Monthly Archives: April 2015

The Lessons of Music Education (Part 2)

Continuing from my last post, I will comment on an article that I found: Why Music? Why Band? which focuses on the lessons that music education teaches students.

Wisdom vs. Achievement

With a school system that has such a high emphasis on testing and achievement, music teaches wisdom. Instead of emphasizing doing well once, at peak moment in knowledge, music teaches that if a behavior is learned and learned well, the same result can be repeated over and over again, and improved. For music, there are achievement standards, but the success in music is if one can take what they know and apply it to every different piece they encounter. This is a very important skill that has real life applications. In the workforce, it doesn’t matter how you do once on one test, it matters how you uses the skills learned and apply it over and over again.

Inner Peace vs. Security

It’s the process behind something that should be the enjoyment, not the end result. Although we feel more “secure” at the end of the day if all of our grades are great and the supposed end result of all of our work is satisfactory, what is it worth if we were miserable getting there? Music offers students the chance to enjoy a process as well as the end result of hard work. For instance, even though the championship performance for marching band is the most important, the “final”, if you will, performers enjoy every show leading up to that, because it’s not the end result, it’s the music making that happens in between. Music students are able to find a sense of inner peace and satisfaction from working hard and making music, instead of just working hard and being miserable to get a grade. It teaches students that this is how life should be; the process and the journey should be enjoyed as much as the end result.

My Proposed High School Required Reading List

by Michael J. Cawley IV

Earlier this semester, I posted this post about required reading in school, mainly high school, and the Western Literary Canon. The basic gist of the post is that high school required reading lists used to be dominated by the Western Literary Canon, but due to concerns about diversity and complaints that students were only reading books by “dead white men,” high school reading lists now feature much more contemporary, diverse literature, often at the cost of the Western Literary Canon. I argued that this is depriving many high school students of a large and important part of our cultural heritage and of the important skill of cultural literacy, and I advocated for a restoration of the Western Literary Canon to high school required reading lists.

I was just thinking, however, about why we need to keep having this debate anyway. What if there was a compromise, where high school required reading lists were still mostly taken from the Western Literary Canon, but accounted for diversity by including works by minorities and women both within and outside of the Canon, and including some more modern literature? I think this would be a great idea, so I decided to come up with my own proposal for a high school required reading list. This list is meant to span all four years of high school, so it contains thirty books, one for every 1.2 months (I know, that’s a little impractical, but these are guidelines assuming the most efficient of reading speeds). The books are in no order and do not correspond to any particular year of high school. Each book is accompanied by a brief explanation of its inclusion on the list.

So, without further ado, here is my proposed high school reading list:

