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What is the most important part of a teenager’s life? The answer to that question is school. Besides being a place where teenagers spend most of their time, school is the number one variable in how a kid’s future will turn out. Chances are if somebody flunks out of high school they will not get a fulfilling career. If so much is riding on school, how come so many kids are so unmotivated? I can mark myself as a prime example. I have known this paper was coming for weeks, and yet I start it 11 hours before it is due. Nobody needs to tell kids that school is important, but every day my math teacher needs to tell my class to stop talking and get to work. The focus of this paper will be motivation. The reason kids are so unmotivated is because they are put into a system that is too generic to handle the different kinds of student.
As Americans we are lucky to have a public school system. This allows kids from all different social and economic backgrounds to go to school. But a school system is not an easy thing to manage. Public schools are managed by the government. The government does have the time or money to individually handle each school. So instead what they do is set guidelines for every school to fallow. In the end the public school system is like a bag of skittles; every school has its own color, but in the end it’s still a skittle. So what happens when you give skittles to millions of kids? Some will love the skittles and enjoy whatever color you give them, others will not like the color they got but will eat it anyway, the third kind will want M&Ms. it is this third type of kid which will become unmotivated. If these kids are given M&Ms they will be happy and succeed, but they are forced to have skittles. In this paper I will talk about how unmotivated kids treat the school system, why some schools do better than others, and I will end with examples of people who have tried to give kids M&Ms.
What do kids do in school when they don’t want to learn? They use school as an opportunity to push their agenda. This is clear in The Boondocks by Aaron Mcgruder. The Boondocks tells the story of two black kids in an all white suburbia. Students are not motivated so they see school less as a place to learn and more of a place to do their own thing. A main character in the Boondocks is Huey. Huey's character is the stereo typical American revolutionary. In the Boondocks he thinks that public schools are brainwashing the youth into the euro-centric capitalists. This can most easily be seen in the bottom of page 41. Huey was just caught reading a different book in class and he explains his reasoning to the teacher. "{teacher} so if I understand correctly, you do not have your textbook with you, Huey. ... Because you felt there were other texts that deserved priority in your book bag?...Texts like shabazz k. Jenkins How to Tell if Your Teacher is Brainwashing You with Euro centrism. {Huey} Given your stirring tribute to Christopher Columbus last month, I believe I made the right call" (Boondocks Right to be Hostile, p.41) Huey does not trust the school system. So he uses the time to study his own interests. He is not in any way shape or form motivated to learn what they teacher wants to teach him so he what he thinks he should do. While the Boondocks is fiction it is easy to compare the way these two kids view school to how kids in reality view school. I’m arguing that Huey is unmotivated because he did not have the option of choosing a school that would better fit his needs. If Huey had the option of going to a school that taught more about African history or self empowerment he would have been reading the right textbook.
It is common opinion that private schools are better than public schools. This is because private schools are micro managed. I have spent many years in both public and private schools, so I am able to fairly compare them. Private schools have the major advantage of smaller class sizes. This allows the teachers to really get to know the students and make changes to the curriculum that they think will help the students. It wasn’t until I came to a public school did I hear “I don’t have time; I have too many papers to grade”. This is a common case of quality versus quantity. Since public schools have to deal with so many different types of student they don’t have the time to change the curriculum to maximize the learning of the students. Instead they teach what they are told and they hope the students get it. Private schools are usually better because since they are run on their own they can change the way they teach instead of having to fallow guidelines.
In 1995 Lisa Delpit came out with the book Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. She said that low income children are at a disadvantage because of the way they grew up. A child coming from a wealthy family will have 100 books read to them, while low income child will only have 15. (Not real statistics). She then says that this leads to lack of motivation in the lower class kids. By not being read books she argues, kids don’t learn to enjoy reading which has obvious negative effects. She argues that facts like that give children of low income families (usually of color) a disadvantage that should be addressed. By making this realization she has opened up a way to make schools more personal. By her logic if schools expose lower class kids to books when they are young they can increase the chance that those kids will be better motivated students in the future.
What is the number one motivation of teenagers to do well in school? The simple fact is most kids are only motivated enough to not fail. They are more focused on getting out of the school then immersing themselves in the school. It is this fear of failing that has me finishing a paper at 10:33 the night before it’s due. By forcing kids to go to a generic school they have no motivation to learn because they have no desire to be at that school. The reason kids are so unmotivated is because they are put into a system that is too generic to handle the different kinds of student.

mr. Gatto writes about what he really teaches. A teacher for twenty six years he has broken down the jobs of teachers into six lessons. These lessons differ from what people think his job is. He says that instead of teaching the revolutionary war or reconstruction, he teaches things like how to make what ever your boss tells you to do the most important thing in your life. He states that school has less to do about learning facts, and more about learning obedience.

Here is another crusader, on a mission to show the world what the education system is really like. After reading many texts about school I have grown to see the different types of people who write about the education system. This guy seems no different from the rest. He talks about how the school system is really teaching kids to be mindless drones, yet he forgets the reason he is able to write an article so many people read is because he did well in school. He says "habits are the only thing truely learned". But what about what is taught in the classes. The fact school is the only place I learned physics.

