1. Do adolescent youth have a genetic predisposition for [EI]?
Adolescent youth have a genetic predisposition to be educationally irresponsible. According to the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, there has been a large rise in the mental disorder ADHD over the past couple of years. I personally know, since my little brother has ADD, that ADHD makes it difficult for people to focus on one thing for an extended period of time. Due to their unfortunate condition, these kids that suffer from ADHD are called “lazy, inattentive, and disruptive”. The article “Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Causes of ADHD”, written by WebMD, states that “ADHD has a strong genetic component”. “The genes that control the levels of certain chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters seem to be different” (WebMD) in people who have ADHD. The article “Do you have the lazy gene? Some rats do” poses another interesting explanation. According to the article, “experiments on rats suggest there could be a genetic predisposition to laziness” (or educational irresponsibility). If this study is correct and is applicable to humans, it might provide an alternate explanation of why some adolescent youth have such a hard time being engaged in school. Another explanation for educational irresponsibility would be related to culture. In the article “My Lazy American Students”, it states that the “C, D, and F students this semester are almost exclusively American, while [the] students from India, China, and Latin America have…become valuable class participants”. I personally know people who do not like to go to school or do not see the value in being educated. I think this negative attitude towards education comes with the American mentality. Many Americans don’t appreciate things, such as education, as much as other countries because they’re so readily available for us. American students, for the most part, tend to not to try as hard as other countries because they rather relax and do something else. This mentality is similar to the mentality of the Nalewalu people that Mr. Patino mentioned in his blog. According to Mr. Patino’s blog, the Nalewalu people were people who starved because they wanted to stand in the shade while others worked. Americans want things but don’t want to work for it. However, in the BSCS Biology textbook, it states that both heredity and environment affect an organism by changing the organism’s genetics. Therefore, even though heredity has a role in making students educationally irresponsible, I think that environment also has some blame in this matter. During our class lectures, I learned that the environment an organism lives in affects the organism significantly. According to the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, the kids of this generation are currently in the “most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth”. Adults provide kids with iPhones, computers, video games, commercials on television, and other things that spark their interests, and then penalize kids for being distracted. I am currently what you would call an “adolescent youth”, so I personally know that sometimes it’s very hard to focus on what my teachers are trying to hammer into my head because my mind is on other things. I asked my classmates if they felt the same, and they said they do. Instead of being in class, most of my classmates would rather be checking their Instagram, messing around on their Facebook, playing video games, or watching the newest episode of Vampire Diaries. In conclusion, adolescent youths have a genetic predisposition to be educationally irresponsible, but the environment that the youths are raised in also play a big part in their educational irresponsibility.
2. What are the evolutionary advantages of being [EI]?
A person who is educationally irresponsible has an evolutionary advantage over a person who is educationally responsible. Even though it sounds backwards, being educationally irresponsible has its benefits. Notice that being educationally irresponsible is NOT the same as lazy. According to Mr. Patino’s blog, educational irresponsibility is “a decision made by a student in an effort not to learn”. Keeping that definition in mind, the main benefit of being educationally irresponsible is not being domesticated. (In unit 9, we learned that domestication is a subcategory within the overarching evolutionary mechanism called artificial selection.) According to Jared Diamond’s article, domestication is the process of genetically changing an organism in order to make it more useful to humans. Education is one of the means by which society domesticates people. I personally have experienced being domesticated in the classroom. I am taught to see the world in a very black-and-white matter. Similar to what the video “Changing Education Paradigms” states, students nowadays are taught that there is one answer and one way of doing things. This mindset of conformity is beneficial to society because it makes things run smoother when everything is the same. However, conformity and uniformity is not beneficial to the student because it limits his/her creativity and ability to think outside the box. I know some of my classmates are very creative and divergent thinkers, but they are ridiculed or disregarded as nonacademic for thinking differently and just being different in general. Like stated in Mr. Patino’s blog, “most often, marginalized populations are [called lazy] for acting in a manner that is different from accepted norms”. I believe these people shouldn’t be degraded for being different because it’s from these unique people great things derive from. We can also parallel this situation to reproduction. As I learned from class lectures, sexual reproduction promotes genetic diversity. Genetic diversity is a positive thing because it limits the chances of diseases/deformities. However, asexual reproduction promotes genetic uniformity. Genetic uniformity is a negative thing because it makes the organism more susceptible to diseases and develop the inability to defend itself. Uniformity in thinking is similarly negative because it makes the student more susceptible to weak thinking and develop the inability to think for him/herself. As a recap, being uniform isn’t beneficial to the student, but it’s useful to society. People who educationally irresponsible have the ability to choose whether or not they agree with what they are being taught or not. They are the people who challenge authority and are the leaders of tomorrow. I have been personally experienced being educationally irresponsibility because I chose not to learn the content that was being taught by my teachers. However, I don’t think this was necessarily negative thing because challenging our elders is a good thing sometimes. On multiple occasions, teachers have told my classmates and I that they make mistakes and that they’re not always right. Sometimes students have to be the judge and determine for themselves what is right or what is flawed. Students have to be able to think for themselves and not be uniform thinkers. I believe teachers should provide opportunities for students to be diverse thinkers rather than uniform thinkers. In conclusion, the main evolutionary advantage of being educationally irresponsible is not being domesticated and being able to think for one’s own self.
