If you didn't know, I'm 17 in sophomore year of High School and through the one year of me experiencing High School, I found something out I should have seen so long ago. Well, it's mostly the school's union's fault, but you get the point. Hello and welcome to this concerned thought blog.
Let's go back when I was in the 6th grade, middle school. I was about 12 or 14, between the two, and I wanted to learn spanish. I can't talk to my Abuelita nor can I talk to my cousins without trying to get my dad to translate for me, so the school thought it would be nice to put some new classes: Spanish, Match Education (bigger words for math tutoring), and English +. Each one was for those with the good grades. Good thing I was one of them. I got into class for about a week and learned the basics of Spanish, the letters, the sounds they make and how to pronounce a letter or word. The teacher was great and she's not even a Mexican! She learned it all in college! Weird thing that she was a Social Studies teacher.
I loved that class and I felt almost closer to speaking to my familia, but, of course, the school saw that I failed a test. A test to see if I could do 8th grade math. So I was put in Math Education. The class was built of morons and people who didn't care about their lives. I was put in a class that was for those who failed and would never recover from their failure. The teacher would sit in her desk watching videos or talking to her daughter about the last Twilight Movie she watched. Then I noticed almost all the white kids were being replaced in the class as well for failing the test as well. My sister stayed there the longest with a total of two or three days. As I could see almost the entire class in Spanish was made of Spanish-Speakers. I don't know the use of creating a spanish class if the people in it can speak spanish. I know there are people that don't know how to write in the language, but can speak it, but if the class was built to teacher everyone Kindergarden level of spanish grammar, then why have the spanish speaker waste their time going to that class?
As I grew, I went to High School and my first Spanish class was with a Salvadorian teacher. Some of my familia are Salvadorian, so I thought I would enjoy meeting her. As soon as I went to the class, everyone who went in were either a senior or a junior. I thought nothing of it until I saw her face as she sat behind her desk. Bored out of her mind, just waiting for the day to end and doesn't care for her job.
I could feel the same vibe as everyone else: bored. I sat at a desk and waited until the final bell rang. Almost everyone was either waiting out the time outside or just ditched class. With her boring voice, she announced that she was going to give everyone a test to see what we need to learn in the class. We took the test and somehow I passed barely. a 70.5% on the test. I still remember the stamp she put on the test.
As the weeks past for the teachers to explain their rules, she sat behind her desk as everyone did what they wanted in class. When it came for her to teach, she gave us a stapled pile of paper with the title "Pobre Ana." She told we were going to read it and summarize it in Spanish. She hasn't even taught a word yet and she decided to have us do this all in Spanish? For rest of the year we got things like this and gave us hardly any work. And when she did give us work it was mostly writing our vocabulary 5 times and use it in a sentence. Most us were graded harshly for our little knowledge of Spanish, while the Spanish-Speakers were the only one getting the good grades.
I basically failed the class with a D-. I thought I would be able to take the class again, but with a different teacher. I tried to speak about this with the councilor, but he was booked for the entire school year because of students having the same idea early. So I was put in Spanish 2 for some reason. I was pared with the most unprofessional, most unorganized, most unreliable teacher yet.
He said his familia came from Spain while he was born in Guatemala. I thought he was going to be cool, but I was so wrong. After the few weeks he told us his rules, he gave us something new, a website called Vista. The very name makes me shiver in disgust. He gave us too much work on paper and gave the same thing on paper on Vista and told us,"It was extra practice." Most of us didn't say a word, but some told him he gave us too much. He gave us more work the next day and on. We kept going on with the debate that he was giving us too much and too little to learn.
It's was the Spanish final yesterday and it was an Essay, ask questions in Spanish and a simple test. I haven't checked, but I think I failed each one. Most of us on the test had to resort to Google Translator to do most of the work in the final. I met with the councilor and tried to change my spanish next semester, but he said all spanish classes are full and if I wanted, I had to my teacher' consent to go to a Native Speaker class. Again... An unlucky chance on doing something that would benefit my life.
My sister is trying her best to learn and is getting an A in the class without learning anything. Shouldn't that be a sign? Should that mean something, School or... Government? You guys already made College Students look stupid on the news already. Why make the majority of the country look the same?
I don't know. I bet I sound politically incorrect, but I just hate how school is. What do you guys think? Do I have some good points or am I just nagging? Well, I hope you enjoyed this little nag and as always...
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