Re: Chapter 1: Sleeter and Grant

The figures in this reading were rather jarring, because they give a very blunt statement about the state of the United States today. To begin, no nation is perfect in any of these respects, because these problems stem from human nature. It cannot be said for sure if any of these problems will ever be solved because for some reason it is a pattern of human behavior to reject others that are different from yourself. Children are raised that way, be it by their parents, teachers, or society in general, and this only perpetuates the problem. However, by raising awareness of these types of issues we can hopefully amend them accordingly.

In my personal educational experience, the most prominent of the issues discussed in the reading that I recall are classism and labeling.

I grew up in a primarily caucasion middle to upper middle class neighborhood. This did not provide much diversity in my education, but I did realize the different levels of privilege that surrounded me. The kids from the more well-to-do neighborhoods always wore nicer clothes, they were involved in more extra-curricular activities, they had all the latest toys and gadgets for school, and very often their mothers were very involved in school activities. I think this speaks to the way school activities were conducted. For instance, the room mothers were generally the mothers of the children who were more wealthy, I assume because one income was enough to sustain the family comfortably. Therefore, when we had school parties or holiday events, while they were geared toward everyone, I always felt that the boys and girls who were friends with the kids whose mothers were in charge got special treatment. These children all played together anyway, and their families were friends as well.
In middle school the gap increased, because it was easier to show wealth through clothing and activities, which also introduced labeling. The kids who had the most money generally hung out together and were labeled as the "popular" group. While I can't imagine it was intentional, the teachers were naturally drawn to these students because they tended to be more outgoing and confident.

At BJHS it is difficult to identify which children come from which economic background, but it seems that even the teachers play in to labeling. For instance, there is a class of LD/BD kids. Learning Disabled and Behavior Disabled are both labels that are standardized, so teachers use them naturally. But teachers can also label children as "unorganized" or "difficult" or "uncooperative." While these labels may be considered as more of ways to describe children, if the students realize that they are consistently labeled this way, they may be prone to continuing that behavior just because they feel they are expected to be that way. I believe it is the duty of the teacher to make every attempt to understand the child before giving them a label, and once the label is given, to make the student understand that they always have the power and control to change the way they are perceived by their peers and adults alike.