Final Paper The summer before I started classes at USI, I went over my class schedule for this fall almost daily, hoping it would help me to adjust to my new school. If I’m being completely honest, the idea of a class titled “Diversity and Equity” made me dread it. The town that I grew up in could essentially be considered a “whitopia,” (CITE TED TALK). According to ED.gov’s Civil Rights Data Collection, Warrick County School Corporation — where I attended every level of school — is listed as being 89.6% white out of the 10,090 students enrolled. I was afraid of what I would learn in the class, and how it would present the race that I identify with, but as I took the class, I realized it was about so much more than that. I came to learn
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“Educators must be imaginative in finding ways to bridge the great divide between the social classes.” (Brantlinger) When we were assigned the reading, and I read the aforementioned quote, it struck a chord with me. My biggest pet peeve is teachers who require projects to be colorful and pretty and decorated. Teachers will give extra credit to a child who brings in a colored poster board with the fancy cut-out letters, because its “pretty,” but doesn 't give any extra credit to the child who turns in a white poster board with pencil writing because that’s all they had in the house because their parents couldn 't afford it or they were too busy with work. It’s not fair, and it needs to stop, in my opinion. Along with that, I have gained quite a bit of knowledge about how parental involvement can be a huge factor in their child’s education. For some reason, I believed that families with a lower socioeconomic status would have more chances for involvement in education than parents in a high socioeconomic status. I could take on that perspective because I grew up with parents that fall under a high SES, but they were never involved in anyway with my …show more content…
I consider this my “soapbox subject.” You never want to embarrass a child because of anything they can 't control in their life, things such as race, SES, or culture. As I had mentioned earlier, one of the things I dislike most are teachers who expect kids to dress up for presentations or make pretty poster boards, for them to require extra money to be spent on unnecessary things. You have no idea what type of situation a child is in; if they can afford to buy the art supplies or dress clothes; they may not have parents or guardians who have the time to be involved in their lives. While it is more applicable to older students, I hope that I will be understanding of students who sleep in class. Again, I’m going back to something that I have said before, but I believe it is such an imperative thing to keep in mind as an educator: you never truly know what is going on in a person’s life. If a child is asleep in class, it may be because they were kept up all night by arguing parents, while an older student may have had to work a late night shift to help their family financially or so they can save for college. I feel compelled to create a classroom environment that is a space where every student can feel represented by their culture or race, or anything else that they may identify with. My biggest fear about becoming an educator is that first day where
“Educators must be imaginative in finding ways to bridge the great divide between the social classes.” (Brantlinger) When we were assigned the reading, and I read the aforementioned quote, it struck a chord with me. My biggest pet peeve is teachers who require projects to be colorful and pretty and decorated. Teachers will give extra credit to a child who brings in a colored poster board with the fancy cut-out letters, because its “pretty,” but doesn 't give any extra credit to the child who turns in a white poster board with pencil writing because that’s all they had in the house because their parents couldn 't afford it or they were too busy with work. It’s not fair, and it needs to stop, in my opinion. Along with that, I have gained quite a bit of knowledge about how parental involvement can be a huge factor in their child’s education. For some reason, I believed that families with a lower socioeconomic status would have more chances for involvement in education than parents in a high socioeconomic status. I could take on that perspective because I grew up with parents that fall under a high SES, but they were never involved in anyway with my …show more content…
I consider this my “soapbox subject.” You never want to embarrass a child because of anything they can 't control in their life, things such as race, SES, or culture. As I had mentioned earlier, one of the things I dislike most are teachers who expect kids to dress up for presentations or make pretty poster boards, for them to require extra money to be spent on unnecessary things. You have no idea what type of situation a child is in; if they can afford to buy the art supplies or dress clothes; they may not have parents or guardians who have the time to be involved in their lives. While it is more applicable to older students, I hope that I will be understanding of students who sleep in class. Again, I’m going back to something that I have said before, but I believe it is such an imperative thing to keep in mind as an educator: you never truly know what is going on in a person’s life. If a child is asleep in class, it may be because they were kept up all night by arguing parents, while an older student may have had to work a late night shift to help their family financially or so they can save for college. I feel compelled to create a classroom environment that is a space where every student can feel represented by their culture or race, or anything else that they may identify with. My biggest fear about becoming an educator is that first day where