Synthesis Essay

Lena Lin
Its definitely not surprising for people to make assumptions that students overall
performances, such as GPAs, are solely based on their level of intelligence. It seems
logical since GPAs are a part of measurements for students knowledge but at the
other hand, social and psychological factors plays a key role in determining students
performances as well. A couple of writers have made suggestions on how to use these
factors to influence and change students performances. Some writers, such as Talbot,
Baldwin and Prose, argued for a reform for the way educations should be taught at
school, while others, such as Alexie, applied his personal experience in to the
discussion suggesting changes such as social factors that would eventually influence
ones performances.
According to Alexies essay, Superman and Me, Sherman Alexie discussed his
obstacle to education for an Indian living in a Indian reservation. He humbly claimed
that the reason he got engaged to education was due to the challenges hes determined
to overcome when he stated, A smart Indian is a dangerous person. This experience
taught him that society plays a key role in students performances. Applying his
experiences, Alexie indirectly connected the relationship between social factors and
self-motivation when he ended with the sentence, I am trying to save our lives.
Schools should also take in to account at how educations should be taught. When
Baldwin made a proposal to his essay, A talk to the Teachers, he stated that the
purpose of education was to teach students to look at the society themselves and let
themselves make their own decisions on how a society should be. This perspective of
pragmatism teaches students to think outside the box and look at the world differently.
It would eventually affect ones performances due to the emergence of selfdetermination. Baldwin brought out an effective tone through out his essay by stating,
We are living through a very dangerous time. These change of purpose for
education motivates students to be more active in learning and taking actions.
Problems submerge to the questioning of current schools program, such as
valedictorians. These type of problems would influence students psychological
factors in determining their performances. This idea was exclaimed by Talbot in her
essay, Best in Class. In the essay, Talbot interviewed a variety of people on their
opinion of the position of valedictorians and most often the response was too
competitive. Talbots theory was basically claiming that positions and ranks are the
key motivation that drives students overall performances. And the consequences of
holding single-valedictorian positions would cause chaos and too much competitive
which would eventually hurt the students and the school. At the same time, she
suggest schools to expand the ranks to at least ten students instead of one and this
suggestion would essentially motivates students to strive for all As.
Similarly, Prose also suggested another psychological method to encourage
students performances. In the essay, I know why the Cage Bird cannot read, Prose
argued that the reason students lack engagements on school work was due to the
boring books they were assigned to read. Instead of choosing their own books, their

assignment was based on the monotonic syllabus by the lazy and uninspired
teachers. This lack of interest undoubtly resulted in their poor performances. Prose
claimed that students performances would rise when high schools favorite list of
books on stacked on the syllabus and unburden by gravity, to the top of the list.
In conclusion, all of the writers shares one common idea, which was the fact the
outside factors would influence students performances instead of solely on their
intelligence. These factors, if handled correctly, would increase their performances
eventually.