In Paulo Freire's article Freire sees school as filling an empty cup with water. (my words not his) But instead of filling a cup of water, its the teacher filling the students with knowledge. He also states that the school system is set up so that the teacher is the important almost godlike figure, while the students are worthless.

Once again here is a man out to show the world the truth behind the education system. This guy has taken the truth and hyped it up. He talks about how the teacher is in control and the students must do as they are told, when the fact is this is blantenly obvious. When you go to the hospital do you complain that you werent allowed to pick the antibiotic the doctor gave you, no because its the doctors job to do it. He has been trained to pick the right drug. The same goes for teacher, you go to school so that people who are trained to teach, teach you. You cant go there expecting to be the center of attention.

The interview with delpit showed her unique view on the education system. She said that low income children are at a disadvantage because of the way they grew up. A child coming from a wealthy family will have 100 books read to them, while low income child will only have 15. (not real statistics) She argues that facts like that give children of low income families (usually of color) a disadvantage that should be addressed.

I liked this women a lot more then the others for two reasons. The first is that she doesn't bash the school system. She sees the system has flaws but she also understand that schools can help kids succeed. She has taken a very logical look at schools. She is not making any big claims about what schools are really teaching; she is looking at why the kids aren't succeeding. This leads to the second thing I like. While the other authors talk a lot about how American school suck, she is actually doing something about it.

Jake Westwood. A 11th grade history teacher wakes up and goes through his organized neat early morning routine. Before leaving the house though he does a line of coke. At school he prepares for the kids to come in on the first day. Once the kids are in he starts to tell them about how this year they will be learning about the darkerside of history. The kids are full of attention. They walking away interested in what that class is going to teach.
They kids have come to like history and work hard in that class. The teacher inspires them. But his coke habit has picked up and the kids begin to see signs. Rumors spread and more evidence is see till the teacher is one day caught in the act. The students lose respect in him and no longer pay attention in class. The teacher denies hes an addict. Situation get worse.
It’s a dark night, and the teacher goes to buy some coke but is robbed for it and left beaten in the street. A few of his student s are coming home from a party and find him. They bring him home. They come back the next morning (Saturday) and tell him that they are going to make him quit. Turns out they had already searched his home and found all of his hidden coke. Starting from then the kids pat him down every morning in school and when he comes home they are randomly searching his house for coke. Weeks go buy and Jake begins to improve.
Its almost the end of the year and Jake is totally clean. His students are interested again and life is good. One day he gets a call his brother died. His brother has come up in various parts of the movie and it is clear they were close. Jake is crying in his office after school. As he cries he reaches under his coffee bug and untapes a bag of coke. He puts it into lines and rolls a dollar, camera cuts out.

5-10 ideas

1. the teacher is boring and slow. the kids then fix the teacher (reverse of the usual teacher saves the kids)
2. kids are asked to express their world in videos.
3.some one trashes the classroom while the teacher is away for lunch.
4.one student lives in the hood and is trying to get out using education
5. have the one silent kid who makes a speech at the end

chop chop chop, judo flip

My choice of readding was The Boondocks by AAron Mcgruder. The Boondocks tells the story of two kids named Riley and Huey who move from chiago with their grandfather to an all white nieborhood in suburbia. McGruder uses the scenario of the only black family in white suburbia to show us his view on the topics of racism and politics. In The Boondocks niether Riley or Huey do very good in school. Riley doesnt because he is trying to be the steriotypical gangster and uses school to show how gangster he is to the other kids. Huey is the opposite. Huey's character is a revolutionist and he beleives that the schools are brainwashing eurocentrism into the society, so he spends his time in school researching his own things. Niether character is modivated to learn because niether of them wants to learn whats being taught, so they use the school as a place to do their own thing. Students are not modivated so they see school less as a place to learn and more of a place to do their own thing.

Huey's character is the sterio typical american revolutionary. In the Boondocks he thinks that public schools are brainwashing the youth into the euro-centric capitalists. This can most easly be seen in the bottom of page 41. Huey was just caught readding a diffrent book in class and he explains his reasoning to the teacher. "{teacher} So if i understand correctly, you do not ahve your textbook with you, huey. ... because you felt there were other texts that deserved priority in your book bag?...Texts like shabazz k. jenkins How to Tell if Your Teacher is Brainwashing You With Eurocentrism. {Huey} Given your stirring tribute to Christopher Columbus last month, I beleive I made the right call" (Boondocks Right to be Hostile, p.41) Huey does not trust the school system. so he uses the time to study his own intrests. He is not in anyway shape or form modivated to learn what they teacher wants to teach him so he what he thinks he should do.

Riley, Huey's younger brother, is the opposite of Huey. He embraces the rap culture, which Huey strongly hates, and is constantly thinking about how to be more gangster. Riley uses school as a way to be more gangster. When Riley is asked to introduce himself on the first day he states "Aiiight, Y'all need to listen up to what esco got to say, word up. Don't ever in ya life confuse me for a punk that wont do some chin checkin, knaamean. I'm keepin $?%! real. Dun!..." (p.27) Riley makes sure his first impression shows off this thugness. He has no motivation for school because he doesnt think it will help him become a gangster. so he uses school for his own reasons.