This American Life
These readings were really interesting to me. I wasn't really excited to have to listen to an audio version of a reading, but I really did enjoy it. What shocked me a lot was how recent this is. Both talks were released late last year. July of 2015. The issue of segregation and integration are still a huge one and it's clear that it is going to take a very, very long time to clear up. For this week's post, I wanted to do a hyperlinked based one.
562: The Problem We All Live With
In this reading, Nikole-Hannah Jones tells a story of the struggle this particular student went through in the Normandy School District in Missouri. Nikole- Hannah Jones interviewed a student, Mah'ria Martin and her mother, Nedra Martin. Mah'ria went to grade school within the Normandy district for awhile with the school only having one accreditation. When the Missouri State Board of Education pulled all accreditation from Mah'ria's school, they were left with absolutely no accreditations after 15 years of probation. This is where the transfer law kicked in. This law give students that are in an unaccredited school to be able to go to a nearby school for free that does have accreditation. There was a meeting held at the school , Francis Howell , where parents, teachers, students etc. came so they can discuss as a school the changes that would be happening in their school. Students that were attending Normandy had the opportunity to transfer to a "better" school if they wanted to. In Mah'ria's case, she wanted to go to Francis Howell. Francis Howell was a school full of white students and had little to non people of color. At the meeting I mentioned before, parents spoke out and said very rude things. Asking that if these kids from Normandy come,they want metal detectors because apparently these kids were going to be extremely violent. They made comments that I found mean and rude regarding if their children's scores were going to be brought down. They even suggested ways so that these students wouldn't want to attend Francis Howell such as making the school day start earlier so it would be more of a struggle for them to travel. The comments these parents made were surrounding the fact that having Normandy kids come into their school would ruin the school as a whole. Mah'ria wanted to speak up for herself but couldn't get herself to do it because while she was walking up to the microphone, she heard the hurtful things those parents continued to say and agree on. When she started her new school, she was scared of walking in on the first day because she thought it was going to be just as bad as it was at the meeting. Fortunately, things were great on the first day for her. People greeted her in a nice way and she was even able to make a friend. Things changed when her old school, Normandy got the new title of being a non-accredited school. This put them in a whole different category so this meant that all the kids that left when they had the chance to, now had to come back. Nedra Martin found herself struggling once again to get her daughter in a better school. Finally after trying and trying, she got a judge to side with her. Mah'ria got to transfer back to Francis Howell. That was mostly the main points of this certain talk and I liked it because it shows the different views on this matter. As a reader, I was able to pick up on the real issues with segregation in schools and how it affects a students ability to learn.
In this reading, Nikole-Hannah Jones tells a story of the struggle this particular student went through in the Normandy School District in Missouri. Nikole- Hannah Jones interviewed a student, Mah'ria Martin and her mother, Nedra Martin. Mah'ria went to grade school within the Normandy district for awhile with the school only having one accreditation. When the Missouri State Board of Education pulled all accreditation from Mah'ria's school, they were left with absolutely no accreditations after 15 years of probation. This is where the transfer law kicked in. This law give students that are in an unaccredited school to be able to go to a nearby school for free that does have accreditation. There was a meeting held at the school , Francis Howell , where parents, teachers, students etc. came so they can discuss as a school the changes that would be happening in their school. Students that were attending Normandy had the opportunity to transfer to a "better" school if they wanted to. In Mah'ria's case, she wanted to go to Francis Howell. Francis Howell was a school full of white students and had little to non people of color. At the meeting I mentioned before, parents spoke out and said very rude things. Asking that if these kids from Normandy come,they want metal detectors because apparently these kids were going to be extremely violent. They made comments that I found mean and rude regarding if their children's scores were going to be brought down. They even suggested ways so that these students wouldn't want to attend Francis Howell such as making the school day start earlier so it would be more of a struggle for them to travel. The comments these parents made were surrounding the fact that having Normandy kids come into their school would ruin the school as a whole. Mah'ria wanted to speak up for herself but couldn't get herself to do it because while she was walking up to the microphone, she heard the hurtful things those parents continued to say and agree on. When she started her new school, she was scared of walking in on the first day because she thought it was going to be just as bad as it was at the meeting. Fortunately, things were great on the first day for her. People greeted her in a nice way and she was even able to make a friend. Things changed when her old school, Normandy got the new title of being a non-accredited school. This put them in a whole different category so this meant that all the kids that left when they had the chance to, now had to come back. Nedra Martin found herself struggling once again to get her daughter in a better school. Finally after trying and trying, she got a judge to side with her. Mah'ria got to transfer back to Francis Howell. That was mostly the main points of this certain talk and I liked it because it shows the different views on this matter. As a reader, I was able to pick up on the real issues with segregation in schools and how it affects a students ability to learn.
