Interesting Comments

Ok, so I am in a History class, we were discussing the Jim Crow laws. I had made a comment in an online post about some of the things we have been discussing in this class and how segregation seems to still exsist in certain regards in the inner cities throughout this country. This is the comment my professor responded back with..............what does everyone think? I find his comments to be very interesting.

"The Jim Crow segregation laws represent de jure segregation, de jure, by law. The type of segregation you are describing is socio-economic segregation it is described by the phrase de facto segregation. Busing formulas, mandated long-distance busing, equalized funding formulas were all supposed to somehow address this large-scale school inequality. It did not work very well.

The funding per student is often 2500-4500 dollars less for inner city students than for suburban students. It is also often 3000-5000 dollars less for rural students than for suburban students. Test scores, achievements and funding do not always go together and some inner city schools out score some rural schools. Chicago inner city (minority) schools have a drop out rate that is about the same as many (majority white) rural Indiana schools ranging from 33-50%. The suburbs seem to have a significant advantage, even the less affluent suburbs (not the poor ones). So poverty and the culture of poverty have an influence on education and school success. The physical quality of the school facilities in the inner city and in some rural areas is due to the lack of capital funds and the lack of government commitment to those schools. Growing areas with rising property values try to build newer modern schools and remodel or replace old ones to attract new business and investment. Poor areas can not attract the new businesses and new housing, they also can not raise the capital to replace old schools unless the state provides the funds. So economic segregation is a fact. It affects minorities in the inner city and whites in the rural areas."

Some things to think about!

Reactions to "The First Year" Pt. 1

What were your reactions to Part 1 of The First Year? What scenes or storylines impacted you most, and why? In what ways, if any, were the teachers' day-to-day challenges made even more difficult by working in a huge, bureaucratic urban system?

What if it was you?

I have four sisters and in class we discussed about the article :What's Different About Teaching in Urban Schools? We discussed that "students moral radar quickly identifies teachers who lack wholeheartedness, and such teachers lose credibility and trust." I have a twelve year old sister and last year her and one of her teachers were constantly having problems. My mother would blame her and say she needed to learn to her mouth close...mind you she is at the stage of when ever someone says something to her she has to reply with a comment...so her and the teahcer had some issues and every week it was a parent conference. I was seating down with her one day just trying to figure out what the problem is and she replied to me, "You dont understand she a races woman, she only picks on the black kids. We always get in trouble even when we dont do anything. I can tell you that every last one of has been to the principal, kicked out of class for some stupid reason." I was a little concerned and told my mother what she had told me the next day my mother spoke with a few other black parents in the class and they told my mother their child had said the same thing and yes they had had several conferences with this teacher also. A large conference was called with the parents, teacher and admin. Now it is a new year and these students including my sister have moved onto 6th grade and they are being investigated for their address they use to get into the school. We have been living at the same address for 12 years now and because my sister called this teacher a races woman in her face they have decided to remove her from the school at the end of this year. It was appealed and the board of ed thought that it was best that she do transfer and go to a school that my keep her a lot busier.She is a very intelligent girl so they are sending her to Whitney Young going to bus her there everyday. But my question is what if it was you, that they transfered out of your neighborhood school to go across town to a magnet school just for expressing what you feel is the truth? Do a student have a right to say those things if they feel that way about a particular teacher? Do you feel like any child should ever have to experience something like that?

Hollywood Teachers

For those who are interested in how the teachers who are glorified in Hollywood films feel about their portrayals, click here to read an interview with Erin Gruwell, the teacher who is the protagonist in Freedom Writers. Also, here is a link to some comments from Ron Clark, the hero of The Ron Clark Story, about his visit to the set of the movie. The website also has some discussion boards you may find interesting--some people bowing down before Clark, others quite critical (i.e., pointing out that he only taught in New York City schools for two years).

Movies

So, I was thinking in class how much of an impact movies like Lean on Me and The Ron Clark Story have on society. Not just because they portray urban schools in a fictional light, but because they back up the views that society already has. What I mean by that is, people love to be right, let's face it. We make blanket statements and feel empowered when we are proven right. Well, for such a long time, society as a whole has a negative view on the inner city and the people that occupy it. Movies like Lean on Me confirm all their fears about the inner city. People watch it and say, "See! I knew the inner city was a dangerous cesspool!" It is so dangerous how people take media and consider it fact. Furthermore, people blow things out of proportion all the time, and movies like this fuel them. I am student teaching in Little Village next year through the PDS program. Coming from Naperville (ugh), my mom is naturally nervous for me. She would read an article in the paper about a shooting in the area, or something like that, and say, "Now, see what I'm telling you? Why don't you want to teach down the street? It is safe here." Also, she went to high school in an apparently shady part of Wisconsin, and she would tell my family stories about how there was hair in the sinks of the girls bathroom. She explained how the hair was pulled from a girls head in a fight. I'm not sure if she even witnessed this, but naturally, if there is hair in the sink, there was a fight. I'm wondering what kind of mindsets your parents or guardians have? Anything they tried to instill in you?

Getting things started out

I just wanted to start out, people mentioned and wondered in class about the way the media portrays Urban schools, and its potential effect on people.

There have been major studies and theories developed around the idea of the media helping to shape people's understanding and view of the world. It's called "The Cultivation Theory" If you really wanted to know more about it you can click HERE

One part of this Cultivation Theory is called "Mean World Syndrome" in which, as a direct result of large doses of media consumption (and at this day and age we are all consuming media in large doses on a daily basis). Mean World Syndrome is when people start believing that the world is a more dangerous place than it really is. It is how they are socialized, and where they get information about the world around them. This is why people generally think that more murders occur in the world than really do, or think crime rates are a lot higher than they actually are.

Since the only real view the media gives the viewing pubic, are of these terrible schools and situations (Like oberved in Lean on Me) and the newspapers concept of "If it bleeds it leads", it would be safe to assume that these things ARE in some way responsible for forming people's views and perceptions on these things.

Of course, it would be safe to say that this isn't something people in the media are doing intentionally. But, as long as these sorts of stories and films put money in their pockets, it's not likely to change. (Most media people feel no ethical responsibility for this sort of thing, though they really should.)


I was wondering though, while a lot of educators and people tied into urban education see these films and obviously find big problems with them, what, if anything is being done about it? Obviously nobody can start a one person campaign to set people straight, but are the schools doing anything perhaps to combat these images?

Also, if these stories are all based on true events, what do the people these films are about have to say? It must be flattering to have a movie made about you, but at the same time it would have to be difficult to watch a distorted version of the truth. If these professionals did anything close to what these films suggest, I would think these teachers would be intersted and concerned about the image of Urban education, and would be upset to know that their stories were being used to perpetuate stereotypes.

(i'll just add that my first degree was in Mass Communications, so whenever media stuff comes up, i always find myself thinking about things through that lense).

Hello everybody,

Welcome to the blog. I look forward to your contributions and to using this medium as a way to continue our conversations, pose new questions, debate issues, and think out loud.

Let me know if you have any questions about how to get started.

Greg