In Class/OutClassed

In thinking about whether education levels the playing field, I’m drawn to the experiences of my closest friend and her students.  My friend, Christy, works for the School District of Philadelphia in a disciplinary school.  Before she was assigned to her current school, she worked in more traditional Philly high schools, including Simon Gratz and Kensington Business.  These schools are all in deeply impoverished areas and all have student bodies that are primarily black or Hispanic. 

I mention this because, as we discuss education, we seem to all look at college as the end of the road, but for students like my friend’s, college is not even a possibility.  Many of her students are far behind where standardized tests say they should be in all subjects.  Some of them, high school students, can’t read or write.  They have been passed upward, from grade to grade, based on their age. Their schools have no books, no computers, and no climate control.  They are forced into overcrowded classrooms;  their lives are dictated by budget cuts and teacher lay-offs.  When they leave school for the day, they exit back into a city that doesn’t want them, doesn’t keep them safe, and sees them as criminals.  They are the living embodiment of a citywide tradition of racism and oppression. 

 Yes and No. Education does a good job of preparing youths, rich or poor, for adult life, especially the work phase of it. Education instills a ‘can do’ attitude in us, persuading us to step out of our comfort zone and explore the unknown. For example , through our Emily Balch Seminars, most of us have read, discussed and critically analyzed literary works we would ordinarily have assumed were beyond our comprehension.  We have also developed better self expression, confidence and an expanded view on issues. Education also provides us with free social capital – our classmates and professors. If we fuel those relationships, they can come in handy later in life, such as when we need recommendations for internships or employment. The educational curriculum also makes room for constructive criticism. This helps to refine us into better individuals, and if we learn from our mistakes and corrections, they can prevent us from remaining in a constant phase of trial and error.  We can easily transfer our 3 page paper writing skills into writing business proposals. We can move from making presentations  to our classmates to making presentations at Board meetings; from blogging on moodle or serendip to maintaining a web presence for our businesses or companies; from analyzing data to auditing accounts or conducting market surveys.

So: Jody and I participate in a "creativity group." Tonight, when we were asked to collaborate, with a partner, in writing a poem, or drawing a picture, or....

This week, using the terms "access" and "education" as relative terms to hold up my thesis, I argued that if education in self-awareness was placed alongside academics in schooling, not only would the discrepancies of access be diminished, but ultimately, those people would become happier. I cited Thompkins, whose lack of self-knowledge brought her depression, and Shorris, whose experiment shows how self-reflection can meaningfully affect the lives of the poor.

I do believe in my argument, but the feasibility of such is questionable. While liberal arts colleges emphasise getting to know oneself, I'm not sure how the implementation of "courses" - so to speak - in self-awareness would fare in larger universities or among those who are only interested in schooling to further their careers. Surely a better understanding of the self could benefit anyone, but it could not work if it were forced upon them.

Then comes the question of how it affects those who are unable to continue their schooling. Should the "courses" then be started at a lower level, perhaps high school? How would teachers be trained in leading students on their individual journeys of self-enlightenment? When reading the Thompkins essay, I came across the issue that she seemed to hope that all of her self-knowledge would come at once, as opposed to gradually as she matured and gained more experience. How would this be remedied for those who do not intend to continue schooling after high school?

I struggled greatly with this paper. The prompt was too board for me and I feel like my paper didn't have substance. I tried to focus on how access and education were connected--stemming off from the idea that experience and thought were connected. I tried to explain that education is useless without access and that it is society's job to ensure that everyone is getting an equal access to education. I am not entirely a sure that I got that sentiment across. Its hard to talk about education and access when the definition is so relative. I cant truly express about education, because I have a personal definition of it that applies, I feel, only to me. I wonder if anyone else is struggling with this and it also makes me wonder about how much emphasis there are on definitions.

Until my conference, I had a lot of ideas about access to education, but not really one clear topic to focus on. It wasn't until I told Professor Cohen of an experience one of my friends had in relation to her access to education that I realized it was very relatable to the discussion we had in class on Thursday and the article we read by Earl Shorris. 

In class, Professor Cohen asked us to agree or disagree – in movement – with the statement "The poor must be taught the humanities." (hope that's accurate, there are definitely nuances depending on wording, but I can't remember what the exact words were). I stood in the middle of the classroom but closer to the disagreement side because I decided that though it was certainly important for everyone to learn the humanities, if the poor weren't given the tools to continue that education or make use of it in a life they found fulfilling, there would be no point enforcing such teaching. In my essay I wrote about how one can have access to an academic education, but without practical knowledge or help with the logistics of the college application process (for example) one cannot continue his or her study. This isn't to say that the poor shouldn't have access to the humanities if they cannot afford to go further. I simply believe that in addition to access to the humanities, there should also be access to navigational tools of the sort that help you navigate College Board, write a resume, or even know how to confront someone if you feel a mistake has been made or you've been wronged.

            I don’t think that I really had a clear idea of what to write for this essay and I found it difficult to write due to how broad the topic was. In “reflecting on the relationship between access and education” I found it difficult to get anywhere without first defining “education,” and “access.” I settled on a rather idealistic idea of what education should be which made my essay rather abstract, but I attempted to back my claims with concrete examples from the readings. The claim I attempted to explain throughout my essay was that education should include experiential learning, critical thinking and the obtainment of knowledge. Furthermore, I tried to address the idea that though everyone certainly does not have access to “good” schools, everyone does have access to experiential learning and that this learning should be nurtured in a proper school setting (therefore, there is a need for such a “proper school setting”). In addition, I tried to express the idea that this is the type of education gives a person access to many other entities (good jobs, college, etc.).

" In addition to looking a little different, learning disabilities are common affects of Turner’s Syndrome. Before being diagnosed, many Turner Syndrome girls are actually led to believe they had ADHD or other more general learning disabilities. In my case, I had 11 years before my diagnosis told me the laundry list of things I shouldn’t be able to do and until the point had not been aware of the term “limits.” There are some Turner’s patients who are diagnosed earlier than I was, some even at birth. The average age of diagnosis for Turner’s, however, is around 15 or 16 years old. As a result, each patient has wildly different experiences in their formative years thus noticeably different educational experiences.  " 

For my essay, I decided to focus on how disability can define a student's access to education. As a person with a disability, I focused my paper more or less on Turner's Syndrome and it's impact. Surprisingly, I made some new discoveries about my own disability in researching for the paper. Newer research shows a connection between Turner's and ADD/ADHD. I was previously unaware of the link and a lot of the challenges I have faced academically now make sense. Upon this discovery I discussed it with one of my good friends back home who manages her ADD without meds. When I told her, she responded "You didn't know you had ADD?" I know I can be a little over the top at times and do often drift from work causing me to move at a slower pace, but I had never connected the dots...

As I wrote my essay on access to education, the idea struck me that if we do not appreciate our access to education, in its various forms (both formal and informal), we are missing out even more than if we did not have this access at all. This is especially evident in the case of Luttrell's students--women who undervalued their own common sense, strengthening their desire for a formal education, in Luttrell's class, to help them "become somebody". These women did make significant contributions to their families and to their workplace environment (even when it was a more menial job than that of more formally educated women). However, because they felt a need to be up to par with women like Wendy Luttrell, who could make a name for themselves on the basis of their smarts and their "somebody"-ness, they seemed to want to cut ties with their past education. It costs more than just money to have access to formal education, especially in the case of Doreen's son Tony, who probably would not be pushed to do work in the fields that he showed interest and promise in because his predilection towards them was viewed as mere common sense. In order to truly have an "education that matters" as Edmundson would say, I believe the learner needs to appreciate both what they learn and what they come in already knowing.