Rehabilitation Program

The rehab program must contain the following:

1) Civic, financing, history and social justice education.
A strong understanding of these can help the patient create wealth legally. This will potentially decrease violence amongst rival gangs.  If the patient is taught different ways to raise wealth he no longer has to solely depend on the one's such as stealing and drug selling. The teaching of history should not be focused in US history or what we call "US history" but more in gang affiliation. Why we're gangs created? Who was Stanley Tookie Williams III?  Why we're rival gangs created? Civic education will teach them the law and therefore they will be more aware of their rights and will reduce the abuse of power from cops, for example, being pulled over an officer asks you to open up your trunk and you refuse to do so. You clarify to the officer that it's a violation to your fourth amendment and you offer him full cooperation if and only if he or she has a warrant at hand. In any given situation like that they can use that to their advantage, sadly, this may not reduce police brutality but it can however raise awareness of our constitutional rights. The teaching of social justice will allow them to find out the inbalance in power, who the real enemie is , etc.

2) Addiction treatment:
All of the following shall contain psychology lectures to create awareness and to have a patient further understand himself. A health and safety class shall be provided to them as well.

a) Drug addiction:
- small decreasing doses of the drug should be taken until the patient doesn't show withdrawal symptoms
- counseling shall be provided to the patient: patient cannot be forced to stay for a full session.

b) gambling addiction:
- safer investments shall be taught to the patient
- financing lessons shall be provided as well
- counseling sessions

c) sex addiction
- Counseling
- Group discussions

3) Anger management treatment:
- Counseling
- Group discussions

4) PTSD treatment

5) Educational programs
1) GED
2) Internships
3) Job listings shall be provided
4) How to make a resume 101
5) Basic skills shall be taught in various areas

All mandated labor completed in prison must be paid adequately.

How do we keep each other down?

                                                      How do we keep each other down? 

          We keep each other down by making others feel different and sometimes even inferior. We'll make them feel different for the religion that they practice, their ethnic background, their wealth, their sexual preference, their country's history, etc.  This constant oppression can lead to voluntary assimilation. The Native Americans however, had it different. The United States was trying to integrate Native Americans into the American culture from the years of 1790 to 1920 -- 130 years! They called it civilizing -- a "synonym" for cultural genocide in their heads. The government went as far as to prohibiting their religious ceremonies -- the US Violated it's first amendment to have it's way. However, we had the common decency of giving them an obligatory education in institutions, where they weren't allowed to speak their native tongue. As biased as this sounds, I never saw it from this perspective in my history class.            A country's history often impact an entire group. For example, I may say the word "Nazi" and you more than likely will think "Hitler", "Holocaust", "concentration camps", "Germany". I may say "9/11" and you will think "twin towers", "terrorist", "Osama bin Laden", "Muslim". We put a burden on an entire group when it's a handful that are to carry the blame. Ask yourself "why? Why is it that my brain processes this way? The media? The government? My school? My history class?"           Furthermore, we learn about history so that we don't repeat the same mistakes. History however, in my view, has not been linear, it has been cyclical. History has been repeating over time. The US paints itself as the "peace keeper", "the good guy". If there's one thing I've learned in history class, it's that you can't obtain peace through violence - I'm not a hippie by the way. War will only temporally offer peace. I learned about all the things the US has done in order to keep us "safe", in order to keep "peace". The US will throw a peace sign with one hand and a hand grenade with the other -- and right now I'm doing the same thing I was talking about. Putting a burden on entire group, that group being the "US". We ("the common US citizen") don't create laws or policy, we didn't press the button to launch the nuke in Hiroshima nor did we draft people to Vietnam, etc.   

  

What happens when a school fails a kid?

When a school fails a kid, he feels as if he is not if to par with the other kids that didn't fail. The kid would feel incompetent and maybe even dumb. The kid might not like school as much as he used to, he might not want to learn anymore because he feels that he's not capable of doing so.
I believe if a student fails then the teacher fails with him and so does the school. It's like in any team sport we try to put the blame on someone for the loss of the team. People react differently to opression some might sit there and take it and perhaps start to believe what they say, and others get motivated by it, ti simply prove them wrong. However, for a kid it maybe different. Kids are barely developing their ideas and beliefs. If you fail a kid over and over, eventually, he's going to think that the people trying to help him/her aren't the problem, that he alone is the problem. He's going to grow up thinking "I'm a failure", "I let everybody down" , "I'm a nobody" . This will create a child with low self-esteem and low expectations. He or she will become a conformist.  

