My Thought as I Journey Through this Class (Part 3) Class Diversity

 I didn't understand why we were reading about class structure in America in relationship to why we need to expose our students to more multicultural books.  I know that these books will enrich their understandings of different people and construct more meaning into who they are.  I read a couple of the articles given, and I didn't see the tie end until now.  Children of poor means have fewer chances of making it.  They have fewer chances of finishing high school let alone going on to a good college and beyond into a successful career.  All of a sudden, the light came on, and I wanted to keep reading.

 It seems the gap between high achievers and lowest achievers is now a class gap, as opposed to an ethnic gap 50 years ago.  Wealth is becoming a stronger predictor of success in school today than ever before.  The question is what can we do about it.  It is our job as educators to bridge this gap.  What tools do we already possess to do this? Or, do we have to find it through petitioning the school system or beyond through legislation to clear more money for education.  Those are the questions I'm always asking myself when I'm reading about a problem in education.  My mind goes straight forth to, “Okay, now what?”.  “You have convinced me there is a problem, but will you tell me a good way to solve it.”

 I like the idea of chat clubs.  Parents can share strategies on how to give their kids the most learning opportunities.  Parents that can't afford to send their kids to many extracurricular events can use other means to expand their child's mind.  Having a social network of parents sharing is something that we could have a lot more of.  We need to find a way to transcend the social network to include the middle class and the working class.  I also like the idea of home visit programs.  An expert that can teach parents how to give their kids more opportunities would be similar to the use of a chat room to get the information.  I also believe that putting money into stronger pre-school experiences give kids more opportunities to build more knowledge before going to regular school.

I'm not sure if I agree with the notion that the bottom tier of families put 20% of their saving up for their child's future compared to 5% of the well to do's.  I don't think personally that redistributing wealth is the answer.   I believe the government should be for all people equally, not just the less fortunate.  I was shocked to hear the studies on the success and failures of charter schools.  I'm not all that familiar with charter schools and how they compare and contrast with public schools; moreover, it was interesting to hear that there is a mixed success and fail rate.  I would assume the charter school was going to turn out higher performances than public school consistently.  I will be interested in reading more about why some of them are failing.

Finally, I am starting to build a concept in my mind.  This may be a little premature.  Can I, as an educator, be a resource in decreasing the gap in achievement by putting more books into students hands?  Not only putting them there but teaching them why it is important to read about other cultures and about more their own.  I am looking forward to requiring more knowledge on multicultural literature, and how to effectively use it in the classroom.

Thanks

Tom Collins