I have tried not to spend to much time lamenting about the urban educational system and suburbia’s perceptions of those who they decided to label as urban.  It is something that really upsets, angers and bothers me to the core.  I know I posted a while ago about stereotypes in education and how the accepted stereotypes of minority students determines the substandard education they are give in within an affluent school district.  Something really must be wrong with an educational system if black and Latino and native American kids don’t score any better on standardized tests in these affluent districts than they do in the miserably failing urban schools.  In some cases the minority kids in urban schools score better than those in suburban districts.

When I broach this subject with those in and even outside of education–what I so often get spit back in defense of our educational system is this:

“Well are they residents (of these richer districts)?”

“There is a lot of low income housing around those schools.”

“Most of our behavior problems are from deseg students (kids bussed in from the city)”

“Kids can’t learn if they don’t have all of there basic needs met”

“If mom and dad aren’t educated their kid are going to have a harder time”

These comments make me want to scream and they totally make my argument for me.  Do we really think/believe/accept that all blacks are poor?  In reality 24.7% of blacks live below the poverty line (for those reporting only a single race category to the census)  That is a high percentage but considering blacks make up only 13% of the overall population–approximately 38.4 million and then based on the percentage living below the poverty line there are roughly 9.6 million blacks living in poverty (as defined by the government–I fully accept and understand there are many more who do not fit the poverty numbers but are in essence pretty poor).  Compared with whites–non-hispanic who still make up 66% of the population–approximately 201 million whites non-hispanic and with 8.9% in poverty that makes 17.9 millions whites in poverty.

This means as teacher we are nearly as likely to have a poor white student as we are a poor black student (or close to just as likely–there is a slightly higher chance in urban areas that your black students are going to be poorer but not as much in the suburban areas.)  I taught in a suburban black community and at least half of my students were from middle class families and some of them from upper middle class families. Many of their parents were educated and held degree or in other cases multiple degrees.  But the assumption was often the same–before poor kids can learn they need their needs met, etc.  This is so damaging to students.  Skin color is not the same as socio-economic status.  I am tired of us making excuses for the failures we have let happen when it comes to our educational system.  I think the same can be said for health care. Those who are no affected–rich/white–are quick to point out that it isn’t the system that is failing but the people.

That is so often the argument in education.  I am sick just thinking about the amount of time we spend blaming students for the inability to learn or their lack of desire or interest.  I am tired of the excuse we make for not doing our job to the best of our ability.  I will admit here that I have been guilty of that–I think it is easier at the high school level to write kids off–especially those who have been beaten so badly by the system that they have completely lost hope.  But it is our job as teachers to give them that hope back.  We have to stop with the excuses.  We have to challenge the stereotypes that we have allowed to determine the type of education we were given access to.  We must stand up for change.  The status quo just cannot be allowed to remain the same.  Rhetoric cannot replace action.