Essay 1 Draft 4
A teacher’s encouragement or punishment can determine a student’s academic success, or more—a student’s future. Both punishment and encouragement can help students gain academic success. Punishment makes students aware of their mistakes. Encouragement helps students have more confidence. However, neither punishment nor encouragement should be overused. Punishment should not be “cruel and unusual.” Excessive punishment can lead a student into a frustrating academic dead end. In contrast to excessive punishment, encouragement can raise a student’s interest and academic hope. To portray the overuse of punishment, I used my educational experience in Taiwan. To exemplify the proper use of encouragement, I used Escalante’s teaching in the film Stand and Deliver directcted by Ramon Menendez.
I would like to use my own personal story to explain this statement. When I was in seventh grade, I was in a junior high school in Taiwan. In the school I saw my classmates get their palms hit by a stick because they forgot to bring their textbooks to class. Even though I was considered a better student, I could not be exempted for certain punishments. One day, I was kept in school from four to five thirty p.m. because I had failed to put the definitions in the exact words on my vocabulary quiz. While I was staying in the classroom, I could hear the instructor’s complaints about how the clean up (for window, blackboard and etc.) had been poorly done. Suddenly those words became not only criticizing but cusses on students for a “spiritual torture they deserve.” After I finished reproducing my definitions of the vocabulary in the classroom, I left the school and went back home with a stack of assigned homework that was due the day after. As the teacher’s verbal insults and punishments became more and more frequent, I became more and more angry and frustrated. Because my father had had the same experience as I had, he told me to leave Taiwan and go to the U.S. for my education. My father and my mom took out the green cards they had had applied long ago and had an agreement— to have my two younger brothers and me immigrate to the U.S. After the end of that semester, my mother brought my two younger brothers and me to the U.S.
Unlike the teachers in my junior high school in Taiwan, Mr. Escalante, the math teacher at Garfield High School in L.A., motivates his students to learn math. By giving his students aid and encouragement, he transforms a group of misbehaved students into a dedicated math team. Also at the end of that year, all of Escalante’s AP Calculus students pass the AP exam. Back then only two percent of the high school students in the nation even attempted it. To encourage his students, he gives presents to his students. When Angel, an ex-gang member, does not have a textbook, Escalante not only gives him one but three. “One at home, one in the classroom, and one in your locker,” Escalante says to Angel. Another student, Ana, has a father who wants her to work as a waitress in the family-run- restaurant. Escalante promises Ana that this class can make her dream, going to college, come true. Escalante also teaches Poncho “you can do it.” Poncho learns that phrase when he solves the calculus problem on his own. In addition, the capability gives him confidence. When Lupe is exhausted in a hot classroom, he tells the class: give Lupe an orange. As a result of those words, she has orange pieces from everybody. Escalante’s words simply create a group full of compassion and love.
Escalante gives his students new lives by teaching them calculus. In contrast to hitting students for not bringing the textbook, Escalante gives three textbooks to Angel. Instead of giving mandatory cleanup work, he goes to persuade a parent to let his daughter go to college. Not giving discouraging punishment to a student who scores low, he makes that student passes the AP exam. Furthermore he makes the students stay in the class willingly. In Escalante’s class, the students are saved not condemned. In my classroom in Taiwan, it was the opposite.
Incentive is the key for success. In the film Stand and Deliver students work hard and dedicate themselves to the class because they want to score high on the AP exam. As a smart teacher, Mr. Escalante actually highlights the incentive and pushes his students to move toward the goal—passing the exam. Different from Mr. Escalante, my teachers in Taiwan actually focused on order and grade average of the entire class. They gave no incentives to individual students. Without incentives, students found no motivation for studying. Escalante uses encouragement and benefits to inspire students’ learning. My teachers only blamed students. These two examples show why encouragement works and punishment fails.
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