--Original published at Manda's College Blog

Many people consider intelligence to be largely determined by genetics, but there is I was in public school, then cyber school then back to public school. Growing up, I used to be an honor roll student taking pride in my work and my success, it was mainly due because of my mom. My mom would always take the time to sit down with me and do flashcards, help me with writing, practically every subject in school she would help me. My mom is very intelligent from what I remember, she was excellent at math and jeopardy. Which Jeopardy can be considered pointless facts, but do you ever see someone of low IQ on the show? But anyway, my classes weren’t very substantial. As I got older the studying at home stopped and family issues came about which deterred my learning. Public school in middle school to me, was more of a popularity contest. The environment was created to where if you weren’t an athlete and a class clown, you didn’t matter. Being social at school I’m pretty sure got in the way of not just my education, but others. The classroom setting in public schools were nearly the same as everyone else, a lot of kids misbehaving and teachers only there for a paycheck. I remember one of my teachers having a mental breakdown, screaming at us as she broke those long rulers into pieces. It gave me the attitude that if they don’t care, and if no one else cares, and my parents don’t care, why should I? So I stopped trying, and I barely made it through high school. In between middle school and high school I did class online, which was a huge fail because the computer was in my bedroom and while class went on, I’d go surf the internet. There wasn’t any affirmative set of teaching for me, which I personally believe there isn’t one. On my free time I taught myself haiku and started writing short stories or fan fiction. I believe that is what I would call “writing smart” or just being productive with my time. No one in my family has gone to college, mainly working blue collar or even under the table because of their lack of trust in the government. Currently my brain is being tested with college, where I’m the only one (so far), that hasn’t dropped out. Whats different about college is that in Elizabethtown, with it being a smaller school the teachers focus on each student. I am able to meet with my teachers and learn new ways to understand the curriculum more; and it helps knowing that I WANT to learn. College has been the best type of schooling that I ever received, which is sad in a way because I look back and think that my teachers who couldn’t handle being a teacher could have sat down and had one life changing conversation with me, to change my mind that the people in school now don’t matter, what matters is your education. It took me until my mid 20’s to figure that out.

--Original published at CurtisCollegeBlog

In my opinion, the idea definitely comes from a good, well-meaning heart that genuinely cares about children and their collective futures. However, the execution of the idea was poor, I feel as if it would never work how he intended. It reminds me of another situation. I’m not sure if you’ve seen, but a couple of weeks ago there was a statement realized from a superintendent of a school district in PA. In the statement, he planned to put a bucket of rocks in the back corner of every classroom, in case of a school shooter. Then, instead of sitting there defenseless, the kids all throw rocks at the shooter in attempts to hurt or disarm him. That high school, was my old high school, and since the release of that article, my high school has become a meme, even Chrissy Teigen tweeted something about my old school. This was another example of how someone in power institutes a subpar idea with good intentions behind it. The governor doesn’t seem to understand how many different factors go into developing the minds of children, but he wants them to be overall more intelligent. Different kids will react differently to different types of music and environmental factors. Deaf kids wouldn’t be able to be increase their intelligence via this method, other kids with conditions wouldn’t have the same affect from the music either. I feel that the average level of intelligence across all kids who had the music played vs the kids who didn’t would all be around the same level. Overall, the idea is okay, but his heart is definitely in the right place.

--Original published at Emily's Blog

For this week’s first impression post, I chose option 1. To the world, intelligence is a very large part of a person’s personality. It sets people apart from each other and helps to explain how they are wired. Many people believe intelligence comes from the environment in which one was raised. This includes social interaction as well as schooling. Children spend about 8 hours a day for 180 days out of the year at school. This is from their early development into their late teens. It is true that this much time spent at school will influence the children’s minds as they grow. The key people who will be influencing the children are teachers and educators.

I had many wonderful teachers growing up as well as others I do not prefer. My favorite teachers include my second-grade teacher, my fifth-grade teacher, my math teacher in high school, and my chemistry teacher in high school. Looking back at my grades in those courses and my overall impressions of the school year, I would have to say they were some of the greatest years for me socially and academically. I also had teachers in school which I did not prefer. These years include sixth grade, seventh grade, and ninth grade. From what I remember about these teachers, I struggled the most with their discouragement and lack of attention.

To improve the school system, I believe school should be pushed back an hour or so in the morning because there are some studies done that prove students are not learning as well because of the early morning hours. I also believe educators need to be aware of the psychological influence they are having on the students they teach. Meaning, I was greatly affected by the negative verses positive attitudes of my educators. Another way the school system could be improved is by testing not only student’s performance on tests but also their creative sides with projects and presentations. The teachers will have to be cautious of how certain student’s brains work and how they may lack creativity in some areas. I also believe less student’s may be afraid of public speaking if they practiced more when they were younger. Teachers have not only the responsibility but the ability to make these changes and affect a student’s life forever.

--Original published at *Psych 105*

The teacher-student relationship is one such relationship that can have a lasting effect on a student’s life, whether it is obvious or not. From my personal experience, I always think back to my anatomy teacher from my junior year of high school. That teacher was one of the best I ever had and the material I learned in that class still resides with me today. She was one of those teachers that understood that each student does not learn the same and tried to engage everyone in the lessons. Her lectures were not simply created to ensure that we aced the tests. While she was obviously required to give us exams, the point of her class was to get us to actually learn instead of just regurgitating the information to get a high mark. She would work with students with questions they got wrong on assignments to ensure that the important information in the correct answer was understood; a practice that I had never seen before coming to her class. She also understood that sometimes students come into the classroom with issues that are out of their control. This is where she truly made her impact. She was willing to work with any student on anything, whether it be class related or if the individual simply needed a safe space to just breathe. The trust she built with all her students was one that left people coming back to her class year after year.

