DWELLING IN THE PAST Many teachers are dwelling in the past. No longer is it 1950, and their first day on the job. The world has changed, and the students with it.
These outdated instructors need to catch up on the times and new ways of learning. There should be a quota that says how many workshops/seminars a teacher must attend a year. Perhaps students should teach these seminars, so the teachers can see firsthand how you can make learning interesting.
The reason I say interesting and not fun is because there is a difference. It would be virtually impossible to have fun in school for most students; the words are practically antonyms.
Making learning interesting every day, however, would be quite easy. For instance, maybe one day the teacher could relate a lesson to a song, the next to a movie, even relate it to a personal anecdote.
Another one of my ideas is to follow through with the same teacher year after year. This may sound elementary schoolish, but it works.
I have been privileged to have four of my teachers from previous years this year. It is with these teachers that I feel most comfortable. They know how to make me think and strive to do well. I know I can go to these teachers for help and they know how to make me understand.
These teachers know me personally; I'm not just another seat taken. I like to think that I have helped them as well - by giving them ideas, making them see a different side to something, or even by writing this essay.
Mandy Horn
Grade 12
Abraham Lincoln High School
Philadelphia
CLEAN AND SAFE You open the door and find yourself surrounded by darkness.
``Better darkness than smoke; cigarette or otherwise,'' you think to yourself.
You grope for the light switch, regretting it when the layer of grease it once called its own clings to your hand. The dim light reveals cockroaches scuttling toward filthy corners.
A scene from a forgotten orphanage in a far-off land, or from the school your child attends? Instead of instituting new, experimental ideas, or issuing school vouchers, why don't we spend our tax money making our schools clean and safe? If we succeed in these two simple acts, attendance and test scores will rise.
