I've continued to read the Deborah Meier book that focuses on the education system in America. She throws out several factors she believes are causes of the academic achievement gap between minorities )Blacks and Latinos) and white students.
In the reading I did for this assignment, Meier states that many teachers and administrators have argued that a large number of "disadvantaged youth" (mainly minorities) begin school without proper language. Students lacked "grammar and vocabulary, not to mention the ability to articulate sounds properly, but also the words they did know were valueless, for building high levels of achievement." She goes on to say that poverty takes a toll on children's cognitive development skills and maturity. I agree with this because many African-American/Latino homes speak a different "language". Latino students may actually speak a foreign language i.e. different dialects of Spanish (Dominican, Puerto Rican, Honduran, Colombian, Mexican, etc.) Black students speak English, but slang and improper grammatical errors may go un-corrected for years and is used in the classroom. This puts some minorities at an immediate disadvantage because language is an essential tool in success in the classroom. From another source, I read that this word/language gap only increases at children grow older.
Culturally, minorities and white Americans can differ as well. Meier states that when she worked at the Head Start Program in Philly, PA, she noticed the culture difference immediately. She and her staff has to teach minority children how to raise their hands in the classroom, how to name the letters of the alphabet/colors, etc. She also had to expose minority students to outside things, like going to the zoo and museums - something their parents didn't do/weren't able to do for their children. But I'd like to emphasize that this is an overall picture of what Meier faced when working with the Head Start , as I am sure some white children had never been to these places as well.
I plan on continued to read this book for my project.
I agree with your objection to Meier, at the end. It seems really dangerous to talk about what "black kids" experience or what "minority students" lack. Seems to me that it's very much more about income and ethnicity (family traditions, family languages) than simply race. [This is part of the reason why I struggle to understand why African American students who come from upper middle class families in Brookline don't do as well as white kids from similar backgrounds; this really puzzles me and I'm hoping you'll shed some light on this.]
ReplyDeleteMeier's ideas seem provocative, so I'm glad you're reading this.
ASsignment complete = 15/15