Read About Jean Anyon
Anyon is actually a new source I found for my research project on urban education and standardized testing, and this month she passed away, leaving the nation to bid farewell to source of compassion and ideas that Anyon suggested of cultural reform in urban districts. I feel as though our culture and society has gotten away from the term "ghetto" and is now embracing more of the "urban" terminology. Never the less, Anyon's ideas on improving the urban education system create a question of reformation for the child who is deep in the opportunity gap. I have spent several hours review ideas that students are not able to properly progress because they are too tied down by their histories...good and bad. Influences in a child's life are crucial.
Maybe because I am in a new, beautiful school that I should forget about where I came from; but that just isn't possible for me. The kind of hurt I saw my former students go through is completely unacceptable for such a wealthy country with so many resources. Why wasn't anyone patrolling or finding resources? How can America be home to people that are illiterate at 18? How can we let students get that far behind and fall so hard into the opportunity gap that they truly will never get out?
I remember as an undergraduate, I wrote a paper on the linguistic critical case named "Genie." Genie never learned how to speak or read during her critical period and therefore, was forever damaged developmentally and otherwise.....by the time students get to high-school, what more can we do to get them out of the gap?
Well, as teachers of English we should feel empowered by being able to help students find their voice by examining their own personal narratives. Students shouldn't feel tied down or separated from what they should know or can't know or don't know; education has to start being practical and influential; we can't expect students in urban districts to understand everything in Hemingway; but if they are able to appreciate the intensity of his writing and the way that his life was displayed through that writing...we would more influential then diagramming sentences or memorizing rules of math....am I off here?
Nina, what a thought provoking post! The last paragraph reminded me of the saying: your perception is your reality. If we can simply engage students and work at gaining interest and respect we are making headway. I do believe in maintaining high standards and pushing all students. I have also worked in impoverished areas and it is very disheartening to see what students don't have. It is our job to provide them with the best education possible for each individual and their unique circumstances.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently working in a district whose mission is to serve 100% poverty level students, and I deal with the gaps in knowledge you are talking about every single day. Although our country is increasingly about standardizing education, standards, and learning outcomes, I think that those of us who work with this student population have to remember that we start with a very different level of student, and therefore we cannot hope to use the same lessons, techniques, and learning standards as those who work with affluent students... It is not to say that we should use lower standards with these students, but rather to keep our ambitions high for them while providing them the support and praise they need to understand the importance of an education in this world they live in.
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