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Cultural diversity addressed in the classroom
Essay in culture diversity in education
Cultural diversity addressed in the classroom
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In this paper I am going to present an theoretical school district, school, and a classroom as examples of the ideal that our educational system should strive to achieve. The philosophy my schools will be based on is one of equality. Every single child will have an opportunity to receive the best possible education. However, we will never lower our standards for the sake of equality. Each child will be pushed to his or her personal best, not an average standard.
Before talking about what goes on inside the schools, I'd like to mention the district itself. There will be no alternative school choices, bussing, or deliberate desegregation practices. Each school will be remarkably similar to the others in the district so that every child may receive a similar education regardless of the neighborhood they live in. When students are separated to different schools for any reason (academic talent, wealth, interests, race, gender) they fail to interact with different types of people that they will undoubtedly encounter in the "real" adult world. In addition, I feel that is very important for children from the same neighborhood to attend the same school in order to increase a sense of community. Finally, as the Case Study of Boulder Valley points out, school choice takes valuable resources away from teaching and places them in school competition (Howe 144).
Within a typical high school, there will be many different kinds of students. Likewise, there will be many types of different classes. There will be students (similar to me when I was in high school) whose main focus is getting into a quality university program. For these students, there will be a rigorous set of honors courses. Any student may enroll in these courses; the advertised amount of extra work they require will keep out the students who don't belong in them.
For the majority of the students, those moving on to community colleges or lesser universities, there will be a set of classes that will teach the same subjects as the honor courses, just not in as much detail. There will also be a third tier of classes below this one which will serve the needs of those students who are not academically up to standard. The students in the lower classes will not be allowed to "slack off" and graduate with a sub-par education. Their classes will be more rigorous than the average classes in an effort to bring the students back up to the standard.
Office of Management and Budget. (2011). Budget of the United States Government: Fiscal Year 2012. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/veterans.pdf
They are overwhelmingly nonwhite and exceptionally poor, which stands out forcefully from the well off overwhelmingly white rural schools right alongside them (Kozol 74). He constrains his choices to poor inner city schools as opposed to incorporating examples of every single poor school in light of the fact that he feels that they best display racial isolation and social class divisions. He states that even though many schools can be “diverse” with different cultures and ethnicities, segregation occurs through different programs that are provided in
Goldstein argues a problem with education policy is, “American policy makers require every public school to use the same strategy…” (261) When facing the problem of inequality in education a teacher needs to be fluid with his or her curriculum. In fact, one of the best ways to allow for fluidity is through peer-to-peer help. Goldstein states, “(teaching hospital model) allows best practices tailored to a specific school to be passed from professional to professional.” (255) Peer-to-peer help not only does this allow for constructive feedback, but also it allows teachers to learn from one another. While policy makers might not know a schools demographics and unique situation teachers in the school will. Thus, teachers can help one another on their unique problem through a collaborative process. Peer to peer help allows for the design of, “creative curriculum materials and to lead school turnaround efforts.” (232) The problems associated with inequality can be thought out and explored through teachers working
Kozol has compiled a list of schools that are either still segregated, or are re-segregating and the schools do not have the same things as those in suburban, or mainly white neighborhoods. He outlines many inner city schools as mostly African American and Hispanic students. Some schools have less than a quarter of their population come from Caucasian decent, and as few as one student in the demographics. Kozol speaks about unequal d...
The gap between the nation’s best and worst public schools continues to grow. Our country is based on freedom and equality for all, yet in practice and in the spectrum of education this is rarely the case. We do not even have to step further than our own city and its public school system, which many media outlets have labeled “dysfunctional” and “in shambles.” At the same time, Montgomery County, located just northwest of the District in suburban Maryland, stands as one of the top school systems in the country. Within each of these systems, there are schools that excel and there are schools that consistently measure below average. Money alone can not erase this gap. While increased spending may help, the real problem is often rooted in the complex issues of social, cultural, and economic differences. When combined with factors involving the school itself and the institution that supports it, we arrive at what has been widely known as the divide between the suburban and urban schools. Can anything actually be done to reverse this apparent trend of inequality or are the outside factors too powerful to change?
Public schools depending on the area are typically very diverse. Although I lived in a predominately Caucasian area the schools that I attended from K-12 were very diverse. Along with diversity my public schooling treated everyone fairly disregarding gender and sexual orientation. Before I moved to queens I lived in Washington heights which mainly had people who were of my race. Schooling in Washington heights compared to schooling in my neighborhood
Through programs that directly fuel desegregation in schools, our educational systems have become a melting pot of different races, languages, economic status, and abilities. Programs have been in place for the past fifty years to bring students that live in school districts that lack quality educational choices, to schools that are capable of providing quality education to all who attend. Typically the trend appears to show that the schools of higher quality are located in suburban areas, leaving children who live in “black” inner-city areas to abandon the failing school systems of their neighborhoods for transportation to these suburban, “white” schools. (Angrist & Lang, 2004). This mix of inner-city and suburban cultures creates new challenges for students and teachers alike.
