ASSIGNMENT
In Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation he clearly argues that we have, especially in our inner city schools, experienced a retreat to apartheid levels of racial segregation. Respond briefly to his argument, including something of your personal experience with school segregation, integration, and/or the impact of the civil rights movement on schools (the latter as possibility for you might depend on your age!).
RESPONSE
Kozol’s “Shame of the Nation” has provided me with a more developed lens and perspective when I visit and work with schools across New York City. Working in the largest inner-city school system in the world, my experience is in alignment with Kozol’s that schools are segregated. That said, “it was very interesting that immediately following my reading of this book I visited two schools that were surprisingly desegregated. IS 93 and PS 202 in Queens. I watched closely to see how students were sitting in classes, walking in the halls, and arranged in the cafeteria. The students were well integrated throughout the school and I realized in a new way how lucky these students were and I had a deeper respect for the administration. However, this isn’t the norm.
In my work with the Central office for the New York City Department of Education, we are launching a program that is deploying laptops to middle school students and teachers throughout New York City. As I visited the schools I was happy that we were able to provide our inner-city students with the same opportunities as those in more affluent communities. In the context of Kozol’s book I thought that even in the segregated schools, technology has the power to connect children across schools and cultures. There are powerful technology tools that despite this unfortunate circumstance of our schools, can bring students together in ways never before possible.
Students in Arizona were able to use technology to find like-minded people to arrange an instant protest against federal House Bill 4437 (the immigration bill which would make it a felony to be in the US illegally). Students used MySpace.com, a popular Web site that typically isn't used for social activism but which served as the launching pad for text messaging and cellphone calls leading to the protests. About 400 students rallied at the Capitol on Monday, with nearly 2,000 returning the next day to demonstrate against the Bill.
Our digital native students (those born into a digital world) post profile pages and pictures of their interests on sites like MySpace.com, and others and use the bulletin feature to send mass messages and updates to e-mail friends throughout the day. They are able to find other-like minded students and cross barriers of race and religion, but rather bond together because of common interests and causes…without assistance or support from digital immigrant adults.
Perhaps if teachers became more familiar with these tools they could help their students break the barriers of their school walls and engage in meaningful place based education that may start in a virtual space.
In Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation he clearly argues that we have, especially in our inner city schools, experienced a retreat to apartheid levels of racial segregation. Respond briefly to his argument, including something of your personal experience with school segregation, integration, and/or the impact of the civil rights movement on schools (the latter as possibility for you might depend on your age!).
RESPONSE
Kozol’s “Shame of the Nation” has provided me with a more developed lens and perspective when I visit and work with schools across New York City. Working in the largest inner-city school system in the world, my experience is in alignment with Kozol’s that schools are segregated. That said, “it was very interesting that immediately following my reading of this book I visited two schools that were surprisingly desegregated. IS 93 and PS 202 in Queens. I watched closely to see how students were sitting in classes, walking in the halls, and arranged in the cafeteria. The students were well integrated throughout the school and I realized in a new way how lucky these students were and I had a deeper respect for the administration. However, this isn’t the norm.
In my work with the Central office for the New York City Department of Education, we are launching a program that is deploying laptops to middle school students and teachers throughout New York City. As I visited the schools I was happy that we were able to provide our inner-city students with the same opportunities as those in more affluent communities. In the context of Kozol’s book I thought that even in the segregated schools, technology has the power to connect children across schools and cultures. There are powerful technology tools that despite this unfortunate circumstance of our schools, can bring students together in ways never before possible.
Students in Arizona were able to use technology to find like-minded people to arrange an instant protest against federal House Bill 4437 (the immigration bill which would make it a felony to be in the US illegally). Students used MySpace.com, a popular Web site that typically isn't used for social activism but which served as the launching pad for text messaging and cellphone calls leading to the protests. About 400 students rallied at the Capitol on Monday, with nearly 2,000 returning the next day to demonstrate against the Bill.
Our digital native students (those born into a digital world) post profile pages and pictures of their interests on sites like MySpace.com, and others and use the bulletin feature to send mass messages and updates to e-mail friends throughout the day. They are able to find other-like minded students and cross barriers of race and religion, but rather bond together because of common interests and causes…without assistance or support from digital immigrant adults.
Perhaps if teachers became more familiar with these tools they could help their students break the barriers of their school walls and engage in meaningful place based education that may start in a virtual space.
posted by book1 at 4:01 PM
2 Comments:
Interesting - an I agree, however if we're talking about PS/IS 202 in Queens, it is integrated, and its a good school, but its not the norm. Lets try to figure this out - why is it special? What made a difference in the student makeup here?
Myspace and sconnex are blocked in nycdoe. studetns have used these spaces to display inappropriate sexuality, images of their weapons, drug paraphenalia, and locations of gang fights. - a side note, but highlights some of the issues we deal with in our large system that may not pertain to smaller scale systems technologically.
Thank you for your comment.
I think the social networking issues are the same in large or small scale systems. We must teach safe, acceptable and appropriate use. As educators we shouldn't ban places or spaces, we should make them safe and teach students how to navigate them responsibly. Chris Turek a popular cyber safety expert states if we believe in eliminating dangerous places then we should close down parks. Alan November a popular technology expert asks if we'd ban paper if we found students passing inappropriate notes?
Our democracy is dependent on allowing groups of people come together to share and grow ideas. As educators part of our job is to help our students do so in safe environments, whether online or on site. Our responsibility is to become familiar with these places and go into them so we are able to do so.
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