What is the cause for divide between students in the classroom? Is it the achievement gap or the educational debt? This is the question I have after reading Winn and Johnson chapter 2. I believe that both are a factor in the world of education. While reading this, I thought about my anthropology class I

am taking right now and our topic for the next couple of weeks is inequality and injustice in education. We’ve been discussing how students are affected in the classroom because of their economic status and which town/city they live in. In some areas, the poor are sectioned off to a specific part of town and therefore, all of the kids in the same economic position are at one school together. Since their families work low wage jobs, they cannot afford to pay the high taxes. What does this mean for schools? Well, since schools are funding by tax dollars, if the residents cannot afford them, there is not enough money for the schools to make the changes that they need to make or even have a general upkeep on the school. To allow education to change would mean that higher paying jobs need to be available to families so they can pay taxes to have their child attend a school that can keep up with the educational changes. Poor families must not be sectioned off to one part of a town. Everyone must mingle together and diversity must exist. While I do think the achievement gap plays a role in this situation, I think that the educational debt plays just as much of a role in the divide in education.

Now to begin thinking about myself, what am I going to do with this information or how will I react to it in the classroom? A quote stuck out to me as I read chapter 2 that I thought about as I kept reading. The quote reads, “In other words, culturally relevant pedagogy seeks not to merely provide knowledge as some fixed entity, but to also reconstruct knowledge in order to serve the needs of students” (Winn and Johnson 14). I think this statement can be interpreted in a couple of different

ways. First off, what knowledge you as a teacher have may not always work. That knowledge may need to be shifted in order to meet the knowledge of your students and to figure out what they need to be successful. It is always a learning process and while perfection cannot necessarily be achieved, always reaching for the best and improving can be achieved. My thoughts also shifted to thinking about myself and the inside work I am doing. How can I keep pushing to reconstruct my own knowledge? Immersing myself in all that I can in terms of this content whether it be reading, videos, etc. will help and guide me while I continue to work on myself.

In Stockman and Gray chapter 6, I thought about how these hacks could help students who feel that they are not seen or heard in the classroom maybe because of their race, gender, or for another reason. This quote comes from the paragraph discussing how compassionate classrooms are helpful; “Here, their histories make them strong, the challenges they face deepen their expertise, and their wounds become wisdom” (99). The last few words of the sentence “wounds become wisdom” stick out to me. It is a powerful saying and when I began to think about it, I felt how true it could be for students. The bad memories they hold can become useful to them as what they have been through has taught them how to come out strong and be a better person. I think it is important to note how students are reacting to the content and the way it is being delivered in the classroom. If something is not working, as a teacher you must find an approach that better fits the students. I may have what I think is a great idea in my head and it could go the total opposite in the classroom. I think it is important to be open to changing your lesson at any time to meet the needs of the class. It is crucial that we get to know what our students need in the classroom to be successful and feel that they are an important member of the room.