This situation is similar to the U.S., where people have the chance to enter school depending on their zip code. With the voucher program, now students can choose schools even if it is public, charter, religious without a zip code, even though this idea did not go far, but it was a great reform. Ravitch, Reign of Error, chapter 19, p206-207. Segregation and integration and race and class This issue has been happening for many years and not only in education, but also in many other aspects.
America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems with schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school system or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement.
Don't get me wrong; my parents never mandated that I take all the honors classes I could gain admission to. No one told me to take three honors classes. No one, that is, except the little voice in my head that convinced me scholarly success was based upon the number of "H's" on my high-school transcript. The counselors cautioned me not to do it, students who had fallen into the trap before warned me against it and my parents just left it up to me. Through it all, I just smiled and reassured them, "Don't worry; I can handle it." The trouble was, I didn't have the slightest idea what lay ahead.
Technology is unavoidable in our modern lifestyle. You wake up, you use technology; you use technology while cooking, while eating, while driving. While you’re lying in bed before you fall asleep, you use technology, technology wakes you up in the morning. Is all the technology around you good for you, or is it harmful to your health? Was our society healthier or safer before all the advancements? So many questions and concerns about all of the technology we crave, but there are very few people who know the answers. Technology affects all parts of human life. It can create jobs, motivate people to get active, and assist people in learning, but this does not balance out that there are dangers that follow the use of technology.
If I was able to create my own school, and was able to select every student, every staff member, all members of the faculty, class sizes, curriculum, and everything and everyone that has to do with effectively running the school, then I believe that the utopian school would consist of the following. I believe that the students that would be enrolled in the school would have to all be of the same or around the same abilities and intelligence, I believe that if students are around other students that are at about the same level, it is easier for them to learn and score better. If all the students are slow learning, then they can be taught at the same rate, and the same goes for students with higher learning abilities. The faculty would have members from different backgrounds so that the students can learn different life experiences. Curriculum would be the same throughout all grades, all first grade would be the same, and so on, all the way up until fifth. Class sizes would be smaller, so that the teachers can give more attention to every student, and every class would have kids who are all about the same intelligence and learning rates. Support staff would also be qualified to teach the children, not just assist. They would be able to assist the children just like the teachers do.
It is key, in this interpretation, to look at the context of when the poem was written. "Ulysses" was written in 1933, part of a ten year break of Tennyson from publishing, following the death of his close friend Arthur Hallam. The man’s death had a huge influence on Tennyson’s life and thinking (Napierkowski and Ruby 277). Critics claim that themes of death worked their way into most of Tennyson’s works at this time. “Tennyson related death to this tale of Ulysses’ desire to return to a life of adventure,” (Napierkowski and Ruby 277). This statement seems strange, until one looks at what many interpretations of the poem suggest his final voyage truly represents. Charles Mitchell says that he “feel[s] that Ulysses’ major tension is… fixed in the outer conflict between his will and death.” Mitchell thinks that Ulysses is about to die, and is struggling with his own legendary status, and how the two can mesh (Mitchell 289). Mitchell brings up the line “I am become a name” again, claiming that it is Ulysses reasoning that since he is a legend, he cannot truly die, he has been immortalized (Mitchell 292) (Tennyson). “[I]n the first paragraph Ulysses implies that he has explored the known world, in the last paragraph, which deals with the future, he goes to “seek a newer world.” Mitchell claims that this new world is the after life, and after all that Ulysses has been
Technology is one of life’s most impressive and incredible phenomena’s. The main reason being the shockingly high degree to which our society uses technology in our everyday lives. It occupies every single realm, affecting people both positively and negatively. There are so many different forms of technology but the two most often used are cell phones, and the internet/computers in general. Today’s younger generation was raised alongside technological development. Kids now a days learn how to operate computers and cell phones at a very early age, whether it be through their own technological possessions, a friend’s, or their parents. They grow up knowing how easily accessible technology is, and the endless amount of ways in which it can be used. This paper will be largely focused on the effects of technology on the younger generation because your childhood is when these effects have the largest impact. I am very aware of the subject because I am the younger generation. Aside from major effects on study and communication skills, there also exist the media’s effects on teen’s self-esteem and mental health. Maybe more importantly, there is our world’s growing problem of over priced and unnecessary consumerism. Over time, our society has created a very unhealthy form of reliance and dependency on technology as a whole. People essentially live through their devices. Cell phones are always with people making it nearly impossible to not be able to reach someone at anytime, day or night. In 2011, there were 2.4 trillion text messages sent, and 28,641 cell phone towers were added across the US. 1 We use our phones and Internet for directions, communication, information, self-diagnosis, games, movies, music, schoolwork, work, photos, shoppi...
Technology use was on the rise but has shown a significant increased rate in recent years. Technology was a beneficial tool that was used on a daily basis. Technology industries had developed many devices like computers, laptops, smartphones, iPods, and many other devices that made technology easier to access from anywhere and anytime. Technology expanded every day and the usage increased which had an effect on society especially targeting teens. Teens abused the use of technology that caused them to have serious problems mentally and physically. Teens mainly focused on technology use and caused a social disconnection from the real world. Technology use has a negative effect on teens by causing health problems and social disconnection.