Clearing Student Debt

In our upcoming election a "hot button issue" is the student debt crisis, our country currently has $1.6 Trillion in Student Loan debt. In a Washington Post Article regarding student debt, author, Micheal Birmbaum, states "European students stare with astonishment at the burden their American peers take on" and mentioned that free education can be done in Germany because luxuries at Universities are kept to a minimum and buildings are mostly built from the rubble left after WWII. Birmbaum also asked a German University student, Alexandra Decker how she felt about the issue. Decker stated, "Education should be paid for by the whole society". A prominent American politician; Senator Bernie Sanders, supports this idea and stated on the week of June 17th on a Facebook post "In Germany, college tuition is free. In America, it’s increasingly unaffordable". According to Times Higher Education about 81 different countries across Europe, Latin America, Central Asia, and North Africa offer some sort of free higher education. Astonishingly, the US is the major power on the world stage that has an issue that has been managed by nations that have far fewer resources. Although in some cases in Scandinavian countries access to free higher education is restricted to domestic students only. At one point Germany also tested with tuition which were around $567 but was ended in 2014. A Vox video published on YouTube, in August of this year explains how we got to this point and if all student debt were to be cleared; also show who would benefit the most. Clearing this debt is very much possible, countries with fewer resources than America keep their populous educated because as a society everyone benefits from it, the same is possible here. Referring back to Washington Post writer; Micheal Birmbaum he stated: "Germany is often singled out for focus by U.S. policymakers. Its economy drives Europe. Its unemployment rates are low. And it manages to power a tuition-free university system without breaking the bank." So America let's take the initiative to do something about this and not be the only major Western Power to have this much student debt.

First Meeting with My Mentor

On Wednesday, September 18th I went to meet my mentor Dr. Joe Felan at his office. there we talked about several topics about teaching including; the role of politics in education, what can be done to increase the amount of teachers and how to we keep current teachers, difference between high school teaching and higher level teaching, etc. When discussing the role of politics in education, I learned that Dr. Felan, at one point ran to be on the school board, and stated that he believed that as a society politics has to accepted in education and that as a community we must be actively participating. In that meeting I also mentioned the teacher shortage in our state and the incentive that some teachers see in moving elsewhere. In the Little Rock School District a teacher starts off with 36,000, while in other areas of the Little Rock Metro Area a teacher could make 41,000. In Texas, specifically the Garland Independent School District, a teacher starts off with 50,000+, mostly due to the petrol and natural gas industry in Texas. Dr. Felan suggested to lower the teacher shortage in Arkansas to increase starting wages and to quell any concerns of the best teachers to give existing a better working environment. He also described that as a college professor he has a lot of autonomy when it comes to dictating how the material is taught for that day, i.e, if he feels like showing videos all day or giving lectures all day then he has that freedom to do so unlike in some high schools where everything has to be done in a certain way. He talked to me about the fact that likes the fact that as a professor has that freedom to teach as he pleases without having someone looking over his shoulder watching his every move.

Reflection of week 1 of Teacher Cadets

During the first week of class I was able to learn more about the world of education. It was eye opening the fact, that teaching is a lot more than just standing in front of a classroom, a teacher also has to find a way to connect to their students. In education a teacher also has to look out for different learning styles in their classroom and may have to adapt differently depending on the student. I also learned that teaching is not as respected as much as it should be, as a profession and some even look down on it but when one decides to teach it is because they want to make an impact on the next generation, or they were good in school and want to see the other sides of education, whether it's teaching, counseling, or administration. After this experience I am definitely more determined to actually go into teaching as I want to make an impact in the next generation of children that come through the American Education System. I myself was that kid that feel through the cracks as there was a language barrier and luckily I had classmates who helped me and so now I want to give back to the very community and neighborhoods that saw me grow as a person most of my life. Me being able to give back to Southwest Little Rock will make myself be proud of what affect I could have in the area.

Different Learning Styles Video