Reflection On School By Ann Gutmann

“Times have changed and they’ve changed in this case for the better”, by Ann Gutmann. This quote reflects the individual’s experiences being compared between a Native American female and an African American female. Charlotte Forten was an African-American girl that attended a private school in New England. Mary Brave Bird, a Native American woman, raised by her grandparents on a South Dakota reservation. As an activist, she endured and encountered some violent events and was able to survive during the mid-1960s. Their stories take place during the country’s intense struggle to settle racial tensions. These racial tensions were changes for the better, they included systems to end slavery, to stop racism, and to protect women’s rights. Parents …show more content…
During this period of time, African-Americans were specifically disregarded and devalued. The Progressive era and other abolitionist battled in order to include African-Americans into the public school system. During this time period, there was a lot of treaties signed to assist Native Americans but African-Americans were deliberately excluded within the public education system. While reading The American School: A Global Context from the Puritans to the Obama Era for the Historical Foundations of American Education course, I have re-learned the history of the country. The theft, kidnappings, and the murders that were caused by the strongholds of the Western settlers. I learned how the Educational system was established, existed and excluded for every race. The readings emphasized my understanding of how the country initially attacked Native Americans, hence the reason that so many treaties were chronicled. Their efforts to force them into Patriotism was an abomination. A feature that I found during my studies was how African-Americans were excluded from the educational system and had to fight to pass laws in order to be integrated. The educational system was established for “whites only” meaning that all other races were not allowed to become educated. The Minority Achievement Gap can be credited to the crisis. European American started their schooling at least three hundred years before allowing African-Americans were allowed to enter the public school system. The last major appalling factor that I uncovered while studying was that European Americans shot, killed and murdered Native Americans and African-Americans. The Bible is the basis of their mission for “civilizing the savages”, as if, their god made mistakes and needed them to kill off others that were unlike them. Western settlers taught the principles of the Bible