A student can only receive the education that is handed in front of them. the major findings during this project is the article that states there is a “achievement gap” between the black students and white students. The impressions that I got from doing this project is that no one is going to stand up and make a difference if the students doesn’t realize there’s a problem. If we are being told nothing, how are we supposed to fight for something? How are we supposed to do anything to help us?
Other projects done we just looked up information and put it in essay form but for this the results differ because we had to go out and find the problem ourselves. Last year I did a paper on the Iraq war, and the war that is happening between the Sunni, shi’a, and Kurds. I couldn’t go to Iraq and ask the Sunni, why are they in war with the Kurds, and shi’a, I just got what the internet states, which might be the truth but you never know. But for this project I got to go to different schools and view on first hand basis the problems, the difference between suburban schools, and urban schools. I got to ask question and see if the suburban students felt the same way as most urban students and vice versa.
The study I did got me closer to understanding because it made the problem known. If you don’t know what’s going on how are you supposed to make a difference, how are you supposed to care? And once the problem is actually stated and not covered up so people won’t be so blind solutions start to come up. People starts to have idea to change or to help others see there is something wrong. Most students I ask to take this survey they asked why? So I asked them did they know there is an “achievement gap” between whites and blacks, in school. A couple of people responded like oh it’s a “race thing” it’s “always” going to be like that, and “it’s the white man keeping us down”. What they fail to realize is no it’s where we live, and where the most poverty appears, it’s where the most money comes from. And if you live where there is no money coming out of the area there is no resources for the schools.
In order to address the social issues we are finding a problem is to go to the Board of Education. Have rallies, raise money, and make it know. The next steps have to do with the student who is conducting the research paper. We have to be the ones to show that we are hurting because if we don’t who will? If we do this whole essay and not make an attempt to make it known in our communities then we did all this for no reason. All this researching, interviewing, survey taking, we would be wasting our time and wasted the time of the people who actually listen to what we had to say.
In the future I would like to see kids in younger grades do a PAR paper, not a 40 page paper but a little to make it known that “we know and where’re trying to make a difference.” Because if we act like we don’t care why should anyone else care, why would other people be bother by what we do? Or care about our education if they see we don’t even care about it. Plus if we start younger than the message will get across quicker. We are teens; no one gives us respect because of everything that is happening in our communities, which is kind of our fault. Even though we are trying to make a difference it wouldn’t matter. But to see a bunch of 4th, 5th and 6th grades expressing how they feel about the way we are kind of segregated in a way might have some important people like “yeah what’s really going on in these schools, and what are the educational system doing to help.”
The only person that needs to be the first to know what the results of my PAR project is the teens, the kids, the teachers, because they are the ones most affected by the issues. They are the ones that have to go and deal with it, and half of them don’t even know there is a problem. Once the kids in the urban and probably the ones in the suburban area’s found out and actually read what we have to say then we will be the ones to start the change. Because we know that the president knows about the issue but where is all the money is going into? Not our schools, it’s going into the war, something that has been killing the children of the world not benefiting them.
These things are really important; the city is always wondering why are the kids always getting killed, locked up, bums, it’s because they feel as though no one cares for them. not telling them the real reason why they have the same crappy books every year, why they don’t learn important things, that will actually help them in the future it’s retarded. If we know, we can change, we will change!