EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

AUBREY T. SANO
MaEd- LT

I Just Sued the School System

Introduction

 
The “Let’s Change School” conversation came to the forefront again this week
after a video by the rapper Prince Ea went viral. Why is this particular video zooming
around the Internets at warp speed? Is it the high production value? The captivating
spoken poetry by a well followed You Tube talent? The cute kids or all of the above?

Enough of academic manipulation! We’re all asked from a very young age, ‘what do
you want to be when you grow up?’ and you’ll notice that each time the question arises
the answer changes, and that’s okay to a certain point, or at least until society tells us
otherwise. But as most of you will know, our passions change; our opinions, friends,
knowledge, it all grows and changes so why are we told from such a young age that
we must pick a career and stick with it for the rest of our lives?

There are many milestones in life and a big one is education. We have massive
privilege of education being handed to us on a silver platter. However, though do we
feel grateful for the knowledge we have today, I still disagree with how children are
goaded and pushed towards a certain path during their time in the education system.

The video has played an important role in the development of America’s

education system by engaging the audience and empowering them to advocate for
change, and this spoken word video is no exception. What makes “I JUST SUED THE
SCHOOL SYSTEM !!” truly stand out amongst all rhetorical writings that have been
made to address the failures of the education system is the way Prince Ea can combine
traditional modes of rhetoric with visual, audio, and cinematography effects that not only
adds to his rhetoric but engages the viewer, which ultimately allowed it to become viral
on YouTube and spread its message to millions. A message which ask about how we
know or Haven’t we already acknowledged that kids don’t have a ton of real life skills
when they graduate from high school and that in general they forget most of what they
“learn”? Don’t we already recognize that school is more or less a game kids play to see
how many As they can collect and many only care about what’s on the test?

We already know that students are sleep deprived, stripped of their agency, and are
forced to learn within the constraints of a power-imbalanced system. It’s the same
system that puts precedence on long-held structures and policies over effective
conditions for learning. We all hear the cries of our students who are anxious,
depressed, and stressed. (And so are their teachers.) We see schools that are driven by
compliance and high-stakes assessments, yet we know that all sorts of amazingly
complex, beautiful, meaningful things in this world were created by people who took
vastly different educational paths than those offered to most of our children.

And so while not surprised by the content of this video, its message can certainly spark
within us the need to act. To lead with courage.

In the video, the guy, whose name is Prince Ea, compares the cars and technologies of
today and many years ago and shows that they have greatly changed since then. When
he shows a picture of schools, however, the classrooms look exactly the same.
Everything in the world has changed and developed for the better, except for the way
students are taught. Still today, most classrooms are arranged so that all of the students
are facing forward, looking at the teacher. I'm not saying the education system should
change just because of the arrangement of the desks. This is just representing the hard
curriculum and standardized tests that students are faced with in their everyday lives.

Enough of academic manipulation! We’re all asked from a very young age, ‘what do you want to
be when you grow up?’ and you’ll notice that each time the question arises the answer
changes, and that’s okay to a certain point, or at least until society tells us otherwise.
But as most of you will know, our passions change; our opinions, friends, knowledge, it
all grows and changes so why are we told from such a young age that we must pick a
career and stick with it for the rest of our lives?
There are many milestones in life and a big one is education. Being brought up in a
western society, I have the massive privilege of education being handed to me on a
silver platter. However, though I feel grateful for the knowledge I have today, I still
disagree with how children are goaded and pushed towards a certain path during their
time in the education system.
I hope you are inspired like I was after first watching the video. Like I said in one
of my previous articles, my dream is to become a teacher when I am older. I've
always wanted to have a positive impact on the lives of the students that I will
teach. After watching this video, I was even more inspired to help change the
education system so that it will be better for the students.

In the video, the guy, whose name is Prince Ea, compares the cars and
technologies of today and many years ago and shows that they have greatly
changed since then. When he shows a picture of schools, however, the
classrooms look exactly the same. Everything in the world has changed and
developed for the better, except for the way students are taught. Still today, most
classrooms are arranged so that all of the students are facing forward, looking at
the teacher. I'm not saying the education system should change just because of
the arrangement of the desks. This is just representing the hard curriculum and
standardized tests that students are faced with in their everyday lives.

