Mark Castillo

Dr. Tarnoff

CTW 1/ ENGL 1A

November, 19, 2019

The Dark Side of Education

The day came closer, closer to the day that I would show up to my final day in 4th grade

at my elementary school. “Why can’t I just go to Stevenson with Cristal?” I asked my parents,

practically begging them not to transfer to a charter middle school that went from 5th to 8th

grade. KIPP LA: Prep, that was the school my parents decided to enroll me in one because they

knew that it would provide me with a better educational support than I would get at a public

school. After middle school, my parents had plans for me to enroll in a charter high school. After

my experience with a charter middle school, and my sister doing so well at the high school I was

supposed to go to, I didn’t mind the idea of going there for the next four years. However, as I

was applying to high schools, a teacher at my middle school had told me about a private high

school that is really good, especially for kids looking to go to college in a STEM related major. I

didn’t want to go because of the stigma about private school kids, not to mention that it was

expensive. However, I was able to gain a lot of scholarships to go and it was another decision

that was scary at first, but then I came to love. Again, my parents also liked the idea of me going

to this school, because it would provide me with a better education than I would gain in private

school. Going through these various school types, and coming from a low income society, it

pained me to see the differences in these institutions and how unfair they were. My school was a

private high school and it was noticeable different from the schools in East Los Angeles where
there were run down buildings and they lacked the proper equipment. However, if you were to

travel to West Los Angeles, the public schools there were about the same if not better than my

high school. Throughout my academic career, I’ve come to realize that the socioeconomic status

that one identifies with, affects that person's ability to achieve a higher education. Those in lower

income societies often have less resources to advance and it often leads to them not being able to

obtain a higher education that is wanted. Not only that but those in higher income communities

have an advantage due to the fact that they are able to afford more resources, which allows for an

unfair advantage academically.

Throughout my life while living in East LA, I have always heard about the poor facilities

at the local public high schools. There has always been something wrong from run down

buildings to uneducated instructors. This is a common thing within these types of schools

because the Los Angeles Unified School District doesn't focus enough funding to the schools and

instead tries to evenly spread out the money across the district. There is a lack of money being

focused towards these low income society and this affects the schools ability to be able to

provide these kids with the right amount of information but also with basic necessities that they

need to be able to succeed in school. In a piece about school segregation, John Oliver shows how

“Black and latino students are more likely to attend schools with inexperienced teachers which

leads to less opportunity to offer a college prep curriculum-- these students are 6x as likely to be

in high poverty schools”(Oliver). This was a shocking piece but also not that much because most

of the minority filled communities tend to be those who are underprivileged in terms of money. I

remember when I was going elementary school. The teachers always just wrote on the white

board or had the light projector where you had to write on a clear piece of plastic with a marker.
However, when I started school at the middle school, they had these things called Smart

projectors. I remember how fascinated I was with them and how I thought they were so cool

because it was easier to show things on the board rather than writing out every piece of

information out. However, if I were to go to Stevenson where my sister went, she said they didn't

get smart boards at all, they had to get used to having White boards and even chalk boards

because they didn’t have enough funding to get smart boards in every single room. This shows

the difference in what they were allowed to do because the charter school had additional, private,

funding from donors on top of the funding they received from LAUSD. However, schools

around the area were only getting a limited amount which lead to draw backs and had negative

effects on their means of teaching and overall made it harder to get information out to students.

However, the schools do provide whatever they can to the students with the resources that are

available. Sadly there are outside resources that aren’t provided by the school, which can also

have some negative effects on how the students progress.

Outside tutoring for specific courses is available to students, to help them advance or

even gain better knowledge of a particular subject. For Example there are tutors available to help

those who wish to get a better grade and to fully be able to understand certain concepts. There

are tutors for math, english, and a whole other variety. These are amazing tools and resources,

however, they’re not always as accessible as some may think and they often lead to

disadvantages and unfairness to those who don’t have the means to get one. As explained in

Christopher Hayes’ second chapter: Meritocracy and its Discontents,in his book Twilight of the

