinion about it. I analyze evidence and interpret information and data.
• My paper is organized, and my arguments move from one to the other with proper transitions.
• I have a Works Cited page in MLA or APA format.
• I have used Microsoft spellcheck and grammar check or Grammarly to minimize typos and grammar/spelling errors.
• My paper respects the conventions of MLA or APA.
• My paper respects the length requirement (8-10 pages).

Concepts of Education

“Forgetting something because you don’t use it is a normal and unavoidable human characteristic.” (cite here

https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/187219

)

What if that was all a part of the system? You go to school, pay all this money, to go build a resume to look good to work for someone else and get paid a small fraction of what our CEO’s make. How many of us paid more for our education than the amount we get paid working a job our first year. The way school is set up now if great if you want to be a teacher or writer. “About 3.6 million of the teachers today work in traditional public schools” and that was in 2017. (Cite here

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/08/15/the-nations-teaching-force-is-still-mostly.html

) “A 2018 survey revealed that just 21 percent of full-time published authors made one hundred percent of their income from books.” (cite here

https://www.statista.com/statistics/572476/number-writers-authors-usa/

) But keep in mind teachers get paid far less than the Dean and they’re the ones teaching students on a day to day. And what if a student wants to be a model? There isn’t a degree that supports that field, but it has made many millions and continues to create generational wealth.

For years we’ve watched people go broke, and develop health issues stressing over school so why don’t schools offer students free on call nurses or clinics? It’s not like the funds aren’t there

How many teachers complain about their job and their lack of pay just like any other job. No one’s teaching how to prepare taxes or why we even have to pay taxes. No one’s teaching how to register a vehicle. No one teaches the importance of life insurance and why it’s a good idea to have it. Imagine if there was a class that taught all the information that’s in the handbook, we have to test over in order to get our license. But instead I’m learning false information like Christopher Columbus and how black people have always been nothing but slaves, we’re all slaves to the system. We’re teaching young people how to work for someone else and fund that CEO’s dreams instead of how to create our own. We aren’t being taught how to make it in life and that it’s important to be our own boss so we can create generational wealth.

How cool would it be to have a class on generational wealth and read books about the Rockefellers vs Maya Angelou’s Why the Caged Bird Sings. No disrespect to Maya Angelou, but one of those books will piss me off against white people and is a reminder that black people aren’t worth anything and the other book will teach me how to grow my money and create generational wealth. Imagine how more valuable people would be at all ages if we were all educated on current events. How many times has a child had a solution for a problem you didn’t event know you had? We should have a current events class where a teacher is responsible for keeping up with current events all over the world and teaching it. Instead we’re sending children home with homework. I understand practice makes permanent, but if children don’t have the attention span for school at school, why send them home with more? Now they’re being sent home to work and with parents who don’t have a clue because they’ve already forgotten their own education. Children should be able to decompress after school and spend time with sports, family, friends, etc. They should be out in the world so they can learn the realness of life after being taught what their forced to learn all day.

“The most common reason why students forget is because the material is under learned. To remember something, it must first be learned, that is, stored in long-term memory. … Learning is a process that takes time and repetition for humans to move information from short-term memory toward long-term memory.” Mar 25, 2015 (cite here https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/187219) I think a lot of what we learn is unrelatable. If we were taught things that were used day to day, not only would life be all the practice we needed, but we probably retain a lot more.

I’d hope a class teaching the ins and outs to parenthood would do our country some good. Beginning in middle school, showing them how to budget and where their money will go on a day to day basis from similac/ breastmilk to day care to school clothes, birthday parties, and college to graduation gifts. Make children responsible for changing their babies’ diapers and feeding their child during class as well. Now that’s a test. Either it will create better parents or decrease the number of parents.

Parent’s work year-round so why isn’t school year-round? If we’re learning things that will help us in life, like reading, it shouldn’t stop. School should be year-round with more small breaks in between. Students might remember more then as well.

How many people do you know have degrees hanging on their walls, but career is completely different, if they have a career at all? How many of us take time away from our families for a masters that will hopefully get them a promotion working for someone who wouldn’t know you walking into Walmart? How many CEO’s have come to your cubicle to wish you a happy birthday or call to check on you when you’ve been admitted to the hospital? How is that relationship any different from slaves and their masters? We’re all a part of a system

How many students who graduate each year become 6 figure earners within their first year of graduating? Not enough for the amount of money, time, and stress spent on education

White children are raised to take over family businesses while black children are raised to get a degree to go work for those white people so black students can end up working for their white classmates or their families.

Why don’t we teach the laws so that when we are pulled over, we know our rights? Half the country speaks Spanish, yet we don’t begin to learn it until high school. How many students could benefit from being bilingual alone? Learning about history can be fun, but how many careers benefit from on how Gilgamesh and Enkidu lived and died? We are assigned to write 8-10 page papers like it’s something that will matter in a month. Who has ever said “I’m so glad I wrote that 8-10 page paper, it’s changed my life!” Instead, it’s a test. It’s a test to see who will complete it and how will they complete it. It’s a test to pick out procrastinators. Who will use proper time management is who will succeed in life? For a grade. A grade that won’t matter once the class is completed. People who slave over school and graduate with 4.0’s have the same chance of owning a business as the student who dropped out of school. A 4.0 doesn’t get you paid more at a job. It doesn’t get you free healthcare, it doesn’t even cancel your school debt (which is should). You will get the same piece of paper saying “congratulations, you made it through school” as the other graduates who spent more time with family and friends and learning from life experiences and who happily passed with all C’s.

The most I’ve seen a Master’s provide is a promotion and bragging rights.

The book Think and Grow Rich, should be a class. The book Ask and It Is Given should be a class. Love your life Not theirs should be a class. The art and healing of meditation should be a class. Rich Dad Poor Dad should be a class. The Secret, 48 Laws of Power, The Battlefield of the Mind, Crushing It, the list goes on. Teaching children to believe in themselves and how to create businesses is what we lack from school, but the system knows that.

I understand the assignment calls for 8-10 pages, but my diary doesn’t even have an 8-10 page entry and those are my deepest, most inner thoughts. I hope I was able to complete the assignment in 4 pages. I’ve made my case and offered solutions. This whole paper is written from life experience and I’ve listed books that support my ideas.