Wenting Chen, Chia-Hua Chu, and Garrett S. Griffin

This comparative analysis seeks to examine negative cultural pressures on female adolescents in China, Taiwan, and the United States, through the theoretical lenses of developmental psychologists like Carol Gilligan and Erik Erikson. Gender stereotypes, depression, body image, menstruation, adolescent pregnancy, eating disorders, and more, are included in this report. This study is divided into three sections and a summative conclusion. The first sections illuminate societal pressures on female adolescents in the three homelands of these authors, using research from each respective country. The conclusion offers a comparison between the three. It is the hope of these authors that understanding the forces acting upon girls will better equip citizens and professionals of all three countries, particularly their educators, to work for social change.

Societal Pressures on Female Adolescents in China

Psychologist Carol Gilligan conducted research on moral reasoning development and saw developmental differences in gender. Gilligan’s three stages of moral reasoning (Ethics of Care) include the pre-conventional stage (selfishness and survival), the conventional stage (serving others is right and true), and post-conventional stage (one must care for oneself as well as others, so that selflessness does not cause self-harm). Having been influenced by the ideas promoted by Freud and Erikson, but rejecting the emphasis on males, Gilligan’s model is female-centered. As Gilligan knew, differences exist between boys and girls, and men and women. The authors of this comparative analysis acknowledge the existence of these differences, but emphasize society’s role in shaping the development, thought processes, and behavior of females that differ from those of males.   

In China, a patrilineal culture in ancient times, males were historically much more powerful than women; they were even allowed to have more than one wife. It is easy to imagine the powerlessness of women and how vulnerable they felt within their families and in society at large. Having persisted through this situation for thousands of years, until the modernization of the country, there is renewed interest today in the importance of women and in balancing the relationship between genders. In the decades since the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, more people have begun to view females as “half of the sky,” but due to stereotypes and lasting traditions, females are still living under unique pressures and inequity in Chinese society. Adolescent females, being in a stage of identity development, are at particular risk to negative effects of such stressors.

In the past 20 years, much research has investigated adolescents’ psychological well-being, identity development, cognitive development, gender differences and roles during adolescence, sociocultural influences, and so forth. For example, Cheung (1996) wrote of gender role development in Growing Up the Chinese Way: The Chinese Child and Adolescent Development. The work discusses the gender roles which “are prescribed in traditional Chinese societies where stereotypical gender roles are socialized primarily in the family, and reinforced by other social institutions. The only place delegated to women was in the family, where they would play the instrumental and supportive roles of managing the home and supplying male heirs” (Cheung, 1996, p. 45). While familial and cultural traditions of Chinese perspective on gender differ from those of Western societies, females suffer to the same or even greater extent sex-typed values, motives, and behaviors than American girls.

Historically, Chinese girls were taught to be extremely obedient and tolerant at home and in public. They were raised to enter as quickly as possible and remain within Gilligan’s conventional stage. Parents decided almost every single aspect of their lives, including marriage. They had little choice in their lifestyles or plans for their future. Fathers were naturally the master of the family, while mothers were symbolic authorities who impacted few important decisions. Girls were not educated if the family could afford schooling for only one child. Boys were always the unquestioned choice of the family to be educated. Society largely regarded “good girls” as those who stay at home, those who remained “innocent” (less-educated). “Although education is an important value in Chinese culture, aspirations for educational achievement were focused on boys rather than on girls. Women were not allowed, nor encouraged, to receive formal education until the beginning of the twentieth century” (Cheung, p. 47). Fortunately, much has changed in modern Chinese society. Many women are completely independent and self-oriented. For many, fathers and mothers are no longer the only ones with decision-making power, and girls own the same legal rights as their male peers. Women as a whole have emerged on the post-conventional stage.

Even so, there are still concerns for the female psyche in Chinese society. Body image and dissatisfaction are two heatedly debated issues in discussion of female adolescence. As Xu and colleagues (2010) illustrated in Body Dissatisfaction, Engagement in Body Change Behaviors and Sociocultural Influences on Body Image Among Chinese Adolescents, this issue is becoming more and more significant because when females enter adolescence, they focus more on appearance and how other people think of them. Xu’s investigation shows the sociocultural pressures on body image, and the relationships between these variables. A large survey study which involved over 9,000 Chinese children “found that rates of body dissatisfaction were comparable to those reported in Western populations. Among the children classified as healthy weight, only 46.5% of boys and 43.0% girls were satisfied with their bodies, and preferences for thinner bodies increased with age” (Xu, Mellor, Kiehne, Ricciardelli, & McCabe, 2009, p. 156). This posits that girls care more about their body image. In China, it is often “required” by external influence that girls keep fit. Body size is a standard of beauty.

Further, eating disorders is a common issue that occurs amongst adolescents, especially girls. Research has examined young girls struggling with eating problems due to social judgment. A survey of eating disorder symptomatology among female adolescents in China was conducted in 2002 by Gail Huon, Mingyi Qian, Kylie Oliver, and Guanglan Xiao. It was designed to comprehensively document the prevalence of signs, symptoms, and associated features of anorexia and bulimia nervosa among female students. The results showed that a surprisingly high level of weight-related concerns amongst schoolgirls across mainland China (six main cities covering North East, Central East, South East, South West, and North). 1,246 Chinese female students ages 12 to 19 years old took part in the surveys. The researchers used questionnaires with different criteria, including weight status, weight-related attitudes and feelings, dieting, and vomiting and purging. The responses reveal the female adolescents’ attitude on weight: “More than one-fourth of the girls indicated that body weight was ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important in determining their evaluation of themselves” (Huon, Qian, Oliver, & Xiao, 2001, p. 196).

Beyond this, women are considered responsible for taking care of the family. Raising a child is usually a mother’s priority. Although women today are more independent and have more privileges, no longer required to be full-time wives and mothers, girls are still influenced and in some ways educated to be virtuous, gentle, quiet, and “in the hall and next to the kitchen.” It is said that mothers should guide Chinese children in how to properly live and study. It is almost always mothers who shop, entertain friends, and attend parents’ meetings at school. Just as Cheung wrote, “The traditional achievement for Chinese women is to be married to a good provider for herself, to bear male children for his family, and hope these children will be successful” (p. 46). Some fathers are deeply involved in a child’s development; however, they are usually professionals working to provide financial support, to give their child a better life. Further, fathers are more likely to be less emotionally connected with their children, not because they are unconcerned, but because society has encouraged them to not express emotions as readily as mothers.

