Education Lecture

Malcolm X tells the story of what he was told by one of his teachers:

“I know that he probably meant well in what he happened to advise me that day. I doubt hat he meant any harm…I was one of his top students, one of the school’s top students-but all he could see for me was the kind of ‘in your place’ that almost all white people wee for black people…He told me, ‘Malcolm, you ought to be thinking about a career. Have you been giving it any thought?’…The truth is, I hadn’t. I have never figured out why I told him, ‘Well, yes, sir, I’ve been thinking I’d like to be a lawyer.’ Lansing certainly had no lawyers- or doctors either- in those days, to hold up an image I might have aspired to. All I really knew for certain was that a lawyer didn’t wash dishes, as I was doing. 

Mr. Ostrowski looked surprised, I remember, and leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head. He kind of half-smiled and said, ‘Malcolm, one of life’s first needs is for us to be realistic. Don’t misunderstand me, now. We all here like you, you know that. But you’ve got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer- that’s no realistic goal for a nigger. You need to think about something you can be. You’re good with your hands- making things. Everybody admires your carpentry shop work. Why don’t you plan on carpentry? People like you as a person- you’d get all kinds of work.’ (Malcolm X 1966;36)(Image courtesy of Ambro/FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Now, what if Malcolm X had listened to his teacher?

SCHOOLS AS A GENDER, RACE, AND SOCIAL CLASS SORTING MACHINE
The hidden curriculum is the “unwritten goals of schools, such as teaching obedience to authority and conformity to cultural norms” (Henslin, 2005) If teachers teach kids differently depending on the kids’ social class the hidden curriculum would be taking place. Studies have found that teachers in “lower class” schools have a different curriculum than teachers in “upper class” schools. Just a note, the “lower class” schools were also mostly made up of racial minorities. One example is regarding language. It was found that in the “lower class” schools teachers were much less likely to correct the use of incorrect grammar in the children. However, this was not the case in “upper class” schools where the children were constantly corrected and were quick to adopt proper language skills. One teacher in the “lower class” schools, when asked why she does not correct the children’s grammar, went as far as to say “they are going to need that street language in their lives.” What do you think about this? Are these kids being socialized for their futures and future positions in the society (functionalist or conflict perspective)? Another example is that children in “lower class” schools were given an art assignment they were given a piece of paper and crayons and specifically told what to draw (for instance, draw a picture of your family). In the “upper class” schools the kids were given a piece of paper and told to draw whatever they wanted to draw and to tell the teacher a story about their picture. So, what is the different here? What skill are the “upper class” kids learning? Are these kids going to need creativity in their future occupations? Are the “lower class” kids going to need to be creative in their future occupations? Can you apply all of our social theories to these examples?

TRACKING
Do you think you were tracked in school? Were you on the vocational or college bound track? Why? What is the functionalist perspective of tracking? What is the conflict perspective of tracking? As a side note, I was not on the college bound track…I wasn’t even told about the SATs…I actually went to school on the day the SATs were going to be given and saw the signs but was never told. Was it because I lived with a single mother and was not in the AP classes?

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Have you every taken a test on what you should be when you grow up? Usually we take this some time in high school. They ask you many different questions including if you are male or female. A few years ago I had a very bright student tell me that she took this test (it was computerized by this time) and answered all of the questions, pressed enter, and it said she should be a teacher. She then went back, kept all of her answers the same except for one, she changed her gender to male, and then pressed enter. Well, a different occupation came up, a police officer. Why would this be? Imagine if we all just decided to be exactly what the test told us to be. Wouldn’t functionalists love this?

GENDER
Is there a hidden curriculum when it comes to gender? Are boys and girls treated and taught differently by teachers and in school? Studies have had some interesting results on this issue. For instance, teachers give boys more attention during math and science lessons and girls more attention during reading and writing. What do the children learn from this? What are the long term effects of this? Teachers allow boys to talk more and interrupt them. Girls are praised for their good appearance, neatness, and the appearance and neatness of their work. There is also something called the pecking order. This is the order in which children are called on in class by their teachers, which not only indicates a gender issue but a racial issue as well. If a teacher asks a question and the children raise their hand to answer it has been found that the first to be called on is the white male, then the non-white male, then the white female, and lastly the non-white female. What do you think the non-white female thinks if she is rarely or never called on in class? How will this affect her in the long run? Children are also taught traditional gender roles in school by the teacher, children’s stories, and textbooks. This was even more apparent in the past than today. We also gender segregate children, we have two lines, the boys all line up together and girls all line up together. This is just a subtle message in gender differences. Note, many teachers state they do this so that they only have to watch and discipline one line (the boys’ line)!

