It's 2022, why are schools still segregated?

    Still in 2022, there has been a lack of progress when it comes to schools with a majority of minority students. Almost six decades ago, the Supreme Court had declared that “Separate but equal” in school was rightfully unconstitutional, we are still seeing issues in the performances and opportunities in black students. Black and Latinx students are more likely to attend a school where 60% or more of the students live in poverty than white students. Because of the poverty levels surrounding these schools, students are faced with less experienced teachers and poor resources which disrupts the students from having a good education and makes you question whether or not we are connected and unequal in terms of education.

As educators, we should learn about what different privileges look like in different schools. This will help us see how our advantages from our different life experiences result in us having different opportunities in life. This can be attained by listening to each other and sharing history. After communicating with fellow educators, it is important to have these types of conversations with your students. Letting students know that they shouldn’t be comfortable with giving each other labels and having their voices silenced can be a difficult but necessary discussion to have. 

What does money really have to do with it?

    Public school funding is not equal. A little less than half of all schools funding comes from their local sources rather than from the state or federal sources. This determines how good of an education a child has is based on where they live which isn’t fair especially because children in lower income places typically need more resources which results in more funding that they aren’t able to have. Students' social classes should not determine whether they go to a nicely funded school. It should however, determine the resources that schools provide them like being able to get free or discounted lunch, free books, or backpacks and items that they need for school that can be given to these students.

It is important to make sure that every school is receiving the equal amount of funding no matter where the school is located. Texas for example has an unconstitutional way of funding for it’s schools. Some schools in Texas are offered more solely because they are located in a better area. These funding disparities have led to numerous court decisions trying to come up with some sort of way to equally distribute money fairly to all schools. The problem is that Texas schools are funded based on property taxes which can be different all around. One school can be a well funded small low income school with a few hundred students whereas down the street you can have a poorly funded big low income school with thousands of kids that struggles to satisfy their students' needs. Because funding is based on property taxes, Texas school funding is seen as unconstitutional and will take years to develop a plan that makes all schools equal.

What lengths am I willing to go to in order to do right by every child?

    As a teacher, building trust in the classroom will be very important to me. I will let every student know that their lives are extremely important to me and they are able to reach out to me about anything they want to. I will assure them that they are in a safe and friendly environment in my classroom and any negative or scary situations they can talk to me about and I will give them the best advice or care. I will also make sure my classroom is like a family and teach them how to handle people of different backgrounds because that is something that will play a huge role in them being successful growing up.

    It is so important as educators that we are giving each student the opportunity to be heard and listen to in the classroom. This can involve looking through each curriculum and developing a plan to have the ones who connect with it share their experiences. This was seen in “The Culturally Responsive Teacher” when they had given an example of an immigrant student that would learn more and also inform her fellow classmates if in social studies she was able to tell her side of her immigration story or have her parents talk about their experiences. This will help connect the topic they are learning with real experiences that their classmates have gone through. As teachers this connection helps build a bridge between students home lives and their school lives helping them become comfortable in the classroom.

How Does Gender Affect the Teaching Profession?

The first male teacher I had was in the 6th grade. Because of this growing up I always assumed that teaching was more for women than it was for men. This confused me growing up because people with higher power like principals and superintendents were almost always males. It took some time until I realized that the reason for this was because men are more respected as teachers than female teachers are despite females making up the majority of educators. Women are seen as caregivers in society which is the reason why 97% of preschool teachers are women and with each year the percentages get lower until there is only 47% of women teaching beyond highschool level. It isn’t fair for women to be the only ones expected to be caregivers and not fair for guys to be rejected from jobs that involve caregiving.

I believe that since teaching is seen as a prominent female job that this could be the reason why the pay is so low. Also despite the low wages, women typically still willingly look into teaching as a career because it’s a job that involves the most child bearing responsibilities which is a reason why women usually go for lower age grades. I believe these factors are just some of the man reasons why gender plays a huge role in the teaching profession and I think we still have a long way until it will be equal

Is Schooling Equitable?

To say that schooling today is fair to all students would just not be true. I have first-hand experience with seeing many of my minority peers being treated differently based on the stereotypes that society puts upon their races. As an educator, it is important to make connections with each student. That's by learning more about their race, ethnicity, and the communities they are a part of that can help the student in life and education. We also as educators are obligated to understand these stereotypes of minorities in the classroom. By being aware of these stereotypes we can learn how to suspend our judgments, be aware of them, and rethink them. This is important because a majority of students come from a different cultural background than the teacher and not knowing how to connect with the students on a personal level can cause the student to be distressed and harm their schooling. A study made in Southern California examined 4,300 students and found that the students who were in higher diversity levels in their classrooms felt safer, less lonely, and had less reports of bullying. It is clear that diversity in the classroom is beneficial so as an educator understanding each student's background can help the success of the students.

Greatest impact on me as an educator:

    This is my first year of college and I already enjoy everything about teaching. I am constantly watching tiktoks and videos of teachers showing off their classrooms and talking about their experiences with their students. I knew I wanted to be a teacher since I was a kid and the reason being is because I grew up with a mom who taught pre-k. Seeing her interact with her students and hearing about the stories of things she’s experienced in the classroom made me feel like teaching was my destiny. I am so lucky to have gotten to experience everything it takes to be a teacher firsthand and to have a mom who can guide me along the way of my journey. I let my mom know all the time that the reason why I am so passionate about going into teaching is because of her. Everyone tells me how much of an impact that she has had on their lives gives me inspiration to be just like her. I am so happy to have my mom as my greatest impact for the reason I’m pursuing education. 

I am also lucky enough to have had such great elementary teachers who I look up to in addition to my mom. My elementary school was the best place that I could’ve gone to and every teacher that I have had from kindergarten through 5th grade has impacted my journey in becoming a teacher in many different ways. I am so incredibly grateful to experience such great teachers in my life and even if I am just half of what they all are, I will be a great teacher

 

Marginalized Stories

Since the beginning of education, schools have participated in the concept of marginalizing so many groups of people. Seeing first-hand the interaction that TikToker ‘@dancingteacher808’ had with their students really opened my mind on just how much history excludes so many important minority figures. Growing up I did come to the realization that the majority of historical figures I was learning about were in fact white males. We were taught about these white males over and over again while I was in school and I agree they are very important to learn about but to spend each year going over the same dudes gets pretty exhausting especially when they are overlooking the important people in minority groups who’s hardships and achievements are not being looked into. I think it is important for schools to teach more marginalized stories that way students see people just like them in historical contexts and develop a mindset that they can do anything just like the people they learned about. Learning about marginalized stories are also important to learn about because you get to hear different stories about communities of people who usually go without being shared. This can teach students about all different kinds of communities and cultures from these stories being shared. Changing the curriculum to better involve the stories is the right thing to do. So many people and I are tired of hearing about the same people and think that people of color, women, LGBTQ+, low-income individu- als, prisoners, the disabled, senior citizens, and many more deserve to have their stories taught in schools.