Family Interview Essay

Intro:

A family’s genealogy in regards to educational attainment reflects heavily on the structural and social patterns that shape how the members navigate through the education system, the economy, and ultimately society as a whole. Throughout my childhood and as I’ve gotten older, education has always been an extremely important aspect of my life. Being appreciative of where I’ve come to now with my education in college and the type of person I am has been largely influenced by what I’ve learned from life experiences my family has gone through. Each member of my family went far with their education and had a lot of individual hardships along the way. They each had to push themselves in life to be able to succeed and go to college, and eventually all have respectable careers. To gain a better and more in depth understanding of my family’s history on their education, I interviewed my mom, dad, and my grandparents from my mom’s side. It was somewhat difficult to come to a consensus on major themes in their education since they all came from different family

situations and backgrounds. However, out of the many things my family endured throughout their experiences in school, it seems the most prevalent themes that affected the overall culture and environment of their education were social class and race/ethnicity.

Male vs. Female:

Social class seemed to play a major role in the differences in how my Dad and Grandpa, for example, were educated, as opposed to how my Mom and Grandma were educated. One the male side of my family, even though generations apart, my Dad and Grandpa came from similar socioeconomic levels/classes and had many similarities in the relationship between hardships with family dynamics, and support in school. They both were born into working class families and had no support from their parents with help in their educations. Even on a more personal level, simply dealing with issues growing up was dealt with on their own. On the female side of my family, my Mom and Grandma grew up in more middle class families, who supported them a lot in their educations, wanted them to do well, and be involved in many things outside of school. The social classes the people in my family grew up in played a huge role in how much their parents were involved in their education, but overall, did not contribute to how successful they ended up being individually.

Inequality, welfare, and class:

Grandpa:

My Grandpa, Milton Davis, was born in 1923 and grew up during the time of the Great Depression. He came from a working class family. The living conditions of where he spent his childhood in New York City included his family residing in tenement housing, and moving seven times during the course of elementary to high school. If you moved to a different location you could be guaranteed a free paint job on your new home which seemed like a reasonable exchange for moving according to Milton’s mom, even though it meant having her children go to many different schools. Milton had a tough time adapting to so many new schools, and to help his parent out besides going to school every day, at around eight years old, he worked in a grocery store early mornings making around $4 a week. Coming from a working class family came with its many hardships. The U.S. economy during this time was a heavy factor on what affected working class families with there being no welfare or food stamps available, as well as no social security.
Being one of two other children and having a father to support a family of five during this time left no room for Milton’s parents to give him any support in school, or be given money to go to college. Although, he did end up attending Pratt Institute at twenty-three after he did service in the army at nineteen. With no expectations from his parents, however, in elementary school through high school, motivation in school to do well was up to him personally. His sister got him a library card and encouraged him to read many books outside of school. At first my Grandpa was almost completely uninterested in school, but his fifth grade teacher inspired him and helped him care about his education. This new desire to learn more in school led to him skipping 6th grade as recommended by his teachers, and having the highest grade in his tenth grade biology class in the whole region. “Teacher expectation can play an important role in determining the educational achievement of the child. This sometimes is a serious problem in the education of children of poor and minority groups, where teachers develop expectations that these children will either fail or have difficult time learning” (Spring, 73). Even though my Grandpa’s socioeconomic status at home affected his schooling, it was his one fifth grade teacher who made the difference to Milton’s whole educational experience as he grew up.

