Personally I watched this video and it really opened my eyes to our education system and how there really is that unequal gap between public schools. Providing shocking statistics and interviewing reputable individuals, makes the film more credible. In general, Waiting for Superman really put things into perspective and motivates the viewer to take action and not allow for this corrupt education system affect another generation.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Journal #1
The Shame of the Nation -Journal 1 April 20, 2011
We all had some different assumptions coming into this book. I (Amanda) have read Kozol’s book Ordinary Resurrection, which he published about five years before The Shame of The Nation. Because I’ve read him before, I knew that I was in for another shock and that I would once again be ashamed to learn about how little value our country places on children from these apartheid communities and schools. I (Matt) came into this book knowing that schools in the inner city weren’t as reputable as the schools in the suburbs of Milwaukee, but reading the shocking statistics from the first few chapters of The Shame of the Nation really put things into perspective. For instance, in Milwaukee there is a school where black children make up 99 percent of the enrollment despite that it bears the name of Dr. Luther King Jr. Which leads me to the question: Why did the man who wanted to end segregation in the first place, have one of the most segregated schools in Wisconsin named after him? I (Caitlin) knew that inner-city schools were not the best. After reading just the introduction and the first three chapters I am extremely surprised to see that it is much worse than I expected. I find it shocking that some schools are 98% segregated or how the teachers will fix the art work to hang up. I also did not realize that these schools are so underfunded. I (Brittany) came into the book knowing some about segregated and lower income schools; I went to a school in Green Bay where the majority of the population was not white. Going to this school, I knew about the unfair treatment and assumptions of the public. However I was shocked to learn how segregated some schools were and how dangerous of conditions the kids were put in. I also was extremely shocked to learn that the adults that work as teachers are not certified in lower income schools. Finally I was very surprised by how drastic the amount of income to the schools differed from low income schools to middle and upper class schools.
Jonathan Kozol is a graduate of English Literature from Harvard. He first began working with children in 1964, when he became a fourth grade teacher in Boston, Massachusetts. He explains in his letter “To the Reader” that he has visited approximately 60 schools in 30 districts, in 11 different states where he was able to observe and talk with countless different students, teachers, and school administrators, and it is from his interviews and discussions with these individuals that he is able to make his most effective arguments and conclusions. He isn’t drawing his conclusions from research done by others; he is doing the research on his own and really getting a feel for what these kids go through. He has seen what they have seen and walked where they have walked, so he is, in a sense, telling their story for them, and nobody can argue with what these kids reveal about their realities. An excerpt on the book’s back cover declares, “Jonathan Kozol is a National Book Award-winning author of Death at an Early Age, Rachel and Her Children, Savage Inequalities, and Amazing Grace. He has been working with children in inner-city schools for more than 40 years.” He is a previously published and successful author who has gained a lot of respect in the world of education.
Before beginning to read this book, most of us didn’t know that the education we have received thus far isn’t something that every American kid gets to experience. In our Midwestern high schools, administrators didn’t have to worry about the percentages of graduates they would have every spring. Recess was something that that all of us looked forward to after lunch; we had experienced teachers who didn’t have to follow a strict curriculum in fear of losing their jobs; there was a chair for every student in our classrooms… classrooms that didn’t have bolted up windows or collapsing ceilings. The most important thing we have learned from this book so far is that our education isn’t something we should take for granted.
We all had some different assumptions coming into this book. I (Amanda) have read Kozol’s book Ordinary Resurrection, which he published about five years before The Shame of The Nation. Because I’ve read him before, I knew that I was in for another shock and that I would once again be ashamed to learn about how little value our country places on children from these apartheid communities and schools. I (Matt) came into this book knowing that schools in the inner city weren’t as reputable as the schools in the suburbs of Milwaukee, but reading the shocking statistics from the first few chapters of The Shame of the Nation really put things into perspective. For instance, in Milwaukee there is a school where black children make up 99 percent of the enrollment despite that it bears the name of Dr. Luther King Jr. Which leads me to the question: Why did the man who wanted to end segregation in the first place, have one of the most segregated schools in Wisconsin named after him? I (Caitlin) knew that inner-city schools were not the best. After reading just the introduction and the first three chapters I am extremely surprised to see that it is much worse than I expected. I find it shocking that some schools are 98% segregated or how the teachers will fix the art work to hang up. I also did not realize that these schools are so underfunded. I (Brittany) came into the book knowing some about segregated and lower income schools; I went to a school in Green Bay where the majority of the population was not white. Going to this school, I knew about the unfair treatment and assumptions of the public. However I was shocked to learn how segregated some schools were and how dangerous of conditions the kids were put in. I also was extremely shocked to learn that the adults that work as teachers are not certified in lower income schools. Finally I was very surprised by how drastic the amount of income to the schools differed from low income schools to middle and upper class schools.
Jonathan Kozol is a graduate of English Literature from Harvard. He first began working with children in 1964, when he became a fourth grade teacher in Boston, Massachusetts. He explains in his letter “To the Reader” that he has visited approximately 60 schools in 30 districts, in 11 different states where he was able to observe and talk with countless different students, teachers, and school administrators, and it is from his interviews and discussions with these individuals that he is able to make his most effective arguments and conclusions. He isn’t drawing his conclusions from research done by others; he is doing the research on his own and really getting a feel for what these kids go through. He has seen what they have seen and walked where they have walked, so he is, in a sense, telling their story for them, and nobody can argue with what these kids reveal about their realities. An excerpt on the book’s back cover declares, “Jonathan Kozol is a National Book Award-winning author of Death at an Early Age, Rachel and Her Children, Savage Inequalities, and Amazing Grace. He has been working with children in inner-city schools for more than 40 years.” He is a previously published and successful author who has gained a lot of respect in the world of education.