I believe a student's intelligence should not be based on test scores or their

grades. But rather, how dedicated the student is in learning. I hope to change the
system little by little when I become a teacher one day!

I just sued the school system

… Enough of academic
manipulation!
We’re all asked from a very young age, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ and
you’ll notice that each time the question arises the answer changes, and that’s okay to a
certain point, or at least until society tells us otherwise.
 

But as most of you will know, our passions change; our opinions, friends, knowledge, it
all grows and changes so why are we told from such a young age that we must pick a
career and stick with it for the rest of our lives?
There are many milestones in life and a big one is education. Being brought up in a
western society, I have the massive privilege of education being handed to me on a
silver platter. However, though I feel grateful for the knowledge I have today, I still
disagree with how children are goaded and pushed towards a certain path during their
time in the education system.
The story is always the same: you sit behind a desk surrounded by your peers in
complete silence, staring at a board and revising the words written on it for a test that
will cease to be relevant once you’re done.

I was inspired after watching a video which you may or may not be familiar with. I JUST
SUED THE SCHOOL SYSTEM is a motivating and influential piece of art. I use the
word ‘art’ because it is unlike anything I have heard or seen before. The Youtuber,
known as Prince Ea, addresses a jury as the defendant of ‘the people’. The suspect
being ‘the school system’. In the video Prince talks about how much of an effect the
modern school system has had on the children of the twenty-first century.
Children are taught to believe that there is only one path to follow, and that is that you
must achieve high grades in school to go on and study at university and in order to
begin a career — that you may or may not want.

This pattern became more apparent to me when I started sixth form and was
immediately told that I needed to think about the university I wanted to go to and the
course I wanted to study and so on … However, there were so many people around me
saying that they didn’t know what they wanted to do; becoming stressed over the fact
that everyone seemed to have their life in order when in fact it was the complete
opposite. This academic mentality has led thousands of students to spend £30,000+
on tuition fees and courses they’re doing largely because they haven’t been given much
other choice.
There may be readers out there who may disagree with what I am saying, but the fact is
that I am not writing this for you; I am writing this for the people out there who are stuck
because they’re being told that they have no other option. I am writing this for the
people who cannot afford university fees, I am writing this to let people know that
there are other options and that you shouldn’t be so hung up on the fact that you don’t
yet know what to do with your life at the tender age of eighteen. Your life is there to
explore, to fail, to succeed, and whatever you may decide to do with it, this is not
something you have to know as soon as you leave school. You can travel, you can
study, you can work. You’ll go through several jobs in your lifetime and that’s okay!
Heck, you can go from being a small-town waitress to a highly paid dermatologist for all
I care. The main point is that you do it for you and nobody else.
As a society we have the tendency to label people. Fat, Thin, Gay, Straight, Dumb,
Smart, Perfect … the list goes on. And from this, the school system also uses labels for
its students. If you are ‘smart’ it means you are good at academic things such as maths,
science and English; but if you cannot achieve high grades the way your ‘smart’ peers
do, then you are deemed ‘stupid’. The school system favours its academic students
while convincing the less able ones that they will never succeed.
There is a famous quote that Albert Einstein once said: ‘Don’t judge a fish by its ability
to climb a tree’. There is a reason why this man was awarded the Nobel Prize; as a man
who suffered from dyslexia he was repeatedly told that he could not succeed, but this
didn’t discourage him and eventually he proved the world wrong. His quote reminds us
that though you may not be naturally able at certain things, that doesn’t mean you aren’t
capable of doing something else. The message is that we must believe each of us to be
equally capable of achieving greatness, and to do this we must support each other.
So I’ll finish my rant there. We are all here for a reason and you have to imagine
yourself on your 80th birthday. Will you be happy with the choices you’ve maid, or carry
years of regret for the things you wish you had done?

Tags: careerschools

I definitely agree that our school system fails to educate every student to their full capacity. I also agree
that the current notion of "intelligence" is a very narrow standard that doesn't most of the amazing things
humans can do. However, the issue becomes how to implement a school system that can customize
education for each student to best prepare them for the future. Based on the concept of limited resources
(teachers, funds, school supplies), the more students we educate, the less specialized the curriculum can
be. We sacrifice personalized education for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. As far as teaching
strategies, I wholeheartedly believe in the implementation of more peer-centered learning, like small
group work and class discussions. I also think that learning focus should be shifted from memorization to
application (something that IB does).

