How are schools integrated?

Although on the surface we’re meant to believe that schools are equal today, we’re still faced with less-visible yet extremely dominating factors that heavily contribute to modern-day segregation across America. As children, the segregation is much less apparent, but as we grow older we learn about experiences like redlining and the racial wealth gap, which inherently have affected people’s living conditions for generations. A term I’ve heard mentioned a lot in the last few years is “generational wealth” referring to things passed on from generation to generation like homeownership and access to higher education. Generational wealth and poverty has been dictated by, amongst many other factors, the redlining that occured over 50 years ago. Growing up, I went to a school on a military base. There I attended elementary through junior high, and throughout elementary I grew accustomed to my peers. In intermediate school, students from another elementary school were mixed with the students from mine, but mostly all of the students who attended the other school were in a different branch of classes with different teachers than mine. I feel like this instilled a bias of “the other side of town” at a very early age. By junior high, everyone was then mixed, but everyone had their friend groups already established with who they had classes with previously, apart from the few outliers. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized the separation of the students was caused by the school zoning based on lower-income and higher-income neighborhoods.  Because I saw this first hand, I do not believe that schools are completely integrated today, we still see the discrimination that was supposed to be eradicated decades ago in our daily lives. 

What rights should be protected for students and teachers?

Since I have been in school, I have watched many rules change right before my eyes. For example, I feel like the dress code in schools is always fluctuating, going back and forth between strict and lax, depending on the school staff to enforce it or not. While I agree, there should be some sort of regulation to prevent anything inappropriate in the school environment, I think it’s cool when schools allow their students to express their individuality with colored hair, etc. I feel like it’s a form of freedom of speech, freedom to express oneself. However, there are rules being passed that I believe are extremely detrimental to a student’s education. I’m referring to the “criminal race theory” bill recently passed by Governor Greg Abbott as well as other state legislatures. I feel like it directly violates and limits a student’s capacity to learn. Students should be aware of what’s going on around them and educators should be able to conduct healthy, productive discussions on topics. This bill prevents educators from discussing things like systemic racism. History in America was unfortunately already heavily whitewashed, glossing over a terrible history, and this only makes things worse, in a time when people should be more educated than ever. It should go without saying that a student should be able to learn to their full capacity, and that an educator should be able to teach without fear of penalty for providing an honest education. As an educator, providing a safe environment is one of the main priorities. I don’t think withholding important information is conducive towards that safe environment, and only promotes ignorance.

How can educational philosophies influence schooling?

After coming to university and meeting people from many different places over the years, I learned how small-sighted of a curriculum my school district offered. Schools around me were very progressive offering a wide variety of elective courses exploring subjects like astronomy or specialized art classes, while the high school I went to only offered the basic arts. They focused heavily on the basic academics and the athletics department. A lot of small towns, especially in Texas, are very driven by sports. I don’t think there was really enough funding to focus on much more than the “necessities”, nor did they care for the extra programs. I feel like in smaller districts like where I went to school, this is often the case. Teaching students in such an essentialist way blocks the potential of progressivism or social reconstruction, which, in my opinion, are two very powerful philosophies. They pave the way for creativity and independence for the student to take learning into their own hands and make new discoveries. These philosophies in a multicultural educational setting allows  students to get exposure to things they may have never learned otherwise. I think the use of a variety of educational philosophies as an educator makes a world of difference in the type of learners you nurture and the aspirations they choose to follow, and all should be taken into consideration and used with balance. I also think it’s important to go outside of what you know and find what makes your own teaching unique, what your educational philosophy is. It could change the world.