  1. Hamlet by William Shakespeare:  Shakespeare’s greatest play and the quintessential Shakespearean tragedy has had unmeasurable influence on our culture, literature, and art, so it is the perfect start to this list.
  2. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare:  The quintessential tragic romance is just as influential as Hamlet and even more relatable for teens.
  3. Macbeth by William Shakespeare:  This iconic tragedy about power, evil, regicide, and guilt is influential and powerful.
  4. Othello by William Shakespeare:  Not only is this a masterful tragedy of jealousy and paranoia with one of the most evil villains ever conceived, it also dealt with racial issues in a time when such themes were beyond rare in literature.
  5. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare:  This delightful comedy shows the lighter side of Shakespeare and is one of his more fantasy-based plays, showcasing inspiration from Greek mythology.
  6. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare:  A more realistic comedy, this wonderful play offers a witty, relatable, and accurate depiction of love and relationships.
  7. The Epic of Gilgamesh by Unknown Author:  Considered the first great work of literature, this epic poem was written in ancient Mesopotamia.
  8. The Odyssey by Homer:  The quintessential Ancient Greek epic is the perfect introduction to Ancient Greek literature and mythology, and it is a thrilling read as well.
  9. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles:  The quintessential Greek tragedy that named a psychological complex (Possibly a misnomer considering the accidental nature of the tragic act).
  10. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:  One of Dickens’ greatest works, this Victorian novel is a great introduction to the French Revolution and the surrounding social turmoil.
  11. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain:  A frequent candidate for the “Great American Novel,” this classic is witty, hilarious, and exciting, and it offers commentary on race and slavery in the 1800s in America.
  12. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald:  Another frequent candidate for the “Great American Novel,” this Jazz Age masterpiece is a tragedy exploring themes of unrequited love, obsession, and the American Dream that recently made its way back into popular culture with a major motion picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
  13. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway:  Hemingway was an American literary master and a contemporary and friend of Fitzgerald. This is one of his greatest works, dealing with perseverance, old age, and humanity’s struggle with nature.
  14. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë:  A quintessential Victorian romance and coming of age novel which deals with, among other things, gender roles in Victorian England.
  15. Lord of the Flies by William Golding:  A high school staple about the conflict between nature and civilization and the dark side of human nature.
  16. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad:  This bleak novella shows the horrors of colonialism in Africa from a European perspective. It loosely inspired Francis Ford Coppola’s classic film, Apocalypse Now.
  17. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe:  This novel shows the horrors of colonialism in Africa from an African perspective and is something of a modern Greek tragedy set in Nigeria.
  18. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes:  This classic Spanish novel has greatly influenced art, culture, and literature since it was published, and it is the best-selling novel of all time.
  19. The Art of War by Sun Tzu:  This Chinese classic may be the most influential book on war strategy ever written.
  20. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith:  This classic Scottish work is an essential for understanding economics and is basically the founding text of capitalism.
  21. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels:  This German text is the founding text of communism and the opposing viewpoint to The Wealth of Nations.
  22. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky:  Long but surprisingly entertaining, this is one of Dostoyevsky’s greatest works and a classic of Russian literature.
  23. Night by Elie Wiesel:  A bleak and heartbreaking memoir of the horrors of the Holocaust.
  24. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank:  Another heartbreaking memoir of the Holocaust.
  25. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley:  A classic of Gothic horror, this is also considered by many to be the first science fiction novel.
  26. Dracula by Bram Stoker:  The other essential Gothic horror classic, the greatest vampire story ever told is genuinely scary.
  27. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne:  Verne is considered by many to be the father of science fiction, and this may be his most iconic work.
  28. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells:  One of the greatest works of Wells, without whom science fiction would be nowhere near where it is today, this novella offers interesting commentary on class relationships and evolution.
  29. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien:  Much better than the film trilogy, this classic and its sequel, The Lord of the Rings, form the foundation of modern fantasy literature.
  30. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass:  The inspiring true story of a man’s journey from slavery to freedom to becoming one of the greatest abolitionist leaders.

 

Sources:

http://meghanward.com/blog/2013/05/22/the-literary-canon-what-books-should-be-required-reading/

The Case For School Vouchers

by Michael J. Cawley IV

The following post is a response to this post by Corey Capooci.

The school voucher debate is one of the most controversial and frequently discussed and debated subtopics under the larger topic of education reform in general. It is an issue that many people on both sides of the debate are very passionate and opinionated about. While I am not particularly passionate or opinionated about this topic, I do think that school vouchers would be a good idea for a number of reasons.

Before we go on, it would be a good idea for me to define school vouchers for those of you who are unfamiliar with them. According to Dictionary.com, a school voucher is “a government cash grant or tax credit for parents, equal to all or part of the cost of educating their child at an elementary or secondary school of their choice” (Dictionary.com). You may have also heard the concept of school vouchers referred to as “school choice.”

Basically, in states that have implemented school voucher programs (twelve states and the District of Columbia), unlike most states where public school is paid for by the government and private school is paid for by parents with tuition, some to all students in the state receive an equal, set amount of money from the government to attend any school of their choosing, public or private. Proponents of these systems argue that they prevent students from being forced to attend sub-par schools and promote competition which will improve quality of education.

There is much opposition to school vouchers, however. Opponents of school voucher systems argue that they take away necessary funding from public schools, that they are unfair and promote inequality, and that they violate the separation of church and state because vouchers can be used for religious schools.

