jess blog

The articles from the first three workshops have touched a number of issues that we deal with on a consistent basis as educators. I found Garland’s article quite interesting because my school is in a low income area with a tremendous amount of those living in government housing. We have a number of students at our school who are faced with the decision of joining gangs, and for them these gangs provide a sense of family and a sense of belonging. In my experience these students have not been academically high, causing them to assume they don’t have a chance at a successful career.

The articles indicated that programs available to help the underclass do little to encourage work; in fact they promote staying on welfare because it is easier. I am not sure why we spend millions of dollars on programs if they are not improving the living conditions of people on subsidized programs. Is there a way to fix this? Is giving monetary gifts the answer? The value of money is not present if money have not been earned.

Financial difficulties later on in life can be stemmed from loss of interest in school. Students need the opportunities to find these areas to explore different outlets. Even students who do graduate high school many have no idea what field they would excel in because we have taken away many classes that create environments that students can succeed in. The high school that our students will go to has many programs to spark interest of our students however not all high school students are as lucky.

The readings also brought up the point of equity. I have noticed that the budget for schools varies drastically from boards to schools and even classrooms. As an educator for the past four years I have seen first hand the differences in programs at schools based on the money that the school is allotted. It is difficult to compare schools and academic achievement when one school has document cameras and LCD projectors in every classroom to another school where finding enough textbook is a challenge.

I believe, like Andy’s article mentioned that we need to constantly have an ongoing discourse of the educational issues at hand, to learn what works and what does not. We are all here to learn better ways to initiate ideas into our program. I find at least at our school we are trying to implement too many initiatives that rarely one is ever followed through entirely. It would be nice to focus on one area to the best of our abilities.

These are just a few issues that have stuck with me from the readings and the discussions in class.