Having read Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation, I feel that I have gained such an exemplary insight into the lives of schoolchildren throughout the United States, and am so grateful for the chance to speak out for each and every one of them. In his book, Kozol shares of his encounters mostly with severely underprivileged schools throughout our country. Providing more than ample examples and situations which he experienced with the children, Kozol’s main thesis is that, presently, the nation remains in a state of apartheid schooling. He writes that “segregation, rarely discussed, scarcely even acknowledged by elected officials and schools leaders …is incompatible with the healthy functioning of a multiracial generation” (20). I could not agree with Kozol more in finding it of the utmost importance that all children of the nation receive an equal chance for a safe environment with beneficial educational instruction and the comfort of knowing that someone has faith in them to learn and succeed.
In the land of equal opportunity, there should not be so many students in the nation’s school system experiencing unequal chances. Kozol says, “Racial isolation and the concentrated poverty of children in a public school go hand in hand…Only 15 percent of the intensely segregated white schools in the nation have student populations in which more than half are poor enough to be receiving free meals or reduced price meals. By contrast, a staggering 86 percent of intensely segregated black and Latino schools have student enrollments in which more than half are poor by the same standards” (20). Some may ask, “How did these schools become segregated and poor after the Brown v. Board decision was made?” The answer is simple; schools rely on their surroundings. Unfortunately, existing residential segregation creates vast inequality. It began when Thomas Jesse Jones, a known educated black man, seemingly surrendered to a racial caste system and suggested blacks attend schools of industrial instruction rather than higher thinking. W.E.B Dubois, however, recognized this mistake; he argued that differing schools for differing races put the black children at a disadvantage. Society was not as willing to accept Dubois’ idea as it was Jones’. From the beginning, whites did not want non-whites learning to read and write because it would provide equal opportunity. Sickeningly, similar instances still exist today in 2010. Racial segregation takes place in the schools because whites leave the area in order to preserve their “pure”-schooled children when non-whites begin moving into a school district. This “white-flight” is how residential segregation is attainable. Not only are the tax dollars from these residents what the school relies on, but also the residents themselves. When wealthier, white families flee integration, however, such areas lose resources. Less-fortunate parents cannot donate large sums of money or spend their time fundraising for Parent Teacher Association like wealthier whites can. Kozol’s experiences report that in too large a majority of mostly non-white schools, students with limited family resources are dealing with school officials , “giving them less and calling it more” (131). Kozol interviewed Dr. Thomas Sobol, the former state commissioner of education in New York and he said that as teachers are forced to raise standardized test scores and that, “We are… limiting what we teach to what we can easily measure, pushing our students to focus on memorizing information, then regurgitating fact” (131). With lack of funding for better teachers and curriculum, non-white children are exposed to the same, basic, work-based curriculum suggested by greedy whites in the 1800s.Children are being forced not to actually grasp concepts, but to memorize answers for a test so that they can not only pass a grade and go to work. It is a cruel, unfair cycle that began with slavery and must end with us.
Curriculum and instruction aside, African American and Latino students are placed into unfit schoolhouses. When a student goes to school, he/she should feel safe; if a child feels unsafe and unsteady, he/she’s fears will fill his/her mind and he/she is not going to be able to focus and learn. In Los Angeles, some students were reported describing their room. “’I saw a rat in room 28,’ wrote a boy Daniel in the fourth grade of an elementary school… ‘The room smelled very bad and it made me sick to my stomach. There was blood all over the place’” (172). When children are asked to learn in such inhumane circumstances, no desirable results can truly be expected. At the elementary school I work at, I have heard the testimonies of the students as to how their life at home is run. Though each story breaks my heart, I cannot help but to listen intently in an attempt to begin to understand the circumstances that they undergo which I will never see. One little girl in particular told me a story in which her daddy’s new girlfriend came to her father’s house and was sent to jail for trying to stab her mother. Though many details are spared, I think the point is made; many children in poverty do not feel safe at home. Every child in the nation should be granted the ability to feel safe at school; if nothing else, it will encourage them to want to attend.
