Week 11 Kozol Chapter 8 and Folder 11

1. “ …a justified suspicion that the promises we hear today of new and even better ways to guarantee successful outcomes in our nation’s segregated and unequal public schools will one day be reviewed with the same sense of disappointment, if not irony.” (192 Kozol)

 

This quote is referencing the specific program talked about in Chapter 8 of Kozol called “Higher Horizons.” It was as the quote says about future programs like this one disappointing when it failed. But what I think is more disappointing is how people have not learned from this program’s failure. When you repeat the same mistakes that is when there is something seriously wrong because there is no reflection or concern with the failure that means or otherwise there would be no repetition. This also tells me that the people who have created this program and create others like it do not really care about the work that it takes to get to a successful outcome. They just want an easy fix. These issues in education do not have an easy fix and to really find a solution we have to stop looking for the easy fix because we are taking just as much energy looking for an easy way out than to just do the hard work it takes to go through the process to make positive affective changes.

2. “Women of color only own a penny for every dollar of wealth of their corresponding men of color of their same race and in comparison to white women, women of color own only a fraction of a penny for every dollar of wealth of white women.” (Chang, Democracy Now)

This reminds me of a discussion from class in the beginning of the semester. People usually will say that as a nation we are not racist because that is a thing of the past. I have a feeling people would have a similar reaction to this information. This is also related to not only race but gender as well. It is tremendously sad that this is still true in our country. How can this be true? Also, how can we move forward with other changes that are important to many people in the country when color and gender are still not considered equal? This is what worries me about people that there will always be people that truly believe stereotypes and then will pass that down to their children. I hate to view this so negatively but currently I wonder what can be done to make more people aware and respectful of all people?

3. “Under Bush there were tax cuts given to upper income and very little benefits to low income families. The gap has widened, low income and working families continue to suffer. So when we think about what needs to happen and corrections that need to be made along the way in this current administration we need to think about rolling back some of those tax credits we need to think about increasing tax credits for low income working families, we really need to figure out how we make it so working class and low income individuals can keep more of their income and invest and invest in their families and their families futures.” (Mason, Democracy Now)

I liked how Nicole Mason was able to talk about this issue of wealth and income in an understandable way. These are logically points that were made. Why can’t people who need the help be able to keep their money, rather than spending it on taxes? Especially when upper class people have been able to pay less. It would make a bigger and better difference if that leeway were given to people who truly need it. Giving a tax break to the wealthy does not do as much good as it would to families that are struggling to provide essential things to their children. People may argue that they should not have to pay more than other people when they have worked to get where they are financially which suggests that people of low income have not worked hard. This argument ties in with another big topic we have discussed in class, which is privilege! People are born with privilege and that is in most cases how they are able to have the opportunity to work for their money and get schooling for that job. Most people who are in unfortunate situations are in them because their family has always been low income and struggling. It is an up hill battle to get out because people of color are not given chances to because they are not treated fairly from the very start. Children as we have read are not getting nearly the same quality education therefore not being able to get the same paying jobs as white privileged people. This is why we need to make up for those unfair situations that we have created and allow an opportunity for families like these to save and make more money. This can be done by created more jobs specifically in areas that are low income that need them the most. Also like Nicole said in the quote, have tax cuts for low-income families.

4. “An honest appraisal of American traditions of schooling reveals that academic skills have long been thought of as a vehicle for the development of character. This was true in colonial days, it was true throughout the nineteenth century and, it was still true the first half of the twentieth century. Schools have always been considered as incubators for acceptable citizens, and citizenship has not always been defined in terms of academic achievement scores.” (172, Noddings)

Why all of a sudden is building character and having morals not something that can be taught in school? I understand that people in this time have quite a bit of different views on a variety of subjects but learning how to be a genuine person in my mind can not really have different opinions of what that is made up of. If this is something that is being debated I’m concerned for future debates about silly little things like how we should teach kids how to tie their shoes. What characteristics of a good person can be debated as not being appropriate to teach in school that schools have taught in the past?  What I can think of that is emphasized in school is being respectful, thoughtful, helpful, and caring to others. These are necessities in my eyes to have a productive safe environment in school.