Kelly Harris

Social Issues

January 24, 2010

5,4,3,2,1…. TSOTN intro-ch. 6

5) In the introduction through chapter 6, he would like us to remember that schools are still segregated and how bad schools really are. Some schools are falling apart and even if they are in a somewhat good part of town, parents who can afford it will make sure their child succeeds. Then there was the whole issue on state testing. Still to this day schools focus too much on testing if they are receiving low scores. We need to work together to help bring up scores as well as solving the segregation problem at last.

4) page. 20)

“Racial isolation and the concentrated poverty of children in a public school go hand in hand, moreover, as the Harvard project notes. A segregated inner-city school is almost six times as likely to be a school of concentrated poverty as in a school that has an overwhelming white population.”

Page 53)

“There is something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds an inner-city child only eight years old accountable for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the high officials of our government accountable of robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before.”

Page 97)

“Very few people who are not involved with inner-city schools have any idea of the extremes to which the mercantile distortion of the purposes and character of education have been taken or how unabashedly proponents of these practices are willing to defend them.”

Page 113)

“The children were told, she said, that “its not just important that they pass, but that passing this-the test-is actually the only thing that is important.” One of her students was throwing up and crying so she couldn’t take her test, because she was afraid she’d never be allowed to leave the school because she’d never pass the state exam.”

3)

a) page 168; multiple intelligences

b) page 98; rhetoric

c) page 124; poignantly

2)

a) page 47; This passage talks a little about parents paying for an extra teacher. Well my town never paid for an extra teacher, but when it came down to sports or extra clubs, parents would go above and beyond to increase our resources. The PTA was very large and successful growing up. I wish all schools could have been given the opportunities I was given.

b) page 113; This was a short section on how focused the school was on passing the state test. I am very worried that when I teach at a school, its focused too much on passing the taks. Growing up I don’t remember taking practice test or worrying to much about it. I hope my students will not be pressured like that.

1) Page 65; Where does P.S. 65 stand now? How is the school and its teachers doing, are the kids staying in school, is it still filled with poverty?