With less than 5,000 residents living in Smallville, Ohio, it is an ideal small town where everyone knows each other, multiple generations of families live and grow and barely any crimes are committed. The main road leading into Smallville is like a never-ending run of corn fields, silos and dairy farms. It's an old town with old traditions. As brief as my residency was in Smallville, I witnessed the social injustices and educational issues that plague small town living. During my first few weeks, I met a student named Joseph. He towered over me at 6-foot-4 and weighing 300 pounds. At first, I didn't know what to expect from him.I was surprised to learn he had failed the 9th grade twice and with this being his third try he was in the same grade as his younger brother, Jason. Joe and I became friends fast. I was treated differently because of my skin color but Joe did not judge me. Through students chit-chatter, I learned Joe was very popular and on the football team but had unexpectedly quit his first year. Joe struggled with his classes especially in English and Mathematics. One day in English, another kid was struggling to read a passage aloud, the classroom was filled with snickers and the teacher made the poor kid continue. After class, Joe comforted the kid and made him smile. That was his talent,, he had the ability to make people feel better. Joe didn't live far from school so we would walk together. I spent most of my time with him and his family. They lived in a rented 3-bedroom home. Joe lived in the basement so his younger brothers each had their own room. A few years early their home had flooded. The basement was musky and half of it was unused because of the water damage. He slept on an old sofa and kept most of... ... middle of paper ... ...ke together. The mentality of the school was to help the popular kids succeed. Joe had fallen through the cracks for 2 years and kept trying to reach out for help but was ignored. As I examine his circumstances I wonder how things could have been different. If he had stayed on the football team, would he had received the help he needed or would the teachers just of given his good grades to keep playing? I believe the former is more likely. The teacher-students relationships were inappropriate and negative for the students. The students were not measured on their learning merit but on their popularity. The sad reality is the failure of the education system that forced a child with a learning disability to repeat the same grade almost 3 times. The teachers have the responsibility to develop their students into success individuals even if the students are disabled.
...lms these students get away with murder and still go on to college. This simply does not happen in real life; therefore, looking to Hollywood films for the true colors of schools is not in the best of interests. We have to realize that directors produce these films in their vision of American culture. We as Americans always look to the American Dream of sometime “making it.” The films neglect to see the loser’s point of view, meaning Hollywood films only look to a positive ending because it is in our nature to believe in the American Dream. This book allows our society to actually look past the films fantasies and observe the true inequalities in school. Although Hollywood films do correctly show how urban, suburban, and private students behave in schools, they do not show the true outcomes of real life.
Small towns, quaint and charming, ideally picturesque for a small family to grow up in with a white picket fence paired up with the mother, father and the 2.5 children. What happens when that serene local town, exuberantly bustling with business, progressively loses the aspects that kept it alive? The youth, boisterous and effervescent, grew up surrounded by the local businesses, schools and practices, but as the years wear on, living in that small town years down the road slowly grew to be less appealing. In The Heartland and the Rural Youth Exodus by Patrick J. Carr and Maria Kefalas equally argue that “small towns play an unwitting part in their own decline (Carr and Kefalas 33) when they forget to remember the “untapped resource of the
The phrase, "small Midwestern towns," often brings to mind an unfortunate stereotype in the minds of big-city urbanites: mundane, backward people in a socially unappealing and legally archaic setting. Small Midwestern towns, however, are not all the hovels of provincial intellect that they are so frequently made out to be. The idiosyncrasies each of them possesses are lost on those who have never taken more than a passing glance at them.
This student takes us back to his childhood in Smallville and re-examines with us his upbringing, race relations in his town, his own awareness, and ultimately his and our need for change. He does this beautifully with the use of vivid and poignant imagery, juxtaposition, and allusions. Along the way, He takes us not just to Smallville but into our own lives and minds.
When the choir director, Mrs. Elliot, would not listen to Joe Clark’s directions about teaching all the students at Eastside High the school song, he suspended her. As well as Mr. Darnell, the football coach, but he gave Mr. Darnell a second chance because of his commitment to Eastside High School.
First, with all the money that is being put into public education, it needs to be distributed evenly. If public schools had similar resources and capabilities, students wouldn’t need to travel far to get a good education and this would solve many problems. An example of this from the film is when a Mother is speaking about her child’s experience at an open discussion. She talks about how her student loves music and music is taught at a one public school and not the other. Money is being distributed unequally and kids are being taken of opportunities that they could have a passion for. Another aspect that I agree with is that for things to change for the better in the future, everyone needs to get involved. Kids in these unfortunate situations can only do so much to speak up for themselves but it will only get them so far. Most of the students aren’t even able to vote yet so it is important the country as a whole is aware of these problems and learn about how to help. Students from everywhere need to feel that they are valued so they have the chance to
Imagine having to walk into school wondering if you are going to be caught in the middle of crossfire between a teacher and a student. Well, that’s what Johnny Trumbley stressed out about every day as he walked into Mountain Gap Middle School. Mountain Gap was an excellent school with copious astute kids who excelled in everything they did. Moreover, the focus of Mountain Gap was to provide students with all the necessities for when they move to high school and sanction them to build relationships between teachers and students that will become propitious for future success. Mountain Gap was the type of school that followed the orders of the school system and never once failed to disregard the superintendent’s orders. In fact most schools are
All in all, throughout our society ideas, morals, and lessons are thought through books and if books are being banished from our schools, then we are all being deprived of our freedom as intellectuals that have the own opinions and ideas. In fact if books teach students lessons and if this books are abolished then lessons, ideas and real events of the real world are also banished from students. After all, who is the right person to censor book?
