Summary Of The Sanctuary Of School By Linda Barry

Mark Biller describes the educational system like a delicate ecosystem, all parts of it need to work together if things are going to last. If the community does not support a school, odds are the school will have to close-down. If the teachers don’t work with parents, then kids will not get the support they need. If parents do not support teachers, students loose an

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Nelson Mandela). In “Let’s Really Reform Our Schools” by Anita Garland she discusses how schools need to change to help students succeed. Garland states, “We need to completely restructure our thinking about what schools are and what we expect of the students who attend them” (620). Garland wants to better schools, so students can be successful. Garland makes a strong argument when she states schools need uniforms, better food and to remove disruptive students.

The open and close of the eyelids, the flick of a light, the beat of a heart and our lungs expanding are things we do without even trying. We simply don’t pay attention to them. Just like in “The Sanctuary of School,” Barry’s parents muted her from reality and peripheral view; I muted the outside world. She grew up in a reality where warmth and attention did not describe her parents. Whereas, the warmth that I seek exists solely within my community. Barry’s home was like a seesaw of constant change. A child her age sought to find that new home at school. Although school funds are cut back to save money, we should protect and value spaces that people feel safe in. The education system needs to realize the importance of schools, the children and the importance of having a warm and secure place. Just like it gave Barry a sanctuary of a school.

In addition to fulfilling the learning objectives that required my proficiency in online and campus services, the growth I attained through our readings and discussions became (although trite) my new educational foundations from which I deconstructed and/or reconstructed a reality aspiring to be bias-free. Starting from Adrienne Rich’s “Claiming an Education” where I became enraged by female oppression and exposed devolusive reality that despite this speech being near 40 years old, it still upholds presently. My dispassion for endemic public discourse continued immensely when reading Jean Anyon’s “ Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum Work” and Jonothan Kozol’s “Other People’s Children” that assisted perfectly with my Urban Youth course’s concurrent analysis and conceptualization of the school-to-prison pipeline. Both Anyon and Kozol, invited me to witness shameless discrimination, negligence and social stratification plaguing U.S education. This ideal of equal opportunity to quality education has exceeded my vain plight grappling with my white privilege by double, which I know will only continue to challenge every fiber of my being as these issues remain neglected ergo persistent. ‘Ed. Found’ reading of Henry Giroux’s interview “The Hope of Radical Education” also meshed with my

In Lynda Barry's essay “The Sanctuary of School” Barry gives her own personal feelings and experiences about the school system. She points out the fact that when times are “lean” the first things the government eliminates from the school systems is the art, music. and other creative programs. In her essay she gives her readers insight on her childhood, explaining how going to school was her get-away from her financially and emotionally unstable home. Barry points out how she and her brother weren’t noticed by their family while at home. For example, at the age of seven Barry sneaks out of the house while it was still dark because she feels a sudden urgency to get to school; when she gets close, she feels a sense of peace come over her. When

School systems sometimes make promises they have no intention of keeping. Other times, they can deliver a world of opportunities to our neediest children. They may or may not want to listen to parents or even teachers, but school systems always attend to the demands of the most powerful individuals and institutions in their communities. (Koonce, 2016, p. 204).

Throughout this year, we have read two books, 50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools and Schooled: Ordinary, Extraordinary Teaching in an Age of Change, as well as several different articles spanning various topics regarding school and its purpose in society. We learned that each of us in class have had unique school experiences, whether we went to a public, private, charter, or home school. Each of our unique experiences have allowed us to share our personal encounters with school, both positive and negative. Through these readings we learned about how each of us has a stake in schools. We depend on one another to be educated enough to make important decisions, for example critically analyzing candidates and their platforms when deciding to vote. If I could suggest any three of our readings to a high school teacher, a parent, and to a fellow student, they would be the Postman and Weingartner section from Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Why Wrong is not Always Bad by Alina Tugend, and College is not a commodity. Stop treating it like one. by Rawlings, respectively. These articles stood out to me as the most informative as well as the most relative to many of the issues we see today.

