After reading the two chapters and watching all the videos associated with this module, I was very intrigued by one of the graphs in Chapter 11. There are three graphs shown in Chapter 11.1 that talk about race & high school dropout rate, income & college attendance, and race & the likelihood of obtaining a college degree. The third graph which shows that White and Asian/Pacific Islanders clearly are the majority who earn a degree was staggering to me. Attending college myself, but mainly online, I had no idea the gap between the races was so big. I worked for Alpine School District for the last 9 years as a custodian and mainly in Title I schools. I have witnessed firsthand the number of kids in each class as I would search the school for more desks each time a new student was added. Most of the schools I worked in were located in run-down areas where you could tell both parents worked hard to provide and the kids were often left alone at home after school to attempt their homework. Chapter 11 talks about this more in detail as it explains that most children who do not go to college come from lower-income neighborhoods. “Sustained exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods…throughout the entire childhood life course has a devastating impact on the chances of graduating from high school” (Wodtke et al., 2011, p. 731) Kids that don’t graduate high school, don’t attend college. These kids don’t have many adult role models around them to show them that college would be an amazing opportunity to achieve more in life. Most of the parents have little or no education and so they can’t help their kids or show them the benefits of a college education. The schools in low-income areas are older and lack the necessary things for students to excel. I had to deal with many broken desks and chairs, projectors that constantly needed to be fixed, a lack of playground equipment, heating and cooling issues in the buildings that would freeze or overheat the kids as they tried to pay attention to their teachers, and much more. Discipline problems were common daily as there were more students in the classroom than the teacher could manage and an overworked principal and vice-principal that needed to set them all straight.
The Ted talk given by Kandice Sumner for this module was amazing and I watched it several times to really get what she was saying. She specifically uses the words college-educated when she talks about her parents because that is what sets her apart from other kids in the neighborhood she grew up in. The fact that they had college degrees and knew the system is what made them put her in a different school an hour's bus ride away so that she too could get a better education than the other kids down the street. Her parents were aware of the fact that she would most likely not achieve all the goals they had for her if she stayed in the school in her area. Even as a small child she questioned this and knew it was not fair that those in poorer neighborhoods get less of an education than those in richer neighborhoods. At the 3:36 mark in the video she states “But what about everyone else, there are thousands of kids just like me who deserve this too. Why doesn’t everyone get this? Why is a high-quality education only exclusive to the rich?” (Sumner 3:36) Because her parents understood the system they made sure she did not just become another statistic, they had the resources and ability to provide something more for her and so they did. Because of that, she was able to become an educator herself and help those kids who live in poorer neighborhoods achieve greatness as well.
“A college degree today is a virtual requirement for a decent-paying job.” (Chapter 11.1) There are so many different factors that create this race gap in college, but somehow it all goes back to poverty and education. If you are poor you most likely live in an area with other people who do not make a lot of money. The schools in that area suffer and are underfunded. The kids that attend those schools don’t have the resources and role models around them to want to do better for themselves. Crime and violence in those areas add to the stress those kids already have in their lives and don’t help them learn while they are in school. It seems like a vicious cycle that will keep repeating itself unless it is stopped.
Sources:
Wodtke, G. T., Harding, D. J., & Elwert, F. (2011). Neighborhood effects in temporal perspective: The impact of long-term exposure to concentrated disadvantage on high school graduation. American Sociological Review, 76(5), 713–736.
Sumner, Kandice (2015) How America’s public schools keep kids in poverty. Ted Talk watched on Youtube. (3:36-3:50)
https://open.lib.umn.edu/socialproblems/chapter/11-1-an-overview-of-education-in-the-united-states/
[Paper written for SOC 1020 class UVU Spring 2023]
Amy Brouwer . 2024 . All Right Reserved