How do we fix this problem? In my eyes, the biggest hurdle to jump in the face of the nation’s problem is denial. Just as Kozol’s title insinuates, the nation’s schooling system is truly the nation’s shame. It is so shameful, in fact, that a large majority of the population is in total and complete denial that the schools are separated by race. Though many are willing to admit that
there is a class distinction, they are unwilling to confess that the classes are divided by race. A problem cannot be fixed until it is uncovered. Once highlighted through required in-depth teaching about segregation, I want the federal government to pass legislation demanding that the state equally divide tax dollars for education among the schools throughout the state. There will, of course, be disagreement about any rules regulating money; I have faith, however, that persistence and insistence will prove beneficial when the nation is filled with students of equal educational caliber. All students need to be taught that they can do anything, not just the white children. No student should be told “You’re ghetto so we send you to the factory…you’re ghetto- so you sew!” (180). Students should have teachers, schoolhouses, and lessons that tell them, “You are destined for whatever your hearts desires.” I realize that my hopes for the United States are hopeful and ideal, but then again, so should be the children of the nation.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Chapters 5-8 Race Matters
5. Sentences Summarizing the Reading
Cornel West urges black liberals to do more than accept movements such as affirmative action that was put into place in the mid 1900s. Saying that the root of so much chaos in the black race is a complete lack of self-love and too much poverty, he urges that people must not only talk, but do. Redistributive measures with no support can’t be successful. Later in the reading, he discusses Malcolm X and his manner of dealing with what he saw wrong in America. He spoke to blacks with a rage against the inequality and hoped his rage would inspire them to change.
4. Key Quotes
1. “The urgent problem of black poverty is primarily due to the distribution of wealth, power, and income – a distribution influenced by the racial caste system that denied opportunities to most “qualified” black people until two decades ago” (93).
2. “Yet, in the heat of battle in American politics, a redistributive measure in principle with no power and pressure behind it means no redistributive measure at all” (95).
3. “Rather, Malcolm believed that if black people felt the love that motivated that rage, the love would produce a psychic conversion in black people; they would affirm themselves as human beings, no longer viewing their bodies, minds, and souls through white lenses, and believing themselves capable of taking control of their own destinies” (136).
4. “ Needless to say, Michael Jackson’s example is but the more honest and visible instance of a rather pervasive self-loathing among many of the black professional class. Malcolm X’s call for psychic conversion often strikes horror into this privileged group because so much of who they are and what they do is evaluated in terms of their wealth, status, and prestige in American society” (138).
3. Key Terms
1. “Psychic conversion” (143) – what Malcolm X hoped would take place in the mind of black Americans and change their way of life
2. “affirmative action” (95) – redistributive measure that attempted to solve inequalityin the mid 1900s
3. “progressives” (93) – people who promote redistributive measures
2. Connections
1. “The more xenophobic versions of this viewpoint simply mirror the white supremacist ideals we are opposing and preclude any movement toward redistributive goals” (99).
* At the school that I work at, many parents have taught the children not to like white people, especially Baylor students. They feel that they have been hurt and that their lives have been negatively affected by Baylor students that they cannot see the good in any of them. Because of this fact, I had to work pretty hard to get the children to accept me and learn that not all white people are out to hurt them and take from them.
2. “ The difficult and delicate quest for black identity is integral to any talk about racial equality. Yet it is not solely a political or economic matter. The quest for black identity involves self-respect and elf-regard, realms inseparable from, yet not identical to, political power and economic status. The flagrant self-loathing among black middle-class professionals bears witness to this painful process” (97).
* This made me think of a beginning scene in the musical Rent. Benny used to live with the rest of the group, but he married a rich girl. When he did so, he gained ownership of a tenement building where he had once lived with his friends, and he promised them a free stay for a year. Come December, however, he knocked on their door demanding the year’s rent, which they clearly did not have. When they begged mercy because he was their friend, he leaned on his Range Rover and made it very clear that their pitiful circumstance was nothing of his concern. Though this is a musical, it is also a sad, true representation of the world. Too often, people forget where they come from and where their people still are. Just because you escape a bad situation doesn’t mean that you should forget about hose still in it. You should fight for equality of everyone so that they can be just as happy.
1. Question
• What can you, as a teacher, do in your classroom to attempt to erase the contempt that may exist between black and white children due to circumstances and beliefs that their parents may have put into place?
Cornel West urges black liberals to do more than accept movements such as affirmative action that was put into place in the mid 1900s. Saying that the root of so much chaos in the black race is a complete lack of self-love and too much poverty, he urges that people must not only talk, but do. Redistributive measures with no support can’t be successful. Later in the reading, he discusses Malcolm X and his manner of dealing with what he saw wrong in America. He spoke to blacks with a rage against the inequality and hoped his rage would inspire them to change.
