The beginning of Chapter 7 reminded of the discussion we had about single sex schools today. Chapter 7 begins with “in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the educational treatment of Mexican, Asian, Native, African, and Puerto Rican Americans ran counter to the common school ideal of uniting all children in the same schoolhouse. Issues of racial segregation, language policies, and attempts to destroy cultures clouded efforts to provide equal educational opportunity for all children” (162). We can to discuss how boys and girls learn differently, but never touched upon how different races, ethnicities, and cultures learn. If there can be debate over how to better teach boys and girls, there should really be debate over how different races could be better taught. Statistically speaking, blacks and hispanics are the lowest achieving academic group in the United States. Why not now focus on helping that particular demographic, or any for that matter, to achieve? It is apparent that America is a melting pot of different cultures and races, and to single out a group of underachieving youth does not seem at all fair. Though Chapter 7 speaks about the mid nineteenth century, I believe that some of the norms still hold true. America had neglected nonwhite races for a long time, and I still feel that it is continuing to happen. Like mentioned before, blacks and hispanics, mainly those who come from the lower class and poverty-ridden areas, are struggling in school. Why is it that this injustice still stands today? We established that it seems that boys are falling behind compared to girls today, so imagine what the statistics would be like for boys who are black or hispanic? Gender struggles seems to be the least of our worries.
Also, the chapter conveniently divides into subgroups of various non-white races– which include: Mexicans, Asians, Native Americans, African Americans, and Puerto Ricans. Not only were they mistreated in the nineteenth century, I still feel that there is a disconnect with these races in modern society. Though we have come a long way from segregation, there is still the notion that non-white races are less able to become as successful as whites. This not only shows in the common school, and actually school now, but also in the work field. As mentioned before, child of color seem to be the ones who are suffering most from academic failure and are the ones who have the highest drop out rate. And historically speaking, nonwhites were forced to work at a little to no wage for their labor. As a result, non-whites work for a less substantial amount of money in contemporary society because of a lack of education or because they can be immigrants trying to build a foundation in America. Thus, lowering the standards we hold for nonwhites. Also, in the government, most of the officials are white males, and whenever someone of color gets elected into office, it becomes immediate news. This shows that as long of a way we’ve come from the nineteenth century mindset, we need to go further and have more people of color acquire better paying and prestigious jobs to show children that they too can be successful. This goes back to the conversation in class when we said that men have more substantial jobs than women parallels to whites having better jobs as nonwhites. I’m not denying that the work force in any area has been diversified in the past years, but I feel that there needs to be more people of color working and holding more elite job titles. This goes back to how poor children are less likely to succeed in school because of a lack of funding for their zone, facilities in their school, and other amenities that well-funded schools have. If there were a role model of the same race as the child, I believe that they would do better in school and show an increase in performance. Just as we said a woman teacher can relate better to female students, and a man teacher to male students, a Spanish/Asian/Black role model will set up a good example for a Spanish/Asian/Black child.
So what I’m wondering is: is there any way we can help the nonwhite community excel, or at least measure up to norm? and if there is, how can we do it in a way where all groups of learners are getting the same attention and learning as progressively?
