rthayil's blog

The classroom is a mess. Students are pacing about, sitting on desks, and speaking in a noisy buzz that fills even the air with a nebulous clutter. There are a few chairs curiously sitting atop the 3 lab tables at the back of the room. I sit towards the back of the room at one of these lab tables watching chaos.

In center city Philadelphia, a progressive public high school boasts of its high success in math and science. Welcome to Ms. T's last period physics class.

In particular, I'm watching Jerome. He's sitting on a desk currently, silently but very noticeably dancing with his head phones in, but every now and then he gets up, walks around, fidgets with lab equipment in the back, flicks his pencil of the side of a desk. He's very versatile when it comes to his physical autonomy, and simply watching him feels distracting.

Lareau states her theoretical perspectives regarding the inequality of education and educational institutions which encompasses different philosophies of child rearing, psychology, and socioeconomic standings and their correlation to each other. According to Lareau, middle class families tend to employ the concerted cultivation approach, while lower income families tend to employ the accomplishment of natural growth approach. She seeks to prove how concerted cultivation leads to a sense of entitlement in children while the accomplishment of natural growth leads to a sense of constraint. Although Lareau attempts to validate both approaches, she notes the significant advantage of the concerted cultivation approach and how it prepares the student for the inevitable life ahead of dealing with the masses of faceless institutions (and how this advantage automatically places others at a disadvantage). While I feel Lareau's theories hold some truth, I find her approach extremely reactionary and her study blind to the other causes of disadvantages in the classroom. In many cases, her observations are skewed to fit her theory and her attempt to distinguish her theory as binary in nature often leaves out the dynamic aspect of family lives, child-rearing methods, and situations. Because of this, the significance of her theory is stunted.

Chapter 1 – Backyard Shenanigans

Chapter 2 – Finding my Voice Through a Trumpet

Chapter 3 – Ms. Sepulveda and Story Telling Contests

Chapter 4 – Finding God and Learning to Question my Beliefs

Chapter 5 – On Breaking a Brick

Chapter 6 – Math Tutoring and High School Culture

Chapter 7 – AP Chemistry and Other Levels of Hell

Chapter 8 – Why are all of My Friends Speaking in Cantonese?

Chapter 9 – For the Love of Math

Chapter 10 – On Embracing a New Culture

Chapter 6 – Math Tutoring and High School Culture

 All you have to do is find the integral of u and the derivative of v and then plug it into the formula. And the integral of u, ex, is just ex, so it's a fairly simple example. Do you see it?  Her eyebrows were furrowed, and the end of her pen was almost completely defaced. She had a nervous habit of gnawing on it. Yeah, I see it. she responded hesitantly.   Excellent! I exclaimed, slapping my thighs with the palms of my hands. In celebration of her understanding, I left the table to pick up our coffees.