I realize I forgot to reference the videos lol. From the first video, I love the Albert Einstein quote about
judging a fish on its ability to climb a tree. It really illustrates how our school system gauges "intelligence"
based on a very narrow definition. For this reason, students who are not considered smart by school
standards may become discouraged about their abilities. From the second video, the thing that stuck out
to me the most was when he talked about how we are punished for our mistakes. For this reason,
students take very few risks in fear of consequences, and creativity is stifled. This is something I can
definitely recognize in myself and my peers.

I agree with both videos that our school system fails us as students. The information taught diminishes
the arts and discourages students from their passions. The teaching styles and standardized testing are
set to fit a very small amount of students and that hurts not only students grades, but their self esteem.
One main point of the I sued the school system video is that school hasn't changed in a century, which
shows how our society is doomed to repeat history as they use the same tactics to educate their future
scholars, political leaders and scientists. In the Ted Talk, the idea that punishment truly punishes the
creativity of the student was a major topic. To improve, we can focus more on class interaction and two
way conversations instead of the classic lecture style that teaches students to not speak up and say what
they believe. We can work on bringing our students up, instead of bringing them down.
Our school system is flawed and deserves an F for how it continues to punish students everyday by
setting them up for failure.
They judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, and it's just not fair.

First off, I definitely agree that everyone does not reach their full potential in school. In fact, most people
agree that everyone does not reach their full potential in school. Referencing back to "To This Day"
spoken word poetry, we all recognize bullying as an issue. But how do we change it? How do we make a
transition within the education system successfully? How do we make a dancer go to his or her full
potential as an example in Ken Robinson's speech? Or how could we make sure the fish shown in the "I
just sued my school system!" video is able to swim rather than climb trees? What I think for this issue to
be talked about is the solutions to these issues. It is important to gain attention (like the videos
successfully have) but the hardest step is to act upon these issues. In my opinion, Finland does an
excellent job and America should act more like Finland in terms of education. Less school time, more
outside time with collaboration and teamwork, and no homework. Education kills creativity, and if more
attention is gained on this topic America should revolutionize our education system to allow all humans to
reach their full intellectual potential just like Finland has.

I just sued the school system" sparked a lot of emotion in me because everything Prince Ea said I could
relate too. The first point I agreed with that Prince Ea said was the fact that schools create robots:
students are thrown with information and required to memorize it without any sources of creativity.
Additionally, Prince Ea said schools make us compete to get an A which determines product quality. In
school there is so much stress and emphasis put on our grades because essentially they determine the
college we go to. With so much emphasis on grades, students start to feel like their letter grades
determines their personal worth. I also agree that teachers should be paid more because they are the
driving forces behind enforcing the love of education. Without teachers, students wouldn't receive quality
educations and they would lack the human connections that teachers provide. When Prince Ea was
talking about how standardized tests determine success it really upset me. In today's world, colleges put
so much stress on high standardized test scores but they fail to acknowledge that not everyone is an
excellent test taker. Nor do they acknowledge the stress the standardized tests put on students as they
take them. I hundred percent agree with Prince Ea that standardized tests are too crude to be used.
Overall, I thought this video was incredible due to Prince Ea's ability to full convey what the school system
is doing to our society.

I found Ken Robinson's Ted Talk to be very interesting, but not quite as powerful as Prince Ea's video.
Ken Robinson talked about how the school system is based around academic ability which starts to
eliminate the ability of students to be creative. I completely agree: schools put so much emphasis on
academic ability that students start to fear creativity. If a student was to think in a creative way, the
answer could potentially be wrong. However, all students should be encouraged to use their minds in
creative ways because creative thinking creates problem solving abilities. And aren't we ultimately trying
to create world leaders that are able to solve problems? By eliminating creativity in schools, students are
losing their problem solving abilities.

I found both videos to be eye-opening. Both videos brought up a lot of valid points, and expressed the
dangers of the school system. However, I do believe that IB is at least giving us more ways to be creative
compared to AP classes or other classes. With IB we are able to expand our thoughts and ideas a little
more without being told we are wrong.

We know that schools have incredible value to our youth and the future of our society, and that teachers
are powerfully important people in kids’ lives. So while we’ve been writing and speaking about these
“viral” themes for years, we’ve also been to schools who have not only acknowledged what’s wrong with
traditional systems of schooling, but they’ve acted to transform the learning experience for their
kids. They’d listen to Prince Ea’s messages, yet be unable to identify such difficulties in their own
schools. 

