Sean Board English 1102 Professor Keaton 02/24/2013 As time passes along with humans the values of education

is increased. With the value of education increasing this means that the people ignorant to new subjects are trying harder to get an education to succeed in life. This also means that there has to be teachers who care about their students enough to actually try and give them tactics that will not only let them pass the course but teachers who will give them tactics to pass at everything that they do in life. Stanley Kaplan argues, Reciting a factual answer was not good enough. Why was my answer correct? He asked. And how had I reached it? From then on I encouraged my students to think things out, to think about the hows and whys(Kaplan). Examples of these teachers and students are given in the articles In The Basement Of The Ivory Tower, On The Uses Of A Liberal Education, Freedom Writers, and My 54-Year Love Affair With The SAT. Teachers have a major role in the education of their students whether it is positive or negative the impact still exists. The question that arises is it really the teachers responsibility to ensure a students success or is it the students individual problem. This question will be the basis for many ideas in this paper. Some teachers try hard to make sure that their students succeed but make prejudgments such as the teacher, Professor X, from The Basement Of The Ivory Tower. From the beginning of our association vis--vis the research paper, I knew that there would be trouble with Ms. L(X). Professor X noticed that his student had never been on the Internet and that she wasnt as focused on seeking outside help as she should be. This type of teacher tries until they believe there is no more hope for the student. He never motivates his student to do better he just

basically tells his student she is not up to par and she needs to do better which does nothing but lower the pride of that student. Should teachers lose hope such as the teachers in the The Basement Of The Ivory Tower? Or is it better to think like Earl Shorris, the teacher from the On The Uses Of A Liberal Education article. The teacher realizes though that they can only help the student as much as the student wants to be helped. Earl Shorris stated but of the thirty students admitted to the course, sixteen had completed it(Shorris). This tells how Shorris tried his best to help students but he could not make the students come to class and complete their work as a student in his class. Students that are ignorant to the topic are never given a chance until there is a teacher that motivates them to do well. Professor X, the teacher in The Basement Of The Ivory Tower, never motivated his students to do well. The teacher in the Freedom Writers did. The teacher actually cared about her students outside lives. By caring about her students the students then cared about themselves. By caring about themselves they started to care about their education because an education was the only way to improve their lives. Freedom Writers was a movie so this is an example of how the media and more importantly the world see teachers. Teachers are represented like this because generally teachers are supposed to be good people. Should teachers be portrayed like this? Is this actually the teachers job though? Should she have went out of her way to help these students when she doesnt get paid for it or when the students didnt appreciate her when she started? Earl Shorris and Professor X also did. The teachers sat down with the kids in and out of their class to make sure that their children did well. They realized that not all of the kids would finish their course and focused on keeping a good attitude for the ones who did finish. The teachers actually believing in their students and motivating them to do well make the students believe in themselves. The students start to care about their subjects. Students

also tend to become better people as they increase their knowledge. The students become more deeply engaged. Students self-esteem and their abilities to divine and solve problems had significantly increased; their use of verbal aggression as a tactic for resolving conflicts had significantly decreased.(Shorris) One could refer to Platos allegory of the cave to define this. Platos allegory of the cave is The ghetto is the cave and education is the light.(Shorris) All of the students may not be in or come from the ghetto but to all students education is the light. In the Freedom Writers clip that was watched in class we saw how the teachers interacted with each other. In the clip there was a statement you cant teach them, you dont even like them?(Freedom Writers) Should a teacher have to like their students in order to teach them? This could all refer back to the statement that teachers have a major role in the education of the student. If the student feels that the teacher doesnt care about them and theyve never known a teacher that cared most of those students will feel the same way. If the teacher shows a positive mindset throughout any negativity then the students will have the same positive mindset. Students will now go to different levels in order to get an education more than they would one hundred years ago. Students will now pay for education to help them get to further levels such as college. Shorris states It cost about $2,000 for a student to attend the Clemente Course(Shorris). Even though this isnt a college course people still paid to go to this course even though most of them could not afford this course. This quote shows that students will pay money to get the advantage over the next student and better their life. Students in the Kaplan program paid to prepare themselves for the SAT. The SAT already costs money to take. This shows that students take their education very seriously now. There is no guarantee that they will do well on the test because they pay these amounts of money. Through these classes students do learn how to think critically and become a better person even if they dont learn the specific

subject. Kaplan makes a big difference in these kids lives by helping these kids out with the test. This test could be the difference between Harvard and community college. He tries his best to help the students lean towards Harvard instead of community college.

Kaplan, Stanley. My 54 Year Love Affair with the SAT. Considering Literacy: Reading and Writing The Educational Experience. Ed. Linda Adler-- Kasser. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 265-- 272. Print. LaGravanese, Richard, dir. Freedom Writers. 2007. Film. 4 Mar 2013. Shorris, Earl. On the Uses of a Liberal Education: II. As a Weapon in the Hands of the Poor. Considering Literacy: Reading and Writing The Educational Experience. Ed. Linda Adler-- Kasser. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 187-- 200. Print. X, Professor. In The Basement Of The Ivory Tower. Web. <https://moodle.uncc.edu/file.php/104235/In_the_Basement_of_the_Ivory_Tower.pdf>.