The topic sentence that grabbed my attention stated “Poorly funded public schools have poor teachers because they cannot attract young and ambitious educators due to low salaries”. This is a topic I have noticed and have become more familiar with in the past few years. Both my younger sisters attend a “choice” school where they were selected and random. These teachers are almost all fresh out of college and full of energy. They make sure to make strong bonds with their students and it even gets to the point where the students talk about their teachers as if they were friends. At the school I attended most teachers were around the age of 40, if not older. At first I didn’t understand why that was, but money influences many things. Jonathan Kozol takes note of this and explains that the salaries at these “choice” schools are significantly higher. Kozol notes the words of a principal at one of the lower public schools in the Chicago area. “Top Salary in a school, he says, is $40,000. ‘My faculty is aging. Average age is 47. Competing against the suburbs, where the salaries go up to $60,000, it is very, very hard to keep young teachers’” (Kozol 85). It might sound a little harsh, but if I was a brand new teacher I would go teach at the choice school that would pay me $60,000. Also knowing that because it is a choice school, the students may also be better and less troublesome. I think that the government should step in on this topic and maybe give grants to at least bring the gap a little closer. 

Education differs from other popular controversial issues in today’s society because education directly involves the future citizens of our country. It is sometimes hard to think about, but in less than a decade it is for certain that those students in middle school will be adults roaming around in society.  This is why fundamental values, like passion, must be evident in schools so that our future adults will have those values as well. This is significantly important because if students are not taught core values from schools (the place where they spend most of their time in), they will learn values from other sources. These other sources like the media and peer groups can often bring false values and ideologies. Students should learn that school is a tedious obligation because then they will apply that value to life and assume that all aspects of life are obligations.

            It is also important that our students are not taught that school is an obligation because they may take things for granted. This applies to the student’s life in both the short term and long term. Students may feel that because school is viewed as an obligation, it will always be there.  This creates two types of problems. The immediate problem is that the student may not put an effort in school or may stop attending school because they feel that they could always go back one day. The other part of the problem is that when that certain student is an adult they may apply the same logic to their life. They might think that their job is granted and will always be there; however, in reality, if they do not put effort in their work they will get fired.

            Another negative consequence of replacing passion with obligation in the education system is that students do not develop critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate, reflect upon, and reason to solve a certain problem or to further enrich one’s knowledge. This shortage of critical thinking skills occurs because students are not passionate about learning and they learn to do the minimum because that is all they are obligated to do. This becomes problematic because people who are not critical thinkers often cannot help the society progress. Neither can they help progress themselves (for example in job positions). 

A concept in this video that really grabbed my attention was the part about how we are taught that life is linear. However, in reality, it’s organic. It doesn't have to follow certain steps in order for your life to be successful. In the video he talked about how even in kindergarten we are envisioning those kids as college kids. We as a society do not let them explore first. However, they should explore first because that way they know what they want to do once in college. Our change has to be from the fundamentals. It’s not messing around with the little details at the top. The structure has to be changed as well. If we want successful people in the future they have to be doing something they are passionate about. They shouldn't follow a linear line.

Teachers need to be passionate in the classroom about what they teach because they pass on their passion to their students. Education should not be viewed as a tedious obligation that both students and teachers have to attend to. It should be full of passion and enthusiasm. In the script for the “Passion Project” one of the students explained the negatives of having a dull and boring classroom environment. She explained that the teacher needs to add their own “flavor” and “style” to the way they teach or else the content of the class will not be enthusiastic or lively. A successful classroom needs a teacher that is both passionate and knowledgeable in their subject and is able to transfer that passion to their students. This idea is talked about as one of the five characteristics to a successful school in the article “Taking schools to the next level”. “What is needed is pedagogical subject knowledge that includes both the personal proficiency of the teacher in the subject and the teacher’s understanding of how to engage students with the subject” (McAleavy 14). Any person can have knowledge in a certain subject, but someone who teaches children should be passionate about their knowledge. Outstanding teachers are also able to “read” their students so that they could better involve the students in learning. “The best teachers adapt their teaching to respond to the direction suggested by learner reactions, adjusting the lesion “live” whilst maintain a consisting focus on planned learning outcomes” (McAleavy 14). By having flexible teachers the students are able to feel more comfortable and relaxed in the classroom. These students can also feel that they have a voice in the classroom and therefore have more respect towards the teacher.