Kendall O’Neill

3/1/13

Visual analysis

Second draft

Charter Schools: Better or Worse than Public Schools and Why

 

Charter schools lay between public and private school. While they are public there are many tendencies that make them lean more towards a private styled education. While charter schools cater towards minorities and those of lower socioeconomic class, one must enter a lottery to be selected and enrolled. Charter schools also have more leeway with how teachers choose to teach. Charter schools are excused from district school regulations with the promise of high performance achievement. Because of this, teachers are able to teach as they see best for the communities needs and are able to teach the curriculum how they prefer as long as the curriculum is taught and understood at the highest level. Some people believe that charter schools take from public school. They believe that since opening charter schools, education funding has been misguided and should be focusing on bettering existing public schools, not creating new charter schools.

In this imagine you can see a man holding a box with a speech bubble saying “Today we lay the corner stone of the new charter school…”Behind him you can see a building that is falling apart. The windows are broken, the side of the building is cracked and on it reads a plaque ‘Public Education System’. You can see that the building is no longer sitting on the ground correctly and that the man holding the box has taken part of the foundation. In comparison to the rest of the building, the ‘cornerstone’ that the man is holding is much larger than the other bricks.

The illustrator wanted the building to be deteriorating because he wants to show how taking one of the public education major building blocks will cause it to crumble. The box the man is holding is bigger than the rest to show its importance. The box represents everything charter schools take from public school to open. By saying “Today we lay the cornerstone of our new charter school…” symbolizes that he is naïve and oblivious to the repercussion of his actions.

The illustrator is trying to say several things with this political cartoon. First of all taking from public education will cause it to crash and burn. We must invest into the public education instead of focusing on charter schools. I believe the box represents public funding and teachers being relocated. Because the man is walking away with the ‘cornerstone’ and doesn’t look back means he is arrogant of the damage he is causing. He clearly has no idea of what he has started by taking the foundation of public education.

In this second photograph you see student are in a classroom. You see the kids doing a variety of activities. The focus of this picture is a kid kneeling and playing with Legos. You see a kid in the background playing with a train track set, next to him you see a boy playing with a building block set. In the background you see kids focusing on something they are doing on one of the desks. In the very back of the classroom you see a bookshelf holding other activities and classroom materials. You see that the desks have been moved out of the way to give kids ample room.

You see that the boy in the front of the picture is grinning from ear to ear you can tell that he is happy with what he has created and is having a good time doing so. The boy playing with the train track set is working diligently to create a course he is satisfied with. The boy playing with the building blocks seems like he just knocked over whatever he was building because of the thrown blocks across the room. You can tell that he either didn’t like what he previously built or is ready to start his new project.            

            In this picture the photographer is trying to say it is important for kids to be kids. While they are playing, they are also learning how to be creative and express themselves. While the kid could have built a perfect square you see the abstract creation that has empty sections in the middle and extends far on the right side and tall on the left. Like Legos, teachers have the ability to be innovative and creative in their teachings. They don’t have to stick to the mold and can use any technique to get their point across. The kids in the back playing with the train track and building blocks, while they are assembling and creating they are using different tools and sets to learn the same point. All students learn differently and shouldn’t be forced to all learn using the same materials if they are more interested in others.

While some are for and some are against there are many pros and cons for creating charter school. Some people are angry and think that if we focused more time and energy into already existing public schools rather than rerouting funding and teachers to charter schools, we wouldn’t need charter schools to begin with. However, others believe that charter schools are the reform the American public education needs. With the freedom to teach outside of the district guidelines, the possibilities of innovation and creativity in different forms of education, the possibilities could be endless.

 

 

 

 

 

Work cited

 

Image one: http://www.ppta.org.nz/index.php/blog-pigeonhole/tags/Catherine-Isaac/?start=5

 

Image two: http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/2012/05/29/non-profit-education-was-growing-in-indiana-before-charter-voucher-laws/