A reader would presume that these students find the materials appropriate for use in some way in the classroom, either as background information for themselves or in designing an actual curriculum, but the information provided does not reflect any such analysis. For instance, students wrote about Hearing Us Out: Voices from the Gay and Lesbian Community, "Sutton provides insights to understanding lesbian and gay communities through individuals' unique stories." This statement is so vague that it could have been written without actually looking at the book. A teacher would find this recommendation much more useful with more information: for what age level did the group think it was appropriate? Did the book provide insights that were directly applicable to school, such as stories from these people's experiences while they were in school? Does it include language some might find objectionable or excessively graphic?
The group that looked at "ability" reported on their materials more completely. Comments such as "the author shows how children with disabilities can be active participants in the mainstream classroom environment" is useful information. The issue of how to teach inclusion students well within the regular school environment is an issue of real concern to many teachers. Reading this description, the reader knows that he or she can look at that source more carefully. Another source specifically addresses how to facilitate mainstreaming at the high school level. Elementary teachers would probably pass that one by while middle school teachers would probably give it a look. This group's descriptions help the reader sort through the many resources the "ability" group found to pick out the ones most useful for him or her.
As an article this report falls short. An article...
The probability that a child will succeed is considered unimportant when compared to the possibility that a child might succeed. The racist implications of these educational problems are impossible to ignore. These deplorable conditions help reinforce white racial superiority by keeping minorities in a subservient position when compared to whites. The fact that many affluent suburban schools have minority students does not erase the fact that the single greatest predictor
Some newspapers, Kozol points out, muse in utilitarian terms. They argue that those children who are likely to produce more returns are likewise more deserving of financial support. But the most brutal irony of the way poor children are treated in New York is the fact that the legislators and the affluent public are more willing to spend money on incarceration than education of poor children. Most of the
Kids are hungry, their parents are in jail, and the good schools are in the suburbs, where the Congress people live. Their schools are upscale and well funded, while the inner-city schools suffer all the same problems the schools in the other chapters faced. The administrators feel whites would do anything to keep blacks out of their schools, including move away if too many blacks came into the district.
Then the healthcare provided to rich and poor children is starkly different. Kozol suggests that African-American children do not get proper medical care which makes them more likely to fail in school. Then the high dropout rates among blacks confirm the racist biases of legislators who argue that spending on black children is bad investment. When Kozol visits a wealthy suburban school and talks to children in advanced schools,
Murray characterizes educational romantics as people who believe that the academic achievement of children is determined mainly by the opportunities they receive and has little to do with their intellectual capacity. Educational romantics believe the current K-12 education system is in need of vast improvement. Murray describes two types of educational romantics, one set on the Left and one on the Right, and differentiates between the two thusly: "Educational romantics of
noble savage..." etc. The Noble, Savage Age of Revolution When Europeans first came to America, they discovered that their providentially discovered "New World" was already inhabited by millions of native peoples they casually labeled the "savages." In time, Europeans would decimate this population, killing between 95-99% of the 12 million plus inhabitants of the Northern Continent, and as many in the south. Before this genocide was complete, however, the culture of
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