I would counter the argument that school voucher systems take away necessary funding from public schools by arguing that it is unfair that only some schools are funded by the government. This takes away parents’ freedom of choice for their children’s education, an extremely important aspect of their lives which they deserve a greater say in. Also, many public schools are sub-par, but children are forced to attend them because of where they live.

I would counter the argument that school voucher systems are unfair and promote inequality with basically these same counterarguments. In my opinion, it is unfair that only some schools are funded by the government, which is making one of the most important decisions in children’s lives, the decision of which school they should go to, a decision so important that parents should have most of the say in it. I also find it unfair that many children are forced to attend sub-par schools because of where they live, a condition they cannot control, and which their parents often cannot control due to financial burden. It would be more fair if parents had the freedom to choose where their children receive their education.

I would counter the argument that school voucher systems violate the separation of church and state because vouchers can be used for religious schools by pointing out that under school voucher systems, schools sponsored by all religions as well as secular schools have equal opportunity to receive voucher money from students. It would be the parents of the students, not the government, making the decision as to which religion, if any, the school they send their children to will be sponsored by. No one religion or group of religions would be receiving more favorable treatment from the government, and church and state would remain rightfully separate.

In addition, another advantage of school voucher systems in that they do not, as opponents claim and imply, disadvantage public schools, but rather improve their performance. According to the Friedman Foundation, a 2009 study conducted by the University of Arkansas, a 2011 study conducted by the Universities of Arkansas and Colorado, and another 2011 study conducted by Northwestern University have all shown with reliable data that school voucher systems in Milwaukee and Florida actually improve the performance of public schools in the area through promotion of competition, which better motivates public and private schools to succeed.

I believe that a national school voucher system would be preferable to our current public school system because it would promote competition, which would motivate better school performance, and it would give parents greater freedom of choice in their children’s education.

 

Sources:

https://sites.psu.edu/educationreform/2015/04/20/school-vouchers/

http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.php?lid=185&type=student

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/school+voucher

http://www.edchoice.org/getattachment/School-Choice/School-Choice-FAQs/How-does-school-choice-affect-public-schools.pdf

Keep it Simple: Motivate

After spending the semester critiquing the state of education in America, I think it is time to do a little bit of reflection.

Between this group of RCL spring semester writers, we have discussed STEM education, charter schools, educational rights, individualized learning, and many other things that are completely valid discussion points.

And while all of these things may be important, and may find a way to help out our nowhere near perfect education system, it’s time to take a step back.

All of us may have a picture of what our ideal world is—whether it involves world peace, economic prosperity, political efficiency, or a mix of these and more, and we know that our ideal world does not exist.

This holds true for the field of education.

We may want more STEM education in the nation’s public schools (as I have even wrote about previously), but there is an obvious concern. There is absolutely no way that the public school system will be able to hire a sufficient amount of teachers with STEM passion—and if they could, it would cost way too much money.

We may want a more personalized education for each student. But when one teacher is handed one classroom of 25 students, it’s not entirely realistic to think that every single student will receive the attention he or she needs.

We may want all of our public schools to have a higher quality. But simply put, it is incredibly difficult to convince high-quality teachers to teach at an inner-city school, where they may be needed most. The cycle seems to be never-ending. Inner-city teachers struggle too much with potentially unmotivated students, causing they themselves to lose motivation to make a difference.

In fact, we have no solid solution to bring quality teachers in to our system. What kind of intelligent scientist wants to go teach high school chemistry for $45,000 a year when they can instead go in to chemical engineering and make 6 figures? I can’t blame someone for picking a much more lucrative, and frankly more enjoyable and challenging career for their own personal career path.

Being a teacher is partially an act of civic engagement (for those who have alternatives to becoming a teacher) because of the job it entails. It’s hard to convince people to commit their lives to an act of civic engagement.

I personally have considered becoming a high school calculus teacher (which is somewhat evolving into potentially becoming a math professor), but the profession just doesn’t make sense for me. It could get quite boring to teach the same thing every single year for the rest of your life.

My point is, there are just some things out there that we constantly argue about that have way too many roadblocks to ever come into existence.

