When I first moved to Texas and became a registered voter here, it was at the peak of the 2016 election season. One day, someone campaigning for a republican state senate candidate knocked on my door. I was entirely unaware of her political party affiliation at the start of the conversation, but it wasn't hard to catch on as the interaction progressed. Her hook line was that she wanted to inform me of the terrors that are happening in our public school systems her in Texas. Generally I would turn away these political volunteers, but she intrigued me so I took the bait. I listened as she ranted and raved about how hard our local school districts worked to earn the funding that they have, and now its being stolen and given to less deserving districts. She emphasized that these districts are less deserving because they did not work for the funding, and that voting for the state senator she was endorsing would help end these practices.
This volunteer didn't understand the implications she was making, but the way I see it she was imposing her capitalistic views on beings who aren't even participants in this money making hell-scape yet. It contributes to why poor kids are forced to 'mature up' faster than their wealthier peers. They are expected to show they are deserving of help, and then help is instead granted based on the performance of the administration in their communities. When she says that certain districts worked harder than others to raise money, does she mean that the children within those schools worked harder, or the adults who service them? We know that the children rely on us for success, and any shortfalls are our responsibility to attend to. It is never the child's fault. So then how come it's okay in some people's minds to hold children accountable for the shortfalls of the adult systems working around them by refusing them adequate funding?
As I previously stated, we live in a capitalist hell-scape. Money is what makes our world go around. The people who have amassed the greatest amount of wealth in the world had to exploit others in order to gain that position. Now they are asking us to exploit our children so that they can hold on to their treasure; Educate their own children; Build their empire. By pushing for the removal of programs like The Robinhood Acts, you are holding children accountable for the adult systems failing around them, all whilst yelling at them to pull their selves up by their bootstraps and show they deserve better. Their performance can't improve until we do something to help them first, and it won't matter until we do. With the current education funding system in place in our capitalist society, it doesn't matter how hard they work because the rewards aren't granted in such a manor. The implications that certain districts are less deserving of money than others is equivocal to the thought process that the children inside of those schools are less deserving, and that's not very 'equal-rights' of us. Money has everything to do with it, but nothing our children do can get them the funding they need. That's on us.
Hey Tori, I really liked your article, sometimes when I have to read these posts to make comments they start to all sound the same but yours doesn't and I respect that. It sucks that we live in a classism society and what you are born into is most likely how you will stay. I don't love our capitalistic society but I also do not see it ever changing, it makes it very hard to fight for the underprivileged because of the idea that if you are poor then you are less and your rights are not important. There is plenty of money for us to be educating our youth better, for lower income areas to have the resources they need. The fact that as a state we don't give children an equal opportunity is a disgrace and a shame. As a future educator of course I want to help my students in the best way possible and a couple ways to do that is to not be biased and to find a way to get them the resources they need. This link from our module shares more about how to not be bias in the classroom
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-myth-of-the-culture-of-poverty
Hello Leya! I try my best to apply the articles we read to my own personal experiences as a way to learn from my past and grow. I also read the article that you shared, and something that I was able to relate to was when the Teacher was assuming that parents don't care when they aren't able to show up to conferences or maintain communication. My parents spent a majority of my childhood working, and weren't able to attend as many school events as other parents, but one thing I know for certain is that they did care about my education, so deeply. I fully believe that communication between the parent and teacher is imperative for the child to succeed, however when we experience gaps in the communication where we feel like we are putting forth the best effort on our behalf, we have to use empathy to understand why these gaps are occurring instead of jumping to conclusions like this teacher did. In order to find our students the resources they need, in this case communication with parents, we need to first ask what they need. Ask the parents about what channel of communication works best for them, and what schedule works best for them, and alter your practices to reflect their needs too. This is acting in the best interest of the child.
DeleteHey Tori, I enjoyed reading your article. I am very intrigued by the lady who you talked about in the story. It is so sad that she thinks that some schools are less deserving because they did not work for the money themselves. It is also sad because you can tell in her voice and word usage that she is obviously very privileged and entitled. It is also so sad that you can see how she is blaming the children who do not deserve to even be talked about like this. Money is such a sad problem and the fact that this lady took a capitalist money hungry side against innocent children is an absolutely so low of her. I really enjoyed your last paragraph regarding the way we should have accountability for these issues we see and stop them for the better of the children and their futures. It is so sad you had to listen to and talking to this lady and the ignorance he believes.
ReplyDeleteHello Erika! I completely agree that this lady was speaking and acting entirely from privileged standpoint. However I don't think she meant harm. Everything that I discussed in my response, about the implications she was making about children in poverty, I believe she was ignorant to it. She had no idea how awful the idea she was proposing was because she has never been exposed to the struggles of the people in these communities. That's the thing about privilege, it tends to act as blinders to the real world. This lady was making empathy-limiting mistakes by assuming that impoverished communities don't work as hard so they don't deserve a quality education. I don't think all hope is lost for her. I hope that she is able to interact with more people as her political campaign volunteerism continues and that maybe she could change her perspective. I did my best to give her the information I had at the time as to why I opposed what she was campaigning for. I kindly turned her away, and she told me to have a nice day.
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