Poorly Funded Public Schools

Joshua Finley

Monique Williams

English 1A

01 October 2013

Poorly Funded Public Schools

When you start thinking about low funded schools a main thing that would to come to mind is school resources and materials. School material is a very important factor when it comes to student’s education. They need books, writing utensils, and materials for various activities. By students not having these materials it can really weaken their learning abilities. In the book Savage Inequalities by Jonathon Kozol they talk about how low funded schools are drastically affected in many different ways; one being school materials. They describe schools in New York being very crowded and not having enough room to teach their kids. A quote I found says, “Textbooks are scarce and children have to share their social studies books.”(104). This explains how schools who can’t even provide enough space for the kids, won’t even be able to give the proper textbooks so kids can at least have their own. It shows how the low funded schools don’t get proper funding and suffer because of lack of attention.

            Comparing the book from my research is very mind boggling. When I look at the lowest achieving schools a huge long list pops up listing all the schools that are lowest in the state. One thing that caught my attention is that 8 schools within 10 miles are at the top of the list in Alameda County. When you think of it as Alameda County schools not getting enough funding it shows how our schools are treated less than other schools in the area. This information relates to my paper focus because these schools that are the lowest achieving explains the fact that schools in the county are overcrowded which inflicts the students because they are limited to the materials they can receive. In Savage Inequalities they say, “we don’t have encyclopedias in classrooms,” she replies. “That is for the suburbs.”(105). This quote really explains how even teachers see that higher funded schools have more materials then where they teach. Materials should be the main focus because it gives the students the best opportunity to learn if they have more resources to learn from.

            Understanding that education is something very important it is sad to even see the book Savage Inequalities  be published because even though the problem is recognized, the problem isn’t be resolved. Also it is ridiculous that they have a list of low achieving schools in California on the government website because this shows they know what schools are being neglected and still don’t do anything about it. If they see these number highly effecting kids in schools and know that these kids lack the materials needed to be successful in school then something should be done immediately. We see that schools are heavily overcrowded and according to Savage Inequalities it hurts kids because they have to share these materials that are provided. “I can’t set up a computer lab. I have no room. I had to put a class into the library.”(108). I found this significant to kids not having the materials or resources because it shows how schools want to provide computers and resources to student’s but are not able to because of the number of students they have there are not enough to do so. If schools were funded more equal, students would get the materials they need which would change the horrible numbers we see from poor funded schools.

Savage Inequalities

Teachers are unequally distributed among public schools.
    During the first three chapters of the book, it explains a lot about how schools are extremely low funded and are scrutinized based on the poverty level. The fact being that most of it is true, many schools now are very low funded and it affects how the systems are ran. when you look at how teachers are distributed between schools, all the "good" teachers are sent to the higher level schools and the lower level schools are sent to the low poverty schools. I think it should be the opposite way, the lower schools should have the top teachers because the schools need the help to teach the kids in the lower poverty schools. 

 

Part III: Rule of Three

We all know that the purpose of education is to give knowledge to people and better the future of individuals. At times there may be disagreements on how people perceive education and how its process works. Different schools have different systems, but one main goal is to have them all running the same way. If we don’t have students that respect one another and teachers, how can they respect themselves and their education. I feel that if it continued the way it is now, then students will end up losing interest in their education, and this generation is our future so we should do everything we can to help make change. In “The Passion Project” by Skye Ontiveros; Emily, a student involved said, “I’ve been in many classes where the teacher just teaches and doesn’t interact with the students much(TPP 5)”. If education continues to be this way then how will our future end up? Emily expresses her feelings on how she experienced in class. This is very important because it is actually coming from student that has seen a problem with our education system.

                I know that our society wouldn’t want to lose our education, it is something that is offered to us that we all should take advantage of it in the right way. Students have to respect their environment including the people around them. As I been through school teachers are disrespected a lot, if we can get students to be motivated to learn and have responsibility then this would diminish the problem drastically. If this disrespect is allowed to happen, I believe that teachers will become less involved with students as well as their teaching. Samira said, “there is a lack of that raw passion and there is a lack of wanting to explore each child’s mind(TPP 5). In my opinion this is very true because if students don’t understand that the change in education needs to happen now, then this lack of teaching and care will prolong. These negative consequences could happen if we don’t act now and endure the problems that need to be addressed.

                After talking about the change we all need to take to make a difference in education, it tends to make you think a little deeper if it doesn’t change. Jobs now even want you to have at college credits to even be qualified for a regular position. So if we look at it at an education perspective, students are not motivated to go to school or even responsible, how can they obtain a job they desire. Even including the teachers, if they don’t show interest in their students success how do we expect anything from education. I think that without a different outlook, employment would dramatically drop. Barrack Obama said, “with the changing economy, no one has lifetime employment. But community colleges provide lifetime employability.” What I feel about the quote is that Obama tries to push the advantage we have with education. With the education we have we should be striving to make it better for the students and the teachers, after all education is the best opportunity to better ourselves.

After watching Ted Talk Sir Ken Robinson, he spoke about how he sees two different parts of the world. He describes a main point that “there are people who go to work and are not happy, and how they endure there job and not enjoy it”. I think that he is absolutely right in that aspect. I have been employed with safeway for almost 4 years, and as I don’t see it as my career choice it has been a very good job for me during my education and so forth. But as I worked there I have met a lot of people who have just settled for the job because it became easy and good pay. Even though it has been easy for them, they still continue to complain or can’t wait to get off work. I admit that sometimes I feel the same way but as I stated safeway is not a career choice for me. To understand what his point was, he basically talked said that people need to choose a job that makes them happy. If you work to just work and go home then you will be working for the rest of your life. planning and finding something that you want to do, can eventually change your life in the end.

Essay Article

After watching the Passion Project, you tend to think more about passion and how much it actually means to a person’s life. In my paper I want to focus on the interest in student’s and education as well as the relationship between teachers and students. The connection I feel the Passion Project and my concept is that when you have passion, it brings you happiness. In my concept I feel that student’s should have passion in their education. In an article called Class Participation by Kevin O’ Connor he explains that teachers use cold calling, a term that is used when teachers call on students randomly when asking them questions. He researched that cold-calling to be a useful practice to hold students accountable for class preparation and to engage more students during a class period (Dallimore, Hertenstein, & Platt, 2004). Based on his research I felt I kind of agreed and disagreed with his statement because I think students in class should have the motivation to raise their hands to answer questions in class. At the same time I think it is good because it shows that the teachers want to hear the student’s view on what is being discussed. This brings me to my next point; I think that relationships between students and teachers should be more involved with each other. It gives the chance for them to understand one another and be more comfortable. Kevin O’ Connor said that “professors need to consider class participation techniques that engage all learners in the classroom not just the few reliable students who dutifully raise their hands”. I think this can be a change to better the relationship between teacher and students. It shows that teachers care about the future of the students and these newer practices can be a big change for education.