3. How does the learning [e.g. home and school] environment promote being [EI]?
The learning environments of most educational institutions today promote students to be educationally irresponsible. According to the BSCS Biology textbook, environment really affects an organism and its behaviors. From personal experience, I know that the learning environment at Kamehameha Schools promotes educational irresponsibility. From the mo’olelo I’ve learned in school, I know that our Hawaiian kupuna worked outside and learned everything outside. They learned by doing what they were being taught with their own hands. Their philosophy was ‘imi ‘ike, not gimme ‘ike (seek knowledge, not give me knowledge). However, Hawaiians are currently taken out of their natural learning environment when they are placed in the classroom setting. As stated in the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, with structured desks and standardized testing, students are taught to be uniform. Students are also forced to engage in lectures, where the only senses that are really being stimulated are sound and sight. Students, especially Hawaiians, should be given more opportunities to learn outside and stimulate all of their senses. From personal experience, I know that learning things by doing hands-on activities helps me remember the information that my teachers are trying to give to me. For example, I like when we go outside to learn about the plants in the forest during Biology class because then I can stimulate all of my senses (except taste). After asking several of my classmates, I found that they all concur with me in regard to benefitting from learning outside. I also think that students should be responsible for teaching themselves information. Even though this responsibility will make students panic, I believe that if students are placed in a situation where they aren’t being spoon-fed information, they will work harder to learn the content themselves. This situation can be paralleled to kalo. In order to change kalo’s genetics, you need to put it through a stress cycle. I did this in my Environmental Science class. I placed some dryland kalo in water and then keep them in there for a while. The kalo showed signs of distress such as changing the color of its leaves. However, in the end, the kalo survived and was able to live in the watery environment since it was able to adapt. Like we learned in class, an organism will develop mutations in order to adapt to its new environment. This is what the kalo did. Uncle Jerry Konanui addresses this in his video. He says that it doesn’t matter what environment the kalo is in; the kalo will be able to survive as long as planters have the ‘ike kupuna. This is the same with students. Teachers should place students in an environment that they’re not familiar with, so the students can adapt and become stronger students. However, similar to the farmers, teachers can’t just let the struggling students sink. Teachers have to place students in an environment where they can actually swim and not just drown. To bring this concept to full circle, most educational institutions are promoting educational irresponsibility in students because of the learning environment that the students are being placed in. The students are choosing not to learn because they are not able to adapt. Students, especially educationally irresponsible students, are giving up on themselves because like said in the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, they are labeled as “non-academic”. Society tells these “non-academic” students that they aren’t going to amount to much unless they change their ways and be like everyone else. It takes too much work to change, so these students develop the mentality of “Well, I’m never going to be good enough, so why even try?”. So these students don’t try and don’t learn things. In order to help these educationally irresponsible, self-degrading students, we should encourage them that they can survive in the learning environment they are being placed in.
