Per your reading of Chapter 5 in Educational Psychology, quote ONE sentence (word for word) that resonated deeply with you and identify the page in the book from whence you lifted it.
Page 154--"The negative effects of poverty begin even before a child is born." For me, that was a very powerful sentence and a sad one at that. That paragraph described so many things that are problematic for children that are born into poverty. They have emotional, physical, mental and environmental problems when they grow up in poverty and so many people are born into that nowadays. It said that 1 in 5 Americans under age 18 live in poverty. That is so strange to think of when people always called America one of the richest countries in the world. Living in Plainview, I see this happen a lot. It is so common for these impoverished kids to have teen pregnancies and it seems that they are just babies having babies. Most people don't think about all of these other consequences that the book listed associated with this either. the consequences of how things like nutrition and stress can wire a child incorrectly for the rest of his life which keeps the whole thing being a vicious cycle of poverty and distress.
This statement is why I work in Head Start-- children don't deserve to have the stress of poverty effecting their lives before birth. Breaking the cycle of poverty is not easy but maybe it is not the poverty that is the problem but our view of individuals--they are poor and not treated as equal. It is the slum lords who don't fix housing and rent apartments and home that are not fit to live in. The unwillingness of the rich to pay their part of taxes to support the less unfortunate, the lack of good paying jobs, and the lack of a good education all play apart in this cycle.
"The critical questions in education involve matters that cannot be settled by universal prescription. They demand attention to the cultural forces that shape our lives"(157).
This quote was really a great one for me because of all the flack that public schools are getting. I read an article for a previous education class at WBU - an editorial from NYT, I think - that honestly called the public schools to be shut down and for every state to move to charter schools. This was so infuriating to me, because every school has it's own problems. To think that moving children to different buildings is going to change the problems that come with mixing different races, socio-economic classes, cultures, etc. is ludicrous. There is a crisis happening in our public schools, but it's not the schools that are failing - I think that the public is losing it's faith in schools and teachers, which means losing funding, which means losing RESOURCES and eventually losing teachers and staff that really care and really try to make a difference.
Good point-- When it comes to losing funding and faith that is what our legislators want us to believe and that is how they are getting our tax dollars to private companies that are allowed to make a profit. We need to be better at using our tax dollars so private for profit business is not receiving those resources. So much money is spend on needless things--we need to get back to reading, writing, science and math--and stop trying to be all things to all people.
I agree, schools are long overdue for a revival of sorts. Everything about them needs to be re-evaluated for the changing world we live in. And as far as culture, I would describe our schools as being in a culture of standardiztion when they need to be in a culture of creativity and diversity.
The statement on page 167 "When low-SES students received a substandard education, their academic skill are inferior and their changes are limited, beginning with not being prepared for high education (Anyon, 1980, Knapp & Woolverton, 2003)."
This statement just goes to show that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We have a class system in our country and breaking through this class system is harder than one thinks. -- This page also states that children from lower SES household are taught to memorize and be passive while middle class children are encouraged to think and be creative. No wonder I don't like giving my thoughts I was not encouraged to as a child and my creatively was crushed.
Interesting. As our SES classes in America grow further apart with the rich being super rich and the poor being super poor, it makes me feel like class warfare might eventually break out.
Page 154--"The negative effects of poverty begin even before a child is born." For me, that was a very powerful sentence and a sad one at that. That paragraph described so many things that are problematic for children that are born into poverty. They have emotional, physical, mental and environmental problems when they grow up in poverty and so many people are born into that nowadays. It said that 1 in 5 Americans under age 18 live in poverty. That is so strange to think of when people always called America one of the richest countries in the world. Living in Plainview, I see this happen a lot. It is so common for these impoverished kids to have teen pregnancies and it seems that they are just babies having babies. Most people don't think about all of these other consequences that the book listed associated with this either. the consequences of how things like nutrition and stress can wire a child incorrectly for the rest of his life which keeps the whole thing being a vicious cycle of poverty and distress.
ReplyDeleteLooks like we agree -- there are many more problems and challenges facing students and teachers than education and test scores.
DeleteThis statement is why I work in Head Start-- children don't deserve to have the stress of poverty effecting their lives before birth. Breaking the cycle of poverty is not easy but maybe it is not the poverty that is the problem but our view of individuals--they are poor and not treated as equal. It is the slum lords who don't fix housing and rent apartments and home that are not fit to live in. The unwillingness of the rich to pay their part of taxes to support the less unfortunate, the lack of good paying jobs, and the lack of a good education all play apart in this cycle.
Delete"The critical questions in education involve matters that cannot be settled by universal prescription. They demand attention to the cultural forces that shape our lives"(157).
ReplyDeleteThis quote was really a great one for me because of all the flack that public schools are getting. I read an article for a previous education class at WBU - an editorial from NYT, I think - that honestly called the public schools to be shut down and for every state to move to charter schools. This was so infuriating to me, because every school has it's own problems. To think that moving children to different buildings is going to change the problems that come with mixing different races, socio-economic classes, cultures, etc. is ludicrous. There is a crisis happening in our public schools, but it's not the schools that are failing - I think that the public is losing it's faith in schools and teachers, which means losing funding, which means losing RESOURCES and eventually losing teachers and staff that really care and really try to make a difference.
Good point-- When it comes to losing funding and faith that is what our legislators want us to believe and that is how they are getting our tax dollars to private companies that are allowed to make a profit. We need to be better at using our tax dollars so private for profit business is not receiving those resources. So much money is spend on needless things--we need to get back to reading, writing, science and math--and stop trying to be all things to all people.
DeleteI agree, schools are long overdue for a revival of sorts. Everything about them needs to be re-evaluated for the changing world we live in. And as far as culture, I would describe our schools as being in a culture of standardiztion when they need to be in a culture of creativity and diversity.
ReplyDeleteThe statement on page 167
ReplyDelete"When low-SES students received a substandard education, their academic skill are inferior and their changes are limited, beginning with not being prepared for high education (Anyon, 1980, Knapp & Woolverton, 2003)."
This statement just goes to show that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We have a class system in our country and breaking through this class system is harder than one thinks. -- This page also states that children from lower SES household are taught to memorize and be passive while middle class children are encouraged to think and be creative. No wonder I don't like giving my thoughts I was not encouraged to as a child and my creatively was crushed.
Interesting. As our SES classes in America grow further apart with the rich being super rich and the poor being super poor, it makes me feel like class warfare might eventually break out.
ReplyDelete