563: The Problem We Live With Part 2
In this reading, we get to hear from Chana Joffe-walt about how other people approach this issue. Chana talks about how she knew a young lady Kiana Jackson and how she approached integration with a more positive attitude. Kiana is a person of color and she loves interacting and communication with white people because she liked experiencing something different. This is a different look because usually when students notice skin color differences, they stick to their own color when communicating. Kiana even went to a college where she knew there would be a lot of white people because she says it is important that people step out their comfort zones and experience different things. Along with Kiana as an example, Chana talks about John Brittain and his role in the steps to integration. He fought and fought and was about to create Magnet Schools that allowed all different races to come together in a school so they could learn more/better. More and more people signed up their children in these kinds of schools and notice a huge difference. They also came to conclusions that it wasn't a terrible thing to be integrated. She gave an example of a couple, Ryan and Sarah Welcome who had a more negative view on enrolling their children in Magnet Schools. After visiting and seeing for themselves that these schools are a huge tool, they were able to have a more open mind. I think this reading is a good way to show people the benefits of integrated schools. A lot of people get scared of violence, different levels of learning and things like that but I think this is a great way to give everyone the same opportunities.
In this reading, we get to hear from Chana Joffe-walt about how other people approach this issue. Chana talks about how she knew a young lady Kiana Jackson and how she approached integration with a more positive attitude. Kiana is a person of color and she loves interacting and communication with white people because she liked experiencing something different. This is a different look because usually when students notice skin color differences, they stick to their own color when communicating. Kiana even went to a college where she knew there would be a lot of white people because she says it is important that people step out their comfort zones and experience different things. Along with Kiana as an example, Chana talks about John Brittain and his role in the steps to integration. He fought and fought and was about to create Magnet Schools that allowed all different races to come together in a school so they could learn more/better. More and more people signed up their children in these kinds of schools and notice a huge difference. They also came to conclusions that it wasn't a terrible thing to be integrated. She gave an example of a couple, Ryan and Sarah Welcome who had a more negative view on enrolling their children in Magnet Schools. After visiting and seeing for themselves that these schools are a huge tool, they were able to have a more open mind. I think this reading is a good way to show people the benefits of integrated schools. A lot of people get scared of violence, different levels of learning and things like that but I think this is a great way to give everyone the same opportunities.
Quote From "Separate and Unequal " by Bob Herbert
"Schools are no longer legally segregated, but because of residential patterns, housing discrimination, economic disparities and long-held custom, they most emphatically are in reality."
I think this brings up something very important and it's that event though there is no legal segregation in schools, it's going to happen no matter what because that it the life we live in. Most people choose to stay with others within their own races because that's where they think they seem to belong and fit more.
Article of The Providence Journal
I choose to include this article because I found it interesting that it relates to the school we are in. This article talks about schools in Rhode Island, Colleges for the most part. It seems to come up a lot in class how people view our school. Either people say it's the whitest school they've been to, or they say that it's the most diverse. Out of all the schools in this state at the time, Rhode Island College had the most amount of people of color attending. Each year our school seems to become more and more integrated.
** More on Statistics **
I choose to include this article because I found it interesting that it relates to the school we are in. This article talks about schools in Rhode Island, Colleges for the most part. It seems to come up a lot in class how people view our school. Either people say it's the whitest school they've been to, or they say that it's the most diverse. Out of all the schools in this state at the time, Rhode Island College had the most amount of people of color attending. Each year our school seems to become more and more integrated.
** More on Statistics **
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Connection to Other Texts:
Automatically I can relate this to SCWAAMP. W stands for whiteness in this activity. All these issues revolve around how much we value whiteness in this country. It's easier to go to school and get an education if you're white. It's easier to get a job if you're not a person of color. A lot of people have their stereotypical ways of thinking of people of color and that makes it harder harder to feel equal to white people.
Automatically I can relate this to SCWAAMP. W stands for whiteness in this activity. All these issues revolve around how much we value whiteness in this country. It's easier to go to school and get an education if you're white. It's easier to get a job if you're not a person of color. A lot of people have their stereotypical ways of thinking of people of color and that makes it harder harder to feel equal to white people.
Questions/Comments/Point to Share:
Why must it be so hard to view everyone as equal. We are all capable of the same things but still, I think stereotypes really stick with people. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, not everyone can look past the skin color someone might have. I don't believe that one race is better than the other. Everyone should get an equal and fair opportunity at anything they want to do.
Why must it be so hard to view everyone as equal. We are all capable of the same things but still, I think stereotypes really stick with people. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, not everyone can look past the skin color someone might have. I don't believe that one race is better than the other. Everyone should get an equal and fair opportunity at anything they want to do.
I think this is saying that everyone goes to school, but if you go to a lower end school, you're not getting anywhere near the same education as someone else who goes to a higher end school. Everyone should have equal opportunities so when they go out into the real world after school, they all have a fair shot.
I really enjoyed reading your blog because you brought up many new points that I had not seen while completing the listening's myself. I used the same photo you had on the bottom too :)
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