Waiting for superman: Documentary response

Expenditures on education have been increasing over time; however, proficiency levels in math and english have been going down, as more and more money is pumped into education. The lowest english proficiency levels can be found in no further than the US capital: DC.   I don't believe that educational expenditures and proficiency levels are inversely proportional. I think teachers need further education on how to educate. In New York teachers receive a normal salary to be in this "rubber room". Where they basically just drink coffee, play cards and do nothing. They do nothing, and they receive a big fat check! I find that infuriating. The rubber room is basically a place for the teachers that gave up. I find it unfair because people that work minimum wage jobs cannot simply give up. You (minimum wage workers) call in sick constantly, you’re not going to get a substitute, you are going to get a replacement. They will take your job because it is that easy for the employer to fire you. You are not indispensable to the company. For the same reason, there is no such thing as a retail store union, fast food workers union or any of that sort as far as I’m concerned. We (U.S. citizens) have the right to come together and form a union but it’s pointless because they’ll fire that 40 year old lady that lead the union and hire a 17 year old. When you go to apply to a minimum wage job, in the application it states something around the lines of “The employer can fire you at any given moment without a reason”. See minimum wage workers don’t get a pat on the back, they don’t get to lay back on the hot tub with bubbles and drink red wine. I don’t want to be biased either. I know some teachers don’t get paid what they are worth either. In the documentary they said that a bad teacher covers 50% of the material in a school year while a good teacher covers 150%. The sad thing about this, is that no matter how much the good teacher covers he's still going to make as much as the bad teacher. In my opinion unions are good to some extent. However, in this case, it makes teachers almost seem untouchable, which can encourage teachers to not care about what they should care about which is teaching the posterity. There are teachers that leave when the bell rings at three, but there are also teachers that leave hours after the bell rings – and it’s not cause they we’re sleeping their last period and didn't hear the bell.

Is it a matter of race or discrimination?

Is it a matter of race or wealth? I don’t want to lean on either or. I believe it’s a matter of ethnicity, as well as wealth. When is it a matter of wealth? I’d like to think that we see this discrimination more often in countries that don’t have a diverse amount of ethnicity. For example, in Mexico you can’t express hatred towards someone in terms of their ethnicity. Instead, you’ll see this segregation or division in wealth classes. The rich will socialize with the rich and the poor with the poor. If you’re seen with the “chusma” (peasant, commoner) it can damage your “reputation”. When it comes to ethnic discrimination, wealth does not matter. A lot of celebrities are constantly oppressed, discriminated and abused because of their ethnic background. Some examples would be: Michael Jackson, Little Walter, Billie Holiday and many other Jazz musicians, etc. They could have billions of dollars and still be discriminated; of course those were different times, but you’ll still see acts of racism nowadays – not as drastic as they used to be, nonetheless they still occur. Nowadays, racism is disguised with sophisticated language and mild acts of hatred.  

The underdog by The Coupe: Video Respons

The Underdog

The underdog is the 9-5’er. The day in, day out people; specifically, people that work a minimum wage job and are struggling to hang in there. He refers to them as the underdog in my opinion because more than often, they are not recognized for their value. Working extra shifts, doing over time on weekdays and weekends, all to be able to have a roof over their heads and some food in their stomach. What’s sad to me is that, they often are not paid what their worth because any other person can be trained to do what they do. I like how he describes the people in poverty as if they cannot arise from it. I liked the line where he said “lot of homeless got jobs”. That really painted a picture on my head. It made me think that the government sets a minimum wage that does not pay the sufficient amount of money in order to cover all the costs of the standard of living. I found it interesting that before we watched this in class everyone was talking and you could feel the good vibes, and all that changed after we watched it. I found it interesting cause that just goes to show how unbalanced the wealth is distributed. Not one person in the room left skipping out of class – not that anyone really does that. In my opinion it got everyone thinking, like when a speaker just drops the mic. Everyone in the room was just like “WOW” with their jaw dropped. I felt that same vibe after having watched that video. It’s sad that it is too relatable. I’m not entirely sure who the “they” in the song is, because I don’t know who the “motherfucker” is either. I want to say the “they” refers to the wealthy and the motherfucker refers to the inequality. So if I rephrase it, it would say: The wealthy would tear inequality if they really loved you. That’s what I believe it means and it makes sense – to me at least.

