Swall-Yarrington, Final Paper

Education 275 Final Paper

Benjamin Swall-Yarrington

5/13/15
Swall-Yarrington, Final Paper

Final Paper

Students in America grow up learning that school is meant to prepare them for the

challenges that they face in life. In some cases, this is true. We practice problem solving in math,

writing skills in English and history, and the basics of many subjects. We learn time-management

skills by balancing school and homework with our first jobs and social life. We even get

experience working with other people in groups. Yet, there still seems to be something that is

missing from our education system because so many students do not feel fully prepared for a life

outside of school. Students have this reaction, I believe, because the school system was not built

for creative minds that can evolve with the changing times. It was created for the purpose to kill

creativity and teaches students to follow directions, according to Ken Robinson, former college

professor of Education, in the TED talk Do schools kill creativity? The schools currently teach

students not to constantly grow and refine their minds and perspectives, but to follow directions

that someone else has given them. Peoples reliance on instructions is apparent in the article,

Yes, but how do we do it? (Ladson-Billings, 2006) in which the author describes how her

students felt so frustrated when she did not tell them how to become culturally aware teachers.

The way someone becomes a culturally aware teacher, the author argued, was to have a flexible

mind to grow and change based on the new challenges teachers face every day.

In this sense, the primary purpose of schools should not be to follow instructions, but to

teach students to become creative problem solvers throughout their lives. In the technological

age, advancements in all areas of development are advancing so rapidly that people in the

workforce need flexible and creative minds to solve the problems that no one has solved before

and interact in an ever changing world. One way in which to foster creativity is to instill a
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growth mindset into students. A growth mindset refers to a mind that realizes that while it may

not perfectly complete a task the first time that it attempts it, it can grow competent at the task

through practice. Students who have such a mindset love challenges and using their creativity to

find new ways to achieve things. Because the creative problem solvers will succeed best in this

world, I will become the teacher who does not put emphasis on finding the correct answer. I will

be the teacher who rewards people for struggling to find a solution to a problem, for creating a

new idea or way to solve a problem. By being such a teacher, I can help build students creative

capacities to make them better workers when they enter the workforce.

Even if schooling changes the purpose of schooling to a purpose that emphasizes

creativity, the established order of discrimination against certain people will still be in place. The

existing order is one that favors white males over other racial and gender groups. While it may

seem that in the twenty first century all groups are equally treated, they are not. Though a deluge

of antidiscrimination and desegregation acts have been past, society unconsciously finds ways to

integrate a hidden bias into our schools. Most American schools are not segregated and certain

groups are not outright discriminated against, yes. But no law requires that history classes teach

as much about working class history than history created by white males. No law requires

English classes to teach books about a variety of peoples. As Chapter Two in Affirming

Diversity: Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education by Sonia Nieto and Patty Bode

asserts, important women figures are still largely absent [from history courses] working class

history is also absent in almost all U.S. history curricula. According to Nieto and Bode,

depriving students of history and stories of their people and culture places them at risk for

academic failure. Sadly, these hidden biases in school curriculum carry forth an order that began

in the early twentieth century, when African Americans were frequently lynched and murdered
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and Hispanic people were outright denied an education (Spring, Deculturalization and the

Struggle for Equality). In the early twentieth century, laws across the country mandated that all

languages besides English be eradicate from schools (Spring, 2004). This not only eradicated

other peoples languages but it also eradicated their culture. As Spring points out, culture and

values are embedded in language. The fact that white students such as Vanessa Mattinson view

their own culture as the norm (Nieto and Bode, 2012) suggests that they have been conditioned

to believe that their way of life is normative compared to other cultures. By focusing on stories

and instances in which the white, European culture is seen as more important than the variety of

other cultures that exist in the United States.

The curriculum is not the only way in which white-heterosexual-male-centric order is

upheld. It is upheld by the way that teachers facilitate their own classrooms. Studies indicate that

across America, teachers build boys up for success while limiting the success of girls (Chapman,

Gender Bias in Education). Chapman notes that assertive behavior from girls is often seen as

disruptive while assertive behavior in boys is praised (Chapman). Chapman also cited studies

that discovered that boys were far more likely to receive praise or remediation from a teacher

than were girls. The girls were most likely to receive an acknowledgement response from their

teacher. (Chapman) Gorski also notes that many teachers keep their low income, Hispanic

students from succeeding their full potential because of preconceived notions of how people in a

certain culture act. He cites a teachers frustrated assertion after a tiring days work with a group

of multi-racial and ethnic group of students. She complains how, [the students] just dont care

about school. Theyre unmotivated. And their parents Im lucky if two or three of them show

up to parent teacher conferences. (Gorski, Classism, 2008). This reflects a preconceived notion

that the students are failing in school because they grow up in a culture that does not care about
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education. However, Gorski reminds us that many factors go into low income students not doing

well in school, partially because the parents of low income families must work night shifts that

prevent them from motivating their students to do well in school (Gorski). Teachers with the

belief that low income multiracial students will not succeed in school can lead them to be

ineffective teachers. In this sense, teachers are a primary cause for purveying an order of white-

normativity.

