Social Reconstruction & Education
Social reconstruction is a philosophy focused on achieving social change. As a practice, it strives to achieve social justice and equity by altering the various social systems upon which society rests. It is based upon two major understandings; first, that society tends to develop systems that marginalize and oppress others and thus need to change, and second, that achieving this change requires both creating a system that serves as a change agent and is open to changing it’s own purposes and structures as the social contexts in which it exists naturally evolve.
Since we live in a world of seemingly endless and diverse challenges, and since educational systems and schools are one of the primary means by which we develop understanding and skills related to functioning in society, social reconstruction requires that social reform serve as the primary goal of every student’s education. As an educational philosophy, educational institutions at all levels are viewed as the main means by which students are prepared to reconstruct the systems through which inequality and the oppression and marginalization of other people occur. Educational reconstruction purposefully and explicitly requires that our schools function as change agents, empowering students to question the very systems in which they live and work, and to create a society that is more equitable and just.
As an “educational social movement” guided by critical pedagogy, social
Lincoln High School, which is located in a low-income neighborhood in San Diego, was a rebuilt after 50 years of failing to educate children. Rebuilding the high school was the answer the community had been looking for they were hopeful. Before the rebuild most students who attended Lincoln did not meet the standards for their grade-level, few graduated and even fewer went go on to college. After years of suffering and neglect there was little doubt That Lincoln High School deserved the $129 million it received from the city to rebuild. But was rebuilding the school the solution for Lincoln High School 's education problem? First we’ll examine, How the problem started, the decision making steps and if the plan was successful.
It has become common today to dismiss the lack of education coming from our impoverished public schools. Jonathan Kozol an award winning social injustice writer, trying to bring to light how our school system talks to their students. In his essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal," Kozol visits many public high schools as well as public elementary schools across the country, realizing the outrageous truth about segregating in our public education system. Kozol, cross-examining children describing their feelings as being put away where no one desires your presence. Children feeling diminished for being a minority; attending a school that does not take into consideration at the least the child’s well being. Showing clear signs of segregation in the education system.
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
Reynolds illustrates how there are a variety of different ways social justice can be taught, and explains how each teacher has a different way of implementing the same ideas. She provides examples of lessons a child might learn and the biases behind it teaching social justice. Reynolds is concerned with the age range of teaching social justice and when is considered the appropriate time. New teachers are now getting taught how to teach social justice within the class room, and the curriculum is changing to include aspects of social justice. Reynolds states how social justice is a branch off the bigger question of “who gets to decide the best
Education and economic justice were two forms of systemic inequalities that make inequality difficult to talk about. Education is a requirement if someone wishes to have a better life, but not everyone has access to quality education. In the U.S there has always been a battle, people of color have fought to be able to access quality education, (Philips, 2016: 130) they are constantly attending inferior and ineffective school where there are many distractions for students to be fully successful in the classrooms. Often these schools where children of color attend lack quality facilities, educational resources, and qualified teachers. Someone can’t help to notice that in general such unqualified schools are mostly in color people’s neighborhoods.
For my Argumentative Essay “Modern Day Re-Segregation in Today’s Schools”, I will be addressing Professor Kelly Bradford and my fellow students of Ivy Tech online English Composition 111-54H. As I chose Martin Luther King’s “Letter from A Birmingham Jail” as my core reading topic, I have gained an interest in not only the fight for civil rights that Mr. King lead in the 1950’s but have gotten interested in how there is still a large gap in equality in education due to the current situation of not only educational segregation but social and economic segregation. Through my research I have discovered that not only segregation in the schools is on the rise, but that socioeconomic segregation exists and is fueling the decrease in academic success by impoverished students. Through my writing I want to demonstrate that the socioeconomic isolation and segregation not only affects those that are directly bound by it, but that it affects every American in some form or other. I am submitting my writing as a formal academic manuscript.