Before beginning to read this book, most of us didn’t know that the education we have received thus far isn’t something that every American kid gets to experience. In our Midwestern high schools, administrators didn’t have to worry about the percentages of graduates they would have every spring. Recess was something that that all of us looked forward to after lunch; we had experienced teachers who didn’t have to follow a strict curriculum in fear of losing their jobs; there was a chair for every student in our classrooms… classrooms that didn’t have bolted up windows or collapsing ceilings. The most important thing we have learned from this book so far is that our education isn’t something we should take for granted.
Obama Administration Revision Plan for "No Child Left Behind"
Published by The Washington Post, this article expresses the advantages as well as risks of revising the “No Child Left Behind” Act and how the Obama administration will modify it to help close the achievement gaps. Requiring a lot of funding Obama is asking Congress and taxpayers to fund the biggest increase ever requested for elementary and secondary education programs (up to $4 billion). Critics and politicians may feel a little skeptical on how this might work but the proposals do appear to target key defects in the act. In a sense this helps provide insight on how the government is trying to find a solution to a very broken education system.
Anderson, Nick. "Administration pushes to rework No Child Left Behind law." Washington Post. January 2010. Web. 21 April 2011.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Chapter 3 Graphic Organizer
Chapter 3- The Ordering Regime
These quotes effectively summarize this chapter. The number one goal for these schools is for the students to do well on the placement exams so that the school will be given more money. They end up structuring the children’s learning so much that it metaphorically strangles not only the kids, but also the teachers who aren’t permitted to teach any information that won’t benefit the students when they take the exams.
These quotes effectively summarize this chapter. The number one goal for these schools is for the students to do well on the placement exams so that the school will be given more money. They end up structuring the children’s learning so much that it metaphorically strangles not only the kids, but also the teachers who aren’t permitted to teach any information that won’t benefit the students when they take the exams. Chapter 2 Graphic Organizer
Chapter 2- Hitting Them Hardest When They're Small
This chapter discusses how underprivileged children in Apartheid school districts are. A small percentage receives the pre-schooling that most middle-class children have easy access to. When they are finally able to attend school, most have to deal with overcrowding, inexperienced teachers, and a lack of resources (some don’t even have libraries). Even after all of this, these kids must take and pass the same placement tests administered to the children who have had access to quality education since the age of three. Kozol notes how difficult it is for kids to succeed under these conditions and that those who do are considered to have "heroic" qualities.
Summary of Chapter 2 and 3
Chapter 2 illustrates how corrupt our education system is in our nation and how all children are not offered the same equal opportunity to a good education. Jonathan Kozol further emphasizes on the inequalities of education funding in the nation and describes how the wealthy are unwilling to throw in money into failing school because they figure, “what’s the point?” He also compares inner city schools possessing characteristics of a totalitarian government or an atmosphere similar to that of a prison. He also iterates the fact that even when the economy and financial markets soar, none of the proceeds go to serve the schools of the poor, where school building’s window frames are rotting and glass panels are falling into the street.
Chapter 3 further emphasizes how different inner city schools are compared to suburban schools. Kozol describes inner city schools as “embracing pedagogy of direct command and absolute control….the teacher who is the stimulus and the students who respond” (64). He provides an example of when he visited a P.S. 65 school in the South Bronx, describing the silent lunches being instituted in the cafeteria and sometimes even at recess! Even in the classroom if a child were to interrupt or make any sort of distraction, the teacher would make a swift gesture with his or her hand to silent the children. Kozol described it as a “strange salute the teachers gave to the class.” Furthermore, all of the students are divided into 4 levels that separate each other based on their grades and how well they abide by the rules. The students are even assessed on “the way they march along the corridors.” From this notion, he wants to illustrate that schools like P.S. 65 discourage and humiliate their students.
Chapter 2 and 3 vocabulary builder
In this section I had a hard time finding ten vocabulary words, so instead I did the job of article finder. The link for the article, that I felt related to this section is posted below:
http://www.edtrust.org/dc/press-room/press-release/funding-gap-2005-most-states-shortchange-poor-and-minority-students
One of the main themes of these chapters was how unequal school funding was for schools in areas of rich and impoverished areas. The article states that when you compare the funding gap between high and low income districts the difference is over$1,400 per student. The article also states that around 38 of the states experience this difference in funding. One of the main reasons we need to pay attention to this is that our children are supposed to receive, equal education. How can a child receive an equal education when $1,400 less is being spent on them ? Children are not receiving the same quality of education, or experiences that other children are that come from higher income families. Sadly, the majority of impoverished districts are populated heavily with Hispanics and African Americans. This in fact proves that segregated schools are definitely not "separate but equal." Another fact that is disheartening, is that children that come from impoverished families need the most help from the school but are receiving the littlest help. The public needs to become aware of this, and our nation needs to fix this discrimination against impoverished families.
http://www.edtrust.org/dc/press-room/press-release/funding-gap-2005-most-states-shortchange-poor-and-minority-students
One of the main themes of these chapters was how unequal school funding was for schools in areas of rich and impoverished areas. The article states that when you compare the funding gap between high and low income districts the difference is over$1,400 per student. The article also states that around 38 of the states experience this difference in funding. One of the main reasons we need to pay attention to this is that our children are supposed to receive, equal education. How can a child receive an equal education when $1,400 less is being spent on them ? Children are not receiving the same quality of education, or experiences that other children are that come from higher income families. Sadly, the majority of impoverished districts are populated heavily with Hispanics and African Americans. This in fact proves that segregated schools are definitely not "separate but equal." Another fact that is disheartening, is that children that come from impoverished families need the most help from the school but are receiving the littlest help. The public needs to become aware of this, and our nation needs to fix this discrimination against impoverished families.
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