10/21/13

Should we have compassion for a community callus?



I believe that we should have compassion for a community callus because it's intuitive and important that we recgonize the bad problems that are happening elsewhere, and the effects that it has for families and adolscents. Our concerns drive us in making a difference to transform the negativites into a more positive and safe community for ourselves, and for people living in other neighborhoods. For instance, Gregor Boyle said, ""I can't explain how the poor in Bolivia evangelized me.. but they turned me inside out, and from that moment forward I only wanted to walk with them"" (Boyle 1). As a church Pastor, Boyle was scheduled to work at Santa Clara University to run a student service program, but he decided to stay at Dolores Mission Church, the poorest parish in LA archdiocese. Boyle percieved major worries for gang related activities in his community, and therefore; made the decision to spend his time converting gang members and guiding them towards a better future. Compassion builds motive in making a difference for a community and for the lives of others, just like it did for Boyle. Caring for others is an act of kindness and if we can make a difference in a community, people will look up to us. People who are suffering physically and mentally will have someone to turn too for help and advice, it presents to him or her a sign of hope to turn over a new leaf, moreover; bettering themselves as an individual. For example, he or she can be an alchohic, a drug addict, or a gang member, and etc., and with a caring attitude, we can put effort in turning people's lives and making them feel important. It's important that we have sympathy for people who are in need of help because sometimes a small concern can lead to a drastic change. Whether it's changing a person or a whole community, being compassionate will make oneself realize that it's our responsability to aid those who are in need of help and giving them a better tomorrow.

9 paragraph assignment

            A great number of children in urban neighborhoods attend schools that are lowly funded so students are not supplied with the proper school resources and they feel like their school district are treating them unfairly. Students are aware of how bad their schools are because they aren’t provided with the simple materials and resources that will bring excitement when they go and moreover, children state the obvious differences between their poor schools to other schools that are in the surban neighborhoods.  Poorly funded schools that are filled with young children might not recognize it at first, but shortly, “adolescents in the poorest neighborhoods learn very soon that they are getting less than children in the wealthier school districts”(Kazul, Jonathon 57). The students that attend schools inside their districts in the state of Illinois perceive the differences of quality and quantity of the materials that they don’t have and compare it to other children who do attend better schools in the urban neighborhoods.  Children that live in poorly finance neighborhoods cannot be fooled about injustice because they see it everywhere around them and especially when they go to school each and every morning surrounded in such an indigent environment.  Students see children on T.V and see how they are able to travel for athletic competition with new sport equipment that is provided to each individual on the team. Due to what they perceived, the suburban students detect the unfairness from what the school offers them, and those students feel mistreated and angry because he or she isn’t provide with that sort of brand name sport equipment at the school they attend because they receive a limited amount of athletic equipment that isn’t even enough for half the students, and moreover; most of the materials are either worn out or broken which isn’t even useful for students to enjoy and have fun with other kids. Also, they see a happy environment when they visit schools in the suburban neighborhood and hear positive things from their friends who goes to a better school than them. The unhappy students describe the other children as “rich” kids who have access to a library, encyclopedias, and computers so they start to grow unjust feelings because he or she recognizes how much less they’re getting than the wealthier kids. The urban children regard themselves as victims in their own school and therefore, local school systems should find a way to get sufficient funding in order to present an equitable school environment for children who live in poverty- stricken neighborhoods.

