An ideal learning environment for a high school student includes a good size classroom where the student learns, a good home life, no violence, religion, and a social life.
All these different kinds of envirments affect the students learning ability. If their classroom is too big, they might not be involved in classroom actives. If their home life is a bad place and they arent getting any time to study their grade suffers. Religion is important because they could go to their church to talk to someone if they have no one to talk to at home. Violence has a major part in a students learning envirment because it can lead to fight and that will get the student kicked out of school.
Their social life is important because if you are a shy person, youll wont talk to people when you need help in class. The classroom size is very important in a high school, because if there are in a class of 30 to 35 kids, the students wont get the attention they need to understand then class. Most kids in high school dont pay attention in class because there might be too many people in it so they tend to just stay quiet and not talk even if they dont understand the material the teacher is teaching. So once that happened they just stop listening to teachers. An example of this is shown in the book Ordinary Resurrections, in chapter 13 Kozol talks about Elio and how he misbehaved in class and didnt do his lessons.
It ended up that Elio had to repeat the first grade (159-160). Even though Elios only in first grade at the time, this is the same with kids in high school. Another good thing about small classroom sizes is that, since there arent as many kids in the room. It will help the kids pay better attention because other classmates wont be bothering them.
Another one would be not having any violence around the kids, mainly when they are in school. From my experience while I was in high school, whenever there was a fight that broke out in the hallways we all would run out to see it and afterwards thats all everyone talked about that day in school so I wasnt able to get any work done. What would be ideal about this would be that if school could do what my high school is doing now. Any kid that is walking around the hallway after the bell has rung and doesnt have a pass gets an automatic detention.
I know this works because my sister still is in high school and she has told me that theres a lot less fights breaking out then there were last year. Another thing about violence in schools is that it affects the teaching. If a fight breaks out and all the kids were watching it and they go back to class. All they do is talk about the fight so what happens is that the teacher starts to do the same, well thats what happened at my high school. So I think having as less violence as possible in high school the better the kids are going to be and it will make the learning environment better also.
Religion can be a big part of any students life, Kozol shows us by telling us about a kid named Leonard. He has a very bad home life and no body to talk to at home or get help with homework and suffers from depression. So he spends a good part of his day after school at St. Anns. He talks to Kozol about his problems. Kozol also tells us that Leonard is happier when his at St.
Anns. Whenever he gets to stand next to Mother Martha and wear the white robe on Sundays, Kozol says that its the happiest he ever sees Leonard (244-245). Kozol shows us a lot of times though out that book that religion plays a big part in the kids lives in Mott Heaven. He tells us that a lot of the kids come to the church after school to do homework and pray. From my experience, religion is very important; it helps me to believe in myself that I can pass a test or even a class that I might be struggling in.
Another one I think is an ideal learning environment is the kids social life. If a kid is shy, he or she most likely have a harder time in class if they dont understand the material the teacher is teaching. Now if you are a out going type of person and likes to talk and likes to do group active with different people, you most likely wont have a problem in class, because if you are have trouble understanding what the teacher is teaching you wont have a problem asking a classmate or the teacher for help. From my experience in high school the kids that were was shy or didnt talk in class would fall beyond or fail just because they didnt like talking to people or they dont like talking out load to the class. If all they do is just sit in class and not participate and if they dont understand anything that is going on in the class, and they are to shy or not wanting to ask question they will most likely fall beyond. If you are the type that doesnt mind talking to people and asking question in class to understand what the teacher is teaching the class then chances are that you will do well in the classOne more thing is the resource that the kids need in high school.
High school is where kids learn how to use the resource to do essays and project, and if they dont have to most recent and updated resources they wont be doing their papers correctly. Learning how to use the right resource for whatever you are doing is very important so if the kids arent learning that then they will be beyond once they get to college. Learning how to use the resource around them will help them though out their live. The reason I think that going to high school is important part in a kids life is because high school is the beginning step in their lives. High school prepares kids for the next stop they will have to take, to college. I know from my experience that if you dont go to high school or drop out of high school its going to be even harder.
I have a friend that dropped out and he finally realized that he made a big mistake and now his has to take night classes to go to college.
