Journal

We Should Cherish Our Children’s Freedom to Think

Kie Ho’s essay in the comparison between his son and his experience related to believe in them. In his first paragraph he showed that they are a lot of immigrant who complain about American education system, and then he presented the question that how come American is a country of innovation if there is a lot of problem with the education? He presented his answer in his third paragraph. It is about the opportunities to believe in themselves, and therefore express their creativity, as the students in a public school that the author showed in his essay. In my opinion, the following paragraph is confusing for I, I do not get the author point. Then the author present his thesis, without freedom students won’t believe in themselves. In the essay the author show that he disagree with this kind of freedom because that let the school use low standards to evaluate, on the other hand the author do not want sausage-casing. There is not a perfect education system in this word. The author understands that, and accepted the American system by saying, “it is a great deal better than any another.” This essay is about the freedom that gives us self-esteem, but at the same time school tend to low their standards.

In my opinion this essay is well supported. In his thesis about teach essential knowledge have a lot of influence in students, and also affect their self-esteem. I believe that education is related with the self-esteem of the person. The author explained negative consequences about learning skills rather than core knowledge in students. He presented good support using facts and a women opinion. He showed a solution, and the problem that we had for over 40 years.
Between knowledge and skills, there are a lot of differences. For example we can know the knowledge, but it is hard to do it as a skills. The knowledge is like a theory, and the skill is the performance. The knowledge can be the formulas, and the skills the way to solve problems. Knowledge could be a hypothesis, and the skill to use instruments in a laboratory.

Grades and Self-Esteem

Randy Moore had strong supports. He presented different point about the problem, and also the solution. There are a lot of negative and positive effects for each action. First the author said that teachers complain about students, and they had strong reasons and facts to do that, and then a difficulty with American employers. The problem of those complains and the difficulties were in the beginning at school. These is because teachers lower their standard so student can feel free to express their ideas, but at the same it there is not difficulty to achieve a goal. Lower standard could cause that students do not need improvement in their work, since it is easy to get an A. Sometimes we would see the consequences, but a long time later we might have trouble. However as the author demonstrated in his essay about the diploma, high standard could cause another problem for student, it would be hard for them to achieve. It is not always the solution to lower the standard, teachers should motivate students to achieve their goal, and help them. Students should be better everyday. For me this essay is about education and self-esteem.