Myth Of Meritocracy

I believe the mentoring experience to be a valuable one for both the mentor and the mentee. In the educational system that exists today, students from majority groups and positions of privilege are more often set up for more success and opportunity than minority groups and lower income families. This system subscribes to a myth of meritocracy, which we read about in the article by Lorriz Anne Alvarado, Dispelling The Myth of Meritocracy, Lessons For Higher Education and Student Affairs Educators. This is the idea that the American Dream is achievable to all that work hard enough, where rather the reality of it is that the United States has a history of racial and class based exclusions, where k-12 education is “uneven on lines of race and

More recently though I’ve started some conversations with her and I alway listen and reply to what she says, and try my best to make her feel comfortable in conversation with me. The more I listened and engaged in conversation with her, the more she opened up to me.

Alderwood elementary does a really good job at embracing the different backgrounds of every student. I learned a lot in my site placement about the many ways that a school can make big differences in the school climate and enjoyability of learning through community engagement. Participating in the afterschool clubs was such a valuable experience, and I wish more schools had the opportunity to have this free option for all students. Not only is it beneficial to working families to have free childcare, the students are also given a variety of opportunities to explore interests and work collaboratively on really fun projects. Alderwood is given this opportunity due to it’s status as a title 1 school, which the volunteers and teachers embrace as a way that makes Alderwood an important community. They also embrace and celebrate the different backgrounds of students. The Article, Teachers, Please Use Our Names spoke of the importance of knowing and properly pronouncing students name’s ; “When a child