Front Row Seats

Angel Rodriguez
English 1A
                                                                               
 
" I got us front row seats to see the teacher". That maybe every educators dream - that and a pay raise. Education has many problems and we need to experiment in order to find it's solutions.  Technology has been constantly evolving, while education has been merely the same since my great grandma was in school. Students are not engaged when they are  being taught irrelevant, boring and useless information. Students feel uncomfortable in class which impairs learning. School institutions inculcate the idea that without education we cannot achieve success and if we can't achieve success we cannot achieve happiness. Students are obliged to follow a curriculum in order to graduate. The education system is robbing us of our voice , and if we no longer have a voice we can easily be overpowered.  
          Technology has been advancing way faster than we can teach it. As we know, technology has been evolving at an incredibly fast pace; I remember like it was just 40 years ago, when I bought my first brick phone, and I remember Christmas like it was just 2 months ago, when I spent half a pay check on my kids iPhone - ok I don't have kids but you get the point. 40 years ago some rich guy spent nearly $4,000 dollars on a cell phone, when he could have only waited 40 years to buy a smartphone for $60 - Doesn't he feel silly. Education has not changed much over the course of history. My mom sat in the same class I did with the same teacher, teaching the same way and the same things. Teachers have to teach a certain way through a curriculum that the county gives them. The people that made the first car, the first airplane, the first cellphone, did not have any principles that they could use as guidance. What did they do? They had to experiment, in order to get the results they wanted. Teachers have to do the same, in order to get students to learn by heart and not memorization, which is what most education is based on. Students study a night before for a test and basically all the information they studied is forgotten. It's like a sponge in a bucket full of water, it will only retain so much water after it has been removed from the bucket. Educators need to find a way to keep the sponge submerged in the bucket.
          In addition, education needs a change. I found it interesting that the people in the audience ages 25 and up wore a wrist watch even though it was unnecessary, given that the only function it has, is in all cellular devices. In my opinion the people that wore watches, wore them just because they're used to doing it. I believe some things in the educational system are the same. Teachers have not changed their educating methods because they're just used to educating in a certain manner. The teaching methods in the school's I've attended, if not all but most, are the same. Students are expected to learn from copying down notes and filling out worksheets. All of the learning was based on repetition for the sake that it would stick to your head; some of the information sticks with you but most of it fades away, which makes sense because of the lack of practice. What I find interesting is, how is it that we remember certain things easily and other things we have to dig deep in to our memory? What did the teacher do differently? What did the student  do differently? I don't believe that the way teaching is done today has to be completely changed, it simply has to be updated-and it probably has to be a huge update, from teaching 1.0 to teaching 5.0. I remember a teacher was telling my class " I'm a math teacher but sometimes I'm a language arts teacher too" or something around those lines. He was explaining the origin of the prefixes on the names of some geometric shapes- which are in Latin and Greek. I didn't put much thought into what he said until now. I think that part of education is also a bit "out of date", that part being categorization. We expect to  solely learn math in math, English in English, history in history, so on and so forth. However, as i go back and reflect on it, I do remember learning various subjects in one class.
          Furthermore, Experiment with your classes, perhaps trying something differently with each one because not all classes are the same. Try implementing class discussions into your lesson plan. I believe we all have something to say and we'd like to be heard. Try making students comfortable as possible in order to have them express their thoughts and opinions more freely. By doing so you get the student more engaged because he feels important and he feels like he's a part of the class and not just that he's taking the class. The whole point of school is to prepare students for a job but they aren't given classes on how to actually get a job. For example they don't teach how to make a resume, how to make a first good impression on someone (for an interview).-Connections to me life- Classes are uninteresting because they aren't relevant to their lives. For instance you quizzed in history about " which countries did napoleon conquer/colonize?" when in your life will this be necessary? A trivia game is the only thing I could think of-It's pointless. It's unnecessary information that does not connect to us except for the point that we have to pass it to get credits to graduate. Students should be taught interesting and relevant things during the first days of school. Like in the beginning of an essay the first day of school should start with "the hook". Captivate the attention of students during the first days of school and they'll be eager to find out how it ends - "the conclusion".  
          Therefore, students may not be engaged because the lessons are irrelevant to their lives. If this perseveres, students will lose the notion to learn and will not pay attention at all. A solution to this out of my own experience, is to make connections between lessons and the students; for example, you can talk about the cold war as if it were two girls that gave each other the silent treatment and they're telling mean and nasty things about each other in order to get support from other people-Not the best example, but something like that. Making connections is like reviewing something you already know. For example, watching a play: the story is the same but there will be different people playing the characters; so all there is to it, is learning vocabulary.
          A classroom should be like your bedroom , you should feel comfortable in it. It should be a non-judgmental place, where students can express themselves freely. In the past I've had teachers snap at me, which I understand, because it can be tiring to tolerate me- back then at least, but sometimes I would ask questions and people would laugh-thinking it was a joke; however I was genuinely interested in knowing the answer. So then I felt stupid and got mad at the teacher- I didn't say anything or do anything, but that's all I was thinking about and I would lose focus on the rest of the lecture. There's many situations like that. Another example that is pretty common, is when a student has a question but never asks it because classmates might think it's stupid and/or might laugh at him. If we don't give students this sense of comfort, it'll keep them from developing their ideas and beliefs. A great way to get students to feel free to express themselves is by having discussions on class subjects and of course teaching them again what their kindergarten teachers had once taught them -- and hopefully their parents as well: Respect, a very important value. This is key to the learning atmosphere!
          School and society have planted the idea on us that without an education we won't live a happy life. This idea alone has made me feel very confused. If students grow up with this idea as am I they will end up the same way, confused without knowing what to do. I believe we do know what to do; however, we are discouraged because whatever we want to do: a) doesn't pay well ,
b) others don't respect it, c) takes to long to get the degree. As you may know, a lot of criteria and expectations to meet. When really it all comes down to what makes you happy. If this belief of ours keeps getting passed on, we might not have someone saying "do you want that with ketchup?". Not the most glamorous thing in the world if you ask me, but we all see things differently; and that should be the belief that should be passed on. All work is equally respectable and serves a purpose in society. We all depend on one another.
          Furthermore, the fact that school is obligatory puts more stress on our shoulders. Making something obligatory makes us question it, challenge it, disobey it. From my experience, sometimes we need a little push. But if you chain someone they don't have a choice; freewill is lost. And again the confusion arises again, weather or not we should keep going to school. Some students might even lose their willingness to learn because they have gotten beat up over the years that they have to attend school. Then, when that magic number 18 pops up, they drop out or decide to discontinue studying. If we feel obligated to do something then it's probably not for us. Things should come out naturally.
         





