Alondra Rodriguez Medina

6 December 2017

ENGL 1S

“Living a Dream, Building a Future”

“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a

choice” Brian Herbert. We’ve heard before that education is important and that it prepares you

for the real world, yet we have some students facing discrimination due to their background or

ethnicity. That is not just or supporting the claim “education is the the most powerful weapon we

can use to change the world.” Imagine all the struggles students face in order to receive the

education they are willing to achieve. The public education system is to serve all those in the

community while receiving extra help and financial support. Students that come from different

racial backgrounds have a different experience than the ones that come from a wealthier and

more sophisticated background. Even though some students are equipped with financial support,

they are disempowered caused by the dissent through the public educational system.

Standardization and standard testing limits the students ability to develop their critical

thinking. When students aren’t given the opportunity to develop their learning skills like critical

thinking or critical writing they are forced to be taking tests to determine their intelligence and to

focus on just the basic; Math and Reading. In “The Essentials of a Good Education” by Diane

Ravitch, she points out “Anyone who truly cares about children must be repelled by the

insistence on ranking them, and labeling them. Whatever the tests measure is not the sum and

substance of any child. The tests do not measure character, spirit, heart, soul, potential.” This

idea is important and supports how tests shouldn’t be the number one thing that the schools

should be focusing on. Students aren’t given the opportunity to take any other extracurricular
activities, therefore children can’t develop any other interests or talents from being limited. We

encourage students to be creative and try their best to succeed, but that isn’t happening because

they are judged and labeled, meaning that whatever score they receive on their test is how smart

they really are. In my private elementary school, I remember having the opportunity to take a

variety of classes and be in a open and respected environment. We were never only focused on

one subject more compared to the rest and I never dealt with any discrimination. Some of my

friends that went to a public school would tell me that their teacher wouldn’t provide them with

the same support or attention that I got at my school. They would tell me that they can see the

difference when a teacher teaches for the money and when a teacher teaches because it is their

passion. I’ve noticed that as well. Once I graduated from eighth grade, I went to a public charter

high school. The experience was completely different and wasn’t as comfortable as the

experience I had growing up in a private school. There were teachers that would come into class

write down the agenda and would say what we needed to complete for class and after that would

break us up into groups to help one another out. We did receive some lessons, but it was more of

a learn on your own or learn from each other type of environment.

Stereotypes and racial backgrounds is a form of both empowerment and disempowerment

and how students battle with getting the education they want. Stereotypes are a form of mocking

or a form of making fun of someone’s cultural background. For example, “Mexicans are lazy”,

“Asians are really smart”, “Blacks are only good at playing football” “White people will make it

far in life”. I personally don’t agree with any of these stereotypes, but it's crazy how we

automatically think we know the person just by seeing their race. In the film “Walkout” by

Edward James Olmos, we are given the example of how hispanics students are discriminated and

how they are treated at school. Paula is one example of a student who takes this negative
perspective and uses it in her power to prove everyone wrong and that she is capable of getting

the education she wants. She is motivated to go to college and doesn’t let her home situation get

in the way. She is an exceptional student and goes on a field trip where a group of students go to

a camp that are gifted and where teachers see the potential within them. Paula stands up for her

educational needs and shows a great example of what it means to be empowered. The students

from East Los Angeles high school aren’t allowed to use the restroom during breaks, aren’t given

the opportunity to study about their Hispanic culture, and are always down upon because they

are Hispanics. On the other hand, Fernie is an example of a student who feels disempowered and

decides to just give up due to the treatment he gets from one of his teachers at school. He is

punished by cleaning and sweeping outside and when the teacher tells him to listen and do as

told, he breaks the door’s glass and just walks out. He was tired of the treatment that his

classmates and he was receiving just because of where they come from. He didn’t see the point

in fighting and standing up for what he believed was right. Not getting the opportunity to study

more about their culture felt like their whole culture was a disgrace and that they weren’t valued

like the rest.

Inequality in receiving an education and discrimination due to different school systems is

devastating because while some are getting the opportunity to gain a full curriculum and others

just get the basic necessities. In “The Essentials of a Good Education” by Diane Ravitch she

claims that by not providing a “full and balanced” curriculum to the children, we are lacking

equality for all and how we are not realizing that by taking one decision about what they get to

take we are actually damaging the possibility for them to find themselves and that can make the

children not want to get an education. Every student is different and have different characters,

but because of that difference we shouldn’t be discriminating some and rewarding some while
others get punished. In “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X he explains how he developed the

ability to read through self will and the yearning to learn more and gain knowledge. He describes

how “the ability to read awoke inside him some long dormant, the way a college confers a status

symbol upon its students.” This relates to when John Taylor Gatto makes a point in his reading

“Against Schools” about how he is against schools because schools aren’t really necessary.

There has been people who have gotten an education or knowledge without going to school. He

mentions Farragut, Edison, Twain, Conrad, Margaret Mead. He makes a good point about how

these people didn’t go to school, yet they did achieve goals and made something out of their

lives. It is within the person to have self-will in wanting to get an education and in wanting to

develop their critical thinking and writing skills.

It is important for students to feel empowered because they have the right to get the

education they need. Feeling a form of power in their education motivates them to find out what

they want to achieve in life, learn about the world, get a job, have the chance to prove people and

themselves wrong. It’s incredible how much education can change an individual’s life. Everyone

should have the liberty to get an education and have the freedom of being able to express

themselves through different extracurricular activities. If students are given the opportunity to

study whatever they wanted and not being limited and tested to determine their academic

performance, then they will see the point to going to school. It’s especially important for students

of color to feel empowered because they are the ones who have more obstacles to overcome and

deal with more challenges along their educational journey. Focusing on testing and not being

able to take different courses doesn’t help develop any of their talents or passions. Everything's

the same and since there is no balance, they get bored and don’t care to explore different

possibilities.