4. How does your culture respond to people who are [EI]?
The Hawaiian culture does not support people who are educationally irresponsible. My 7th grade Hawaiian language teacher told us a phrase that has resonated within me ever since I heard it. “’Imi ‘ike, not gimme ‘ike” has been a phrase that I have incorporated into my academic heart and soul. The translation of this phrase is seek knowledge, not gimme knowledge. What this phrase is basically saying is seek knowledge. Work for your knowledge. Do not just sit there and expect knowledge to come to you. I remember growing up and my mom saying, “Ok. You don’t want to do your homework. Go ahead, but don’t come crying to me when your teacher scolds you for choosing not to learn.” My mom was very strict on doing homework, but she never forced me to do it. If I didn’t want to do it, she just let me not do it. It was by her allowing me to do whatever I wanted that I looked that I needed to be responsible and to work hard. It was work hard or failing. Failing not only meant shaming yourself; it meant shaming yourself, your kupuna, your mākua, and your kumu. The motive for learning and doing things well back then was not to reward yourself; it was to bring honor and pride to your family. Working hard was a necessary thing to do back in the kanaka maoli times. Back in the ancient days, our kupuna had to work or they would starve, similar to my mom’s thinking of “do your homework or fail”. In Mr. Patino’s blog, he speaks of the Nalewalu people. These people were well-known for starving to death because they rather stand in the shade instead of working hard like the other families. In that sense, the Hawaiian culture supports working hard for everything you got and to maintain everything you got. Every teacher I ever had at Kamehameha Schools told me that I was “so fortunate to be educated at such a fine institution”. They told me to remember that to be educated at Kamehameha Schools was “a privilege, not a right”. Hawaiians were very appreciate of their education, and it’s this thankful, appreciative mentality that made the Hawaiians have the highest literacy rate in the entire nation after the missionaries came. Learning is about being the best you can be, not for you, but for your kupuna and the future generations. In my Hawaiian Culture class during my freshman year, my Hawaiian Culture teacher would take us out in the mala, and we worked without complaining because if we complained then we would be shaming our ancestors. We learned new things without complaining because we were learning things for the future generations. From a genetic perspective, people should work hard, so the lazy gene doesn’t get passed on. According to the article “Do You Have the Lazy Gene? Some Rats Do”, a gene that transmits laziness might exist! According to the article, the offspring of two lazy rats were significantly less likely to work out than the offspring of two active rats. So in that sense, people should work hard to ensure that their children are hard workers as well. In conclusion, my culture, the Hawaiian culture, does not support educational irresponsibility. Educational irresponsibility, or as Mr. Patino says, the unwillingness to learn is not a Hawaiian way of thinking because the Hawaiian way of thinking is working hard for everything and anything you have or want. You work hard to bring honor and pride to your ‘ohana and ancestors. Learning is to build stronger children for the future that could carry on the culture when all of us are gone.
5. Does my course promote [EI]? For instance I use the following practices
a. Use an even distribution scale instead of the 100 point scale
b. Use a hybrid [flip/blended learning] instructional format which utilizes technology
c. Base a final grade on 95% assessment
d. Offer multiple options to demonstrate understanding via diverse assessments.
