Monday, February 2 Assignment

Movies

Suburban: American Beauty
This is a movie that depicts suburbia in a very different way. It shows that the all American family has very serious problems. The daughter in the movie is jealous of her popular cheerleader friend. It is typical to see a cheerleader as the most popular girl in school. The girl who is very well read and unique is not very popular. She becomes friends with a boy who uses drugs to escape from the pressures of his father. It shows that high school students from a suburban area face serious issues also.

Urban: Stand and Deliver
This is a movie where Jaime Escalante takes a group of inner city students and teaches them Calculus. It depicts the stereotypical view of an inner city student, very uneducated and disrespectful. After turning the students around Jaime has all of them do very well on the AP exam. This is countered by accusations of cheating. It shows that people could not fathom the idea that inner city kids could make a turnaround like this. It showed what these students had to go through on a daily basis. When they did achieve something special it was not believed to be real.

Rural: Friday Night Lights
In rural Texas the only thing that matters is high school football. The town is very far from everything else and high school football players are treated like gods. They are lawless and their education is not very important. This would just get in the way off football. The tragedy is that when they graduate they have passed the high point of their lives and end up living in that same town forever. It is very similar to urban areas. The students just do not see a way out of a cycle that has continued for years.

Television

Suburban: Full House
This a television show from my youth that is a about a family just outside of San Francisco. It actually shows that not all families are the typical mother, father and children. They have a father, brother-in-law and a best friend all helping to raise three children. Family support is very important in education and these three girls had great family support. The biggest problem about the show was the oversimplification of serious teenage problems such as sex and alcohol. They attacked these problems but it was usually a very easy solution and a happy ending every time. If only it were that easy.

Urban: Boston Public
This was one of my favorite shows. It was about teachers at a high school in Boston. Many of these teachers were very dedicated and worked long hours. It depicted students that got themselves into a lot of trouble with alcohol, sex, drugs and the law. This would drastically affect the teachers. I really like the principal and seeing how he dealt with running a school that his daughter went to. It showed two very important things about principals. One is that principals are very important in having a successful school. The second is that besides being principals, most are parents also. These are two very important roles in the education system.

Rural: Little House on the Prairie
This show depicted the Ingalls family growing up on a prairie. They attended a one room schoolhouse and school seemed to come second to chores on the farm. Also it shows how woman back then really were not expected to become educated in things like math and English. They needed to learn to be homemakers. Although the show took place back in the 1800’s, there are still rural one room schoolhouses that exist today.

Music

Suburban: Mr. Jones
This is a song by Counting Crows. This song really does not have anything to do with suburban education but it is a song that means something to me. When I was in high school I had a substitute teacher named Mr. Jones. He was amazing. He subbed a lot and I really got to know him the four years I was at high school. He knew my older brothers also and always asked about them. I still do not know why he never became a teacher because everybody loved him and he actually taught when he was substituting. I never realized how much you could impact lives even as a substitute teacher until I met him. So every time I here the song Mr. Jones I think of him.

Urban: Gangstas Paradise
This is a song by Coolio that was the theme song of the movie Dangerous Minds. The song opens up:
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life
And realize there's nothing left.
This is the view of some high school students in the inner city. They have been through so much by the time they reach high school. They feel like they have survived a gauntlet and they are still so young. It is very hard to educate students when they feel they are at the end and don’t have much left to give.

Rural: Glory Days
This is a song by Bruce Springsteen. The idea of the song is guys looking back to their high school days as nothing but fun. They were their glory days. This is very common to rural areas. High school can be the highlight of their lives. This song makes me think of high school football players from Texas. It makes me think of them sitting at a bar when they are in their 40’s and still only talking about their good old days of high school.

News

Suburban: Columbine
April 20, 1999 Columbine shook the whole country. In a suburb of Denver two students went into their school and killed 12 students and a teacher. These were two students that were bullied in school and decided to fight back. It is very disturbing to think that teenage students would be capable of such awful acts. But it shows that teenagers can be very fragile and we cannot take anything too lightly. Most thought that guns were only a problem in our urban schools but this showed that it can happen anywhere.

Urban: To Close a School: A Decision Rooted in Data, but Colored by Nuance – February 1, 2009- New York Times

This past week in the Bronx, PS 90 found out that it was going to be shut down. This is the fourteenth school this year that has been told they were shutting down. One problem this creates is overcrowding neighboring schools next year. Also many people are questioning why certain schools are being shut down. Some of the schools failed to raise poor standardized scores on math and English tests. Also the amount of school violence was a factor. I believe this really does not solve much and just pushes the same problems to different schools.

Rural: Amid withering economy, Nevada considers eliminating rural schools-January 25- Los Angeles Times

In Nevada there is a one room school called Lundy Elementary School. This school is in danger of being shut down. This is happening in a lot of places and one room schoolhouse will soon be a thing of the past. (I thought they already were.) The schools offer much more one on one attention and have worked very well for many years. But due to lack of political pull in these small communities and a higher cost per student, these schools are being sacrificed in this economic crisis. This has a potentially huge impact on the small number of students that attend these schools. The most immediate impact will be their 75 minute commute to the nearest school next year. This is two and a half hours a day on a bus. This is a huge obstacle in a student’s quest for a good education.