Education Now And In The Future

Calla Urban





Most of my answers to the four umbrella questions that I submitted in my
first draft are not extremely different then my answers now. I still agree with
pretty much everything I said, I just expanded on most of my answers and
included other things as well. One of the biggest realizations I came to was about
who determines what goes on in schools. The superintendent and school
administrators have very little to do with it, the federal government, state
government, and school board has a large amount of say. This class also really
opened my eyes to how important a role the teacher plays. In simple terms the
education system is very messed up and it becomes very dependent on the
teachers. I didnt realize before how good teachers make a good school district
and how much power teachers have to create changes in their students lives. It
is much more personal than I realized, relationships are huge. Another insight I
have gained after taking this class is that there are quite a few problems with the
education system. This sounds a little depressing but it hasnt deterred me from
becoming a teacher, if anything it has motivated me more. Considering my mom
has been in the education system for over 30 years now, first as a teacher and
then as an administrator I thought I knew pretty much all the problems with the
education system but I was very wrong. She works in a fairly privileged school
district and my work with inner city kids this summer and this class has opened
my eyes to the added problems facing underprivileged and minority students.
This class has shown me all the problems I will face as a teacher and it has
encouraged me to try to fix them one student at a time.





Although I realize now that there are many purposes to schooling I still
believe that because the United States has this wonderful thing called a free
public education system, the main purpose is to educate all students and give
them an equal playing field to start on. Free public education is rare and
considering it was practically our founding countries education system I feel that
we should honor it. Peggy McIntoshs article on white privilege shows a glimpse
of what some of the different challenges are among people of color in everyday
life. Considering all of these disadvantages I strongly believe that their education
should not be just another disadvantage in their lives. One of the main goals of
teachers in to help close that gap and level that playing field for all students.
An example of these disadvantages is with the Kansas City School District.
The KCSD has lost its accredidation that means that they are not meeting state
standards. This hurts the students because their GPAs are no longer relevant for
future colleges but many of them dont have the means to switch schools and it
hurts the district because any student is allowed to transfer which takes away
funding from the school district when they need it most. Ladson-Billings
explains in her article, Yes But How Do We Do It, that there are two different
types of teachers, ones that believe society is fair and that their students are
already competing on a level playing field and that just naturally some students
are going to fall behind, and what she calls the culturally relevant teacher who
realize that there is an asymmetrical relationship between society and poor
students of color and understand that you are fighting that while trying to
educate them equally. There is a huge stereotype in society that poor students of
color simply cannot achieve as much as their rich white counterparts and should
not be held to the same standards. In Huertas book it talks about ways in which
this is done with things like tracking which is where students are segregated in
classrooms based on ability and then the students often fall victim to a self
fulfilling prophecy, if a student believes he/she is not as smart as the other
students and cannot achieve as much then they often live up to that expectation
of themselves. There was a black girl named Shamaya who was from low
economic standing who attended the Kansas City School District who told me
that she was going to be a hairdresser when she grew up because she could be
good at that and that she could make good money doing that. At ten years old
she had already given up that she could be whatever she wanted to be and
achieve just as much as any other student. It is the teachers job to hold every
student to a high standard, regardless of their race or socio economic status.
Teachers need to understand the disadvantages some students have coming into
their classroom and fight to make sure every student has an equal education
instead of accepting that poor students of color will not do as well because that
makes the students believe it too.
I believe that the federal No Child Left Behind act was meant to help
transform this order by saying that every student can reach the same level
regardless of race or economic status and all students can have at least proficient
achievement in school. The title literally says that there will be no child left
behind. Although the concept was good the execution was very flawed. The
ultimate goal of the No Child Left Behind act was for every student to be