On the other end of the spectrum, there was my AP literature teacher(s). My senior year I  had chosen to take AP lit, as I loved all my previous lit classes from the time I was in grade school. The first semester of the class, the usual teacher had broken multiple bones in her left leg and was unable to walk. This resulted in a substitute coming in to teach our class. It was at this point that I thought I was going to drop the class. The next 4 months were torturous and no one wanted to even sit in that class. We knew going in that the purpose of the class would be to make sure we were ready for the AP exam, however, this man barely interacted with us the entire time. We each had a workbook with practice problems for the exam and every single assignment he gave us was from the said workbook. He would sit on his phone and act like we weren’t even there day after day. It’s safe to say that I didn’t really learn all that much until the usual teacher was able to return to school. When she returned we made up for lost time in our curriculum work and actually began to learn again.

A common issue that I find with the school system is that everything is centered around receiving high marks on exams with not much else in between. The students that sit in these schools need more than simply preparing for a test to truly understand the information that they are expected to know. Giving a student a book and essentially saying, “Have at it.”, is not the ideal way to foster intellectual growth. Taking the time to see where a student is coming from and seeing that their struggles are, creates a relationship that helps the student feel safe in the school environment. A space where a student feels safe is a space where a student can grow.

--Original published at Matt's College Blog

While I can’t speak on whether the Mozart effect has any real impact on the intelligence of infants, I do think that the Governer, Zell Miller, tried to do the right thing. He believed there was a cheap, easy way to improve the future lives of thousands of people, something we look for every day, and he executed on his idea. I do not, however, think his decision was a good one. The decision to spend over $100,000 in taxpayers money based on a belief in some shaky theory which needs more thorough testing, is not one which should be taken lightly. The better option would have been to fund a major study into the Mozart effect to see if there was any real, measurable influence on the intelligence of children who had listened to Mozart as an infant as opposed to those who did not. This would have enabled the state to both save money and make an informed decision about the proposed budget.

Another option, rather than funding the study, could have been to allocate those funds to schools directly, providing new materials and other things students, especially those of low income families, needed to grow and learn. Instead of spending $105K on Mozart CD’s and cassettes, spend those funds on textbooks, meal programs, playgrounds, transportation, and classroom supplies. The funds could have been allocated to teacher’s paychecks, or to hiring new teachers with more experience to add to the classrooms. Funding the arts programs, music classes, etc. If he though listening to Mozart would make kids smarter, he could have funded schools to teach people to play Mozart!

--Original published at Emily Garvin's Psych Blog

Many people consider intelligence to be largely determined by genetics, but there is substantial evidence that the environment and social processes play a large role as well. Since schools are a place where children try to determine how smart they really are, it is important for educators to understand the impacts of their subtle or not-so-subtle interactions with students. In your blog post, reflect on your interactions with educators throughout your school career, and discuss what changes to the school system could improve students’ performance in the classroom.

Throughout my life I always enjoyed going to school. I loved to learn and never wanted to miss a day of school because if I did I would definitely feel like I would be behind and more importantly miss out on activities of that day. I think my teachers in elementary school are the reason that I loved going to school so much. As an elementary schooler I did all my work and for the most part enjoyed doing it! All of my teachers were so nice and encouraging, I even still keep in touch with some of them to this day. As I transitioned to middle school the work become harder and the teachers became stricter, but it was not anything I couldn’t handle. High school was an exciting time, we got to pick our own classes and teachers. I had multiple teachers in high school who I can say had a lasting impact on my life, but like everywhere there were some teachers that made me dread coming to school. Throughout the years some of my peers have learned to resent school due to the work and the faculty interactions they have had. I however, try to look at school in a positive light. Although learning is difficult there is always a way to make it interesting and after all the hard work I put in now will pay off in my future endeavors. Not only have I learned course content throughout my academic life, my teachers have instilled a relentless work ethic, advanced social skills, and creative problem solving strategies in me that will ultimately be helpful in every aspect of my future.

The school system does not view students as individuals. Each student is essentially just a number attached to test scores on a piece of paper. The school system should consider implementing curriculum that focuses on expressing individuality of a person. This could be through fun activities that are accompanied with relevant academic content. Implementing different teaching methods so children can explore new methods of learning. In addition to revamping the curriculum schools should try to decrease the amount of standardized tests. Tests are good to track the progress of a student, but they cause an excessive amount of stress and ultimately take up valuable time in the school year. The time that is taking up by tests could be time that students are learning. Making school an enjoyable environment for students will improve their outlook on school and working hard will not be such a daunting task.

--Original published at Collin's Blog

My interactions in high school with my teachers was a much more informal than they are at Elizabethtown College. Most of my teachers were very laid back and would not care if you called them by their first name as long as you were polite during class and did your work regularly on time. At times they were a little too loose with their tolerance, some students would take advantage of their freedoms and make it difficult for high school teachers to consistently keep a laid back classroom when they had to scold or argue with other students who did not want to be there. Most of my high school educators had to deal with students like this and their subtlety as teachers gave students the wrong impressions of how their classroom was meant to be run. Here at Elizabethtown, just about every interaction with professors has been formal and understandably so since much of our work here is important to our futures. I think this has lead to much more polite classroom environments and helped a lot of students stay serious about their academics and future goals. The public high school systems should implement a more serious environment and be a little less subtle in their interactions with students if they want their class to be more involved in the learning process and thus take the classes seriously.