Rough Draft of Essay

Neelama Shelopal

Professor Williams

English 1A

February 27, 2014

           

            Malcolm X once said, “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who are prepared for it today.”  There are so many people who try to create a change, but unfortunately all the effort is a waste because our education is not our passport to the future anymore instead its destroying some people. Those students who go to poorly funded schools do not have a future. Then again we need to ask ourselves why the words of Malcolm X never came true. In the book Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozal, he discusses about the many different schools he visited that were poorly funded and the cities that he went to were poor. He informs us readers about how there is whole different world out there in the United States where we assume everyone has an equal education. Similarily, the movie Waiting for “Superman” demonstrates how students are fighting for their schools to be open or struggling to receive the same education as suburban children are. Moreover, the Jeff Bliss video shows a student standing up for his rights and trying to explain what he think a teacher needs to do for a student to be educated. Lastly, the article The of Function of Education by Jiddu Krishnamurti asks questions about what our education truly means. All of these different references I have read and watched had something in common, which was to find the meaning of education. With this in mind I believe that we never realize what affects the structure of the education system has on students. First I will be discussing what education really means to students and then move forward with discussing what is preventing these children from getting an education. Lastly, I will like to take some time on giving solutions to how we can create a change in the education system.

            To begin with, when a person thinks about becoming educated most of their reasons are to get a high paid job and become successful in life. This is not anyone’s fault because education is portrayed like this in out society. Many people do not think or ask themselves why they need education or what does it mean to them. Education is more than getting a high paid job; it is about using it to find our passion. Being passionate about the job you have is what makes a persons education worth the years that they worked so hard on to get to the point they are in life now. For example, in the movie Waiting for “Superman”, a little girl happily said, “ I want to become a doctor or veterinarian when I grow up”. First off the school this young girl was going to was poorly funded and in the area she lived not many students even make it through high school, but that does not stop her from trying to live her passion. She had already found her passion at such a young age and was determined to become a doctor or veterinarian. For her school was a place that will make her passion for becoming a doctor come true. Also, for those who just got to school and never truly figure out what they want to do, are the ones who are just hoping to find a good job, but are never happy. I feel that if a student finds their passion then it means that education was actually valuable for them. A person’s passion is what is going to lead them to success.

            Once a person finds their passion this itself will lead them to a pathway of success. Education is meant for us to become successful but it is portrayed the wrong way in our society. In society success is all about having money and who has the most of it. Young children start believing that the only way they could become successful in life is to make, but if all you need is money to become successful then why even get an education? The connection between education and success is that once a person figures out what they are passionate about then they can educate themselves in that career to become successful. For instance, when I started my first semester in Chabot College I thought I wanted to major in business until one day in my English 102 class we watched a passion video. First off, I wanted to major in business because I thought that this would help me become successful because I thought success was more about how much money a person makes. That day in my English class is when I realized that I would never be happy with my success because I was never passionate about it. The meaning of education is to help a person in finding their passion, which then leads them to their success and helps them survive in the real world.

            Education is key for students survive, especially for those who have been raised in poorly funded school or in poverty. It may a key for every student to survive because yes there are some people who can make it without education, but then there are those who’s only hope is education. Particularly, for those children that already live in poverty because there only hope left is to be able to get education so they can find their passion and become successful in living the dream they want. Yet there are some students who live in poverty and goes to a poorly funded school who decide to quit. As an example, in the book Savage Inequalities, reporter asks a sixteen-year-old girl who dropped out of high school about how much money would she like to make in a year and her reply was, “About $2,000” (88). I find it shocking that she thinks that she is going to be able to survive on just 2,000 dollars. No person can survive on that amount of money today in a year probably a month or two. Unfortunately, this girl did not think of using education as a way to leave the city she is in, so she could be successful somewhere else. This young girl could have made more money if she thought of education as a way of survival, but we cannot blame these students either because there must be something that is preventing them from not fulfilling their education.

