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“Visitors to schools like these discover quickly the eviscerated meaning of the word, which is no longer a descriptor but a euphemism for a plainer word that has apparently become unspeakable.”
In this day and age when someone speaks about a school as being diverse, it is automatically understood that a large quantity of the students are Hispanic or African-American or anything with a very low quantity of Caucasian students. The word ‘segregated’ is being replaced with the word ‘diverse’ in what seems all segregated schools. Why is that, especially since the two words have opposite meanings? The fight for desegregation has been something long fought for and saying that a school is ‘segregated’ completely goes against the words from the past so ‘diverse’ seems to be the safe word in this situation. Why the word ‘diverse’ out of all the words to choose from? Maybe the intentions of the school is to be diverse, but ended up being steered in the wrong direction. Maybe labeling schools as a segregated school will bring back the past far too much so we hide this by labeling them as diverse schools. Yet, in a middle class suburban area where a school will most likely have a majority of Caucasian students we don’t say these schools are diverse.
“If you want to see a really segregated school in the United States today, start by looking for a school that’s named for Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks.”
The unbelievable truth of this quote is astounding and quite distressing; it’s painfully humorous as Kozol would say. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, all stood for the opposite of what’s happening with our school system today. The schools that are being named after these admirable human beings seem simply dishonorable as the title “Dishonoring the Dead” states. After reading about how diverse our “diverse” schools really are, they’re also being named after the people who would most likely contest these very schools if they were alive today? To make matters worse, the students in these very schools seem to not even know who these people are or what they did to deserve having a school named after them. Why are 86% of the students African-American and Hispanic in the Rosa Parks School in San Diego? Is this plainly because of the school’s name or is this because of the location of the school itself? This tends to be the case for all schools named after these famous activists.
“”This,” he told me, pointing to the garbage bag, then gesturing around him at the other indications of decay and disrepair one sees in ghetto schools much like it elsewhere, “would not happen to white children.””
This is preposterous to hear in the year 2010 after everything that’s been done to get where we are today; it makes it seem like we’ve backtracked and we are in the time where this all started. There are some great schools out there with a majority of the population being African-American or Hispanic that are far superior than some schools with a majority of Caucasian students. Yet, I’m sure when comparing all the schools throughout just the United States alone, it would unfortunately be the other way around as a whole. It’s disturbing to hear that any school would have decaying anything and this is not what children should have to be dealing with at their schools. It’s even more disturbing to hear children talk about the differences they see in their schools compared to others. Children at any age shouldn’t be concerned about what their school has or doesn’t have. Why wouldn’t something like this happen to Caucasian students?
“If we were forced to see these kids before our eyes each day, in all the fullness of their complicated and diverse and tenderly emerging personalities, as well as in their juvenile fragility, it would be harder to maintain this myth. Keeping them at a distance makes it easier.”
This quote reminds me of the saying “out of sight, out of mind.” It’s easier for a person to say no to something when they only hear bits and pieces of a story. When that person can actually see the story and live the story and feel the story, there’s more of an emotional connection and it’s no longer so easy to say no to something so easily accessible. If the nation can afford “clean places and green spaces” then why are there schools without these crucial needs? Why refuse a school filled with children ten and under a playground and clean rooms to learn in especially if the school five miles down the road has these plus more?
“It was like the Level Ones weren’t even there.”
People are told not to discriminate, judge one another, and they are told to accept everyone for who they are; at least this is how I was brought up both in school and at home. If a person is recognized for being the best of the best, that’s just fine. It’s when a person is recognized for not being the best or ignored for not being the best that problems occur. Students shouldn’t be called a “level one” or “level four” based on their capabilities in the classroom or while roaming the hallways; they should be called by their names, nothing else. This reminds me of a Dr. Suess quote, “A person’s a person no matter how small.” If someone is “small” or a “level one” they shouldn’t feel any less significant than any other child in the school building and the teachers most definitely should not treat them with any less importance. This, yet again, goes against what Martin Luther King and others fought for: equality. If students are being labeled and not treated equally in their elementary school classroom, how are these students going to end up when they grow older?
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“”My main feeling, 98 percent of my reaction to this methodology,” he told me flatly, “is that it’s horrific for the teachers and boring for the children…, an intellectual straightjacket.””
