Main necessities to
any student are the materials provided by the school. Schools usually supply
books, computers and materials for projects. This year my nephew is attending
kindergarten and when the teacher sent home the supply list we were surprised
to see that the parents would be providing everything on the list she asked for
five packs of 100 piece computer paper, 50 piece crayon set, two box of
Kleenex, glue, erasers, and even anti-bacteria wipes. “This degree of
equanimity in failure, critics note, has led most affluent parents in Chicago
to avoid the public school system altogether”(Kozol 65). Schools do not know
the situation these students deal with at home, asking for material may be out
of the question. Parents will altogether avoid the situation and see that their
children are getting taken care of while they are busy. In our very own school
district we have these difficult problems of the necessity for materials.
Part of the
curriculum is to get to know all aspects of education whether it is language
arts, math, science and physical education. From there each one of those
categories get broken into subcategories into the curriculum you prefer to learn
about. Science is something all students love to learn in since it is 50
percent education and the other half is actual hands’ on work. But if there is
nothing to put your hands on, than the reason to learn is not efficient
anymore. “A chemistry teacher at
the school reports that he does not have beakers, water, Bunsen burners, and he
cuts down plastic soda bottles to make laboratory dishes”(Kozol 64). When the
materials are scarce or none at all science becomes another victim of
unentertaining education for students. The teacher improvising materials
definitely is a wake
Materials
and education go to together like peanut butter and jelly; one without the
other would be no point. Students are already having a hard time getting to
know the information with out books and with out the proper instructor. But
this can all be the plan to keep the cycle going. “One cannot dispute the fact
that giving poor black adolescents job skills, if it’s in self-evident that
they do not possess the academic skills to go to college is a good thing in
itself”(Kozol 92). Keeps the same routine going and keeps the social cycle in
place, to not educate those who we need to do the work others will not do.
Teachers are the ones who
inspire us and to thrive us to do better but when teachers are getting fired
for their lack of teaching, the failure of students is laid in their hands. The
book mentions when teachers purposely do not teach because they know the
students will fail since they attend a poorly funded school. As much as the
school system wanted to change the school system they couldn’t because teachers
were always on the ten-year plan. Finally the federal government puts a reform
on schools. “Reforms
the federal government would require in order for school districts to receive
several sources of federal stimulus funds include… firing principals and staff,
closing the schools or converting them into charter schools”(Aldax). In order
for reforms to be effective drastic changes must be made. Even if it includes
firing teachers and closing down schools to better them. The teachers are the
ones we rely on and they are the same people who let us down.
Attending
a high impact schools involves lottery and the hope that lucky will be on your
side and on the students life. Dealing with a bad school district you are
willing to take your child to any school no matter how far it is to make sure
they have a great education. Many parents will wake up early to drive the extra
miles just to make sure the school and education is better than the one in
their own community. Watching the movie Waiting for “Superman”
Francisco’s mother along with other parents in the film all hope that their
child will be the one to get accepted into a better school but, “only chance of
getting into a good school is all pending on a number”(Guggenheim).
Thousands of parents will unite and only ten students will be able to enter a
new school district to hope for a different future than the one they live in
now. In the book many students mention they know there are better schools out
there but there is no reason to compare schools since they know they will not
attend these schools. Faith is gone when the schools you attend no longer
strive and the faith you have on a lottery in most unlikely to happen.
One of
the most biggest moments growing up is graduating high school, showing your
parents and family you made it to adult hood but for some people adult hood
starts when you help your family provide. Kozol interviews hundreds of kids all
knowing they were not going to graduate high school or even make it to college.
There standards are low but what really is important is getting a job and
making money to help your family. “Reverend
Charles Kyle, a professor at Loyola University, believes that 10 percent of
students in Chicago drop out prior to their high school years, usually after
seventh or eighth grade- an estimate that I have also heard from several
teachers”(Kozol 70). Surprised by how young these students are and they are in
doubt and dropping out of school. Not even making it out of middle school and
only one in four students will graduate high school.
surprisingly
there are bad people I this world that do bad things and do what they please,
something those people are our very own bad teachers. As a student you know the
difference between a good and a bad teacher because they will go out of their
way to make you a better student. Growing up you think a bad teacher is someone
who give you homework or that make you stay later to help you more but in
reality that was in fact a good teacher. In Waiting for “Superman” a student
actually recorded his teacher reading a magazine and actually not doing their job.
“”If a kid comes in not reading,” says an English teacher at Chicago’s South
Shore High, “he goes out not
reading”(Kozol 64). A teachers job should be to help and want to help to not
let see a student fall behind but to improve. Growing up Spanish was my first
language and I took English as a second language for two years every week just
so I did not fall behind and make sure I understood everything that was
happening. No matter the school system or the situation every teachers job is
to want to help student succeed.
growing up
money is always something we always have to deal with once you are a little
older instead of a job you decide to get a career and if you love what you do than
its not a job anymore but this does not involve teachers. Teachers’ especially
public school teachers do not get paid as well as they should but enough to not
complain to their students. Luckily I have never had a teacher speak about a
paycheck or that they rather be somewhere else than in the classroom. Unfortunately
that is not the case for everyone, some students know perfectly well that their
teacher doe not want to be there. Even in popular movies today showing teachers
going to work being a drag. “The salary scale, too low to keep exciting,
youthful teachers in the system, leads the city to rely on low-paid subs, who
represent more than a quarter of Chicago’s teaching force. “We have teachers,”
Mrs. Hawkins says, “who only bother to come in three days a week””(Kozol 63). Teachers
not attending school and having other under paid teachers take care of their
job or actually in other words babysitting.
working in harsh conditions can lead to a harsh environment that
can lead to harsh teachers. When teachers are not given the supplies, books or
even a classroom to work in they are bound to do a bad job. Students are
unwilling to learn if the supplies are not in front of them and teachers do not
want to teach someone who is unwilling to learn. “A teacher observed by the Tribune’s reporter gives a sharp
tongue-lashing to his 33 sixth graders. “If you’re stupid, sit there like a
dummy,” he says to a boy who cannot estimate a quotient”(Kozol 79). Showing
that teachers do not have the patience to teach anymore and do not strive for
their students to be better. The person we hope to push us are the ones who are
purposely keeping us down.
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