e. Adjust deadlines to obtain work from students
f. Provide quick and responsive feedback
g. Teach metacognitive skills
Mr. Patino’s class does, yet at the same time, doesn’t promote educational irresponsibility due to his unorthodox teaching practices. According to Mr. Patino’s blog, educational irresponsibility is the decision to have the unwillingness to learn. From personal experience, I feel that Mr. Patino’s class does promote educational irresponsibility because he forces you to learn on your own. He makes kids not want to learn because his class is so challenging. From several classmates, I have heard things like “Why even try anymore?”. However, I think Mr. Patino’s challenging class is beneficial because it makes the students able to survive in different learning environments. Similar to the kalo stress cycle, Mr. Patino pushes you underwater a little, and you have the choice to fight back and trend or just give up and drown. However, even though Mr. Patino tries to kill you, he gives you a couple floaties (his unorthodox teaching practices like the even distribution scale and adjusting deadlines to obtain work from students) to keep you afloat. Many students don’t like Mr. Patino’s class because they aren’t used to his methods and are unwilling to change to develop the skills needed to pass his class. I think this is part of the problem. Like stated in the article “Are Lazy Students the Real Problem in Public Education”, the problem with education nowadays is “students who refuse to put in the work required to earn a good grade”. From my mom’s stories, I know that kids now are significantly lazier and unwilling to work hard than the kids back then. Kids nowadays just don’t know how to work hard and have this mentality of “give me information now” instead of the mentality of “let me work for my knowledge”. Mr. Patino’s high expectations of metacognition skills and basing students’ final grade on 95% assessment promotes educational irresponsibility because the students give up when they see the hard work Mr. Patino gives them. However, Mr. Patino’s class does not promote educationally irresponsibility because he allows students to recover from their mistakes with his even distribution scale, adjusting deadlines to obtain work from students, provides quick and responsive feedback, and offer multiple options to demonstrate understanding via diverse assessments. Students feel like they can try new things and use divergent thinking in his class because if it doesn’t work out, they can recover themselves. Mr. Patino also encourages educational responsibility because he uses a hybrid [flip/blended learning] instructional format, which utilizes technology. By using technology, Mr. Patino engages kids because kids are more tech-savvy nowadays. Even though Mr. Patino’s class is challenging and very unorthodox, I would have to say that I really appreciate it. From personal experience, I have tried new things in his class that I wouldn’t have done in different classes because of his even distribution scale. For example, this year I taught in front of a class for a test grade. I think in another class I would have been a little more hesitant to do that in fear that if I failed, I wouldn’t be able to recover my grade. The aspects of his class that I appreciate the most, however, is the fact that Mr. Patino taught us metacognitive skills and used a hybrid of education with technology. I believe that these skills really prepared me for the future, and for that preparation, I really owe Mr. Patino. In conclusion, Mr. Patino’s unorthodox teaching practices promoted educational irresponsibility and responsibility, both in a good way. Even though, his class was challenging and tiring at times, I think students have and will really benefit from his unique teaching style.
6. How should teachers address [EI]?
Teachers should change their current teaching practices in order to address educational irresponsibility. Like Mr. Patino said in his blog, students in the past 10 years have become increasingly lazier and unwilling to learn (educational irresponsible). According to the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, this should be no surprise because the kids today are living in a very stimulating time period. With exciting things like new video game consoles coming out in stores everyday, why would a kid want to sit in classroom for 8 hours and learn stuff that kids don’t believe apply to their daily lives? According to the article “Are Lazy Students the Real Problem in Public Education?”, teachers are becoming “frustrated by unmotivated students”. This article pins the blame on students for not getting work done or not care. However, the question I pose to those teachers is “What are you going to do about it?” My mother used to tell me all the time that you can’t change other people; you can only change yourself. I think it’s time for the teachers to realize that scolding and reprimanding students is an ineffective way to make students to do their work. According to Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. It’s about time to stop being insane and finding a solution that actually solves the problem. I think to solve these teachers should apply some business principles in their curriculum. Teachers should appeal to students’ interests and incorporate them into the class similar to a salesman with his/her product. I have personal experience with teachers doing that. For example, in my Hawaiian classes in freshman and sophomore year, my Hawaiian language teachers would include the students’ name into the sentences we had to translate. So the sentence would be “Kelly is going to the mall today” instead of “The girl is going to the mall today”. Seeing our names sparked our interests and made us engage in the work. Another example is that in my English class with Mrs. Tavares in freshman year, Mrs. Tavares would include modern examples in her teachings to draw parallels to. For example, in class, she would compare the book characters we were reading about to celebrities or people we knew like Jessica Alba and Brad Pitt. I think another great idea comes from Mr. Patino’s class. I believe that all of the teachers at Kamehameha Schools should adopt the even distribution scale because it’s a more accurate measurement of what students are actually capable of (Mr. Patino). Like Mr. Patino has said multiple times, the 100-point scale is an inaccurate scale that is unfair to the students. However, the even distribution scale allows students to recover from their mistakes and to try new things. From personal experience, I believe that Mr. Patino’s usage of the even distribution scale has been beneficial to my education because I tried more things that I would have normally not have done because I would be scared of bombing the 100-point scale. Students will be more engaged if they can have more creativity, less structure, and not having to worry about failing all of the time. In conclusion, by incorporating things that students are interested in into the curriculum and changing their grading scale, teachers will make the students more interested in what the teachers are saying and diminish the number of students that are educationally irresponsible.