proficient on state tests by the 2013-2014 school year. Although this is a great
idea to think that this can happen it is impossibly unachievable. This does not
factor in students with disabilities and ignores the fact that students learn at
different paces and to say that everyone has to be in the same place by third
grade is saying that by age seven we should all have learned the same things.
The NCLB act was also largely underfunded, it required school districts to do so
much and show so much yearly progress but it did not give schools enough
funding to do so. How funding was distributed was also flawed. If a school
district is struggling they received no more funding but were still expected to
improve their performances for next year. The NCLB act is completely
dependent on standardized tests, which is another flaw. Standardized tests are
very controversial. I believe that they help continue the existing order in many
ways. First off because of the NCLB act teachers teach to the test. They need
their students to do well on these standardized tests so they only cover the
information that is given in the tests. It leaves no room for the teacher to be
creative and explore with his/her students. Standardized tests are especially
difficult on English Language Learners. Every student has to take the test and
every test is in English even for ELLs. They also do not receive more time to
take these tests which is a huge disadvantage because they have to translate
everything in their head and then answer the questions. A Fossil Ridge teacher
named Mr. McHugh said that one of his biggest worries for the future of the
United States education system is the overly impersonal nature of the
standardized tests. Teachers no longer teach each student differently and teach
them to think for themselves, they now teach all of them the same and teach
them to memorize and regurgitate information. The writers of Dialogical
Pedagogy in Teacher Education talk about dialogical pedagogy and its benefits.
Dialogical pedagogy is pretty much the opposite type of teaching done for
standardized tests. In dialogical pedagogy classes are discussion based and
students learn from each other as well as the teacher and the students end up
leading the class. It allows for more learning and teaches kids to formulate an
opinion and be able to articulate why they feel that way and they are learning
from everyone around them instead of the one adult in the room who is
considered to be the expert. It allows for much more learning that teaching to
standardized tests does.
Another way in which I think schools continue the existing order in
through the idea that we need to become colorblind. Lantieri and Patti discuss
this idea in their books and include a letter written by an eighth grader who
believes that the idea that we should all be colorblind is just stupid. I
completely agree with her because asking someone to be colorblind is asking
them to ignore a huge part of a persons identity. If teachers become colorblind
in school it means they assume every student gets treated the same and comes
from the some background which is certainly not the case. To be a good teacher
one has to understand each students background and teach them individually
based on that. Being colorblind devalues a persons race and ignores it. As a
teacher trying to create an equal playing field for all students it is impossible to
be colorblind because students of color are fighting injustices every day and
teachers have to see that to try to counteract it. In Banks article, Approaches to
Multicultural Curriculum Reform, it talks about how a mainstream-centric
curriculum negatively affects students of color because it marginalizes their
experiences and cultures and does not reflect their dreams, hopes, and
perspectives. This is the same as a teacher being colorblind because they teach
as if every student is the same and has the same culture and when this is not the
case it creates a disconnect and lack of interest for minority groups in schools.
Although many parts of the education system are dictated by the federal
government or the state government or even the school board teachers still have
the most influence on the lives of their students. Teachers need to realize the
power they hold and use it to transform the existing order and teach their
students no matter race or economic status and level out the playing field so that
all students believe they can achieve whatever they set their minds to.















Works Cited
Banks, James A., and Cherry A. McGee. Banks. Multicultural Education: Issues and
Perspectives. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1993. Print.
Fernandez-Balboa, Juan-Miguel. "Dialogical Pedagogy in Teacher Education." Journal
of Teacher Education (1994): 24-34. Web.
Lantieri, Linda, and Janet Patti. Waging Peace in Our Schools. Boston: Beacon, 1996.
Print.
McIntosh, Peggy. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." Independent
School (1990): n. pag. Web.
Huerta, Grace. Educational Foundations: Diverse Histories, Diverse Perspectives.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2009. Print.
Ladson-Billings, Gloria. ""Yes But How Do We Do It?"" Practicing Culturally Relevant
Pedagogy (n.d.): n. pag. Print.
McHugh, Mr. "Inquiry Project." Personal interview. Nov. 2012.