Manzo: Growing Horizontally, Recognizing Limits, and Fear

In the article “Fremont high school”, Jonathan Kozol describes how the inability to provide the needed funding and address the necessities of minority children is preventing students from functioning properly at school. He talks to Meriya, a student who expresses her disgust on the unequal consideration given to urban and suburban schools. She and her classmates undergo physical and personal embarrassments. Kozol states that the average ninth grade student reads at fourth or fifth grade level while a third read at third grade level or below. Although academic problems are the main factor for low grades, students deal with other factors every day. For example, School bathrooms are unsanitary, air condition does not work, classrooms have limited

Pedro Noguera, a phenomenal urban sociologist and a professor at New York University confronts the problems which exist in our nation’s education system in his book, City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education. Noguera describes what he views to be the main problems facing urban education and suggests strategies for improvement. From years of experience as a teacher and school board member, he reflects on what he believes to be the real problems. Noguera blames the school’s failures on students, parents, and teachers which leads to blame local government officials or policymakers. Noguera states in City Schools and the American Dream, “The central argument of this book is that until there is a genuine commitment to address the social context of schooling — to confront the urban condition — it will be impossible to bring about significant and sustainable improvements in urban public schools” (pg.6). Noguera believes that we must address the central problem to make any type of solutions for improvement.

Jonathan Kozol’s Fire in the Ashes is an honest depiction of the hardships and triumphs of families in the South Bronx, New York. In this book, Kozol introduces us to several Hispanic and Black families that he originally met in the Mott Haven/Martinique Hotel in the 1980’s and allows us to view their trajectory in the proceeding 25 years. By allowing the reader a look into the lives of these families, he provides us with a realistic depiction of the disadvantages families living in poverty encounter despite interventions from charity organizations and philanthropic donors. Kozol identifies that without “systematic justice and systematic equity in public education” (Kozol, 2013, pg 304) students in these impoverished neighborhoods will continue to lack the same economic opportunities that may potentially lead them out of the welfare system. Kozol emphasizes lack of stable housing, and unequal educational opportunities, as primarily conditions to perpetuating poverty. Despite the challenges that the families endure, Kozol is able to show that they are resilient.

Imagine growing up in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business and the nearest Wal-Mart is almost an hour away; then imagine attending a school where the amount of student attending is the same number of people who occupy a small town. The size difference is substantial and plays an important role. When I was younger, I had attended both a small town school and a school in the city. I have had the chance to experience the different lifestyles of these two variations of living. The development of who I am today was because of my surroundings. In the city, I noticed there was different opportunities. The opportunities seemed more readily available depending on funding and sources; which are dependant on the location. Education, development, and opportunities are widely known to be affected by environmental factors; thus, people who live in the city have a different experience than those who reside in small towns.

The concept of schooling, and how it differs from education, takes center stage in Angela Valenzuela’s Subtractive Schooling. The book is the culmination of a three-year study of Seguin High School in Houston, TX. Using data analysis as well as extensive observations and interviews, Valenzuela puts a face to the numbers. A significant portion of the book focusses on the role of language in terms of its application to culture. The book also shows a road map to creating relationships with our disenfranchised youth that will lead to authentic learning and positive changes in school culture. Valenzuela’s Subtractive schooling offers a sordid and shocking tale of “what could have been.”

Due to urban sprawl, the neighborhood of Walnut Park has been victim to marginalization. Similar to Pruitt Igeo, urban sprawl caused residents to leave walnut park and take businesses and jobs with them. Hammell (2016) states that, “Occupational deprivation arises when populations have limited choice in occupations because of their isolated location, their ability, or other circumstances”. The residents of Walnut Park cannot force business to stay in their neighborhood, so the lack of occupations is outside of their immediate control. The deprivation of healthy occupations causes a surplus in dark occupations, due to the fact people must find alternative ways to fill their time and provide for their families. Also, the link between marginalization and occupation impacts culture. Downes (1997) defines culture as, “the learned part of human lifestyles”. If a child grows up in a community where there is illegal activity, lack of opportunity and decreased importance on education, this is what they incorporate into their own life. The culture of Walnut Park is directly linked to its occupational deprivation and feelings of inferiority. However, Walbridge elementary school is working endlessly to shift this culture and bring opportunity back into their neighborhood.

