Social Justice in Lower Class Education

Well, I have to admit, I felt like I already touched on this subject once this semester, but I liked it and decided it wasn't bad to have to blog about it again. I was going to take my first approach in which I discussed how the community can work together for social justice in their schools. But then, as I was researching, I found a girl student teachers' final paper for her education course. I found her story really inspiring.

Sara Falls was a student teacher in Detroit. Now, Detroit is probably not the most likely spot to find a young white middle class student teacher. The school that she taught in was 99% black, and for the most part, in poverty. Sara had been taught, like us, to stand up for social justice within the education system. Yet, the school that she was teaching in gave her the exact opposite feeling and emotion. Her master teacher would constantly shut down her high ambitions for the Detroit students. A common phrase she would use was "In five years you'll be voting Republican and checking the stock pages". I just think her whole situation was disgusting. The teacher not having any faith in both her students OR her student teacher. If I had a student teacher in my classroom, and they were trying to make a difference and make learning for my students better, then I would sure as hell let her do her thing. But poor Sara Hills had to realize, as the students told her "Ms. Falls, this is Detroit!"

It's really sad that lower class people most often usually get lower class everything: schools, housing, jobs, and even education! No one wants to put in any effort because they figure, eh, what's the use?! The teacher and student's attitude isn't even the worst part of Ms. Falls story. She was observing in an HONORS senior English classroom. The kids in the class never wrote anything. They didn't learn how to. They didn't write short answers, long essays, 5 paragraphs, heck they couldn't even write 1 paragraph responses. In my AP English class in highschool, we were expected to write 2-3 page papers every week, not to mention a 12 page research paper along with a 10-14 page memoir. But I went to school in a suburban predominantly white middle class area. It's crazy the differences there are. I never expected that just because another area of the country or city was less fortunate in funds, that they were not expected to learn as much or do as well in school. That Detroit high school in which Sara Falls student taught had a 25% graduation rate!

After her disappointing student teaching experience, Sara Falls is still dedicated to social justice in education. She now works at a wonderful school in San Fransisco high school with students who are gifted and eager to learn, even if they are not upper middle class. Sara Falls story was both inspiring and got me more excited to face issues as a teacher. Her paper also gave research questions, research, answers, and tools she used to incorporate social justice into her teaching methods. So I not only found an outstanding story to blog about, I also found a great source to use for my final papers in this class!


Sara Falls Final Paper