Summary Of Carla Shedd's Unequal City

Education has been a major influence on government policy and social standards concerning American youth. With hard work and education, one can better themselves and open up more opportunities for financial and social success. Waiting for Superman directed by Oscar winner, Davis Guggenheim, counters that the current education system is failing students by limiting their upward mobility, particularly among minority and low income groups. The documentary advocates for a radical change in the modern education system, modeled after charter school curriculums. Even though these successful schools produce great students many children, majority African American and Hispanic, are being left behind. In Maya Angelou’s

I found this article to be very interesting and extremely heartbreaking. Jonathan Kozol paints a vivid and grim picture of predominantly black or Hispanic schools in and around some the largest cities in America. Even in areas where the distribution of races is somewhat equal, Kozol tells us that most white families would rather send their kids by bus to a school where more than half of the students are white. Some schools, like Martin Luther King Jr. high school in New York City, are located purposefully in upper middle class white neighborhoods in hopes to draw in a more diverse selection of children, i.e. more white kids. It seems however, according to Kozol, that this plan not only did not work, but has made it a prime and obvious example of modern segregation in our schools. One teacher Kozol interviewed at a school where 95 percent of the students were either black, asian, hispanic or native american, told him “not with bitterness but wistfully--of seeing clusters of white parents and their children each morning on the corner of a street close to the school, waiting for a bus that took the children to a predominately white school”. (p.203)

Education has importance in life because it gives people the skills and tools they need to be successful. Reading, writing, calculating, and communicating would not exist without education. People would also not be able to perform jobs competently, accurately and safely. In “America Skips School” by Benjamin R. Barber, Barber believes America needs to get their act together. People need to stop making excuses and calling their problems an “education crisis.” They need to take a stand, make a change, and start caring about education. The value of education determines the amount of effort expressed towards education.

In collegiate education, American History has always, has been told from the white person’s point of view. It has also failed to recognize the contributions of African American culture that has helped create America. Overtime many thought this would change, but in reality majority of African-Americans know more about “American” history than African-American history. Because of the lack of knowledge that both black people and non-black people have about African-American history, they tend to have closed off mindsets about how the topic relates to educations. According to Aristotle, “ It’s the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” This powerful quote simply means the we as people must be willing to

In Jonathan Kozol’s “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid” he explains that the difference between the low class schools and the urban class schools inequality by the lack of importance, the low funds, and the segregation. Kozol admits that no effort is put into the minority public schools that are isolated and deeply segregated. “At a middle school named for Dr. King in Boston, black and Hispanic children make up 98 percent of the enrollment”(Kozol 349). The schools that are named after Civil Rights leaders shows no proof of what these people were trying to succeed. Kozol comments on the extremely low funds in these minority schools. In one school he illustrates how dirty and grimy the schools are. “I had made repeated

Segregated schools ended in 1954. At least that’s what students were told to believe. So many working class students have been affected in almost every aspect of their life, such as academically, mentally and emotionally. There no longer have to be two completely different types of schools for whites and for blacks, in order to see that segregation is still a huge part of the school system today. Economic segregation in schools has impacted many working class students in a very negative way. These students don’t get equal opportunities as those students attending elite schools. Authors Toni Cade Bambara and Jonathon Kozol have written vivid examples on how working class students have been impacted by segregation in school.

problem lies in the fact that most public schools have fixed costs from heating costs to teaching staff that cannot easily be adjusted or downscaled when a few students leave in a given year. The result equates to “squeezed funding at traditional public schools” (Daniel Simmons Ritchie).

