Sonia Nieto made an excellent point in her passage, “Racism, Discrimination, and Expectations on Students’ Achievement” that individuals of lower economic status should not blame their educational problems on the dominate cultural or race. It is more difficult for people of low socio-economic backgrounds to succeed due to their limited resources, but it is still possible. When someone is determined to succeed he/she will not be deterred by anyone. A determined goal-oriented person is unstoppable.
Every human being is discriminated against in some manner. For instance, my hometown is Ashtabula, Ohio, where there is little to no economic development. About a year ago, I was introduced to Dan, my boyfriend’s friend. Dan asked where I was from and so I said, “Ashtabula, Ohio.” To my shock, he immediately laughed. I did not feel it was appropriate for me to ask him why he laughed. A few weeks later, we meet again, and I made a comment referring to Ashtabula and he laughed again. This time I asked him why he laughed: he stated, “Trashtabula.” From this reference, I felt as if he was calling me trash. I was immediately offended. As the discussion deepened, he asked where I was going for graduate school. When I had said, “John Carroll University” he was floored: imagine, a person from Ashtabula, Ohio capable of achieving a masters degree from John Carroll.
This example portrays why it is so important not to point the finger at any one group for our current educational problems. It would be more beneficial to have explorative discussions to improve the educational system for everyone. Everyone needs to examine how they contribute to the continuation of stereotypes and bias. These topics need to be address in the media and in schools across this nation. This will only occur if we determine this is a serious problem.
This depends on how you define "success." Do you mean just making it through the system? Or do you mean eventually becoming a scholarly individual? The latter is difficult to do no matter where you grew up. George Bush had all of the education that one could possibly ask for handed to him, but I do not consider him scholarly. Many of us, on the other hand, did not have Bush's resources, but I think most graduate students in education are scholarly individuals.
ReplyDeleteIn either case, I can agree with this insight. It is harder to succeed in comparison to the schools with better resources, but it is still quite possible. I do not think that most real thinking skills in students become present until maybe the third or last year of college. Everything until then seems to be more of the same inertial thoughts being presented to students.
By the way, Ashtabula is not as bad as people think; the girl I dated as an undergraduate went to school there, and things were not that bad, from what I understand. Imagine trying to teach your subject without ANY budget. No textbooks. No computers. No chalk. Nothing that does not come out of your own pocket. There exist many schools that experience constraints not too different from this one. The job as a teacher becomes much more difficult.
Aaron makes a good point inquiring about what exactly defines "success:" Scholarly intellect or making it through the system? In most cases, I have found, it takes one to achieve the other. However there are always instances where that is not necessarily the case. George Bush is an interesting example.
ReplyDeleteIt is so astounding and horribly upsetting how everyone has found a way to relate to this chapter. On one hand, we can take these experiences and turn them into something positive knowing what it feels like to be discriminated against. On the other hand, how devastating that the world we live in has made every single shape, size, color, gender, personality feel ashamed in some way -- discrimination is everywhere.
P.S. I have never had anything negative to say about Ashtabula except for how terrible your winters are. It always seems that the worst of the blizzards dump directly on top of your town! Other than that, you folks are okay. ;)
Gina, first I want to tell you that Ashtabula gives me really good feelings. My husband and I rarely can take a trip, but when we can, it’s usually to Niagara Falls. When we see signs for Ashtabula it either means we’re excited to be getting away or excited to almost be back in the comforts of home. What a tacky individual to be making fun of a friend’s friend. No class, no sense. Insulting people only makes the insult-er look bad. Brush him off; he’s not worth your time.
ReplyDeleteBut speaking of insulting, when Bush told the kids in the Mexican American school that we need people to do hard physical work… Ouch! Where were the members of his Screw Up Protection Team? Aaron and Natalie both commented on his inconsistencies too.
The string of discussion involves succeeding when coming from meager circumstances. I agree with Gina, Aaron, and Natalie that it’s possible to succeed. We all know that intelligence isn’t limited to any particular group. For people from impoverished circumstances, though, I think it’s harder to know how to work the system (things we pick up on our own and take for granted that others know: like to start a research paper early or to how to take notes) and harder to have the confidence to think you can go beyond what has stopped most of the people in the community around you. Nieto says the parents of successful children “motivated them to learn and study, had high hopes for their education, were optimistic about the future, and considered literacy an integral part of their lives” (Foundations, ch. 6, p. 61). But what if your parents don’t do these things because they never learned these traits themselves?
In our district, a big change happened in autumn of 2006. Housing had become more affordable and people from the inner city were able to buy houses in South Euclid. That year, the characteristics of our students began to be different—not by race. We have high, medium, and low achievers in every race. The change was in the perception of the value of education; fewer of the parents and students from impoverished circumstances understood the value of “playing the game” of school and how it could help the students succeed. On p. 53, Nieto refers to some researchers who concluded that “schooling in and of itself does not necessarily move poor children out of their parents’ low economic class. More often, schooling maintains and solidifies class divisions.” That’s so sad! Yet I’ve seen it myself as I try to coach classes of students that they can achieve and have dreams. Some seem open, but others seem to be wondering whom to trust: the cheerleading of this crazy English-teacher lady they’ve known only a while, or the messages from people they’ve known their whole lives. If students are getting the defeatist message that it’s almost impossible to change one’s circumstances, I can try to tell the students otherwise, but will they take it to heart?
To Natalie, yes, the amount of discrimination (personal and institutional) is tragic. To Aaron, yes, Piaget talked about Formal Operations thinking in the pre-teen years, but the newest research shows that the frontal lobe of the brain, where important decision-making is done, isn’t mature until after the teen years, round about the age you mentioned. To Gina, I hope your computer’s still doing well. No more unwelcome invasions! ;-)