Samuel Jimenez
Professor Monique Williams
English 1A
February 28th, 2014
It
Rains On My City
A dark cloud
covers a city filled with drugs, violence and a failing school district.
Despite the efforts of gentrification, the misery produced by the dark cloud is
still evident, especially in the schools. But less than one mile and an
overpass away, the sun shines brightly on one of the most affluent
neighborhoods in the nation. A neighborhood filled with wealth, where students
thrive and one of the nations great academic institutions calls home. The grass
is greener on the “west side” and all you have to do to see the difference
between East Palo Alto and Palo Alto is cross over that overpass.
Ask yourself, who
creates these imaginary boundaries in our society? How could it be that all
that separates one of the wealthiest zip codes in the nation from a
neighborhood with two of the lowest performing schools in California is just an
overpass? Is it the failing neighborhood that produces the failing school?
My research of the
topic, aided by the reading of Jonathan Kozol’s “Savage Inequalities”, part of
Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, Erich Fromm’s “Disobedience as a
Psychological and Moral Problem” along with watching Davis Guggenheim’s
“Waiting for ‘Superman’” documentary about the American public education
system, led me to the belief that instead of failing neighborhoods producing
failing schools, in fact, failing neighborhoods, like East Palo Alto, were
produced by failing schools. In a society that’s growing rapidly, I believe
that it is all of our obligations, as a society, to help reform the system that
leads these failing schools.
Within these
failing schools are children who, despite their, at times, troubled upbringing
and familiarity with negative influences from their primary socialization, show
promise and enthusiasm during their early years in education. Young children,
because of their innocence, have yet to realize the inequalities in our
education system at this point in their lives. Although the problems of our
education system exist in these early years, it isn’t until later that the
effects of these issues are immediately noticeable through the child’s grades.
Father Michael Doyle, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in North Camden, illustrates
this innocence in Savage Inequalites, “’It rains on my city,’ said an eight
year old I know, ‘but I see rainbows in the puddles.’” The loss off innocence
begins later on. In Guggenheim’s documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman’”, educator
Geoffrey Canada says “Between the 5th and 7th grade, you
see a huge number of minority students go from being ‘B’ students to ‘D’
students.” Kozol’s book “Savage Inequalities” backs up this though by saying,
“By fifth or sixth grade, many children demonstrate their loss of faith by
staying out of school.” These children didn’t just all of a sudden become
stupid, they became conscious. They became conscious of the inequality that the
face in our system. German sociologist Erik Erikson illustrates this sudden
consciousness in his epigenic principle. The epigenic principle is a
formulation, which states that humans develop through eight different stages.
Through their age, most 5th through 7th graders fall into
the epigenic principle stages of competence and fidelity. They begin to ask
themselves if they are competent and also begin to question who they are and
what surrounds them.
In those stages,
children become increasingly aware of what they lack and in the case of a city
like East Palo Alto, in comparison to Palo Alto, or as illustrated in Savage
Inequalities, a town like East St. Louis in comparison to the near-by Fairview
Heights, they also become aware of what others have. The difference in
environment can take a toll on these children as they begin to establish their
own identity. Los Angeles-based rapper, Nipsey Hussle, speaks on this in his
song “Crenshaw and Slauson” as he raps, “The demonstrations speak loud, so I
ain’t sayin’ much. Was a charismatic nigga, now I don’t play as much, because
life is real when you live it in a place like us. School pictures crackin’
smiles, now my face is stuck, shell-shocked to see how much they really hated
us.” The loss of charisma or their own smile is realistic for children from
failing schools. What’s left to smile or be charismatic about when you’re going
to a school that the system neglects? Why should they continue to be neglected
when “the block” can show them love? That’s what comes to mind for these
children.
In order to combat
the calls of the street life, the child must look differently at the scenario.
Instead of feeling like there is no way out of this cycle the system has
created, they must begin to find something within the school to cling to. If
the system won’t change, we must help change the perception of the scenario for
these children. Paulo Freire says in the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, “To do
this authentically, they must perceive their state, not as fated and
unalterable, but merely as limiting and therefore challenging.” A challenge. We
must help them to look at this failing neighborhood and this failing school as
a challenge waiting to be overcome. As a society, we must build these
children’s identities to be that of challenge seekers and challenge defeaters.
