Memorizing terms that mean nothing to me doesn’t raise my IQ, but gaining understanding of a complex idea definitely does. It helps you gain perspective and maybe see a viewpoint you never understood before. This is what education should be based on. Normally, I would be insulted if a guy tried to tell me that I couldn’t think for myself because of the education system I was brought up in, but I can’t really disagree with that, either. Don’t get me wrong, I can think for myself, but I certainly wasn’t taught that in school. I learned that outside of school through socialization with my family and friends. I definitely agree with this guy in the sense that public education needs reformed. Maybe not to the drastic degree that he would like, but I do believe something needs to be done to improve the current system.

One great example of this was a chemistry teacher I had back in high school. He was a great guy and a great teacher, but he really didn’t like when students ask questions. I remember one specific time when I asked him why a certain chemical reaction took place, and he responded, “It just does.” In other words, he really didn’t want to answer my question, he just wanted me to trust that the chemical reaction was correct and to accept it that way. Most of education today, in my opinion, is just memorization and regurgitation. I’m guilty of it myself. Us students cram the night before a test to remember all of the required terms, regurgitate them on the test the next day, and then forget them until we are forced to learn them again. We don’t really know what they mean, but hey, as long as we pass the test we’re happy as can be. I think asking questions should be encouraged in the class room, because that’s when learning really occurs.

I had never heard of this guy until I watched this video and I don’t consider myself a “leftist,” but I really could not agree more with what this guy is saying. I believe the education system now is flawed-there is too much emphasis on just getting a passing grade and not enough emphasis on actually learning. One thing he said that I think really hit the nail on the head was near the 5:40 mark, when he was talking about teachers discouraging students from asking questions. He said, “A lot of teachers say ‘These are the correct thoughts, all the others are rubbish. I’ll pick the right ones and you memerize them.’” This, to me, is 90% of education today. Maybe not so much in college, but it was definitely the case in high school.

This never made sense to me, because the Chinese population of my school and the surrounding areas are much higher than the Latino population. So how can you justify teaching one and not the other? You can’t really, in my opinion. It goes for other languages, too. How can you justify teaching French or German and not Chinese? What about Latin? I mean, that’s a dead language, nobody even uses it anymore. If I’m a student and I want to learn a language, my mindset is going to be, which language will look the best on my resume if I can become fluent? In reality, that would be either Spanish or Chinese. Being fluent in those two languages are extremely marketable traits. I’m not saying German and French aren’t, but not to the same degree. I think when it really comes down to it, Chinese never has to be more universally taught simply because doing business with China is inevitable and we could always use more people fluent in the language.

In the current system, the only positive really is that it could spark a student’s interest in a language and they may choose to continue their studies after they graduate high school. With China becoming such a world power, I think Chinese should be offered more widely in high schools. Yes, that article talks about how it has increased. But if you read through the article, it goes on to say that Chinese is still only offered in 4% of high schools. Compare that to 88% for Spanish. Now, I’m not saying that Spanish isn’t important, but I certainly don’t see it being that much more important than Chinese. If anything, they should be taught an equal amount. Maybe we could make it required for a school to teach Chinese if it currently teaches Spanish. Just an idea, I don’t know if it’s doable. For me personally, my high school did not offer Chinese, but it did offer Spanish.

To see that Chinese being taught in public schools here in America is on the upswing is definitely encouraging. China is a major business partner of the U.S, whether we like to admit it or not, and being able to speak Chinese fluently is an extremely marketable trait for any business person to have. That being said, however, I think the way that public schools go about teaching foreign languages is flawed. I know that at my school district, languages are not even offered until high school. And even at that point, every student is only required to take two years. Students know that, and most are lazy, so most only drift through the minimum two years just to earn the grade, and really learn almost nothing about the language. In my opinion, basic language instruction should start in elementary school and be continued about high school.

I disagree with this because a lot of illegal immigrants take advantage of this policy. Many jump the border to have their kids in American hospitals. Meanwhile, many of them don’t have health insurance, and therefore cannot afford the medical bills. This, also, can be a strain on the economy. So, all in all, I can see where this guy is coming from. A lot of people agree with what he is saying. At the same time, however, I do disagree with the way he chooses to advertise his message. So no, I don’t think he’s a bigot or knucklehead or any of those other adjectives Sam used in the title of this entry. I just think he’s a guy taking advantage of his freedom of speech, which is one right we have that makes this country great.

So I don’t necessarily agree with this dudes entire message anymore. That being said, however, he does make two points that I do agree with. The first is that I feel that we need to do more to secure our own borders. Bringing some of the troops back from the middle east to guard our borders (both, not just with Mexico) will drastically cut down on the amount of illegal immigrants who enter our country. And no matter what your views are, you cannot deny the fact that illegal immigrants are a drain on our economy. They take jobs from American citizens because they work for cheaper, and then they don’t pay taxes on their earnings. This hurts our countries economy worse than a lot of people realize. The second point he makes that I agree with is that we need to close the loophole that any child born here is an American citizen, no matter where their parents are from.

I could not even believe this was on here when I first logged on, because that club is actually like 20 minutes from my house back in Pittsburgh and I drive past it all the time. The owner has become controversial because, on the club’s sign, he posts messages proclaiming his views about illegal immigration, much like the ones he expressed in the video. Things such as “This is America, if you don’t speak English you can get out.” I think this is the part that I have issue with, how he chooses to voice his opinion. To be quite honest, I used to agree with some of the messages, but taking this class has changed my views. The first time Sam made the point about wanting all immigrants to adapt our culture as soon as they get here and then comparing that to all of our immigrants coming through Ellis Island, that point blew my mind.

Another thing I disagree with is that white people have only one option, which is white. As stated in the video, Hispanic people have the options Puerto Rican, Chicano, Mexican, Cuban, etc. So, why shouldn’t white people be able to check off Italian, German, or Polish? That doesn’t make much sense to me. I also feel that there should be a box for mixed race people to respond, and they should be able to write in what races are represented in them. If somebody is fifty percent black and fifty percent Hispanic, what box do they check off? Both? I don’t know, maybe there is an option for this and I just don’t know about it. Either way, I think this issue just comes down to a matter of generations and what terms are deemed “politically correct.”