Can Separate Be Equal?

Kozol wrote that many Americans have no idea of the problems in urban public schools. He writes about the many big cities in the United States in which racial segregation is continuing in and how this is isolating the children in the poorest and most segregated neighborhoods. The author lists the statistics for many urban settings where the student population is overwhelmingly black or Hispanic. Many teachers in these schools can actually count the number of white children in their schools. Even in neighborhoods where there was a significant white population, white parents are sending their children to private schools. As in Johnson’s article, there seems to be a reluctance to put a name to this racial divide, namely racial segregation. Schools are classified as diverse when there is, in reality, little diversity as most of the students are black or Hispanic.
The argument he feels most educators in large cities subscribe to is one of accepting less than full equality, and striving toward a very different goal of achieving “strong, empowered, and well funded schools in segregated neighborhoods”. He feels that these educators were willing to put aside the 1954 Brown Supreme Court decision and instead settle for the 1896 Supreme Court ruling that advocated a dual society in the United States that was “separate but equal”. For additional information that addresses this issue go to http://www.rethinkingschools.org and read the article titled The Strange History of School Desegregation by Robert Lowe. The problem of achieving desegregation with the current racial populations of our big cities is now difficult and this article explores this problem along with other interesting facts about the history of school desegregation.
Kozol’s article includes several stories from children that tell of the deplorable conditions of the schools they attend. One child wrote, “It is not fair that other kids have a garden and new things. But we don’t have that. I wish that this school was the most beautiful school in the whole why world.” Kozol went on to ponder that innocent misspelling of why instead of wide and that thought resonates with me. Many other students from Fremont high in L.A. talked to Mr. Kozol about the terrible physical conditions in their schools and how the students were further humiliated by having to speak of these horrible conditions and how it never seemed to change, no matter who knew about it. He went on to talk to students about the course work that was available to them and found that many students were being denied the kind of courses that they needed to be successful, being offered vocational courses like sewing and hair styling instead of AP classes while Beverly Hills High School offered so many more relevant academic courses to meet the same “applied Technology” requirement. The students at Fremont school were well aware of the inequities in the schools and were cynical about the status quo changing anytime soon.
The article went on to describe a curriculum called Success For All, a much scripted way to teach students. Kozol writes that many urban school communities have adopted this “pedagogy of direct command and absolute control” with the purpose of “faultless communication” between the teachers and the students. As the description of this curriculum continued it became obvious that this was a very explicit and rote way of instruction. Was this the explicitness that Delpit advocated for students of color? This particular curriculum was described in the article as extremely rigid, not only when examining teaching methodology but extended to every aspect of the student’s day in school with no room for individual expression. The author goes on to quote the New York Times article, Fearing a Class System in the Classroom; A Strict Curriculum, but Only for Failing Schools, Mostly in Poor Areas of New York., where it says that white children made up only one percent of students who were taught using this curriculum, and that this kind of teaching method can only hamper a student’s chance for becoming a critical thinker. He concludes the article by encouraging whatever actions are necessary to change what he refers to as the resegregation of schools and the inequities children of color endure in the United States.

The Silence Dialogue

I found this article very interesting because it gave me a different way to look at the way children of color should be educated. It was surprising to me
in many ways, especially how many educators of color disagreed with many teaching methods advocated by white educators, but do not seem to be heard. The story of a white educator lecturing on how to educate black children and the black doctoral student who attended these lectures was very disconcerting. The black student expressed the view that white educators don’t listen when black individuals try and express different opinions, with the white educators citing research and discounting the life experiences of those that are living in the culture. This black principal felt it was futile to argue, because “ They wear blinders and earplugs. They only want to go on research that other white people have written. The author stated “ that the black and Native Alaskan educators speak of in these statements are seldom aware that the dialogue has been silenced. Most likely the white educators believe that their colleagues of color did, in the end, agree with their logic. After all, they stopped disagreeing, didn’t they?” It was clear the author felt there was a big disconnect between white and non-white educators, where both want to teach in the best possible way .The white educators seemed to lack an understanding of how the voices of educators of color are not heard or taken into account when planning the best way to teach students of color. Ms. Delpit writes about the “ culture of power”, and lists five aspects of the culture of power and their relevance. She goes on to say that the last two aspects of the culture of power are not widely examined. Number four was listed as, “ If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier. If you think about when you start a new job or even begin a new class, clear rules about what is expected from you and how you should proceed to achieve success makes the task at hand so much easier and much less stressful. The last aspect is “ Those with power are frequently least aware of- or willing to acknowledge- its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.” This element of the culture of power is a very important one, because something cannot change if there is no awareness or there is denial that this power exists. The problems with indirectness and lack of explicitness in education and how this impacts the success of students of color is examined in this article and leads me to think about the methods of teaching we use in the school I work in and even the speech and manner we use for behavior management. Are we being too indirect when a more direct manner is something children of color might see at home and be better able to respond to? Is this a way to try and deny the power a white teacher has over her students of color because it may bring up feelings of guilt over this power and cause the teacher to fear restricting the freedom of their students? It is surely something to think about.

I enjoyed taking the test we took today in class. It was interesting to take and the results were interesting too. I was not upset or surprised by the results of my test as I feel I know who I am.
The people on Dateline seemed very surprised by their results and even offended. It was interesting to note that the African American participants were not uncomfortable with their results while the European Americans were very surprised and uncomfortable. I wondered how the scientists came up with this test and if computer skills played any role.

This author, Allan G. Johnson, argues that " a great deal of trouble surrounds issues of difference in this society, trouble relating to gender and race, sexual orientation, ethnicity,and social class." He goes on to say that we are all part of the problem, and that we must try and become part of the solution if we want to see change occur.He quoted Rodney King who said " Can't we all just get along?"to emphasize that we do not get along and that we have to be open to hearing words that disturb, such as white racism and privilege. Social differences such as gender, sexual orientation, class, ability and ethnicity must be looked and talked about if we are to change the way society functions. People have difficulty looking at themselves and trying to figure out how they fit in a society that is racist, sexist and where there are privileges for some but not for everyone. Johnson writes that people have to accept these painful words and accept the role we play in helping a society to change or stay the same. Being white, male and heterosexual gives privilege in our society and the author wants this very group to understand that they must be part of the solution and consider this problem of privilege their call to action. If we realize that we are privileged at the expense of others, we can begin to take responsibility for trying to make changes. I was very struck by Johnson writing " The trouble around diversity, then, isn't just that people differ from one another. The trouble is produced by a world organized in ways that encourage people to use difference to include or exclude, reward or punish, credit or discredit, elevate or oppress, value or devalue, leave alone or harass." The Diversity Wheel is discussed by the author and he writes about how different our lives would be if the characteristics in the center of the wheel were to change and how differently people would look at you and treat you. A very important distinction between being a oppressive person and belonging to a privileged group is made in the article and will help people to affect change and look at the truth about power, privilege, and oppression without taking on the guilt that might cause denial and lack of action

Hello, I am Kathy and work as a school nurse teacher in a charter school in Providence. I am a little nervous about the technology part of the course as I am not very good with computers. I am interested in this course as cultural competence is strongly encouraged in my school.