Not a happy ending

So, these chapters were not quite as depressing as the previous ones but they were not happy or uplifting by any means. Chapter 8 talks about all the supposed failed attempts by the different presidents to fix the education problems in schools. I just want to say “at least they are trying to do something.” I do not agree with all the policies that have been enacted but at least they are trying. Kozol talked down about the policy that if your school is not making the grade you can switch to another school in the district and how most of the children have not been able to switch. I agree that more should be able to change schools but is it not great that some kids are actually getting a better education because of the policy. I actually know a student in Blount County that did switch school and is doing great. If one child is helped then kudos for the policy. This is not to say that finding policies to help more children is not good, that is the ultimate goal but we have to start somewhere and I do not see Kozol throwing and suggestions out there.

Chapter 9 talked about how districts are actually reversing desegregation policies, this is very upsetting. How can we do this? I commend the principal that resigned because of a new policy. When I decided to start teaching I wanted to do it to help student and I thought all teachers were the same. However, I am coming to realize that many teachers do not feel this way. It is just another job to them and they are not going to do anything to jeopardize that job. This is very sad to me. How can we as a nation inspire our teachers more and make them believe again that they can make a difference? I believe this is another problem with education, maybe Kozol should write a book about that.

“I’m Broken” – Pantera from Far Beyond Driven

ok, I might be a little bit conceded and will probably have some of you all disagreeing with me……

On page 194, Kozol speaks of a booklet by the Education Secretary William Bennett “What Works” which references 41 attributes of a successful school. These included the items “memorization of historical dates” “consistent ‘enforcement‘ of discipline” and “continuous assessment”. These items seem more like something that would have been useful in a jail. Memorization of the dates could be related to remembering a prison ID number or when at what the prisoner is being held for. The consistent enforcement of discipline brings to mind the guards with asp sticks, ready to use on any prisoners that are threatening to the environment. Lastly, the continuous assessment could be related to the prisoners having to constantly have their room “mind” searched. I feel that when we prohibit students to be creative, thats where the learning process stops. Here’s my extremely controversial view on history, it’s already in the books. Don’t get me wrong, I think history is extremely important and we cannot know where we are going when we do not know the past, but I feel that we have fallen into this circle of teaching only what we were taught. I went through elementary school being told that Rosa Parks was just a little old lady who did not want to give up her seat on the bus, it was not until I came to college that I learned that she actually worked for the NAACP! Why was this left out of our books and why were we not told this? Is this the “creative history” or “choice history” that we are just supposed to keep passing down until we lose the actual “truthiness” of what happened in the past. Then we test the students on these “facts” that are not true! There is always a new way to “save our schools” but it is rare that anyone is actually trying to implement something that is proven to work, i.e. Mr. Esquith.

The next chapter was really upsetting when describing the situation of disarray of some of these schools. The administration is not doing all that it can to save some of these schools from disappearing into the void of last percentile, but is busing all of the smart kids to the school to raise scores the answer? Putting that money into the school and teachers seems like a more long term solution to me than raising the test scores one year. It takes alot of thought to sit in the office and think of ways to save schools as a whole, but maybe we should look at this thing school by school.

Educational Programs and Desegregation

In chapter 8, many different educational “fix” programs were discussed.  The one of main focus seem to be the classic “No Child Left Behind” that so many teachers love and believe is working today….at least that’s what the government would like us to think.  “No Child Left Behind” cannot and will not work as long as it is in place under this administration.  When there are as many different types of learners and ability levels as there are in this country, you cannot place a blanket standardized test to evalute teacher effectiveness.  Is a child with a 70 I.Q. supposed to perform on the same level as a gifted child?  And is that gifted child supposed to be held to a lower standard because the teacher can’t teach past the lowest achiever in her class?  It’s creating more of a problem than it is fixing by causing anxiety in the education field and a downfall of teacher morale.  Teachers feel more like they are answering to the government’s manadates rather than educating children, and I’m pretty sure that’s not why they got into teaching in the first place.

Chapter 9 discusses many states’ attempts to desegregate schools in order to create more diversity in schools.  I agree with biogirl that this chapter felt very redudant as far as what is covered.  And while I am all for learner diversity and integrating schools, is putting money into a program that buses kids to schools outside of their district the most efficient decision?  What if that money placed in by the governments was put toward increasing teacher salaries or improving building conditions in the districts?  Would it possibly create a society of more quality teachers and better suited schools that parents would not mind sending their kids to?  Possibly the integration would work itself out if those things were fixed, but that is only my theory on what could happen.  Increasing teachers’ salaries and fixing buildings may do nothing but give us nice segregated schools, but we have to be willing to look in other directions to find answers.