When I came across this statement, my mind repeatedly thought of Albert Cullum; a man who is well-known for making his classroom the complete opposite of what one would call boring. His students absolutely loved going to school and dreaded the days they had to stay home because they were sick. He made his teaching come alive so his students could really live throughout the school year. “An intellectual straightjacket” sounds like teaching that is slowly dying which is bringing the learning aspect along with it. It’s very easy to follow the rules and implement them in such a way that there’s a school filled with robot children. It seems as though the teachers are doing their jobs perfectly when students follow the rules like that, right? Just because the students are disciplined, does not mean they are learning.
Katrina,
ReplyDeleteI shared similar thoughts with you on what you said about how children should not have to deal with the worry and stress of the surroundings around them being disastrous. While reading these chapters, I also applied this same thought to children dealing with their own personal feelings of inferiority and inequality. I think as a whole, children in these situations are being forced to grow up too fast. It makes me wonder who they will become as they grow up into adults. Will these children become plagued by the things they see, the environment they live in or the stress of their everyday life? It makes me think of Mary Cowhey, who lived a hard life as a child but turned into a person who used those experiences to help teach children how to be people who care for others in the same way they would want to be cared for. Although this was one person who was able to turn her negative past into a positive one, I don't think every child will be able to do the same. How can we, as teachers, help those children who can't turn negative into positive?
As possible insight into your question about "why wouldn't that same thing happen to Caucasian students," one of my thoughts pertains to wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that our forefathers and most of our leading government officials throughout history were all Caucasian. As a nation, have we fallen into a way of life that automatically makes us look at a "white" person and want to take care of them first? I am not saying that we do it intentionally, but have we evolved into people who automatically look at life that way? Great question, it is one that involves a lot of thought and probably has more than one answer.
Kara, you are definitely right about the children growing up too fast. My cousin is the same age as my brothers, eleven years old. He's growing up in a house with some rough times here and there. He mows the lawn and uses the weed whacker, at the age of eleven. My brothers play with LEGO sets and use their imaginations to play. Don't get me wrong, it's amazing my little cousin can help out like that. But, he doesn't play anymore and he doesn't act like a little boy. I feel as though he's 11 going on 30 to be completely honest and it breaks my heart. We can only hope that these children, as they grow older, turn out to be somewhat like Mary Cowhey. If it wasn't for Mary Cowhey's experiences, she wouldn't be who she is today. It seems there are pros and cons to children growing up too fast.
ReplyDeleteAs a potential answer to your question, "How can we, as teachers, help those children who can't turn negative into positive" treat the children like children and not mini adults would be a great start in my book. Teachers expect a lot from children in school, but at the same time children can deliver it right back as long as it's encouraged the right way. Take Albert Cullum for example: children absolutely loved going to school because he made his class so enjoyable! It was a place where students could forget about their problems and just enjoy learning. People were astounded with how amazing the children acted in their plays, with such empathy and passion. People couldn't believe that such little children were reciting Shakespeare better than adults! This was because Albert Cullum delivered his teaching in such a way that it excited his students and they learned so much from him. Yes, it is a lot of work to go out of the box as Albert Cullum had, but isn't it worth it? Isn't it worth it to see a class of 30 children that are growing up to fast become children again, even if for only 6 hours a day?
Katrina,
ReplyDeleteI have also read about Albert Cullum and completely agree with what you say about how he did an excellent job letting his students be children but learn at the same time. Albert Cullum is also known as a transformative teacher, so doing things like plays and arts are an easy way for him to teach and let the children act like children at the same time. I worry about how teacher with different teaching styles would act if told to do things in the classroom that allow children to be children. For example, I cannot picture how an authoritative teacher could let a child have fun and act like a child, do you have any ideas? For the students who have these types of teachers, how would they be able to grow up with a positive view on the negative things happening around them. Without a good example to follow, how would they know to look past everything and become a better person for it?
I would enjoying having a classroom like Albert Cullum's class, but I know hardly anything about plays and acting. I feel as though I wouldn't be able to do something like that in my classroom either, just like most other teachers may feel. Teachers don't have to have their students create plays to make the class a fun environment, they just need to make lessons more interesting. I know it's hard to do something creative for everything, but it won't be so hard for the students to sit through a silent lesson if the rest of the class is fun learning.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was you that mentioned the other day in one of our classes something about remembering just the best of worst of school, nothing in between. Would you want to be that "in between" teacher? I think all teachers would like to be remembered as the best in their students eyes. If someone is going to be a teacher, they need to realize that it's no where near an easy job and the lives of students are in their hands. Wouldn't you want to mold them into something fabulous and not simply silence them? School should be a place where the students want to be and want to learn, not something they dread going to.