Lonnie and James are different when talking about things that interest them. They both, though, are very motivated to have a career for themselves and they know that they have to do well in school in order for them to succeed in their dreams. Their environments affect them greatly. With Lonnie, he isn't given as much resources in school and outside of school as James does. This saddens me because these schools are in the same district. James has an after school community program that influences community building with his peers. Lonnie does not have anything like that. He doesn't have a safe place where he can go to hang out with friends. Unlike James, he really doesn't have anywhere to go to get help with his schoolwork.
The resources the two schools provide for the students are very different. In Lonnie's school, some teachers weren't certified to teach the subject. They had gym teachers teach the math or science classes. Even if the teachers pass their students, they are still not learning the right material they should be at their age. In James' school, they were given microscopes in the science class. They had hands on activities to learn from and therefore were very motivated to learn the content. Whereas in Lonnie's school, their science experiments consisted of them stepping on to their chair and stepping off. The students weren't intrinsically motivated because the lessons sucked. They felt it was a joke. It felt like the teacher's expectations at James' school were much higher than Lonnie's. I think Lonnie's teacher felt like they were more like babysitters than teachers. They really didn't care if their students succeeded or not. Whereas James' teachers really cared about the achievement of their students. They wanted them to succeed.
Since James' school was equipped with a lot more resources, they were able to do lessons that intrinsically motivated them. The science teacher was able to use microscopes to teach them. Also, since the teachers were all certified, I think the students have more respect for them. If I were Lonnie, I would not want to learn from the science teacher. I would think he doesn't know anything about science because he isn't qualified to teach it. At the end of the video, Lonnie knew he wouldn't learn what he needs to at the school. He told his mother that he didn't want to come back next year. If his mother took him to the same school, I could see Lonnie try to skip class and want to attend school.
I was wondering the same thing about the two schools. Quite honestly, I feel like they probably are this unequal still. Not to be a pessimist, but I often think that if a school gets in the situation of having little funds, it would be hard to get out of, especially in this economy. Hopefully, James' school has been able to stay nice despite the lowering economy. I hadn't thought about the fact that students wouldn't respect teachers that weren't certified, but that's a really good point. If I had a teacher in high school who wasn't certified to teach that subject, I definitely wouldn't take them seriously. They might be too young in elementary school to realize that the teacher doesn't really know what he's doing... but at the same time, they also might be able to tell, and if they can tell, they definitely wouldn't respect him as much. Good point!
ReplyDeleteI also thought the same thing. I also wondered when this video was made, it seems to be a few years old already, so an update would be nice. But I agree with Shannon. Since this video does seem to be a little older, the economy has definitely gone down since then. The chances that Lonnie's school made a turn-around is extremely unlikely. The job market also is down, which leads to even more of an unlikely chance for certified teachers applying, or wanting to apply for a position at Lonnie's school. However, perhaps due to the job market, certified teachers could try applying to Lonnie's school, if no other place is hiring. Which can lead to a greater chance for equality. I think an update on this video would definitely provide some good answers.
ReplyDelete