Main Question: Is there a relationship between the community, art, and the public schools? We will look into the arts surrounding Newark Arts High School and see in which ways they reflect the community, and how students can relate to the arts in order to become engaged in creating art of their own.
Sub-Questions:
-Do the arts play an important role in education in Newark?
-Is art integrated into classroom curriculum? How?
-How are the arts related to the community?
-What are the forms of Pop Art (popular art, art for the people) in the community?
Data Collection:
-Walking map of city
-Walk around the ten block radius in Newark taking field notes and pictures.
10 blocks, 10 sites
www.googlemaps.com Arts High School, Newark Public School, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Rutgers State University Art and Design Program, North Star Academy Charter School of Newark, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Newark Museum, Seed Gallery, Central Business District, Passaic River.
-Are youths involved in these sites?
-What kind of art do these sites support?
-Look for art on the street (i.e. graffiti, music, formal sculptures)
-Look for youth participating in art activity on the street
-Interviews with community members
Geographical information: http://www.citytowninfo.com/places/new-jersey/newark
Includes the history of Newark, the culture of Newark, and demographics
New Jersey Performing Arts Center-downtown Newark
What is the art about?
Collect flyers about local artists and the shows
Arts High School, located on 550 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Website: http://www.nps.k12.nj.us/arts/default.htm
Includes school history and profile (About Us)
Walking tour of the school
Teacher interviews
What art are students making?
What involves classroom curriculum?
What do the arts bring to student learning and development?
What kind of special projects/topics are used to engage students in art?
Does the school make visits to the museums and venues in the area? If so, how often?
Faculty interviews
What are the requirements to be accepted to the arts high school?
Student interviews
If you could change anything about the curriculum, what would it be?
Do you feel that the art being taught to you relates to your everyday life?
Local News in Newark involving the arts and the 10 block radius of the school
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
10 Lessons The Arts Teach (from arteducators.org)
http://www.arteducators.org/olc/pub/NAEA/advocacy/advocacy_page_5.html
by Elliot Eisner
1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, itis judgment rather than rules that prevail.
2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.
3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.
4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties.
7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.
8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.
9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.
SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press. Available from NAEA Publications. NAEA grants reprint permission for this excerpt from Ten Lessons with proper acknowledgment of its source and NAEA.
In other words, the lack of art education will result in students hurting from missing out on all of these crucial points.
by Elliot Eisner
1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, itis judgment rather than rules that prevail.
2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.
3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.
4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties.
7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.
8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.
9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.
SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press. Available from NAEA Publications. NAEA grants reprint permission for this excerpt from Ten Lessons with proper acknowledgment of its source and NAEA.
In other words, the lack of art education will result in students hurting from missing out on all of these crucial points.
Annotated Bibliography for Inquiry Project
1. Whitehead, J.L. (2004). Graffiti: The Use of the Familiar https://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&attid=0.1&thid=1202ffba8affe0e2&mt=application%2Fpdf&pli=1
One of the main forms of street art is graffiti. When we think of urban areas it is easy to imagine walls covered in graffiti as a result of vandalism. But it is also important to consider the history behind graffiti, why it exists, what it represents, the different kinds, and mainly who its target audience is. In this article the author is certain that most students are familiar with graffiti and that including a lesson about it in art class can be beneficial, as long as the teacher explains that without the owners’ permission, it is illegal to paint on building walls.
I believe this article is important to include as part of my inquiry project because I believe teaching students about graffiti can engage them in understanding art and its relation to expression and emotion, motivating them to create their own pieces of art. I personally would use it as part of an introductory lesson, since graffiti is much about identity, an important aspect that needs to be explained to students about art.
2. Moskowitz, E.S. (2003). A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Arts Education in New York City Public Schools
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/5a/d9.pdf
This article describes the importance of art education to academic achievement, personal development, and parent involvement. It also describes what quality art education is like as well as the deficiencies New York City public schools have. It examines 6 main problems NY PS’s have and offers recommendations made by the education committee, as well as by teachers, and principals.
The six problems are the following:
- Instruction is not comprehensive
- Resources are insufficient and inequitable
- Art Education is undervalued
- Shortage of qualified art educators
- Variable quality of partnerships with cultural organizations
- There are insufficient facilities for art education
Even though this article focuses on NYC public schools, I believe Newark schools face very similar problems that can be solved in similar ways. But most importantly, this article offers clear information as to why art education is crucial in public urban education for its students to be well rounded individuals in society.
