So we have had quite a few readings about disadvantages that minorities face in education, and then we wrote an educational biography last week as well. The two things combined have had me thinking a great deal about the high school I went to this week.
My parents moved into a neighborhood primarily because of the new high school being built, unfortunately many other families did the same thing, so it was overcrowded before it even opened. ]= While I could walk to this high school in 15 minutes, I spent 20-25 minutes on a bus each way every day to attend Palmer. I don't know if we were sent over there simply because our area was overcrowded and Palmer wasn't, or if they were trying to integrate the school more. At the time it didn't matter to me. I enjoyed my high school years. My parents hated my high school, and my younger brother and sister went to a different high school. They drove them, until they were old enough to drive themselves, just so they wouldn't have to go to Palmer.
Palmer had a diverse population, but it was still segregated. It was self segregated. The hispanics, we called them low riders because of their cars, all hung out at the Vocational Tech building. Their souped up cars parked over there, and they didn't come much to the main building. We had the African American gangs who hung out in the courtyard. I don't know which gangs they belonged to, I wasn't in the know about the politics of gangs, I just know that the smokers had one corner of the courtyard, the cowboys another, and two separate groups of black students divided the other two corners and no one crossed between them. We did have racial tensions.
The main road out front of the school was where everyone cruised on Friday and Saturday night. It was also rumored to be where the hookers hung out, although I don't think I ever saw one. The park across the street had homeless people, and it was rumored to be where the drug dealers were too. We all used to joke that Acacia park was the safest place in town because of all the undercover cops in it. My senior year there was a big fight on Nevada Ave outside the school, between some black students and some hispanic students- no guns, but someone got stabbed. It didn't happen during school hours, and while I was aware of it, it didn't affect me.
Now, I look back at all of this and think OMG! No wonder my parents didn't put my brother and sister in that school. At the time, it was normal. I wasn't afraid of going to school, I wasn't afraid of the other groups or cliques or gangs, I just didn't interact with them, our paths never crossed. I didn't feel scared to go to school every day. I was proud of my high school. I was involved in many extracurricular events.
I had all the honors and advanced placement classes, and the same group of people in all of the classes every year. There were two minorities in our classes - one whose father was African American and her mom was from Germany, the second girl whose father was caucasian and her mother was from Korea. Both of their fathers were retired Air Force, and had met their mothers while stationed overseas, married and brought them back to the USA. Melinda and Rita happened to be two of my best friends. They were minorities, even among the minorites. We were the good kids, we didn't get into trouble, we studied and we wanted to be there. We had the best of the teachers, and equipment. I can remember pulling out microscopes for Biology -- the "good microscopes"-- that were kept locked up. There were other microscopes out. I don't know if other classes used the good ones sometimes too, and I can't remember if we only used them for certain things, and used the regular ones for other things.
We were in a separate little world from the rest of the school. We didn't interact with the other students at all really. Even with our electives and non-academic requirements like PE, we didn't cross over much. Since we only had a couple of free periods, we were still all together for those too.
For us, the tracking, the separation of classes by skill level, or intelligent level, or whatever it is called, was advantageous. But for the other groups? I have never really thought about what happened to them. There were 333 people in my graduating class. I only remember because I was 33rd out of 333, so I just barely made the top 10%, which among my immediate classmates was a big deal. I wonder now how many others didn't graduate. I wonder what happened to those who weren't in the honors track, or what would have happened to them if they had been. How would my life have been different if we were all mixed together.
On one hand I think it was an advantage to be in classes together with the best and brightest, but then I felt dumb in those classes because I wasn't the smartest, ever, among them. I was the bottom of the top. If I had been in mainstream classes with others, would I have had more self esteem? Or would I have been pulled down and rested on my laurells, perhaps not have strived to compete as much?
Before this class I have always been in favor of separating students by ability level, or learning style. I thought it would be good for all involved. If you pull the higher achieving students out, then the ones who are left have a better chance to shine. They are grouped with students who are learning at the same pace, who have a similar learning style. The higher achieving students aren't held back and since they are usually more independent learners they can have a larger class size, therefore making the other classes smaller, which would mean more teacher attention for those other students. It seems to make sense.
But then I read the articles stating that while it helps the middle and upper class, college bound whites, it doesn't help minorities. So then the question becomes, what can you do to help ensure the future of everyone. How to make sure everyone gets the best education possible, the best chance for the future. I don't know. Is it fair to hold back some for the good of the many? Or to run the risk of holding back what may be the brightest of the future generation in the hopes they will help pull everyone else along?
Will the brightest really pull the slower learners along and mentor everyone else, or will they just make the others feel bad about themselves? Make them feel inferior because they don't learn as quickly or in the same way. I remember the taunting and teasing and anger and meanness that came along with the teenage years. I see if happening to a smaller degree in the elementary school, but it is there. The kids that get pulled out for extra help are usually alone on the playground. Is it because they are different to begin with, or because the extra help singles them out as different? Even if they are all in the same classes, will they still self-segregate, like attracting like?
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1 comment:
Huge issues here, Rachel!
Here's one thing that we know: We did school desegregation really badly during those initial years (even in cases like yours, where there may not have been social policy so much as the need to find more desks somewhere...).
The issues of grouping and sorting kids are very complicated, and one way to start thinking about them is to move away from thinking about school as it's traditionally been done -- of moving through the same materials, one step at a time, to learn "stuff" that has to be learned.
And then think of learning as involving more open-ended projects, as kids creating substantive work, as problem solving, as learning collaborative skills.
Then everyone learns more than they would in conventional school.
There was an article in the journal Phi Delta Kappan last fall (can't put my fingers on it right now, but you should be able to find it in the databases) on a high school that had detracked in math, and even the high achievers became higher achievers.
There's also a short video in the media center called "Off Track" about a middle school that opened all English classes to all kids.
Have you had a chance to look at the blog posts that have been up about grouping (and ungrouping).
Schools are just now figuring it all out.
But the answer isn't to do school the same ways with all kids in the same classroom.
The beauty really is that all kids could learn much more than they're learning in school, and our ability to make that happen doesn't necessarily have to do with grouping.
As for you last question, I think that the answer if "both". I think that kids who are behind peers know that and feel somewhat isolated, and then when we put them in pull-out programs, they're so conscious that everyone knows about their "problem".
My sister taught in a school in which the specialists would come to the classroom rather than having kids pulled out. So during reading time, there was an extra adult in the room, focusing mainly on "identified" kids but also available for anyone who needed help. The goal was to enable kids to keep up with the class. She really liked how it worked.
It's these sort of challenges that teachers could get really creative about, I think! Knowing what worked or didn't work for us doesn't necessarily help to imagine what else might be possible. But I really do believe that imagination could be incredible among teachers set loose to solve big challenges.
Jane
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