Chapter 5 brought up the fact that “educational segregation resulted in unequal educational opportunities” (117). Though segregation isn’t prevalent anymore, we can see that certain schools get more funding than others depending on the neighbor in which the school is. There has been news that schools in the Bronx are closing because of low test grades and that the schools are falling behind. Why is it that Manhattan schools aren’t closing? Why are specialized schools better funded? The government seems to care more about numbers than they do the children. Yes, schools in bad neighborhoods are failing, but the government doesn’t seen to be intervening and helping. Similar segregation where the government believed that non-whites were inferior, thus receiving less funding, schools with failing grades are treated the same way. Also, students is low performing schools are a majority of non-whites, so is there a parallel? I think it’s safe to say that the money will go to which ever school that represents the country well, but for the schools that lack grades and performance, they’re just going to cast offs, which will inevitably lead to it closing. It is not fair that that is happening. In my opinion, I think more money should be going to schools with poor performance– after all, there is a reason why. These schools are doing so poorly are because they lack the funding and lack the opportunities to use the same facilities and same resources that well-funded schools have. Maybe if the government paid more attention to schools that actually needed help, we wouldn’t be at such a low rank in terms of education compared to other countries.
The entire chapter reminded of the conversation we had on Wednesday. Americans, namely Protestants, and their relationships with those who are different from them, whether it be skin color or religion, are all forced to conform to their ideals and way of life. It doesn’t seem fair to impose one’s own thoughts onto someone else if they do not believe the same thing. The way Protestants treated others is harsh and unreasonable; taking over their Native American land and then trying to instill Christianity into them because it would make them civilized, and segregating blacks because of their skin color are examples of how we should just respect people for who they are. Back to the conversation we had about what makes an American American, relates to how native born Americans are judging immigrants by how they are not the same as us. This country is made up of different races, ethnicities, cultures, and religion. Isn’t time that we realize that we’re just repeating history and that the only way to be civilized is to accept other for who they are. The differences that are pointed out make for a very unfair society. Once there are these differences, we will gravitate towards those who have similarities and favor that group of people. Equal opportunities are, quite frankly, inaccessible to many people that live in the United States because there is such an emphasis on being similar. So my questions are will we be able to ever achieve equal opportunity for anyone if there’s always going to be a bias? and what are the steps to take to ensure that everyone gets that chance?