Bitz, M. (2004). The Comic Book Project: Forging Alternative Pathways to Literacy
https://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&attid=0.1&thid=12031a88e1e4b9a1&mt=application%2Fpdf
In an attempt to bring back art education to urban schools, author Michael Bitz founded The Comic Book Project with the focus on enhancing reading, writing, and vocabulary skills, not being the only result. Students found in this program a tool for expressing their daily urban lives and search for their identities, qualities for the success of this art program. When it comes to engaging students in dry class material, it is important to get creative, and this is where art education can play an important role.
Like other kinds of art, creating a comic book requires a good amount of imagination and ability to solve problems. Through discussions, students were able to understand the importance of each stage of the comic book production: Planning, creating the manuscript, and designing. The article describes some of the themes picked by the students for their comic book. Surprisingly in most of the comic books, the characters were not superheroes, but characters from their everyday lives. Many wrote about gangs, drugs, and family problems, making us realize how important art can be for children to express what goes through their minds in healthy ways. This project also increased the students’ self confidence in their writing and creative skills and motivated them for future writing.
Arts: Wherefore Art? By Sara Bernard http://www.edutopia.org/whats-next-2007-arts-education
This magazine article gives some interesting facts about current issues art education is facing that are closely related to the NCLB act, as well as positive ways in which certain organizations are supporting art education in the urban areas, giving hope that one day art education will be recognized as an essential part of education.
From Arts Advocacy Day (2008) Strengthening Arts Education in No Child Left Behind http://www.americansforthearts.org/get_involved/advocacy/aad/issue_briefs/2008/advocacy_issuebrief_005.asp
Brief directed to the Congress, as an attempt to:
-Retain the arts in the definition of core academic subjects of learning
-Reauthorize the Arts in Education Programs of the U.S. Department of Education
-Improve national data collection and research in arts education
-Require states to annually report on student access to all core academic subjects
One of the main forms of street art is graffiti. When we think of urban areas it is easy to imagine walls covered in graffiti as a result of vandalism. But it is also important to consider the history behind graffiti, why it exists, what it represents, the different kinds, and mainly who its target audience is. In this article the author is certain that most students are familiar with graffiti and that including a lesson about it in art class can be beneficial, as long as the teacher explains that without the owners’ permission, it is illegal to paint on building walls.
I believe this article is important to include as part of my inquiry project because I believe teaching students about graffiti can engage them in understanding art and its relation to expression and emotion, motivating them to create their own pieces of art. I personally would use it as part of an introductory lesson, since graffiti is much about identity, an important aspect that needs to be explained to students about art.
2. Moskowitz, E.S. (2003). A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Arts Education in New York City Public Schools
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/5a/d9.pdf
This article describes the importance of art education to academic achievement, personal development, and parent involvement. It also describes what quality art education is like as well as the deficiencies New York City public schools have. It examines 6 main problems NY PS’s have and offers recommendations made by the education committee, as well as by teachers, and principals.
The six problems are the following:
- Instruction is not comprehensive
- Resources are insufficient and inequitable
- Art Education is undervalued
- Shortage of qualified art educators
- Variable quality of partnerships with cultural organizations
- There are insufficient facilities for art education
Even though this article focuses on NYC public schools, I believe Newark schools face very similar problems that can be solved in similar ways. But most importantly, this article offers clear information as to why art education is crucial in public urban education for its students to be well rounded individuals in society.
Bitz, M. (2004). The Comic Book Project: Forging Alternative Pathways to Literacy
https://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&attid=0.1&thid=12031a88e1e4b9a1&mt=application%2Fpdf
In an attempt to bring back art education to urban schools, author Michael Bitz founded The Comic Book Project with the focus on enhancing reading, writing, and vocabulary skills, not being the only result. Students found in this program a tool for expressing their daily urban lives and search for their identities, qualities for the success of this art program. When it comes to engaging students in dry class material, it is important to get creative, and this is where art education can play an important role.
Like other kinds of art, creating a comic book requires a good amount of imagination and ability to solve problems. Through discussions, students were able to understand the importance of each stage of the comic book production: Planning, creating the manuscript, and designing. The article describes some of the themes picked by the students for their comic book. Surprisingly in most of the comic books, the characters were not superheroes, but characters from their everyday lives. Many wrote about gangs, drugs, and family problems, making us realize how important art can be for children to express what goes through their minds in healthy ways. This project also increased the students’ self confidence in their writing and creative skills and motivated them for future writing.
Arts: Wherefore Art? By Sara Bernard http://www.edutopia.org/whats-next-2007-arts-education
This magazine article gives some interesting facts about current issues art education is facing that are closely related to the NCLB act, as well as positive ways in which certain organizations are supporting art education in the urban areas, giving hope that one day art education will be recognized as an essential part of education.