The school board was not allowing the kids to attend due to them feeling as the school scores will be very low. Many kids failed behind and some gave up and became drop outs. These people are not treated equally
Money will not solve or make this problem go away, no matter how many social workers are hired. Schools will succeed despite their financial circumstances if they have the basic components of motivated students, parent support, caring teachings, and strong central leadership. While this is the typical model of a suburban school system, Wilson High School proves that it can work anywhere. When ones thinks of urban public schools, overcrowded classes, underpaid teachers, and a lack of resources often come to mind. The fact is these problems can happen anywhere. While the environment at Kennedy could never be compared to the worst DC high school, the assumptions made against these schools are the same. By erasing these notions and confronting the problems one by one, we will be one step closer to reaching equal education for all.
Yet again, I was starting another school where I didn’t know anyone.I had to do it all over again, with the same thoughts going through my head, wondering what it was going to be like, always wondering if I was going to fit and make friends easily knowing how big it was. I decided that these next two years at this school were going to be focused on college and my school work, I wasn’t going to be in any clubs or sports. I thought to myself that joining a sport at a small school was very different and I didn’t want to know what it was like at a big school. I managed starting this school just like I managed starting high school. Good thing I am very outgoing so I enjoy meeting new people! I remember my first day of school there like it was yesterday. Walking in and seeing thousands of faces that I have never seen before. It was huge, 1500 in each grade. It was so big that they had two different campuses; one for the freshman and sophomores and another for the juniors and seniors. It was really hard making friends but I was lucky enough to be able to go to the Lake County Tech Campus associated with the College of Lake County and I made a lot of friends there in my nursing class. It was a very racial school, there wasn’t a majority of one race whereas Central was majority whites. I enjoyed all of my teachers that I ever had at Warren and I felt that I really learned a lot compared to feeling like I was ever
Mrs. Plot, one of the hardest English teachers in Murray County High School, was my teacher that year. She was a very determined and driven teacher that did not tolerate her students to fail her class, even if they were lazy. I had heard horror stories from her former students, but she was nothing like they said she was. She was the only teacher that I have connected with all throughout school. I looked forward to her class every morning because she always made learning fun. Mrs. Plot gave out good advice about English, but she also gave me personal advice and was more of a friend to me. She always knew what to say to me when I had problems. She motivated me to do better with my writing; we went to a journalism class together every week that year. Mrs. Plot deepened my love for reading and writing. Without her, I would not be the kind of student I am today. On every assignment in her class, I got the most feedback and it helped me out a lot. It took me a long time to become a decent writer, but with her help she sped up the process. I put all of my effort in every single paper I have written, especially for her
I would switch back and forth between loving school and despising it. Often times I would be bored by the school work that was too easily completed. This was changed by a once a week class that was named Individualized Learning Opportunities (ILO). This class gave me a reason to enjoy school. The teacher Mrs. Krebbs was the most amazing person that I had ever known. She would let us play with glue and be messy and give us the attention we often lacked from our other teachers. During this time is when I made my first long time friend, Alex. I met Alex when I was in second grade. She was my first best friend and would remain in that position until we both moved away for college and lost touch. She always brought out my best qualities when we were
Joe is also entitled to attend a school that is able to meet his educational needs. Unfortunately, Joe’s behavior impede on his instruction throughout the day, therefore he isn’t making gains rapidly. If Joe’s current school is not able to address his behavior needs his quality of education will continue to be impacted and perhaps the district may need to refer Joe to an outplacement setting.
The public schools system did not promote success. Instead, it protected an academic breakdown in the academics system. This encouraged parents lean toward charter schools even more. It was shocking to know that out of 55,000 teachers only 10 teachers were fired out the entire Harlem school district. The movie didn’t elaborate much about bad teachers, but it shared stories about teachers that worked in the public school system. In one case, a teacher who had worked two years as a fifth-grade teacher noticed her students with a reading deficiency at a lower grade level. Unfortunately, she lacked the support of the administration for providing help for these students. This is evidence of teachers who care about the welfare of students’ academic success. Surprisingly, community protesters marched against charter schools and felt threatened by them. Teachers and Harlem Success Parents were spokespersons who wanted better schools for