After my arrival, I was placed in a bilingual high school located in midtown Manhattan. My high school was one of the four schools in the building; each floor had its own school. The schools were divided as follow: the first floor; special Ed, second floor; culinary arts (black students), third floor; native English speakers (mostly white students), and fourth floor; bilingual school for newcomer immigrants (Hispanics). The dynamics of segregation experienced in my high school reflects to the reality that many Americans lived in the era of “Separate but equal.” Sadly, more than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, the United States schools continued to be segregated. In addition, the Government Accountability Office [GAO] (2016) reported: “from school years 2000-2001 to 2013-2014, the percentage of all K-12 public schools that had high percentages of poor and black or Hispanic students grew from 9 to 16 percent” (p. 2). These findings suggest that practices of racially and economically segregating students of color continue unresolved. Sadly, poverty and race are automatic disqualifiers for children of color to have equal access to quality

As I write this, and the reader reads, there are children who are thrown into buildings that barely pass for schools. They are educated without proper materials, and in many cases, without a teacher. In other places, there are teachers who are masters of pedagogy and command the room with their engaging lectures. There are students who perform elaborate experiments on Bunsen burners. It is for public education's transformation into the latter that Jonathan Kozol writes so emotionally and thoughtfully. His beliefs ring true - why should any student have any advantage over another? Why should a wealthy runner be given the head start in the educational race? As Kozol points out, "All of these children say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. Whether in the New York suburbs, Mississippi, or the South Bronx, they salute the same flag. They place their hands across their hearts and join their voices in a tribute to “one nation indivisible” which promises liberty and justice to all people" (p.

Throughout Jonathan Kozol’s essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid” (347) and “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” (374) by Beverly Tatum, both Kozol and Tatum discuss racial issues in the educational system. Kozol and Tatum explain racial issues by presenting two different instances that racial issues have played a roles. These two instances being visiting different public schools by Kozol and noticing the cafeteria segregation by Tatum. Using their own personal experiences, their arguments essentially come to similar conclusions, so by comparing their essays, the most significant problems are brought to the table.

Malcolm X once said “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepared for it today.” In the western world education plays a vital role in shaping our future; it determines if we will survive or fail in the world we created for ourselves. Our world is constantly changing and it requires a society that is well versed in understanding the problems deriving from cultural differences and tolerance of one another’s beliefs and perceptions. With the power of education we are able to deal with the problems of economic, government, religion and culture differences.

Where children are being denied the opportunity of having an equal education. “Families claimed that extreme racial and class segregation in schools enabled and sustained by state-enforced school district boundary lines denied them the equal educational opportunity guaranteed by Connecticut’s constitutions” (Eaton, 2007; 35-36). However, why are districts doing this to children? Especially when they tend to have good academic achievements.

Although, discriminatory discipline overtly plays a significant role in pushing youth particularly students of color out of the classrooms and into the pipeline, this shines a light on the fact that our public school system is failing our children regardless of race. While a faulty public school system can not foster students educational development nor prepare students to be responsible citizens who lead economically and socially productive lives. Therefore, stopping the bleeding of school-to-prison pipeline is merely a prelude to a much larger social justice challenge—the right to quality education that constructs the well-being for all.

Education is very important for everyone and it will only get more important. Schooling is just plain bad. It used to serve a purpose, like the heart in a person 's body, but now it is basically just boring students more and more. Nowadays at the end of the day, we all just want to go home. Many aspects of public education are problematic. For example, the usefulness in grading systems (other than IB schools) are questionable. It cages up creativity and makes the students unmotivated. Also many times the grading system is just wrong. When students write something and give it to the teacher to grade sometimes they can get a horrible grade. That is surprising for the students because it’s like they think its good and that they’re going to get a good grade where in reality they get a horrible one. As Picasso once said, “ All children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as they grow up." Children are not frightened of being wrong. Being wrong isn’t the same thing as being creative at all. If you 're not prepared for being wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.By the time we get to be adults, most kids have lost that. The kids ( now adults) have

The benefit and purpose of school is to gain new knowledge and socialize with other people. The importance of school is taken to consideration as it helps you to meet the grades that you need to go further in life, and the skills/knowledge that can be accomplished and improved. School opens up a lot of opportunities for young people because it is the one place where they go to get new life skills and experience. School is somewhere where young people are able to practice their techniques/learning and form social bonds with other students.