4. Key Quotes
1. “The urgent problem of black poverty is primarily due to the distribution of wealth, power, and income – a distribution influenced by the racial caste system that denied opportunities to most “qualified” black people until two decades ago” (93).
2. “Yet, in the heat of battle in American politics, a redistributive measure in principle with no power and pressure behind it means no redistributive measure at all” (95).
3. “Rather, Malcolm believed that if black people felt the love that motivated that rage, the love would produce a psychic conversion in black people; they would affirm themselves as human beings, no longer viewing their bodies, minds, and souls through white lenses, and believing themselves capable of taking control of their own destinies” (136).
4. “ Needless to say, Michael Jackson’s example is but the more honest and visible instance of a rather pervasive self-loathing among many of the black professional class. Malcolm X’s call for psychic conversion often strikes horror into this privileged group because so much of who they are and what they do is evaluated in terms of their wealth, status, and prestige in American society” (138).
3. Key Terms
1. “Psychic conversion” (143) – what Malcolm X hoped would take place in the mind of black Americans and change their way of life
2. “affirmative action” (95) – redistributive measure that attempted to solve inequalityin the mid 1900s
3. “progressives” (93) – people who promote redistributive measures
2. Connections
1. “The more xenophobic versions of this viewpoint simply mirror the white supremacist ideals we are opposing and preclude any movement toward redistributive goals” (99).
* At the school that I work at, many parents have taught the children not to like white people, especially Baylor students. They feel that they have been hurt and that their lives have been negatively affected by Baylor students that they cannot see the good in any of them. Because of this fact, I had to work pretty hard to get the children to accept me and learn that not all white people are out to hurt them and take from them.
2. “ The difficult and delicate quest for black identity is integral to any talk about racial equality. Yet it is not solely a political or economic matter. The quest for black identity involves self-respect and elf-regard, realms inseparable from, yet not identical to, political power and economic status. The flagrant self-loathing among black middle-class professionals bears witness to this painful process” (97).
* This made me think of a beginning scene in the musical Rent. Benny used to live with the rest of the group, but he married a rich girl. When he did so, he gained ownership of a tenement building where he had once lived with his friends, and he promised them a free stay for a year. Come December, however, he knocked on their door demanding the year’s rent, which they clearly did not have. When they begged mercy because he was their friend, he leaned on his Range Rover and made it very clear that their pitiful circumstance was nothing of his concern. Though this is a musical, it is also a sad, true representation of the world. Too often, people forget where they come from and where their people still are. Just because you escape a bad situation doesn’t mean that you should forget about hose still in it. You should fight for equality of everyone so that they can be just as happy.
1. Question
• What can you, as a teacher, do in your classroom to attempt to erase the contempt that may exist between black and white children due to circumstances and beliefs that their parents may have put into place?
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Preface-Chapter 4 Countdown Paper Race Matters
5. Sentences Summarizing the Main Idea
In Race Matters, Cornel West hits hard in the hearts and pride of the American people, but especially of African Americans in power. Too many, he says, have lost sight of what is important and focus solely on success and achievement for themselves, not for the black community, let alone for American as a whole. To better the nation and to aid the black America, there must be black leaders who inspire change and have the backbone to speak out about cultural democracy and work to instill a framework of moral reasoning among black America so as not to accept unqualified blacks placed into power simply out of fear of speaking against another African American.
4. Quotations
1. “Similarly, conservatives blame the “problems” on black people themselves – and thereby render black social misery invisible or unworthy of public attention” (6).
2. “The collapse of meaning in life – the eclipse of hope and absence of love of self and others, the breakdown of family and neighborhood bonds – leads to the social deracination and cultural denudement of urban dwellers, especially children” (9).
3. “First, we must acknowledge that structures and behavior are inseparable, that institutions and values go hand in hand” (18).
4. “ But there is always a chance for conversion – a chance for people to believe that there is hope for the future and a meaning to struggle” (29).
3. Key Terms
1. Afrocentrism – “a contemporary species of black nationalism, is a gallant yet misguided attempt to define an African identity in a white society to be hostile” (7).
2.Nihilism – “the lives experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness” (23).
3.
2. Connections
1. “Hence, rhetoric becomes a substitute for analysis, stimulatory rapping a replacement for serious reading, and uncreative publications an expression of existential catharsis” (65).