From Arts Advocacy Day (2008) Strengthening Arts Education in No Child Left Behind http://www.americansforthearts.org/get_involved/advocacy/aad/issue_briefs/2008/advocacy_issuebrief_005.asp
Brief directed to the Congress, as an attempt to:
-Retain the arts in the definition of core academic subjects of learning
-Reauthorize the Arts in Education Programs of the U.S. Department of Education
-Improve national data collection and research in arts education
-Require states to annually report on student access to all core academic subjects
Monday, March 9, 2009
Culture Project - "Never Quit"
I was born and raised in Mexico City, a very large city with strong Mexican traditions mixed with some American pop culture. American media had bombarded Mexico and the rest of the world with all of its charming movies, TV shows, and music for decades. And around the time I was born in the 80s, my father worked for an American company and frequently traveled back and forth the two countries. Therefore my family was eager to enroll me in a bilingual school. A few years later my aunt and uncle moved to New Jersey where my uncle was offered a job. Since then every other year I would come and visit my cousin or she’d go to Mexico to see me. It was until after I graduated from high school that I realized I wanted to move to NJ with my family to go to college.
Even though I didn’t grow up in the USA, I have been living here for over 5 years, time which has shaped my culture into a more open minded and pro-diversity than if I had stayed in Mexico. Also living here has given me the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and enjoy discussions about their cultures compared to mine. I believe my elementary school education shaped from a very young age what could have been a more strict Mexican culture, into a more open minded and diversity oriented culture.
My interest for different cultures has increased since I moved to NJ and also through travelling, a passion my parents started fueling in me since an early age.
There is a general idea that in Mexico everyone is Mexican. Very rarely you see foreigners and there is very little awareness of culture diversity or people’s background. Colonialism changed the demographic profile in Latin America. The intermixing of races was known as castes: Mestizo (European/American Indian), mulatto (Spanish/African), and zambo (African/American Indian). During this time having fair skin meant having social and economic advantages; unfortunately hundreds of years later, this kind of discrimination has not fully disappeared.
In today’s Mexico, people who can afford sending their children to private schools for a good education are privileged because public schools in Mexico sadly are inefficient in many levels (see blogpost #1).
Nevertheless, even in the private school I attended, there were gender inequalities. While girls were taught shorthand, typewriting and other secretarial practices, boys were taking computer classes.
As far as language, my private elementary school was not only bilingual, but also bicultural in many ways. We would learn not only the grammar and spelling of the English language, but also its literature, traditional songs, and world history while also taking those same subjects in Spanish of course.
Most likely because most of the population in Mexico is catholic, homosexuality is still repudiated by many. Discrimination against homosexuals is common in smaller towns, while the big cities are starting to become more tolerant.
Because of its history, the country where I grew up in does not celebrate diversity and has a hard time tolerating differences. I think issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and language can really shape a country’s culture. But one’s own culture is influenced by more personal experiences. Culture helps us realize who we are and/or why we are the way we are.
As a teacher, I want my students to think about having an open minded view of the world that surrounds them. To think of themselves as world citizens and to be excited about going to different countries or at least explore them through study, not only to enjoy and learn from different cultures but also to become more aware of who they are and learn to appreciate their own country and culture.
It is important for me to keep in mind that no matter how open about the world I present in front of my students, there will be some of them whose cultures will conflict with these ideas, they may find for example that exploring other countries is an unattractive idea.
Because of my background, I will be able to recognize differences in cultures and will welcome all of them without judgments because children especially at a young age are influenced by their families’ cultures. I believe school is a great place for students to mold their culture as they grow older into something they are proud of. But some students may be confused, especially those who are new in the country and may be experiencing culture shock.
As a visual arts teacher, I will give the students freedom to express themselves according to their culture, and I would have them create a project similar to the collage created along this post. By letting them describe visually their culture, students can become more aware of other cultures and hopefully be able to understand their peers better as well as having an insight into their own culture.
Now, to further explain my collage, I will start by pointing out that another important aspect about Mexican culture is that of family ties. For the most part, young adults will live with their parents until they get married. I am very close to my parents even though I don’t live with them, but since I don’t have any siblings I am also very close to my friends.
As far as hobbies, I enjoy listening to all kinds of music, reading traveling, art, design, and fashion magazines, playing sports like tennis and football, as well as watching those on TV.
