Week Two

In Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation, he talks a lot about how money, or rather the lack thereof, greatly affects the education of colored children. Because of the shortage of funds, there is also a shortage of resources and teachers, not to mention quality ones. Regardless of how good of a teacher one is, working in such an environment places restraints on the sort of education you can provide. On page 125 he reflects, “In overcrowded urban schools where it is common to find 28 to 30 children in a class, teachers do not often feel they can afford – or are specifically advised that they cannot afford – the luxury of listening to answers which, for lack of obvious, immediate, and literal responsiveness, do not advance the necessary forward march to those objectives that are posted on the wall.” When everything is so dependent upon whether or not students pass a test, teachers just cannot afford to teach their students anything extra. While all grade school teachers feel the pressure of standardized tests, it is even more stressful on those teachers in overcrowded, underfunded urban schools. Not reaching expected growth can actually shut down those schools, giving the children no where to go, and causing the teachers and administrators to have to move somewhere else to get another job.

A more immediate response to the lack of attention children receive about anything other than what the teacher is interested in is that children feel unimportant and like no one cares about them. This state of mind leads to children seeing it as pointless to apply themselves in order impress adults that don’t care. I think everyone has experienced a situation in which we stop caring about the quality of our work when we feel the person we are doing it for doesn’t care. The I Have a Dream (IHAD) foundation works to mediate the effect of both teachers and families that are incapable of listening to and taking the time to give personalized help to the children. They work hard to give tangible rewards to kids, which allows them to see the value behind working hard in school. This personalized attention allows those children who would fall through the cracks to have equal opportunities as the wealthier children. They are praised for expressing themselves and asking questions about topics that interest them. They are rewarded for hard work and taught that it is a good thing to strive diligently in school. The only problem I can see is that there are more children to care for than IHAD has funding for.

Children are also labeled different levels based on their performance in school. I can see how it would be useful to designate students to certain levels, but telling all the students where everyone stands is just negative reinforcement of the students who are in the bottom levels. It also leads to children being made fun of by others and feeling like the risk of failing is too great to attempt to succeed. Any effort should be praised, not criticized. Mistakes are just as important in the learning process as successes. I agree that honor rolls are good motivators for children to succeed. The good thing about them is that you either make it or you don’t, and you are only recognized for success. You are not publically criticized and humiliated for failing something. During the math tutor training, we were taught to accept children for who they are and attack the subject together, so as to make a team between student and teacher with the problem as the opponent. This level labeling inhibits the process of students teaming up with a teacher or fellow classmate who is not in their level to learn something new. I believe that high expectations only work if teachers are willing to give the amount of aid that it will take for every student to achieve those expectations if they apply themselves.  When I went to a Math Talk last year, the professor told us that in his class, he always gave a percentage of the final grade to a “failure grade.” To get a good grade on this, the student would have to write about a failure they experienced each week and how it helped them learn. I thought this was a very exciting concept because I always learn so much from my failures in life. Those are the times when I grow and learn how to adapt to new situations the next time they come around.

Education is not exclusive to the classroom. The community plays a huge roll in the process of a child growing up. Children need roll models and a place to go where they can just have fun, be themselves and be respected as such. Thinking about a whole community raising the children, I remembered a song, “It takes a Whole Village,” my mother used to play all the time when I was a child by a band called “Up With People.” I attached it here for your listening. It talks about how the community gives children different reference points on how to act and than just one adult or place. I think the points the song brings up are still pretty apparent today. The IHAD foundation helps to rectify this by giving children that place of community and roll models they need when they are growing up. I think that bringing in college students to work with and motivate the kids is such a great idea because it shows the kids that it is cool to learn and gives them an actual person to know that has achieved it. With knowing the college students comes knowing some of the faults and mistakes that they made and make yet still succeed. I think that it is always beneficial to know that the people you look up to aren’t perfect. And when they mess up, it is helpful to watch how they go about fixing things. That is why it is so great that the IHAD foundation brings in college students who have what the IHAD kids are striving for.