There are biological factors such as genetics and evolution involved with my educational irresponsibility. There have been many college studies proving that the mast majority of lazy students reside from the US. Students from abroad were more likely to come in for extra help, take vigorous notes, and manage there time wisely. Even though some had trouble speaking English and understanding lectures, they still made great effort and were successful in the class. Americans on the other hand, were more likely to text during class, come to class exhausted, and refuse to take notes. They showed less willingness to learn which brought up the following question: are Americans lazy by genetics? Given the information stated above, that would seem most logical; however, Teresa Talbot, a veteran of Utah’s public schools stated the following, "The main problem with our education system today is not what is taught, where it is taught, by whom it is taught or how it is taught." She says instead that the students downright refuse to put in the work. Some evidence supporting this claim is that teachers from schools would have to lessen curriculum to give students time in class to finish work that was supposed to be done at home. When attempting new strategies to motivate these students, they would still refuse to attempt the work since the strategies were foreign to them they decided not to attempt the work at all. The students would then blame their lack of knowledge on teachers, parents, or on fellow students. This provides no clear solution and leaves the students still negligent. So what is the answer? Another study says that laziness is a gene. It states that some rats have been found to have it. The study involved having rats put in cages with running wheels; they then divided the rats in half having the fitter rats breed with fit rats and the lazy rats breed amongst lazy rats. They continued to breed selectively (artificial selection) in this manner for ten generations. The rats bred from the fitter side were ten times more likely to run than the rats from the lazy side. In order to interpret the data, the scientists observed the mitochondria levels (cells’ energy-making structure) of the two groups of rats. They found small differences in the body composition and mitochondria levels in the muscle cells, but the main difference they identified was the genetic difference between the two lines of rats. Michael Roberts, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine stated, "Out of more than 17,000 different genes in one part of the brain, we identified 36 genes that may play a role in predisposition to physical activity motivation." In a past study with mice, they found two genes that when turned off, turned active mice into lazy mice. When linking this to humans, it makes perfect sense. This explains why adolescent youth has a genetic predisposition for educational irresponsibility.  They don’t have the will to learn because they are genetically unable to do so. Like the lazy rats, today’s youth suffers from the lazy gene, which saps their will and prevents them from extending their knowledge.

Evolution is a process of genetic change of a population over time. From an evolutionary standpoint, the advantage of being educationally irresponsible is that eventually your lazy gene will spread throughout the population, causing the population to evolve into incompetent beings. Organisms need to evolve in order to survive; if you don’t survive and reproduce your organism will go extinct. So technically speaking, if you are educationally irresponsible, you are evolving and surviving. From a normal standpoint, there are no advantages of being educationally irresponsible because you are only robbing yourself of your maximum potential.

Even though genetics are a big role in educational irresponsibility, I believe the environment you are raised in is equally important. Even if you are educationally irresponsible by genetics, if your learning environment is motivational and encouraging, it is possible to change into a productive person. I also believe that if you are genetically productive by birth, you can become educationally irresponsible if your learning environment is that way. Likewise, these traits can be passed down from your predecessors if the traits are dominant (AA or Aa).

The Hawaiians of old were not an irresponsible culture. They were raised with the mindsets that they must take care of and respect the land, and the land would do the same to them. They were indigenous, productive, hard-working people. Educational irresponsibility was not a problem with them, because it wasn’t an option for them. They knew what their kuleana was, and they performed their duties. Genetically, they probably had the ideal genes in terms of getting things done. Uncle Kiani shared the term, “Nalewalu” with the students. The term referred to the Nalewalu people, who starved because they stood in the shade while the others worked. The same idea is happening amongst the adolescent youth of today’s society. There are too many of us standing in the shade and not enough working in the mala. Our Hawaiian ancestors would have never tolerated this behavior. They would have stoned us to death for such insolence. We are Hawaiian, which means that deep down there are productive genes within us that are waiting to be used. For the sake of our school and for the sake of our culture, we need to rid of our educational irresponsibility and fulfill our duties as a student and as a Hawaiian.