            One reason why some children do not get their education is because their school is poorly funded. When you do not have the necessary materials or not enough teachers in the school, students start to feel as if there is nothing for them. If a student is attending a poorly funded school were they themselves are struggling in their classes they start to give up. The author discusses about the children who do not have any of these resources in East St. Louis at their school or at home. As illustrated in the novel, one student’s says, “ ‘ My mother offered to help me with my science, which was hard for me, he says but I would not bring home the book’ ” (134). This young boy is now being stopped from learning because of the lack of resources in his school. From personal experience, I know how it feels like when you cannot bring a book home because it needs to stay in class. Our school library had shut down and that was probably the hardest thing for our school because it has 4,000 students who would like to read and do their homework. The fact that we live in a country where so many foreign people try to come here to America to get education, but yet we cannot even provide our own citizens a better education. It is unfair to these students not to get the education they deserve just because their school is not provided with enough money, but this not the only reason that prevents students from not getting an education.

            Furthermore, a students education is not only affected by the school instead it is the community that they live in. As a community it is important to help create a better education system for our children, yet we hear people talk but never actually do anything. A community is like a family, we all live in the same area and it is our job to make sure that the future generation is getting the education that they deserve. No child deserves to attend a poorly funded school. The people of East St. Louis did not acknowledge the importance of education to their children, which may be the reason why students gave up on school. For instance, in the book when Kozol is walking with some children one says, “ My grandma was murdered…Somebody show two bullets in her head” (12).  The fact this small child had told Kozol without any hesitation was shocking. For someone to speak about his or her grandmother dying it is usually hard, but for these kids there was violence all around them that they are immune to it. Children are affected by everything that happens around them and are easily influenced so as community it is important to keep them safe.

            Creating a safe environment for our children should be our number one priority, but what about those families that live in poverty and cannot do anything about it. Everyday we walk outside, breathe in the air, have our children play in the grass, and we never consider about how the environment can affect us. We assume that everything may look fine but once you start getting sick and are not able to take care of yourself is when you start thinking about what you could have done. Once again in the novel Kozol demonstrates how environment can affect some children’s from attending school. As an example, in the book it discusses how a story was published by Post-Dispatch noting that,“ East St. Louis Senior High School was awash in sewage for the second time this year… The school had to shut down because of “fumes and backed up toilets” (29). These children education is being stopped because no one thought it was important enough to take a stand on having a cleaner environment instead they let all the toxic gases go into the air and make people ill. It is obvious that the children are prevented from getting their education because there school has to shut down since nobody in the area will take a step forward on creating a better environment for everyone else and themselves. Now this is the time we need to start thinking of solutions on how to make improvements in our education system.

            One step we can take in order to prevent changes in the education system is that they system should not be based on a standardized test. How can we expect students to find the meaning of education or be educated if everything that they need to learn can go to waste if they failed a test. When students hear the word test it makes them anxious and it adds more stress. Are we going to allow our children’s life to based on a standardized that is telling us if they go into the next grade or not. Sometimes student takes the test and once they just look down at the paper they blank out, which actually has happened to me before. I would know the material, but the fact that I knew that this one test could either make or break my education is a lot of pressure. In the article The Function of Education by Jiddu Krishnamurti he asks this question, “Why do we go to school, why do learn various subjects, why do we pass examinations and compete with each other for better grades”? He asked these questions to us but most importantly why are we not asking ourselves these questions. When someone needs a driver liscence they need to pass a test, for certain jobs you have to take a test, so basically our whole life is based on a piece of paper. Not everyone has great test taking skills because as much as a student can study for a test and pass what makes you think they will remember it tomorrow? Our education system is making us now lose our own hopes and dream because of the way it has been structured.

            Secondly, we need to take in improving the education system is having teachers that are engaged in their classrooms. There are many teachers who will come in class, give a lecture and hand out assignments, but this not a way many students learn. There needs to more of a communication between the teacher and student. In fact in the Jeff Bliss video, Bliss says to his teacher “ You want kids to come in your class, you want ‘em to get excited for this, you gotta come in here and make ‘em excited. You want a kid to change and start doing better you gotta touch his freaking heart”.  Bliss knew what he was in school for and knew the meaning of education reasons why he stood up in his class. A teacher must be involved with his or her students in order to get them to participate in class. There are many different ways a teacher could get their class engage with an assignment like: having group discussions, allowing students to voice their opinions, and there are many other different ways too. In my opinion, I think that a student does know what is best for them and allowing them to actually talk instead of listening to instructions all the time could create a better environment in the class.

            Lastly, if any student ever feels as if they are not getting the right education or that their teacher is not really teaching then they need to speak up. By staying quite it will not help you as a student or your peers. Not everyone has the courage that Jeff Bliss had when he stood up in front of his class, but that does not mean you should not try. Students have the right to stand up to the education system and allow themselves to speak up when they feel something is wrong. Either it is just in a class or it’s the entire school that you are having a problem with do not be afraid to speak because it is you who is sitting in the classroom trying to learn and get an education.