It is VERY important to note that in all cases of differences being taught to children the teachers not only did NOT have the intention of treating the children differently but also did not realize it in the least bit…they were informed!

In the case of gender inequality in school, could we solve many of these problems by sending our girls to single-sex schools? All of the women in the book “Who’s Who of American Women” went to single-sex schools. What are the pro’s and con’s to girls going to single-sex schools?

STUDENTS’ TEST SCORES VS. STUDENTS’ BACKGROUND
Make sure you read the study by Bowles on page 497 of our textbook. How does our family background affect our likelihood of going to college?

PRE-SCHOOL
Pre-reading skills have been found to have the biggest effect on educational success. So, what children are more likely to enter kindergarten with pre-reading skills? Those children who attend pre-school are more likely to have pre-reading skills. Only about 20% of black children have pre-reading skills upon entering kindergarten compared to 45% of white children. Children that grow up with books, nightly stories, and in which their parents take them to the library are the children who have pre-reading skills. When children enter kindergarten the gap between minority children and white children is about three months (minority children are about three months behind white children; reading and math skills). And studies have shown that they never catch up. By the time they reach the 12th grade Hispanics and blacks are at about the same level as white and Asian children are in the eighth grade. So, what children attend pre-school? Is pre-school free in California and in some other parts of the country? Only 47% of children in California attend pre-school, nationwide 52% of children attend pre-school. Therefore, California is below the nationwide average. Some states have a state preschool program: Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Florida.

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF A SCHOOL IN EAST ST. LOUIS IN WHICH CHILDREN LIVING IN POVERTY ATTEND TODAY:
The area the kids live in does not have any trash pick-up so people just throw their trash in their backyards and later burn it themselves (obviously not healthy). There is crime,…in the community. The school specifically has no running water, the sewage system is backed up, many of the classrooms actually have sewage water on the floor, their football field does not have goalposts (a dream the coach talks about) and their uniforms are 10 years old and only taken to the laundry mat every few months, most of the kids are on the school lunch program and for many of them that is their only daily meal, and they built a new school down the road but due to low budget it was cheaply made and it actually crumbled. And specifically on the kids: they have cavities that have never been fixed, many of them “hold it” all day as they do not want to use the bathrooms, they cannot even remember what grade they are in when asked, most of them do not even know what time school starts, when it is time to say the pledge of allegiance they do not know it so they sing “jingle bells” instead. However, to help these students each year before Martin Luther King Day they read them the “I Have A Dream” speech. Now, lets see if they can “overcome” it!
What do you think about the opportunity structure for these children? How will their educational playing field affect them?
IF I BELIEVE, I WILL ACHIEVE
A professor of biology was about to give out his final exam to his class. Before he did so he stated, “I have been privileged to be your instructor this semester, and I know how hard you have all worked to prepare for this test….I am well aware of how much pressure you are under to keep your GPAs up, and because I know you are all capable of understanding the material, I am prepared to offer an automatic ‘B’ to anyone who would prefer not to take the final.” Most of the students were relieved, thanked the professor, and left. Only seven students remained in the classroom. The professor passed out the final exam. The exam had two sentences on it: “Congratulations, you have just received an ‘A’ in this class. Keep believing in yourself.” NOW, what do you think were the characteristics of those students who stayed? What do you think their past educational experiences were? Do you think they had specific experiences with teacher expectations in their past? Would you have stayed? Why?

Some things to think about:

Historically, who was education for? What were the goals of education? When did a formal education emerge? What is the functionalist perspective of education? What is the conflict perspective of education? How do functionalists view gatekeeping? How to conflictists view gatekeeping? What is the symbolic interactionist perspective of education? What were the findings of the Rist research? What were the findings of the Rosenthal-Jacobson experiment? How do teacher expectations affect individuals?

The educational system has been considered a gender, race, and social class sorting machine. What perspective do you take on this issue?

What have been your experiences in education? How has your education affected you? Can you apply our social theories to some of the experiences you have had?

BOTTOM LINE
How are our parents’ education, and subsequently our educational experiences, part of our playing field?

What to learn more?

TEACH FOR AMERICA: http://www.teachforamerica.org/

Related Posts

• Education Assignment Guide
  Education Assignment Guide
• 

  Global Stratification Assignment Guide
  Global Stratification Assignment Guide
• 

  Vitual Environments Assignment Guide
  Vitual Environments Assignment Guide
• 

  Cultural Relativism Assignment Guide
  Cultural Relativism Assignment Guide