Art is to me a particularly important way of expressing my emotions. Some people have trouble expressing their emotions verbally but can do it easily through a visual form. The bottle in the middle of the poster represents emotions being bottled up, and finally coming out through art.
Throughout the history of mankind art has taken an important role in communication and with time has become more complex and can express very particular things, feelings, or experiences, or perhaps is just there as an aesthetically pleasing work of art with little meaning.
Famous artists that I love are shown in the upper left corner of the poster. Art history is extremely important to understand the world and art itself.
To me, design is modern art. Observable for inspiration, it is everywhere: industrial design, graphic design, interior design, and fashion design should all be considered forms of art. Because in general the only difference design has from fine arts is its functionality. It is important for students to pay attention to detail so that they can come up with their own designs.
Last but not least, the big letters in the middle of the poster read: “Never Quit”. It is a motto that I live by and that I would like to pass on to my students.
Even though I didn’t grow up in the USA, I have been living here for over 5 years, time which has shaped my culture into a more open minded and pro-diversity than if I had stayed in Mexico. Also living here has given me the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and enjoy discussions about their cultures compared to mine. I believe my elementary school education shaped from a very young age what could have been a more strict Mexican culture, into a more open minded and diversity oriented culture.
My interest for different cultures has increased since I moved to NJ and also through travelling, a passion my parents started fueling in me since an early age.
There is a general idea that in Mexico everyone is Mexican. Very rarely you see foreigners and there is very little awareness of culture diversity or people’s background. Colonialism changed the demographic profile in Latin America. The intermixing of races was known as castes: Mestizo (European/American Indian), mulatto (Spanish/African), and zambo (African/American Indian). During this time having fair skin meant having social and economic advantages; unfortunately hundreds of years later, this kind of discrimination has not fully disappeared.
In today’s Mexico, people who can afford sending their children to private schools for a good education are privileged because public schools in Mexico sadly are inefficient in many levels (see blogpost #1).
Nevertheless, even in the private school I attended, there were gender inequalities. While girls were taught shorthand, typewriting and other secretarial practices, boys were taking computer classes.
As far as language, my private elementary school was not only bilingual, but also bicultural in many ways. We would learn not only the grammar and spelling of the English language, but also its literature, traditional songs, and world history while also taking those same subjects in Spanish of course.
Most likely because most of the population in Mexico is catholic, homosexuality is still repudiated by many. Discrimination against homosexuals is common in smaller towns, while the big cities are starting to become more tolerant.
Because of its history, the country where I grew up in does not celebrate diversity and has a hard time tolerating differences. I think issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and language can really shape a country’s culture. But one’s own culture is influenced by more personal experiences. Culture helps us realize who we are and/or why we are the way we are.
As a teacher, I want my students to think about having an open minded view of the world that surrounds them. To think of themselves as world citizens and to be excited about going to different countries or at least explore them through study, not only to enjoy and learn from different cultures but also to become more aware of who they are and learn to appreciate their own country and culture.
It is important for me to keep in mind that no matter how open about the world I present in front of my students, there will be some of them whose cultures will conflict with these ideas, they may find for example that exploring other countries is an unattractive idea.
Because of my background, I will be able to recognize differences in cultures and will welcome all of them without judgments because children especially at a young age are influenced by their families’ cultures. I believe school is a great place for students to mold their culture as they grow older into something they are proud of. But some students may be confused, especially those who are new in the country and may be experiencing culture shock.
As a visual arts teacher, I will give the students freedom to express themselves according to their culture, and I would have them create a project similar to the collage created along this post. By letting them describe visually their culture, students can become more aware of other cultures and hopefully be able to understand their peers better as well as having an insight into their own culture.
Now, to further explain my collage, I will start by pointing out that another important aspect about Mexican culture is that of family ties. For the most part, young adults will live with their parents until they get married. I am very close to my parents even though I don’t live with them, but since I don’t have any siblings I am also very close to my friends.
As far as hobbies, I enjoy listening to all kinds of music, reading traveling, art, design, and fashion magazines, playing sports like tennis and football, as well as watching those on TV.
Art is to me a particularly important way of expressing my emotions. Some people have trouble expressing their emotions verbally but can do it easily through a visual form. The bottle in the middle of the poster represents emotions being bottled up, and finally coming out through art.
Throughout the history of mankind art has taken an important role in communication and with time has become more complex and can express very particular things, feelings, or experiences, or perhaps is just there as an aesthetically pleasing work of art with little meaning.
Famous artists that I love are shown in the upper left corner of the poster. Art history is extremely important to understand the world and art itself.