Adolescent youth have a genetic predisposition to be educationally irresponsible. According to the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, there has been a large rise in the mental disorder ADHD over the past couple of years. I personally know, since my little brother has ADD, that ADHD makes it difficult for people to focus on one thing for an extended period of time. Due to their unfortunate condition, these kids that suffer from ADHD are called “lazy, inattentive, and disruptive”. The article “Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Causes of ADHD”, written by WebMD, states that “ADHD has a strong genetic component”. “The genes that control the levels of certain chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters seem to be different” (WebMD) in people who have ADHD. The article “Do you have the lazy gene? Some rats do” poses another interesting explanation. According to the article, “experiments on rats suggest there could be a genetic predisposition to laziness” (or educational irresponsibility). If this study is correct and is applicable to humans, it might provide an alternate explanation of why some adolescent youth have such a hard time being engaged in school. Another explanation for educational irresponsibility would be related to culture. In the article “My Lazy American Students”, it states that the “C, D, and F students this semester are almost exclusively American, while [the] students from India, China, and Latin America have…become valuable class participants”. I personally know people who do not like to go to school or do not see the value in being educated. I think this negative attitude towards education comes with the American mentality. Many Americans don’t appreciate things, such as education, as much as other countries because they’re so readily available for us. American students, for the most part, tend to not to try as hard as other countries because they rather relax and do something else. This mentality is similar to the mentality of the Nalewalu people that Mr. Patino mentioned in his blog. According to Mr. Patino’s blog, the Nalewalu people were people who starved because they wanted to stand in the shade while others worked. Americans want things but don’t want to work for it. However, in the BSCS Biology textbook, it states that both heredity and environment affect an organism by changing the organism’s genetics. Therefore, even though heredity has a role in making students educationally irresponsible, I think that environment also has some blame in this matter. During our class lectures, I learned that the environment an organism lives in affects the organism significantly. According to the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, the kids of this generation are currently in the “most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth”. Adults provide kids with iPhones, computers, video games, commercials on television, and other things that spark their interests, and then penalize kids for being distracted. I am currently what you would call an “adolescent youth”, so I personally know that sometimes it’s very hard to focus on what my teachers are trying to hammer into my head because my mind is on other things. I asked my classmates if they felt the same, and they said they do. Instead of being in class, most of my classmates would rather be checking their Instagram, messing around on their Facebook, playing video games, or watching the newest episode of Vampire Diaries. In conclusion, adolescent youths have a genetic predisposition to be educationally irresponsible, but the environment that the youths are raised in also play a big part in their educational irresponsibility.
2. What are the evolutionary advantages of being [EI]?
A person who is educationally irresponsible has an evolutionary advantage over a person who is educationally responsible. Even though it sounds backwards, being educationally irresponsible has its benefits. Notice that being educationally irresponsible is NOT the same as lazy. According to Mr. Patino’s blog, educational irresponsibility is “a decision made by a student in an effort not to learn”. Keeping that definition in mind, the main benefit of being educationally irresponsible is not being domesticated. (In unit 9, we learned that domestication is a subcategory within the overarching evolutionary mechanism called artificial selection.) According to Jared Diamond’s article, domestication is the process of genetically changing an organism in order to make it more useful to humans. Education is one of the means by which society domesticates people. I personally have experienced being domesticated in the classroom. I am taught to see the world in a very black-and-white matter. Similar to what the video “Changing Education Paradigms” states, students nowadays are taught that there is one answer and one way of doing things. This mindset of conformity is beneficial to society because it makes things run smoother when everything is the same. However, conformity and uniformity is not beneficial to the student because it limits his/her creativity and ability to think outside the box. I know some of my classmates are very creative and divergent thinkers, but they are ridiculed or disregarded as nonacademic for thinking differently and just being different in general. Like stated in Mr. Patino’s blog, “most often, marginalized populations are [called lazy] for acting in a manner that is different from accepted norms”. I believe these people shouldn’t be degraded for being different because it’s from these unique people great things derive from. We can also parallel this situation to reproduction. As I learned from class lectures, sexual reproduction promotes genetic diversity. Genetic diversity is a positive thing because it limits the chances of diseases/deformities. However, asexual reproduction promotes genetic uniformity. Genetic uniformity is a negative thing because it makes the organism more susceptible to diseases and develop the inability to defend itself. Uniformity in thinking is similarly negative because it makes the student more susceptible to weak thinking and develop the inability to think for him/herself. As a recap, being uniform isn’t beneficial to the student, but it’s useful to society. People who educationally irresponsible have the ability to choose whether or not they agree with what they are being taught or not. They are the people who challenge authority and are the leaders of tomorrow. I have been personally experienced being educationally irresponsibility because I chose not to learn the content that was being taught by my teachers. However, I don’t think this was necessarily negative thing because challenging our elders is a good thing sometimes. On multiple occasions, teachers have told my classmates and I that they make mistakes and that they’re not always right. Sometimes students have to be the judge and determine for themselves what is right or what is flawed. Students have to be able to think for themselves and not be uniform thinkers. I believe teachers should provide opportunities for students to be diverse thinkers rather than uniform thinkers. In conclusion, the main evolutionary advantage of being educationally irresponsible is not being domesticated and being able to think for one’s own self.