In Ramirez’s view, economic need creates “interdependence and closeness.” In the barrio, when you are poor, which most of the residence are, you will do anything to help your family out, even if you are a kid. Children in the

Mrs. Pitt, principle of Whitman Elementary, has a graduate degree in an educational leadership program that influenced her ideas on different types of valued concepts, such as social justice, equity, and leading for change. She was a tenured fourth grade teacher, and worked as an assistant principle at Jefferson Elementary for three years, another low socioeconomical elementary school. In addition, she was allowed to participate in a study abroad program in Costa Rich, which provided her with the confidence she needed for working with a community of Latino immigrants. She can identify with some of the same

I am aware that there are better and worse high schools out there than Fremont High School. And yet, reading Kozol's account of the terrible conditions that are endured by these students made me feel more aware of the severity of improper or inadequate education that poorly funded schools provide. All of these problems, alongside my awareness of my fortunate years of education, make me wonder, just as Mireya did, as to why, "...[students] who need it so much more get so much less?" (Kozol 648). Interestingly, I have little to comment on Kozol's actual writing style, even though he wrote this account of his. I was just so attached to the characters within that school that I wanted to be able to reach out somehow; Kozol definitely achieved something very touching here.

My life is propelled from my education. While the daily facades of school walls try their best to dilute the distractions of reality, in my community, I see families sorting through clothing donation boxes and teenagers hanging around gas stations instead of school. Along with the wastes I see accumulate on the street sides, I see a more disturbing waste: the opportunities begotten from poverty that perpetuates my community's hardships.

Kozol highlighted how against the popular belief and expectations, a trend of re-segregation has been growing inside the urban public schools in US. Kozol’s purpose of writing is more than just highlighting the issues at Fremont High school. The high school is just a small representation of the bigger apartheid. Kozol has drawn a picture of the mismanagement and the hopelessness growing among the students due to it. This becomes overwhelmingly evident when Kozol wrote about the time he was speaking with an African American girl “’Dear Mr. Kozol,’ wrote the eight-year-old, ‘we do not have the things you have. You have Clean things. We do not have. You have a clean bathroom. We do not have that. You have Parks and we do not have Parks. You have all the thing and we do not have all the thing. ‘Can you help us?’ (Kozol, 410)”. First off, it needs to be pointed out that Kozol frequently leaves out names of personal interviewers in his article, which leaves room to doubt if what he is saying is true. But giving the benefit of the doubt (considering Kozol’s credibility), the statement with the eight-year-old itself is eye opening to say the

In February, Galaviz will be traveling to the NEA Foundation Gala in Washington, D.C., to receive $10,000 and the NEA Foundation’s Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence. As one of only five recipients in the nation, this prestigious honor really reinforces Galaviz’s devotion to continually going above and beyond for her students, something that, for her, starts long before the start of the school year. Every summer, Galaviz goes door to door, meeting with the families of her incoming students. As an educator, she believes that knowing about the student, their family dynamic and their home helps her to be a better teacher. “I

“Windowless and nasty classrooms, retarded courses, no air conditioning and can we talk bathrooms?” As citizens, the conflicts and the issues that our society deals with every day should bring awareness and a call to take action. For instance, Jonathan Kozol came up with a plan to bring consciousness to his readers by writing an article about the struggles of the Fremont High School students, in which problems such as overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortage, lack of bathroom supplies, unsanitary kitchen, basic academic courses and inequality. In order to write and put together his article, he took a tour in person and found his way to successfully achieve his goal by documenting students, teachers, and other staff members’ testimonies in which one of his main focuses was Mireya. Furthermore, Kozol’s real facts on the matter successfully make a statement on social and racial inequalities, in which the main purpose of his article was to capture the attention of his audience to resolve on the matters that affects a child’s future.

In School the teacher’s need to adapt their strategies and environments to help adapt Aaron to required standards of holding a job, Standard 5: Instructional Planning and Strategies and Standard 2: Learning Environments. They can provide assistive tech that can improve his critical thinking and responses. He could even use something like a pager to give him reminders of specific tasks to be done at and done by certain times. It was also clearly stated that Aaron also had organizational problems so you can make it a requirement for Aaron to keep a binder for your class. You can tell him when you will collect it and you can reward him based on how good it is. This will teach him how important it is to organize for the sake of neatness and time efficiency and thus possibly translate to his job.

Sergio had grown up attending a school that practiced active shooter drills because of threats from the drug cartels, with a single mom running a mexican food restaruant on her own. The vast differences in Sergio’s and I’s upbringing and the fact that he was facing the same challenges I was, made me eager to assist Sergio in any way that could. I began giving him countless rides despite the fact that he lived about as far away from me as possible. The majority of essays written by Sergio had been read and revised by me to ensure that his points and intelligence were on display, and not the fact that english was his second language. Simple things really, and while they had negligible impact on my life they affected his drastically.