To me, design is modern art. Observable for inspiration, it is everywhere: industrial design, graphic design, interior design, and fashion design should all be considered forms of art. Because in general the only difference design has from fine arts is its functionality. It is important for students to pay attention to detail so that they can come up with their own designs.
Last but not least, the big letters in the middle of the poster read: “Never Quit”. It is a motto that I live by and that I would like to pass on to my students.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Inquiry Project - Random Questions
In my mind there are many questions on different topics about Inner City Education that interest me. Therefore it's been quite hard to pick just one topic, but after brainstorming random questions I noticed a few of them sort of belonged to one topic. The following are my still-somewhat-random questions:
- How can we narrow the culture gap?
- "White Model" - "Culture Capital" (Fruchter, Urban Schools Public Will pg. 28)
- What are those cultural differences that reflect problems in schools?
- Is discipline at Black and Latino homes more relaxed than in White and Asian families?
- Why is it that a great amount of Black and Latino parents are unable to help their kids with homework or at least encourage them to do well in school?
- Is the previous question related to the idea that they view themselves as too different from the "white model", or perhaps they have low expectations on their own children?
- Or is it related to the fact that they are too busy working (although white parents may be in the same situation)?
- Perhaps they stop helping their children as soon as they surpass their own level of education?
- Being myself from a Latin American country, I am interested in focusing on Latino students and their families. Would this be a positive focus or would I be encouraging segregation by doing so?
*K
Monday, February 16, 2009
"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"
Society is strongly influenced by the media, and it would be hard for it not to be that way, especially these days when media is everywhere we look, even in our phones! Most of us have come to like it that way, since it is very easy to be connected to the world and not miss a thing. But this inevitably influence the way we see things which can be in either positive or negative ways.
When it comes to media focusing on education, it is important for us to believe only part of what is being put out there, because media is usually very biased, commonly based on personal experiences or even on imagination. Nevertheless, watching movies and TV shows, reading articles, or listening to songs and radio shows, can give us a general idea of what the similarities and differences are between urban, suburban, and rural education. If we take any media and compare it to our personal experience as teachers or students as well as to professional research, then as an end result we’ll have more accurate information that will lead us away from stereotypes.
After looking through the different kinds of media, I realized suburban, rural, and urban education is portrayed in such consistent ways that they can be amusingly categorized as the “good”, the “bad”, and the “ugly”, respectively.
“The Good”
As you probably guessed, suburban schools are labeled “the good”. This is for several reasons: the number of students who finish high school compared to the rural and urban numbers is much higher, there is a higher college enrollment, teachers have higher salaries, their schools higher budgets, and their students score higher test scores, to name a few reasons.
Most movies and TV shows about suburban schools are comedies or teenage dramas. In movies such as Mean Girls and Clueless, we see the main characters portrayed as young students whose primary concerns are related to their physical appearance and being liked by their peers more than their teachers or parent from whom they try to stay away as possible. TV shows such as Boy Meets World, Saved by the Bell, and Dawson’s Creek, also reflect similar problems as in the movies previously mentioned. These young students have relationship and family issues, but are able to find support in their friends, their friends’ families, and in some cases in their teachers. Their immediate families are up to date to what is happening in their lives but aren’t able to spend much time with them because of long work hours.
As this video shows, http://www.edutopia.org/handhelds, students from suburban schools are privileged in ways that urban or rural students could never even dream to be. These kind of opportunities brought to them are tools that will surely give them a tremendous self-confidence in the real world when they are of age to work. Although not every suburban school will give out palms to their students, it is a great example of the extent to which teachers can explode students’ capabilities, and therefore making suburban education the “good guy”.
“The Bad”
I will start by stating that rural education in reality is not bad. The main problems in rural schools rely on the fact that they receive very little attention and have very low budgets, in many cases even lower than inner city schools’ budgets. For these reasons, we could not expect rural students to have any privileges other than the basic education offered by their teachers who earn less than in urban and suburban schools.
There is a very low college enrollment, and the few people who go for higher education will end up living in urban areas “leaving rural communities with fewer people who can help young adults make the transition to college” (see http://blog.ruraledu.org/2007/09/ruralnot_so_muchin_the_middle.html#more)
Nevertheless, there are some positive aspects about rural schools. Teachers report fewer discipline problems and since there are fewer students in each classroom each student will surely have more individual attention and therefore rural schools have higher scores than most city schools. Still they won’t surpass their suburban peers.
In movies such as Songcatcher we can see that the people from rural communities are closer to nature, have close ties with their families, and try to focus in joyful things in life such as music, they live slower paced lives, and they have less pressure to succeed big time as in the suburbs or big cities.
