Stephen Franklin EDUC 709 Reflection 1: Theory and Purpose of Education

January 22, 2015

The five articles assigned for this reflection resonated with me on a very personal level. This is particularly true of Racial
Stereotyping and Deficit Discourse (Solorzano and Yosso, 2001), The Pedagogy of Poverty Versus Good Teaching
(Haberman, 1991) and Social Class and School Knowledge (Anyon, 1981).
I was born and raised in Washington, D.C., also known as Chocolate City due to its historic black majority. Without my
being aware my mother was navigating the idea of social class and school knowledge as presented in Anyons article of
the same name. After my parents divorced when I was in the third grade, my mother moved with my older sister and I
from upper Northeast to far Northeast, close to the Southeast quadrant border. In doing so we moved from a middle class
to a working class neighborhood. The description of the middle class school, the school building has yard in front and on
two sides, and is enclosed by several large trees (Anyon, 1981 pp.12) fit both my elementary and junior high schools. By
the same token, the description of the working class schools in my new neighborhood were also remarkable similar to
those described by Anyon.
Rather than have us attend schools in our new neighborhood, my older sister and I caught three city buses twice daily to
travel across town to attend school in our old neighborhood. My mother understood that while the curriculum was the
same, the methods of teaching were vastly different. This pattern continued through high school, by now I a younger sister
has been added to our family. A single mother, with three children, who worked two jobs, insisted on my older sister and I
going to private high schools. Even though I could walk to the local high school in our new Southeast neighborhood.
Again, I caught 2-3 city buses twice daily to attend an all-boys Catholic college-prep high school. My mother who was
also an educator understood, resistance as a dominant theme (Anyon, 1981) and the class disruptive behavior, and
compliance based teaching that fueled and typified it.
From Racial Stereotyping and Deficit Discourse (Solorzano and Yosso, 2001) recalled experiences I encountered; while
an undergraduate at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, my early teaching career, and as a member of an ACSA
delegation of California administrators to advise fledgling schools in South Africa on curriculum development. As an
extreme minority at Ball State University, I experienced countless subtle and not so subtle manifestations of cultural
deficit discourse (Solorzano and Yosso, 2001, pp.6). Lawrence (1987) points out, occasionally people of color get a
glimpse into this world of subtle and unconscious racism Several of the statements he highlights When I talk about
those Blacks, I really wasnt talking about you, or Youre not like the rest of them, Youre different, were phrases I
heard verbatim from professors and classmates alike.
As any minority will tell you, racism continues to this countrys major problem. The disparity in educational quality, and
other social ills would not be as prevalent if that were not the case. I lived for a period of time in Southern New Jersey,
Atlantic City to be exact, during the 1980s, and observed how racial stereotyping blames unequal outcomes on the
students of color themselves rather than on society and its institutions (Solorzano and Yosso, 2001, pp.6) When I
returned to Washington, D.C.As a social studies teacher, without realizing it, I embraced Critical Race Theory. Perhaps it
was because of being raised in Chocolate City the notion of deficit anything was never a part of my thinking. Or
perhaps it was because I became and educator as a second career with life experiences in corporate America to draw upon.
As a social studies teacher, I challenged, the notion of ahistoricism. I made sure my students understood that history is
always told from the point of the victor, and never the loser or oppressed. If you ask Native Americans, the west wasnt
won, it was lost. I never focused on dates or isolated facts, instead I focused on the understandings of larger concepts, the
connections. I wanted my students to critically understand and question traditional perceptions of historical events.
In 2007 I had the opportunity to travel as part of a delegation of California administrators to South Africa, 13 years
removed from the end of Apartheid, to work with and advise schools in Johannesburg and Cape Town as that country
struggled to move forward. The ideas expressed by Termin (1916) were the foundation of the education system we were
helping to dismantle. Termin said Children of this group should be segregated into separate classesThey cannot
master abstractions but they can often be made efficient workers. Under Apartheid this was called the Bantu education,
named for the dominant clan of native peoples in South Africa. Under the Bantu education model, natives were only
taught to be laborers or servants.

I want to share a recent incident that happened on January 15, 2015 in La Quinta, California. I recently ordered new
glasses and received the call that they were ready. I left from work on this day, drove in from Thermal to my Optometrist.
I was dressed professionally, wearing a shirt and tie with a sweater over top.
As I exited from my Optometrists office, feeling quite happy about my new glasses, an older white gentlemen was
walking towards me. He spoke saying nice sweater. I thanked him and walked a short distance to my car. This same
gentlemen who just seconds ago complimented my on my sweater, now yells out hey! I turn to him as I am now heading
to my car and look at him. He says, oh I thought you were stealing my car, oh yours is next to mine. I looked at this man
with so much venom in my eyes that it must have startled him, because he kind jumped/stepped backwards. I started to
say something, but instead just got in my car and drove off. The entire time he watched me, I guess to make sure I really
wasnt stealing his car. In the span of seconds I go from being someone worthy of a compliment to being a presumed car
thief. We still have a long way to go in this country.

How is it in 2015 that ideas such as those espoused by John McWhorter in 2000 still persist, and in many cases accepted
as gospel truths?

References:
Anyon, J. (1981). Social class and school knowledge. Curriculum Inquiry, 11 (1), 3-42
Lawrence, C. (1987). The id, the go, and equal protection: Reckoning with unconscious racism.
Stanford Law Review, 39, 317-388
Solorzano, D. & Yosso, T. (2001). From racial stereotyping and deficit discourse. Multicultural Education, 2-8
Termin, L. (1916). The measurement of intelligence. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin