Problems in Society and therefore Education

What? Both Ayers and Collins discuss our current education system and how it needs to change. As of now, Ayers describes education institutions as businesses and that “teachers are workers, students are products.” In my own experience, I was always told that being a student “was my job.” However, this was our teachers way of preparing us for the capitalism our society revolves around even if they don’t even realize it. Our society consists of going to school for at least 13 years and building a solid foundation of knowledge however we don’t use most of what was taught to us. Students are taught formulas in every subject in school and not encouraged to think outside the box or use their imagination. After those 13 years of learning things we don’t really need to know, only then can we get a higher education and start to learn about subjects we actually want to learn about. We are not taught how to function in society in those 13 required years. Not only do we not know how to do taxes or other essential tasks, we never get the chance to develop a critical consciousness about the people around us and our society during the time our thoughts about ourselves and others evolve. Especially since so many schools are heavily one race or the other. For example, my high school was about 65% white and 2% African-American. I come from a fairly affluent town so it was mostly white because that is how society and people’s ideas from the past play out today. The minorities live in the poor areas and go to the poor schools while the dominant groups live in the nice areas and go to the nice schools. Schools still need to integrate more but the problem with that is kids will go to school closest to where they live. If an African American child lives in the poor area they will go to the poor school. In a perfect world, all races will live wherever they want and be intermixed with each other and the children will go to equally nice schools. However this is not a perfect world. Dominant and subordinate groups are economically separated meaning they are educationally separated. Our society for some reason has decided that people of color do not deserve nice things as well and this affects every aspect of their life. Children grow up thinking they are not good enough, that they live in the “ghetto” and go to the poor school, won’t succeed or achieve their dreams and will never be what society wants them to do. However society never gives these kids the chance to prove themselves but they shouldn’t have to in the first place. The education system needs to change so kids can start to develop their critical consciousness early.

So What? Immigration status and socioeconomic status are a couple of social contexts that affect the people I worked with at my service learning site, Canal Alliance. In society, if someone is not white and an undocumented immigrant they are unfortunartely most likely on the bottom of the totem pole. Many people are automatically assumed to be criminals when they have never done anything wrong. A false preconceived notion is placed on anyone who is different from the dominant group. For example, since the students at Canal Alliance belong to the LatinX community, they are seen as criminals, drug dealers, here to steal jobs away from Americans and a hoard of other labels that shouldn’t belong in the time we are living in today. If someone is undocumented their job opportunites are severely limited to jobs that usually don’t pay enough. This then hurts their socioeconomic status. If they can’t get jobs that will pay them enough money to survive, people end up getting multiple jobs to scrap by. Since most immigrants are treated this way they end up living in the same place or same area like the Canal District in San Rafael and this brings them back to the topic in the what section. It is a cycle of unacceptance and poverty that affects a large number of people in America, citizen or undocumented. It shouldn’t matter what their immigrant status is to be treated like human beings. People deserve to be treated like people. Just because some people may be different doesn’t mean they are dangerous or unacceptable. However, we do still need to recognize all different ethnicities. Color-blind racism is what happens when people say “they don’t see color.” Society needs to see color and respect different cultures and traditions and give everyone equal opportunities, resources, education, and treatment. If someone commits a crime they should get the same level of punishment. It doesn’t matter their race or socioeconomic status or immigrant status.

Now What? Number 5 of Ayers lists some ideas in his “Nine Possible Steps, Campaigns, and Connections” is very interesting. Number 5 states, “rethink and redesign assessment. Imagine groups of parents, teachers, and students fighting to end valorizing test scores as a proxy for intelligence, worth, or achievement, and moving away from high-stakes, sort-and-punish approaches, toward authentic assessment.” Personally, the classes I learned the most in during high school and college were the classes that were more project-based or hands-on instead of the ones who just threw a stack of paper on your desk. Everyone has different learning styles and academic strengths but as of now many teachers and colleges expect the perfect student to fit in this very tiny box. Someone may be a genius and be bored in regular classes so they might fail them and will be considered academically challenged but the problem is that no one is paying attention. Grades should not determine how intelligent a child is. Just because one kid’s strength is different from others doesn’t mean they are any less intelligent. According to several sources the SAT has been accused of being racially biased. White students consistently score better than African-Americans and LatinX. Higher scoring students are made up by white students for the most part and lower scoring students consist of a large percentage of black students. Of course not every school district is the same but if schools were more integrated and supplied with equal resources the statistics would balance out. College admissions rely heavily on grades and standardized test scores and because black students score lower they have a lower chance of getting into a good college. Therefore reinforcing the stereotypes that our society places on undeserving people. The entire system of education and every aspect of it benefits the dominant group. School is hard enough for some people but having to deal with being part of a subordinate group can make a “good” student fall apart.