            Urban districts portray bitter and despairing images for students who begin their morning ritual in bad conditioned schools without resources and along with a lack of premises. Children raised in the urban view their community as a sad place from their perspective, due to living in a low funded, segregated town with families and children who are struggling, similar to theirs. Student’s early life experiences affect them mentally and place them in an emotional state of mind. Schools have the responsibility to supply its students with accommodating materials and nourishment and “Camden High School.. can’t afford facilities for lunch, so 2,000 children leave school daily to obtain lunch elsewhere” (Kazul 141). It’s a frustrating feeling for the adolescents whom are attending Camden High, located in the state of New Jersey. Camden High is so poor on income that they aren’t able to provide a decent meal to students since the school can’t afford a cafeteria for the children during lunch hour, and moreover; students are insisted to return to school after their lunch break is over.  The poor conditions in low funded schools leave students and parents unhappy. Students spend early mornings sitting in a class and they can’t even get food at their own school when the lunch bell ring and sometimes, parents might not be home to feed their kids if children choose to return home for a warm meal, there’s a possibility that they go home to an empty refrigerator as well and if the school and their shelter doesn’t provide nourishment for them, who else would? Students might not even have money in the first place to purchase food in a liquor store or a fast food restaurant because parents are expecting their kids to get free lunch directly at their school due to the income that they make. It’s a disappointing feeling and it leaves students unhappy because they are being treated so badly in their community, a place that is supposed to provide students with a good education, supplying them with resources and facilities for them to enjoy and getting food to fill up their empty stomache. The struggles of low funded schools leave a child unhealthy because schools aren’t able to provide them lunch and if no action takes place, students will return to their same sentiment about their school environment.

            Furthermore, children will not value their education when they come into a poorly funded school, especially when their classroom doesn’t provide them enough materials for everyone to use. Students will dislike waking up early in the morning, entering a class and being forced to wait patiently until what they need is available to them and this problem causes a child to feel unimportant and separated from the other classmates that are part of the learning circle. A 16 year old teenager inform Kazul, ““there are 42 students in my science class, 40 in my English class- 45 in my home room. When all the kids show up, five of us have to stand in the back”” (Kazul 111). The teenage student from New York City who attends school in the Bronx was not happy about the situation because while students are being seated, he has to stand in the back of the class with the rest of the students who are left out and frustrated, moreover; causing him to phone Jonathan Kazul and notifying him about the problem. The student try to make an effort in  getting help to change the situation that is happening in his classrooms, he’s unhappy about coming to school, unable to sit in front of a desk and learn. It isn’t right for children who don’t have any other choice but to stand up in their class due to a large capacity of students with not enough chairs for those who choose to show up to class for a purpose. The purpose can be: children value their education, he or she enjoys learning, and they want to graduate high school and make it to college! So the fact that the 16 year old teen had to stand in the back, it effects his precious time because it’s slowly being wasted due to lack of chairs. He won’t be able to participate in class assignments or activities because there is no spot for him at a desk, and he won’t be able to collaborate nor do group work with the other students! If the problem isn’t resolved, majority of students will give up from coming to school because he or she doesn’t tolerate the problem that has been happening more than once, it leaves them with a bad attitude and gives them no good reason for why they should show up every day. Change needs to happen in order to improve the learning system for children or else every other kid will be kicked in the back, giving them an unwanted feeling and students will no longer recognize the Importance of education.

            Children in the urban neighborhood who attend school in their community will feel like they’re being fairly treated if their school was able to provide the students with proper class tools and newly equipment. Urban students will no longer look at their school differently or compare what they don’t have when they see or hear about what the wealthier children in their school districts are provided with because they will no longer feel like they are unimportant. For example, if the urban children had a nice library, a gym with working sport equipment, and proper science tools, they will feel equivalent to the rest of the students at other schools that are located in wealthier districts.  The children will feel better as students because with all the school resource and activity rooms that are provided, it gives them a chance to improve their learning, and a chance to show off their athletic abilities by joining a sport team. Students in science class will have a better advantage of understanding the intended lesson that the teacher is trying to educate them because they are able to use sufficient tools in their science lab, they will acquire the same knowledge that the wealthier children are receiving.  Also, with a nice library, they will have access to an unlimited amount of books to get their head into and enjoy what they have. Furthermore, a sport field will bring the students fun and excitement, enable them to have sport teams so they can travel to other schools and meet other children.  Urban children will feel fairly educated and equally treated if their schools provided them the sufficient school resources and premises, it leaves them feeling important as the rest of the children living in the suburban neighborhood.