Dad:
My Dad seemed to have many similarities within his education as well, although decades a part. Steve Wilding was born in 1953, in St. Joseph, Missouri. He was the youngest child to three older siblings in a working class family as well. His father, a civil engineer, supported a family of six. Being that there were four children in his family, there was also not much time for his parents to pay any attention to how he was doing in school, or have expectations for him to succeed academically. It was all up to Steve to do well and he ended up going to college, and advancing on his own.
Similar to my Grandpa, my dad wasn’t particularly interested in school. Teaching in the 1950’s was primarily to drill facts and information into the student. This teaching method was primarily due to the socioeconomic level of the students in the class, and what style the teacher saw fit. “Public schools in complex industrial societies make available different types of educational experience and curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes”(Anyon, 67). Jean Anyon states that teaching among the working class is mainly geared towards having a classroom that’s obedient, and no matter if you’re actually learning on not, a student must be non-disruptive to the overall atmosphere of the class. In an actual situation where this applies was in my Dad’s fifth grade class. “If you were caught talking, my teacher would come around with her long, sharp nails and poke you in your head until you behaved”(Steve Wilding-Dad, 11/11/08). However, there was one teacher that completely changed his school experience. His third grade teacher saw that he had a true gifted talent in art class, and encouraged him to continue with that in his future. For the time period and social class status during the 1950’s-60’s although, art was not seen as a profession a man should have. Steve’s father did not support him at all in him wanting to get a career in art. From his father’s working class 1950’s point of view, you could not make a decent living off an art centered salary. It would be more so an American dream to be super hard working in a business or “masculine’ type of job. My Dad disregarded what his father said and continued with his passion for art, and was able to get a scholarship that paid for four years of college.

Mom and Grandma:

On the other side of the spectrum, my Mom, who was born in 1955, grew up in Long Island, New York in an upper/middle class family. Her mother worked for a few years as a Dental Hygienist, and her father worked a full-time job at an AT&T corporation. They only had to support a family of four altogether with my mom and her younger brother. In school, her parents expected her to excel and be involved in extra-curricular activities. A lot more opportunities in school were given to her as shown in the rich amount of things she participated in. Mindy was in advanced/honor English and math courses, as well as girl scouts, ballet, choir, and many plays. All the privileges that my Mom was able to experience were mostly due to the socioeconomic status, whereas my Dad and Grandpa weren’t as involved in extra school programs. Maybe those types of things weren’t readily available to them at the schools they attended. According to Tracking, Inequality, and the Rhetoric of Reform: Why Schools Don’t Change, Jeannie Oakes says schools who are deemed “excellent” in reforming their programs and making things more available to a wide array of student’s backgrounds are schools in the more wealthier districts. Reforms to other schools that actually need it and have not done anything to help the situation, have, in the past, had restricted access to educational achievement opportunities for types of students who are of ethnic minority or are poor children.

Similar to my Mom, my Grandma (Audrey Davis), who was born in 1930, grew up in Brooklyn, New York in a middle class family during the times of the Great Depression. Her mother died when she was eight, so her father had to take over completely and support Audrey and her older sister. My Grandma was home alone a lot, had to take care of herself, and eventually became very independent. Even though her sister and father weren’t home most of the time because of his job, and her sister going out a lot with her own friends, her father still had high expectations of her in school. Being that her father was an immigrant who came to New York barely knowing English, read the New York Times every day with a dictionary by his side, and was able to own his own Luncheonette store while supporting his family in America all at the same time could have been a main reason for having such high expectations of Audrey.“Be sure to get the best education you can under your belt so you will be prepared for the future to come”(Audrey Davis’s quote retold from her father, 11/5/08). He knew the value of it being your own individual responsibility to do well in order to be able to succeed in the real world, and he wanted that for his daughter also.
Even though my Grandma grew up in a middle class, fairly stable family, she learned very early on the meaning of saving money in the hard times of the economy where you had to work hard to earn what you truly wanted. Audrey never asked for much and instead applied herself mostly in school work. She received average grades, and like my Mom, did extra things outside of school such as piano lessons and walking to the library every week a long distance away from home to become as well rounded as possible. Education meant a lot to her, and for the time period, being able to have an equal opportunity for all aspects of her education was incredibly important.