Mr. Patino’s course does not promote educational irresponsibility. If anything, it promotes the opposite. Since he uses an even distribution scale rather than a 100 point grading scale, it allows students second chances so if they attempt an assignment but fall short, there is always another opportunity for redemption. When I fell behind due to a missed assignment, I was able to bounce back quickly due to the even distribution scale. He also posts all assignments on BlackBoard, so we can access the current assignment and future assignments at all times. In this sense, there should be no excuse for unfulfilled assignments because they are all on BlackBoard and they are all easily accessible. Everything is located under the “What is due” tab on BlackBoard. Mr. Patino also based his final grades on 95% assessment, which gives an accurate depiction of what you know on his class. If he put too much emphasis on homework assignments, students could copy each others work and their grade would be an inaccurate reflection of what they truly know. In this way, students will be able to showcase the knowledge they have, not what their classmate has. Mr. Patino provides diverse assignments so we can demonstrate out learning in the best possible way. Are you an artistic person rather than a test person? No problem! He offers assignments where you can present your knowledge via crafts! If you prefer oral assessments, he offers those as well. This way, you are able to truly show what you’ve learned in his class. Mr. Patino is very flexible; he can change deadlines if he feels that we need more time to turn in a good assignment. For example, when we had a presenter come in to share their knowledge with the class, he extended the deadline of a previously given assignment so we could include information from that presentation. He also provides quick feedback on our BioBlogs so we can learn from our mistakes and turn in better work the next time. His feedback is very detailed and tells us exactly what we need to do in order to earn an A. Best of all, Mr. Patino has taught us the importance of using metacognitive skills. In most classes, you might take a test based on the terms you learned in class. Mr. Patino, however, encourages us to think metacognitively, or to use our prior knowledge in order to solve real world problems. It is much better than regular learning because it actually puts your knowledge to the test and encourages divergent thinking. Since you are solving actual problems, it makes learning more fun, thus helping us to retain all of the information. If all of the previously stated claims are true, then there should be no reason for educational irresponsibility in Mr. Patino’s classes. He gives multiple ways to express your knowledge and multiple chances to do so. His grading scale is beneficial and his feedback is helpful. His teaching style promotes better thinkers. An explanation for why educational irresponsibility still exists in his classes is unfathomable. My reasoning is because those students who are that way have always been that way before they ever entered his classroom. Educational irresponsibility was already habitual at that point. Mr. Patino tried valiantly to change their ways. At this point, he’s done all that he can, and he did a fine job indeed. He has changed the ways of many of his students; and for those that he hasn’t, it may just be genetics. Educational irresponsibility is neither a condition nor a demonstration of one’s intellect; it is a choice. In the end, it is solely up to that person whether or not he decides to change.

A viable solution for teachers to fixing educational irresponsibility is to change their curriculum so it reflects that of Mr. Patino. Mr. Patino’s teaching method is the best way to change one’s habitual irresponsibility. He uses fantastic practices that I have stated in the section above. He not only promotes educational responsibility, but he also aids in the evolution of a student’s life practices. Mr. Patino helps students to mature into adults by preparing them for the cruel world that lies ahead. He’s taught us how to solve problems using our metacognitive skills and how to apply our knowledge to solve real world problems. I believe that this is the best way to rid of educational irresponsibility. Even though eliminating educational irresponsibility completely is near impossible, Mr. Patino’s teaching practices are the most viable way to do so.

The presenters that shared their mana’o in our Biology class have given me a lot of knowledge about taro plants. Our first presenter, Dr. Miyasaka, taught us about taro leaf blight, an epidemic that destroys the taro leaf. Common symptoms are water spots on the leaves. The spots start on the outside of the leaf and works its way towards the middle. Some possible solutions are genetic engineering and selective breeding (artificial selection). With genetic engineering, we can transfer disease resistance genes into the taro, thus making it less susceptible to TLB. If we transfer oxalate oxidase genes into the taro it will break down oxalate into hydrogen peroxide, thus making the taro disease resistant. Another possible solution to this problem is conventional breeding. We can breed the taro with other taro that has the qualities we desire. Through artificial selection, we can create a disease resistant taro in this manner. Using this method is not as accurate because when you breed two different types of taro together you don’t know which qualities you will get. But once you get your desired qualities, you can continue to breed the taro through asexual breeding so they stay uniform. The three taro varieties with the highest resistance to TLB are Ele’ele Makkoko, Hapuu, and Kalalau. This is important because if we are going to breed through conventional breeding we should breed the taro that has a high resistance to TLB.

Our second presenter, Mr. Bernabe, talked about pollenating taro to create different varieties. He said that they take the male pollen and put it in the female pollen. Within a couple days the seeds become pollinated and it gives off hundreds of seeds that you can plant. He also talked about the history of taro. He said that in ancient times, Hawaiians would modify the taro to their benefit. Back then, there was roughly 300 different species of taro. Today, there is less than half that. He also discussed cross breeding taro to create a disease resistant super kalo.

The two presenters related to what we learned in Biology class because they talked about evolution in kalo. In class we learned about artificial selection, breeding to get the traits you desire. This relates to the taro because farmers use artificial selection to rid of all the bad viruses such as TLB. TLB is like a pathogen, a virus that hurts the leaves of the taro. This is similar to what we learned about pathogens affecting the immune system. We also learned about different forms of reproduction, similar to the reproduction process that involves pollenating taro.

Former education is responsible for my domestication. Today’s teachers are brainwashing the children of the future. Instructors use false strategies in an attempt to teach students the subject matter. Some of these strategies are endless lectures, uninteresting course matter, and no problem based learning. Regardless of what they learn throughout the course of the class, they will be unable to put their learning into real life situations. Students don’t learn how to apply their learning in the real world, which defeats the purpose of learning the information in the first place. We have come to accept this fact and continue to accept the teaching methods in order to get a good grade. This is what makes us domesticated; the fact that we don’t think about applying our knowledge but we only care about our grade. In math for example, we learn complicated formulas that seem to provide little use in the real world. We don’t seem to care because as long as we do the work we get a good grade. We have been manipulated, also known as Human domestication. Since humans are constantly evolving, we need to shift the evolution in our favor. My solution would be to teach children how to deal with real life problems and give them knowledge that they will need in the world. Teachers can use problem based learning to teach their students. This will increase problem-solving abilities, allowing them to retain previous knowledge by applying what they’ve learned. I think this will help them learn because by solving these problems learning may come easier which will make it more fun, allowing the knowledge to stick. This solution if executed correctly will be able to reverse the domestication.