As I said, we need to reflect—specifically, we need to reflect on what the true purpose of a K-12 education is. Is it to give individualized education? Not necessarily, considering this is the entire focus of post-secondary education. Is it to learn important skills for the rest of your life? I would also argue no, considering most people don’t remember a thing they learned in high school, and many of those people are doing just fine in life.

So what really is the purpose? For me, I think I had a great high school education. The reason? It taught me to be motivated, driven. These innate skills I have developed will be so much more important to me than anything else I accomplished in high school for the rest of my life.

As a society, we need driven people. Those who are motivated are the ones who do great things—those who make an impact.

In K-12, we learn motivation (or at least I did), by just being thrown into the situation. We work hard to succeed in high school, which will lead to acceptance into a good school, which will lead to success in college, which will lead to a successful career.

This baseline knowledge is more important than anything else. As a country, we need to focus on teaching our young to be civically engaged, and motivated. It’s a simple approach, but if it is focused on more, the education system may be improved much more than we think.

School Vouchers

The Problem

Many students are taught at public high schools that they had no say in choosing. According to where they lived, you attended a certain school district. If the school is failing or underperforming, there is not much else you can do, but leave the area. If you are not familiar with the area, picking the best school district resembles a lottery. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. Of course, no one has to leave the competency of their school to chance. Parents can research and find the right location with the best schools. Even if you end up in a subpar school district, then, there is also private school, homeschooling, etc..

Some of these options are not accessible to every citizen in this country. Some people do not possess the resources to move to the district with the best schools. These areas can tend to have more expensive homes and higher costs of living. Private school isn’t always the solution either, especially if you can’t afford paying taxes to aid your local public school and then paying the tuition and other expenses for the private school.

The Solution

These are the reasons that some politicians and lobbyists are striving for school voucher systems. A school voucher is a publicly funded scholarship that allows students to attend private school instead of public school. Some states have established a school voucher system in order to help certain segments of their population attend better schools.

There is no specific formula for how much the scholarship will be worth.   Most states take some portion of the funding that would be invested in the child’s education at the public school and award it to the student. For example, a proposition in California stated that the state would give $4,000 or half of the average per-pupil funding in government schools. This gives the students and parents more freedom to find the schools that best suits their needs.

The vouchers usually have requirements. Some of the stipulations specify that the student must come from a low income household, the student must have certain disabilities, or the public school they attend must be failing. Maine, even, gives school vouchers to students who live in rural areas away from public schools.

Sentiments

Of course, with any policy stance, school vouchers have its proponents and its opponents. The two sides both have convincing arguments and two of the most prominent actors are the Friedman Foundation (for vouchers) and the National Education Association (NEA) (against vouchers).

The NEA splits its stance against school vouchers into four categories: the Educational Case, the Social Case, the Legal Case, and the Political Landscape.

The educational case says that school vouchers should only be used if they are proven to be effective for student achievement. It also mentions that the funds given out for scholarships take away funding for public schools.

The social case states the system is unfair and supports inequality. Therefore, it creates a greater divide amongst different diversities.

The legal case simply states that the government would be undermining the separation of church and state because these funds would allow students to attend private schools of which a majority of them are religious.

The political landscape cites what they consider to be scandalous behavior by politicians, such as advocating the school voucher debate not for school choice, but instead to help subsidize students who would attend a private school, with or without vouchers.

On the flip side of the coin, the Friedman Foundation believes that school vouchers would increase competition and allow education to become more privatize. The foundation believes that a complete, national school voucher program would vastly improve the quality of education. This is because schools would compete for students in order to receive funding and keep their doors open.

The Friedman Foundation states that school vouchers should promise higher productivity and faster economic growth. They also say vouchers should narrow the wage gap by decreasing the educational gap between the workers and the business elites.

The Friedman Foundation has very little data proving that its theory is correct, but truthfully there is very little data out there for them to use. School voucher systems are few and far between. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only 12 states and the District of Columbia use school voucher programs.

Opinion

My personal take on the situation is that school vouchers sounds pretty enticing; especially for students educated at failing schools because it gives them the opportunity to search elsewhere. On the other hand, I don’t think taking funding away from public schools will solve the problem.

