This week I read Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol, a powerful book describing several pitfalls of the education system, focused specifically on the "restoration of apartheid schooling in America". This is presented as a bad thing, in case that was not abundantly clear. From Kozol's more than 300 pages on inequalities in funds, buildings, opportunities and teaching methods, I gleaned several things that I could personally relate to: education starts before kindergarten, if learning is not presented in a fun manner when a child begins school they'll always view it as a chore, learning can not take place only in a school environment, and if you personally can't give money to or desegregate the schools, there are other ways to help.
For the past four years I've worked at a daycare. Not just any daycare, but the only five star daycare in Charlotte N.C. For those of you who aren't "in the know" about daycares in Charlotte, competition is fierce. We have more than 100 daycares all fighting over the same 50 or so rich families who are willing to shell out to ensure their children receive the best daycare opportunities. My daycare, Dilworth Child Development Center, as the only five star in town, charges upwards of $300 a week for children. We usually have a waiting list of more than 40 families, all of whom are paying us weekly dues so that when a spot opens up, their children get in. Half of the mothers waiting to get in are still pregnant, and a few aren't even pregnant at all, but plan on it in the next year or so. Below is a link to my "exclusive" daycare's web page.
http://www.dilworthchurch.org/about/childcare/child-dev-center
In return for such high tuition we offer socialization skills, 3 nutritious meals a day, group time, daily crafts, reading, writing, songs teaching about letters, days of the week, months of the year, and so much more. Kids who leave DCDC do phenomenally well in their early school years, thanks to the skills they learn about socialization, the importance of following classroom rules, and the basic skills needed to learn in general. Every child should get that opportunity, not just children of the privileged.
At DCDC we have 118 white children enrolled and 3 black children, 2 of which were adopted by white families and one who is a child of one of the teachers, enrolled using our only scholarship. Where are the minorities going for their Pre-K classes? More often than not, nowhere. It seems ironic that the children getting Pre-K are also the ones whose parents could help them outside of school, while the children not receiving this experience have parents who struggle to give them these skills while working full time.
The state of North Carolina does not have enough funding to allow Pre-K education for all children, meaning before they even reach school age, minority and low income children are already at a massive learning disadvantage. So shame on us as a nation for not supporting these kids! And shame on me as an individual for not knowing what an issue this was before I read Kozol's book. Luckily, advocates have already set funding in motion, and not for segregated Pre-Ks, but for state-funded public programs everyone can attend. As individuals, we can vote to finance this and be proud that more Americans are starting off on an equal foot.
Learning should be fun. Kozol suggested that with the focus on standardized testing, fun has been taken out of the classroom setting. In underfunded minority (and other) schools there are no positive motivations, discussions outside of school curriculum, recess, or allotted times for exploring wrong answers. In light of this information, I challenge individuals to step up. Can we change school curriculum and teachings? Probably not very quickly. But can we personally make learning fun outside of the classroom setting? Absolutely. Even minimal time commitments, such as working with the I Have A Dream Foundation once a week, can show children that learning can be fun. I'd never worked with underprivileged children before my experience with IHAD, quite the opposite in fact. But as soon as I met the children, I realized they're not much different than children I worked with in the past. They had the same zaney personalities, corny jokes and dreams as the children I worked with at DCDC. I got to joke around with students, relate math problems to basketball games (it was a stretch, we all laughed at my lack of b-ball knowledge), and sit down to talk with children once they were finished with their work. They were hilarious! They made light of their impoverished schools by laughing about their lack of textbooks and they asked me about my experiences in college. They wanted to have fun with me, and see me as a person instead of just a tutor assigned to help them for class credit.
IHAD gives children one-on-one tutoring where they can ask questions, get off topic, and pursue topics that interest them the most. They are in an environment where it isn't "lame" to learn, or read. They work toward finishing all homework so they can play with friends and earn things like sleepovers with their friends and tutors. Learning becomes fun, which is ingrained and hopefully gives children a higher rate of graduation. IHAD students certainly boast a much lower dropout rate than is expected for their income rate and race. The problem with programs like IHAD are that they are far and few between. Not every underprivileged student can attend. Where those programs stop is where we as individuals have to step up. We can't say, "We need to dump money on underperforming schools around the nation, trust teachers to come up with their own working curriculum and remain in the school system for years, immediately tear down and rebuild any decaying schools and completely rework the school system that has been in place for decades." No one will listen. But we can vote for more local school funding, advocate Pre-K programs, take time to volunteer for field trips and other school activities outside of the classroom, teach young students learning should be fun, and show them positive role models to look up to. If we take these individual stands, the nation's shame Kozol spoke of won't be able to touch us.
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