week 2
When I hear the phrase “educational inequality” what comes to mind is the over funded, expensive private schools that thrive while underfunded public schools suffer. In the reading “Education’s Limitations and its Racial Possibilities” Prudence L. Carter writes about how data from the National Center of Poverty shows how children who are 18 and younger “who live in either low-income or poor households, nearly two out of three African American, Native American, and Latinx youth live at or below 200% of the poverty line, compared to less an one out of three of their Asian and White peers.” This meaning these kids cannot afford to go to a school that would have more or just as many resources as a private school has. They must attend their local public school and hope there are enough teachers and enough resources to make it work.
The other reading “Students and University Growing Up Together” written by Irenee R. Beattie and Roger J. Wyan talked about multiple examples of students who were the first in their family to be able to go off to college and graduate. Their parents either made it up to graduating high school or only grade-school. This can relate back to the topic of “educational inequality.” These parents may of not been able to afford to go away to college or could not get by without working full time. They may of also dealt with poor school conditions if they attended a underfunded public school.
What I learned in elementary school about the origins of the United States was a lot of information on the pilgrims. We learned about the Mayflower, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria ships them came from across the ocean and “discovered America.” I do not remember learning much about slavery at this age. It was more so about the pilgrims and the supposed “relationship” they formed with the Native Americans they had come across. In high school I will say we learned a good amount of history on slavery and watched many historical documentaries on the topic. Listening to the 1619 podcast though I can definitely say, for sure, we weren’t taught to the extend we should have been. Nothing bad was ever said about any of the founding fathers in school, especially the fact that many, if not all of them, had slaves of their own. We were basically kept in the dark about the horrible things these men did. Also, no one in school ever pointed out the hypocrisy of what the colonists wrote in the Constitution. As said in the podcast, “from the beginning they knew they were going to violate its most essential principles.”
