The Rigid School System

As my Junior year is coming to a close, I have been thinking about my education. Always learning in chapters and processes. What crosses my mind is, what will the next step in my class be. Maybe memorizing a list of vocabulary words or trying to understand why fibonacci numbers are so important. Either way its just one more stride on the long trail to college.

In america today, our education system has or needs to change to adapt to the new ways of life, more specifically the new technology. Technology has forever changed our communication and how we receive and gain knowledge.  Last week, my math teacher asked me if I would enjoy learning by staying at home and Skyping with the class. I was truly surprised by the question and had never really thought about the possibility of learning like that before. Personally, I wouldn't enjoy that because it would take away the social aspect of school. And I think it would make the already rigid school system even more so.

While the purpose of education is to nurture and to develop qualities like creativity, communication, and collaboration, school's have become more dependent on standardized tests than ever. With such an inflexible collection of teaching material it seems to almost undermine the purpose of education. Instead of developing these qualities, learning through this kind of system molds every student into one kind of student. Where a student can name every president and spit out a textbook definition in a second, but not know how current problems in America will impact the future.

The education system regurgitates the same information to every student so the result is one kind of person. What changes can be made so this doesn't continue happening? Is this a good or bad thing that this is happening to our education system?

A Surprise Preformance

This past weekend Macklemore gave a surprise performance at the EMP museum in Seattle. Macklemore played his painfully dull couple of songs that every american knows the chorus to. But Macklemore couldn't just play his songs without making some sort of statement.

For reasons unknown to me, Macklemore decided to dress up with a "fake black wig, big beard, and a hooked nose" (Demby). There is no comment by Macklemore on what he was trying to display through his costume, but most watchers described it as looking a lot like a exaggerated stereotypical jewish man.

Over the past year, one could have argued that Macklemore built a good or even great public image for himself. For example, after the 2013 grammies Macklemore texted Kendrick Lamar, a fellow nomination for best rap album,  "You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have won" (Jarenwattananon). The public apology brought positive feedback from listeners everywhere. Not only this but Macklemore's song "Same Love" won over many listeners because of his stance on the issue of gay marriage in America.

That is why I am left so confused wondering how or why this turned out how it did. Yes, it is possible that Macklemore didn't see or think that his costume was racist but how could he get out on stage and preform without one person stopping him. And what message was this costume supposed to have. When you are a celebrity or music star, I think everything you do and wear is so constructed and put together that there is often a reason behind every costume. So now I am wondering what Macklemore's reason for this costume was?

The Climate Change Debate

President Obama told america that “isn’t something in the distant future, climate change is effecting us now.” While Obama has been in office he has been constantly trying to raise awareness of our actions and the impacts on the environment but a Gallup Politics Poll revealed that one in four U.S. citizens are “solidly skeptical” of global warming.

This was alarming to me to find this information but I honestly think it should have no effect on what we do about climate change. Climate change is a fact. There is no denying that “global temperatures are rising, heat waves are becoming more common, and glaciers are melting” (John Oliver). Even though some americans are skeptical, the government and the people need to react and try to change how we treat the environment.

This gallup politics poll was just a poll. A study was then done examining thousands of research papers by climate scientists and 97.1% of the scientists “supported the fact that humans are causing global warming.” I think the reason that 25% of americans are skeptical about climate change is because when americans hear about this debate on the reality of climate change, the media sits down two people. One for the reality of climate change and the other against climate change. This just an idea but a one on one conversation makes a debate seem much more even than it may actually be.

On John Oliver, he had a climate change debate but instead of making it one on one, he made it representative of the statistics of scientists. He brought out 97 climate scientists for the reality of climate change and 3 for the opposition. The debate was a joke on TV but made a more realistic idea on what the majority of the scientific community believes.