            In conclusion, having an education can actually make our life or it can break it. Depending on if students find the meaning of education to them and if they can lead themselves through education towards their passion is the biggest success of all. Unfortunately, our education system can stop some of our children from going to school and learning to the best of their ability. There are solutions to how we can change our education system and by making these changes our future generation will not have to struggle to be educated. The No Child Left Behind Act was created to get students at higher level in their education, but how can that happen if there are children who are not even receiving the equal education as others?

           

Response to the movie - Waiting for "Superman"

Waiting for “Superman”

            In the beginning of the movie when Geoffrey Canada said that his mom told him the superman is not real, it made me think of how many lies we children are told from the beginning. We are told from the beginning to dream big and that we can become whatever we want, but in the end when we get to school our education system stops us from fulfilling our dream. This movie made me realize that when we are younger we believe that we can do anything because our parents and others tell us, but then we have these standardized tests informing us that we cannot. So, why give these young children false hope that they can become whatever they want when they grow older and are ready to start their career. The children in this movie are well aware that the school they are attending is not the best as the others and that there is a high dropout rate. When they discussed during the movie about how there is this thing called tenure, which basically says that a teacher cannot be fired I was shocked! Why would they ever allow giving something like this to a teacher, like what if they are a horrible teacher?  This just shows how much the board of education does not care for the student’s education. I feel as if these teachers are being guaranteed that their life is secured for the future and it does not matter if they are bad teachers or not. Later on when they showed in the movie that 23 were schools were closed I thought to myself how is this helping out these children. By closing down a school that actually just makes these kids furious because they want to be in school. It is not their fault that the schools they attended are poorly funded and the only actions that are being taken is to close down the school. Watching this movie made me think more about the education system we have today because it is still the same, I feel as if much has not changed.

Article

            From the article I found, which is titled “List of California’s lowest-performingSchools Released” there is a lot of things they have in common with East St. Louis school. In this article it discusses about some of the schools in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, which have low performing rates. I was never aware that all three high schools in Hayward were apart of this list. The fact that I live right next to this city and never knew about this made me think about how unaware I was. I heard about Mt. Eden High School mostly that it was not a good school, but never thought why. What’s wrong with these schools?  

            It’s is similar to the book because there are people in St. Louis that do not know anything or try to ignore what is happening in East St. Louis. Another thing that this article has in common is the area the schools are in. When people think of Hayward or Oakland they do not think of it as a nice place to go just like how it is in East St. Louis. The children East St. Louis are affected mostly by the environment, community, and the lack of resources they have at their school. The schools are poorly funded and are on the list of tier. The five schools in Oakland was just recently opened and the fact that it’s not even it is an old school but it is already on top of the list of low achieving rates. As a solution they tried to replace the teachers and the principal but there was not that much of an improvement. I don’t think getting new teachers will help increase student test scores. It may not be the teachers because sometimes students lose their hope in trying like some of the children in East St. Louis. They are aware that they will be competing with others students who have came from a better school and higher education. 

Reference: http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_14634736

Poorly Funded Public Schools

1. Q: Are there circumstances in which school resources do matter and times they do not?

       A: I do believe that school resources are necessary to have. Every student will be     using them and will need the equipment’s like: crayons, pencils, a pencil sharpener, library books, and etc. These resources are not just needed for the students but teachers will need them too. I am not saying that all these resources may be needed in every class because as students grow older and get into higher classes they will need to learn the responsibility of bringing their own equipment. Those small items like pencils and crayons may not be necessary for classes to have because students may already have them. There are times were these equipment’s are needed and at times they do not. For example, having library books or a book that is needed for a specific class is definitely needed because how else will the students learn if they do not have the book. In the novel Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol, the author discusses about children who do not have any of these resources in East St. Louis at their school or at home. So, yes for them having any type of school resources is necessary. As an example, in the book one students says, “ ‘ My mother offered to help me with my science, which was hard for me, he says but I would not bring home the book (p 134).’ ” This young boy is now being stopped from learning because of the lack of resources in his school and this is why we need these resources. From personal experience, I know how it feels like when you cannot bring a book home because it needs to stay in class. Our school library had shut down and that was probably the hardest thing for our school because it has 4,000 students who would like to read and do their homework.

