In the book, “Rereading America,” written by Toni Cade Bambara along with Gary Colombo and Robert Cullen, Bambara focuses on the challenges and desire to teach by contras of what you don’t have and what you can achieve. (Bambara, pg. 253-259) It is without doubt that even though a cookie cutter theory is used in most schools; there will be certain social economical neighborhoods in which a teacher or adult will have to vary the process of communication in order to get his or her point across with dedication and teach the love for learning. Ms. Moore had been a wise educated woman who did not avoid the challenging attitudes of children going up in a disadvantaged economical community. There were struggles in more ways than just the money factor, it was the fact that with less opportunities brought about financial support came fear. Fear, that would ultimately lead them to helplessness of how far they could achieve their dreams. …show more content…
With Sugar the struggle was easy, yet with Silvia a lot more difficult. It was children like Silvia that Ms. Moore knew she would have to be a bit more extreme in not only teaching her verbally, but also showing her the difference in knowing the “real meaning of money, how to earn it and spend it”. As an educator, the challenge doesn’t only apply to the immediate family. The challenge also surrounds it self by environmental and media factors including but not limited to music, thus as a child until someone comes along and takes the time to explain and physically show you your ultimate options you could potentially remain still. Ms. Moore knew that and with that she took the children to “F.A.O. Schwarz” in New York. The children had different reactions to their own experience in the store, but it was also this trip that changed them as
American Teacher is a documentary that advocates the many different problems that teachers face teaching in today’s society. It refutes the perception teachers are the problems within the education system and that are things that make it hard for them to successfully run their classroom. The film questions the priorities that our country has when it comes to education. A lot of people believe teachers have short work days and make good pay when in reality they spend more hours in their work day than most and their classrooms are underfunded. American Teacher uses a large collection of teacher testimonies and contrasts it along with the demands of the teaching profession.
In “I Just Wanna Be Average,” Mike Rose explains the experience being part of a school system that had no prior knowledge to have educators to teach students. Rose supports his claims by describing the different situations he had to encounter with the lack of the school system, the hopelessness of the teachers and his peers, that lead those students with no support to lead them in a direction of success. Rose purpose is to point out that; all that it was needed was a teacher that cared enough to teach and to influence those students to succeed and to never hinder the student’s learning experience because anything is possible with an little of an encouragement. In the 8th paragraph in “I Just Wanna Be Average,” Rose describes what it felt like
James Baldwin wrote “A Talk to Teachers” in the early 1960s for the purpose of publicizing the “current”, “very dangerous…menace” that plagues our country - our educational system. As Baldwin develops his argument, he utilizes various historical prejudices that have been criminally ignored in the classroom and the effects that these lies have had on our society as a whole. To him, hiding our country’s scars threatens our nation as the majority of that generation grows up ignorant and complacent - a generation that “will simply obey the rules of society”. History has shown that if people fail to fight for the truth and fail to fight for change, then our “society [will] perish.” Through various examples, Baldwin illustrates that the only way
In the essay written by Michael Moore called “Idiot Nation” he discusses what he thinks is the problem with America’s educational system and what he feels is the reason it is getting worse. He writes about a few different reasons why the education system is failing due to politicians, teachers not qualified to teach and large corporations. In his writing, he worries about our nation’s illiteracy, our politician’s questionable education decisions, and our underachieving students. From this, Moore hopes to inspire his audience to take action and fight against our nation of “ignorant” Americans by giving personal anecdotes, historical data and education statistics in his writings. Moore’s use of his own credibility as a source, sarcasm
Hilliard suggests that “African American children need to learn languages and content other than that which they may have learned up until now” (Delpit, L., & Dowdy, K., 2002, p.91). This means that educators need to reevaluate teaching practice and the assessment process to fit the needs and promotes African American children’s culture experiences. Provide learning materials that compare their culture with other ethnicity and cultures. According to Darling (2010) “Both segregation of schools and inequality in funding has increased in many states over the past two decades, leaving a growing share of African-American and Hispanic students in highly segregated apartheid schools that lack qualified teachers;
Many children throughout the world face major problems with being educated like the kids in Niger, Africa but Dylan Garity explained the reasons of what does it mean to be educated. In the poem “Rigged Game,” Dylan Garity clarifies how the disparities in education minimize bilingual understudies. One case that backings this allegation is the No Child Left Behind arrangement, which averts learning in an understudy 's local dialect. The poet utilizes the understudies, which his older sister instructs in her ESL class to express his worries about culture and education. This classroom speaks to a sort of formal education, which is tutoring that happens in a formal definition with the objective of educating foreordained educational programs.
