Are low-income urban students taught to fail?
“As racial isolation deepens and the inequalities of education finance remain unabated and take on new and more innovative forms, the principals of many inner-city schools are making choices that few principals in public schools that serve white children in the mainstream of the nation ever have to contemplate….Curriculum materials are allegedly aligned with governmentally established goals and standards and particularly suited to what are regarded as ‘the special needs and learning styles’ of low-income urban children have been introduced…a new empiricism and the imposition of unusually detailed lists of named and numbered “outcomes” for each isolated parcel of instruction…an openly conceded emulation of the rigorous approaches of the military and a frequent use of terminology that comes out of the world of industry and commerce…although generically described as ’school reform’, most of these practices and policies are targeted primarily at poor children of color… ‘If you do what I tell you to do, how I tell you to do it, when I tell you to do it, you’ll get it right’, said a determined South Bronx principal”. –Jonathan Kozol–
As a future educator, this passage has far reaching implications as to what I may be expected to participate in and what I will likely have to fight against. Not only are funds not proportionally allocated to all schools, but in low-income schools the teachers are being given the job of what I consider perpetuating previously established inequities. Described above are the strategies of rote memorization, simple rule following, and mechanical behavior that allows little room for critical thinking and the expression of the creativity that these along with all other children possess. The children in these schools, who are primarily children of color, are overwhelmed by low expectations, overly rigorous discipline, and a huge lack of resources. How can they be expected to survive? I guess the question becomes at some point, are they expected to survive or are they expected to follow the path that many have followed before them into jails and at best menial jobs that keep them following unquestioned rules and living from check to check?
