Kozol Chapter 4 and Spring Chapter 4

Page 89 (Kozol)

“Starting in kindergarten, children in the school were being asked to think about the jobs they might choose when they grew up.”

Despite the fact that this school intended for its students to pick only managerial jobs, no child should ever have to “choose” what job they would like to do when they grew up.  As a child, we think of being people like astronauts, presidents, stunt guy, etc. not manager’s of a retail store.  Not only is this school asking them to think about this job that they might do when they grow up, but they are implementing aspects of this job into the students’ everyday curriculum.  The students are forced to look at something like being the leader of a line as a job that must be done correctly instead of something that is fun and exciting.  As part of this job, the student is expected to have control of his classmates in the hallway and takes the blame when someone else is misbehaving. Why is this kind of stress put on a child? What happened to the plain joy of being the line leader, or in charge of doing anything else in the classroom? I used to look forward to be the one to do something, but I feel like if I were to it in those schools, I would dread it. As teachers, our job is to help the child learn and grow in an environment where they are the most comfortable and can act like children. I don’t think that this atmosphere allows for this to happen.

Page 90 (Kozol)

“The tiny hint of choice afforded by the second question was eradicated by the third, which presupposed that all the kids had said yes to the first.”

This not only shows how one school was taking away the choice of the students to pick which job they wanted to do, but it symbolizes the loss of voice that the children now have in these schools Kozol is talking about. These children have no say in what is happening to them on a daily basis inside of these schools. In our education classes, we are taught that the best way for a child to learn is to have them feel comfortable in the setting in which they are in. The only way for us to know when and how the students are most comfortable is by having an open line of communication flowing constantly between the teacher and student.  If these students are not allowed to talk or give their opinions on something, then how are they comfortable in their environment (which would lead them to reaching their maximum learning potential?) Taking away a child’s choice to do anything is one of the worst things to do in a school.  The children should come first, which includes listening to their needs and desires, knowing how they work best, learning about them, etc.

Page 94 (Kozol)

“It (childhood) should have some claims upon our mercy, not for its future value to the economic interests of competitive societies but for its present value as a perishable piece of life itself.”

Reading that more and more children are being looked at and educated only to be a part of today’s productive and working world opened my eyes to the reality of today’s society. As years pass and economy’s all over the world grow, the United States has become more money and job-oriented to try and keep up with the rest of the world.  I wonder if being on top is the biggest priority to our government.  When I think of the work force and the economy, I think of myself and other adults working to make a living.  I have not, (before this point), ever thought of including a child in with that equation. “What if a child should grow ill and die before she’s old enough to make our contribution to the national economy?”  pg 94. Why are our government officials thinking this way of our children? It seems like our business world of America has grown to be much larger and more important than the world of education and growing up.  Our children are starting to forget what it is like to be a child.  They are not enjoying the freedom of creativity and adolescent innocence.  Where has this idea come from? Are we getting this idea from other countries, like China, who are very concentrated on their economy and market? If we have not gotten it from someone else, will this end up setting a very ugly trend among other countries because they would fight to measure up to our growing concentration on our work force and economy?

Page 97 (Kozol)

“”Did you ever stop to think that these robots will never burglarize your home?” he asked, and “will never snatch your pocket books… These robots are going to be producing taxes…””

When criticized for using such strict tactics for children while in school, a principal at a Chicago school responded with this quote.  The way that he sees it is that school should be a reform that controls children actions to mold them into something that the adults want, while ignoring the needs and desires of the children.  This principal thinks that the molding of children in the way that he is doing it will only help the children and keep them out of trouble as they grow older. However, on page 93, a principal at another school makes sure to tell students that “no matter what they’ve done”, they can still become managers (which is the goal of the school: to help the children become ready for a managerial job).  This statement “no matter what they’ve done” sounds to me like the principal believes that no matter what happens in the school, the children will still get into trouble, but if they have the type of education they are getting they can still get a great job.  So why is there a discrepancy between these two schools even though the same “marketplace teaching curriculum” is still in effect.  Why is it that one school believes that it will change the children into “good” children while another believes that it won’t do anything for children except help them realize that they can still have good jobs no matter what they do in their life.  Will this program really make an impact on these children if one school firmly believes it will stop it’s students from making bad life style choices while the other believes that they may still happen but the program can help them still become someone?  Are these different opinions hurting the credibility of the program?

Page 95 (Spring)

“Adding to the demands to place Japanese citizens in concentration camps were the conclusions of the U.S. government report on the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which called the Japanese an “enemy race” and claimed that despite many generations in the United States their “racial affinities [were] not severed by migration.”

Although this happened in the early 1940’s, our country is facing a problem closely related to this one.  In 2001, our World Trade Centers were hit by a terrorist group from Afghanistan.  Even though we have not set up concentration camps for all of the Afghan and Muslim people that are here in the U.S. today, we have become prejudiced toward the people that are living here just because they are from the same country as the terrorists.  One of the most obvious examples of this prejudice is that of the fight against a Mosque being built around the sight of the World Trade Centers.  The main argument against allowing this happen is that the people who terrorized the Towers were of the same religion as the people who are trying to build their place of religious worship.  If this kind of prejudice is happening in our country, what is happening to the Muslim and Afghan children that are in the American school system?   Children grow up to be who they are based off of the experiences they live growing up.  Most of these experiences and beliefs are instilled into them by their parents because they are the people that children usually look up to most.  If they see their parents acting in a racist way toward people of a certain background, the likelihood of them doing it is high.  Are children in our schools today being prejudiced against and singled-out because of their background just like they were back when Pearl Harbor was bombed?  Our country has a history of punishing the race that hurts us, despite the fact that only a few people may have been involved in the act, not everyone.   Haven’t we learned from the last time that this happened that we are unfairly reacting to a situation and hurting our own U.S. citizens just for having the same culture or beliefs as someone else?

Page 103 (Spring)

“”What’s happening now is that immigrants are showing up in many more communities all across the country than they have ever been in. So it’s easy for people to look around and not just see them, but feel the impact they’re having in their communities. And a lot of these are communities that are not accustomed to seeing immigrants in their schools, at the workplace, in their hospitals.”

According to Spring, the school-age population of non-Hispanic children will drop from 65% in 2000 to less than 50% in 2040 and between the year 2000 and 2020, the number Hispanic school-age children will rise over 60%.(pg 104)  To make the environment of our classroom feel comfortable to all of our students, we need to make sure that we are meeting all of our children’s needs.  These needs may include comfort, happiness, a feeling of belonging, a feeling of acceptance and accomplishment, etc.  As teachers, what can we do to fully integrate all of the immigrants that are coming into our classrooms? We can teach more about cultures and customs from other countries and integrate that into our curriculum by connecting it to another subject.  But how hard will it be when we have so many standards to meet as teacher’s in today’s society that are controlled by test scores and a government that wants us to teach what they want us to teach and how they want us to teach it.  How do we stay connected with the realities of today’s society yet do what is expected of us (and that is telling us to do the opposite of that).  Our goal is to educate children by helping them to grow emotionally and intellectually by making them feel comfortable in the atmosphere they are in.  The statistics are quickly changing in a society that is having a difficult time adapting to these changes.