High School Examination
At first glance, high schools tend to be a lot different than they used to be. New buildings, stadiums, and computer labs have changed the appearance of high schools quite a bit. Once you get past the fancy buildings and new computers, and look at the inner workings of the high school, most high schools have not changed much at all. Many schools today are still using teaching methods taught thirty and forty years ago, but some schools are using cutting edge technology and attempting new teaching styles. Since there is no standard, each individual high school can adjust to give students different approaches to accomplish their educational goals. This leads many high schools to be hybrid schools mixing traditional with reformed teaching methods. My high school was a combination of the two types. While it had very traditional subjects and classes, many of the classes were taught in a reformed matter. Paulo Freire does an excellent job of describing traditional education when he says, "Instead of communication, the teacher issues communiques and deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, an
I think that none of these statements hold true to my high school, and if the previous description of a traditional high school is true, then my school was definitely not a traditional high school. The large high school makes the development of a healthy sense of community impossible" (The American High School 35). I feel that the size of the high school should not really have an effect on how the students learn. Their feeling towards this was that every student should get an equally fulfilling education no matter what happens upon graduation. By combining traditional education standards and reformed teaching methods Hudson High School prepared me for college and the real world. It stressed preparing the students for college, but vocational programs were offered for students who were not interested in college. This was a very unique opportunity that let me really learn about myself and the real world. We had no problem creating a healthy sense of community within and out of the school. The large high school is incapable of fostering self-discipline. In my opinion, my high school was definitely not like this. Overall, my high school did an excellent job preparing me for college and showed that a large school can be more reformed than some small schools. By making learning apply to real life, it made school seem less boring and more rewarding. While Freire talks of the traditional way of teaching, my high school made sure that we learned by involving ourselves in the subjects. Big high schools are considered to lack community and allow students to get lost in the numbers.
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