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The Bottom Line

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Agree 1.       “‘…the best argument for choice is to enable poor people to have the same rights and opportunities that rich people already have by virtue of being rich.’” (Pg. 193) One of the biggest things for students I will always fight for as an educator is that my students will be given the same opportunities as one another. Being someone who was born into a less fortunate family, I have too often seen my peers be given opportunities simply on the grounds that they were born into families that can give them the instant gratification of attending school functions and be able to represent the school and class simply because of their status. 2.       “…teachers…spend more time with students preparing for tests, and students who fail these tests are left back for another year or don’t graduate.” (Pg. 181) When I attended high school, I often felt like I was being taught to be a test taking machine rather than earning an education with lifelong value that I can take with
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The Need to Succeed and Move Forward

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The desegregation of schools has been one of America’s most difficult coming of age journeys. People often make claims that modern day America is no longer racist and that the days of segregation and extreme racial tensions were long ago, but they are anything but that. In 1950, it was dangerous and legal in 17 states for ethnic minorities to attend predominantly white public schools. This move towards desegregation was not even 60 years ago! People to this day are old enough to remember the days of segregation and what it was like when they themselves lived through it. People of color to this day have been targeted by those of the privileged majority. There have been cases where people of color have been violently attacked simply for them existing and trying to go about their everyday lives. In the September of 1965, Mae Bertha and Mathew Carter’s children were able to be some of the first students to desegregate an all white school in Sunflower County, Mississippi. The response
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The Value of Education for Minorities

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The public education experience through the eyes of minorities has been a hard and laborious journey. It has been evident that minorities have had to fight for the right to learn and gain an education that was at least remotely close to that of their white peers. Education has consistently been seen as a fight for the means of holding power for one’s self, and over others. Throughout history, it has felt as though white people viewed it as a competition for control; a means to maintain a social order that is ideal for themselves. People of color though have been one of the main reasons as to how our education system has been molded and shaped. They do not want to claim anything strictly for themselves, but rather they strongly urge for the ideal world of equality and fairness regardless of race, ethnicity, etc. They want the same chances others receive when they are perceive as worthy and valid individuals. I personally believe that we do not live in a whitewashed world, as much
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Looking Through Lenses

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After last week’s class, it has shown to me that we as students and readers will look at informational text through different “lenses”, as Dr. Rosen had mentioned during our group discussion. Our personal responses reflect what we felt were the most significant parts of information that we took back with us, which shows that biases can be insightful and gives a much more broad perspective of what it is to read academic text. In my own bias opinion, the word that truly encompassed the first part of our text was “literacy”. The text described the goal of the education system as becoming literate. Literacy was defined as a form of power that made a person marketable and more likely to have the stronger hand over others. Literacy is also what people, such as immigrants, were trying to obtain in order to serve as a member of society and live a successful and prosperous life. Other people chose words like foundation, school, education, equalizer, wealthy, and textbooks. Some of the
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Rags to Reading: My Journey with Literacy

             I think most people can’t remember a moment when they couldn’t read; as if it were a natural instinct they were born with. Reading for some is as easy as blinking, or breathing, or mindlessly indulging in junk food. All jokes aside, I for one can remember clear as day a time where I didn’t know how to read. It was first grade, and I was in Ms. Salmon’s class. She was your typical old white elementary school teacher. She had long grey hair and wore fun printed blouses and slacks. Like most elementary teachers she spoke with energy and made the class feel lively and really wanted to make her students love and enjoy what she taught. Jason in the first grade was easily distracted though, and for some reason, just couldn’t focus in class. I remember Ms. Salmon’s spelling tests. We would have a word sort we worked on in class and had to study. Come the day of the test, we would have mini chalkboards with a sock we brought in from home which would hold our pieces of chalk and a
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