Jamie:

Family values education, graduated May 11 anthropolgy and teaching certificate in elementary education at CU Boulder. Got teaching license, worked as sub in Boulder Valley, disenchanted with how teachers have to gear teaching towards CSAP exams, Val Verde Elementary across liquor store and strip club, one kid living in 1 bedroom with 8 family members, teachers monotone voice lectures them then sends them off to work on assignment but doesn’t test knowledge, daily grind job, don’t see change in the kids, Spanish speaking kids, ESL taught a mixture of Spanish and English, Very Mexican lower class, kids came to school hungry, schools provide breakfast, 85% free and reduced lunch, parents don’t show up to teacher conferences, kids show up at 6am-7pm. While being a sub got job at Montessori preschool and valued education, involves self-direction and hands on learning, self-directed, teacher presents lesson but child chooses materials to direct onto, teacher guides and observes development,

Early Childhood for Primary Montessori Certificate-rather than adult-run model, individually led monitor develop independence, community learning with small group setting, rewarded and satisfied at work

Race & Ethnicity:

Besides social class as a major factor in contributing to my family’s educational experiences, race and ethnicity seemed to play a big part in how, historically, each of their educations were influenced.

Aside from my Grandparent’s experiences with race and ethnicity, my Mom’s and Dad’s educations had much more involvement with racial and ethnic aspects.

The town of St. Joseph, Missouri where my Dad grew up had racial integration in the schools. Growing up, one my Dad’s neighbors was an African American family who had children around the same age as my Dad. He became close friends with them and came over for dinner from time to time. Steve also remembers his elementary, middle, and high schools being a mix of mostly white, some African American, Hispanic, and Asian and his parents never racist or closed-minded. Being that my Dad was pretty open to experiencing all races and ethnicities, he took a semester of college off from studying in the U.S, and travelled to Guadalajara, Mexico with a friend. Mexico was a huge change from America and added a whole other dimension in how much diversity my Dad was exposed

to.

My Mom’s experiences in school in New York were somewhat different than that of what my Dad experienced in Missouri. Unlike my Dad’s schools where there was a lot of diversity within the student population, my mom’s schools were mostly white up until 5th grade. Within her schools, she noticed that the school system didn’t mainstream handicapped or disabled children. There seemed to be a sort of unfair segregation in keeping disabled children in classes other than the ones the majority of the other students were in. “This could have been a reflection of laziness on the teachers side, but I’m sure it affected the parents of the handicapped in significant ways” (Mindy Wilding, 11/5/08).

Around the time of 1966, schools were also beginning to have forced integration. Mostly African American and other ethnic races were being moved into more well-off neighborhoods called Urban Renewal housing. With this new integration of races, my mom was forced to go to separate school systems which put grades in sets of two starting at k, 1st-2nd, 3rd-4th, and finally 5th-6th. At this current time, Mindy was in fifth grade and was bused to a separate school for 5th and 6th grade about an hour away from her original neighborhood school. Over time, as the schools and neighborhoods became more and more integrated in Long Island, New York, race riots broke out which seemed to be due to animosity towards the wealthier people in the neighborhood. Long Island eventually became more dangerous to live in. Stores were broken into and streets were unsafe to walk in at night, so my Mom’s parents decided it would be best to move somewhere safer. As the story continues, after my Mom’s experiences with moving to a new neighborhood and completion of middle school, she gradually, in high school, started to become involved in racial/ethnic political issues such as participating in protests against the Vietnam War along with a huge population of other students. My Mom claimed that students were much more politically aware during this time in how rapidly things were changing with so many race/ethnicity and economic views being taken into action.

Robert Davis: On race and ethnicity:

Suny Binghamton Bachelors Philosophy no-student loans, worked for VISTA-peace corps in America, worked at legal clinic for poor people, paid for room and board, intrigued him to become a lawyer, went to Antioch School of Law in Washington D.C., they ran a similar free legal clinic for impoverished people, practical experience, take student loans for law school, graduated first couple jobs give political asylum to immigrants who were trying to gain citizenship in US, tenant law, problem is that he made no money, patnered with friend from college and started labor law, specialty racial/gender discrimination cases, ex. Helps individuals file for damages against organizations or institutions, stresses and values education as well, 13 yearr old adopted Russian son ADHD he is very distraught that struggles with education and learning even with medication counseling, in private school for struggling students, costs $30,000 a year,

Hired lawyer to represent him claiming that the city of New York public schools do not adequately meet childs needs for ADHD students (one on one structured guidance) so city agreed to pay 25,000 of tuition.