Assignment 5

Education Disparity

Name

Class

Professor

University

November 9th, 2018

Part1: Reflections

Societal Level Transformations

In this paper, am going to discuss the social, economic and even ecological adverse effects of education disparities in transforming the current society to greater heights in terms of development. Education disparity refers to the inequality distribution of academic resources besides but not limited to funding of schools, experienced and qualified facilitators, reading materials and modern accessories to exclude ethnicities in social terms. As a result, these communities tend to be oppressed historically. For instance, in California in the 1800s, the Chinese American students were consistently denied entrance into learning institutions since they were not Americans in blood. This however was eradicated by Tape v. Hurley (1884) who established the act that the Chinese American students had the right to attend government learning institutions. The Chinese American students since then started to enjoy education benefits in the United States but with little access to the key educational resources.

According to the United States President in the year 1962, education was the unity factor as far as democracy of the United States and the world in general was concern. This clearly indicated that the unit of the country was to be born from education for all the Americans may it be black American, Latino American or even Chinese American, all was to be sober through equity to all. The evidence of President Kennedy statement was also retaliated by the U.S.A. facilitators who unanimously agree to the fact that, “the importance of education reflected within this profound statement and believe that their teaching prepares students to contribute meaningfully to society.”

John Dewey also described education as a tool to steer all the issues making human kind in the world to lag behind in terms of development agendas. According to the above well said statement that is also in conjunction with that of President Kennedy besides the unified agreement from the facilitators, an out weight goal of education is to mold individuals of a given country to have good living standards within their country and also their democracy at large. This further shows why some funded programs in the United States that were discriminating some individuals were highly prohibited by the law (Farkas, G. 2003).

Individual Level Transformations

With regard to individual transformation level, educational disparity can even be compared to racial discrimination. As a result of this, there arise an act of negligence among some specific individuals which later lead to even social war among the antagonistic ethnic groups as the less fortunate fill inferior in front of the other group which is a sign of mental torture and depression. Poverty is also another individual problem that arises from the education disparity. That is why an uneducated mind can be compared to a poor mind hence poverty arises as the individuals cannot be able to be flexible to technological changes instead they tend to be rigid.

Despite of the education disparities that have been experienced from the past, it’s with great hope that this socioeconomic gaps will come to an end in the near future. According to statistics, there are millions of black Americans, Latino Americans and Chinese Americans presently living and comfortably studying in the United States public schools together with the students of the United States soil. More importantly the is a continuous flow of individuals from other countries to the United States each year through the green cards lottery, a program that was introduced and controlled by the USA government. With all this efforts of welcoming individuals from other countries to their country vividly indicates that the discriminations in terms color, race and among the others is soon coming to an end and individuals will be staying as a single unified family in this world.

Finally, the Sociologists phrase of “maximally maintained inequality,” which is a process where one group take advantage over the other groups to expand and to promote the wellbeing of their families and retain community advantage over the other communities should be discouraged in totality so that the dream of socioeconomic gaps bridges to be realized. Also, the issue of individuals taking advantage of less privileged individuals may it be due to ignorance should be discourage from the present society. (Darling-Hammond, L. (2000).

Part2: Field Trip

So, this was not a difficult task to fulfill as there are abundant cultural, historical and art museums locally. They have even added extension of the Louver, open this year and Guggenheim, due to open downtown next year. To flow with my topic, I attended an art exhibition for students of all grade levels in at a small local exhibition house. It was open to the public and locally, though mainly attended by the little artist, their families, friends. This exhibit filled four rooms with in the gallery and was divvied out by age of the artist only not the content. Each piece was labeled with the students name and age with most submitting two to three of their works. The artist ranged in age from 6 to 17 years of age, basically 1st to 11th grade students represented.

The excitement of these students and pride of their parents could be felt everywhere in each of the galleries. It was a vary warm feeling throughout the evening enjoying the art and talking with each of the artist about their works and their inspirations. This is a very international community meaning on a night like this you will hear everything from English to Spanish throughout as you pass through the rooms. Everyone will change to the English when they chat with each other as it is the easiest and most common language. All children living here speak their native tongue and English at a minimum with a large potion speaking a third language as well. Each of the children here, no matter their backgrounds have a common experience of being new and from some where else. So, no matter their differences they all have something to build upon. Giving the group a commonality but also a great depth and diversity in their view of life. Most of their works centered around their experiences here that they felt were unique to them. It was both common everyday things to some of the more unusual fun that they can find as part of their life here.