“The Lesson” “The Lesson” was written by Toni Cade Bambara. This essay recounts the day Miss Moore took a group of neighborhood kids to the toy store F.A.O Schwartz. Sylvia and her friend Sugar make it clear that they’d rather be somewhere else and out enjoying the day. Sylvia and her friends are astounded by the price tags they see on some toys and are left breathless wondering why someone would pay “37$ for a performing clown or 1000$ for a handcrafted sailboat”. The conflict between the narrator Sylvia is external conflict and it is shown by self VS economic welfare.
The Glass Castle provides readers with the life story of a young Jeannette Walls, who grew up in a very poor and dysfunctional family. Her touching story provides individuals with an idea of how she developed from a poor and atypical child into an independent, intelligent, and respected woman. In order to discuss Jeannette’s development one must primarily understand what categorizes as development and what the criteria for development include. Also, it is essential to recognize that development takes time, it will not appear over night. Finally, it is crucial to acknowledge how development occurs.
Within his essay, “Still Separate, Still Unequal”, Jonathan Kozol details the methodical resurgence of segregation amongst the inner-city school districts from civilization. Further, extending the definition passed its racial limitations by observing a diverse faction of both students and school officials. Therefore, engulfing him in a world filled with dilapidated facilities and scripted vocabularies that are designed to manage how teachers develop students into profitable citizens. Subsequently, navigating Kozol to conclude that if the nation’s inequalities are still gradually dictating the value of an individual’s education. Then that said person within the new interpretation of segregation has lost something more than education, they have lost their childhood.
Bullen defines hooks’ term “teaching to transgress” as a strategy that suggests revolution and speaks to one’s determination, strength, and commitment. It is a strategy that casts the “teacher” and the student in the role of revolutionaries—agents of change. Bullen goes on to state the “education as the practice of freedom” speaks to the need to free oneself from oppression. In order to do this, one should critically examine our world and our experiences on a local and global level. Today, it remains that most students are taught in classrooms where styles of teachings still reflect the white, male, heterosexual school of thought, which is viewed and accepted as universal.
The upbringing of a child contains many factors, many of which correlate to where a child grows up. The people, culture, and experiences of someone’s childhood are the greatest determining factor for what kind of person they will become. So how does the nature and nurture of one’s upbringing impact the decisions that they make, and their life in general? Author Wes Moore explores this question in his memoir, The Other Wes Moore, as it relates to two lives in particular. Moore main purpose in this book is to explore the overarching impact that a collection of expectations and decisions, not always one’s own, can have on someone’s life.
As Nelson Mandela once said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Donovan Livingston, a graduate at Harvard Graduate School of Education, has similar views on education. His passionate and inspiring speech called “Lift Off” was given at HGSE’s Commencement Ceremony on May 25, 2016. The speech discusses the importance of education as well as the obstacles and injustices students, especially those of color, have experienced throughout history in getting an education. Livingston’s graduating classmates who are becoming teachers, as well as teachers and educators in general, are the audience of his speech.
In this day and age many social issues that arise in America are typically not taken into consideration for change. Social commentary is an ancient art form that allows one to exclusively provide commentary on social issues. This form of expression is intentionally meant for readers to implement change and a sense of justice. Luckily, there are authors who promote the need for change through the struggles their main characters go through. Toni Cade Bambara wrote "The Lesson" which takes place in the ghetto projects, Harlem, New York.
When taking a look into Jean Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, readers are apprised of the hidden agendas many schools have. In this article, Anyon focuses on the curriculum and student-teacher interaction from five New Jersey elementary schools located in different communities with different levels of socioeconomic status. Anyon attempts to find evidence of the differences in student work in schools in wealthy communities versus those in poor communities, in an effort to bolster the argument that public schools in society provide different forms of knowledge. Through her researcher, she was able to determine that working class schools limited students; the students were given steps to follow and they were graded based on how well they followed directions—this level of education was preparing students for the labor force as blue collar workers. In addition, the affluent professional school and the middle-class school focused on attaining the correct answer, but allowed individuals to have a choice of appropriate method and material.
Bad Teachers There is such a thing as a bad teacher. Students agree that whether it’s because they hate kids, abuse their authority, or have personalities that are unsuited for their profession, some teachers are just bad. However, upon closer inspection, categorizing some teachers as “bad” becomes complicated. Take for instance, Mr. Shepherd Quincy, described by a former student as the “most caring teacher I ever had,” who now “does battle with students on a daily basis” (Michie 123).