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More handpicked essays just for you.
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Savage Inequalities, written by Jonathan Kozol, shows his two-year investigation into the neighborhoods and schools of the privileged and disadvantaged. Kozol shows disparities in educational expenditures between suburban and urban schools. He also shows how this matter affects children that have few or no books at all and are located in bad neighborhoods. You can draw conclusions about the urban schools in comparison to the suburban ones and it would be completely correct. The differences between a quality education and different races are analyzed. Kozol even goes as far as suggesting that suburban schools have better use for their money because the children's futures are more secure in a suburban setting. He thinks that each child should receive as much as they need in order to be equal with everyone else. If children in Detroit have greater needs than a student in Ann Arbor, then the students in Detroit should receive a greater amount of money. My perception was changed completely after reading this book, I never knew that so many schools were situated in the ghettos and were so badly overcrowded or only had two toilets working for about 1000 students, and no toilet paper. What really upsets me is the fact that within the exact same city limits, there are schools situated in the suburbs which average 20 per classroom and have enough supplies and computers for every child to receive one as their own. Of course the majority of these suburban schools are dominantly white and the urban schools hold the minorities. The dropout rates that are listed in the book are ridiculous. Most of the children drop out in secondary school and never receive a proper education because of the lack of supplies or lack of teachers' interests. The majority of the kids are black or Hispanic in the poor schools and the suburban schools hold the upper-class white children and the occasional Asian or Japanese children who are in the gifted classes. The small population of blacks and Hispanics that go to the schools are placed into the "special" classrooms and their "mental retardations" can be blamed for their placements. The majority of these students are not mental and they belonged in a regular classroom among whites and Asians. Kozol argues that the system is separate and unequal and he builds upon his hypothesis until it becomes credible.
Another school in the same district is located “in a former roller-skating rink” with a “lack of windows” an a scarcity of textbooks and counselors. The ratio of children to counselors is 930 to one. For 1,300 children, of which “90 percent [are] black and Hispanic” and “10 percent are Asian, white, or Middle Eastern”, the school only has 26 computers. Another school in the district, its principal relates, “‘was built to hold one thousand students’” but has “‘1,550.’” This school is also shockingly nonwhite where “’29 percent '” of students are “‘black [and] 70 percent [are]
The schools in Kozol 's essay dealt with lack of funding compared to other schools in New York. For example, Kozol states that the education of a third grade child, in nineteen ninety seven to nineteen ninety eight, in an inner city New York costs the New York Board of Education roughly eight thousand dollars per year. However, if you put that same third grader in a school in the white suburbs of New York, she would receive an education worth about twelve thousand dollars. Kozol adds to this by explaining that the prices on both sides have only risen (Kozol 208). A principal details the restraints on the school the lack of funding has brought, "the principal poured out his feelings to me in a room in which a plastic garbage bag had been attached somehow to cover part of the collapsing ceiling. 'This, ' he told me, pointing to the garbage bag, and then gesturing all around him at the other indications of decay and disrepair one sees in ghetto schools much like it elsewhere,
The fourth chapter in Putnam’s Our Kids is titled “Schooling”, and it focuses on how education plays into class inequality. The argument is that while schools do not cause the opportunity gap between poor kids and rich kids, but the schools allow it to grow. Putnam claims, “schools as sites probably widen the class gap,” (182). How the schools act as these sites, is based strongly on the physical segregation of rich people from poor people. Putnam refers to this segregation as “residential sorting”, and states that, “residential sorting by income [...] has shunted high-income and low-income students into separate schools,” (163). Rich parents want their kids in the best schools, with the best teachers and the best peers, and are able to afford
From reading the book, I have developed my own stance that the book education system is similar to today’s education system. I can relate with the text because I have noticed most of my history fails to mention successes of the Negroes. In fact, I was astonished that Dr. George Washington Carver had invented peanut butter. I can relate to chapter four’s solution because in my school system, Teach For America teachers who were from different areas and ethnic backgrounds were ill equipped to teach African American students while an older teacher would be able to raise test scores and teach students
However, Dr. Mubenga’s research does not take account of how neighborhood plays its role on education, and specifically, how poorer neighborhoods lead towards poorer, unsuccessful schools. An Editorial from the New York Times points out how African American neighborhoods became poor in the first place, and it draws a connection between that and its effect on education.
The article I chose to research is entitled Cultural Code-Switching: Straddling the Achievement Gap by Jennifer Morton. It was published in September 2014 and placed in the journal of political philosophy, with regards to education as well. The goal of the article was to point out the inequality that comes with the educational achievement gap and how to begin to fix the issue that has arisen. Morton explains that political, institutional, and structural factors lead to the segregation of poverty in minority communities because of their lack of access to educational and health service, reliable public transportation, and job (Morton 275).
Since the schools symbolize cultural capital of the middle and upper classes, children from lower social backgrounds, who are not familiar with the hierarchy codes will have more difficulty understanding the schooling process. The influence of cultural capital is especially prominent in the first years of schooling. The lack of cultural capital is especially drawn from the video we have watched in class on “Tammy’s story” which was about Tammy’s cultural capital and how it has a big impact on her aspirations, opportunities, and achievements. Furthermore, from this video we learned unfortunately, much of the competition to get ahead in America is rigged. Wealth in America is highly concentrated on and it defines your place on the social ladder. Likewise, Tammy is very poor and she walks 10 miles a day to go to work and clean bathrooms. Not to mention, she has four kids and one of her kids that stands out the most is her son Matt. Matt on the other hand, thinks he’s going to be much better off than his family, and in the video clip he seems embarrassed by his family. Alternatively, Matt tries to dress well, make good friends and he hopes to get a scholarship to a college that he wants to go to. Also, Matt
Jonathan Kozol is an American writer from Boston, Massachusetts, and a graduate of Harvard University. He began his career as a teacher in the Boston school system and also became involved in the study of social psychology. This lead to his involvement as an activist for low income and poverty destined children who are not provided the means for a proper education.
