One of the questions posed in class was whether or not those who set policy and curriculum understand the children they are setting those policies for. The simple answer is to say that they do not and can not understand the differing situations of these children, particularly of the poor and working class. I pose the question as to whether they want to know these children's situations? They undoubtedly know of these children, but as we are learning make little effort to make changes to benefit them. Perhaps it is easier for them to turn a blind eye to the situation and therefore not face the undeniable facts of how bad the situation truly is. Unfortunately this is no the worst that happens. As I said, they must know that schools are unequal, and all too often they choose to not only ignore these children, but take steps to assure that they do not have the means to achieve beyond their current status. This a problem that has been seen for many years. This article from 1999; California Lawsuit Notes Unequal Access to AP Courses shows how California appears to have denied AP classes to low-income students. As we heard in class, some AP classes are weighted heavier in college admissions. By denying low-income students the same opportunity in curriculum afforded to their wealthier counterparts, they are preventing students from developing their full potential, which is counter to what the educational system should be doing.
In this post; Can Public Schools Fix the Achievement Gap? the author sites three different recent incidents where the curriculum was different dependent on the race and economic status of the students. This is unfortunately a problem that has continued to happen not only now, but the recent past and undoubtedly much further back than that. These actions are ingrained into our schools and political process so deeply that it may indeed take years to change the situation. I think that change is possible, but first we must recognize that children are treated differently and through various political and legal processes create change. While we would ideally like to think that the problem could be corrected by simply recognizing the inequality and then expecting those who set policy to correct it, perhaps the only way to truly change the system is to force those who may be causing the problem and who are already aware of the discrepancies to make the necessary changes.
4 comments:
Your comments about the Advanced Placement courses not being offered in low-income schools is something I have seen myself. My school offered at least 10 different AP courses to our students. Being naive when I was younger, I thought that this was something that was offered in every school. Little did I know when I came to the University and talked with other students, this is completely not the case. And even at the time of discussing the differences of AP's in our schools, I felt uncomfortable that I had been given an opportunity that others had not been, especially since it had an effect on my GPA, my transcripts, my resume.
I loved when you said, "all too often they choose to not only ignore these children, but take steps to assure that they do not have the means to achieve beyond their current status." That just stuck a chord with me. Really NCLB is about making sure the affluent white kids don't get left behind, not the low-income minority students. How sad is that? I'm afraid that forcing our rich white politicans to make these necessary changes is not going to be easy.
Patricia speaks to the lack of AP classes at her school. So there you have it! A firsthand account. I always thought that was normal until I became a teacher! Yah. Anyhow, how can we force those in power to care? How? What can we do?
I agree that those making the policies - most likely do not understand who they are making it for. It's really unfortunate that inequalities do exist, this brings it back to how a board should be set up with representatives from all classes to aid in the decision making in regards to education, but would anyone ever let such a board be created?
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