ThornburgGroup3RR

__Claiming an Education__ I found it interesting that the author says we do not recieve an education but claim one instead. That is a much more motivating and inspiring way to talk about education. In the article it says that not as many women come to college as men and I disagree with that. Things have definietley changed and women are starting to stand out more in academics and show more of an interest than men. I agree that many women just get married and pregnant to forget about the real world and work because they expect their husbands to support them, that is the easy way out. However, I find this passage to be very motivating to actually get an education and a job and support my family on my own without relying on the help of my husband. I don't agree that male teachers look at female students as sexual objects. I think male teachers look at girls just as equally as they look at girls, they might even look at them to be more hard-working and dedicated than most male students these days who seem to lack ambition and engage in laziness. I am not speaking on boys as a whole but a lot of girls are taking a stand and outshining males in academics unlike back in the day. I found this reading to be very insightful, the talk about responsibility and self-respect really stood out to me because it changed the way I think of education and myself.

__What Does It Mean to Be Well-Educated?__ I am completely mind-blown by this reading becaause all along I have thought of being well-educated to mean that you have basic skills such as reading, writing, and math yet his wife has none of these skills and somehow attended Harvard and became a doctor. I agree with the fact that sitting in a classroom does not make one educated, some people go through 12 years of school and take nothing away from it. I also agree that test scores do not reflect the intelligence of a student because some students have a lot of skills and be extremely smart but can not display their skills and knowledge through testing. I found it interesting when he said that he said it does not matter if you know a lot of information even if its useful if you cannot put it to some sort of use. I find this interesting becasue I always found people who knew a lot of facts and could remember things to be very intelligent but now this makes me re-think my own thinking. I also found it interesting when he says how big of a deal schools make standardized tests can actually negatively affect student's scores, I agree with that statement completely. The insight I gained from this reading is that being well-educated goes much further than test scores, basic skills, and knowing certain information. Instead it is all about learning new things everyday that you can apply to your daily life and thinking critically instead of thinking just because you are told to do so by a teacher.