Walking in the hallways of the high school that I am volunteering in, I am constantly reminded of the schools that are brought up in Jonathan Kozl's article "Still Separate, Still Unequal: America's Educational Apartheid" in which he describes the black and Hispanic population in New York public schools. One school he mentions in particular is John F. Kennedy High School where 93% of students are Black or Hispanic and 3.5% are White. Upon looking up my own school, I found that the percentage for Black and Hispanic students was only 4% less, and there were only 1.5% more White students. In comparison to the 50% drop out rate in these Black and Hispanic dominating schools, only one in four of all students ends up dropping out in the one I attend. Seeing as how the school I attend only opened in 2002, I was able to look back to three years ago (to when the first class would be able to graduate in 2006 after four years) and noticed a 15% drop out rate and that in the school only 77% of students were Black or Hispanic. By 2007, this percentage of Black and Hispanic students rose to 83% and dropout rates almost doubled. At first glance the still new looking exterior with what seems to be normal looking classrooms (keeping in mind that what I see as "normal" is from the point of view of a student in a 97% all White school with an 11% drop out rate in a fairly well off suburban community), I thought that this school was an exception to Kozl's racially separate schools, but upon looking at the school's short history, a trend can be seen that may group this school into one of those that Kozl mentions as separate but still unequal.
In this high school, one out of every six students is currently taking an ESL class. From my own experience I have only seen students that are from French speaking Africa and Spanish speaking Latin America (the classroom is almost split evenly with a handful of extra Spanish speaking students compared to French speaking). Even though there is almost an even split, I can see a huge cultural difference between the two in the way they interact in the class.
The African students tend to be a lot quieter and more work oriented than the Hispanic students in the classroom. In mostly dealing with African students, I’ve noticed that there is probably a lot more fear in living in the States compared to that of the Latin students. Everywhere there are people who speak Spanish or even advertize in Spanish in South Providence, Olneyville, Manton, and many other sections of Providence. There are also many news channels and cable programs in Spanish while there is barely anything in French. I think there is a lot of available cultural information that they could offer to the classroom that would seem new and exciting to the Latin students. I believe that our society could be strengthened by telling these stories of immigrants’ home country, the move to America and the struggles in-between because it promotes understanding. If everyone was able to see things through someone else’s point-of-view there would be a lot less hate.
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Education and inequality in our schools is on the rise since urban school are resegregating.
ReplyDeleteEconomic times reflect in school budgets that are cut and never restored, reinstating the 'separate but equal' rationale of 'Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)' by the Supreme Court and perpetuating a 'dual' 'society'.(J.Kozol "Still Separate, Still Unequal" Harper's Magazine v311. n. 1864. September 1, 2005).
Early schooling opportunities differ economically and it reveals itself later when the children who did not receive the educational opportunities do poorly on tests and are not promoted to the next grade. We need to dissolve unequalities of children and the curriculum.
When Jonathan Kozol was at Rhode Island College Campus October 22, 2009, he spoke of 'boutique' schools used in studies to show inequality in the studies. He also spoke of how the average Black or Latino in the 12th grade has intelligence of a 7th grader. Those students are "sitting in subject-matter classes where they cannot comprehend the texts and cannot set down their ideas in the kind of sentences expected of most 4th or 5th graders in the suburbs." (J. Kozol. "Still Separate, Still Unequal.)
Dropout rates worsened for Blacks than Latinos. 65% of 9th grade Blacks and Latinos do not enter the 12th grade and do not graduate. (J. Kozol. "Still Separate, Still Unequal").
Lisa Delpit in the "Silenced Dialogue" explains five aspects of power of which includes issues of power (curriculum), rules for participating in power (ways to commmunicate and interact within the 'rules'), reflection of the rules of the culture to acquire success, explicit rules to acquire the power (acquiring power is easier if you participate and know the ways and rules), and if you have power you are less aware of it. Democratic pedagogy with expression of ideas and thoughts is needed in the classroom. Marginalized students need to understand explicit (precise rules put in a way they understand to succeed) and not 'veiled' commands (words that they do not understand).
Working with them to overcome learning difficulties through their own language style provide skills to achieve using communication. Students need extra time to learn the English language and to acquire content knowlege in school. (C. Goldenberg. "Teaching English Language Learners". American Educator/ Summer 2008. pp8-44.)