2. Q: What affects do bad teachers have on a child?

           

            A: First, to define a bad teacher is when he/she is not engage with their students and is not giving the effort to teach. Personally, I think teachers that just lecture and pass out assignments are bad teachers because I have had a teacher who has done that. I never learned anything in my class because we never discussed about the assignment and we were never given the opportunity to speak up. For example in he novel it discusses about how these students were pronouncing these words in class but when Kozol asked a student if he knew the meaning of the words and found out that, “ The teacher never asks the children to define the words or use them (p 85).” As a teacher it is your job to educate your students and have them learns something new each day instead this teacher is not even teaching.

            The affects a bad teacher can have on a student is that they now will assume that every other teacher does not care and all they want to do is to get their job done. This is how some students feel about teachers. Also, this affects students by not speaking to teachers about any problems they have with the assignments in class or at home because they do not want to speak to a teacher whom they feel is bad and doesn’t care. Later, on this experience will affect their future with other teachers.

            A good teacher would be the one who has his/her students engaged in the classroom and is passionate about teaching. If a teacher is not passionate about their own job then how will they helping their students because then they would be a bad teacher. I am saying this from personal experience because you can tell when a teacher loves or hates their job right when they walk into the classroom. My ceramics teacher in high school loved what she did and you could see it with the way she acted in her classroom. She wanted us to learn about ceramics, not just how to make something out of clay but to know the meaning of what ceramics. With every different project we had learned about the background of who created or how to create our next project. It was not just a class where we made something with clay it was more than that.

3. Q: Who is mostly affected by this practice? How are they affected? (Protecting the wealthy by providing a lesser education to the poor.)

            A: It is the poor who are going to be mostly affected by this. They wealthy people will be giving their children a higher education but that should not be taken away from the other children because they do not have money. In this book it discusses how these children in East St. Louis have no education, even though there are schools there are lack of teachers, school supplies, or the buildings are wrecked. Every child should be getting their education and it should not be based on their wealth. All the students that are poor are being affected by this decision like the ones in East St. Louis. We live in America were people come from other countries to get a better education here in the United States, yet we cannot even give our own citizens a better education?

            By providing a lesser education for the poor they will have no hopes or dreams for themselves because they know that cannot have what the suburb children have. In the novel a fourth grade teacher says, “These kids are aware of their failures … Some of them act like the game’s already over (p. 70).” This is the affect that it has on the students that are and they are already giving up because they are aware of what stands in front of them.

What is most oppressive academia and how can opression be overcome? ( Two solutions to the opressive education system)

            One solution to the oppressive education system is to define the reasoning of why students need education. There are many students who drop out of college and even at our own community college the drop out rate is fifty percent, which is very unfortunate. The word education makes people believe that they need it in order to be successful in life and get a high paid job, but is that the only reasons they need it. Why do they need? These simple questions come into mind when I think about what I am doing in school and for what reason am I here?  People do not comprehend the meaning of education because it is leading us to keep following more rules and being obedient. From the time we start kindergarten until college we students are being told how to live our lives, what our education can bring us, but no one has ever discussed about what the students may have to say. Why? This is only happening because it is portrayed in society that the system knows what is best for us. We cannot change everyone’s view about education, but we can give it a deeper meaning. We may go to school to learn about all these different subjects,but  instead we should ask are these classes going to help them find their passion. Education should not be just about getting a degree then a good paid job,  it should be about a place that will lead us to our passion. Moreover, I believe that the education system needs to help students find their passion in life and let them discover the world themselves instead of giving them a list of rules to follow.

            Another solution to overcome the oppressive education system is that there needs to be more improvement of communication between the teacher and student. If a teacher is just following the curriculum and not putting any of their own thoughts into their teaching than that is not really teaching. That is more like they are following the book instead teachers need to create their own way of teaching because anyone can just follow the book. In order for students to be creative the teacher needs to have his/her own creativity too. One way we can try to fix this problem is trying to change the environment in the classrooms and secondly give the students a reason to be passionate. If they go into a classroom were all they do is sit and listen to a lecture, are they actually learning? They will not be talking any knowledge with them, so teachers need to interact with their students and engage his or her students into the subject they are discussing about. I think this will help both the teacher and student to become comfortable to discuss freely about what they think. This may encourage them to actually speak up in class if they have any questions or in general if they have any comment to make.