Adam Russell
Poverty Institutes the Division
Probably the most disturbing observation Ferguson makes in “Don’t Believe the Hype,” is when she points out the disparity between students at the Elementary level that continue onto high school: “Many of the white children who attend private or parochial elementary schools eventually return to attend the Arcadia high school, where classes are de facto segregated as the result of an elaborate tracking system” (5). The scenario that Ferguson paints is tragic in all aspects and deserves analysis. Although I find it hard to make an assessment of the full situation because we only read a small portion of a much larger piece, it appears that what she describes is symptomatic of the community dynamics: the school busses in children from neighborhoods with higher socioeconomics in order to offset the racial and socioeconomic hegemony that would occur otherwise. Most of the kids they bus in are white which creates a racial division based on socioeconomic status, and they further this division through a tracking system in the secondary school. Although the bussing system can lead to diversity in the school, the tracking system of the high school mirrors the racial and economic divisions seen in the community.
When I started at Sierra High School in Manteca, I was surprised with the school’s diversity. Coming from Washington, most of my classmates were white and came from similar cultural backgrounds. Thus, cultural and racial diversity was not the norm for my experience. Teaching at Sierra, however, I see what the diversity of California is all about: my classes are a strong mix of many races. When students are in social situations, they tend to migrate towards others of a similar race and culture, but as a whole, they co-exist in diverse communities both in and outside of school. (Also, to make extra money, I regularly do Saturday School, where students spend four hours at school on Saturday morning in a detention working for various infractions of school rules and these are equally diverse.) As I read Ferguson’s article, I came to realize that the reason why I experienced such diversity at Sierra and that students handled it well is because the school does not have academic tracking. Of course there is a special education program for those who test into it, and there is also an honors program for students who are well suited for higher academic expectations, the rest of the students are enrolled in standard college preparatory classes which contain varied ability levels and races.
The students Ferguson writes about are victims of a system that locks them into a set of patterns that, when unchecked, continues in adverse ways into adulthood. Through my eight years of teaching, I’ve noticed that the division between students who are well adjusted and those who are maladjusted is the result of socioeconomic status. Ferguson states that her book “is an analysis of the continuing significance of ‘race’ as a system for organizing social differences and as a device for reproducing inequality in contemporary United States” (17). Although I have not read her entire book (and I can only use conjecture when I ask this question), is Ferguson’s study more of an analysis of the effects of poverty on children in the school system and less on race, or are the two synonymous? How much of a role does the school have in perpetuating anti-social behavior when it is a symptom of the poverty the children are coming from? I believe that people are more divided by the haves and the have-nots then by such aspects as race, education, religion, and even culture. Often times, when a child is raised in an economically disadvantaged home, they are prone to more anti-social behavior and are exposed to the unfortunate symptoms of poverty such as an unstable home life, lack of familial emphasis on education, abuse, drug and alcohol exposure; much of what was outlined in Ferguson’s description of the Heartland neighborhood. California is very diverse, and since Ferguson wrote her article, many strides have been made in public education to create opportunities for all students despite socioeconomic background. No system is perfect and there are many changes that can be made to make our schools better, but when schools abolish tracking in the realm of general education, they are making a step forward in closing the socioeconomic gaps that divide people so that opportunities are more universal for all students.
I would argue that the “improvements” you speak of,”California is very diverse, and since Ferguson wrote her article, many strides have been made in public education to create opportunities for all students despite socioeconomic background” depend on the community. I would venture to say that there are still situations that exist in California schools and schools throughout the country that are structured along the lines of Rosa Parks Elementary. What irony, Rosa Parks Elementary, the irony is that Rosa Parks fought for equality and the battle is still going on thirty years later.
Of course, there are still problems in public schools, but sometimes, we get so caught up in the idea of the negative, that we fail to see improvements and strides made forward by progressive teachers, administrators, and schools. I realize that we must always see the reality of a problem and not ignore it, but I still believe that there is some danger in focusing too much on problems instead of celebrating solutions. Since Ferguson wrote her book, I wonder what the school is like now. I’d like to believe that there have been changes made, and the school is progressing in the way it handles race and discipline. Hopefully, if that is the case, the school has moved forward in shaping its identity and not mired itself in the past as the problem school Ferguson wrote about in the early 90s.