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Recycling education video response

For the most part I agree with what was said in the video; although, I do have some disagreements. The school system is made to prepare you for a job. Everything is based on competition; who gets the better grade on the test, who answers the questions the teacher makes, who has the better G.P.A. You can study the questions to a test a day before and pass it but then you’ll forget most of it the day after the
test. Most classes are “narratives” as they said in the video, classes based on a teacher giving a lecture without engaging the students. It’s as if the teacher we’re talking to a wall. The school system teaches
kids to memorize rather than to learn. I think we're naturally competitive. However, most student's don't necessarily think of competing against each other. I believe most of the time we're in competition with ourselves. I disagree that competition takes away the notion of people wanting to learn. I think it encourages them to learn more. Like for example, a difficult subject might not be pleasing to learn because of how much it makes us think and analyze. However, when a grade is given to you, it forces you to learn for the sake of keeping a good grade.  Competition is not necessarily unhealthy because it does get the best out of us. And the competition is not individual all the time, sometimes we have  projects with other people. In fact a lot of our work is done in group- at least from my experience. All the group work teaches us how to work with others. We're not always acting individually. We don't get the sense that we're isolated, we work as a community, in order to accomplish our goals. That is however, preparing us for a job. I also disagree that teachers don't engage their students. Teaching is revolutionizing. I believe it's a human behavior for us to not engage in things that are difficult. However, like they said in the video, we would be motivated to learn more if the subject we were learning would be presented in a much more fun way. I remember in my french class we had a lot of activities that involved group work. We engaged in conversations with each other and it helped a lot more. We learned from each other; when you pronounced something wrong your partner would correct you. We would have the class divided in two, and we would have a competition based on the new vocabulary. The fact that we competed against each other made it that much more interesting. We were concentrated on winning but unconsciously we were learning at the same time. Everyday in class was different. We were learning in many different ways: visually, listening, writing and communicating. It's easy to learn when you are having fun. I agree that school is made to "prepare" you for a job. I agree that memorization can kill creativity. I remember watching my little cousin drawing with a friend, and my cousin was drawing out of the outline of some cartoon and the other kid would stay inside the outline. At first I thought " why can't you draw like your friend" Then I thought to myself  "maybe my cousin just has terrible hand coordination". After having watched the video though, I thought of what they said about the teaching methods today making us more like robots. Robots that are programmed to follow a set of actions. So I agree that a good teacher give us information but he doesn't tell us what to think about it. We are left to decide weather it's right or wrong. Are ideas and beliefs should be shaped by us, not a system.