With females playing such a significant role in the home, they are more likely to be drawn away from the workplace. In many instances, women are not treated equally as men in professional world, despite what the law says. For example, many of positions in companies are open for both men and women, but employers who believe in women’s “social obligations” prefer hiring men. They know female employees will have to take care of their children once they get married, and they have many “inconvenient” privileges which are protected by the law, such as a 14-week maternity leave. This breeds discrimination in the workplace. Thus, female adolescents are under pressure to seek jobs while completing their education, to start a career at a younger age. Some have gone to great lengths to land a job; for instance, some young female graduates go to the plastic surgeon, attempting to change their appearance because they know improved looks will help them find employment. Others resist getting married and having children because they are afraid of being substituted while on marriage or maternity leave. Although under the law they cannot be fired, they would still be considered the next candidate for dismissal. Many Chinese women must live daily with such apprehension.

Societal Pressures on Female Adolescents in the United States

In the United States, a plethora of societal stressors and expectations change the way girls think, feel, act, and even develop physically. This section will examine, in the Eriksonian spirit, how the adolescent female’s identity is affected, and in some cases abused, by such cultural pressures. Topics such as parent nurturing and peer relationships, ideal body image, self-conscious emotions, depression, self-value, puberty, and women in the workplace will be discussed as we move through the years of an American girl’s development.

In Impediments to Identity Formation in Female Adolescents, Drs. Dianne Ollech and James McCarthy write that “female adolescents bury their subjectivity and constrain the strong sense of self that was theirs during the latency years” and that they “experience greater increases in anxiety, conflict, shame, self-doubt when faced with choice” than boys (1997, p. 66). Psychologist Carol Gilligan posited that adolescent girls lose their “voice,” that while speaking truth and opinion forcefully is innate, they are taught doing so is selfish (Gerson, 1994, p. 494). How can this be? What in society is warping self-confidence, and even emotions themselves? According to these researchers, and others, it begins at birth, with the most direct and obvious factors being the mother and father and their relationships with the child.

Though exceptions multiply, the American mother is largely responsible for raising children. Rather than biological differences, Ollech and McCarthy argue it is a cultural ideology that acquiesces to male desires that perpetuates this arrangement (p. 67). American society approves, or is at least resigned to, father absence. Nurturing children and housework are still viewed as the woman’s duties, and the man is still “the head of the household.” This teaches young girls that males have the prerogative, the authority. “[Nancy] Chodorow (1978) saw that women’s monopoly on childcare and men’s abrogation of this task assured the devaluation and derogation of all things feminine and the idealization and blamelessness of the masculine” (Ollech & McCarthy, p. 67). Girls begin losing their voice because society teaches them their needs are less important than those of males, and begin to emulate the mother in her role as an inferior and a nurturer (p. 68).

In addition, psychoanalyst Mary-Joan Gerson of New York University emphasizes the role of peer relationships. Essentially, the parental influences carry over into peer groups (again, rather than differences being strictly biological). While girls are learning at home that their needs are secondary, boys are learning their own are primary. Therefore, boys in all-boy groups will be more commanding, argumentative braggarts, while girls in all-girl groups tend to be more agreeable and conforming, and less likely to interrupt (p. 499-500). Gerson suggests when adolescence arrives and opposite-sex interaction increases, girls find themselves disadvantaged due to these differences (p. 500), which may contribute to the overall problem. Professors Amanda Rose and Karen Rudolph had similar findings, concluding that girls are more empathetic to the feelings of others and more likely to seek emotional support, while boys are more self-interested, controlling, and competitive (2006, p. 125). The authors write, “Several of these sex differences increase over the course of development,” and while there can be positive aspects to these differences, “female-linked relationship processes may…heighten vulnerability to emotional difficulties. Male-linked relationship processes may interfere with the development of intimate relationships and contribute to behavioral problems” (p. 125). Obviously, when girls and boys come together as friends, classmates, co-workers, or lovers, these opposing psychological mindsets preserve a patriarchal system.

As the American female grows, society’s sexualization of women becomes a more obvious and powerful force, with often harmful side-effects. Jennifer Bradford and Trent Petrie of the University of North Texas write that “sociocultural pressures to be thin may lead women to internalize a thin-ideal stereotype, which is thought ultimately to produce eating disorder symptomatology through its influence on body image” (2008, p. 247). This ideal, distributed widely through American media, is another offspring of a patriarchal society that deems male desires and expectations superior to those of females. Consider:

Males hold the power and prerogative to project on females what they find repugnant in themselves and to define females accordingly. Males have therefore retained the “clean” realm of rationality and independence and have relegated physicality and dependence to females. Females are culturally defined by their bodies, and girls’ reproductive capacity forms the foundation of their identity. (Ollech & McCarthy, p. 67)

If women are defined (by men as well as women, who judge others as they themselves are judged) by how closely they align with the thin ideal, there exists enormous pressure to conform. A dangerous cycle can emerge in which a girl grows depressed due to negative body image, binge eats to cope with the bad mood, creates dietary restrictions for herself or purges in reaction to the binge, which in turn increases shame and depressive symptoms (Bradford & Petrie, p. 260). The psychological damage the sexualization of girls causes can hardly be overstated.

It is in adolescence that these societal pressures reach a crescendo and their effects become most evident. Researchers in 2012 published a study that examined the differences in “self-conscious emotions” (SCE) between men and women. “SCE are moral emotions that function to facilitate our social interactions and relationships by motivating us to adhere to social norms” (Else-Quest, Higgins, Allison, & Morton, p. 948), such as shame and guilt. They found no relevant difference between boys and girls in regards to shame and guilt until adolescence (when girls begin to suffer these emotions more frequently), paralleling findings that marked adolescence as the time when girls experience increased depression and decreased self-esteem (p. 965).

In Pubertal Transition, Stressful Life Events, and the Emergence of Gender Differences in Adolescent Depressive Symptoms, Xiaojia Ge and his colleagues examined when depression arose in boys and girls, and how these processes were different. In 1994, they found that girls suffered from depression much more than boys in early adolescence (Ge, Conger, & Elder, 2001, p. 414). Seven years later, they saw that while the gender differences arose at age 13 or 14, those differences remained throughout adolescence (p. 413). The researchers also emphasized the role that the onset of menarche plays (p. 413), which will be discussed in a moment. The big idea is that depression becomes a more significant part of girls’ lives than boys’ in early adolescence. The effects will only worsen. In adulthood, rates of depression are two to three times higher for women than men (p. 404). When women are devalued by society, such an influence affects self-perception and feelings of self-worth, and depression is a predictable side effect.