If teachers have power to continue an existing order of hetero-white-male-normativity,

they also have the power to change this order into one that affirms and values all cultures

equally. In general, the best way to incorporate the knowledge and values of students cultures is

to understand their culture. One of the best way to do so, according to LAB at Browns

Principles for Culturally Responsive Teaching , is to get to know the students and the students

families. LAB contends that by understanding a childs home life teachers can better understand

how a student learns best, and therefore incorporate their learning style into their lessons. When a

teacher incorporates the students culture and background knowledge into class they are not only

affirming the students culture. They are making it easier for that student to succeed. There are

many other ways to incorporate the students culture into learning. Teachers can do all in their

power to modify their curriculum to incorporate others cultural backstories and values. Most

importantly, if teachers want to affirm students cultures, they should take on the role of

facilitator during class discussions. Facilitating allows students to lead discussions and form the

class around their values and ways of learning. Facilitating also prevents the teacher from

unintentionally imposing their own biases onto students. By affirming the variety of students

cultural values teachers can help change the biases order into one that celebrates and affirms all

peoples culture. Changing the order in the classrooms will send a legion of students into the
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workforce with a mindset that will be less likely to discriminate against people who are different

than them. This means that people from a variety of cultures, genders, and sexual orientations

can hold positions of power and influence the way that the mainstream society can see the world.

Once mainstream society embraces all cultures and peoples, the order has changed.

Original Answers to Questions

Benjamin Swall-Yarrington

1. The purpose of a federally regulated public school system used to be

to teach kids to be efficient labor workers. This happened during the

start of the industrial revolution because manual labor workers were in

the highest demand. School curriculum did not focus on critical

thinking or autonomy but following instructions. Now, school

curriculums in America incorporate more critical thinking and

autonomy though some of the structures of the rule-based industrial

era education system remain. One of these structures being how the

school groups children: by age. Though we allow students to advance

in math and science past their age groups, even the most intelligent

students have difficulty advancing in their grade. Now, the public

schools purposes are to instill good values into students so that they

may be good citizens of the United States. The mandatory variety of

courses that students must take, Language Arts to Math, is intended to

develop all parts of students minds so that they can be well-rounded

thinkers. I believe that the schools should continue to instill good

values into students, as well as a well-rounded education. However,

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the school systems across the united states should make more of a

priority out of tailoring school to fit each individual students needs.

Many schools are starting to do this, with developing alternative

schools. However, I believe that we should be doing more of this in the

future. Many schools still make it a purpose to teach to a test, which

hurts students.
2. My role as a future teacher is to tailor my classes to meet a variety of

students needs. I should not just teach to the class, but get to know

my students, especially those who are struggling so I can find out how I

can help them succeed. I will make it a goal to teach more important

lessons than those that pertain just to English. A teacher should

mentor their students in developing strategies for success in whichever

path they choose to take in life. Most importantly, I should fulfill the

role of someone who makes their students feel valuable and worthy of

achieving whatever they might set their minds to.

3. The cultural order naturally infuses itself into education in many ways.

One can see its incorporation most clearly in History and English

classes. In these classes, schools predominantly study works and great

accomplishments done by white men. This not only reflects the cultural

biases of America but also instills them into the minds of the students.

The same can be said about the values that history and English

teachers teach through their lessons. The values are those that, for the

most part, Americas existing order puts most importance on. Classes

occasionally offer other points of view from the existing order of other
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cultures. However, they do not teach other cultures enough so that

students can fully appreciate the values of other cultures. For example,

my English classes only required me to read on novel written by a Latin

American author. This book expressed mainly the negative,

stereotypical sides of Latino Culture, such as poverty and rape.

4. As I mentioned before, the classroom has a large influence over how

students perceive the existing social order and what the existing order

should be. Students spend up to nine hours a day in school for nine

months of the year. Most of their childhood occurs inside school and so

school naturally shapes students views of the existing social order.

Almost unintentionally, the American school system presents a one

sided view of the social order: one that conforms to an Anglican view of

the world. Schools can change the existing social order by changing

the values that it impresses onto the students. Better yet, it can show

other values, specifically those values most important to other

predominant cultures in American schools (such as Latinos, African

Americans, Indians, Chinese, Korean, etc.), in an equal light to Anglican

values.
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Works Cited

Bode, Patty. Nieto, Sonia (2012). Affirming diversity: The Sociopolitical context of multicultural

education. Chapter 2: Defining multicultural education for school reform (6 th addition). Boston,

MA: Pearson.

Bode, Patty. Nieto, Sonia (2012). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural

education. Chapter 3 Case study: Vanessa Mattinson. (6 th edition). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Chapman, Amanda. (2002). Gender bias in education. DYouville College.

Gorski, Paul. (2008). Classism: The Myth of Poverty. Education Leadership 32-36

Ladson-Billings, Gloria. (2006). Yes, but how do we do it?

Spring, Joel. (2013) Deculturalization and the struggle for equality. New York City, NY: McGraw Hill

Teaching Diverse Learners (2007) Lab at Brown, Culturally responsive teaching. Alliance.brown.edu