While reading chapter 13 from Spring, and chapters 16 and 17 from Educational Foundations, I was able to reflect and come up with many different questions, concerns, and comments about the material that I read. Chapter 13 from Spring talks about American schools and global politics and about the cold war and poverty. Another thing that this chapter talks about is universal military training and the channeling of youth for global warfare. Lastly, this chapter goes on to talk about the Cold War and how schools were being affected from it. In chapter 16 from Educational Foundations it talks about how a special education teacher states he is a bad teacher. He doesn’t feel this way about himself, however he is labeled that from the city’s education department. It concludes by talking abut how until we provide equal educational resources

As a kid, going to school for eight hours a day is all fun and games, but is also slowly shaping you into the person you will be in the future. In Lynda’s Barry’s, “The Sanctuary of School” the main character comes to life once she arrives to school. Neglection at home has this young girl feeling lost and abandoned. The interaction she has with her teachers and peers is crucial; they are the ones who make her feel loved. Each teacher goes out of there way to notice this little girl, making her understand that she is important.

“Tinkering Towards Utopia” examines the tension between the American school system, past and present. This article addresses the fact that if we only focus on change can cause us to ignore the stability in the school system. Instead of only focusing on changing the school system, we need to take the positive aspects already in place into consideration. If certain tactics are working, we should not change them. One of the points that I agree with the most in this article is that change where it counts the most, in terms of the interactions between teachers and students. We read that this is the hardest to achieve, but the most important. Achieving a good relationship with your student is important because you could be the one that changes

You walk shaking into a classroom. You feel wronged, but confronting Ms. Susan is something very few people have done, and all students have had detention. You're scared as she opens the doors. Your mind is racing, trying to think of what to say. In “bad” schools children may not feel accepted or worthy of going to that school. This is not a good thing. Children who don’t like school can have trouble later in life because they didn’t care. Because of this they get poor grades which led to more and more worse grades which led to low paying jobs. In order to combat this problem you must first know about the school rating system, what it takes to become a good or a bad school and a few of the many

[Introduction] Extra recess, free choice, no computer lab —to much spark time. The elementary school I was visiting is one of the best schools in one of the best School District in Arizona, rated both with an A, the maximum educational quality level for a school. “All the schools in this District are same good…” I remember the words of the Principal during the school tour. I felt so satisfied, I was on the right path looking for the best public school for my family, moving from Colorado. But where was the art class? where was the gym equipment? where were the instruments at the music class? why there were so many tables in the classroom.? For a person who cares about children’s education there are so many questions

The years of my grade school education brings out the worst years of my learning experience. My schooling was full of teachers who doubted the students daily, administrators who thought they were better, and students who thought education ended with an high school diploma. In John Taylor Gatto’s “The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher” Gatto analyzes the school system that I have seen before my very eyes; a school system that without saying so, systemically sets children up to live under the law of the government. A system that trains children to obey and stay in the box that the system places them in.

Although schools are entrusted to educate the next generation of great thinkers, schools fail to prepare their students for success. Graduating students are blindly entering society expecting luxuries that do not exist. Schools fail to teach that in the “real world” not everyone wins, schools take censorship to the extreme, and fail to teach self reliance.

If you ever wanted to live forever, don’t go looking for the Fountain of Youth, just go to the nearest school and you will live for the rest of eternity. School has always seemed to drag on like time had slowed and nothing is happening in the world around you. Although most school days last around eight hours on average, they can feel like years. Some teachers are miracle workers and time seems to fly, this is only in short bursts though. Many people say that all they did in school was wait for the bell to ring so that they could be free from the educational prison. From the perspective of two public schooled kids living with this problem, it is clear that public schools are not very efficient with their time. This brings about a very important conclusion, many hours are spent doing unimportant tasks every year in public schools. Although wasted time could be described as many different things, the description that we are giving it is time that people were socializing after work is completed in class, when teachers give extra time in class for the kids that didn’t get their work done by the deadline, excessive review for tests or quizes, or work that is not necessary to anything at all, for example: coloring assignments.