3. How does the learning [e.g. home and school] environment promote being [EI]?
The learning environments of most educational institutions today promote students to be educationally irresponsible. According to the BSCS Biology textbook, environment really affects an organism and its behaviors. From personal experience, I know that the learning environment at Kamehameha Schools promotes educational irresponsibility. From the mo’olelo I’ve learned in school, I know that our Hawaiian kupuna worked outside and learned everything outside. They learned by doing what they were being taught with their own hands. Their philosophy was ‘imi ‘ike, not gimme ‘ike (seek knowledge, not give me knowledge). However, Hawaiians are currently taken out of their natural learning environment when they are placed in the classroom setting. As stated in the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, with structured desks and standardized testing, students are taught to be uniform. Students are also forced to engage in lectures, where the only senses that are really being stimulated are sound and sight. Students, especially Hawaiians, should be given more opportunities to learn outside and stimulate all of their senses. From personal experience, I know that learning things by doing hands-on activities helps me remember the information that my teachers are trying to give to me. For example, I like when we go outside to learn about the plants in the forest during Biology class because then I can stimulate all of my senses (except taste). After asking several of my classmates, I found that they all concur with me in regard to benefitting from learning outside. I also think that students should be responsible for teaching themselves information. Even though this responsibility will make students panic, I believe that if students are placed in a situation where they aren’t being spoon-fed information, they will work harder to learn the content themselves. This situation can be paralleled to kalo. In order to change kalo’s genetics, you need to put it through a stress cycle. I did this in my Environmental Science class. I placed some dryland kalo in water and then keep them in there for a while. The kalo showed signs of distress such as changing the color of its leaves. However, in the end, the kalo survived and was able to live in the watery environment since it was able to adapt. Like we learned in class, an organism will develop mutations in order to adapt to its new environment. This is what the kalo did. Uncle Jerry Konanui addresses this in his video. He says that it doesn’t matter what environment the kalo is in; the kalo will be able to survive as long as planters have the ‘ike kupuna. This is the same with students. Teachers should place students in an environment that they’re not familiar with, so the students can adapt and become stronger students. However, similar to the farmers, teachers can’t just let the struggling students sink. Teachers have to place students in an environment where they can actually swim and not just drown. To bring this concept to full circle, most educational institutions are promoting educational irresponsibility in students because of the learning environment that the students are being placed in. The students are choosing not to learn because they are not able to adapt. Students, especially educationally irresponsible students, are giving up on themselves because like said in the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, they are labeled as “non-academic”. Society tells these “non-academic” students that they aren’t going to amount to much unless they change their ways and be like everyone else. It takes too much work to change, so these students develop the mentality of “Well, I’m never going to be good enough, so why even try?”. So these students don’t try and don’t learn things. In order to help these educationally irresponsible, self-degrading students, we should encourage them that they can survive in the learning environment they are being placed in.
