Blog #5

                                                    The Academic and Social

Value of Ethnic Studies

By

Christine E. Sleeter

Reflection

In a country like the United States, where diversity is a main characteristic of the population, I find the author’s concerns to be completely appealing! I find it very normal for students to lose interest in school since they feel they don’t belong in it or that the schools only belong to a specific type of people. In this text, the author is talking about students “of color” being marginalized at schools. I strongly agree with that, and I could compare it strongly to my school experience in my original country, Syria, to talk about neglected peers in elementary school at that time, not only because they’re of a different color, but also of a different religion. With a Christian majority in my city back then, it happened to be two muslim students in my classroom who used to be looked at like aliens, laughed at them, I always used to see them sad, increasingly missing classes, with a very humble academic performance, until one day, we could see them in school no more! I think that those students could’ve been saved if there was an existing strong and supportive environment that would include them and their beliefs equally during schools where they could’ve felt welcomed! I think I can clearly notice every single aspect of students’ disingagemt the author talked about in the U.S., caused by the absence of their belonging, when a specific mainstream in education based on race and/or ethnicity is taking place and destroying the other students’s origin, culture and so their existence oppressing them as well as forcing them to feel ignored and angry toward the dominant students and curriculum. I also think that can go beyond school students’ engagement to cover other kinds of oppressions that lead to disengagement, anger, hate, and then wars! And these are, as I think, the results we are harvesting all over the world, unfortunately! 

Blog#4 Shifting the Paradigm

 Shifting the Paradigm

By

Shannon Renkly

Katherine Bertolini

Reflection

 I find this text extremely valuable, and everyone should be aware of it! It touched me deeply in many points that it discusses, since I lived in a very similar school environment where there was no place for the Asset Model; rather, as the authors mentioned, it was all about focusing on observing students’ behaviors and focusing on how to severely punish them, believing that, using such a method, can fix those behaviors and lead to successful students and, in that manner, they satisfy the government by “keeping their schools well disciplined”, exactly what they inherited from the prussian system! But from what I’ve seen and experienced academically, I can clearly understand the authors’ concerns about how the Deficit Model can strongly damage the students’ future, both academically and socially, especially with the absence of the adults' roles in supporting them, those adults who could be their parents, their teachers, their relatives, or even their community. Here, I would like to share the author's interest in that role, which I find to be of substantial importance in students' achievements, as it was in mine! When I was in middle school, I used to hate school, since I didn’t find it supportive; I couldn’t find most of my teachers caring for me or encouraging my unique talents. I couldn’t see the administration staff as loving ones who were there when I needed help or support; we were all treated almost in the same way, ignoring our diverse needs! The lack of consistent communication between schools and parents made my parents unaware of the concerns that I could’ve had! All these aspects of that Decifit school model made me, for example,
lose confidence in my school’s administration and most of its teachers, impacting my academic experience during that time, which also affected my high school experience. So, when I tried to find positive and motivational teachers when facing challenges, I found unlistening ears; So, I wonder, why doesn’t the majority learn from the minority since they see in those the model of good teachers loved by their students for all the academic and social support they receive?! 

 Comment to share

If that had happened, you would have suffered from the Deficit Model in your middle school. What was your most difficult challenge, and what did you do to overcome it?

Blog #3

What Counts as Education Policy?

By

Jean Anyon

Reflection

After moving to the U.S. and living in Providence, Rhode Island, for almost a year, I always wondered, saying, “Why do people believe that Providence’s schools are bad?”. I said to myself: “It’s the capital, and even many of its schools are located in beautiful areas, so shouldn’t they be the best in the entire state?!”. But after reading this article by Jean Anyon, I think I got more than enough reasons to answer my questioning! It’s now that I know why such urban schools, even though they have beautiful buildings and are equipped with the most up-to-date technology tools for both teachers and students, have inferior expected outcomes in terms of student performance. That also answered my exclamation when I used to see, every day, and while the dismissal time of not only these public schools, but also some private ones located in the same area, that, in the public schools, I could notice that the majority of students are getting into either school buses or public transportations to give them a ride to their homes. On the other side, at the dismissal time of those private ones, I could see that the majority of the students are meeting their parents with luxury cars to pick them up, at the schools that are well known for their students’ competencies. If I want to give a reason to what I’m seeing and what I’m getting informed, I would say: “There should be definitely a financial issue.” Here, I’m trying to connect my observation and my questioning to what the author is saying about these differences between these two types of schools, why this one has successful students and the other does not. He tells us that the generous efforts of both the state and the federal governments towards the public schools and especially the urban ones, like curriculum reforms, funding increases, and much more, only affected the schooling system, ignoring the rooted problem, which is the living situations of the students and their families that, as the author mentions, many studies have shown the strong impact of these conditions like poverty, unemployment and housing segregation on the srtudents’ cognetive development and their academic performance! I find this current situation very hurtful, which always made me ask myself: “Why should a specific group of people be neighborly separated and judged to be poor and having a bad academic experience forever?!”. I really would like to join the author’s hope in the government to look beyond the schooling system to work on improving the economic and social situations of those families who need such financial support, which will lead to healthier and more successful students in every school in the country.

Health and wealth in Rhode Island

Question to share in class

Do you think that the author’s suggestion of expanding the government’s effort to address the poverty issue is something doable? If yes, what do you think the actions could be?