All these social stressors can affect girls’ sexual development and identity. For instance, Jenée James and colleagues from the University of Arizona and Vanderbilt University write that in their study:

Among girls only, father absence (a) directly and uniquely predicted earlier timing of sexual debut and greater sexual risk taking; (b) had a significant indirect effect on earlier pubertal maturation through quality of family relationships; and (c) had a significant indirect effect on increased sexual risk taking through earlier sexual debut. (James, Ellis, Schlomer, & Garber, 2012, p. 698)

When the responsibility of raising girls lands solely on the mother, American girls tend to become sexually active sooner, and are less likely to have safe sex. Combining father absence with depressive effects and a culture of sexualization, the risks only multiply. James et al. go on to say that a wealth “previous research indicates that girls growing up in father absent homes tend to experience menarche 4–6 months earlier than do those from father present households” (p. 698), but caution that more research is needed with more reliable variables. If the research holds true, it is significant because Ge et al. demonstrated that girls who experience menarche sooner in life tend to suffer greater bouts of depression (p. 413). If father absence can cause earlier menarche, which can cause more frequent and persistent depressive symptoms, which can cause poor self-image and disordered eating, then such absence can be even more psychologically (and physically) harmful than previously discussed, where girls are taught their desires come second and their place is in the home.

Gender differences will later affect women in the workplace, and career choices. Researchers at the University of Missouri cite studies that indicate “awareness of one’s gender is…important, further shaping adolescents’ early perceptions of available and attainable careers” (Lapour & Heppner, 2009, p. 479). Social Cognitive Career Theory (while also considering race and class) examines whether or not women believe they can succeed in a given occupation, evaluating the societal pressures that push girls into choosing “gender-appropriate” careers (p. 479) (i.e., nursing and teaching, rather than science). There still exist cultural pressures that try to confine women to a narrow set of occupational options, those determined appropriate by the opposite gender. Bonita London of Stony Brook University and fellow researchers looked at gender-based rejection in the workplace. Essentially, women who feel undervalued or treated unfairly at work due to their sex tend to self-silence (hold back thoughts, opinions, feelings, and behaviors) in order to avoid further rejection (London, Downey, Romero-Canyas, Rattan, & Tyson, 2012, p. 963). This of course limits their potential for growth, innovation, and advancement. Further, the researchers found self-silencing led to women feeling ostracized, unmotivated, and less self-confident (p. 975), and more likely to expect sexism in the future (p. 961). This study echoes remarkably Gilligan’s idea of adolescent girls losing their “voice,” suggesting that in the current patriarchal society of the United States, where women are deemed less valuable than men, there is little change in the female experience from adolescence to adulthood.

Societal Pressures on Female Adolescents in Taiwan

The Taiwanese have different perspectives on men and women. In traditional society, females would stay at home and take care of the children. Females had worse chances of attaining an education or employment. Males were dominant in society. Today, although females can work and have opportunities to compete with males, they still have obstacles to true equality Taiwanese society.

For instance, most Taiwanese still cling to gender stereotypes. In one study, An Investigation of the Gender Stereotyped Thinking of Taiwanese Secondary School Boys and Girls, researchers examined boys’ and girls’ viewpoints on learning. The result indicates boys believe themselves superior to girls in certain academic areas. “The present results indicate that the strongest gender stereotyped thinking for higher academic school students concerns their belief that boys are superior to girls in logical thinking, mathematics, and science, whereas girls are better at language and liberal arts” (Hong, Veach, & Lawrenz, 2003, p. 502). This will have grave consequences for gender equality.

Owing to this perception, females have greater difficulty finding a job in mathematics and science. Many schools don’t have female teachers in these subjects. When females seek employment in these fields, they are at risk of rejection if employers believe males are biologically better equipped to do the job. These stereotypes allow adolescent girls to lose their confidence in mathematics and the sciences. Girls understand that if they choose one of these as their major, they might have fewer chances gaining employment.

Male attitudes toward menstruation can further exacerbate the problem. While society determines differences between females and males, physiological differences can warp those same societal pressures. The menstrual period can bring discomfort, cramps, mood swings, and trouble concentrating. In Taiwan, some female workers may be absent during menstruation, and, if they are at work, male supervisors may consider them less effective.

In a study called Taiwanese Adolescent Gender Differences in Knowledge and Attitudes towards Menstruation, researchers investigated males’ and females’ views on menstruation. The results show, perhaps unsurprisingly, male students have more inaccurate attitudes towards it than females. For instance: “In response to questions about their knowledge of menstruation, 48.3% of the male participants believed that women cannot exercise during their period” (Cheng, Yang, & Liou, 2007, p.129). Males also have more negative views. The article mentions that “72.2% of males believed that the woman was likely to be ‘ill-tempered’” (p. 131) during menstruation. Further, a stereotype exists in Taiwan that males have more energy and more passion for their jobs, which only adds to the problem. These perspectives keep females in lower societal positions. Educators and parents must provide positive information on menstruation to males and females alike to remedy this issue.

Body image issues are also social stressors on females. In Taiwanese society, a woman’s body plays a significant role. The idolization of the female form is a modern concept. In traditional society, body image was not near as important. Today, if females aren’t concerned for their figure, they may lose ground in the competition with males for good jobs. Overweight girls may be less confident in the search for employment. Thus, beauty shops and plastic surgery are prevalent in Taiwan. This social pressure prompts females to keep careful control their weight and buy cosmetic products in great sums.

One 2010 study, Body Image and Physical Activity Among Overweight and Obese Girls in Taiwan, examined body image perspectives, looking at the attitudes of overweight and obese girls’. The results indicated that body image plays a dominant role in the development of overweight girls’ motives, creating barriers to physical activity engagement. Boys’ weight- related teasing and girls’ “fat talk” can have a profoundly negative effect on overweight females. In addition, media portrayal of the thin ideal is a major problem. Female adolescents usually discussed the thin ideal in relation to pop stars: “The most frequently reported socially ideal female image was that of Lin Chi-Lin, who is the most popular model in Taiwan with a BMI of 17.7 (weight 52 kg, height 174 cm)” (Chen, Fox, & Haase, 2010, p. 238).

The final issue for this section is adolescent pregnancy, a critical issue in Taiwan. Taiwanese conservative culture does not believe adolescent pregnancy is acceptable, nor pre-marital sex. Most parents will set up an abortion plan for their child. When pregnant adolescents seek employment, they will likely be rejected. While public schools and the government seek to provide positive, safe-sex education, traditional society frowns when things go wrong. In Factors Associated with Adolescent Pregnancy–A Sample of Taiwanese Female Adolescents, researchers compared sexually experienced (but never pregnant) girls with pregnant girls. The results pinpoint differences between pregnant and never-pregnant female adolescents. Varying beliefs, personal values, family backgrounds, and attitudes toward contraceptives will change the likelihood of pregnancy. It also shows safe-sex education is not working as effectively as it should: “In this study, 32.2% of never-pregnant adolescents used contraceptives every time, and 14.3% used them most of the time” (Wang, Wang, & Hsu, 2003, p. 38). Clearly, more needs to be done to reduce adolescent pregnancy, to avoid the effects of such behavior that hold women back in Taiwanese society.