            Besides feeling fairly treated, school resources will bring happiness within every student because it makes them feel like they’re attending a good school, allowing every child to operate with new conditioned materials. Students will sense a positive vibe about their class environment and moreover, a child will feel more confident with all the resources that are provide because it’s helpful and useful to them when they’re in school.” “What I need are new electrics.. they’d love it!”” (kazul, 138) says a typing teacher at Pyne Point Junior High, during her interview with Kazul. The female typing teacher have been at Pyne Point Junior high for many years and she recognize the attitude that children possess when they are using the Olympian machines. The typewriters that are provided to students is not a modern typing lab but a historical typewriter that have been there since she had parents of the children that are in her class. School materials like new computers, art supplies and books will make a child feel good about coming to school because he or she knows that they’ll have a productive day ahead of them when they wake up in the morning. New computers will allow students to experience the new technology and they’ll get to work with up to date machines that allow them to use new documents, it’ll work faster and won’t break down, or freeze when students are using them. Also, If students had new art supplies in their art class, they will enjoy coming to class because he or she knows that every student will be provided with art tools and that’ll allow students to enjoy their time painting and drawing whatever they want without having to share, or wait for their turn. And the new books that are supplied, children will appreciate them instead of complaining about missing pages and how worn out or ripped they are. A school that supply their classrooms with new and proper school resources will affect every child’s attitude because students will feel more happy and positive with what he or she have, and they will value their education more instead of protesting for what they need.

            Another, students will feel more successful when they attend a school that deliver its students with acceptable school resources because it allows a child to acknowledge their school as a place that will prepare them for the future. Students will respect their time that is being spent in a classroom and he or she will be eager to learn instead of feeling weary in their class surrounding. Urban schools will be given a “head start to our children and pre- kindergarten, and materials.. and attractive buildings and enough books and supplies.. sufficient to compete with the suburban schools” (kazul 143). Students from Camden High School will be prepared for class activities, homework assignments and exams if they are provided with proper resources where they can obtain information from. For example, an English teacher assign his or her students’ homework and everything that their students need to know will be from their literature book, and so when every student is provided with the book, and with no missing pages, it will enable students to finish their homework assignment and review what have been taught in class. He or she won’t fall behind in their schooling and students will be prepared to talk about their homework or the lesson that their teacher intended to teach the next morning when they come into class. Furthermore, students will be able to use their book as a study guide for an upcoming test because with books provided to every student, they can bring it home with them and use it as a useful tool to study and obtain knowledge from it. Additionally, with new computers supplied in their computer lab, students are able to do great research and do online activities and moreover, students get to enjoy their technology because it works and it isn’t an ancient machine that will break down easily. Students will feel more confident because they are able to acquire knowledge from their useful school materials and it gives them a positive reason to why school is important.

            Then again, there are circumstances in which school resources aren’t important because it’s based on the student’s attitude, if he or she is willing to use the resources that are provided wisely in order to succeed in their schooling. Students have the obligation to benefit from what they’re educated and supplied with and sometimes children will not value what they have and therefore, will not take their education seriously. Ms. Thornton, a superintendent at the Bayside/ Martin Luther King Elementary School states, “The system had been plague by low academic achievement.. and an almost- annual turnover in leadership” (Johnston, Robert 2). Bayside/ Martin Luther King elementary school is the fourth- highest spending elementary school in California and students who attend the school are provided with a two story library, computer lab and many new equipment. The school spent $12, 100 per student and although the students seem to have it all, their grades don’t add up to an academic paradise. For example, student should be doing better with their abundant resources and benefiting from them, but if majority of students are failing and that proves that it’s the student who is failing, and not the school that is causing them to fail. Students shouldn’t be falling behind and having low grades in class if they are provided with such proper materials, he or she should benefit from it. Sometimes children don’t value what they have and care less about their education. It’s up to a child if he or she is willing to help oneself by using what they’re provided with productively because students can be assign with homework, and they are provided with a nice math book with no ripped pages, and it won’t be useful if they lack the effort in using their book wisely by finishing the homework assignment that have been instructed by his or her teacher. The math homework can be a review to what a student’s teacher intended to teach and if a child decide not to do it, he or she won’t be able to further understand what have been taught in class and therefore, he or she will be behind on the next homework assignment, or even fail a quiz that is given. School materials aren’t the most important thing in urban school districts because students aren’t meeting the academic expectation even though they are provided with many resources that allow them to benefit from and become successful.