School voucher systems can enforce competition amongst school districts for students, but should primary and secondary education really be a competition between local schools.  For some reason, I feel that education is a public good that should be distributed by our government.  Private schools are a great option, but I don’t believe the government should be distributing scholarships unless the circumstances are strenuous.

Then again, change can be difficult and I don’t enjoy the idea of modifying the public school system because I was educated in one and I couldn’t imagine it another way. Personally, it is hard to favor school vouchers because there is so little evidence for it.

My views are still very indecisive on the subject. What do you think? Some input would help!

Project Based Learning

Growing up as a kid, I had a few favorite toys.

I really liked my Legos. I was able to build no shortage of cool things with Legos. Whether they be model planes, model rockets, or a real functioning robot, Legos were a way that I could both be creative and practical in what I was building.

I also really liked my model rockets. At a young age I began to build and launch real model rockets (awesome video from one of my launches below). This piqued my interest and curiosity in aerospace related stuff and convinced me that one day I’d try and design SOMETHING that flew (more on that later).

The reason for this sort of long winded anecdote is that I’ve come to believe that for STEM/STEAM education to be successful, it must be applications based and actually fun and engaging.   Legos and rockets and many other of the activities I picked up both in school and boy scouts provided the catalyst for my interest in engineering and creative problem solving and are perfect examples of this thinking.

STEM education is more of an initiative than a grouping of subjects. With that in mind, the approach to STEM education matters more. According to Education Week, there are several hallmarks of a good STEM lesson:

  1. Attempt to solve a real world problem: this should be an issue either affecting people in the world at large or a student’s community.
  2. Use the Engineering Design Process: the process involves gathering background information on the problem, brainstorming possible solutions, narrowing down possible solutions, and implementing the best one.
  3. Make lessons hands on and open-ended (within reason): in this case the students should be learning by doing rather than by observing.
  4. Involve students in teamwork and group work: teamwork is extremely key in these types of activities as it allows people with diverse ideas and perspectives to solve a problem, as well as teaching specialization.
  5. Apply math & science theory taught in class to the process: to me this is the most important part in that it shows how that abstract and difficult theory can be put to good use helping real people.
  6. Allow for multiple right answers: if you look in the real world, you’ll notice that there is usually more than one way to skin a cat (as my old XC coach said). Unlike in pure math and science where the concept of one right answer can be discouraging, the goal of these projects is to teach that there is often more than one way to solve a given problem.

There are a multitude of different resources out there with good ideas for STEM projects (like this) but all STEM projects come back to the same set of ideas.

While STEM projects are generally thought of as K-12 activities, they are present in college, particularly for engineering majors, as well. Engineering can be kind of difficult and abstract sometimes, hence why projects are more important than tests at times because they teach application of theories and the creativity required to solve actual problems.

This weekend I participated in a STEM project. In my major (aerospace engineering) there is an elective class called AERSP 204H – Flight Vehicle Design and Fabrication also known as “The Sailplane Class” (heretofore referred to as sailplane). Currently we’re building a human powered aircraft to win the kremer prize speed challenge.

This weekend we travelled to the University of Dayton to participate in the “IT FLIES” competition. The University of Dayton has a pretty sweet flight simulator that can be used to simulate many different types of aircraft. We brought a digital model of our aircraft to upload to the simulator’s computer so that we could test out its flying properties. We were competing against students from the University of Dayton as well as the University of Manchester (yes in the UK).

Me flying a Cold War bomber in the Merlin Flight Simulator

Me flying a Cold War bomber in the Merlin Flight Simulator

Both programming the flight simulator model and building the actual aircraft are great exercises in the application of theory to the fabrication of an actual end product. For those of us (like myself) who are freshman who don’t know too much about aerodynamics or structural dynamics, the class gives us a unique opportunity to learn by the seat of our pants in a hands on method.

Love of Learning

Something that has definitely been lost in our education system today is a passion for learning. If you have ever read Little House on the Prairie or Carry on Mr. Bowditch, you may recall how much the main characters, during their young adult years, loved to learn. It was a privilege for them to go to school or get a new book. Becoming a schoolteacher was an honor and book learning was one of the most fascinating things for the main characters.