“The Ugly”
The main reasons why I am classifying urban schools under “the ugly” are related to children doing drugs, having unprotected sex, and living in violent environments. This is what the media has bombarded us with, but sadly many of these movies, songs, TV shows, and articles are based on true stories.
It may be called “the ugly” but movies about urban schools such as Lean On Me, Dangerous Minds, and Thirteen are the most inspiring, most intense, and most passionate. Students still worry about relationships and about being judged by their peers, but unfortunately they have much more intense problems that they shouldn’t be facing at such a young age. Pregnancies, abortions, killings, drug abuse, sexual abuse, are the everyday surrounding problems in and these cause extreme apathy in school subjects creating frustration in underpaid teachers. It is a very vicious cycle.
Songs mainly by rap and hip-hop artists describe family problems that cause very deep emotional issues. Opposite from rural and suburban students’ song creations, these songs are filled with explicit content and sad stories that are based on or describe true stories. An interesting fact is songs from artists that attended suburban schools may also talk about drugs and going to rehab, but in a very different tone from urban songs. Because teenagers from the inner cities have much higher chances of getting killed if involved in drugs, while suburban teenagers have more support from families if they get involved in drugs. A song such as “Photograph” by Nickelback that describes the singer’s eyes getting red is in a funny feel-good context. While an artist like Eminem’s various songs are filled with regrets and descriptions of the problems caused by drugs.
What I learned from researching the media to find descriptions about schools, is that it is not so far from the reality. Directors, writers, and other artists have done a meticulous job to represent and show the world what American children and teenagers go through during their school years. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post it is important to do professional research along with media research to have a more accurate take on any kind of school we are to teach in.
When it comes to media focusing on education, it is important for us to believe only part of what is being put out there, because media is usually very biased, commonly based on personal experiences or even on imagination. Nevertheless, watching movies and TV shows, reading articles, or listening to songs and radio shows, can give us a general idea of what the similarities and differences are between urban, suburban, and rural education. If we take any media and compare it to our personal experience as teachers or students as well as to professional research, then as an end result we’ll have more accurate information that will lead us away from stereotypes.
After looking through the different kinds of media, I realized suburban, rural, and urban education is portrayed in such consistent ways that they can be amusingly categorized as the “good”, the “bad”, and the “ugly”, respectively.
“The Good”
As you probably guessed, suburban schools are labeled “the good”. This is for several reasons: the number of students who finish high school compared to the rural and urban numbers is much higher, there is a higher college enrollment, teachers have higher salaries, their schools higher budgets, and their students score higher test scores, to name a few reasons.
Most movies and TV shows about suburban schools are comedies or teenage dramas. In movies such as Mean Girls and Clueless, we see the main characters portrayed as young students whose primary concerns are related to their physical appearance and being liked by their peers more than their teachers or parent from whom they try to stay away as possible. TV shows such as Boy Meets World, Saved by the Bell, and Dawson’s Creek, also reflect similar problems as in the movies previously mentioned. These young students have relationship and family issues, but are able to find support in their friends, their friends’ families, and in some cases in their teachers. Their immediate families are up to date to what is happening in their lives but aren’t able to spend much time with them because of long work hours.
As this video shows, http://www.edutopia.org/handhelds, students from suburban schools are privileged in ways that urban or rural students could never even dream to be. These kind of opportunities brought to them are tools that will surely give them a tremendous self-confidence in the real world when they are of age to work. Although not every suburban school will give out palms to their students, it is a great example of the extent to which teachers can explode students’ capabilities, and therefore making suburban education the “good guy”.
“The Bad”
I will start by stating that rural education in reality is not bad. The main problems in rural schools rely on the fact that they receive very little attention and have very low budgets, in many cases even lower than inner city schools’ budgets. For these reasons, we could not expect rural students to have any privileges other than the basic education offered by their teachers who earn less than in urban and suburban schools.
There is a very low college enrollment, and the few people who go for higher education will end up living in urban areas “leaving rural communities with fewer people who can help young adults make the transition to college” (see http://blog.ruraledu.org/2007/09/ruralnot_so_muchin_the_middle.html#more)
Nevertheless, there are some positive aspects about rural schools. Teachers report fewer discipline problems and since there are fewer students in each classroom each student will surely have more individual attention and therefore rural schools have higher scores than most city schools. Still they won’t surpass their suburban peers.
In movies such as Songcatcher we can see that the people from rural communities are closer to nature, have close ties with their families, and try to focus in joyful things in life such as music, they live slower paced lives, and they have less pressure to succeed big time as in the suburbs or big cities.
