The Problem We Live In: Parts 1 &2

The Problems We Live In:
Parts one and two
By:  WBEZ

Connections/ Reflection 

Even though this reading was extremely long, it was a well- worthy read.  It touched upon parts that we have been discussing this whole semester.  The radio station relates to SCWAAMP.  White people have full advantage of school systems and of having a higher education.  Just by being black or Latino meant that you would have a lower education.

"... that black and Latino kids in segregated schools have the least qualified teachers, the least experienced teachers.  They also get the worst course offerings, the least access to AP and upper level courses, the worst facilities.  The other thing about most segregated black schools, Nikole says, is that they have high concentrations of children who grew up in poverty.  Those kids have greater educational needs.  They're more stressed out.  They have a bunch of disadvantages.  And when you put a lot of kids like that together in one classroom, studies show, it doesn't go well." 

Going along with SCWAAMP means being educated.  IF you are white, you are higher educated, but if you are black you are not well educated.  "Normandy School District:  Points for academic achievement in English, zero; math, zero; social studies, zero; science, zero, points for college placement, zero."  By being at lower poverty school, students are not accepting the need that they need to have a good education.  Just by being a person of color and living in this neighborhood, you don't have the opportunities to have a better life and you the higher up won't give you the opportunity that some of these students need.

This reading also goes along with Kristof's point of individual vs. institutions. Because of such bad school systems in the Normandy area, teachers did not care able the students.  All they cared about was the pay check that they'd get at the end of the week.  Teachers are supposed to be a second mother, someone who is going to be there when nobody else isn't.  "Mah'Ria usually brought home A's.  But when she got a C, Nedra asked the teacher why she had not been notified.  The teacher told her that she had too many kids in her class in call their parents."  The school and staff, the instituation, did not care about the students.  They didn't care that the students came from bad home lives, and the students aren't learning what they should be learning.

Personally, I feel like this is sad.  Especially because I want to be a teacher when I grow up.  I feel like the students that aren't getting what they should be getting for services should be able to.  They should be the first priority; they should be the students that the government should be focusing on, or even the district.  These students sometimes don't even graduate school, but when they do, it is a huge accomplishment. 

 Going along with all of our readings pretty much is that white people believe that they are higher then people of color.  White people are bias towards the people of color.

"... I want to k now where the metal detectors are going to be.  And I want to know where your drug-sniffing dogs are going to be... I deserve to not have to worry about my children getting stabbed, or taking a drug, or getting robbed because that's the issue." 

Why do white people have to be so critical.  Where I went to school, it was an all white school of middle-upper class students.  When I came to RIC, it was a completely different ball game!  My first class there was 15 people of color and 6 white people.  For me, I was stunned. But, now I understand it all; it doesn't worry me anymore.  Because I knew that going to this school it would be like that.  Some of my really good friends that I met at orientation and during my two semester here are people of color, and they are the nicest and kindest people I know.

It was said that people of color who go to a low poverty school and don't have the money to get out of the district will live and go to the low poverty school

During a court ruling, Hartford teachers "bad talked" their own district. "They described what it was like to teach a classroom of kids who came to school without coats in the winter.  They complained about instructional time lost because nearly every child in the class suffered severe emotional issues, or dental issues, or hadn't eaten.  They said their classrooms were overwhelmed by poverty."

The teachers notice the disadvantage these students have in this poor district.  It saddens me to even know that their are schools like this.  Schools are suppose to be safe and somewhere were everybody is welcomed.  

Herbert states, "... humiliating dancing around the perennially uncomfortable issue of race.  We pretend that no one's a racist anymore, but it's easier to talk about pornography in polite company than racial integration..."

Points to share/Questions:
Do you think that when we are teachers, there will still be issues in school about being a person of color?  Or being an middle class privileged child?  Do you think schools will improve before we are become teachers?  Or do you think they will get worse?