Brian Damacio
College Reading & Writing 4th
16. March. 2012
Fire Essay
Conformity, the Student, and Unwanted Results
Today, getting certified to become a teacher is as easy as logging into your computer. Education is now becoming today’s trending topic on concerning such as quality, test results, and safety. Historically, education has been a topic that has been covered by the Supreme Court in cases such as Plessy v. Furguson, Brown v. the Board of Education, Engel v. Vitale, and others. Specifically, Chicago has the most segregated streets and disparities in education than in any other state. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has been in the news with its recent changes. As of now, 17 schools have been turned around: all of which have been in communities of color. Across the board, people have been in the argument as to how education in the Chicago Public Schools should be dealt with, specially how it should be. Ever since the explosion of the wide spread of the Internet and accelerated programs there has been a large increase in teachers. Teaching and the quality have been critiqued by the test scores of the school. The current schooling system does not provide a safe space for students, which has lead to oppression in school due to funding distribution. Oppression can come from different forms such as, but not limited to bullying, lack of a quality education, unequal resources and funding, and anything causing disenfranchisement or depriving students of their rights.
Students in the CPS system deal with the social conformities that have been constructed: gender has been a topic that has sparked many controversies in the past decade. Reports from GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education System Network) have brought to light many realities facing youth today in the education system. In the question of answering what gender is, some students were surveyed about questions of what it meant to be a boy or girl. Some people argue that schools are relatively safe. The report GLSEN conducted called, “Playground and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States” show “the need for elementary schools to do more to address issues on homophobia, gender expression and family diversity (Marra, 2012, p.1).” The report has been the first national study to look at homophobia, gender and nonconformity in elementary schools. The view on how one is supposed to act and be is affecting children across the board because teachers have yet to teach a simple lesson of love, respect and unity.
Sexuality based on self expression has swept the hallways of the education system. This on a larger scale can create danger in our school systems. Reports from GLSEN estimate 84.6% of LGBTQ students reported being verbally harassed, 40.1% reported being physically harassed and 18.8% reported being physically assaulted at school (Marra, 2012, p.1). This shows that the number of students having to deal with issues of homophobia in their classrooms has increased and is being dismissed. Having these issue in schools nationwide has abrupted a sense of hostility inside classrooms causing grades to go down, harassment to go up, and more suicides per year of students. This applies to the issue of education because we have entered a new era of technology where everybody is bombarded by the media. The media presents values of society, which later instills in us a moral we have to uphold. Students are no exception to this fact of life. The current schooling system does not allow “optimal learning environments for all students, but there is a larger need to provide educational tools and resources that enhance their [the students’] understanding of gender non-conforming students and families (GLSEN, 2011).” For students to feel safe and to be able to thrive there must be a sense of community.
In 1951 Solomon Asch performed a “Conformity Experiment” to depict the effects society or a large group has on an individual. Asch found of that when a person tries to go against what a larger group is saying, that the person will later give in to what others around him are saying no matter if it’s wrong. Three fourths of students report that students at their school are called names, made fun of or bullied with at least some regularity. Most commonly this is because of student’s looks or body size (67% of the time), followed by not being good at sports (37% of the time), how well they do at school work (26%), not conforming to traditional gender norms/roles (23% of the time), or because other people think they’re gay (21% of the time) (GLSEN, 2011, p.1). This provides a more clearer picture as how bullying in schools increases while others are left to suffer in silence. And although Chicago Public Schools may report “safe schools” the data from GLSEN’s reports argue otherwise. The majority “57% who experience harassment in schools, regardless of demographics for reason for harassment, never report these incidents of harassment to teachers or other school personnel (GLSEN, 2011, p.1).” If schools were to be safe as officials in CPS say they are then problems such as bullying would not be an issue. Although, getting a degree for teaching is as easy as logging into your computer, that doesn’t mean that the quality is as good it it should be.
Court cases such as Plessy v. Furguson, Brown v. the Board of Education, Engel v. Vitale, and others have brought to the attention of the Supreme Court the quality or some form of restitution for those who have not been five their fair share of the “American Dream”. In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the Supreme Court passed a law that would give parents the opportunity to go to private Jesuit schools, that same year the percentage of whites going to private schools soared (Fairlie, 2006, p.4). The majority of students in public schooling systems are people of color or of low income. Places with selective enrollment give home to more middle to upper class students (Fairlie, 2006, p.4). In Plessy v. Furguson, the Supreme Court passes a “separate, but equal” law allowing that the education system be racially divided as long as its equal in “quality”. During the Jim Crow Era, racial segregation was far from equal; African Americans had the worse treatment and the worst educational resources for their students. It was not until the Freedom Schools in Mississippi that brought different student from colleges, primarily white at the time, that people were given a chance to obtain a quality education. Its has only been 50 years since the Civil Rights Movement, change does not happen overnight. Oppression exists only if we allow it to exist in these spaces such as the education field: “one in ten students who do not report these incidents [problems such as bullying] don’t so so because they believe teachers or staff don’t do anything or are powerless to improve the situation (GlSEN, 2011, p.1).” The clear line between private v. public schools are clear. There is an unequal distribution in how the government as an institution and agency is driving education to become. The aims of the current education system as exemplified by Rahm’s current actions are to privatize education to produce profit gains (Washington, 2012, p.1). This throws quality and the emphasis for a better education system out the window and replaces it with better ways to include the private sector in the public sector. Issues on how to deal properly of the education system are fought behemothly by the Chicago Teachers’ Union and other grassroots organizations oppose against the rise of the private sector in the education system.
