Reflection Of Education In High School

Gruwell was twenty four years old when she first began her teaching career at Wilson High School in Long Beach. At the time Long Beach was labeled as “gangster-rap capital” by MTV due to the portrayal of guns and graffiti. She brought it to the attention of school’s administration her new teaching methods for “unteachable” students. Unteachable students who were mainly people of color that experienced much hardship within their personal lives. Therefore her first group of students were “unteachable”. “The administration had already say this group of students as an unteachable, at risk group and wasn’t expecting Gruwell to reach them.” (Paragraph 4) This mean that the students were hostile from the start, making clear they weren’t interested in listening to their new teacher and even taking bets on how long she would last before she quit. Student saw Ms.Gruwell as joke. But she shows no sign of weakness and makes it known she will not be done how other teachers were done. All teachers that taught these students pervious years quit because they did not listen, and did not do work. Other teachers gave up on students, instead of finding ways to help

Ms. Gruwell certainly faces many obstacles and challenges in securing the resources and materials necessary to teach her class. In fact, Ms. Gruell even resorts to taking on two additional jobs to provide the necessary materials for kids. Freedom Writers does an excellent job of highlighting some of the larger structural issues that exacerbate gang violence and racial tensions. For instance, in a one scene, an honors teacher criticizes Ms. Gruwell’s efforts in buying brand new books for the kids, saying that the kids will not appreciate the books, and are incapable of reading at such a high reading level. However, this exact rhetoric that undermines and denigrates these supposed “delinquent” kids is precisely the problem -instead of supporting students, faculty and school administrators fail to provide students with the encouragement and resources necessary to succeed. More broadly, this points to the victimization of kids, as the gang members in Crips and Bloods mention. As we have discussed in class, more money is allocated for increased law enforcement, further criminalizing kids, particularly youth of color, than in investing in after school programs for them. Thus, the constant surveilling and policing of kids in their

When Mr. Clark originally taught at Eastside High School, the culture seemed very competitive and full of high standards. The students seemed very eager to learn and at a pretty high level for their age. Twenty years later, the culture flips dramatically. The school quickly goes from pristine to a graffiti-infested playground. The teachers are the prey and the students (mainly the ‘hoodlums’) pretty much do as they please. Education is a small goal for any of the students, and the students that do want to do well fear those “hoodlums.” Mr. Clark identifies this immediately when returning to Eastside High. During his first assembly, Mr. Clark let the entire school know that he was the HNIC. He gathered up all the trouble makers and sent them home, expelling them from school. Most were drug dealers, 5th year students, or drug abusers that were dulling the spark of the other students.

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

There were many diverse aspects to this book. Most of this book is a recall from either the main character, or one of his students. This book is intended to open people’s eyes to see that in order to change the world we must first change ourselves. Being able to go through this story and see the mistakes, and the good decisions, teachers in Michie’s life have made, has taught me that the best way to teach is through love, justice, cultural empathy and imagination. Some of the points brought up in this book include the positive and negative sides of physical contact with a student, classification/stereotyping, race, gangs, police brutality/lack of justice, and children not being able to escape peer pressure.

It’s 6 AM on a Monday morning. She drags herself out of bed, grabs her jeans and band T-shirt along with her Vans. Gets dressed, goes to brush her teeth, and to do her makeup. She walks back to her bedroom. By 6:45 AM, she’s ready to go to school. Dealing with frustration, failure, resentment, irritation, dissatisfaction and annoyance of the other students. The name calling, racial slurs that the hateful students yell across the classroom, whisper to their friends, laughing and pointing. Brushing it off, she continues with her classes throughout the day. The final class of the day, no one has said a thing since the warning bell. Perhaps they all got tired of their everyday routine, with the racial slurs, name calling? There it is, the first

This week’s reading comes from an NPR interview of Nikole Hannah-Jones entitled “How the Systemic Segregation of Schools is Maintained by ‘Individual Choices”, in which they talk about recent segregation about schools and why little is being done to change it. Hannah-Jones discusses life in a gentrified area and their decision to send their daughter to their neighborhood school even though it’s student population was minority driven and there were categorized as a low-performing school. The affluent white school farther away and the white kids were then forced to go to the minority school, which illustrated the use of institutional racism by individuals who were thought to be progressive. So not only does gentrification lead to violent racial

One thing I personal liked about the film was how the theme binds all these characters together is pain. They’re all damaged in some way and are forced to reach out and help each other when they’ve reached rock bottom. Those moments are the most beautiful to watch because there’s no judgment, just community. I enjoyed that about the movie the most because still today you have a lot of situation where are more likely to judge you then to help. Which I feel is very sad because in today society people will talk about you and laugh instead of seeing what the problem is or possible helping you to correct the problem.