America’s education system is one of the most respectable, reputable and sought after commodities in our society, but it is also the most overcrowded, discriminatory, and controversial system ever established. Most people yearn for a higher education because it 's what 's expected in this society in order to get ahead. It means a better job, more money, power, prestige and a sense of entitlement. But this system has let down the children that are supposed to benefit from it. Education discriminates against minorities, and poorer class students are not expected nor encouraged to attain a higher education. The education system is set up to ensure that every child get a basic
For generations African Americans have been disadvantaged in America and effects of these injustices have made a lasting impression. Education is one of the leading problems in the black community. Though there have many reforms in education over the years, racial injustices still exist because no attention in placed on how legislature affects people of color. I was raised in a middle-class family of educators. My entire life I’ve been told to “stay in school, get an education, and work hard so that you can beat the system.” Recognizing the structural forces in my life has helped me understand my place in society. Being able to “understand everyday life, not through personal circumstances but through the broader historical forces that
The greatest country in the world still has problems evenly distributing education to its youth. The articles I have read for this unit have a common theme regarding our education system. The authors illustrate to the reader about the struggles in America concerning how we obtain and education. Oppression, politics, racism, and socioeconomic status are a few examples of what is wrong with our country and its means of delivering a fair education to all Americans.
After the devastation brought to the South from the Civil War America entered period called “Reconstruction” to help mend America. One of the most debated things to come out of Reconstruction was on whether it was a success or a failure. Many believe it was a success due to the Southern states participating in the US government again and the freedom of slaves. Others believe it was a failure due to the repression of African rights and failures to protect them both physically and financially. Reconstruction was a failure because of the restrictions of African American’s rights, the social separation/mistreatment of the races, and the continous poverty of the African American community.
In the week's reading it offered a unique perspective education of segregated school by the percentage of black and hispanic students. The arguments that can be mafe about the myth of educations and empowerment in the reading "Still Separate, Still Unequal" by Jonathan Kozol, is still being affected by funds. The author speaks about statistics present the overpopulated schools are filled with minorities. "Whether the issue is inequity alone or deepening resegregation or the labyrinthine intertwining of the two, it is well past the time for us to start the work that it will take to change this." "We do not have the things you have," Alliyah told me when she wrote to ask if I would come and visit her school in the South Bronx. "Can you help us?"
Thus Black Studies argues for a number of far-reaching reforms. There should be a greater emphasis on student participation in the teaching/learning process, rather than the banking process where the teacher deposits knowledge into students’ heads and periodically (at exam time) makes withdrawals. ….. Finally, freedom, like effective education, is achieved most often when groups of human beings cooperate with each other, not when lone individuals compete against all others” (Cole, pg
Who we are and how we are treated as children is directly correlated to who we will become as adults. Spoken by Lyndon B. Johnson, “Until Justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.” These words are echoed throughout the educational system that is put in place today. Jonathan Kozol, an award-winning writer and public lecturer who focuses on social injustice in the United States, reverberates these words in his article, “From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”. Kozol proves his mastery in persuasion by the facts he provides and the personal anecdotes from teachers and students.
“Education in our country is the social service equivalent of Katrina. Part of the challenge that we face in this nation is that we have to confront the fact that we have systems that are designed essentially to fail kids,” states Geoffrey Canada in his address at the Social Justice Leadership Conference (Newport, 2011). Canada has an innate ability to blatantly state the problems facing communities in this country. However he is not just talking; he is doing something about it.
expectations for all students can combat marginalization. The schools included in a study by Ragland, Clubine, Constable, Smith, Council of Chief State School Officers and Texas University (2002) set measurable and high goals for all of its students, while minimizing formal categories and labels. This enables faculty and staff to focus on creating educational opportunities for the students and assess areas for improvement in student and teacher performance. Without tracking and labels, the focus is on the individual, where it belongs, regardless of race or socio-economic status”, ( Carbone II,Steven,2010)