Educational Equity: A Raisin In The Sun By Harper Lee

Educational equities

Did you ever think about how diverse your school is, or maybe how segregated it is?

Educational equity, also referred to as equity in education, is a measure of achievement, fairness, and opportunity in education. Educational equity recognizes that some people may not come from affluent neighborhoods and tries to compensate for these differences to ensure that everybody can attain a fair chance in the working world. It aims to take extra measures by giving more to those who are in need. Everyone is given equity but they can do with it as they please. Lots of times education is not equal, we see this in the schools, movies and the Novels that we read. The authors want us to see the world the way they see it, usually the truth.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Walter Cunningham wants to go to school, but is unable to receive education due to his economic status. “Miss Caroline,

he’s a Cunningham.” I sat back down. “What, Jean Louise?” I thought I had made things sufficiently clear. It was clear enough to the rest of us: Walter Cunningham was sitting there lying his head off. He didn’t forget his lunch, he didn’t have any. He

had none today nor would he have any tomorrow or the next day. He had probably never seen three quarters together at the same time in his life. I tried again: “Walter’s one of the Cunninghams, Miss Caroline.” “I beg your pardon, Jean Louise?” “That’s okay, ma’am, you’ll get to know all the county folks after a while. The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back—no church baskets and no scrip stamps. They never took anything off of anybody, they get along on what they have. They don’t have much, but they get along on it.”(Lee 26). This AWE truly show the struggle for all kids to have an equal education, due to the social barriers that we deal with in our world. In TKAM harper lee shows us an example where a child is not being fed due to the lack of money, he has made it a way of life and it impacts his education because he is different than all the other students in the class.

In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Walter Lee Younger loves in a small run down apartment with his family.

When his son Travis asks for $0.50 for school. Walter’s family debates giving Travis the money, due to the poverty they live in. “Just tell me where you want to go to school and you’ll go. Just tell me, what it is you want to be – and you’ll be it….Whatever you want to be – Yessir! just name it, son… and I'll hand you the world!”( Hansberry 28). This quote in Raisin In the Sun is a good example of what goes on in our education system, when kids in poverty start to realize they aren't like the rich kids they feel that they have to help their families by working which isn't fair because it puts their education in jeopardy. In this case Travis offers to work so he can have money for

school.

In A House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza tells the reader all about her neighbors and people around her. Alicia, who is one of her “friends” has to take two trains and a bus just to get her education. She is Afraid of having to fill the traditional role of a stay at home woman. “Alicia, who inherited her mama’s rolling pin and sleepiness, is young and smart and studies for the first time at university. Two trains and a bus, because she doesn't want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin.”(Cisneros 31-32). There are many diverse people in our world. In The House On Mango Street Sandra Cisneros let us see the world in a way we might not normally do. In this example we see how Alicia deals with the struggles of home life and still wants to go to college. She has to deal with home but still wants college more than kids who have no problem going but don't appreciate it. This is yet another example of how unjust education system is.