Elite, “Meanwhile, the wealthier precinct of manhattan are home to a flourishing tutoring

industry, where parents who can afford the 90 dollar an hour price to hire private tutors for one
on one sessions with their children”(Hayes). There is an unfair advantage given to those who are

able to afford the cost of a private tutor, whereas, those who don’t have the means to do so are

forced to put extra work into teaching themselves and struggle on their own. This is a sad reality

that many have to go through, including myself. My dad didn’t finish high school in Mexico,

leaving after a couple months in his freshman year. My mom, on the other hand, did finish high

school but didn’t attend college due to her giving birth to my sister. That meant that, most of the

time, I was forced to struggle on my own since my parents didn’t help me with homework since

4th grade. Once I went home, I was at a huge disadvantage because if I didn’t understand an

assignment, I would either have to do it as best as I could or wait until I got to school the next

day and ask classmates how to do it. They weren’t able to help me and my parents didn;t have

the knowledge nor the resources to get me a tutor. We weren't informed about these things up

until I reached high school. Thankfully, I was able to get enough information in school that

would make the suffering less stressful and I would either have to stay after school for

homework help or just connect the pieces with my notes. However, these resources were

available to me through the school that provided us with these extra help. That was not the case

for people at the public schools, who had an even worse time than I did and it led to a lot of these

kids failing classes because there weren't as many resources. This is a horrible thing to see,

however it's worse to see this type of disadvantage displayed on major test that eventually

determine our futures.

This type of separation is most discouraging when you see it in major test like the SAT,

as well as entrance exams. I remember taking the High School Placement Test, which is

essentially the SAT but for high school. I was lucky enough that my middle school had a prep
course to be able to take this test and be able to excel. However, again, this was given to us

because of our donors which provided us with the means to afford this. Other schools in the area

didn;t have the same opportunity as I later met people who didn’t even place high enough in the

exam to be considered for admission or a retake. This is similar to the same thing that happened

at Hunter College High School, where kids are offered admission to the school based on their

performance on a test. This isn’t the best way to do that because, as explained by a student

during his commencement speech, students who attended Hunter received an outstanding

education at no charge based solely on our performance on a test we took when we were eleven

year olds, or four year olds. We received superior teachers and additional resources based on our

status as “gifted”, while kids who naturally needed those resources much more than us wallowed

in the mire of a broken system.”(Hayes). This particular part of the novel really stood out to me

because it made me truly reflect on my experience at the Cathedral. Sure, I “deserve” to be there

because of my test scores, but on the other hand, there werre other kids who needed those type

of resources and it could’ve helped them better their education. Not only that but there are

numerous programs that help you improve your SAT score.

Hayes describes that when the test was first introduced, it did a really good job because it

allowed people to actually see the smarts of students However, As the test progressed, more and

more prep books and study courses appeared, which allowed an unfair advantage. Most of these

test prep books are worth a good amount of money, not to mention the courses can be

ridiculously priced. I was fortunate enough to take one of these courses, however, the course did

cost more than a pretty penny. The course was about $700 which was insanely overpriced. My

parents didn’t hesitate, even though we weren’t in the best financial position, they saw it as an
investment and paid for me to take the class. It did actually help but the idea that this course cost

that much money, and that other courses cost about the same, it really shows more of the idea

that you “pay for a grade.” Even though you technically didn’t pay to have a high SAT score, as

hayes puts it “One of the best ways to predict a students SAT score us to look at his parents

income: the more money they make, the higher the score is likely to be.” (Hayes) This shows

how the education process is faulty, giving an edge to those who can afford to put themselves

forward and be able to get a better education. This also shows an indirect discrimination towards

those who don’t have the finacial ability to pay for these additional resources.

We are living in a society where “the pyramid of merit has come to mirror the pyramid of

wealth and cultural capital” (hayes) and how those who have money are able to keep their elite

status through their educational advancements. Those who aren’t able to afford these types of

programs are left to study for themselves, and it often doesn't work out as best as it could. They

are being left out and it really does reveal the huge disadvantage one is at because of their

socioeconomic status. I makes me think that if I didn’t go to a private high school or a charter

middle school, would I even be writing this paper right now. If these additional resources

weren’t present to me, would I have met the same fate as those who also grew up with me, but

didn’t have the same opportunities. It puts into perspective the bias in the educational inequality

and how it affects the way we are taught and how the rich keep getting richer.
Works Cited

Hayes, Christopher. Twilight of the Elites: America after Meritocracy. Broadway Books, 2013.

Oliver, John “School Segregation: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)”, ​Youtube​ ,Oct.

30, 2016 ,​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8yiYCHMAlM