I believe that materials do matter, well “new” materials of course because without them, teachers won’t be able to teach their students proficiently which will affect their student’s learning. Teachers need the right school resources in order to provide their students a sufficient education because without the right materials, students won’t be able to recognize the concepts of what the teacher is trying to educate them because not every student learns from listening to teacher’s lectures. For example, for a teacher who is teaching a science class should provide the class with the right science tools and up to date books. With the new materials, his or her students will learn better with the up to date information that is from the book and what’s being told by their instructors, and moreover; when it comes to labs, the right science tools will help them learn why things happen the way they do and it’ll effect their learning because the students get to use materials that gives them a better understanding of the major concepts of what they’re learning in class, and also because they get to test it out and see it for themselves. There are circumstances when school materials do matter and times they do not.  For example, an English class with books that are old but is still providing students to read at their grade level than there shouldn’t be a problem because it’s still useful. Times when school resources do matter is like computer labs, science labs, and art tools for students to use, without it, how can they be doing hands on activities and have fun and learning at the same time. A child feels like learning is boring when they don’t have the right materials, they feel like their life is over.  When students do have the school resources, it build confidence and boost up their self- esteem and it gives them excitement.  We can do donations and put the money to help students get school resources. Citizens that are produced from lack of materials have a negative mentality, no hope and their future is over because students go to school for a reason, but without useful resources, it won’t benefit them much.

In the Article “Dollars don’t mean Success” and the Book, Savage Inequalities, the similarities that I’ve found between the schools stated in the book and Bayside/ Martin Luther King Elementary that was informed in the article were: lack of academic achievement, change of principals, low- income families and low unemployment rate in the area, and racial problems.  The teachers in the urban schools that was stated in the book had a difficulty in helping their students raise their grades up and improving their academic achievement, had many new teachers in such a short time period, and most of the student’s come from a single parent or parents with low- income and living in a segregated town. Bayside school in the article had five principals in six years, the average income there is about $7,500 and unemployment rate is at 30 percent.  No effort to create a high- achieving instructional environment with 72 percent of graduates earning a GPA below 2.0, and majority of the 3,000 residents are African American, with students coming from poor, single- parent families as well and therefore, the schools have many things in common and need to make some positive changes.

              The information that I found in my article doesn’t really relates to my focus but more opposite from my focus. The Bayside/ MLK elementary school have a sufficient funding where there school had new computer labs and new equipment, and a two story library. With all the new and proficient resources that is at that school and provided to the students, it doesn’t really mean anything because students there don’t value what they have and take their education seriously.  Children there lack discipline and teachers have rough times dealing with them and their academic scores are below average, with a school that has everything need to provide a good education for its students. Money doesn’t really mean success for kids because it’s up to them to own their responsibility and take education more seriously, so students who don’t value their resources and use them to better their schooling, than there’s no point in having them in the first place because it isn’t really helping them.