Education needs an update

I found it interesting that the people in the audience ages 25 and up wore a wrist watch even though it

was unnecessary, given that the only function it has, is in all cellular devices. In my opinion the people

that wore watches, wore them just because they're used to doing it. I believe some things in the

educational system are the same. Teachers have not changed their educating methods because they're

just used to educating in a certain manner. The teaching methods in the school's I've attended, if not all

but most, are the same. Students are expected to learn from copying down notes and filling out

worksheets. All of the learning was based on repetition for the sake that it would stick to your head;

some of the information sticks with you but most of it fades away, which makes sense because of the

lack of practice. What I find interesting is, how is it that we remember certain things easily and other

things we have to dig deep in to our memory? What did the teacher do differently? What did the student

do differently? I don't believe that the way teaching is done today has to be completely changed, it

simply has to be updated-and it probably has to be a huge update, from teaching 1.0 to teaching 5.0. I

remember a teacher was telling my class " I'm a math teacher but sometimes I'm a language arts teacher

too" or something around those lines. He was explaining the origin of the prefixes on the names of

some geometric shapes- which are in Latin and Greek. I didn't put much thought into what he said until

now. I think that part of education is also a bit "out of date", that part being categorization. We expect to

solely learn math in math, English in English, history in history, so on and so forth. However, as i go

back and reflect on it, I do remember learning various subjects in one class. Although, I do think it

should be done more. Why? Well, we all have different types of smarts. We can use a certain smart to

help develop another smart. Like for example, maybe we are musically smart and we're trying to learn

something about language, so you'll sing a song about it. Which is the way we learned the alphabet.

Also another effect that categorizing causes, is hate or unwillingness to learn a subject. For instance, we

may be challenged with learning algebra because we don't have much logical smarts; we move on forth

through our lives, thinking we hate math now. If we truly believe that kids are our future then we

should help them so that they can help us. Lets change the way we learn.

Themes

Angel Rodriguez 

ENGL 1A 

                                                                                                 

          Most people live their lives by a routine, which can lead to frustration and stress. They live their life by the clock; therefore, they stop caring about everything around them and they just focus with getting through the day. It's common for people to go on autopilot, specially when they do the same thing over and over. It becomes a habit. It's as if we were robots, made to do and repeat a set of actions over and over. I like to think of people that operate their lives in this manner as ants; working at a fast pace, without taking the time to slow down and see what's going on around them. 

          Most of the time we'll concentrate on our own problems and forget about other's. We will believe the world revolves around us, when in reality it does not. When you become self centered, you go by your day unaware of what other's may be experiencing at the moment. The people around you can be having an equally or worse day.           We all have choice. From the very moment our alarm sounds in the morning, we can choose to stay in bed or we can choose to get up and take on the day. I find that most decisions are made out of selfishness. For example, we'll wake up thinking " I need to get up" , "I'll get up in five more minutes" , " I kind of don't want to go" , " I need to pay the rent, electricity, phone bill, etc. ". All the tasks and actions consist of "I " . Everything revolves around "I" . We'll be so focused about ourselves that we forget about how others are doing. 

However, life doesn't have to be like that. We can choose to see things from a different perspective.  

          Benevolence is something we don't see much anymore. I believe people are becoming more unaware of others, because of technology. Technology can keep us from interacting with other human beings. I feel as if we can disconnect away from all the social media for one day, we can get people to greet each other, ask how their day is going, etc. Turn off the clock for a little bit and switch off the "I" mentality. Open up your eyes and look at how others are doing.

About: Angel Rodriguez

         My name is Angel Rodriguez. I've lived in two places for the most of life: San Leandro, CA and San Jose Itrubide, GTO (Mexico) . I like playing all sports but my favorite is football- also known as soccer. I've been playing soccer ever since my dad introduced me to it, which was when I was about 10-11 years old. I like to learn theory and to make beats on my spare time. I enjoy cooking because after the meal is prepped.. I get to feast!!