“The Ugly”
The main reasons why I am classifying urban schools under “the ugly” are related to children doing drugs, having unprotected sex, and living in violent environments. This is what the media has bombarded us with, but sadly many of these movies, songs, TV shows, and articles are based on true stories.
It may be called “the ugly” but movies about urban schools such as Lean On Me, Dangerous Minds, and Thirteen are the most inspiring, most intense, and most passionate. Students still worry about relationships and about being judged by their peers, but unfortunately they have much more intense problems that they shouldn’t be facing at such a young age. Pregnancies, abortions, killings, drug abuse, sexual abuse, are the everyday surrounding problems in and these cause extreme apathy in school subjects creating frustration in underpaid teachers. It is a very vicious cycle.
Songs mainly by rap and hip-hop artists describe family problems that cause very deep emotional issues. Opposite from rural and suburban students’ song creations, these songs are filled with explicit content and sad stories that are based on or describe true stories. An interesting fact is songs from artists that attended suburban schools may also talk about drugs and going to rehab, but in a very different tone from urban songs. Because teenagers from the inner cities have much higher chances of getting killed if involved in drugs, while suburban teenagers have more support from families if they get involved in drugs. A song such as “Photograph” by Nickelback that describes the singer’s eyes getting red is in a funny feel-good context. While an artist like Eminem’s various songs are filled with regrets and descriptions of the problems caused by drugs.
What I learned from researching the media to find descriptions about schools, is that it is not so far from the reality. Directors, writers, and other artists have done a meticulous job to represent and show the world what American children and teenagers go through during their school years. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post it is important to do professional research along with media research to have a more accurate take on any kind of school we are to teach in.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Frames of Reference: Urban Schools
As a student who grew up in one of the largest and busiest cities in the world, you would expect me to have attended the “typical” urban school. Nevertheless I did not; all my life my parents sent me to private schools because in Mexico City public schools are sadly a synonym of bad education. I believe failures in its Public School System can tell you a lot about a country. In this case Mexico undergoes a vicious cycle that starts off wrong in the schooling of its coming generations, it is as unfair as it gets: if you come from a wealthy family you go to a private school, if you have no money, what’s left is public education or no education at all.
Although a focus in American urban schools is what we are looking to understand today,
I want to use Mexico as an example, not only because it is the place where I grew up in, but also because just as the USA, it faces huge differences in education that are interesting to address.
Keep in mind while you read through my post, that I did not grow up in this country as I mentioned before, so please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. My knowledge about American Public School System is derived from the media, as well as from relatives and friends who grew up in this country and went to public schools. So the following are my very own personal beliefs about urban education in this country.
Let’s try this analogy that comes to my mind when I try to separate urban from suburban education. I will compare Mexico’s public schools system with USA’s urban education, and Mexico’s private schools with USA’s suburban schools. While this may make some people cringe, it is not so far from the reality. Suburbs are mostly resided by people with a higher economic status than most of the people who live in big cities. Higher economic status will bring more financial support and parents will feel comfortable sending their kids to their local public school. People in the big cities with a low economic status will have no other choice but to send their kids to urban public schools. In some cases suburban schools have such financial support that they could be compared to a private school, especially when studied next to low funding urban schools. In the end, it seems as if I am saying: Suburban schools = good, urban schools = bad education.
But I believe the above statement is not necessarily true in every case, and this positive and hopeful take has been influenced in me mostly by the media (think “Dangerous Minds”). For the most part it depends on the financial situation of the city; the more money, the better funded schools are. Schools with a larger budget are able to get all sorts of special programs, materials, tools, and “better” teachers. And I say “better” sort of meaning “happier” or truly more positive. Because it takes a lot of passion and dedication to want to work under difficult conditions and low salaries, as it is the case in urban education.
There are diverse social issues that affect most urban schools causing a lot of stress on students, teachers, and parents. Cities live a very fast paced life, in order to make more money some parents (or single parents!) may take more than one job or extra hours in their regular job, making it hard to spend time with their children. These children then grow up with less support and supervision and many end up with drug problems or in gangs. Having grown up in a different kind of environment, some teachers will feel alienated and uncomfortable and will therefore work there only temporarily, making it hard for the school to have a strong group of educators. Nevertheless, some teachers who may have grown up in big cities or even some suburban teachers may think of urban education as an interesting and challenging place where they can help to make a difference in urban students’ lives, they may have to work extra and make less money, put a lot of dedication and deal with student apathy. For these reasons, being an urban teacher is some times though of as superior from suburban education. I don’t agree with this because I believe that suburban education has its own challenges. But as long as teachers are happy in their own environment they will most likely end up becoming good teachers.