One thing I noted and compared with all the art work was the use of water colors at all ages. I was never any good at this and it takes a lot of skill to truly produces a piece using water colors. I didn’t really think of it as an international medium, but it was used quite effectively and abundantly by the students. This and the fact that not just that night but every day I am surrounded by a great number of international peoples inspired me on this paper. The same in all these schools but there is no disparity between the education or the schools as I have seen elsewhere in The United States.

Part 3. Creative Expression

As I looked at the disparities of education both in the past and what can still be felt today, I wanted to focus on something that could be shared with students. I tried my hand at art even making a water color of one of my favorite experiences at a game preserve. Taking a walking trip through the preserve with my daughter and several other families we got to see a large group of Giraffes in the evening. I had to wonder if not just my daughter, but the other children grasped the opportunities they had in contrast with where their parents called home outside the United States.

I wanted something more to share that was more direct to education, So I looked to a poem. Each morning at all the schools the children line up outside in their lines by class and grade. The parents who drop off stand about and chat to themselves waiting for the teachers to come out. At 07:45 AM the music plays and they all the pledge of allegiances. So, to capture a large audience I came up with a short poem I could share with the students and their parents as they lined up before school.

Knowledge,

the light of your academic brilliance,

to build and support your inner resilience.

Knowledge,

it not just in the books you read and the way you talk,

it is also in the thing you find on the paths you walk.

Knowledge,

it draws a clear line between what is right and what is wrong,

it elevates our minds to takes them up where they belong.

Knowledge

if true goal of true knowledge is our fight,

all our futures will be bright.

Part 4. Engaging Others & Reflection

I slected a Monday morning, start of the week, to drop my daughter off at school. When they opened the gate and the kids got to go in and line up, I took the time to address them and their parents with my poem. I am used to public speaking as training and presentation are a part of my job, but this was different. This was on a very personnel and private level as I was not just addressing the students (my daughters’ friend) but their parents. I did not truly see the benefit of addressing a group this varied in age at first but on reflection I can see it. It ran the same as being at the museum with my daughter and her friends as they looked at classical Greek and roman statues. They puzzled over if some were “boys or girls” because they had a leaf on only. They would circle the stature and point things out but were never that sure. It was with these open minds they listened to my poem. The adults are like me with years of experiences that does more to close our minds than to open them.

So, I had a greatly mixed reaction from both the students and the parents. The students had two main reactions, first was the normal I wrote a poem too. The second was to ask questions about it very open questions about everything. Each question leading to a new question in and ever-expanding conversation until we ran out of time. After I got to talk with some of the parents who had a bit more guarded set of questions. With a few stark differences that could be noted in their questions based on the culture they had come from. the western parents came with the basics mostly, what is this why do this where did you get the idea for this. Eastern and Asian families mostly with complements but holding on any questions. The two Brazilians as always wear their emotions on their sleeves and their sincerity was easy to feel. What was most interesting was the one local family as they loved poetry and found it fun that I would share this poem with the children.

Bringing the children together for a brief time to ask questions and hopeful open new paths of though in their minds was great. This and the simple bringing together of some of the parents made this assignment useful to me. I am not sure if I was able to move any of the adults, but I think it did open some of them up about the way poetry is viewed locally. I think it went far better than if I had gone with the water color and had more impact with the students. Though the art was more fun that writing as I am not very good in this process. It is very hard for me to be short to the point and simple, I continue to work and reworks. What seems a simple short concise short poem was rather hard and took me a bit of time just to look at how to phrase it properly.

As adults we are the products of our cultural and educational background mostly set in our ways. Each coming a different point of view based on our unique backgrounds with both good and bad experiences. Before coming here to work I would not have guessed the regional love of poetry. Though I am here now I can see the reason, culturally most artwork was forbidden so poetry was the best and most common form of expression. As such it is very deeply appreciated as an art with great pride taken in it as an art. So even though things like education are constantly moving forward and we feel we understand each other better, we still have a long way to go. I see these children here and realize what a great advantage they have other they piers back home. I a forced to wonder how or even if this type of educational feel can be replicated elsewhere.

There is and my always be a disparity in education around the world, but this does not equate to true knowledge. As long as the family is vested in their children’s education even if this means breaking cultural or societal norms true knowledge can be achieved.

References

Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). New standards and old inequalities: School reform and the education of African American students. Journal of Negro Education, 263-287.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2015). The flat world and education: How America's commitment to equity will determine our future. Teachers College Press.

Farkas, G. (2003). Racial disparities and discrimination in education: What do we know, how do we know it, and what do we need to know?. Teachers College Record, 105(6), 1119-1146.

Flores, A. (2007). Examining disparities in mathematics education: Achievement gap or opportunity gap?. The High School Journal, 91(1), 29-42.