Kasey Cambrelen        

English 210

March 10, 2020

OPED

            For years on end, children are told that “Education is success” or “Stay in school, kids!” Sure, staying educated can lead to bigger and better things, but what if the school a student was in was not getting the same treatment as others? While the children are the future, not all children are destined for the same type of future. In the national schooling system, there is an obvious disperse of funding and treatment between white children and minorities. Living in this modern society we should ask ourselves, what are we doing to solve this inequality? Though many people believe that the schooling system is just and equal due to this “post-segregation” era, the facts prove otherwise. Conversations about race in the classroom have been swept under the rug, avoided, in order to make issues less uncomfortable. However, this dodging only makes white people more comfortable, what about the Black and Latinx students that have to deal with this life on the daily basis? In order to come together and form a more inclusive, equal system of education, we must address the issues at hand, regardless of how uncomfortable others feel.

Stemming from the early years of education, there has always been a disparity in the system based on race. No matter the location or the neighborhood, there will always be racism accounted for. “When serving economically disenfranchised African American children, school systems often assume that because these children are poor and because their culture is different from mainstream, these students will be unable to achieve academically at the same levels as their White counterparts. Many times without being aware of their own biases, teachers and others who serve these children, operate from a framework of low expectations of success for these children,” (Wynne 3).  There is an obvious economic disparity within neighborhoods and cities that impact the schools in these specific areas. Due to the fact that majority of minority children live in lower income areas, there isn’t the same amount of drive and financials that go into schools in upper-class neighborhoods. Many of these schools are overpopulated and underfunded, which imposes stress on the educators of the schools. This leads to many teachers losing interest and nothing putting their all into teaching. Motivation was lost at the head and it headed down a path which the students would feel. However, when it has tried to be resolved with incorporating ways students could learn. Due to the fact that the common core and canonical texts demand skills from children, yet there is no one truly dedicated to teaching these particular students. They are not building relationships with the population at hand and are trying to force these skills on them but it is not resonating. One individual in particular, a Bronx native teacher, said, “My students only speak in AAVE and I encourage it in discourse but I’d be selling them short if I accepted it in writing form. In order to relationship build you have to sound like them and engage in convos they’re comfortable with outside of teacher to student,” (Cambrelen). In order to teach the kids, you have to relate to the kids, especially with ways that encourage them from the start. 

No matter the age, Black and Brown kids are constantly targeted. In fact, starting at the young age of preschool years, minority children are more likely to be suspended. It makes you think, what exactly can a four-year old be capable of doing to be suspended? Throughout the school years, it progressively gets worse and takes more serious tolls on the students. “Two years earlier, black students accounted for 16 percent of the student body and 27 percent of arrests. The data also shows students with disabilities are far more likely to face suspension or arrests at school. They accounted for 12 percent of enrollment but 28 percent of all arrests and referrals to law enforcement,” (Balingit). All of this evidence plays into the common theme of racism present in the student body. School systems are set up to be in, some aspects, the way jails are. Not only presentation wise, but systematically. The idea that all students are treated fairly to get the same education, is quite honestly a lie. The same infractions are treated harsher with Black students than white students. If it is started at an earlier age, it brings down hope of graduating, hence the high drop-out rates and prison rates.

            When racism is prominent in school systems, it disengages and steers minority students into a future set out for them. The suspension rates, teachers, and overall system all prove the idea of racism in the classroom. The more we stray away from it, the more inclusive education it becomes.

Work Cited

Balingit, Moriah. “Racial Disparities in School Discipline Are Growing, Federal Data Show.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 25 Apr. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/racial-disparities-in-school-discipline-are-growing-federal-data-shows/2018/04/24/67b5d2b8-47e4-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html.

Cambrelen, Tana. Personal Interview: From the Streets of The Bronx to the Classroom. 31 October 2019.

Wynne, Joan T. “Chapter 5: The Elephant in the Classroom: Racism in School 

Reform.” Counterpoints, vol. 246, 2005, pp. 58–88. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42978720. Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.