To break through
the wall, the challenge, puts in front of us, we should be looking to not only
highlight the avenues currently available for our children to succeed, but also
create new avenues for them to succeed. We shouldn’t limit the options our
children have as students. We should be challenging them to find new ways to
succeed and to pursue what they find joy in or have a passion for. The problem
begins with the fact that, “Sports and music… are for many children… ‘The only
avenues of success,’” as the chairman of the Illinois Board of Education
observes in Savage Inequalities. As a firm believer in both sports and music as
tools to help build confidence in young children, I believe that they’re both
very much-needed in urban communities. Should they be the “only avenues”
available though? No, they shouldn’t. Compton rapper, Kendrick Lamar, notes in
his song “Black Boy Fly”, “My mama didn’t raise me up to be jealous-hearted,
like most of the winners call it. ‘Regardless of where you stay, hold your head
and continue marching,’ that’s what she said but in my head, I wanted to be
like Jordan [or] award touring the country with money from mic recording. The
only way out the ghetto, you know the stereotype, shooting hoops or live on the
stereo.” As positive an effect music and athletics have on some children, they
must also be aware that there is more available to them. They can’t be aware of
that possibility if the possibility does not yet exist for many of them.
Savage
Inequalities speaks about the lack of resources many times. When comparing New
Trier to the schools in South Side Chicago, Kozol notes that New Trier students
have up-to-date technology, three separate gyms and studios for dance
instruction. Much like many of the students in Hayward, Oakland and East Palo
Alto, students in South Side Chicago don’t have those resources available to
them. Kozol also comments on how “…children in one set of schools are educated
to be governors; children in the other set of schools are trained for being
governed.” But as Father Michael Doyle, illustrates in Savage Inequalities,
“When you’re on your knees, you take whatever happens to come by…” With the
lack of opportunities to pursue something different, what choice does a child
in a failing school have other than “shooting hoops” or playing music? It’s
either “the block” or the gym, and as for the 8-year old child Father Doyle
talks about seeing rainbows in the puddles of rain falling on his city, we must
ask ourselves “How long will this child look for rainbows?” If we don’t offer
our children more outlets and avenues to pursue a successful life, they will be
another dropout statistic dropped into the failing neighborhood. Our children
will become blind to the rainbows they once saw and will only see the dark
cloud left above them.
New avenues and
outlets are not free, though. To connect more personally with the book, I sat
down with Lorin Eden Elementary School (a school at which I coach basketball)
principal Kim Watts, to talk about the problems facing Hayward schools and
possible solutions. The first solution she offered fell in line with Camden
High principal, Ruthie Green-Brown’s first priority as she told Kozol, “My
first priority, if we had equal funding, would be the salaries of the
teachers.” Watts talked about compensation for teachers being the biggest issue
facing Hayward public schools. Watts explained to me that the best teachers are
able to think innovatively and differently, but as illustrated in Savage
Inequalities, the difficulty is not always in getting good teachers but in
retaining them once they become a known commodity. How can a failing school
attract and retain proficient teachers without having the ability to compensate
them the same way schools in more affluent neighborhoods have?
It then becomes an
issue not of who is more deserving, or in need, of that teacher, but who is
able to pay them more. It isn’t always the case, but the thought that everyone
has a price isn’t completely untrue, and as a good teacher continues to grow,
it is likely that they’ll be offered more comfort financially in a different
school. Without an increase in funding, it becomes nearly impossible to retain
these teachers. Kozol points out that “Investment strategies in education, as
we’ve seen, are often framed in the terms: ‘how much is it worth investing in this child as opposed to that
one? Where will we see the best return?’” With the thought that a child from a
more successful neighborhood can provide the education system, and society as a
whole, with a better return on investment, we leave children from failing
neighborhoods with a failing approach to their education. In an interview with
Roses in Concrete, educated Jeff Duncan-Andrade says “The radical disconnect
between the intensity of those experiences in the lives of urban youth, and the
kinds of things we are focusing on attempting to teach them and measure their
learning around is so ridiculous. The ways in which we approach schooling in
this country, with poor kids, particularly poor kids in urban environments
would never be tolerated for middle class or wealthy children.” It’s a system
built on inequality. Where the tolerance levels for what is acceptable for
wealthy children is extremely different from those of children from failing
schools. What’s acceptable for Longwood Elementary would never be acceptable in
Castro Valley, but it’s a system that, in a sense, is doing what it was built
to do.