Promises, Promises

This weeks Kozol readings on chapter 8 and 9 seem to mirror a lot of what we deal with every day in education.  In chapter 8, Kozol goes on and on about the various programs that were instituted with the purpose of bettering schools, fighting desegregation, and raising standards.  Also, he goes through a long list of people, specifically in the New York City School System, who were “heralded” into a top education job by the press.  However these potential saviors of the education system  didn’t deliver as  promised.  This just has a very ironic tone to it.  How many times do we hear about a “revolutionary” new program that is going to change the face of the modern education system?  How many times do we hear about new educational leadership who are going to change the face of our modern education system?  We hear it all the time and much like the portrayal Kozol gives us, we have yet to see a lot of promising results.  Instead of promising results we got NCLB and excessive use of standardized tests.

In chapter 9 Kozol poses the extremely loaded question of what we need to do to change these realities.   This chapter is disheartening in the fact that so many educators feel a sense of hopelessness when faced with problems because they feel as though they have little means of recourse.  This chapter also has a plug against charters schools as being just as racially divided and unfairly constructed as inner-city schools.  The chapter continues with its “uplifting” discussion on a variety of failed attempts to desegregated and provide equity in the schools.  (An example of which is the busing fiasco)    The chapter concludes with Kozol suggesting that we need to start looking elsewhere for solutions to the problems in education.  I would agree with him whole-heartedly given the fact that a lot of what is being done by our current education system is not working.

not the path, but the goal

In this section, the author discusses the “road to rome” as it applies to education in these inner city schools.  The ideas held by many school supervisors is that the goal is more important than the journey to the goal.  As one woman states, “If the road does not lead to Rome, we don’t want it followed.”  In education, standardized testing (Rome) is the goal and, essentially, nothing else really matters.  Therefore, a problem arises for the students (i.e. they feel uncomfortable with Rome, Rome intimidates them, they don’t want to go to Rome) and they no longer enjoy the should-be journey that education is meant to be.  Kozol documents the story of a boy named Anthony who enjoyed learning and reading literature (among other things) but choked when he had to take a standardized test.  So the test results showed Anthony to be a “low-achiever” when, in reality, he was leaps and bounds above the other students his own age.  Luckily, Anthony went on to attend boarding school, college, and graduate school where he studied to be a teacher, but this is often not the case.  Children who usually score low on the standardized tests are condemned to an education of Level 1 or 2 classes and rarely make it out to success. 

Competition within the New York City school system (and other schools systems) to attend well-respected elementary, middle, and high schools was hardly a competition.  Most “good” schools were occupied by middle to upper class white children who had influential, sometimes lying parents who could get them enrolled wherever they pleased.  Often, lower class parents were unaware of opportunities to enroll until it was too late.  Kozol visited an overcrowded school in the Bronx at lunchtime and visited with some children who, surprisingly, expressed their fears and uncertainties concerning their future–something most white children in suburban schools never had to give thought to.  This chapter seemed fairly redundant to me.  It mostly repeated what had already been said in previous chapters and cited more examples.  Not extremely insightful. 

Chapters 3 and 4

Chapters 3 and 4 present to me completely unsatisfactory methods of teaching. Chapter 3 discussed at length an extreme behaviorist classroom. Everything in the classroom had a structured name and a designated purpose. The students were taught in a form of “Taylorism” the teacher said. My response to this is that students cannot be equated to factory workers. The processes involved in producing a car are not the same as the processes required to produce learning and critical thinking in students. Organization in the classroom is one thing, but this robotic form of classroom management is entirely another. It was even noted that the students seemed to lack emotion and expression in the classroom. To train students not to express emotion and to follow commands as if from a drill instructor does not have a place in our educational system.

Chapter 4 discusses the “tracks” we place out students on. Students are, from early on, designated into tracks depending on their ability. We all went through some form of this in High School. In my high school you were either college prep or tech prep. Of course the college prep students were looked on with a much more favorable light than the tech prep students, which is completely wrong. If a students skill are not up to par with what would be needed to go to college, are they simply doomed never to pursue such an endeavor? Is the knowledge that students are supposed to be gaining in school simply a commodity that some attain and other do not? The way I look at it is, not all students want to go to college. Not all students have to go to college. Our society requires the tech prep people and the blue collar workers to survive. However, not being suited for college and not having the aptitude for college are two separate issues. If a student isn’t suited for college, it may simply mean that they hate school or could care less about pursuing it. However, if a student hasn’t been sufficiently prepared to pursue college, blame the educational track we forced on them.

Natural Discovery Deprived in a “Locked-In” Environment

Chapter 3 discusses how Jonathan Kozol witnessed uniform activities and heard teacher’s words that controlled and muted the expressiveness of children in a South Bronx elementary school.  Any school system that promotes teachers and students acting like lifeless puppets should be shut down.  Children at these schools were labeled at 4 different levels based off of their academic achievements.  These levels also defined these children as who they were.  Shamefully, level one students ( the lowest achievers academically ) were treated as if they did not even exist where as level four students ( the highest achievers academically ) were applauded.  Teachers at these schools work from a curriculum that they fear and have to teach students how to parrot language instead of truly understanding or exploring the true meanings of the vocabulary they are forced to use.

