To discuss the Latino education crisis, Patricia Gándara divides her article, “The Crisis in the Education of Latino Students,” into three sections. First, she provides numerous numerical data to clearly emphasize that there is a Latino education crisis in the United States (Gándara, 2008). More specifically, Latino students are lagging behind their non-Hispanic counterparts (Gándara, 2008). Second, Gándara (2008) lays out some of the factors that contribute to the Latino education crisis and the dimensions of this crisis (Gándara, 2008). Finally, Gándara (2008) concludes this article by describing five policies that could effectively address the Latino education crisis.
To underline the severity of the Latino education crisis, Gándara …show more content…
For example, one of the policies is to recruit and prepare teachers to work with Latino students (Gándara, 2008). When I consider the previous school year where ninety percent of my students were Latinos, but we only had one Latino teacher in the school building, I support Gándara’s view that teachers must be prepared to work with the Latino population (Gándara, 2008). As noted in the article, “Teachers must be given the specialized tools they need to be successful with Latino populations…Teachers must have skills and the means for communicating with Latino parents and enlisting them as allies” (Gándara, 2008, p. 4). In my school, the teachers struggled greatly when trying to speak with the parents of our students. We often had to huddle around the one Latino teacher, begging her to speak to the parents of one of our students. Because of our inability to communicate with the parents of our students, at the end of the year, many teachers felt like they struggled with building a partnership with the students’ parents. Thus, I agree that Latino students need teachers who have the specific tools to serve this population (Gándara, …show more content…
In William Julius Wilson 2011 article, he found that 27% of Hispanics children (under the age of 18) lived in poverty in 2007 (p. 12). This data was created one year prior to Gándara’s (2008) article. Moreover, since so many Hispanic children live in poverty (Wilson, 2011), I support Gándara’s (2008) view that social services must be available to support the physical and mental needs of the students because if these needs are met, this could positively influence the education of Latino students. For example, at the beginning of the school year, one of my students was often teased for wearing unclean clothing. Though we (the teachers) spoke to the student about his cleanliness and reached out to his parents about this need, the student continued to wear dirty clothing to school. However, once the teachers were able to create a plan in which the office would provide the student with a clean shirt to wear twice a week, the teachers noticed that the student began socializing with his peers and participating more in class. Therefore, because this student’s physical and emotional needs were met, he felt more comfortable in the classroom environment, and he was able to focus more on his academics. Moreover, this example connects back to Gándara (2008) because it shows how valuable integrated social services can be for low-income
To underline the severity of the Latino education crisis, Gándara …show more content…
For example, one of the policies is to recruit and prepare teachers to work with Latino students (Gándara, 2008). When I consider the previous school year where ninety percent of my students were Latinos, but we only had one Latino teacher in the school building, I support Gándara’s view that teachers must be prepared to work with the Latino population (Gándara, 2008). As noted in the article, “Teachers must be given the specialized tools they need to be successful with Latino populations…Teachers must have skills and the means for communicating with Latino parents and enlisting them as allies” (Gándara, 2008, p. 4). In my school, the teachers struggled greatly when trying to speak with the parents of our students. We often had to huddle around the one Latino teacher, begging her to speak to the parents of one of our students. Because of our inability to communicate with the parents of our students, at the end of the year, many teachers felt like they struggled with building a partnership with the students’ parents. Thus, I agree that Latino students need teachers who have the specific tools to serve this population (Gándara, …show more content…
In William Julius Wilson 2011 article, he found that 27% of Hispanics children (under the age of 18) lived in poverty in 2007 (p. 12). This data was created one year prior to Gándara’s (2008) article. Moreover, since so many Hispanic children live in poverty (Wilson, 2011), I support Gándara’s (2008) view that social services must be available to support the physical and mental needs of the students because if these needs are met, this could positively influence the education of Latino students. For example, at the beginning of the school year, one of my students was often teased for wearing unclean clothing. Though we (the teachers) spoke to the student about his cleanliness and reached out to his parents about this need, the student continued to wear dirty clothing to school. However, once the teachers were able to create a plan in which the office would provide the student with a clean shirt to wear twice a week, the teachers noticed that the student began socializing with his peers and participating more in class. Therefore, because this student’s physical and emotional needs were met, he felt more comfortable in the classroom environment, and he was able to focus more on his academics. Moreover, this example connects back to Gándara (2008) because it shows how valuable integrated social services can be for low-income