Our system of education was
built during an era of industrialization, in which it was meant to prepare
students to take on different roles in society. The problem is that our schools
have remained the same while the world around them has changed. The job market
has changed but we are still preparing students for the same roles we were
preparing them for many years ago, whether those roles exist or not. But as
Paulo Freire says, “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention,
through the restless, impatient continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue
in the world, with the world and with each other.” Our education is going
through what sociologists call “cultural lag”, or, the tendency for elements of
material culture to change more rapidly than elements of nonmaterial culture.
While our world becomes increasingly dependent on the fast-changing technology
industry, our education system falls behind. Principal Watts suggested looking
at major tech companies and seeing what their staff rooms look like and then
restructuring some of our classes to reflect those staff rooms. The idea is to
restructure our system to fill the current needs of our society.
Restructuring a system that
still benefits the wealthy is no easy task. Being a catalyst for change is not
always welcome; especially when many feel that the system is working or are
comfortable with their current situation. A willingness to be a martyr, of
sorts, is necessary for the system to change. In “Waiting for ‘Superman’”,
former Washington D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee says “There’s this unbelievable
willingness to turn a blind eye to the injustices happening to kids every
single day in our schools, in the name of harmony amongst adults.” We can
either continue to turn a blind eye, or face the problem head on. “To be in
favor of redistribution of resources and/or racial integration would require a
great deal of courage—and a soaring sense of vision—in a president or any other
politician.” It will take an act of disobedience to positively impact the
failing schools, and as Erich Fromm says in “Disobedience as a Psychological
and Moral Problem,” “In order to disobey, one must have the courage to be
alone.” Courage. We must have courage to make a change in the system. We must
have courage to give children the best that we, as a society, have available to
us. It may take a step out of the comfort zone for many, but it’s a necessary
change if we want to see our education system turn around.
The system is failing many
children. Whose obligation is it to help these children in failing schools?
Principal Watts believes that “it’s the obligation of everyone to restructure
the system.” Not just the principals, teachers or the parents. It’s our
obligation, as a society, to help other people’s children. If we continue to
turn this blind eye, our schools will continue to fail and, in turn, our
neighborhoods will continue to fail. Through increased funding, we must change
the mindset of our children. We must challenge them to overcome the obstacles
set in front of them so that they do not give up as they reach adolescence. We
must provide children with more options, more avenues for success. We must give
failing schools a better opportunity to retain successful teachers. “It rains
on my city,’ said an eight-year old I know, ‘but I see rainbows in the
puddles.” So whether it be East Palo Alto, Hayward, East St. Louis, the Bronx
or any other troubled neighborhood, we must keep those rainbows alive for these
children. We must provide them with the opportunity to step out of that dark cloud,
and to reach the pot of gold at the end of those rainbows.
Let ‘em reach up to the clouds.
Can’t eat if we don’t feed ‘em. Can’t read if we don’t teach
‘em.
There’s no light if we just hide ‘em. Don’t just let ‘em
die.
Let ‘em shine.
Let ‘em shine on.
Works Cited:
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage
Inequalities, Broadway Books, 1991.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy
of the Oppressed, Continuum Books, 1993.
Fromm, Erich. Disobedience
as a Psychological and Moral Problem
Curry, Tim. Jiobu, Robert. Schwirian, Kent. Sociology For the Twenty-First Century, Pearson,
2010.
Guggenheim, Davis. Waiting
For ‘Superman’, Walden Media, 2010.
Duncan-Andrade, Jeff. Roses
in Concrete, 2012
Hussle, Nipsey. “Crenshaw and Slauson”, Crenshaw, 2013
Lamar, Kendrick. “Black Boy Fly”, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, 2012
Legend, John & The Roots. “Shine”, Wake Up!, 2010
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