This was a really good reality check

I have really enjoyed reading The Flat World and Education by Linda Darling-Hammond in the sense that it has made me truly reflect on the difficulties American students experience as we try and ensure every child receives an education. Time and time again we see the inequalities with school buildings, quality teachers, curriculum, supplies and expectations from one school to another.

Reading this book and listening to the Harper Valley High School Interviews has made me feel ashamed of myself when I complain because I don’t have something the “rich” school across town has. It is so easy to forget that others have it so much worse than we do in our district. The employees at Harper High School in Chicago have definitely secured their spot in heaven. These individuals are extremely dedicated to making sure every student, in horrible circumstances, have the best opportunity to succeed and live long enough to graduate. Students can’t walk alone, they can’t walk with a group, they can’t go outside and they all belong to a gang whether they want to or not simply because of where they live. They are forced to live in a way they would never choose to if they had any other option.

Students in other states also face classrooms with inadequate facilities, teachers and curriculum that fail to give them the same level of excellence we all expect for our students. As Linda Darlind Hammond says, “It is exhausting even to recount the struggles for equitable funding in American schools much less be engaged in the struggle, year after year, or more debilitating, to be a parent or student who is subject day-by-day, week- by- week to the aggressive neglect often fostered in dysfunctional, under sourced schools. These stories are similar to what we hear in the news when soldiers come home from active duty with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. How can we let huge populations of our children live in war zones within our own cities? Until we address this issue, all the money we have isn’t going to help a student succeed that is unable to get home safely each night.

Darling-Hammond really showed us how the United States has a very ineffective and unfair system for allocating school funding. Oftentimes schools that are separated by just a few miles have huge discrepancies in what educational experience they can offer their students. Instead of allocating funds based on the local tax base, each student in every district across the country should receive the same amount. That may be simplistic, but really why does it have to be any more difficult than that. We have established districts with a broad tax base are able to offer their students a far superior education than a student that comes from a poor district. Stop segregating money by location. Of course people are going to scream and holler that they pay more so their child should receive more. That has never worked to bridge the gap in the inequalities these students live with each day. We have to change from a system that focuses on just what is best for the area we live in and look at the bigger picture of what our country could become if every child had equal opportunity, facilities, teachers, supplies and incentives to succeed and go on to higher education or a vocational track of their choosing. Make these students believe that we really do value them and will continue to work to even the score and make their experience something they can be proud of. They will never take us seriously until they can challenge and stretch their minds with outstanding teachers, work with curriculum requiring high expectations, go to and from school without fear, and know we believe they are worthy of occupying the seat that has been supplied for them.