4. How does your culture respond to people who are [EI]?
The Hawaiian culture does not support people who are educationally irresponsible. My 7th grade Hawaiian language teacher told us a phrase that has resonated within me ever since I heard it. “’Imi ‘ike, not gimme ‘ike” has been a phrase that I have incorporated into my academic heart and soul. The translation of this phrase is seek knowledge, not gimme knowledge. What this phrase is basically saying is seek knowledge. Work for your knowledge. Do not just sit there and expect knowledge to come to you. I remember growing up and my mom saying, “Ok. You don’t want to do your homework. Go ahead, but don’t come crying to me when your teacher scolds you for choosing not to learn.” My mom was very strict on doing homework, but she never forced me to do it. If I didn’t want to do it, she just let me not do it. It was by her allowing me to do whatever I wanted that I looked that I needed to be responsible and to work hard. It was work hard or failing. Failing not only meant shaming yourself; it meant shaming yourself, your kupuna, your mākua, and your kumu. The motive for learning and doing things well back then was not to reward yourself; it was to bring honor and pride to your family. Working hard was a necessary thing to do back in the kanaka maoli times. Back in the ancient days, our kupuna had to work or they would starve, similar to my mom’s thinking of “do your homework or fail”. In Mr. Patino’s blog, he speaks of the Nalewalu people. These people were well-known for starving to death because they rather stand in the shade instead of working hard like the other families. In that sense, the Hawaiian culture supports working hard for everything you got and to maintain everything you got. Every teacher I ever had at Kamehameha Schools told me that I was “so fortunate to be educated at such a fine institution”. They told me to remember that to be educated at Kamehameha Schools was “a privilege, not a right”. Hawaiians were very appreciate of their education, and it’s this thankful, appreciative mentality that made the Hawaiians have the highest literacy rate in the entire nation after the missionaries came. Learning is about being the best you can be, not for you, but for your kupuna and the future generations. In my Hawaiian Culture class during my freshman year, my Hawaiian Culture teacher would take us out in the mala, and we worked without complaining because if we complained then we would be shaming our ancestors. We learned new things without complaining because we were learning things for the future generations. From a genetic perspective, people should work hard, so the lazy gene doesn’t get passed on. According to the article “Do You Have the Lazy Gene? Some Rats Do”, a gene that transmits laziness might exist! According to the article, the offspring of two lazy rats were significantly less likely to work out than the offspring of two active rats. So in that sense, people should work hard to ensure that their children are hard workers as well. In conclusion, my culture, the Hawaiian culture, does not support educational irresponsibility. Educational irresponsibility, or as Mr. Patino says, the unwillingness to learn is not a Hawaiian way of thinking because the Hawaiian way of thinking is working hard for everything and anything you have or want. You work hard to bring honor and pride to your ‘ohana and ancestors. Learning is to build stronger children for the future that could carry on the culture when all of us are gone.
5. Does my course promote [EI]? For instance I use the following practices
a. Use an even distribution scale instead of the 100 point scale
b. Use a hybrid [flip/blended learning] instructional format which utilizes technology
c. Base a final grade on 95% assessment
d. Offer multiple options to demonstrate understanding via diverse assessments.
e. Adjust deadlines to obtain work from students
f. Provide quick and responsive feedback
g. Teach metacognitive skills
Mr. Patino’s class does, yet at the same time, doesn’t promote educational irresponsibility due to his unorthodox teaching practices. According to Mr. Patino’s blog, educational irresponsibility is the decision to have the unwillingness to learn. From personal experience, I feel that Mr. Patino’s class does promote educational irresponsibility because he forces you to learn on your own. He makes kids not want to learn because his class is so challenging. From several classmates, I have heard things like “Why even try anymore?”. However, I think Mr. Patino’s challenging class is beneficial because it makes the students able to survive in different learning environments. Similar to the kalo stress cycle, Mr. Patino pushes you underwater a little, and you have the choice to fight back and trend or just give up and drown. However, even though Mr. Patino tries to kill you, he gives you a couple floaties (his unorthodox teaching practices like the even distribution scale and adjusting deadlines to obtain work from students) to keep you afloat. Many students don’t like Mr. Patino’s class because they aren’t used to his methods and are unwilling to change to develop the skills needed to pass his class. I think this is part of the problem. Like stated in the article “Are Lazy Students the Real Problem in Public Education”, the problem with education nowadays is “students who refuse to put in the work required to earn a good grade”. From my mom’s stories, I know that kids now are significantly lazier and unwilling to work hard than the kids back then. Kids nowadays just don’t