Robin Goldschmidt
CLQ: Thinking for Change
October 23, 2011
Blog 8
Some very interesting things I found by reading the chapter by Jonathon Kazol are the statistics he states about ethnicity in public high schools. Kazol states that, “In St. Louis, 82 percent of the student population were black or Hispanic; in Philadelphia and Cleveland, 79 percent; in Los Angeles, 84 percent; in Detroit, 96 percent; in Baltimore, 89 percent” (146). I never knew the rates in major cities were this high, I thought it would be a pretty even split between the differing ethnic groups. From my experience in public high school, the ethnic makeup was about 80 to about 90 percent of the student population was white. However, we can see the same rate discussed by Kazol in the MCCS students. I also found it alarming when I read that almost all public schools in New York had libraries, art, and music teachers about 20 to 30 years ago. Now, it is rare to even find a public school with an art or music program as Kazol states that, “Art and music programs had also for the most part disappeared” (149). As we have discussed many times this semester art and music can be an essential part to an individual’s education and the opportunities they will have in the future. With music and art an individual’s mind is able to grow and maybe distracted from the harsh realities of life. Also, these two aspects can also make a student happy and boost their confidence, which will then make them want to attend school and strive for that education. It’s been stated that money is the sole reason that these school systems are faltering and that the students are not having such great success. I do not agree with this notion that it is the most important part, but it does play a smaller role in a person’s education. I agree with Karzol when he stated, “But money alone is surely not the sole response. The values of the parents and the kids themselves must have a role in this as well – you know, housing, health conditions, social factors. “ “other factors” – a term of overall reprieve one often hears – “have got to be considered, too.”” (152). I believe the most important thing for an individual to receive an adequate education is their own personal drive to wanting to receive the education. One can say the biggest problem is money, but I have seen a few people in my high school falter where money is not the issue because they had no interested in going to school and receiving the education. Probably the second most important thing is the community you are exposed to including your parents, if the community and your parents do not place an importance on school then you probably will not place much importance on the fact either. As money is only able to buy you books and school supplies it cannot make an individual want to try in school. Measurement has affected the MCCS students as that is mainly why they are at this school, but I do not think they are not victims of an apartheid education. I believe most of them are there because of the mistakes they have made and because they do not believe education is that important. You can see this as only half the class shows up and the individuals I have worked with have been different every time we have meet. The author of Learning to Lead made an interesting point in his argument stating that, “School Board elections, for example, often draw no more than five percent of eligible voters to the voting booths” (1). This goes hand in hand with what Kazol has been stating, as through school board elections many things can be changed. If parents would take part in these, there could be action taken in order to improve the situations in the poor school systems and the issues can be addressed. However, if individuals or parents do not take part much will not change because many people will believe the situation is fine if there is no complaining from the parents or students. Another important thing stated in the Learning to Lead article is when the authors state, “The Do Something leadership curriculum includes attention to knowledge of community history and affairs as well as issue identification and analysis” (6). This is another important aspect in order to envision and make changes to the current issues that taking part in society, but most notably in the school system as made clear by Kazol. In order to fix the big issue/problem one needs to know the root cause of the problem and then work your way up from there. I found that the author’s of the article Learning to Lead believe in the same issues and on how to fix these problems in society and in both of these cases the school systems. Our colloquium seeks to respond by spreading knowledge about the issues that are occurring and to speak out for those that cannot afford to and those that physically are not able to. Also, the colloquium seeks to actively make a difference in other people’s lives that are less fortunate than those that are attending Dominican. We are speaking up about not making assumptions about people we do not actually know. We need to be respectful for everyone and not make judgments based on an individual’s appearance and from the places they come from. In our case by just looking at the MCCS students as they are teenagers and high school students in the United States, which I was already doing before the colloquium made me aware of the issues that are occurring and what many of them are fighting against.

Article: Westheimer, J., Kahne, J., & Rogers, B. (1999). Learning to Lead: Building on Young People's Desire to 'Do Something. New Designs For Youth Development. Special Issue on Social Justice, 15(3), 41-46.