            Secondly, school materials doesn’t matter if students are provided with sufficient school resources and are presenting low academic scores for many years. Students may have a hard time in their schooling even if one does put in effort because a child’s success and failure can be based on the lifestyle that he or she is presented with. School officials in the Sausalito district defend the student’s performance by “pointing out that most of their students come from poor, single- parent families, and are at risk for academic failure. Forty- four percent of the district’s students receive special education services” (Johnston 3). Students who attend Bayside/ Martin Luther King Elementary School are endanger of failing their grade level because some students are raised by single parents who are struggling socioeconomically and it effects their ability to help their child’s schooling and moreover; majority of students are in need of further assistance with their school work to boost their grades up. Proper school materials isn’t a necessity if students are failing due to their lack of understanding because sometimes a child needs more help in understanding a class subject. For instance, students in MLK Elementary School are weak in articulation and coordination and it’s the parent’s responsibility in helping a child to improve on one’s weaknesses, and not because students aren’t supplied with decent literature books. A child’s parent(s) can struggle financially due to their low income and sometimes they’re too stressful to deal with their kids, which gives his or child a disadvantage to review what he or she have been learning in class. Also, there are parents who didn’t finish high school nor attended college so it’s more difficult to help their child succeed in school because they don’t have the sufficient knowledge to really help their child enhance their learning ability. In this situation, school resources aren’t a necessity because a student’s success depends on the parent(s) and their social class.

            As important, school materials aren’t relevant if students choose to be inattentive towards their education. Students negligent in learning leads to bad behavior and their unmoral attitude effects their academics. Barry Kaufman, dean of the school education explains the lack of discipline that students present and how “there’s no effort to create a high achieving instructional environment” (Johnston 3). Students at Bayside MLK elementary are provided with so many great equipment and resources to help them succeed and unfortunately, students fail to improve their schooling and do not meet their academic requirements, leaving the school to give a bad impression. For instance, students can be going to school just to go, they do not take the advantage of free education and the school materials that are provided to guide themselves towards a positive pathway to success. Students who don’t care about their education will take it as a joke and therefore, he or she will not take it seriously and goof around in class and can disrespect higher authority like their teachers. Students can be messing around in class by speaking to friends loudly while teachers are instructing, and disrupting the students who do try to learn. The students who neglect their education aren’t interested in listening and learning about what his or her teacher have to offer and therefore, he or she effects the school community.

Oanh Hoang

Professor Monique Williams

English 1A

3 October 2012

 

During the schooling hours, teachers have the obligation to instruct his or her class effectively by giving class lectures and enabling students to collaborate in groups to share one’s personal opinion and ideas with one another, and along with having the right tools for teachers to use in order to advance his or her students learning. Attending a poorly funded school, students aren’t able to meet the expectations of a concept that they’re being teach “because the children do not have appropriate equipment, there are no variables to be observed.  Children in water play in a pre-kindergarten class would learn as much scientific process as these eighth grade kids are learning” (Kazol, Jonathan 140). Students don’t understand the lesson that their instructor is intending to deliver so they are insisted to keep experimenting. The eight grade students at Pyne Point Junior High, located besides Delaware River, was being taught about how the waves form and the students aren’t clearly recognizing the scientific process of what is being tested so they clarify with the wrong answer. The eighth grade students don’t have the materials to really have a deep understanding on why things happen the way they do during their wave experiment so Students wrote in their notebooks, “water splashes” which isn’t correct and therefore, proves that the eighth grade students aren’t fully understanding the science objective so they are slowly falling behind on the knowledge of what his or her teacher is intentionally teaching. The students aren’t to blame because they’re in need of science materials and without the right science tools for the science class, students won’t recognize the phenomena that they’re instructed to observe. Although they are supplied with cheap plastic cocktail glasses, those tools will not be useful because the plastic cocktail glasses aren’t the proper science material and it will affect their learning, allowing them to draw the wrong conclusions during their wave experiment.  Moreover, what they need are saucers with a wide circumference because the he saucers will enable the students to see the water surface, the ripples that are forming after each drop of water and students will be able to give a strong answer of water forming circles until it reaches the circumference of the container. Quality materials are a necessity because it will help teachers to effectively educate his or her students, allowing every child to proficiently identify the intended concept of a certain lesson that is being taught.