A very positive characteristic of inner city schools is diversity in students and teachers as well. Even though this may also create many social problems, it can be looked at from a positive point of view. Diversity is like traveling without having to get out of the country. It is something I didn’t grow up having and now that I am surrounded by people from different nationalities, my take on the world and its different issues has changed positively. If teachers help students interact between different ethnicities and they learn to respect each other and they exchange cultural information from each other, they will become more aware of what the world has to offer and there is a sense of self awareness as well by doing so.
When concentrating about all these different issues about urban vs. suburban education, it makes me think about myself as a teacher and what I want to achieve no matter where I decide to teach in the future. I have a passion for studying different cultures, which makes me think I would consider working in a big and diverse city.
I consider that growing up in a different county may bring some different ways of teaching in me. But I understand that adapting to the society that surrounds the school where you teach is crucial. I strongly believe that having a positive outlook facilitates any kind of issue and that you can truly make a difference in a student’s life!
Although a focus in American urban schools is what we are looking to understand today,
I want to use Mexico as an example, not only because it is the place where I grew up in, but also because just as the USA, it faces huge differences in education that are interesting to address.
Keep in mind while you read through my post, that I did not grow up in this country as I mentioned before, so please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. My knowledge about American Public School System is derived from the media, as well as from relatives and friends who grew up in this country and went to public schools. So the following are my very own personal beliefs about urban education in this country.
Let’s try this analogy that comes to my mind when I try to separate urban from suburban education. I will compare Mexico’s public schools system with USA’s urban education, and Mexico’s private schools with USA’s suburban schools. While this may make some people cringe, it is not so far from the reality. Suburbs are mostly resided by people with a higher economic status than most of the people who live in big cities. Higher economic status will bring more financial support and parents will feel comfortable sending their kids to their local public school. People in the big cities with a low economic status will have no other choice but to send their kids to urban public schools. In some cases suburban schools have such financial support that they could be compared to a private school, especially when studied next to low funding urban schools. In the end, it seems as if I am saying: Suburban schools = good, urban schools = bad education.
But I believe the above statement is not necessarily true in every case, and this positive and hopeful take has been influenced in me mostly by the media (think “Dangerous Minds”). For the most part it depends on the financial situation of the city; the more money, the better funded schools are. Schools with a larger budget are able to get all sorts of special programs, materials, tools, and “better” teachers. And I say “better” sort of meaning “happier” or truly more positive. Because it takes a lot of passion and dedication to want to work under difficult conditions and low salaries, as it is the case in urban education.
There are diverse social issues that affect most urban schools causing a lot of stress on students, teachers, and parents. Cities live a very fast paced life, in order to make more money some parents (or single parents!) may take more than one job or extra hours in their regular job, making it hard to spend time with their children. These children then grow up with less support and supervision and many end up with drug problems or in gangs. Having grown up in a different kind of environment, some teachers will feel alienated and uncomfortable and will therefore work there only temporarily, making it hard for the school to have a strong group of educators. Nevertheless, some teachers who may have grown up in big cities or even some suburban teachers may think of urban education as an interesting and challenging place where they can help to make a difference in urban students’ lives, they may have to work extra and make less money, put a lot of dedication and deal with student apathy. For these reasons, being an urban teacher is some times though of as superior from suburban education. I don’t agree with this because I believe that suburban education has its own challenges. But as long as teachers are happy in their own environment they will most likely end up becoming good teachers.
A very positive characteristic of inner city schools is diversity in students and teachers as well. Even though this may also create many social problems, it can be looked at from a positive point of view. Diversity is like traveling without having to get out of the country. It is something I didn’t grow up having and now that I am surrounded by people from different nationalities, my take on the world and its different issues has changed positively. If teachers help students interact between different ethnicities and they learn to respect each other and they exchange cultural information from each other, they will become more aware of what the world has to offer and there is a sense of self awareness as well by doing so.
When concentrating about all these different issues about urban vs. suburban education, it makes me think about myself as a teacher and what I want to achieve no matter where I decide to teach in the future. I have a passion for studying different cultures, which makes me think I would consider working in a big and diverse city.
I consider that growing up in a different county may bring some different ways of teaching in me. But I understand that adapting to the society that surrounds the school where you teach is crucial. I strongly believe that having a positive outlook facilitates any kind of issue and that you can truly make a difference in a student’s life!
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