Unequal Education Blog

• Discuss one question, confusion, or "I wonder...." you have from watching the video.
• I wonder if Lonnie would have a better attitude if he was not constantly being told what he is doing wrong. I feel that a little more positive reinforcement would be really good for students such as Lonnie.
• Are Lonnie and James very different children? How do their environments affect them?
• Lonnie and James are not very different children but their opportunities they are given are very different. At one point in the video Lonnie talks about how people tell him that since he lives in the "ghetto" he is not going to go anywhere in life and is not going to make any money. If a child is constantly being told that they are not going to succeed in life they are going to believe it themselves. James on the other hand goes to a school where all the students interviewed said that they wanted to attend schools such as Columbia and Yale. They did not say it like it was an out of reach goal because they have teachers and parents who push them and let them know that if they work hard enough they can attend these big schools and become very successful.
• What is different or unequal about the two schools? How do opportunities to learn differ? How do teacher expectations differ? How might these contribute to the achievement gap?
• There are many things that are different or unequal about JHS 141 and IS137. A few things that they mentioned that were unequal was the fact that IS137 had keyboards in their music class while JHS141 had an entire orchestra full of different instruments; the middle class school had a large outdoor track and field while IS137 had gym class in an overcrowded indoor gym. The biggest thing that was unequal in the two schools were the teachers. All of JHS141's teachers are specialized in the subject area that they teacher while the majority of IS137's teachers have not ever taken one credit in the subject area they are teaching. Having teachers who are not certified in their subject area does not give students the proper opportunities they need to become successful and motivated to learn. Teachers who work in the middle class schools also have higher expectations for their students and that can make a large difference on how students gain information. When a teacher has higher expectations for their students they are more likely to try and motivate the students which gets the students more interested and willing to participate. The teachers and parents have a huge impact on the achievement gap between the two schools because they are the people who are influencing the way the students learn.
• Based on what you know about motivation and learning, why might students from Riverdale be more likely to succeed academically? What can you see happening to Lonnie in the video (especially towards the end)?
• Students who attend Riverdale are constantly being told that they are going to be successful while students who attend IS137 are not. I am a ballet teacher and the first thing that I tell my students is not never say that they can not do something. If you tell students that they can not do something they will start to believe it. In the beginning of the video Lonnie had dreams of becoming a lawyer and that slowly turned into him wanting to be a professional basketball player. This happened because he was not doing as well in school anymore and he was no longer being motivated. He was self-motivating for a while but when he heard his teachers talking to his mom about their disappointment in him his confidence dropped to an all time low and he said that he was not coming back to IS137 next year. If Lonnie was given the right opportunities and motivation he could be a very successful student.