Peter Fairbrother Week #4

Peter Fairbrother
11/1/11
Service Learning Week #4
This past week we went to Shea High School again. Our lesson was on planning. We took the students to the computer lab and had them work on two different things about planning. Both of the programs were on waytogori.com. The first program was supposed to be used to help the students plan their high school classes from here on. The problem with that is that the students did not know the names of their classes which I found shocking. When I was in high school we had it drilled into us what classes we were taking. These students know that they are taking a language arts class but they do not know which one. This showed me yet another example of the difference between suburban schools and urban schools.
The second program we had the students use was a test that asked them a bunch of yes or no questions to decide a career they are good for. The questions rarely applied to the students and I do not understand how answering some pointless yes or no questions can decide somebody’s future career. This is another program which the urban kids are supposed to use but does not really prepare them for anything. It just tells them what career they should pursue but it does not help them in anyway start working to attain their goal. This is another example of how these urban students are not being prepared for life after high school.