Schools for Citizens: Preserving the Republic

In our previous readings we have read about segregation in schools, the actual statistics as to who is occupping our schools, and how race, religion, age, and wealth shouldn't play into someones success in the school environment, but does. In this article (page 20) there are two very intelligent quotes that if payed attention to and put into action, would put everyone in the US on the same playing field so that everyone could be as successful as they want and not be held down by a language, money, or racial ball and chain. The quotes/ ideas are, "that unless we educate our immigrants, they will be our ruin." And, "to sustain an extended republic like our own, there must be national feeling, a national assimilation." I totally agree with both of these statements. I feel that the US has a little false advertizing. They advertize that this is the land of the free, you can do what ever you want and succeed. So families pick up there roots, head over to the US to make there lives better and then geet shut out by society because they can't speak our language, they are "different", and they don't have any money, so now they might be in a worse situation. If the US started assimilating it's immigrants that wouldn't happen and immigrants could achieve everything they want and they would no longer be (as the article reads) "Our Ruin".

Martian Posting

ONE- Schools are seperated into local school districts (there are over 14,000 in the US). They are funded mostly by state and local institutions, and get some money from the national level. What a school is like varies depending on what school district you look at, depending on how much money they have. Some schools are severely undefunded and don’t even have enough money for new textbooks, while others have enough money to buy whatever they want.
TWO- America is also known as, "the melting pot" of the world. The birth of our nations individuals was originally from other countries. Theseindividuals fled there home land in search of opportunity. Because of this we have created a nation full of diversity. One cannot classify a typical American under physical characteristics. The students who fill our classrooms come from all parts of the world. They range in age, knowledge, language, and ethnicity. 53% of students are white, 24% are Latino, 15% African American, 6% multiracial, and 5% Asian. But all have one intended goal, to achieve anything and everything they want, but because of diversity, they can't always do that. America is the land of the free but that doesn't mean that all people are treated equally. It's a shame things are like that, they need changing.
THREE- Most of our teachers are highly educated in their field and are looking to be further educated. But teaching by no means is easy mentally or physically and is not a very diverse job. 9 out of 10 are white, and 8 out of 10 are female. The percentage of teachers who are africn american is ever declining since the 1970’s. Teaching is a very important but highly stressful job, and 46% of new teaches leave within the first 5 years. So if you are looking to be a teacher, make shore it's what you really want to do.

Hodkinson

One of the openning facts in this reading blew me away, "only five states will have a 20 percent (or more) increase in school enrollments; most states will have smaller increases and about nine states will have declines." How are we, as a nation, ever going to dig ourselves out of the "Trench of Segregation" if we can't keep the kids that are in school in school and bring new students into the schools? It's impossible. Schools are the building for success and the majority of people that are "successfull" (even though success is a super subjective word) went to school or had some kind of schooling. The only way that we ,as a nation ,are going to make everys "tomorrow" more successfull is by getting and keeping every kid in some kind of a school!

In response to "Things teachers can neever preparee for."

I have read a few articles like this one and have heard a number of life stories like that and they all make me sick. America is put on a pedestal by the world and is concerned about foreign affairs when in fact it doesn't even take care of it's own people. We (as a country) need to get our priorities straight.

Blog entry numero uno

It was interesting to see an actual breakdown of the ethnicities/races in schools. I found it even more interesting how the projected percentage of ethnicity/race really isn't suppossed to change that much over the next 10 years. Unfortunately the playing field isn't totally equal yet. It still looks like whites are dominating the percentages as opposed to it being evenly spread out between the ethnicities and races. This needs to change.
Another statistic that supprised me was that 27% of school aged students in 2000 were born in foreign countries. I had no idea that 1 in 4 students in 2000 were born in other countries. I guess I grew up in a town that really isn't to diverse.