Post #6

 In Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, Lisa Delpit talks about how classrooms aren’t as neutral as we might think. She points out that schools reflect the culture and expectations of people in power, and the tricky part is that those “rules” are rarely explained. Students who don’t already know them can end up at a disadvantage without even realizing why.

One part that hit me was how teachers often see their own way of talking or teaching as “normal.” But that’s just one cultural style. When students show up with different ways of speaking or learning, it can get misread as disrespect, confusion, or even lack of effort. I’ve seen this happen and it’s not that the student doesn’t understand, it’s just that the teacher interprets the behavior through their own lens.

The biggest takeaway for me is that teachers should be direct. If there are certain expectations, like how to write, how to participate in class, or how to do well on assignments, those should be spelled out clearly. Leaving students to guess just reinforces inequalities. At the same time, teachers should reflect on whose rules they’re enforcing and whether those rules really allow space for students’ voices.

Discuss rules and norms with the class so they are clear to all!

Delpit makes a strong point: good intentions aren’t enough. To actually create fair classrooms, teachers need to recognize the culture of power
and make the hidden rules visible.

Blog Post #5

 Christine Sleeter’s review, The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies, makes a compelling case for why ethnic studies matter in schools. One story that really stands out is about a student named Carlos, who found school boring and disengaging until he took Chicano studies courses. As Sleeter writes, “For the first time in his life, the curriculum was centered on his reality.” This shows how meaningful it is for students to see themselves and their communities reflected in what they are learning.

Traditional mainstream curriculums, which Sleeter calls “Euro-American Studies,” often center White perspectives and treat the histories of racial and ethnic minorities as supplemental. Even when textbooks include African American, Latino, Native American, or Asian American content, it’s often presented focusing on contributions or victimization rather than systemic issues such as racism and oppression. This approach can lead students of color to feel alienated or disengaged from school, as they rarely see their lived experiences validated in the classroom.

Ethnic studies offers a different approach. It highlights the construction of race, systemic oppression, and the struggles of communities of color, while also celebrating cultural and intellectual contributions. This kind of curriculum allows students to connect with their learning on a personal level, fostering both engagement and critical thinking.

Blog Post #4

As a secondary ed major, I have spent time thinking about how schools build students for future success. Unfortunately, more often than not, schools will focus on what students lack rather than what they bring to the classroom. Shannon Renkly and Katherine Bertolini’s article, Shifting the Paradigm from Deficit Oriented Schools to Asset Based Models, highlights why this mindset needs to change. They argue that schools must emphasize strengths, resilience, and growth. As they note, “positive development emphasizes strengths over weaknesses, resilience over risk, and assets over deficits” (Rose, 2006, p.236).

    

 

    This view resonates with me, especially as I work towards becoming a teacher. As a young student, teachers would often focus on what I lack rather than what I was strong with, building me up to be insecure about my weaknesses and have no confidence with my strengths. Teachers should instead be encouraging students in what they are strong in, and being more helpful with skills that students have not yet developed to their fullest extent. Research cited in the article shows that students with more identified assets are more likely to thrive and less likely to engage in risky behavior. That means every supportive and encouraging teacher (or parent) interaction matters.

Another thing that stands out to me is the emphasis on middle school as a turning point. Data shows that the number of assets students report decreases sharply during these years. This is also the time when students either “launch toward achievement” or risk slipping into cycles of failure (Balfanz, 2009, p.13). As future teachers, we need to emphasize creating classrooms where students’ strengths are recognized and celebrated, not overlooked.

Blog Post #3

     Reading Jean Anyon’s What Counts as Educational Policy? Helped me to gain a better understanding of how narrow our definition of “education” has been. Before this, I hadn’t considered that educational policy wasn’t just about what happens inside classrooms with things like curriculum, teacher evaluations, or standardized testing. Anyon argues that factors like wages, housing, and employment are just as important to how students learn. She even states, “policies to eliminate poverty-wage work and housing segregation … should be part of the educational policy panoply as well."  

This made me pause and reflect on my own experiences in Rhode Island schools. I’ve had friends who are exhausted from working after school jobs, or who bounce between apartments because their families can’t afford stable housing. I’ve had some who can only take night classes so as to not interfere with work. Dealing with an unstable work or home life plays a major part in someone's ability to focus in school.

The thing that upsets me the most is that our system still acts like these outside struggles don’t matter. We measure the idea of success through test scores, grades, and college admissions, while overlooking the social and economic barriers that hold many students back. In reality, schools can’t fix inequality by themselves. Without addressing deeper issues, such as affordable housing and fair wages, we’re simply asking teachers and students to fight uphill battles.

If we truly want schools to be places of equal opportunity, then education policy has to expand. That means working with communities, addressing poverty, and valuing students as whole individuals, not just test-takers. Until then, our schools risk staying stuck in the past, unable to meet the needs of the present.

Blog Post #2

 After reading the excerpt from The History of the American School and watching The Short History of American Schools, it is disheartening to see how outdated our current education system is. Before reading this text, I was unaware that our current education model is based on 18th and 19th-century Prussia's schooling. At this time, the used method of schooling was meant to produce an unimaginative, obedient, and reliable workforce. While this may have been an effective strategy many years ago, things have since changed. Despite the many technological and societal changes that have emerged since the late 18th century, our classrooms and systems of education have remained almost entirely stagnant.

A classroom from the early 1900s, notice how ours looks almost the same today. 

A main concern of mine is our current model of testing. We focus now more on memorization rather than actual learning and development. Personally, I have struggled to retain much that I was taught because almost instantly after my testing, I forget and move on to the next subject matter. Despite the lack of learning many people gain from these tests, they are still used to label us as “smart” or “capable” from an elementary age.

Our current system of standardized testing

The skills that we need in the modern day (creativity, problem solving, effective peer work) seem to be exactly what our current education system advocates against. Subjects like science and math are treated as though they are memorization drills, and fail to teach students that branching out and exploring new ideas paves the way for innovation. This is both concerning and saddening. Change and evolution are necessary for us to move forward as a society, but our current education system was made for the purpose of turning us into factory drones.