We seem to have lost this passion in the mundane K-12 education system, filled with checking the box, preparing for standardized testing, and following regulations set out by a higher school board (who usually doesn’t have much experience actually teaching in schools). If you see what kids nowadays focus on its getting into college. Whatever it takes to check a box and get into college. For teachers it is whatever it takes to check the box and have their students pass the standardized test.

However, one of the best things about homeschooling is that the passion for education doesn’t fade because there are really no boxes to check. Of course, homeschoolers take standardized tests and end up getting into college, but they are not governed by a school board.

Younger children can partake in more hands on activities, or fit their schedules to the subjects they are interested in. If a child prefers to read, they can read as much as they want. If a child prefers to make paper-mache volcanoes instead of doing workbook pages, that is okay.

This may seem like sort of a flimsy way to conduct schooling, but according to the Department of Human Development at Cornell University, “Children are naturally curious…and motivated to learn the ‘hows’ and the ‘whys’ of the world.” Furthermore, the study points out that children learn best by actively engaging in an environment that stimulates their needs. This is not necessarily found in a classroom, but in whatever the child is interested in.

This style of learning translates over into the standardized tests, which so often measure success in public schools. On average, homeschoolers score in the 80th percentile for every subject, while public schoolers range in the 50th percentile. Clearly, a more engaged style of learning is not inferior to that of a classroom.

Does this classroom learning affect their ability to interact with peers and adults? In other words, are these homeschoolers freakishly smart but then unable to communicate with the rest of the world? Studies say no. In a study of communication skills, homeschoolers actually ranked on average about 11 points higher than public schoolers in regards to maturity, communication, and socialization.

This passion for learning that homeschoolers have translates into every aspect of their success in live, whether it be education or employment. It forces them to have higher GPA’s, get into more colleges, and overall have better GPA’s in college than their peers who came from a traditional schooling environment.

A passion for what you learn is largely a demonstrator of your success later in life. We need to reform the public education system to include a more engaging curriculum that is not so dependent on results. In this way, we ensure that kids are actively engaged in what they learn so that they continue to want to learn.

Sources

Click to access Learning-about-how-children-learn-Kushnir.pdf

https://www.home-school.com/news/homeschool-vs-public-school.php

http://www.onlinecollege.org/2011/09/13/15-key-facts-about-homeschooled-kids-in-college/

Additional K-12 Course More Important Than Most: Financial Literacy

While I’m not a big fan of taking days, weeks, or months, and making them “So and So *insert period of time*,” this month is financial literacy month. Even though that means absolutely nothing, the topic of financial literacy is highly important; finances are more complex than ever, and properly managing them is crucial to a thriving economy now, and in the future.

And I know that the overarching theme of this semester-long discussion on the civic issue of education does not seem to tie into this, however, there is quite an important connection.

There’s a really big issue with today. See, managing your own finances isn’t as simple as, “dollars in, dollars out,” meaning there is much more than working and making money, then using it to buy things.

There are so many other factors necessary for financial health.

Do you know what your FICO Credit Score is, and how it is important to you? Do you know how much money you need to save for retirement, and where the money is coming from? Do you know how you will pay off your student loans, while simultaneously saving for your own child’s college fund?

Do you know the money you lose by entering into credit card debt? What about the impact of “bouncing a check?” What about the difference between a debit and credit card?

Those who are financially literate, regardless of their income, should have no problem answering these questions, which can generally lead to financial health. However, there are a large amount of people in America who couldn’t answer all, let alone some of these questions.

In the public learning environment (with high school being the biggest target), one of the biggest criticisms is the lack of applied learning. I believe this criticism is most definitely justified.

I’ve seen an Internet meme circulating that goes a little like this.

Me: I don’t even know what taxes are, or how I even pay them?

School: Don’t worry. The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

While I do see value in learning introductory science throughout high school, this meme illustrates the fact that many people, especially of our age, do not understand how the world—where cash is king—operates.