Many argue that students should not be presented with topics such as racism, abusive parenting, or profanity in a school setting. However, the real question is — if it is not appropriate to present these kinds of impactful books in a school setting to the young people that will make up our future America, when and where else will the conversation ever take place? When Sue Monk Kidd wrote this book, her intention was not to create controversy or problems associated with her book. She simply felt the obligation to “tell a true story that comes out of [her] own depths, [her] own unconscious. [She stated that] it won't be factually true, but true to life, true to the deep human pathos we all experience and also the kind of overcoming and healing that we can experience” (Heidi).

They were stories of broken and dysfunctional homes, being kicked out of the house for being part of a gang, to being beaten up just because they were different. Reading these journals Mrs. “G” realized how similar each student’s stories were no matter the race, ethnicity or gender. Even though the students did not see eye to eye, they all had many things in common: they were all in gangs; they each had their own stories to tell; each student has dealt with the shooting of a friend, each student want to communicate to others, and each student wanted to be respected.

An individual education is significantly shaped by the dynamics of there lifestyle. Factors such as socio-economic status and school demographics affect the nature of education a person obtains. As a student that studied in two completely different educational systems with totally different educational agenda, my academic background definitely shaped my personality and attitude. Having to attend 8 different schools with 3 being in the United States and 5 in Oman and alternating between languages (Arabic and English), has impacted my ability to adapt to new surroundings. The exposure that I received from changing schools and experiencing different educational systems has taught me acceptance of new cultures and viewpoints, adapting to new surroundings, and my work ethic.

In high school I was a very work-oriented person, I didn’t care as much about partying and more about my school work. I was the girl that was the teacher’s pet and I would go home every night and worry about school. I loved school because I believe that we should all better ourselves through our education and I think that everyone should keep learning and keep evolving. I had a 3.98 GPA and it was something I was really proud of because it took so much of my time to keep my GPA up. I was also on the honor roll all four years of high school, I was in our towns newspaper for all straight A’s for three years, and I was on the principals list for 3 years. Even though I focused a lot on my school work, I really love being with my friends and family. I love trying to help my friends and talk with them if they are having and problems. I made so many great friends in high school and I really miss them all. Outside of class I loved being involved in my school and community. In school groups I joined were National Honor Society and Ruriteen, which I was the treasurer for Ruriteen my senior year. Outside of school I was in my communities Big Brothers Big Sisters program and I had two little sisters. I was also a cheerleader from 2nd grade to my junior year in high school.

“Schooling the world” was a film based on schools around the world. The Director Carol Black focuses on India schooling and American schooling. The purpose of this film is to show that Americans think education should be one way and not different ways. The schooling in India has changed over time and locals are struggling with the changes. In the older schooling in India is was based on crops and the community. Very few people went to school, but many worked in the fields and in homes. Children are now being sent to boarding school in other towns and leaving their homes to get a better education. Many small towns in India are struggling with the new concept of learning and young people's views on money and communities. Throughout the film I agreed with most of the points in the film, I do disagree with some of the views the older Indian generation has.

Growing up I think I always knew my brain was different than most of the students in my class. I have always had a difficult time doing the most basic mathematical problem. While most of the children in my class could solve the simple problem such as five divide by four in their heads in a matter of seconds, for me it would take much longer. I remember a time in the 5th grade we were all in a group and each group had a set of problems that had to be solved. All three members of my group had decided that it would be best if all I did was write what they told me to write so I would not slow them down. “You’re too slow to do this with us” one of them would say every time I would offer to help.

Within her first couple of weeks at Woodrow Wilson High School, Mrs. Gruwell had become introduced to the integration system as well as racism, violence, and gang affiliations that were present throughout the community. At first, her enthusiasm to teach was challenged as she struggled getting her “at-risk” students to