Thursday, October 29, 2009

Inequality in Schools Based on Race and Social Class

Article : http://swirlinc.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/separate-and-unequal-a-structural-analysis-of-educational-inequality-in-america/

A child must not feel powerless. However, the American school system has provided a structure of social inequality that acts as a barrier for intellectual growth. As mentioned in the article, students of low socioeconomic status must cope with the loss of motivation and the injustices of poor housing, economic hardships, and unemployment. The educational institutions in their neighborhoods only further their disenfranchisement as the infrastructure, the resources, and the attention given to the students is minimal because in the eyes of society that’s what they deserve. Their lives are labeled by words and actions of failure. So since whiteness works, the rest should just bear with it? The 21st century is reproducing historic calamities such as segregation and discrimination in a manner that goes unnoticed, but defines itself in the way our organizations work. The Latinos and Blacks are left with shattered hopes. Thus, they’re shoved to feel like outsiders, a position where they don’t threaten the privileges available to the affluent Whites.
Moreover, the students are not only battered by poverty and crime at home but in the only place that can serve as a shelter they’re confronted with a deaf and blind educational system. Instead of white walls they have graffiti, instead of hardwood floors they have cracks and mildew, instead of books and computers they’re given the minimum. They’re seen as the minimum. Their possibilities to advance or even believe in the ideals of school are viewed as unreachable because of the concept Anyon discusses as the “social stratification of knowledge.” Although their teachers adjust the pedagogy to them, these educators are also constrained by the lack of available resources from the government and most of the time they take out of their own pockets to have posters on their walls or markers in a classroom. The effort to end the inequality of school funding is not present in America.
I ask myself, how can race or social class be sufficient to deny a child from something so valuable? For instance, the attached video titled “A Tale of Two Schools” reflects this imbalance. The Black teen questions what makes him unworthy of having the same materials and opportunities as the white school across the street, because unquestionably they are all students. The disadvantaged are conscious of the monetary benefits that other schools receive in the form of funding and unfortunately they adapt to how others perceive them. It’s disheartening to think that a child walks to school with the mindset that he might not have enough lunch money or that his class doesn’t have the money for a fieldtrip. It’s even more disheartening that they internalize a passive acceptance for this situation. Even when they do protest, their voices are heard, but the ignorance of a society that works triumphs.

Video:


Article#1:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/nyregion/08specialized.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2
Article#2: http://www.wrcbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10379911
Article#3: http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/americas/mexico/side1.html

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