Sunday, March 31, 2013

Brown vs. Board of Education – Extended Comments


I think this week’s topic is very interesting because it is so important and relevant in today’s society.

I really liked when Torie said, “Many people still to this day believe that segregation does not exist in schools and in jobs but it does whether they believe it or not”.  I completely agree that segregation still exists today.  When I go into Asa Messer for my service learning project I see many classes lined up in the hallway.  The students are usually separated in two lines, one for the girls and one for the boys. 

In high school everyone is separated, not necessarily by race or gender, but by type.  The “cool” kids sit with the “cool” kids, the “jocks” with the “jocks”, and the “nerds” with the “nerds”.   The only time that they mix is in class when they are forced to mix.  And even in classes most of the time they are still with people from their “group”.   There is even separation in dance, and in this case I think it is a good thing.  I think separation is good because when boys and girls compete against each other in the dance world the outcome is not fair.  Basically every time the boys will win.  The male dancers will almost always beat the girls just because they are boys.  It is very rare that a girl will beat a boy.  The male dancers win because the judges score them high to win to keep them dancing, not because their dance or technique was better.  The judges are afraid that if they score the male dancers low that it will result in the boys not dancing anymore.  This is why my studio goes to competitions where the boys are in their own category.

I thought it was really interesting how Marissa connected it to Kozol, and how poverty level plays a big part in a child’s education.  I liked how she pointed out when Herbert says, “Educators know that it is very difficult to get consistently good results in schools characterized by high concentrations of poverty. The best teachers tend to avoid such schools…These, of course, are the very schools that in which so many black and Hispanic students are enrolled”.  Many of the inner city children come from families with a black or Hispanic ethnicity.  Many of these families are in these inner city environments because they cannot afford to live anywhere else, and many times these families can barely afford to live in the city.  Also I do not know many families that are willing to move and live in these inner city connections.  So it is basically like when the schools were segregated, the only difference is now the schools do not have to be segregated by law. 

Point to Share: I work with two teachers, a teacher from a Providence elementary school and a teacher from a Providence high school.  The two teachers both feel very overwhelmed working in this type of community.  However, at the same time the teachers that I work with feel like they have to work in these schools, because if they do not, then who will.  It is a lot of work; one of the teachers has 23 special education students on her case load, and does not get to see all of them every day.  But she does her best to try to work with them and help them in any way that she can. 
 
I found some interesting cartoons. 
 

2 comments:

  1. Nicole,
    nice blog! Segregation does exist; however, I think people do not realize what "segregation" is. They do not look for it and have a different definition of it, probably referring to the segregation that happend years ago. If people were told about it and the subtle existence, people might try to identify it and change it. Just like we as a class have become aware of implicit meanings and hidden currriculums. We didn't realize them before because we weren't taught about them. People who do not experience segregation do not have it on their mind. Its nice to hear about those teachers who take that responsibility and care about their work.

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  2. Wow Nicole I really liked your blog. My favorite part was the political cartoons, especially the last one. That really stuck with me that segregation is now voluntary. This is unfortunately so true still today! We may not have laws segregating black and white but many people and groups are still very segregated. This must change!

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