Red, White and Who?

Life in the 1950’s through the 1980’s was an interesting time, the cold war took place, there was a huge fear for communism. This translated into many of our American schools. There was a xenophobia that crippled education systems long before they even had  chance to stand. So what exactly happened? Well after the cold war many people feared immigrants. Much like today, they feared of their jobs being “taken away” and being influenced or forced to accept these norms. It wasn’t long until they got rid of books written in different languages as it appeared “un-American.” Many immigrant children faced struggles trying to keep up with a system that was constantly against them.

Bad enough these kids had to assimilate quickly to American culture but they were also slapped with a test they didn’t even understand because it wasn’t in their language. Immigrants were not the only ones who suffered a type of discrimination, poor kids, and kids of color as well had to go through some obstacles just to get the education they needed, the education they craved! Much of this caused differences not only in schools but also in communities as more affluent communities were able to afford better education. This was based on the Abbott decision which took effect through American communities. How? It separated people by social class, if you were from a rich neighborhood you would go to a school nearby that was highly qualified and very prestige because they got the most funding, if you were middle class or even poor, you would end up going to a local school that was poorly funded which meant you wouldn’t be getting the same education as the typical child coming from and affluent. So where does this money come from? Well, according to the book “School” this money came from the government and they determined whether or not a school was fit enough to fund. This was a merit system that we still have not abolished and quite frankly I understand why. They base their decision on how well schools test. When a school tests poorly, they get little to no funds to work with, when a school does an exceptional job they are awarded with said funds. How else would we be able to know how a school is doing? We need to test! I hate to admit it but testing seems to be the only option, what I don’t agree with is overwhelming children with tests! Teaching in itself is an experiment, as a teacher it is important to figure out what works and what doesn’t so that your classroom becomes the best possible learning experience a child has. It’s not about being a better teacher than the one next door to you, it’s about giving back to the community because these kids are the future, we need to make sure they have everything they need to change the grey of the day into a rainbow, the rainbow we haven’t seen! How do we do this without hurting our children and our communities? This is something we have yet to figure out!