If You're Light You're Alright
If You're Brown You Can Stick Around
If You're Black Step Back
As an African-American racism is something that I am familiar with. In Elementary I went to a predominately Caucasian school. During those years of Elementary I did not see skin color. I responded to how a person treated me. It wasn't until I entered into middle school that I was exposed to racism-where I actually attended a majority African-American school. In middle school we were grouped based upon intelligence, meaning all "smart" students had most of their classes together while all "special" students were in the same class. I was grouped with the "smart students" but I was one of few African-American students in those classes. Often my classmates did not want to work with me during group assignments causing the few African-American students to always work together. Also during test our teacher would constantly stand by us to make sure we were not cheating as if we weren't smart enough to actually be in those classes. This made me feel uncomfortable and unwanted. I begin to purposely fail so that I could be demoted to "regular" classes and be around other African-American students. When I was placed into those classes the African-American students actually picked on me and did not accept me because they felt that I was "acting white". I could not understand and with encouragement and support from my mother, father, and grandmother I begin to own my smarts again. I realized that it wasn't me but it was actually the bullies that had issues within themselves. No matter if I was smart or dumb they would find a reason to pick at me. For these reason I do not believe in "identical grouping" I believe that groups should be a mixture of intelligence and learning styles so that students may learn from each other.
A Natural Disaster
In 2008 Haiti experienced a horrific hurricane, not fully recovering from its damages, Haiti was then struck by a earthquake in January 2010. Among the many building that came collapsing down were schools, an important stable to the citizen. Education was viewed as a way to a better life for Haitians.Where would the students go to school? Who would teach them? Two of many important questions that ranged through Haiti. Although education is important it was no longer a priority. Many children along with their families were preoccupied with finding food and shelter even work to make it through such tough times. As teachers were being located and student records recovered Haiti begin to slowly piece together their education system. Some students were sent outside the country to go to other schools as they awaited for their own schools to be repaired, teachers held class and taught in any place that was available, tuition were lowered for the very few schools that received minimal damage after the earthquake.
More on the recovering of schools in Haiti:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/may/31/haiti-earthquakes-schools-trauma
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/19/haiti-needs-schools-who-i_n_468287.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/opinion/17tue1.html