Conclusion

Women in China, the United States, and Taiwan face similar challenges. Many still largely consider mathematics and science to be male-appropriate fields, and there exists, from men and media alike, tremendous pressure for girls to maintain the thin ideal. Girls who seek employment in these areas or fail to meet body weight standards are often met with condescension. The authors of this comparative analysis see the thin ideal in particular as an impediment to women reaching their full professional potential, as women are sexualized, being hired and valued based on appearance.

Body dissatisfaction is a widely recognized mental state that has negative impact on girls. Plastic surgery is popular in all three countries. Numerous studies have proved girls are over-concerned for their bodies and confused by various external societal judgments. Research indicates girls suffer from emotional issues like depression, low self-confidence and self-esteem, guilt, and shame more than boys. Further, perceived gender roles still impact women. All three nations are emerging from patriarchal societies. In such environments, women are regarded as the family caretaker. Excess privilege and authority of men diminishes the privilege and authority of women, as seen in the workplace, where stereotypes of females affect the hiring process. Women are still discriminated against, even when protected by law.

It is important to note that in three different societies, beliefs and social stressors will not be identical. In Taiwan (and indeed the U.S.) for instance, the government doesn’t have any policies restricting the number of children per family, unlike China, where couples can have but one. If they have more than one, they will be fined by the State. Fewer children may provide women more opportunity and time to engage in the professional world. Regardless, similarities overpower differences. These authors believe that raising awareness of these important issues and building an education system geared toward social goals is the best way to achieve gender equality. This report is meant to contribute to that end.

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References

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Cheng, C., Yang, K., & Liou, S. (2007). Taiwanese adolescents’ gender differences in knowledge and attitudes towards menstruation. Nursing and Health Sciences, (9), 127-134.

Cheung, F. M. (1996). Growing up the Chinese way: Chinese child and adolescent development. The Chinese University Press, 45-62.

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Ge, X., Conger, R. D., & Elder, G. R. (2001). Pubertal transition, stressful life events, and the emergence of gender differences in adolescent depressive symptoms. Developmental Psychology, 37(3), 404-417.

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Visitation School is a private K-8 Catholic institution in Kansas City, Missouri. This semester, the Spring of 2013, I have the opportunity of student teaching at Visitation for 6 weeks; this paper is meant to serve as a reflection, in the Jesuit tradition of Rockhurst University, of how the school and community settings will impact my teaching and my relationships with students, parents, and other teachers. In the following pages I will posit that Visitation, as a school for the upper class, is an institution that largely shelters its students from the world of less privileged classes; I will first examine the demographics of the school and the neighborhood in which students live, followed by a theorization of how these facts will affect my practice.

Visitation is full of bright, happy, polite students. The total enrollment is 565 for this school year. Put bluntly, it is a school for the privileged, a school with a tuition cost of $6,300 a year for each student and a student body that is 91% white. It is where wealthy white families who live along Ward Parkway and nearby neighborhoods send their children. Between tuition costs, fundraising, and investments from Visitation Parish across the street, the total operating sum is over $2.7 million a year (School Profile handout, 2013).

It is an exemplar of wealthy neighborhoods, still very much secluded from non-whites, opting for private education that is fully funded by rich families and is likewise overwhelmingly white. According to the handout I was given from the office, Visitation is 1% black, and indeed I have only seen 1 black student in my nearly two years of observing, subbing, and now student teaching at the school. He is mixed race; my cooperating teacher tells me he is adopted, as are several other minority students. She can only think of three black students in the building, and one does not have to be a mathematician to determine three students of 565 would indicate the black population would actually be half a percent. The school is 4% Hispanic and 4% “other.” This includes a couple Indian children. There is no ELL population. A black man and Hispanic man clean the building after school.  

Naturally, a fully-funded institution such as this does remarkably well on standardized tests. Across the board, in reading, language arts, math, social studies, and science, Visitation pupils consistently score somewhere in the 80th percentile of all American students on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The average class size is 21, with a pupil-teacher ratio of 17:1. Graduation rates are virtually 100%, most students will go on to private high schools, and there is no tracking that my cooperating teacher can think of save the upper-grades math courses. The classrooms are well-supplied with SMARTboards and iPads.

There are suitable accommodations for 38 students with IEPs, according to the Special Education Coordinator. Disabilities include everything from dysgraphia to ADHD to visual processing difficulties. My cooperating teacher says she has students with Tourettes, panic attacks, or Epilepsy, among others. There are two children with Autism and one girl with Down Syndrome. These students are integrated, but have paras. The school has a Student Improvement Team for each student who needs modifications or accommodations. The teams determine student concerns and strengths, objectives, instructional methods, and strategies. Each IEP is over 20 pages long.

The neighborhoods from which the students come are those of the upper class. I spent many months tutoring a 5th grade boy from Visitation, seeing his street, home, and lifestyle. He lives in a neighborhood adjacent to Ward Parkway, and many of his classmates are his neighbors. In the 64113 area, the median household income is over $250,000. The median home value is nearly $1 million. It is one of the richest neighborhoods in Kansas City. The population is virtually 100% white, according to City-Data.com (2013). The students enjoy membership at the Carriage Club, dinners on the Plaza, and other amenities. Many interrupt school for vacations to California or Chicago. I have several times heard students who live in the area describe peers who have a newer version of an iPad or iPhone than they as “spoiled.” They live privileged, unicultural lifestyles. They do not see how other children live.

My instructional planning for Visitation’s social studies classes will emphasize societal themes which both interest me most and are most important for all children to understand, but particularly upper-class children. When students pass through their history classes learning nothing of class, they are left in ignorance. When they make it through school learning nothing of race, they are left in ignorance. I was astonished to learn that the 5th grade text I will be working with, Houghton Mifflin’s United States History: The Early Years, does not contain the word “racism.” There is no examination of the decimation of Amerindian tribes after the European invasions. There are two paragraphs on slavery, mostly focusing on the life of Olaudah Equiano, an African who fought for the abolition of the British slave trade. Social class and racism have been whitewashed from history textbooks, leaving no foundation from which students can reflect on social injustices and inequalities, on why they have so much and black students who attend school on Troost a mile away have so little. I intend, as I have always intended since the day I decided to become a teacher, to stress the prevalence of racism and class conflict in American and world history, in hopes that students will understand that their presence in the upper class was a product of history and not merit, just as children born into the lower class were dealt a hand they did not choose and will have a difficult life trying to change. To this end, the first lessons I will teach to my 5th graders will be Indian-European relations and conflict, and the first lessons my 6th graders will experience will examine India’s caste system, emphasizing the plight of the Dalits (the “Untouchables”) and comparing the historic class structure to that of the United States.