Chapter 4 speaks of how schools in Ohio are preparing and developing the minds of children at very young ages to meet a market demand.  Learning itself – the learning of a skill, or the enjoying of a book, and even having an idea – is now defined increasingly not as a process or preoccupation that holds satisfaction of its own but in proprietary terms, as if it were the acquisition of an object or stock-option or the purchase of a piece of land.  Because these schools are not providing opportunities for children to learn about a variety of occupations, many students are simply being taught how to become a production that enhances our marketing economy.  This is so disheartening because many of these students could be future artists, lawyers, scientists, musicians, etc.  Without being educated and having the opportunity to explore what these children are best at, these underprivilaged schools are producing students who are slaves to jobs that they have no passion for.          

Extreme Behaviorism and Social Efficiency

The topic discussed in chapter 3 does not really surprise me at all. I know of several teachers in the field now and colleagues of mine that would run their class in a strict, behaviorist manner such as P.S. 65. To me, it’s sad to see the fun taken out of learning by late 30′s Germanic hand gestures and catchphrases such as “Noteworthy Questions” and “Active Listening” posted everywhere. I guess it just goes against my philosophy of teaching and how I would run my own classroom. I especially do not like the idea of labeling “Level One’s” to “Level Four’s” in reading abilities, espcially at such a young age.
Chapter 4 dicusses a subject that I absolutely do not agree with, the idea of social efficiency and teaching students to a specific career path rather than a rounded general education. I believe career paths should be chosen and studied in depth at the collegiate level. I believe that a general education is needed to make each student become a well-rounded individual that knows enough about each area of study to make an educated decision on what he/she does with the rest of his/her life. I do not play down as much though the idea of “managers” for the classroom setting, but rather the rationale for which these schools are doing such. I will use student leadership and government in my music ensembles as it creates an ensemble that is able to control and govern itself. But my intention in using these techniques is not to teach students how to “run a business” but rather so that they can be successful at what they are doing that very moment, participating in an ensemble. The idea of applications and interviews for students at the 4th and 5th grade level to me is unneccessary and overkill for a system that could have positive benefits for an educational setting.

CHP 3 This is really sad. Are our children of tomorrow going to know how to function in the “real world” when they are done with these institutionalized schools? I don’t think they are preparing the kids for work or the world, they are preparing them more to be a happy c omplacent inmate than anything. When did people start thinking that fun was NOT a part of the learning process? Lets teach the kids that learning is not fun so when they get to be old enough they will leave school before they even get their high school diplomas. That’s the way to help kids out of poverty, not!

CHP 4   Mangers?!?! Is that all the school systems think they can be? If that is what we tell them that is all they will be. I don’t necessarily condone lying to a kid but if that lie is to help them in the long run that it is okay. Tell the kids they can be anything they want to be, even if you don’t believe it, b/c they just might believe it and go on to achieve more than you ever thought they could. Children are sponges let them soak up the positive things in school b/c they probably get all the negatives they can stand outside of school, I know I do and I don’t live in Harlem. One other thing, the parents of these kids may not know any better but why are the people who do know better letting this happen. Have we really become that selfish of a society? If its not our kids we don’t care???

Segregation and racial isolation in urban schools

Chapter 1 discusses how segregated education may be known, whether it be “neighborhood schools, community schools, targeted schools, priority schools,” or whatever other currently accepted term, “segregation is not new…and neither is the idea of making seperate schools equal.  It is one of the oldest and extensively tried ideas in U.S. educational history” and one that has “never had a systematic effect in a century of trials.”  I believe that the prevelance of gangs, school violence, and other biased groups prevents us from uniting in the schools.  However, I believe that it is simply a lack of cooperation and learning to get along with people that prevents us most from desegregating.  However unrealistic this may be, it is the truth.  So many people in today’s society are out for number one, and this bleeds into the outlooks from different races as well.  Every man for himself, every race for itself.  This is not how it should be.  It is important for us as a people to learn from the past and move into the 21st century as better human beings striving to respect the cultural background of others.  We have to remember that we are ONE people under God, and color is insignificant.  One crafted ideal solution, in my opinion, is for our government to stop focusing on the problems of other countries until we have made exceptional improvements to the problems that still exist in America, such as segregation within the education system. 

Chapter 2 discusses how schools in the South Bronx and in Harlem have learning environments that are not fit to educate students.  The physical conditions of the educational buildings described in this book are extremely sad.  Evidence supported that having strong parent groups really made a difference compared to the other schools who do not have a richer parent body.   Jonathan Kozol describes it like this:  “This nation can afford to give clean places and green spaces and, as one of Alliyah’s classmates put it, “fun places to play” to virtually every child in our public schools.  That we refuse to do so, and continue to insist that our refusal can be justified by explanations such as insufficiency of funds and periodic “fiscal crises” and the like, depends upon a claim to penury to which a nation with our economic superfluity is not entitled.  If we were forced to see these kids before our eyes each day, in all the fullness of their complicated and diverse and tenderly emerging personalities, as well as in their juvenile fragility, it would be harder to maintain this myth.  Keeping them at a distance makes it easier.”