ES/Soc 499 Cross Cultural Issues in Education: Learning Through Listening

   Spring Break 2001

This book goes on to talk about how we live in a global village and that one of the most striking features of this global village is that there are disparities, Inequalities, and that large and small these disparities run through and across every human community on this planet.  That these inequalities produce tension and polarity.

Why do these inequalities exist?  What can we do to change them?

These are some of the questions that we, as a class, tried to answer in regards to the large numbers of Latino/a and African American students who drop out of High School.

Spring Class 2001

Hello, My name is Jennifer Warden, I am a Junior at Oregon State (Click on the above to check out the campus).  I major in Sociology and minor in Spanish.  I decided to take this class because I needed the extra credit and because I have two children who will be entering school in the next couple of years.

Where to start?!  I could go on for days about all of the things that I learned in this class, However I want to focus on one of the common themes that stood out for me from our readings, stake holders, and personal stories that were shared in this class.  The ideal that in our "global village", it is necessary for each and every one of us to decide as one of our stake holders said "What is the purpose for education?" Is our purpose to continue to let children dropout, or be pushed out, so that they can become available cheap labor for big business or do we want education to provide our children, all of our children with the education to make informed decisions, and become active and positive citizens.  I hope that, like me, you would choose the later part and not only take a class like this, but become MOTIVATED to seek out how to make a personal difference in education and become INVOLVED in the solution.

In this class I learned that approximately 50% of our children don't get that opportunity.  That children beginning as young as Kindergarten are tracked, their path in education is chosen for them on the basis of very subjective observations by teachers who usually were not trained to understand cultural and/or class issues of their students and a teacher training system that does not either provide that training or does not make it a priority in training.

I learned that Budgets are decided by persons in politics who may or may not have had any experience in the education field and who may or may not be aware of the issues of African American or Latino students in specifics, that some Administrators in education are more politically motivated or inspired to work for education reform and other's are more hand's on in approach.  The teacher's and the other student support persons, as I will call them, had a lot to say.  I could write a book on the things that we were told by the teachers, advocacy, and student support groups.

We learned a lot of new vocabulary words to deal with the issues surrounding the drop out rates.  There was a lot of shifting of responsibility and hiding racism behind pretty colorful words, something too common in U.S. culture and something I have been guilty of as well. It was frustrating to hear students, parents, teachers, Administrators, and Legislators who knew so much, had so many wonderful ideas, had so much to say, but were just not being listened to in the top down administration of our current educational system.  Obviously this current system isn't working to the benefit of any of it's participant's least of all the most import part, the STUDENT.

                                                So let's focus on the Student!

www.stuff.com

Almost all of our stake holders expressed the importance of reading, reading while young, having teacher's who know how to teach reading, and the importance of parental involvement.  This class motivated me to check out a program that combines all of these things and more, the inclusion of a normally excluded language or cultural group.

When we visited our stake holders in Independence, I was very impressed with the involvement and motivation of all of the people whom we talked to.  They were very student centered in their motivation and looked for resources and support amongst the community and made significant efforts to do what needed to be done to help the large Latino/a population in their schools.

On April 3rd in the evening, I followed up on an invitation to come and check out this program and I was able to see how wonderful and inclusive a program it is.  Children were excited to come, a child at our presentation night was actually counting the days until it was time for the program.  Parents and children meet for a snack and then parents move into another room to begin discussion on a book, sometimes there are authors that are there to explain the background on the book, However this time we worked with facilitators at each table who encouraged parents to take turns reading and interpreting the feelings, emotions, and issues behind the stories.  This stories theme was on Communication between partners (Husband & Wives) and mutual respect.

In my eight years working with, and advocating for Mexican American women and children in a variety of different agencies and support networks, I have met a lot of really wonderful, strong, motivated women and families.  It was a wonderful experience to be able to sit and listen to such a wonderful group of people, parent's, like me who were empowered to not only learn about a book to share with their children, but most were continuing their own education and this wouldn't have happened without the support of the teachers and community members who were watching children, working on crafts with them and arranged the meeting with packets of information in Spanish that led to further involvement and understanding of their child's education.

The process of this course was a learning experience in itself, and the result for me was that I listen more and better, that I let others lead, and that I get involved.  Racism is a big word that evokes strong feelings and emotions and creates inequality or inequity in our children's education.  Yes, OUR children.  We are like I said at the beginning, living in a global village and the children of today are those whom will be making decisions about our tomorrow.  It is obvious that our current educational system is not working and that people in charge of making decisions that effect a students education should be LISTENING to the student, parents, and administrators on what is best for the student to obtain an equitable education.  However, this requires real motivation and involvement to provide the supports necessary for true student success.

If like me, you are motivated to become involved or you are just curious, check out some of the other wonderful programs that we heard of from our class by clicking below: