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The Lottery

What really stuck out to me while watching The Lottery was that the parents wanted their children to get better education, but were against charter schools even though 100% of their students pass the standardized test, while the zone schools have only 20% success rate. The movie even brought classroom size which we have been discussing. It said that some classes have 27 kids in them which reduces the amount of time a teacher can spend one-on-one time with.There were some quotes that stuck with me, and one of them was "It's wrong to keep open failed schools".

The Lottery

The Lottery is a film about the school system in Harlem.The most interesting point in the film to me was the opposition  the Harlem success society was receiving from the school board and the people in the community around the public schools. most of the people around public school were mad because it was being shut down and the Harlem success society wanted to open it up for a charter school. They did not like that idea because it would make them have to go further to take their children to another school. The biggest feeling i have towards this movie is that i want the best education for my children. I think that all schools should be paid per student that graduates not per child that attends. I also believe that if your a poor teacher you should be fired. My quote from this movie is "58% of black 4th graders are functional illiterate". Those are unacceptable statistics for any school and it should motivate the city to better their school system.

The Lottery Film

This film was interesting to me because it was not just the parents who was concerned about furthering their childs education, the child was also determined to learn. A lot of children were upset if they didn't get accepted to a school like Harlem Success. I thought it was disappointing how someone had mentioned that they would look at young boys only in the fourth or fifth to determine how many jail cells their gonna need in the future. Another scence that made me upset would be when a man mentioned in 1988 when he taught in that poor neighborhood the school didnt have windows because they were broken and they did not have enough funds to replace them. This man was emotionally upset when he was explaining the way the school was.
A few quotes stood out to me because they were statements made from expercienced adults within that Harlem community. One of which was "The problem is not the students, the problem is not the parents, the problem is the school system.." I caught another quote from a young woman trying to teach her fifth grade class and follow requirements but it is hard for her to reach those requirements when more than half of her class is reading below grade level 2. She says the administrators make it hard for her A man named Karl mentions, "I get emotional when I think about what these children could have" A I think that explains the whole film. The community is working together now to start helping better these students education.

The Lottery

I was really shocked after watching the The Lottery and seeing how such a major part of the community didn't want Harlem Success Academy to open up in the old PS 194 building. What didn't really make sense to me was how all of these children and parents were so against it when PS 194 was already being shut down due to poor performance. Seeing the quality of the teachers in Harlem Success Academy really made me realize the positive outcome of these charter schools. In the film, they said 100% of their students pass the the standardized tests. That's such a big percentage compared to those of the public schools in the area. Harlem Success Academy's main focus is not for them to pass the standardized tests; it's for them to graduate college. I noticed in one of the classrooms at Harlem Success Academy there was a "Class of 2024" sign. That's the year those students will be graduating college, not high school. It just shows how much they really are focused on the children's futures.

The Lottery

This documentary was a real opener, but it wasn't really suprising.  What really caught my eye was that the community didn't want the charter schools in their neighborhood.  Seeing how much success the charter sschools were having couldn't make me question why they wouldn't want their child to be that successful. From reading Ordinary Ressurections, and wathing the film The Interrupters, all of these people in both sources would give anything to go to a great school.  I was really suprised how many schools were being shut down.  Eva Moskowitz said,  "It's wrong to keep open failed schools,"  but people argue that the schools shouldn't be shut down they should be fixed.  I really liked that some of the parents work extra hard at home to help prepare their child for this school.  My favorite quote was " Street smarts have never gotten anyone anywher, but prison, so why is it good to have street smarts?"  I liked this because it really made me think that its the truth.

The Lottery

After watching The Interrupters and reading Ordinary Resurrections, the environment of low quality education that this film showed in the public schools was not surprising. However, what I did find surprising was the community resistance against a successful charter school that was attempting to build another school to provide a higher quality of education to more children in the area. I was always a supporter of the teacher union because my mother is a teacher, but after seeing how poorly and maliciously Eva and here staff were treated for stating that unsuccessful educational facilities should be removed, and successful systems promoted, I am beginning to question the true motivations behind the union; are they protecting good teachers from being abused or are they protecting bad teachers from being punished? Either way, based on the evidence provided by this film, the quality of education a child receives doesn't seem to be a primary concern for them.

In attempting to explain the root problem in the educational system in impoverished, inner-city neighborhoods, Eva Moskowitz said: "The problem is not the parents, the problem is not the children, the problem is a system that protects academic failure and limits the choices parents have." I believe she is correct in this opinion. What parent doesn't want their child to go to a good school and receive a good education? They often don't have a choice in the matter; wherever their children are zoned to go is where they will go, regardless of the condition the school is in. I admire the parents who attempt to get their children into a charter school like the Harlem Success Academy, but even they have the odds stacked against them in the lotteries that will determine whether or not their child receives a good or bad education. It's unfortunate that this is how our education system operates, and I wish Harlem Success Academy and other schools like them success in their efforts to improve the school systems in these areas and reverse the mentality that failure is acceptable in the education of children.

The Lottery

Some of the schools in the film weren't the best. What caught my attention most was how much the parents of the children care about the future of the kids and they have to rely on a lottery. The parents don't have a way to just leave the community to find a better home and so they don't have the option to get their children into better schools. Another thing that bothered me was that some of the people in the community were so against a better school for their children. I'm sure they want the best for their child but they totally ignored that some of the schools that they were sending their children to aren't good schools. All those parents seemed to see was the jobs that would be lost and they didn't want to see 'outsiders' take over the building. I understand where they are coming from but they should put their children before themselves.

Lottery

The thing that stuck me the most was the fact that the charter schools in the film were proven that they are able to teach students better than the zoned schools but the people agaisnt still wanted there kdis to go to schools where the succes rate was only a 20%. Also the part where she was defending the charter schools basically saying they deserve to be closed and not be fixed becasue they cant. Through the unions ways of dealing with it the change of it is very slow and time consuming.

The Lottery

While watching The Lottery, the whole situation came as a huge eye opener for me.  I have never known a school to hold a "lottery" where children get selected to be in certain schools.  What stood out to me the most was how many children were waiting to go to these charter schools, which brings me to my direct quote "365,000 children are on waitlists for charter schools."  That number was astonishing to me.  The film showed how hard the children worked to get into these schools, and no matter how hard some of them tried they still didn't get chosen.  The film also talked about the sizes of the classes, saying some had 27 kids.  The class sizes relates to our recent study of the educational system and in this case is a negative factor.  Children need smaller class sizes to get adequate time with teachers for questions and additional learning.

The Lottery

The lottery was a very eye opening video. What stuck with me the most is how there were so many kids trying to get into the charter schools. I did not realize that this was such a big problem. This relates to our study of the educational system because they were facing the problems of over population of the schools and larger class sizes. They mentioned the number 27 a few times as the average class size and that seams high to me. The quote that stood out to me from the film The Lottery was “The problem is not the parents, the problem is not the children, the problem is the system that protects academic failure.”