Rhetoric has played an important role in the development of America’s education

system by engaging the audience and empowering them to advocate for change, and
this spoken word video is no exception. What makes “I JUST SUED THE SCHOOL
SYSTEM !!” truly stand out amongst all rhetorical writings that have been made to
address the failures of the education system is the way Prince Ea can combine
traditional modes of rhetoric with visual, audio, and cinematography effects that not
only adds to his rhetoric but engages the viewer, which ultimately allowed it to
become viral on YouTube and spread its message to millions. On a personal level, I
still align myself wholeheartedly with the message in the video, for it is a topic that I
engaged deeply with throughout my K-12 secondary education. This video had as
much of an impact on my way of thinking as any when I first saw it, and that hasn’t
changed. What has changed is a newfound appreciation for the rhetorical choices
that Prince Ea makes in video that results in its effectiveness. The writing of this
rhetorical analysis has helped me reflect more on the role rhetoric plays in shaping
my opinions through my daily conversations and readings, as well as how I can wield
the power of rhetoric to, hopefully one day, empower others for good.

I agree with every single thing that the video said. The most important thing that he said in my
opinion is the fact about "tests are crude". In real life, if you forget something like what is the
difference between unicellular organisms and multicellular organisms, then you can just look it up
online or pull out a book. Being given a test and forgetting the answers does not mean you aren't
smart.

To make the school system better, I think that tests should be more open-book, and maybe they
could be oral instead of written. Also, schools could be set up so that the work students are supposed
to do are more based on them personally. What I mean by that is for students who know what they
want to do when they are older can work on the things to prepare them for that occupation. An
example is for someone who wants to be a doctor can study science instead of art, and vice versa.

When I first watched this video it definitely makes you think about the past and the future. It is also
very cool and interesting when he showed cars and phones 150 years ago and how much they have
changed. Then he showed the classroom 150 years ago and they haven't changed at all.

Another thing I liked about this video was when he compared students to fish. He said when we tell a
fish to climb a tree it is like telling student to do something that is just not apart of their abilities.
This is a very good comparison and this entire video was very well said and I agree.

I think we can create a better future of learning by helping kids be more creative and help them with
these kinds of things rather than giving a huge test to stress about that they probably wont do very
well on even if they are very smart. This kind of stress that we put on students is not going to help
them in the future. We need to be more creative and should feel more relaxed during school and not
like we are not smart because we did bad on a test that we stressed about way too much about.

Another thing we could do to create a better future of learning is helping kids with their talents
rather than trying to make them do things they don't have the abilities to do. To conclude this was a
very well said video and I agree with him. There are many things we can do to help kids and create a
better future for our students.

After looking at this video, I realized how poor our school system is. I liked how it talked about the
difference of doctors and teachers. If doctors gave sick patients the same medicine to everyone, most
likely patients would not get better and possibly die. That is it the same for teachers. Teachers teach
every student the same thing! Difference students have different dreams, passions, thoughts, and
couriers. But doctors do give patients the proper medicine to their sickness so they can get better.
Teachers just teach everyone the same thing and I think it is not fair to students that have different
thoughts and passions.

Something we can do to improve our school system is maybe to have more tutors. I think that this
will be helpful to a lot of students because they can work individually with someone and focus more
on what they are interested in. Many students sit in a class and learn about things they have no
interest in and not planning on learning it ever again. So if students were to work with a tutor, i think
they would be more successful in school overall and be happier.

If you are in school, think about your classes. Are all or most of your classrooms set up in a typical "desks
facing forward" type arrangement? The answer is most likely yes. This is because the education system
has not changed.

Albert Einstein once said everyone's a genius, but, if you judge a fish on its ability to climb trees, it will
live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

Well the time has come no more excuses I call school to stand and accuse him of killing creativity,
individuality and being inequality abusive.

Let's be honest, teachers should earn just as much as doctors because a doctor can do heart surgery and
save the life of a child. But a great teacher can reach the heart of that child and allow him to truly live!
You see teachers are heroes that often get blamed.

Theme: The school system lacks equity, it must meet the educational needs of all children

regardless of their abilities or the way they learn.