My ‘favorite things’ about education
Hello again!
Welcome back. I realized before I jump into my actual topic, I need to preface it with how the education system in America works/doesn’t work.
Here is a quick read that overviews how the U.S. education system works (if you are familiar with the age break downs and what not, just read the first two pages after the picture of the..chipmunk? Squirrel? Creepy animal mascot)
https://isss.umn.edu/publications/USEducation/2.pdf
Now I want to draw your attention to a couple of particular passages in the document. Which I’ll just copy and paste here for your/my convenience.
1. Education is primarily the responsibility of state/local government.
2. Each state has their own dept of education and laws regulating finances, hiring, student attendance and CURRICULUM.
3. States have great control over what is taught in its schools.
4.Local school districts/boards that are responsible for their respective schools.
5. Public school also rely heavily on local property taxes to meet the vast majority of school expenses.
6. (Here’s my favorite) therefore there is a HUGE VARIATION AMONG SCHOOLS, depending on socio-economic factors/location/states etc.
Ah yes, the lovely smell of “lets make things look nicer than they actually are because we are proud in who we are and everything we do is good” (sound familiar?)
Here is the part where I do some critical thinking/analysis/ranting
Lets address some things shall we?
#6 points out that there is a huge variance between schools across the U.S. because of finances, and the differences in the curriculum (which is at the discretion of the state/county/local school districts)
This could cause some issues.. Like Middle Class Sally from Oregon can be learning significantly different things from Lower Class Henry from Arizona. Not to mention, this is only public schools we are talking about here, private schools can do whatever the hell they want, since they can.
Heres another quick link about poverty and the education system:
https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-education-and-poverty-america
Also, school districts can decide if they want to censor/ gloss over/ ‘not really emphasize’/ flat out ignore different parts of history/science/ literature if they do not see it fit to teach.
Which means, things like this can/do happen:
You read that correctly, some Texan schools are teaching the civil war with a rose lens over it. Because wars are always very clean cut and AMERICA RULES YAAAAAHHH USA! USA!
Because “SPOILER ALERT”: The confederates lost, yes the side that supported slavery for economic reasons and RACIST reasons. (Don’t give me the ‘not all slave owners were bad’ crap, we know, still doesn’t make slavery right)
Here is an example of the education system, doing what it SHOULD DO, which is EDUCATING
(shocking right?):
Ok, I’m sure you’re wondering “where does racism in education play a part in all this?” (or if you saw where I was going, 10 cool points to you)
Much like the examples shown in the previous articles, there is a huge variance in what is taught/how it is taught.
For lower income areas, which disproportionately have a larger concentration of POC(people of color) in comparison to higher socio-economic areas, schools are not as well funded (bc of the property tax funding situation).
Which means a variety of things can happen such as:
1. Outdated textbooks
2. School buildings themselves are not up to par
3. Not as many learning resources
4. Not as many arts/physical education opportunities
5. More absences/drop outs because students do not see the merit of receiving an education and think work is the way to go (or illegal stuff)
6. Less if not, no access to academically rigorous courses like honors, AP, IB courses.
7. Less upward mobility to post-secondary education because of the disparity in educational substance. (aka less college prep)
And this is only the list for the differences you can see between poorer and richer areas.
If we talk about the differences in location, much like the Texas example, certain states will not go over the harsh reality of history, literature, science and cultivate individuals to only learn parts of history that suit them. They can also decide to completely cut out parts that they decide don’t need to be taught/or could make them look bad
To give a personal example, as much as I thoroughly enjoyed my AP U.S. History course, (at the time)I did not notice there was BARELY ANYTHING on historically significant women, Americans of color, and Native Americans(don’t say Pocahontas please).
But I did learn a whole lot about how all the U.S. history I learned up to that point was a ‘kumbaya let’s hold hands’ version of history.
There were narratives and historical incidents that I had NO IDEA about until I entered college and took a History course specifically about Women and POC in American History. Accurate representation is extremely important. You have to show all sides of the story, no matter how painful. I personally think it is responsible and beautiful that Germany has shown a very apologetic approach to the atrocities that occurred during Hitler’s time, they’ve made Swastika flags illegal for crying out loud. They have acknowledged their wrong and don’t try to cover it up, because that is the MATURE THING TO DO.
Before I go off on another tangent, back to why this is relevant to racism in education.
If you fail to teach students that certain things America did were NOT ok, guess what, they’ll think its totally ok.
If you fail to share with students that their stories are significant or if you favor one narrative over the other, it cultivates a bias and blatant ignorance.
If you fail to acknowledge the things that happened, that are STILL happening to minorities in this country, many students face a rude awakening
In areas that have lower concentrations of POC, the curriculum could do a huge disservice to these students and teach that all these issues are only in the past and everything is fine and dandy (when it in deed isn’t). I honestly cannot really blame these areas, because if you don’t see it, you unfortunately don’t tend to believe it.
Obviously, there is a whole other can of worms about the amount of liberty teachers can take in their class rooms because of standardized testing and what not. However, as an educational institution there are glaring flaws.
There are many other ways this relates to educational biases and racism which are more specific to the treatment of students of color. However, if we can already see this much in the curriculum, ALONE, buckle up because its going to be a very bumpy ride.
Next post, I’ll probably write specifically about a minority group and their experiences.
Hope I didn’t scare you/make you think American education is doomed.
Stay healthy, wash your hands and peace out.
