Denise Clark Pope's Doing School

In the article “Doing School” by Denise Clark Pope , a senior lecturer and alumni at Stanford Graduate School of Education, Pope explains her thoughts and research on different school dynamics and what kind of students they are producing. First of all, what does “Doing school” even mean? According to Pope, Doing school is a term she uses for students and teachers finding ways to succeed without putting forth as much effort. Likewise most students are achieving high test scores and grades, but at what cost? Health, Social, and Mental stability is being sacrificed for the sake of what we consider “succeeding”. Pope also explains how this issue goes beyond the inside of schools. For some children, pressure for success has already begun before they are even born. Parents are willing to do anything to help their child acquire the “best” education and end with the most success. With that being said it is very hard for most students to live up to these standards. For this experiment Pope followed three students from Faircrest High through daily life as a highschooler and came to these following conclusions.

One of the most important aspects of …show more content…
She states “ … high school curriculum has also remained virtually the same over the past few decades…”; this leads to many cracks in the system. Our students and research has evolved so why hasn't our curriculum? Since it was created many loopholes and cheats have been found and passed down. Students have also learned to kiss up and form treaties in order to gain the most success with the least amount of work. Conversely, most of these behaviors are unwanted and unnoticed by the students. They have just become habits of what is needed to succeed. Students feel they have no choice in the matter for which they will fall behind or fail if they do not use these “management