"Literacy With an Attitude" Reflection

     While reading this article by Patrick Finn, I can't say I was surprised with the awful evidence of elementary schools that was presented. It happens all around us and even as the school systems get older and say they are progressing, nothing has changed. There are still many differences between schools and what is taught or expected throughout them. The article mentions the different types of elementary schools based on socioeconomic status, and I can see that happening today.
     For my service learning project, I am in a school in Providence with an ESL and ELL third grade class. Many of the teachers in that building have accommodated their work to meet the levels of what they think these children can accomplish (which is not very much). Granted, these children have a tough time with some work because of a language barrier, but they are not pushed to achieve at all. The teachers do not give them most of the work that is required of a third grade student, and when asked about it, they shrug it off and say that the school expects too much from these students and they are not capable of the work. The other children in the classrooms that are not labeled ESL or ELL still are not challenged very much, they are given directions for work and expected to complete it. Discipline is very important in this school, children are told what is expected of them, and the punishments that go hand and hand with that. There is very little creative assignments that I have seen, but one thing I did notice was that a few of the children do talk about enjoying school and wanting to go to college.
     In contrast, the elementary school I went to was in a middle class neighborhood, and we did far more creative assignments and were expected to want a challenge. The work related to topics in and outside the classroom, and I feel as though we were given more freedom. The discipline in my elementary school was present, but was not nearly as prominent. One thing that now stands out to me was that we always got out own books that we were allowed to bring home for homework, unlike the school I am tutoring at. Every socioeconomic class has their own schools which have their own standards just like in the article.
     Throughout a student's time in elementary school, they are constantly tracked and given work that someone of higher authority feels they can do. Students are constantly subjected to standardized testing which allows the  school and government to see how large the achievement gap is and where a student stands as far as ability. It goes beyond elementary schools though, into middle school and high school children are separated into honors classes, AP classes, regular level classes, and remedial or resource level classes. It is very difficult to move from one level to the other once placed there. The school system is setting some children up to succeed and others to expect to fail. And just like the different types of elementary schools in the article, that applies to the different classes as well. The honors/AP classes do more work, but it can relate to current world issues and there is little discipline in these classes because it simply isn't needed. Then you have the remedial/resource classes which many teachers are just expected to handle, and the students know they are put there because they are not ready to be as challenged. This is continuing to happen in schools all over, not just in one particular socioeconomic class. And until the school system works to change how they track students and continuously expect certain things from them, nothing will change.
     Schools systems need to be ready to accommodate all types of students, and be willing to advocate and prepare them to succeed, not just learn how to handle them. In the movie Freedom Writer's, Ms. G worked incredibly hard to make sure her students knew they had a chance at achieving something, or anything they wanted. Their class, gender, race, or anything else did not define them or label them to not make it in this world. She may have been given a remedial level class, but she challenged these students, and built their creativity until they knew they could do better. Until more teachers work to challenge students and push them to exceed what is expected of them, we will still have those different types of schools Finn talks about.
     This video talks about how the school system in place is killing children's creativity. Like in the article, children in different schools are expected to have different levels of creativity and many schools are killing that part of a child's character. We need to change how are children obtain knowledge and their understanding of it in order for all children to want to achieve.