* This quote reminded me of so many aspects of life, not just black America. As far back as middle school student council elections, candidates were not chosen based upon their morals or the content of their speech, but by their composure and confidence on stage along with the delivery of their speech. Similarly, America chooses candidates today. I am not necessarily for or against President Obama, but I believe a large part of the reason that he was chosen is because he extremely talented at speech delivery and he is a clean-cut, seemingly well-to-do African American figure. Though he has performed well so far as the President, I do not believe that these are proper conditions under which to choose a leader of our country. I feel that West hits the nail on the head when he discusses the need for framework involving the morals of the people, not only their skin color, otherwise we are all just as wrong as the people who instilled the Jim Crow laws.
2. “But it must be recognized that the nihilistic threat contributes to criminal behavior. It is a threat that feeds on poverty and shattered cultural institutions and grows more powerful as the armors to ward against it are weakened” (25).
* Every day as I work with children of which most are from the projects of Waco, I see the effect that poverty has on their lives. Sure, they do not get the toys they want, the clothes they want, etc. and that is heartbreaking enough. More wrenching to the soul, however, is the lack of good influences in their lives. There is a third grade boy who has been suspended and put in in-school suspension for not only sending other elementary school-aged girls inappropriate text messages, but also for grabbing these girls inappropriately at school and telling other students that they perform inappropriate acts with him. These are third graders. These girls have no safe place because a young boy’s lack of cultural institution and positive support in his life has set him up to lead a path of destruction in not only others’ lives, but his own as well.
1. Question
a. In your classroom, how would you handle finding present-day role models for your non-white students? What would the requirements be?
In Race Matters, Cornel West hits hard in the hearts and pride of the American people, but especially of African Americans in power. Too many, he says, have lost sight of what is important and focus solely on success and achievement for themselves, not for the black community, let alone for American as a whole. To better the nation and to aid the black America, there must be black leaders who inspire change and have the backbone to speak out about cultural democracy and work to instill a framework of moral reasoning among black America so as not to accept unqualified blacks placed into power simply out of fear of speaking against another African American.
4. Quotations
1. “Similarly, conservatives blame the “problems” on black people themselves – and thereby render black social misery invisible or unworthy of public attention” (6).
2. “The collapse of meaning in life – the eclipse of hope and absence of love of self and others, the breakdown of family and neighborhood bonds – leads to the social deracination and cultural denudement of urban dwellers, especially children” (9).
3. “First, we must acknowledge that structures and behavior are inseparable, that institutions and values go hand in hand” (18).
4. “ But there is always a chance for conversion – a chance for people to believe that there is hope for the future and a meaning to struggle” (29).
3. Key Terms
1. Afrocentrism – “a contemporary species of black nationalism, is a gallant yet misguided attempt to define an African identity in a white society to be hostile” (7).
2.Nihilism – “the lives experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness” (23).
3.
2. Connections
1. “Hence, rhetoric becomes a substitute for analysis, stimulatory rapping a replacement for serious reading, and uncreative publications an expression of existential catharsis” (65).
* This quote reminded me of so many aspects of life, not just black America. As far back as middle school student council elections, candidates were not chosen based upon their morals or the content of their speech, but by their composure and confidence on stage along with the delivery of their speech. Similarly, America chooses candidates today. I am not necessarily for or against President Obama, but I believe a large part of the reason that he was chosen is because he extremely talented at speech delivery and he is a clean-cut, seemingly well-to-do African American figure. Though he has performed well so far as the President, I do not believe that these are proper conditions under which to choose a leader of our country. I feel that West hits the nail on the head when he discusses the need for framework involving the morals of the people, not only their skin color, otherwise we are all just as wrong as the people who instilled the Jim Crow laws.
2. “But it must be recognized that the nihilistic threat contributes to criminal behavior. It is a threat that feeds on poverty and shattered cultural institutions and grows more powerful as the armors to ward against it are weakened” (25).
* Every day as I work with children of which most are from the projects of Waco, I see the effect that poverty has on their lives. Sure, they do not get the toys they want, the clothes they want, etc. and that is heartbreaking enough. More wrenching to the soul, however, is the lack of good influences in their lives. There is a third grade boy who has been suspended and put in in-school suspension for not only sending other elementary school-aged girls inappropriate text messages, but also for grabbing these girls inappropriately at school and telling other students that they perform inappropriate acts with him. These are third graders. These girls have no safe place because a young boy’s lack of cultural institution and positive support in his life has set him up to lead a path of destruction in not only others’ lives, but his own as well.
1. Question
a. In your classroom, how would you handle finding present-day role models for your non-white students? What would the requirements be?
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