 | gk12_andrew (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small} gk12_andrew) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.1){kind=small} gk12_fellows, |
reflection on Harper's article
The article hit home even given my limited exposure to the school at this point in time. I have already witnessed much of what was described in the article at Anne Sullivan, though not to such an extreme level. The "gimme 5" signal has been mandated from the top down in this school and is being highly stressed. The rubric for lining up in the hallway is also apparent. This school is very diverse, more so than the extreme cases in the article. For example we have Hmong, Somali, Latino, Native American, African American, and Caucasian students in my class. Yet, I was also struck by a certain irony of the term "diverse". Seems to me the extreme cases of schools in the articles were just as homogeneous as any suburban upper middle class school. Makes you wonder if diverse is just a PC term for "not white". My only other response to the article is one of anger. Iraq is costing $1 billion/week...
October 9 2005, 22:40:02 UTC 6 years ago
repeat
So, i wrote this a few days ago, but new to teh blogging and commented rather than posted. looks like many of us were thinking about the same things.olivia
My general refelction comes from Kotzol's criticism of euphemisms in urban schools, particularly the word "diversity". Instead of refering to the resegregration of public schools, we often use the term to refer to a setting that is often predominated by few race or class groups (for whatever use they are!). So, by terming it "diversity", which many of us would claim to be a good thing, we are participating in a misnomer.
As you all know, I'm from the "Deep South"; by now, you have all witnessed the events of Katrina unfold. New Orleans and the surrrounding South is home to one of the most segregated public school systems in the U.S. In fact, the area where I am from was a site of "reintegration" programs for schools. To bring it back to the beginning, we must be attentive to word choice (especially how those words change over time.)