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Katerin Leal Period 6th AVID Are Students Risking Their Futures? In Christine Baron’s essay, Apathetic Students Risk Their Futures, is stated that students aren’t taking advantage of the opportunities they have by going to school because they are making up excuses and are better off socializing with others. I agree with Christine Baron, some students have become lazy for their school work.
However, not all students are being lazy and not doing their work, there are some students that actually care and want to succeed in life therefore they are the ones that are being motivated and have been doing the assignments and homework that the teachers have asked them. But how do we get the other students to be do their work as well? High school is a big change to most students. While some are working after school others are playing sports, and other even have responsibilities at their home.
However, that doesn’t give students an excuse to not do the work that has been assigned to them. “I had to work until 11 p. m. both nights”, “I had baseball practice”, “I was absent again the day you assigned this”, this are some of the excuses that students use when Christine Baron asked her students if had read the reading assignment that was assigned to her class. Sure working until 11 p. m. at night is tiring but students should learn how to manage their time, school should be their number one priority.
Also, just because you’re absent from school doesn’t mean that your excused from the assignments that you missed, it’s your responsibility to email your teacher and/or ask your teacher what you missed when you come back to school the next day. In Barons case what had frustrated her was that her students choose “to give up on homework that’s the least bit challenging”. Other factors that have gotten in the way with students schoolwork is the social network. Student with their cellphones, laptops, iPods, etc. are choosing to socialize rather than actually take advantage of their spare time. I started reading it, but the phone rang”, was one of the other excuses given to Baron. These students are in high school already and its time that they take some responsibility and think about the opportunities they have by going to school. Instead of making up excuses students should just do the work. The challenge that has been presented to some teachers is “How can we encourage a lot more kids to care about their education”. In the essay that Baron wrote he states that parents can help with their kids caring of school.
With that being said teachers should get together with the parents of those students who are having a hard time to stay focused on their school work. Parents can be a great influence and a lot of help with getting their kids to do the assignment that is being assigned by the teachers. High school is a big change for students, they run into a lot of pressure sometimes even skipping classes which later on leads to skipping school more often than expected, but what these students need to know is that “caring about their education will benefit them in ways they might not even imagine”.
The one thing that teacher cannot do is “dumb down” the curriculum, because in the end the students aren’t receiving any challenging work. Teacher should push the students on challenging work so they can exceed their expectations. Everyone is capable of succeeding but you have to apply some effort into your work. The students that are caring and doing the work that is being asked by their teachers have a greater chance of becoming the person they really want in life, by working in the job field of their choice, and being financially secured.