I don’t think that school is equitable, and here is why; I grew up on the west side of San Antonio, which is composed of mostly Latinos and African Americans. The elementary school I attended lacked a lot of resources and it had the image of a prison. Windows had bars and the lights were dimmed and almost yellow, you can easily tell the school needed reshaping. However, it took a while for funding to be received so the school could be rebuilt. Middle school wasn’t any different, no windows at all, classes lacked material, most of the books and computers were old which made it hard to handle them and learn. The second I stepped in an all-white school while taking a trip to visit a family friend, I noticed that the school was bright with open windows and it smelt fresh, you can actually tell it was a school, many students carried textbooks that looked brand new. This was the first time I became fully aware about white privilege.
Another issue I noticed is that expectations on academic performance are lower for other races and higher for the white race. I think that for a school to be equitable there needs to be more funding given to school districts that are racially diverse and create a better curriculum and have an equal set of set of expectations for everyone. I think that there should be more diversity within our education system in terms of teachers and classes that teach about other cultures. As a future educator I look forward to the day when all schools we equal for everyone.
Hi Alex, I enjoyed reading your post. I'm sorry to hear that the schools you attended felt and looked like a prison. I couldn't imagine not having windows in a classroom, I would feel trapped. I loved to look out and see the rain and the wind blowing the trees. Most of the textbooks I received had been damaged by the past users writing and drawing in them. Our computers weren't the best either, there were keys missing on the keyboard and sometimes the mouses would get stolen. My middle school barely had any windows and the ceiling was so short it felt like you were walking around in a small box. I can understand why you think schools aren't equitable, just by hearing about your experiences in school. I agree that schools that are racially diverse need more funding and should have the same standards for every student's academic performance.
ReplyDeleteHi Hailey thank you so much for your reply, I definitely had a hard time learning in those environments but thankfully I was able to make it work and it really motivated to become an educator and set a goal for myself on how I want my classroom to be like even if I have to get funds from my own pocket. I hope that our education system improves by the time we become teachers and we can provide our students the best education.
DeleteThis is an amazing post! I really enjoyed how you took your own experience and was able to talk about equity in schools from a personal stand point. When living in low income areas it is hard to receive funding for student but the initial feeling of a school should never give off "prison". If we want students to learn an environment that promotes happy spaces and constructive learning is key. My middle school was old, it needed updating but they used resources to add things into the classrooms that would benefit students in the classroom rather than try to make the school look like it belonged in a Hollywood movie. The same thing happened at my high school, we didn't have class trips or fun things during school hours but we did have better resources for students. I also loved how you touched on academic expectations, we absolutely need to have equal expectations for students but I feel they need to be reasonable because we often overlook the students who don't excel in certain subjects or school in general but still expect them to meet this exceeding standard when they don't have the resources to do so.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristin thank you so much for your reply and for sharing your own experiences with me, I definitely had a hard time learning in those environments especially when there was no expectation set for me, but thankfully I was able to make it work and it really motivated to become an educator and set a goal for myself on how I want my classroom to be like even if I have to get funds from my own pocket. I hope that our education system improves by the time we become teachers and we can provide our students the best education.
DeleteHello Alexis,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed getting to read your personal insight on the inequity in our schools. I also grew up in a more poor school district, as compared to our neighboring district which encompassed the highly affluent north-metro Atlanta area. I had friends who attended these schools that I made through church, and they provided me with an idea of what it was like to attend their schools. Overall, their schools were much larger and newer than ours, they offered more AP classes and extracurricular activities, and they had better facilities. I thought it was pretty unfair how nice their schools were compared to ours which were only a 20 minute drive down the interstate. Something where I noticed our situations are different is that our predicament was situated less on race, and more around socioeconomic status. Our school was in large majority white, but they were mostly either farmers or people who lived in trailer parks. I will note, that because our school was majority white, we did see a huge issue with unequal educational standards across different races as you noted in your entry. I took a couple of honors classes, and I noticed that most of my peers were white. There were not too many POC individuals in the classes. Obviously more of them belonged in those classes with me, but they were deprived that opportunity. Being in a predominantly white school, the teaching had not really been catered to their cultural needs, so they never had the chance to properly showcase their abilities. We essentially doomed them from having an equitable education by failing to be culturally conscious in our teachings from the start.
Hi Alex! Your post really resonated with me, and reminded me of a really Interesting and eye opening article I read for another class called “Still separate, Still unequal” where it basically described the same experience you had in your own school in the sense that to this day there remains a vast difference in the resources, opportunities, and cleanliness between public schools. Today public schools are accessible to all, but that doesn’t mean they provide the same experience to our youth. I totally understand why you feel that schools are not equitable, because you got to feel what its like to go without. And thats not fair to you or all of the other students. It’s not fair that you had to suffer the consequences of something you couldn’t control, such as funding. I think society, us as future teachers, and representatives of government should continue to fight for our schools and for our future generations to never go without resources and opportunities such as textbooks, technology, playground equipments, extracurricular classes, etc, in their schools. Education funding should be held at utmost importance, because we can’t expect our students to want to learn, grow, and be better for their world if their own school doesn’t reflect back those values!
ReplyDeleteHi Faith thank you so much for your reply, I definitely had a hard time learning in those environments but thankfully I was able to make it work and it really motivated to become an educator and set a goal for myself on how I want my classroom to be like even if I have to get funds from my own pocket. I hope that our education system improves by the time we become teachers and we can provide our students the best education. I will definitely be looking into that article, i think there is still a lot to learn but we will definitely gain the knowledge to become successful as teachers.
DeleteHi Alex,
ReplyDeleteYour post was very eye opening for me. I went to a majority white high school and while the building itself was in very much need of renovations, as most of it was concrete, it was not the same experience it seemed you had. I think that this is an eye opening thing to talk about because it is definitely true in the fact that in most places where the poverty line is low, the school tends to not be well funded or taken care of and the drop out rate tends to be high. You post reminded me that it is a reminder that systemic racism and classism still very much remains today and is still a very real problem that has not gone away. It is far within our education system and the example you provided has proved this. Yes I agree with you, schools are not equitable. In fact they are far from it.