 Besides the effective teaching from teachers who have materials to provide to his or her classroom, school materials are important because it helps advance a student’s learning ability. Students will gain more knowledge if they have alternative ways that will help them review what has been taught or spoken in class and with tangible resources supplied in a classroom, it allows a child to further educate themselves. For instance, a number of teachers..do not have books for half the students in their classes” (Kazul 138) at Pyne Point  Junior High, so the parents of those students don’t know what they’re missing and therefore, make no demands. The children who attend the high school is being poorly educated due to lack of materials.  Students need books for their certain classes with different subjects and majority of their teachers aren’t able to provide that material for them so students will feel like they’re falling behind because he or she aren’t provided with the book that they’re supposed to have in the first place.  With no book supplied to a child, he or she won’t be able to participate with the rest of the class and the children who are provided with their class book because there can be class discussion going on or even group chats about what they have been reading and learning about, and the student who’s bookless will feel left out and unable to connect. Also, without a book, students won’t be able to finish homework that have been assigned regard to their class book.  All the questions that they’re supposed to answer is directly from the book and if one lacks the class resource, she or she will have a hard time catching up with the rest of the students and lessons that have been taught from their instructor, and moreover; students won’t be able to study proficiently for an upcoming test because all the information that they need to know and what might show up on their test is from the book.   Students won’t be able to prepare themselves so the lack of their class book effects their knowledge and what they need to obtain in order to pass their exam with a good grade.  Classrooms in every school should provide class materials for every student because without the needed resources, students won’t have an advantage to succeed throughout their classes.

Despite the effectiveness of school materials and how it can help a child, it is important that the school supply students with the classroom materials that is required and the facility that enable students to perform their activities at because it builds a more positive attitude within a student.  The lack of materials can effect a child emotionally and if one attend a school that doesn’t provide enough resources and materials, it will therefore, cause students to consume a negative attitude and they will feel unsuccessful and unhappy about coming to school every morning. Children in New Jersey, those who are part of the track team has to do most of its running in the hallways of school, it buys a minimum of exercise..”(Kazul 157). Members of the track team doesn’t have a decent field where they can practice and improve their running skills and therefore, are instructed to run in the school building where classes are in session.  High school students in East Orange receive physical education which benefits there health, but although they get an amount of exercise, the school is in need of many things: P.E gym, soccer balls, basketballs and lacrosse equipment, jump ropes and a dance studio. The absence of sport equipment effects the school because it doesn’t allow them to have athletic programs. It will make the children upset because there are students who are very athletic and are interested in sports and they don’t have a chance to enjoy their favorite sport, and moreover; to improve on building team sportsmanship because playing a sport teachers a child to work as a team, instead of counting on oneself. Furthermore, with many students in a class, a child will have to take turn and share the equipment.  Children would have to wait for 15 minutes for a chance to hold a jump rope which will build frustration within a child because he or she wouldn’t know if the other student is willing to share or not, and by the time it’s the other child’s turn to use the jump rope, P.E session will be over and it’ll leave children sad because they aren’t able to have fun and do what they love during their P.E class. Sport equipment is important within a child’s education because it brings pleasure and happiness, a positive attitude, and it reminds children that education can bring fun.