When society is trying to protect the wealthy by lowering the education of the poor, it have it so that some teachers don't teach all types of students. When I did my research on some of the top schools and some of the lower schools, I noticed how regardless of the type of school, the higher level subject students do well in them, and the lower level subject students do poorly. At Mills High school in Millbrae, the school exceeds the state in average in high level high school mathematics, however, the students in lower level mathematics are doing poorly. This is one way society is trying to protect the wealthy without really realizing it. Because some teachers don't want to teach below level students, these "good" teachers end up giving that kind of elite attention to the students that technically might not even need it. In other cases, the majority of the school is full of first generation immigrants that may not know the language. Willbrook Middle School in Compton has about 53% of thes students there are in some type of ESL (English Second Language) class. The number of students in this school that are in need of English education is far to vast in the age they are in. These students should be recieving better instructors to perhaps reduce the number under ESL programming. Not many teachers want to be part of that because the effort isn't worth what they'll get paid. Overall, the teachers main concerns with education seem to be about how much it is that they will get paid in the outcome. A teacher in the book states, how where he works now he gets paid less than where he really feels he is supposed to be working(30). Society is making it so that teachers main concern is getting paid. Even if they did want to help a student, they show off how rewardless the effort would be, at least in some areas.
Another affect that comes from this favoratism is that schools become poorly funded. What happens when schools become poorly funded is that children don't have the materials to recieve a proper education. In the book he writes,"Blackboards at the school...are 'so badly cracked that the teachers are afraid to let students write on them for fear they'tt cut themselves'"(99). The student has now become detained from education just because of the condition that his materials are in. If the teachers, in this case, are afraid of having the students write on this board, that only means that the teachers themsleves feel limited as well. Schools where the school provides more funds for the students tend to have better educated schools. In the research I've done about the better and worst schools, schools like Sequoia High Schools in Redwood City has very high averages averages in their test scores. Sequoia High School spends at least $12,000 on each of their students. When schools are properly funded, the children just do better. Another thing that happens when schools don't recieve proper fundings is that the areas that have a lot of people don't have enough space to hold all the students. [QUOTE FROM THE BOOK}. A student not having a spot in the classroom doesn't allow the student to focus in the classroom. They would be too busy trying to adjust the congestion of the atmosphere. In other words, it becomes a disctraction.
A style in with society tries to protect the wealthy from the poor is through a . incognized segregation. Some schools in certain neighborhoods do exponentially better than some in a nother. Eldridge Elementary, here in Hayward has been rewarded as a blue ribbon school with many alumni that go on to do well in school, whereas down the street, Tyrell Elementary has low performance rate and not many alumni can take pride in it. Both schools come from the same city, but the chance that the students from both schools succeeding is farely slim. One has a much higher rate at success while the other doesn't as much. That's not to say that success and failure is certain depending on where they both come from, just that for the probability of chance, it is. Another thing I've noticed about segregation is that the schools that are doing poorly are made up of certain ethicities and the ones that are doing well are made up of others. Out of all the schools I've researched, the low level ones had at least a majority of 53% Hispanic and the the school that did best on my list had a majority of 66% Asian.{QUTE BOOK}.
One reason that we need to notice that this is a problem is because there are many familes that lie underneath the poverty line in this country. Many families, to begin with, don't live in areas where there are alot of work available. In his book he writes,"Fiscal shortages have forced the layoff of 1,170 of the city's 1,400 employees in past 12 years"(8). Unemployment keeps people at the bottom. When the parents can't provide better things fo their children the children also stay at the bottom. Another reason this is a problem is because there are many families living in unlivable conditions. In his book he writes,"the problem is all worst because the chemical plants in East St. Louis...been releasing toxins into the sewer system"(9). The living conditions that some people are forced to live in is simply unjustified. When people live like this, they are more likely to get sick and diseases which can detain you ability to recieve education. The main reason people have to live like this is because they don't have any other choice. They don't have any other choice because where they come from they don't recieve the education that would benefit them for the better working world. In the documentary Waiting for Superman, they explain how many families from Latin American countries couldn't keep going to school because they had to go out to work fo the families becuase they had other siblings to look after. When people like this get into this country they are unprepared for the better working world, therefore have to resort to what they been doing back home which, unfortunately, doesn't pay much and leave them with the little choice to live with low employment and high pollution.
Another reason this has become a problem is because many of the students are being under educated. One of the major problems that better clarrify this is how teachers have to many rights. In the documentary, he explains how teacher earn whats called a ten-year that prevents them from getting fired. A teachers with ten-year basically doesn't have to worry about what they do or don't do and that iisn't fair. Teachers, like an other worker, should have to deal with consequence, when they don't they get the freedom not do anything. But a major factor to that is the freedom we give the educational system to do with their money. In the documentary, they also describe how the Feds give money to the schools and from there the schools have the freedom to create and manipulate their own rules with it. It isnt wise to allow one individual district to decide what is right for a class of students. It is rather biased and leads to low qualifying education. Overall, the teachers aren't really good. In the documentary he describes how a good teacher overs 150% of the material and a bad teacher only cover 50%. If a bad teacher is to continue their methods, and if every teacheer in the area is also doing as bad, than we can never expect students in the area to ever be fully educated.
Regardless of bad teachers, another problem is that the teachers that do want to try feel that they don't have what they need to teach. In the book, a teacher states,"'Its very difficult,' says the music teacher, 'to have concert rehearsals with the choir'while ten other classes try to study in the same space"(159). To reach the point to where a dynamically increasing volume of choir students is forced to mash in with the space of people studying, it becomes havoc for the people studying. They obviously lack the essential necessity of space. Teachers don't feel confident in the supply that they have. A teacher in the book says,"'the equalized 75 percent[money] buys just enough to keep all ships afloat. The unequal 25 percent assures that they will sail in opposite directions"'(176). Teachers don't have the most confidence in their supply. They believe that whatever they are given will unmotivate the student thus leading the into the path of failure. A teacher not only has no confidence in what they have but also feels that because of that, the student will lose confidence in themselves. In the book, the teacher better explains when they say,"... the government can't find the money to provide them a descent school, they don't believe it and they know that it's a choice...about how much they matter to society"(179). The teachers feel that what the governent provides for them simply isn't enough. They know a student needs enough that thells them that they are of value, that the education they receive is out of some type of passion.
One way that they also keep the people separated is by insuring that certain type of people fill in certain types of jobs. One example of that is the situation with illegal immigrants. Because of the way the law is built up, illegal immigrants are unable to do "regular" work due to the law demanding some type of work permit or citizenship. Because of this, they are left with little choice in work other than cheap labor. Although this example carries nothing in the sense of education, it does however better indicate the outline of the American working idealogy. It shows how this country desires people to do things they wouldn't do and they expect to pay what they possibly feel is an ethical minimum for it. A more emphasized example of this would also be when foreingers come to this country with degrees from their countries. I had a friend tell me that in his home country of the Phillippines, he came here with a degree in business. However, no where that he wanted to try and look for work would they accept his degree as a concrete degree. This situation almost implies that they should look for different type of work. It creates the image that they are academically worth less than what the demands call for. In a way, forcing a surrender to a more remedial job. Overall, this society we live in has an affection for cheap labor. Only few people are allowed to be on top, a few more below them, and a bit more underneath them. Many refer to it as a pyramid scheme.
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