In more recent news, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is launching an effort to insert more of financial education in the K-12 setting. Their research has shown that those who receive financial education in their years of public schooling achieve significantly higher savings, net worth, and credit scores for the rest of their lives.

If the CFPB can push their agenda into the limelight, the effects could be crucial, considering many Americans are currently making avoidable mistakes in regards to their financial decision-making.

One poor decision that many people are making is saving for retirement. It is estimated that 60% of workers have less than $25,000 saved for retirement.

Regardless of your income, it is necessary to have much more than $25,000 for retirement, considering the crucial fact that retirees no longer have an income from working. Now, retirees can receive Social Security benefits, but those benefits are not often enough to live off of solely. Plus, the United States’ Social Security system is incredibly broken and running out of funds (but that’s another story).

Those with financial knowledge also realize that saving money for retirement from the ages of 21-30 are incredibly crucial, with these 10 years of investing leading to around $300,000 extra dollars in retirement in comparison to someone who began their retirement plan at the age of 31.

The average US household that owns at least one credit card has $15,611 in credit card debt. That TV, couch, and video game system that you bought (and don’t need) for $4,000 total is now costing you $15,000, because of the wonderful interest rates that credit card companies charge.

These are two of the largest mistakes that Americans are making, among many other things.

This is why we need to teach our citizens young how to be financially independent and intelligent.

These classes would need to go more in-depth than my Family Consumer Science high school class, where we learned how to balance a checkbook (along with many other watered down activities).

With qualified teachers, and the replacement of some elective space with required financial literacy space, Americans could have more financial health, which leads to much less stress in the long run.

Preventing Pregnancy and Providing Opportunities

Recently, students in Sierra Leone have been able to return to school after the Ebola outbreak. Yet visibly pregant girls were prevented from coming back. During the leave from school, students were left more vulnerable to becoming pregnant. Now, these girls are being punished for their circumstances and prohibited from finishing their schooling and earning their high school diplomas.

According to NPR, Education Minister Minkailu Bah announced the ban. Bah cited the fact that “innocent girls” would be impacted by the presence of pregnant peers as a reason that the pregnant girls cannot return. He believes that seeing pregnant girls will encourage the other girls to want to become pregnant themselves.

This logic is faulty at best, as seeing pregant girls will likely discourage the other girls from engaging in activities that could result in pregnancy. In fact, the same NPR article cites a study that found that watching the show 16 and Preganant helped reduce the teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. by 5.8 percent. Seeing other girls go through hardships related to pregancy should decrease the desire of teen girls to become pregnant, not increase it.

Furthermore, it seems discriminatory and wrong to prevent pregnant girls from finishing their education. They will now have children to support and will need every possible advantage to help them in their futures. Pregnant students are often highly motivated, because they realize the importance of education as a means to a better future for their children.

Of course, teen pregancy should not be encouraged by schools. Policies to reduce teen pregnancy are extremely important. But it turns out that the best policy to combat teen pregnancy seems to be education. If girls stay in school longer, they are less likely to choose to start families at a young age. Access to an affordable education, and safe transport to and from school, are therefore essential services that the government can provide to help reduce teen pregnancy rates.

The policy of banning pregnant teens from attending school is counterintuitive if tryinjg to reduce teen pregancy rates. Pregnant students serve as a warning to other girls so that they choose to stay in school, rather than starting their families at a young age. Access to education also helps these girls, once they become mothers, to support their children. But more generally, education is always the best way of helping girls to succceed and preventing them from pregancy at too young of an age.

In the U.S., we still see problems with the treatment of pregnant teens in schools. While Title IX protects the rights of pregnant teens to attend school and participate in extracurricular activities, some schools illegally expel pregnant students. Other teens face discrimination in school and sports, as well as bullying from peers.

Even though the U.S. considers itself advanced in terms of women’s rights, we still “slut-shame” and treat women poorly based on their sexual activity. Notice that in none of these examples the boys who got the girls pregnant faced any repercussions for their actions, only the girls.