College Reading & Writing 4th
16. March. 2012
Fire Essay
Conformity, the Student, and Unwanted Results
Today, getting certified to become a teacher is as easy as logging into your computer. Education is now becoming today’s trending topic on concerning such as quality, test results, and safety. Historically, education has been a topic that has been covered by the Supreme Court in cases such as Plessy v. Furguson, Brown v. the Board of Education, Engel v. Vitale, and others. Specifically, Chicago has the most segregated streets and disparities in education than in any other state. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has been in the news with its recent changes. As of now, 17 schools have been turned around: all of which have been in communities of color. Across the board, people have been in the argument as to how education in the Chicago Public Schools should be dealt with, specially how it should be. Ever since the explosion of the wide spread of the Internet and accelerated programs there has been a large increase in teachers. Teaching and the quality have been critiqued by the test scores of the school. The current schooling system does not provide a safe space for students, which has lead to oppression in school due to funding distribution. Oppression can come from different forms such as, but not limited to bullying, lack of a quality education, unequal resources and funding, and anything causing disenfranchisement or depriving students of their rights.
Students in the CPS system deal with the social conformities that have been constructed: gender has been a topic that has sparked many controversies in the past decade. Reports from GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education System Network) have brought to light many realities facing youth today in the education system. In the question of answering what gender is, some students were surveyed about questions of what it meant to be a boy or girl. Some people argue that schools are relatively safe. The report GLSEN conducted called, “Playground and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States” show “the need for elementary schools to do more to address issues on homophobia, gender expression and family diversity (Marra, 2012, p.1).” The report has been the first national study to look at homophobia, gender and nonconformity in elementary schools. The view on how one is supposed to act and be is affecting children across the board because teachers have yet to teach a simple lesson of love, respect and unity.
Sexuality based on self expression has swept the hallways of the education system. This on a larger scale can create danger in our school systems. Reports from GLSEN estimate 84.6% of LGBTQ students reported being verbally harassed, 40.1% reported being physically harassed and 18.8% reported being physically assaulted at school (Marra, 2012, p.1). This shows that the number of students having to deal with issues of homophobia in their classrooms has increased and is being dismissed. Having these issue in schools nationwide has abrupted a sense of hostility inside classrooms causing grades to go down, harassment to go up, and more suicides per year of students. This applies to the issue of education because we have entered a new era of technology where everybody is bombarded by the media. The media presents values of society, which later instills in us a moral we have to uphold. Students are no exception to this fact of life. The current schooling system does not allow “optimal learning environments for all students, but there is a larger need to provide educational tools and resources that enhance their [the students’] understanding of gender non-conforming students and families (GLSEN, 2011).” For students to feel safe and to be able to thrive there must be a sense of community.
In 1951 Solomon Asch performed a “Conformity Experiment” to depict the effects society or a large group has on an individual. Asch found of that when a person tries to go against what a larger group is saying, that the person will later give in to what others around him are saying no matter if it’s wrong. Three fourths of students report that students at their school are called names, made fun of or bullied with at least some regularity. Most commonly this is because of student’s looks or body size (67% of the time), followed by not being good at sports (37% of the time), how well they do at school work (26%), not conforming to traditional gender norms/roles (23% of the time), or because other people think they’re gay (21% of the time) (GLSEN, 2011, p.1). This provides a more clearer picture as how bullying in schools increases while others are left to suffer in silence. And although Chicago Public Schools may report “safe schools” the data from GLSEN’s reports argue otherwise. The majority “57% who experience harassment in schools, regardless of demographics for reason for harassment, never report these incidents of harassment to teachers or other school personnel (GLSEN, 2011, p.1).” If schools were to be safe as officials in CPS say they are then problems such as bullying would not be an issue. Although, getting a degree for teaching is as easy as logging into your computer, that doesn’t mean that the quality is as good it it should be.
Court cases such as Plessy v. Furguson, Brown v. the Board of Education, Engel v. Vitale, and others have brought to the attention of the Supreme Court the quality or some form of restitution for those who have not been five their fair share of the “American Dream”. In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the Supreme Court passed a law that would give parents the opportunity to go to private Jesuit schools, that same year the percentage of whites going to private schools soared (Fairlie, 2006, p.4). The majority of students in public schooling systems are people of color or of low income. Places with selective enrollment give home to more middle to upper class students (Fairlie, 2006, p.4). In Plessy v. Furguson, the Supreme Court passes a “separate, but equal” law allowing that the education system be racially divided as long as its equal in “quality”. During the Jim Crow Era, racial segregation was far from equal; African Americans had the worse treatment and the worst educational resources for their students. It was not until the Freedom Schools in Mississippi that brought different student from colleges, primarily white at the time, that people were given a chance to obtain a quality education. Its has only been 50 years since the Civil Rights Movement, change does not happen overnight. Oppression exists only if we allow it to exist in these spaces such as the education field: “one in ten students who do not report these incidents [problems such as bullying] don’t so so because they believe teachers or staff don’t do anything or are powerless to improve the situation (GlSEN, 2011, p.1).” The clear line between private v. public schools are clear. There is an unequal distribution in how the government as an institution and agency is driving education to become. The aims of the current education system as exemplified by Rahm’s current actions are to privatize education to produce profit gains (Washington, 2012, p.1). This throws quality and the emphasis for a better education system out the window and replaces it with better ways to include the private sector in the public sector. Issues on how to deal properly of the education system are fought behemothly by the Chicago Teachers’ Union and other grassroots organizations oppose against the rise of the private sector in the education system.