The line that stood out in my mind from the Kozol reading and the presentation is "The neighborhood is ghetto, so the people are ghetto." The term "ghetto" is something I can't quite grasp because what does being ghetto or living in a ghetto have to do with education. I understand the dynamics of if the neighborhood is poor then there isn't as much money coming from the taxes for the school but this doesn't justify why in some schools the bathrooms are locked, there are bars on the windows, cracks in the floor, wholes in the walls, paint chipping, broken desks, broken air conditioners, shaky staircases, or any other kind of hazard that can cause a child harm. For Fortino to understand and be able to describe blatantly what's going on shows that the school system isn't fooling anyone. It doesn't make sense to allow a student to have the chance to choose whatever school they want to go to if 4 schools are really nice but the other 16 are shady and falling apart. 4 schools couldn't possibly hold all the students in one district so why are they trying to pull this veil over our eyes as if by choosing to go to the school closest to your home that is falling apart you chose to be punished. In order to have choice there must be options and the options must at least be plausible. On the topic of choice, I still feel that if a person runs for a position where they control over the school system they should have an idea of how to begin to fix the problems. Maybe if they didn't spend so much money campaigning and sat down with a group of students from these school or even students from our class they could actually stop pretending and make moves. If you run for the position and your stance is that you are going to help fix the system that means you've been planning from before what moves you were going to take. It's not easy, I understand but I'm not going to rub your back and say "I understand it's difficult, take your time". If you had enough faith in yourself to run for the position and make promises to make a difference make a freakin difference because I don't vote on how cute the candidate is. I vote on how believable his plans are so your excuses will fall on deaf ears because that not the tune you were crying when you ran for the position.
This article is about poor architecture of schools and how it affects a child's learning experiencing. It discusses how students have lower self-esteem and participation in older buildings because of the architecture. It also outlines a few different techniques such as natural light and pictures on the wall that can create a positive and healthier learning atmosphere for students.
http://www.designcommunity.com/discussion/26903.html
3 comments:
Politicians have to say whatever they need to say to get elected. They may draft a proposal to reform education, but following through on that takes time and money. Frequently, the budget they must follow doesn't allow for real change. This kind of change will far exceed any term of a president or member of congress. The kind of profound reform we need will undoubtedly take a lot of time. It also seems that plans for reform that sound great in theory are not as effective in practice. Having faith in our elected officials is difficult for this and so many other reasons. You're right. Having your choice of schools does not work unless each school competes with one another to attain and retain students. In order to do that they must have resources which make students want to attend. It all comes back to money, unfortunately.
You're point on the choice of schooling being difficult when the majority are in disrepair is incredibly true but, I don't think you're viewing the government in the right way. These politicians, unless their liberal and their platforms are education based which is next to never, look at education as a 2nd class citizen. Sure they can live on the list but will only get the necessary needs met if all of the 1st class get theirs first. Education is always dropped and I have a feeling that wont change anytime soon. Even President Bush who tried to work for an educational reform with NCLB did so horribly, its riddled with problems and causes more grief then good. Looking at politicians for answers hasn't worked so, how can we reform? Well even though Americans have the right to question their government and revolt there has still yet to be a complete overhaul, an uprising if you will. Maybe its time for such a revolution, America is not as young as it used to be and change may be the only way to reform the educational policy and ways politicians view it.
Yes Jess, I hear your points but you seem to be under the impression that politicians run for positions for the public good. Let us not forget that politics is a self serving field.
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