The Ostensible Underdogs Growing up as a student in public schools for almost 12 years, I have personally encountered the stereotype that overlooks many students like myself due to the type of school we attend. In America, public schools are falsely characterized by the ideal that they lack in the rigorous education standards of private schools along with the prosperous extracurricular activities that private schools successfully provide. The growing belief that public schools lack many attributes of private schools has flawed many mindsets of Americans. Not only has this stereotype defined itself, it has re-defined and put larger emphasis on other stereotypes such as, colored versus whites, cities versus suburbs, and the rich versus the poor.
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Similarly, public schools are viewed to the complete opposite standards. In Outliers, the text provides direct support of this stereotype when it states: “KIPP Academy seems like the kind of school in the kind of neighborhood with the kind of student that would make educators despair- except that the minute you enter the building, it’s clear that something is different” (Gladwell 251). KIPP Academy opened as an experimental public school in the mid- 1990s in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. The school is made up of fifty-percent African American students and the rest are Hispanic. In other words, this a public school, in a poor neighborhood, with no white students enrolled. Contrary to common belief though, KIPP Academy has similar if not more rigorous curriculum for the their middle school students. By the seventh grade, KIPP students are performing well above the nation’s average mathematics level while also learning high school algebra. KIPP Academy was created by its founders to better train and fulfill certain cultures by providing them with opportunities to successfully compete against this educational stereotype they are held against, has left a major influence for similar school …show more content…
Of the Coming of John written by W.E.B. DuBois provides substantial evidence to prove this statement to be true. Unlike Outliers, this text focuses more on the substantive effects produced by the public versus private schooling stereotype and its connecting stereotypes. Of the Coming of John tells the stories of two young men named John, one white and one black. In the story, both young men were accepted into college after graduating from high school. DuBois shows emphasis on white John’s acceptance into one of the most prestigious schools in the country while black John is in attendance to a black university. When black John announced that he would be leaving for college, many of the whites involved in his life argue that it will ruin him. This shows how whites do not look at education for blacks the same way they look at it for themselves. DuBois does an exceptional job in this passage by creating a stereotypical fitting situation that compares the young men’s experiences away at school. In the story, black John could not properly focus at school causing him to be suspended for a term (DuBois 4). On top of a rough first year at school, black John never had the luxury to come home over the summer because he had to get a job. On the other hand, all of the luxuries that black John did not receive, ultimately became granted to
Similarly, public schools are viewed to the complete opposite standards. In Outliers, the text provides direct support of this stereotype when it states: “KIPP Academy seems like the kind of school in the kind of neighborhood with the kind of student that would make educators despair- except that the minute you enter the building, it’s clear that something is different” (Gladwell 251). KIPP Academy opened as an experimental public school in the mid- 1990s in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. The school is made up of fifty-percent African American students and the rest are Hispanic. In other words, this a public school, in a poor neighborhood, with no white students enrolled. Contrary to common belief though, KIPP Academy has similar if not more rigorous curriculum for the their middle school students. By the seventh grade, KIPP students are performing well above the nation’s average mathematics level while also learning high school algebra. KIPP Academy was created by its founders to better train and fulfill certain cultures by providing them with opportunities to successfully compete against this educational stereotype they are held against, has left a major influence for similar school …show more content…
Of the Coming of John written by W.E.B. DuBois provides substantial evidence to prove this statement to be true. Unlike Outliers, this text focuses more on the substantive effects produced by the public versus private schooling stereotype and its connecting stereotypes. Of the Coming of John tells the stories of two young men named John, one white and one black. In the story, both young men were accepted into college after graduating from high school. DuBois shows emphasis on white John’s acceptance into one of the most prestigious schools in the country while black John is in attendance to a black university. When black John announced that he would be leaving for college, many of the whites involved in his life argue that it will ruin him. This shows how whites do not look at education for blacks the same way they look at it for themselves. DuBois does an exceptional job in this passage by creating a stereotypical fitting situation that compares the young men’s experiences away at school. In the story, black John could not properly focus at school causing him to be suspended for a term (DuBois 4). On top of a rough first year at school, black John never had the luxury to come home over the summer because he had to get a job. On the other hand, all of the luxuries that black John did not receive, ultimately became granted to