In conclusion, focusing on themes such as these will not only prepare Visitation students to recognize and confront social injustices, but I predict it will better capture their interest and help me build more positive relationships with them. Nothing is more dull than sugarcoated history. Controversy and conflict, those are interesting. My students may be shaken to learn Pocahontas was 10 when she encountered the residents of Jamestown, and far from saving John Smith from certain death, she was kidnapped by him and the English and was held for ransom. But it will fascinated them, they will remember it, and they will learn to question everything they see and hear. Hopefully this process will aid my relationships with parents and other teachers, who will see student interest sparked and true learning and growing taking place. I write “hopefully,” for not everyone is comfortable with the teaching of social history, nor the examination of themes conservative textbook authors and publishers have desperately avoided for decades.

***

Raytown Central Middle School (RCMS) is a public 6-8 school in Raytown, Missouri, southeast of Kansas City. This is where my Spring 2013 student teaching semester at Rockhurst University concludes and, as during my first placement, I am writing an essay that examines the culture and climate of the school. Becoming a reflective practitioner includes considering how the school community will influence my decisions as a teacher. I will posit that the climate of the school, characterized by bored and controlled students, perpetuates restlessness and disruptive behavior.

The students of Raytown Central are largely good-natured. Many are sociable and eager to say hello to me and ask questions of me. The student population is 581. The school is more ideal than other American public schools in its ethnic diversity, being 40% black, 47% white, 9% Hispanic, and 3.5% Asian/Pacific Islander. The teacher population is not so diverse. There are 69 faculty and staff members, but I have only seen three African-Americans and one Hispanic. The vast majority are in their forties, fifties, or sixties. Of the students, there are 16 English Language Learners, 58 students with Individual Education Plans, and 13 with 504 Plans.

I am told that RCMS serves families in a better part of Raytown.

“We’re in one the wealthier areas,” a counselor tells me. “Meaning we don’t have trailer parks.”

The city as a whole has an average median income of $48,000, but with significant racial disparities (a median $51,000 salary for white families, $36,500 for blacks, $34,500 for Hispanics). Raytown is 65% white, 25% black, 5% Hispanic, and 1.2% Asian/Pacific Islander. 18% of the residents live on less than $30,000 a year, 33% on less than $40,000 (City-Data website, 2009). Raytown Central is not a Title I school, but 40-45% of its students qualify for the Free and Reduced Lunch Program (the school serves breakfast and lunch), and I am told 12-18 students are homeless this year, meaning displaced and living with relatives or other caretakers. Many of my students wear the same sweatshirts each day.

The students with IEPs seem well supported; I joined a meeting after school to discuss the needs of a boy with low IQ and behavioral problems, and it is clear the staff is dedicated to providing the modifications he needs to learn. Students with lower processing abilities are given preferential seating and provided hard copies of notes daily. I have not seen extensive differentiated instruction, but I have only observed one teacher, and for a brief period of time. Still, the education offered to students with special needs seems on par with other students. One of my students is blind, another is a quadriplegic. There is a full-time braillist in the building, and multiple paras. Most significantly, students on IEPs are fully integrated. The extent to which other students help their peers impresses me.

There are also students on behavioral plans. I sat in on a staff meeting on building-wide behavioral referrals. From August 2012 to February 2013, the number of referrals for lies and aggression were both in the hundreds. There are no metal detectors, but there are cameras in the halls and a policeman on duty.

The climate of the school is not particularly positive. The halls are painted dark grey, the lockers are black, and the lights are low. Teachers are authoritative and controlling; raised voices are commonplace, and some engage in arguments with students over things I would consider not worth the battle. Many teachers seem frustrated. They are not unkind, just tired. I can understand why; many of these students are difficult to manage. I wonder how many of them truly enjoy what they are doing, and how many simply tolerate it.

Attitudes are sometimes negative. A teacher referred to one of the classes I will teach as “a rotten group of kids.”

The discontent is shared by the students, who feel very much controlled. The school uses the BIST (Behavior Intervention Support Team) strategy, which strives to control behavior, but involves sending disruptive students out of the classroom. Usually the disruptive behavior is the refusal to stop conversing with peers while a teacher is trying to teach, and indeed it can get out of control. Most of my classes have nearly 30 kids. Students are sent out of my cooperating teacher’s six classes often; sometimes one or two a day, sometimes five or six.

Disinterest breeds disruption. Many students are bored, resigned to silently fill out worksheets as the central activity of some lessons. There are days when they watch interesting videos or do research on computers, but the classes I’ve seen are largely devoid of vigorous discussion, debates, group work, or activities that allow students to get up and move. As my teaching begins, I am seeing why, as there are some classes that simply cannot control themselves. The side conversations and disruptive behavior become impossible to manage.

My decisions as a teacher here will attempt to create a positive environment that sacrifices authoritarianism for interesting, thought-provoking lessons as the central driving force of classroom management. RCMS students need to have a reason for what they are doing. The majority seem to have little understanding of learning for its own sake. I believe I am off to a decent start: my first day I was able to spark student interest in the Greek language and maintain a relatively high degree of control. Students were excited to learn Greek phrases and examine root words. Many enjoyed greeting me with γειά σου for the rest of the day. However, the next day’s activities that involved student mobility proved to be difficult with certain classes, and I see why these teachers gravitate towards rote learning that maintains tighter control. I hope to find a balance, learning how to craft active lessons that still allow me to manage the classroom.    

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References     

(2012-2013). School Profile [handout]. Visitation School, Kansas City, MO.

64112 Zip Code Detailed Profile. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/zips/64112.html.

Raytown, Missouri (MO) income, earnings, and wages data. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/income/income-Raytown-Missouri.html.

In Skirting the Issue: Teachers’ Experiences “Addressing Sexuality in Middle School Language Arts,” Laurel Puchner and Nicole Klein of Southern Illinois University interviewed 15 middle school language arts teachers from eight school districts across America’s so-called “Bible Belt” to investigate how the topic of sexuality is handled when it arises in the classroom. These were majority suburban areas, with majority white student bodies, all 15 teachers were white, and only three schools had majority low-income students (2012, p. 4). While this sample of teachers was nonrandom, small, and homogeneous, the study provided valuable insight into how middle school students are learning (or remaining ignorant) about sexuality.

Puchner and Klein found that sexuality came up frequently in school, and the majority of the teachers they interviewed “believed that frank discussion of sexuality issues would be beneficial for their students” (p. 6). The authors agree with them, citing studies that indicate open dialogue concerning sex helps students understand the importance of safety practices, understand how sex is portrayed in the media, and grow into sexually healthy adults (p. 2). Ignorance in this area perpetuates incorrect information and prejudice and violence towards the LGBT community (p. 2). They even suggest the curiosity and fascination surrounding sex can be used to spark interest in science, history, and literature, and that “it is useful for promoting democracy because sexuality is so closely entwined in the issues of racial oppression, gender oppression, class oppression, and sexuality oppression” (p. 2).

