Prompt 2- Kozol

There is no available information on InfoWorks for the school I’ve been tutoring at, so I will write of the linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics from my observations solely. The classroom I am tutoring in consists of mainly Hispanic children, whose first language is not English, and come from low income families. There is one Caucasian boy, and two or three African American girls. In the hallways I see students of Hispanic descent and again, few Caucasian and African Americans students. There is no diversity amongst the students of my Elementary school as all of the students are from the same general ethnic, linguistic, and sociocultural background. The teachers in my school are mainly Hispanic or Caucasian also.

The cultural capital surrounds the majority of the students, teachers, and Principal’s ethnicity. Because the majority of the school is Hispanic, the culture of the school demonstrates that clearly. Having teachers speak Spanish to the students, a Principal who speaks Spanish and communicate between parents who don’t speak English and teachers who don’t speak Spanish are some of the ways the school accommodates the Spanish speaking community. The lack of diversity in the classroom does not support a democracy.

Jonathon Kozol writes of segregation in Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid. Kozol believes that segregation is the reason for inequalities in schools. He finds that the school that are populated with mainly black or Hispanic students often have poor funding, are overpopulated, and develop poor teaching systems, while schools that have a large white population tend to be better. Personally, I believe that the topic of segregation is due more to class rather than race. Low-income families tend to not send their children to privately school, are often not as involved in their child’s education, and pay lower property tax, which determines the funding of the school. Weather segregation is because of race or class, the issue still exists, and is affecting children everywhere. Although the school I’ve been tutoring at does not have the same problems as the schools in Kozol’s article, all schools that are segregated have problems which need to be addressed. Having one ethnic majority hurts the school environment and the socialization of the students.

Another thing I found interesting was on my first day going to the school to tutor I went to the office to sign in and waited for the secretaries to acknowledge me to tell them my business at the school. While I waited the secretary answered the phone. The secretary said “I don’t speak Spanish”. Again, “I don’t speak Spanish!” And yet again, “I DON’T SPEAK SPANISH!!” she was yelling by the third time. All I could think is if she honestly thought the louder her voice got, the more the person on the other end of the phone would be able to understand her? Spanish speaking people don’t understand English not because they are hearing impaired, but because they don’t know the language. This exchange seemed strange to me at the time, but the more time I spend there, the stranger it was.

Considering the school is made up of mainly Hispanic children, some of whom are bilingual, and the community the school is in is made up largely of Hispanic people, this secretary handled the situation very oddly. She, being a white, English speaking woman, assumed that the person calling her should be able to speak English as well as their native language. I believe this situation relates to Delipt, because the secretary is in the culture of power, and expects others to be the same as her.