know how to work hard and have this mentality of “give me information now” instead of the mentality of “let me work for my knowledge”. Mr. Patino’s high expectations of metacognition skills and basing students’ final grade on 95% assessment promotes educational irresponsibility because the students give up when they see the hard work Mr. Patino gives them. However, Mr. Patino’s class does not promote educationally irresponsibility because he allows students to recover from their mistakes with his even distribution scale, adjusting deadlines to obtain work from students, provides quick and responsive feedback, and offer multiple options to demonstrate understanding via diverse assessments. Students feel like they can try new things and use divergent thinking in his class because if it doesn’t work out, they can recover themselves. Mr. Patino also encourages educational responsibility because he uses a hybrid [flip/blended learning] instructional format, which utilizes technology. By using technology, Mr. Patino engages kids because kids are more tech-savvy nowadays. Even though Mr. Patino’s class is challenging and very unorthodox, I would have to say that I really appreciate it. From personal experience, I have tried new things in his class that I wouldn’t have done in different classes because of his even distribution scale. For example, this year I taught in front of a class for a test grade. I think in another class I would have been a little more hesitant to do that in fear that if I failed, I wouldn’t be able to recover my grade. The aspects of his class that I appreciate the most, however, is the fact that Mr. Patino taught us metacognitive skills and used a hybrid of education with technology. I believe that these skills really prepared me for the future, and for that preparation, I really owe Mr. Patino. In conclusion, Mr. Patino’s unorthodox teaching practices promoted educational irresponsibility and responsibility, both in a good way. Even though, his class was challenging and tiring at times, I think students have and will really benefit from his unique teaching style.
6. How should teachers address [EI]?
Teachers should change their current teaching practices in order to address educational irresponsibility. Like Mr. Patino said in his blog, students in the past 10 years have become increasingly lazier and unwilling to learn (educational irresponsible). According to the video “Changing Education Paradigms”, this should be no surprise because the kids today are living in a very stimulating time period. With exciting things like new video game consoles coming out in stores everyday, why would a kid want to sit in classroom for 8 hours and learn stuff that kids don’t believe apply to their daily lives? According to the article “Are Lazy Students the Real Problem in Public Education?”, teachers are becoming “frustrated by unmotivated students”. This article pins the blame on students for not getting work done or not care. However, the question I pose to those teachers is “What are you going to do about it?” My mother used to tell me all the time that you can’t change other people; you can only change yourself. I think it’s time for the teachers to realize that scolding and reprimanding students is an ineffective way to make students to do their work. According to Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. It’s about time to stop being insane and finding a solution that actually solves the problem. I think to solve these teachers should apply some business principles in their curriculum. Teachers should appeal to students’ interests and incorporate them into the class similar to a salesman with his/her product. I have personal experience with teachers doing that. For example, in my Hawaiian classes in freshman and sophomore year, my Hawaiian language teachers would include the students’ name into the sentences we had to translate. So the sentence would be “Kelly is going to the mall today” instead of “The girl is going to the mall today”. Seeing our names sparked our interests and made us engage in the work. Another example is that in my English class with Mrs. Tavares in freshman year, Mrs. Tavares would include modern examples in her teachings to draw parallels to. For example, in class, she would compare the book characters we were reading about to celebrities or people we knew like Jessica Alba and Brad Pitt. I think another great idea comes from Mr. Patino’s class. I believe that all of the teachers at Kamehameha Schools should adopt the even distribution scale because it’s a more accurate measurement of what students are actually capable of (Mr. Patino). Like Mr. Patino has said multiple times, the 100-point scale is an inaccurate scale that is unfair to the students. However, the even distribution scale allows students to recover from their mistakes and to try new things. From personal experience, I believe that Mr. Patino’s usage of the even distribution scale has been beneficial to my education because I tried more things that I would have normally not have done because I would be scared of bombing the 100-point scale. Students will be more engaged if they can have more creativity, less structure, and not having to worry about failing all of the time. In conclusion, by incorporating things that students are interested in into the curriculum and changing their grading scale, teachers will make the students more interested in what the teachers are saying and diminish the number of students that are educationally irresponsible.
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