However, a “culture of silence” (p. 3) persists because teachers are afraid to go too far when discussing such a controversial subject. Many see the positives in open communication, but there exists a “benefit-risk tension” (p. 11) that requires teachers to mentally weigh risk versus reward for any situation in which sexuality arises. Teachers are fearful of angry parents and/or administrators, of losing their jobs (p. 13). And naturally, some simply don’t see it as the teacher’s prerogative to teach such issues (p. 12). In their conclusion, the authors push for a change in attitude: If the ignorance teachers perpetuate with silence has a negative impact on the sexual development of adolescents, this must change, and it should begin with dialogue between superintendents, principals, and teachers on how open an educator can be when discussing sexuality with students (p. 14).

I agree with Puchner and Klein’s stance. Conservative American culture tends to deem sexuality a dark secret that must be locked in the closet, despite the fact that besides the intake and expulsion of nutrients and oxygen, plus the sleep cycle, sex is the most common biological function of all life. If adolescents are not educated, they are left in ignorance. We need to move toward the belief that the benefits outweigh the risks. Students should not have to rely on their peers for information on sex. They should be able to count on respected parents and teachers to educate them, and although some adults may feel parents are the only ones with this responsibility, I believe the educator plays a critical role. When a learning moment arises from a novel students are reading in English, or a discussion on the gay rights movement in history class, or a lecture on anatomy in science, it should be taken advantage of and used as an opportunity to discuss and examine this controversial topic, to the ultimate end of producing informed and sexually healthy adults and eliminating the controversy entirely.

For more from the author, subscribe and follow or read his books.

References
Puchner, L., & Klein, N. A. (2012). Skirting the issue: Teachers’ experiences “addressing sexuality in middle school language arts.” Research in middle level education, 36(1). http://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/publications/RMLE/rmle_vol36_no1.pdf.

The author of Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope would probably frown upon any notion that the book is about him, but Jonathan Kozol’s observations at St. Ann’s Church in the Bronx are truly a journey of understanding and discovery, of both hope and tragedy. He builds friendships with poor inner-city children at an after-school program, learning about their experiences, attitudes, values, and beliefs. In a way, Kozol is a John the Baptist type figure, preaching a message that has nothing to do with him but at same time takes him on a journey through the wilderness. If John the Baptist humbled himself by eating wild honey and locusts in the desert, Kozol, a Harvard-educated man, humbles himself by spending his days exploring the destitute conditions of New York’s children. John the Baptist prepared the way for the coming of Christ. Kozol hopes to pave the way for change.

The children Kozol develops friendships with—Elio, Pinnapple, Tabitha, Lucia, and the others—live in a very rough part of the Bronx called Mott Haven. Their living conditions are grim. “All are very poor; statistics tell us that they are the poorest children in New York. Some know hunger several times a month…some have previously lived in homeless shelters” (Kozol, 2000, p. 4). Poverty is only the beginning of the horrors the children must endure. They are surrounded by drugs and gun violence. Disease is a widespread problem. The author writes that Mott Haven is “the nation’s epicenter for the plague of pediatric and maternal AIDS” (p. 3) and most of the children “have lost a relative or grown-up friend to AIDS” (p. 4). The area, like other inner-cities, remains a breeding ground for asthma due to exposure to harmful chemicals and pollution (p. 3). Kozol describes this problem as particularly painful for the elderly, but takes special pit on asthmatic children:

Asthma is a miserable illness for a child…play is a part of childhood and children cannot play with real abandon when they feel so bad. Even mild asthma weighs their spirits down and makes it hard to smile easily, or read a book with eagerness, or jump into a conversation with spontaneity. They learn somehow to live with these discomforts. Nearly a quarter of the children have to bring their pumps with them to school a church (p. 94-95).

For a time, the neighborhood was plagued by a waste incinerator, the description of which is one of the most terrifying and stomach-churning portions of Kozol’s book. He writes, “It’s a medical incinerator, burning what are known as ‘red-bag products’–hypodermic needles, soiled bedding, amputated limbs, and embryos—which are brought here every day from fourteen hospitals in New York City” (p. 87). The author notes that it took years of protest to get the machine shut down; all the while sick children grew sicker.

However, that one incinerator was just the tip of the iceberg. “In Hunts Point alone, immediately adjacent to Mott Haven, there are forty garbage and recycling facilities, one of them a plant that turns most of the city’s treated sewage into fertilizer. The stench that it gives off is so bad children ‘throw up on their way to school’” (p. 88). Pollution from cars and trucks aggravates the problem. The living standards of these kids astounded me. It is something I could only truly understand if I saw it with my own eyes. Perhaps that mentality explains why Kozol (and his friend Mr. Rogers) has spent so much time in the South Bronx, exploring the darkness in which these kids live. Without seeing, one cannot understand, and without understanding, nothing can change.

After all this, one can hardly expect things to grow darker, but they do. Kozol tells us, “About a quarter of the fathers of the children in the after-school are now in prison or have been in prison, some of them a long way from the Bronx in various state penitentiaries and some nearby at Rikers Island” (p. 31). And what about the children at St. Ann’s whose fathers are long gone, who abandoned them and might as well never have existed? Who are these children who are surrounded by incinerators, drugs, poverty, and only see their fathers during visiting hours?

One answer would be “non-white children.” Jonathan Kozol aims to awaken those who cannot see the current race problem in America, who cannot see how dark the echoes of racism and discrimination have remained. The situation of the Mott Haven children is a testament to race relations of both the past and the present. Kozol says:

It is honest to observe, as well, that the community in which they live is one of the most deeply segregated concentrations of black and Hispanic people in our nation, with less than two tenths of 1 percent of the school enrollment in Mott Haven represented by Caucasian children, and that racial isolation here, as elsewhere in our nation, is accompanied by inequalities in education and high rates of joblessness (p. 4).

Race is a major theme throughout Ordinary Resurrections. Segregation that has persisted despite years of improvements in civil rights is one of the deeply rooted causes of the conditions of Kozol’s young friends. Inequalities in education and high unemployment create poverty. The author makes no bones about the gravity of either segregation-spawned issue. “Unemployment in the South Bronx, over all, remains at over 45 percent, according to the New York Times. It rises in the neighborhood served by St. Ann’s to over 75 percent, according to the pastor of the church and teachers in the local schools” (p. 4). And that was back in 2000. I imagine the economic recession of the past couple years may have made those number rise further. The families that are fortunate enough to have jobs scrape by on $10,000 a year, far below the poverty line (p. 44).

The prisons are deeply segregated. 92% of Rikers Island’s 20,000 prisoners are black or Hispanic and it “is believed to be the most racially consistent penal colony in the entire Western world” (p. 31). While criminals deserve condemnation, Kozol’s journey has allowed him to understand that social and economic injustices are the cause of these startling statistics. Where blacks and Hispanics cannot receive a quality education and then cannot find work, crime begins to look more and more like a viable option for bringing in money. Sometimes, people do not feel they have a choice. It might come down to stealing or starving, joining a gang or starving, or selling drugs or starving.

