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Regarding Michael’s discussion today on Urban Renewal, I think what’s important is you have to be involved with and lean on your community for support to make changes and provide a better opportunity for your students as a whole. It takes a ‘collective agency’ to make a difference. We can’t rely on the market and the government to make the right decisions for us. We need to get parents, teachers, and the community to stand up to the school systems and government and demand better conditions for low-income neighborhoods. I think Michael’s example of the one school’s parents that made a collaborative effort to unit and give the school an ultimatum that if they did not change the conditions of the school they were in now, they were going to pick up their kids, and money, and go to a different school.
I liked his comment to on how the new ‘back of the bus’ is the failing public school systems with low-income students. Their freedoms are being taken away from getting a good education, and we, as teachers, need to be able to stand up for those children who are in the ‘back of the bus’.
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Thanks for your thoughts, Ashley. I was also inspired by the new “back of the bus” theory as well. You’re right in that to change the status quo we need to organize and network with each other and the larger community.
I agree with you about collective agency being the most powerful way to make change. I believe that we as educators may need to join with the local civic organizations or community organizations to correct and prevent further inequalities from occuring in the lower-economic neighborhoods. Also, to be aware if the area is being targeted for gentrification and join with some community groups to get awareness and to help them make their concerns known to the powers-that-be. – Kelley