Is Schooling Equitable?

Is Schooling Equitable?

I just want to start this off by saying that this was my favorite module, I really learned a lot and absolutely loved the TedTalks.  The topic over examining disparities in education and systemic racism was amazing. This is a very important topic to talk about that isn't addressed enough. Is schooling equitable; the answer is no it's absolutely not. This goes along with our past module about not getting the full picture. In the TedTalk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie she said that her discovery of African writers saved her from having a single story of what books are. This is a good example of why in schools everywhere we should educate our students in a culturally sensitive way about other cultures and perspectives. Another thing that stood out to me in her TedTalk was "how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again and that is how they become." This is how I was taught in school, and I don't know if I can trust what I learned about our history because it was only one perspective. This is very relevant and is a big problem in schools. I want to learn the histories of more people that look like me and kids want too as well. As a teacher you should be culturally competent, get to know all about your students' differences and cultures. Schooling can never be equitable if we aren't mindful and don't look at everyone the same no matter their sex, race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic class. I also would like to point out in the TedTalk by Bettina Love she said "This impassioned talk explains how students who identify with HipHop culture have been ignored or deemed deficient in schools because of mainstream misconceptions associated with Hip Hop culture. Through Hip Hop, these students embody the characteristics of grit, social and emotional intelligence, and the act improvisation- all of which are proven to be predictors for academic success." I have seen this happen firsthand and it has happened to me. People think Hip Hop is bad or gangster, but they don't even understand the full Hip Hop culture. We should never ignore other cultures; we should want to learn more about them to better understand and get to know our peers. A lot of ethnic students get unfair or unequal treatment because of their ethnicity. They have to sit still, be quiet and may not get the chance to properly learn and grow in their environment. This needs to stop and I honestly don't understand how people's first thought of someone with a different race is bad or dumb. We're all people and more similar to each other than we know.