This is the topic I've been wanting to cover basically since I started this blog. Heck, this topic might be the reason I started this blog. I've been scared to, though, because it's such a huge topic and I just didn't know where to start or how to fit it all in.
I've decided I can't fit it all into a single post, so I'm going to make a series of posts about it.
I began my journey as a child in the public education system, so I suppose that's as good a place as any to get started. From a young age, I was always aware that I was generally ahead of my peers at school, especially in math. My parents recognized this and fostered my learning. My teachers recognized this, with mixed reactions. Some of my teachers, like my third grade teacher, allowed me extra activities when I finished my work much sooner than other students. My fourth grade teacher allowed me to help other students in the class understand their classwork if I understood the topic already.
This wasn't always the case, though. Some of my teachers actively held me back because I didn't fit into their curriculum. I struggled with other teachers because I would ask difficult questions that they either couldn't answer, or, more likely, didn't want to spend the time answering in class. For example, in Trigonometry I was a lot more interested in the derivations of the trigonometric identities than their uses, but my teacher was not interested in deriving them in class.
I spent a few years in middle school in my school's gifted program. Unfortunately, the program did not allow me to take advanced courses or test out of courses. Instead, it was a program that took me out of homeroom with my peers and put me into a classroom with other gifted students to play academic games. It was a good experience because it allowed me to befriend other students who were struggling to stay involved in the regular classroom, but it didn't allow us to get ahead in any way. We stayed in the program our first year of high school, but then the teacher in charge of the program was given other responsibilities and the program ended. At least in high school we were doing interesting things working with the LEGO robotics program instead of just playing academic games.
So, how is this relevant? Well, my experiences are fairly normal for any students outside the norm in public schools. Generally, students can find a few good teachers that really push them to succeed, but otherwise they're outsiders in the classroom. The teachers either can't teach to them or won't because they're either too far ahead or behind the rest of the class. Because the teachers leave them on the outside of their lesson plans, the other students pick up on the fact that this student is excluded and they push to exclude them as well. This leads to bullying, and many teachers either cannot or will not do anything about bullying, which leads to de facto teacher sponsored bullying.
What's my solution? Actually, it's quite simple. There's a paradigm in public education that students of the same age should be in the same classes together. Therein lies the problem. It's widely acknowledged that all children develop at different rates in different areas. If we allow children to develop at their own rates, study the areas that matter to them. If students struggle with math, allow them to spend more time in the lower maths until the understand them better before moving on. If they flourish in math, allow them to push through until them come to topics that are outside of their understanding. If students are attracted to reading/writing, allow them opportunities to read and learn creative writing techniques. Etc, etc. Right now the system crams all kids into the same classroom, and some kids are capable of doing much more than others, while some are capable of much less. Some of this is area specific, some is just developmentally specific.
The point is, there's absolutely no reason to expect that every 6 year old can expect to learn exactly the same things at exactly the same pace. The issue is that child specific learning is a complete shift from our current system, and change is something that comes incredibly slowly in this highly bureaucratic education system.
There is more I want to address on this topic, but I think this is enough for today. I'll come back to it again later to continue my train of thought.
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Saturday, March 5, 2016
3/5/16 - Getting Away with Murder
Lately, when I have free time, I've been attempting to watch the Documentary, Making a Murderer. It's been a difficult ride for me.
Let's start at the beginning: I haven't had much free time lately. Now that I am back around my friends and family, I find that I've had many things to do on a regular basis, and I've put a lot of things to the side that I was able to focus on when I didn't have as many people to share my time with. Obviously blogging was one of those things. The other has been television. I've spent very little time watching television in the last month, and I'm fairly OK with that. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that I really do want to at some point finish this documentary, I wouldn't care at all about watching television.
That's the first reason I've been struggling with the program. Ten hours is a rather large commitment of time. The second reason is not much better: this is just a difficult thing to watch. I have many other things going on in my life recently and I have found it difficult to give my attention to a single thing, like an episode of this documentary series, for a full hour at a time. Make no mistake, this is the kind of show that requires one's full attention. I can't play on my phone, or check social media, or chat with someone, etc, and expect to catch all of the things going on in this program. That kind of attention span is difficult for me to begin with, and it's only been made worse by how many other things I have to think of lately.
Those two things aside, though, the biggest reason for my struggle with this show is just how utterly revolting the entire thing is. I haven't reached the end of the series yet (I think I finished episode 7 two nights ago), but I have seen enough of the shady, and often downright criminal activities of the police, prosecutor, and judge that I'm disgusted to my core. By the end of each episode I find myself needing to turn it off just because of how angry I am.
Now, as I said, I haven't finished the series yet, nor have I done any research on the subject outside of the documentary, which has an obvious skew towards Avery's innocence. However, what I have seen is enough to make me mistrust the entire criminal justice system. Let's start with the obvious things: Steven Avery was the only person ever investigated as a potential suspect. In fact, a quick search brings up an article showing that less than 3 hours after Teresa Halbach was reported missing, Avery was accused of murdering her. However, just watching the trial unfold and listening to the questions point to the fact that no other person was ever investigated. If Avery was not the murderer, than whoever was got away with it because the police had a vendetta against Avery and they focused 100% of their attention on him.
