Funny Teacher Rant

"Funny Teacher Rant". The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Educators.Wavelength. Youtube. 3.21.07. 3. 31.09.<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ged6hKZOTqw>.

In this clip, "teachers" discuss the pressures they encounter while teaching. In the middle of the discussion one of the teachers begin to rant about her 23 year elementary school teaching career. She discusses the craziness of the changing techniques the school administration enforces. This clip illustrates that teachers have little control over the learning methods implemented in the classroom. The themes addressed in this segment include changes in the educational system and the willingness to adapt to those changes. This clip suggest that the educational system is always in flux, therefore teachers are sometimes faced with a lot of pressure when preparing their lessons or instructing their students. Some of the changes this teacher rants about include the transitions from open classrooms to “back to basics,” “whole word learning” to “hooked on phonics,” and assertive discipline to no discipline.From my perspective, I believe that these actors put on the persona of teachers to show the audience that teaching in a constantly changing educational sytem can become very difficult.

Vidur Kapur speaks on Education

Kapur, Vidur. "Indian Comedian Stand Up Comedy US vs India."Live in Bangalore". Youtube. 1.27.07. 3.31.09.

This clip is a segment of Vidur Kapur stand-up performance live in Bangalore, India. Kapur compares schools in India compared to schools in the United States. He discusses how schools in the US are more lenient in their teaching as opposed to the strictness of schools in India. Themes of the segment include academic discipline, educational systems, and positive reinforcement approaches to teaching. Kapur talks about how “dumb” students would be treated in both Indian and American school systems. In American schools students would be praised for their creativity, even if their answers to a question were not right, whereas in Indian culture students would be reprimanded for wrong answers.

"C students"

Rock,Chris. "C students". Never Scared. HBO. Youtube. 5.21.07. 3.31.09 .

This clip is a recording of Chris Rock’s stand-up performance in his Never Scared (2004) comedy special on HBO. In this segment, the themes of his performance act include affirmative action, race relations, and education. In particular, he discusses how job opportunities differ for African American “C students” compared to Caucasian “C students.” Rock discusses how America is “a nation of B and C students,” and although this is true, a C average African American student may not be qualified for many high position jobs. Rock concludes this segment by discussing how a Caucasian “C student just happened to be the president of the United States of America,” which illustrates the difference in job opportunities. This poses a significant question: is this difference due to inequality in the educational system, or is it due to inequality in the workforce. Using Rock’s comparison, although the African American and the Caucasian are both C students, the quality of education provided to each student could become the determining factor of who gets the better jobs. For example, the educational systems in most minority neighborhoods are very poor, whereas most educational systems serving Caucasians are very well developed. Thus, the amount of knowledge an African American C student has, may not be equivalent to the amount of knowledge a Caucasian C student has. On the other hand, this may not be the case, and the difference between job opportunities may come from inequalities in the workforce while elements of discrimination may influence who gets a job opportunity and who does not.