In all countries, the best way to prevent early pregnancy is by providing girls with education. If a girl becomes pregnant, she should not be denied the right to continue her eduaction, as her schooling will give her and her child more opportunities in the future. People should stop judging girls for becoming pregnant and instead work to prevent other girls from facing the same situation. We should work to ensure the best future for these women and their children instead of stopping their education and forcing them to lead separated lives. Education is the key to take girls out of bad situations, whether these are poverty, child marriage, teen pregnancy, or other troubles. We cannot blame girls for their situations and take away their rights and opportunities.

New Governor, New Policy

Last fall, Tom Wolf became the first challenger in recent Pennsylvania history to unseat a reigning governor, Tom Corbett. He ran on a campaign that set out to condemn all of Pennsylvania’s woes on the incumbent’s actions. The main issue tackled by Wolf throughout the election was education.

Pennsylvania saw devastating amounts of funding cuts to many public high schools, community colleges, universities, and other institutions of learning. The cuts came, in part, because of a loss of stimulus funds from the national government and left Corbett’s administration the reason to blame for the lack of funds that devastated many of the districts throughout Pennsylvania. Wolf was quick to point out many of Corbett’s education policy flaws which helped lead him to the gubernatorial seat.

Wolf tempted Pennsylvania with talk about raising educational funds to the amount before Corbett’s administration. It is a lot of money to guarantee his voters. At first, his main tactic for finding the funds is to issue a severance tax on natural gas companies throughout the state.

So… is he going to make due on his promises?

Months into his term, Governor Wolf continues to tout the importance of education in the advancement of the state’s interests. He speaks to improve the state through improving its education. In one address he mentions, “Our state is never going to get stronger as long as we make our schools weaker.”

According to the budget proposal that Governor Wolf revealed early March, he plans on making what he calls “historic” investment in the educational sector. His budget intends to raise basic education funding around 2 billion dollars in his four-year term. He also wants to increase higher education funding by at least 9% of its current investment value.

His plan has the potential to be one of the most comprehensive educational plans that Pennsylvania has ever seen. It includes raising funds for nearly any institution that has a mission to educate, from charters to preschool to community colleges to flag-ship universities.

Special education also expects to see an increase of 9% of its current budget allocation. Even more amazing is Wolf’s interest in pre-kindergarten education. His budget plans to divvy out almost twice the amount of funding that the sector had previously been receiving. Pre-K education is expected to increase from 136 million to almost 256 million dollars over the 2015 year.

If the budget passes, plenty of educators are expected to benefit from the influx of government funds. Many superintendents will be able to restore programs that were discontinued due to the money shortage. Many teachers that were let go would be able to find new, permanent jobs.

On the other hand, this budget proposal can be problematic for some. It requires that the state create more revenue, outside of its initial plan for a severance tax. For many taxpayers, it signals a tax increase that will strike their pocketbooks. Coincidentally, Governor Wolf budget plan has a new strategy for taxation that hopefully helps him retrieve the funds he needs to make this budget work.

Governor Wolf’s tax plans wants to raise income and sales tax in order to allow for the state government to more easily influence its distribution. In another portion of the budget, Wolf hopes to alleviate some of this tax burden by guaranteeing a property tax break for many Pennsylvanians. Apart from reforming the tax plan, Wolf also still hopes to establish the aforementioned severance tax.

In an effort to increase awareness of Wolf’s budget proposals, the Department of Education established a website that cites all of its benefits. For each high school in Pennsylvania, the website shows the estimated increases in funding, proposed property tax relief, and student achievement scores.

The displeased Republicans in the State House of Representatives responded with their own website that depicts the expected tax increases for each school district.  They hope this website will help deter supporters of the budget by showing the ugly side of the education reform.

In conclusion, Governor Tom Wolf’s promise for an increase in educational funding helped him win last year’s election and his recent budget proposal intends to make due on his promises. The comprehensive plan grants almost every educational institution and program an increase in funding. The budget finances the plan through a manipulation of the current tax system and by establishing a severance tax. The tax reform would decrease the property tax in order to raise the sales and income taxes. In the end, this plan and funding is expected to make Pennsylvania “stronger”. But… does his plan cover everything? Should he have focused more on certain areas of education like STEM or the arts? Is this plan to farfetched to be passed?