More disturbing, though, is the complete garbage testimony of Brendan Dassey. This poor young man was removed from class and questioned by police without a lawyer or parent present. In fact, his mother claims she was denied entrance to the questioning when it took place. Let me start by saying that I find it absolutely appalling that it is completely legal in our country to question a minor without a parent present and expect that they can understand and react appropriately. It was incredibly obvious in this video that Brendan did not know what was going on; he thought at the end of the interrogation that he was going to be able to return to class. I also believe that police holding anyone for an extended period of time for interrogation without a warrant should not be legal. Dassey was being questioned for 4 hours. That's 4 hours, stuck in a small room with two police officers, likely little to no food or water, and nothing to do but be constantly badgered by police. What if Dassey had understood his right to silence and chosen not to speak to the police? How long would they have held him, waiting for him to crack? It's disgusting.
The way they chew up this young man who is obviously not capable of understanding the situation he is in is despicable. Then his testimony is used to smear Steven Avery on public radio and television with a horrific tale that no other evidence supports in any way. Neither Avery nor Dassey were ever considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. From the start they were treated as criminals, and the entire apparatus of the criminal justice system was going out of its way to smear them and make sure they ended up in prison. For me, I don't know or really care if either Dassey or Avery is innocent or guilty. What I care about is how criminal the entire system has shown itself to be. Every person involved in this case broke their own rules, their own laws, and nothing will come of it. Avery and Dassey have had their rights taken from them because the system wanted to take them away. No one else was even considered, and the investigation was obviously biased, yet two men sit in jail after being denied the rights that should be due to them as human beings.
This is the kind of governmental overreach that I find outrageous. I can't handle seeing people being violated in such a way with no consequences to those committing the real crimes. Think of this: if Avery is in fact innocent (and it's very possible he is), his life was taken away from him because the police, prosecutor, and judge wanted to.
Who's the real murderer?
Let's start at the beginning: I haven't had much free time lately. Now that I am back around my friends and family, I find that I've had many things to do on a regular basis, and I've put a lot of things to the side that I was able to focus on when I didn't have as many people to share my time with. Obviously blogging was one of those things. The other has been television. I've spent very little time watching television in the last month, and I'm fairly OK with that. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that I really do want to at some point finish this documentary, I wouldn't care at all about watching television.
That's the first reason I've been struggling with the program. Ten hours is a rather large commitment of time. The second reason is not much better: this is just a difficult thing to watch. I have many other things going on in my life recently and I have found it difficult to give my attention to a single thing, like an episode of this documentary series, for a full hour at a time. Make no mistake, this is the kind of show that requires one's full attention. I can't play on my phone, or check social media, or chat with someone, etc, and expect to catch all of the things going on in this program. That kind of attention span is difficult for me to begin with, and it's only been made worse by how many other things I have to think of lately.
Those two things aside, though, the biggest reason for my struggle with this show is just how utterly revolting the entire thing is. I haven't reached the end of the series yet (I think I finished episode 7 two nights ago), but I have seen enough of the shady, and often downright criminal activities of the police, prosecutor, and judge that I'm disgusted to my core. By the end of each episode I find myself needing to turn it off just because of how angry I am.
Now, as I said, I haven't finished the series yet, nor have I done any research on the subject outside of the documentary, which has an obvious skew towards Avery's innocence. However, what I have seen is enough to make me mistrust the entire criminal justice system. Let's start with the obvious things: Steven Avery was the only person ever investigated as a potential suspect. In fact, a quick search brings up an article showing that less than 3 hours after Teresa Halbach was reported missing, Avery was accused of murdering her. However, just watching the trial unfold and listening to the questions point to the fact that no other person was ever investigated. If Avery was not the murderer, than whoever was got away with it because the police had a vendetta against Avery and they focused 100% of their attention on him.
More disturbing, though, is the complete garbage testimony of Brendan Dassey. This poor young man was removed from class and questioned by police without a lawyer or parent present. In fact, his mother claims she was denied entrance to the questioning when it took place. Let me start by saying that I find it absolutely appalling that it is completely legal in our country to question a minor without a parent present and expect that they can understand and react appropriately. It was incredibly obvious in this video that Brendan did not know what was going on; he thought at the end of the interrogation that he was going to be able to return to class. I also believe that police holding anyone for an extended period of time for interrogation without a warrant should not be legal. Dassey was being questioned for 4 hours. That's 4 hours, stuck in a small room with two police officers, likely little to no food or water, and nothing to do but be constantly badgered by police. What if Dassey had understood his right to silence and chosen not to speak to the police? How long would they have held him, waiting for him to crack? It's disgusting.
The way they chew up this young man who is obviously not capable of understanding the situation he is in is despicable. Then his testimony is used to smear Steven Avery on public radio and television with a horrific tale that no other evidence supports in any way. Neither Avery nor Dassey were ever considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. From the start they were treated as criminals, and the entire apparatus of the criminal justice system was going out of its way to smear them and make sure they ended up in prison. For me, I don't know or really care if either Dassey or Avery is innocent or guilty. What I care about is how criminal the entire system has shown itself to be. Every person involved in this case broke their own rules, their own laws, and nothing will come of it. Avery and Dassey have had their rights taken from them because the system wanted to take them away. No one else was even considered, and the investigation was obviously biased, yet two men sit in jail after being denied the rights that should be due to them as human beings.
This is the kind of governmental overreach that I find outrageous. I can't handle seeing people being violated in such a way with no consequences to those committing the real crimes. Think of this: if Avery is in fact innocent (and it's very possible he is), his life was taken away from him because the police, prosecutor, and judge wanted to.
Who's the real murderer?
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