She goes on to say how the ceiling is ruined, the bathroom stalls need doors and how there isn’t a playground around. She also talks about how the school’s basement is the cafeteria for the teachers. Now, this really caught my attention. When I was in high school, I remember that the teachers had a whole living room inside the school for them to eat their lunch or to rest during their conference period. This made me think that the teachers always had it “good”. By good I mean that it never crossed my mind that the instructors as well as students were suffering from inequalities. I always believed it was only the students that did. The students were the ones who suffered from not getting enough textbooks or not providing sufficient supplies. But in reality, this article helped me open my eyes to see that also the whole faculty, staff and schools are in this together. How is a student going to learn if the teachers do not have the proper and/or sufficient equipment? Why are other schools, such as the one I went, are getting more benefits than the others
In Jonathan Kozol’s essay titled, “From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Kozol touches on how racial segregation has not disappeared in big cities’ urban public school systems. In this essay we can see how both types of judgements; racial and academic come together to form a stereotype about intellectual success in our current educational system. On the other hand, he brings to our attention that it is the American citizen’s common belief that racial segregation in public schools doesn’t exist anymore. In Kozol’s work he discusses various schools in major cities he has visited and offers the reader personal anecdotes from interviews with students. One quote from a student that I found remarkably interesting is “we do not have the things you have. You have clean things. We do not have. You have a clean bathroom. We do not have that. You have Parks and we do not have Parks. You have all the thing and we do not have all the thing. Can you help us?” (Kozol). This little girl is begging and reaching out to a white man because she thinks that he can help her. I am curious as to why she thinks that white schools have more than children at her school and if this is from first hand experience or from hearing from others. Does she think this way because her school demographics are composed mostly of one race? More importantly, I hope that someone did not teach her to think that
As stated before, a neighborhood plays an important factor in the upbringing of children and youths. Living in a poverty stricken neighborhood has negative consequences such as a lower educational achievement and a higher chance of committing crimes. The wealth concentrated in affluent neighborhoods stays in the neighborhood and are rarely spreaded to areas in poverty. Children growing up in poorer neighborhoods are not given the same opportunities as children growing up in well-of neighborthoods to gain a higher education because of the resources that are offered. As a result, poor socioeconomic areas remain the same over time because of the lack of resources introduced into the area.
The gap between the nation’s best and worst public schools continues to grow. Our country is based on freedom and equality for all, yet in practice and in the spectrum of education this is rarely the case. We do not even have to step further than our own city and its public school system, which many media outlets have labeled “dysfunctional” and “in shambles.” At the same time, Montgomery County, located just northwest of the District in suburban Maryland, stands as one of the top school systems in the country. Within each of these systems, there are schools that excel and there are schools that consistently measure below average. Money alone can not erase this gap. While increased spending may help, the real problem is often rooted in the complex issues of social, cultural, and economic differences. When combined with factors involving the school itself and the institution that supports it, we arrive at what has been widely known as the divide between the suburban and urban schools. Can anything actually be done to reverse this apparent trend of inequality or are the outside factors too powerful to change?
All races have those who chose to believe in inequality, and that is why it is still alive today. While I can understand that there is a struggle for those in the Bronx, I have to say I disagree that the fight is only in the Bronx neighborhoods. There are schools with kids who are white and still do not have all the luxuries of other schools. In the school, I work for we have a mixture of all races, and we have 75% free and reduced lunches, which means that more than half of our population is below the poverty line. I do know that there is more attention brought to the Bronx areas only because people have always referred to it as the ghetto. This word ghetto is what keeps the Bronx in the spotlights. If you go to most public schools, you will see that whites have become the minority in many school districts. I detest the fact that we are continually stating that only the Hispanics or Blacks suffer from inequality! Why? Because we all do in some form or another. Most of our kids come to school and what we feed them is the only meal they get and this happens to every race in the school I work at. It appears that this author is basing his opinions on areas that only include high numbers of black or Hispanic kids in poor districts. I have to say that the article is interesting, yet appears one
Once a school system drops their efforts to integrate schools, the schools in low-income neighborhood are left to suffer; not to mention that segregation in schools leads, not only to the neglect of schools, but the neglect of students as well. Resegregation quite literally divides the public schools into two groups “the good schools”, that are well funded, and “the bad schools”, that receive a fraction of the benefits-- more often than not the groups are alternatively labeled as “the white schools” and “the black schools” (and/or hispanic). Opportunities for the neglected students diminish significantly without certain career specific qualifications that quality education can provide-- they can’t rise above the forces that are keeping them in their situation.
...trated in the inner city where the worst, most impoverished schools are located. Therefore, even if they wish to attend school, they still receive have less access to good teachers and a good learning environment. And perhaps the most detrimental issue that minorities face is that they are often stigmatized as inferior. This causes them to be treated differently and it causes them to have low expectations for themselves, which leads to poor performance.