The author points out that “the racial make-up of the prison population and that of the population of Mott Haven are essentially the same. “The racial mix, such as it is, among the children of Mott Haven is represented by the presence of some 26 white children in a nonwhite population of 11,000 students in the elementary schools” (p. 31). A school and a prison, hopelessly interconnected, the conditions that affect the first inevitably feeding the other. Rikers becomes the next home for some after Mott Haven. At times, it comes sooner rather than later.To summarize the tragedy of the area’s 99.8% segregation rate: “two tenths of one percentage point [serves] as the distinction between legally enforced apartheid in the South of 50 years ago and socially and economically enforced apartheid in this New York neighborhood today” (p. 31). In decades, very little has changed in the South Bronx.

That is the “what” of the problem. The “why” is simpler to explain. While reading Ordinary Resurrections, one will inevitably wonder why things are the way they are for these families and St. Ann’s children. The current issue is an echo of a time of racial tension and hatred. The author explains:

In the vast expanses of the South Bronx, in which residential segregation was encouraged and accelerated by the conscious policies of realtors, banks, and city planners starting in the 1950s, and where federal housing subsidies in recent decades have been used to underwrite a set of policies and practices that deepened pre-existing racial isolation, tens of thousands of black and Hispanic children never see white children in their schools…they don’t know white children (p. 32).

For the horrid problems in this area of New York, we have to thank realtors of the past,who would not show black families homes in white neighborhoods. Some whites when moving from their homes would make it a condition that the house could not be sold to an African-American. Banks refused to loan money to blacks. City planners carefully designed neighborhoods to keep whites and blacks as separate as possible. This is why there are few white kids at St. Ann’s or in Mott Haven’s school, P.S. 30. Racist whites of decades ago made an extra effort to keep blacks and other minorities away from their children. Here Kozol prompts moral reflection. The sins of the last generation are still present in our own. Does that not make us as guilty as our parents? True change has not come close to glimmering in Mott Haven.

In some ways, prejudice continues among the powerful elite in New York. Mott Haven was not the first place in New York that the city attempted to install the medical incinerator. “It had been forced upon Mott Haven, very much against their will, by powerful financial interests after attempting to build a comparable burner on the East Side of Manhattan had been stopped by people there, who rightly feared the damage it would do to their children’s health” (p. 87). The pleas of Mott Haven parents fell on deaf ears. The incinerator was built and maintained for six years. Kozol notes that Mother Martha of St. Ann’s claims “the financiers…had close ties to City Hall” and “contrived instead to put it in the South Bronx not far from St. Ann’s, where asthma rates already were among the highest in the nation” (p. 87). Is it a coincidence that a heavily polluted section of the city, a petri dish for disease, was chosen as the spot for an unsafe incinerator? Is it a coincidence that the location is almost 100% black and Hispanic? How can one part of New York protest and win before such a machine is even built, and another can protest but see the machine erected and cause child illness for over half a decade before anything is done?

Moreover, why does the city spend $12,000 a year on students in northern New York, and only $5,000 on students in Mott Haven schools (p. 45)? Teachers are paid $20,000 more in northern suburbs (p. 45). The inequalities in resources, funds, and salaries are huge. In a unified school district such as New York’s, those at the top are making the conscious decision to treat schools in the South Bronx worse than schools in other areas. Kozol says, “No matter how these differences may be obscured or understated or complexified by civilized equivocation, they do tell us something about how we value Pineapple and Elio as human beings, both in their present status as small children who rely upon our decency and in their future destinies as adult citizens” (p. 45). While he does not spend a wealth of time writing on those who perpetuate the current problem, Kozol is clearly placing as much blame on current leaders as on the leaders of the 1950s. St. Ann’s children have not seen the decency they deserve.

Upon reading this essay thus far, one might think the injustices in New York are all Kozol writes about. This is far from the truth. He weaves these facts into a tapestry of his innocent conversations with the children of St. Ann’s after-school. He wants to shine a light on this dark corner of the country, but he also knows that inner-city children are widely misunderstood. Most of this book focuses on revealing who these children really are and depicting their vibrant spirits. It is a celebration of their courage, fortitude, faith, and positive attitudes, as indicated by Kozol’s subtitle, Children in the Years of Hope.

He aims to combat the labels placed on inner-city kids. For too long, poor children have been looked upon as different from other kids, as part of a “culture of poverty” that makes them“quasi-children” or “morally disabled children” (p. 116-117). As if the kids at St. Ann’s are simply criminals-to-be or “premature adults” (p. 116). This prompts teachers to use “a peculiar arsenal of reconstructive strategies and stick-and-carrot ideologies that would wouldn’t be accepted for one hour by the parents or teachers of the upper middle class” (p. 117). Poor kids are looked upon differently, and are treated accordingly. However, as the multitude of conversations between Kozol and the children reveal, there is little difference between inner-city minority kids and white kids who come from wealthy backgrounds. If anything, Kozol explains they are more sensitive to the anxieties of others (p. 115) because of the world in which they live. They are in the world, not of the world. They are stronger than other children.

The St. Ann’s kids are selfless and sweet and even-tempered. The author describes many as being compassionate toward others and willing to comfort others. It’s as if the children understand what each other have to deal with every day. Seeing their interactions, I would conclude they think about others more than themselves. They are inquisitive, thoughtful, and hopeful. Their words tug at the heart.

One Tuesday afternoon I had an inconclusive conversation on the subject with religion with Pineapple and a girl named Jennifer, who is her cousin. Jennifer said she had a dream that she was visiting God. “There were no stores or restaurants,” she said. “You had to call out to get food, and someone would deliver.” She also said God had brown hair, “dark-brown, like mine,” and that she found out God was married, because, while she visited, “His wife came in and kissed Him.”

A boy who was sitting with us said he had been told that God is “with us in the world” and “not above us in the sky,” but Jennifer said it wasn’t so, that God “stays up in heaven” but “He breathes into the world.”

When I asked her to explain this, she was unable to do so, but Pineapple said, “It’seasy! Look—like this.” She filled her cheeks with air, then pushed them in like a balloon with both her hands and said, “Kapoof!”

Then she laughed and said, “I’m sorry. I was fooling.”

“I knew you were,” I said.

“We’re only children,” said Pineapple, and she handed out grape-flavored sour balls to everyone (p. 237-238).

Only children. With those words, Pineapple sums up the message of Ordinary Resurrections. Despite the segregation and poverty of Mott Haven, despite the injustices of New York’s elite, despite all the horrors of dangerous inner-city life, the children are still children, no different than any others. These kids must simply go through “ordinary resurrections,” or rise above loneliness and fear (p. 108), more often than others.

The above conversation is one of many the author has with the kids at St. Ann’s concerning God and His character. In the beginning of his journey, Kozol was rather uncomfortable with prayer and religion. He writes, “A child would look up and ask me, simply,’Can we pray?’ I would say yes, but I felt strange about this at the start, because I’m not a Christian and I’ve never been especially religious, not in formal ways at least. So I’d be hesitant at first, but I’d agree; and so I’ve ended up saying a lot of prayers without the certainty that I had any right to do this” (p. 7). For the children, “prayer, of course, is a pervasive part of life” and many kids seek the wisdom and spiritual guidance from St. Ann’s pastor (p. 245). Most of the children are firm in their faith, and are very open to discussing serious religious matters to the best of their ability.

Kozol once spoke about God to a little girl named Lucia.

“How powerful is God?” I ask.

“He’s powerful to make hearts,” she replies (p. 71).

Later:

“God needs to make hearts,” she told me firmly one day when I questioned her about this. It had an almost brazenly didactic sound.

Stephanie, who is older than Lucia, also speaks of “God’s heart,” and her own heart…I asked her once what she believed would make the world a better place.

“What would make the world better is God’s heart,” she answered. “I know God’s heart is already in the world. But I would like if He would…push the heart more into it” (p. 72).

It is my opinion that Kozol deeply admires the simple faith of little children. He asks so many questions of them. He is obviously curious, perhaps even jealous of what they have. Kozol has pain and fear in his own life, as his parents grow ill in their old age. He admits, “Perhaps the illness of my parents has enabled me to listen with less awkwardness to children’s prayers, and given me a reason at some moments to pray with them” (p. 7). As his journey of understanding continues, he becomes more comfortable with prayer and religion.

At the end of the book, Kozol joins the children on Easter Sunday for a service (p. 332).His mother’s illness prompts him to write, “Every time I leave her bedside she gives me three kisses, one on my forehead, one on my right cheek, and one on the left, and says, ‘God bless you,’and I say, ‘God bless you,’ in return. We never know which night will be the last one” (p. 336).Without a doubt, Kozol finds comfort through St. Ann’s kids and their faith. I believe that he realized how much strength such faith gave them, and has found the same strength more and more as he opens up to God. In the end, I think he found that certainty he spoke of, the certainty that he did indeed have the right to speak to and petition God.

Kozol believes things will get better in the South Bronx. Despite the darkness and evil there, the hope of the children has become his own hope. He spent seven years learning about who they are and where they come from. He believes the good he has found will wear away at the darkness until, many, many years from now, there will be none left. In the end of Ordinary Resurrections, he describes a present Pineapple gave to him:

It’s a landscape: grass and sky and one tremendous puffy-looking cloud…partly hidden by a hill, a jolly-looking thing with orange rays that look like dragons’ teeth and is supposed to be the sun…friends who see it here cannot decide if it’s supposed to be the end of the day or the beginning. Either way, I think that orange thing with dragons’ teeth is beautiful; and, at the risk of being sentimental about somebody whose sunny disposition brings a lot of joy into a world that has too many cloudy afternoons, I like to think it’s rising (p. 339).

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From the outside, Silver City Elementary School is a humble building. One story tall, unflattering pink and black brick, tall skinny windows. It reflects its humble surroundings, in a poor urban area of Kansas City, Kansas marked by tiny houses and brown apartment buildings.

Although it joined Kansas City in 1910, this region still has an old-town feel. It is not without its history; it used to be called Prophetstown. Nearby is the grave of the Shawnee Tensquatawa, the Prophet. His brother, Tecumseh, built a confederation of Native American tribes in the Ohio Valley, to protect their lands from the United States. Both the Prophet and Tecumseh fought at Tippecanoe against General William Henry Harrison in 1811. After the War of 1812, the Prophet and the Shawnee were forced to move farther west, into Missouri and Kansas. This area of KC now sits on what used to be a Shawnee reservation.

The town has a history of refining and smelting metal since 1880. In 1896, for instance, the town’s plant produced over 1.5 million pounds of copper (Blackmar, 1912, pp. 95-97). The plant refined silver and gold, too, using ore from South and North America, becoming the backbone of the modern city. At one point, its smokestack was the tallest on earth, the city being known as the “Silver Refining Capital of the World.” Excellent railway lines from several counties kept the industry booming. During this period, black freedmen and white European immigrants such as Belgians, Germans, Poles, Russians, and Czechs flocked to the town for work and property. Silver City Elementary is named after this industry.  

As one approaches the entrance, he or she will note three sets of doors, all of which remain locked. This is not the safest of neighborhoods. An intercom is on the wall to request entrance.

Inside, all is clean and orderly. What’s perhaps most striking is how open everything is: all that separates the lobby from the library is a partition wall, with hallways branching off the library. Silver City Elementary was actually the first “open-space” school in Kansas City (Shutt II, 1976, chapter 7). Shutt writes, “This means it has large open spaces with semi-permanent partitions. Thus, the school can be adapted to changing enrollment and educational requirements.” This experimental school opened in 1971, a test subject for other open schools to be built the next year. Dr. Oren L. Plucker, the former superintendent, writes that the design of the library, teacher work areas, and fine arts facilities was an architectural model (1986). It seems to have been a success; there is a personal, inviting feel to the open school.

Originally, according to Shutt II, Silver City Elementary was just over 25,000 square feet, and cost just over half a million dollars to build. It had a maximum capacity for 250 students. It began with eight teachers and three aides. Three years ago, a new wing was added, and in the 2010-2011 school year, there were 267 enrolled.

The school appears to be funded adequately. Rooms have smart boards and computers, and are fully furnished and colorfully decorated with student projects. Each teacher has a new Macbook. While there are some old, run-down cars in the teacher parking lot, most of them are recent models and in prime condition.     

The children are friendly and polite, referring to me using “Mister.” They were eager to ask me questions, show off what they were learning, and invite me to play math games during class or basketball during fitness period. Most are high-spirited, talkative, and enjoy being there, an amazing fact considering their neighborhood is poorer than 96.3% of all U.S. neighborhoods (almost 40% of the children live in poverty) (Neighborhood Scout, 2010). 93.7% are on the Free and Reduced Lunch Program (kckps.org, 2011). Silver City Elementary provides both breakfast and lunch to its students.

“Mrs. Steele” reports that most of her fifth grade students are still hungry even with these meals, which are small portions and low in nutritional quality.

“I’m hungry,” I overheard a girl say to a classmate.

“You just had lunch!” the boy replied.

Mrs. Steele’s room has bags of food donated from Harvester’s hanging on hooks on the short wall that partitions her room from two others. The “snack packs” contain small cans of soup and fruit, juice boxes, trail mix, etc. It is not much for anyone, much less a growing fifth-grader. The packs are given out to the hungriest children.

“Some parents won’t take handouts,” Mrs. Steele says. “But I keep the student’s name on the list anyway, and give the food to someone else.”

She pays careful attention to her students, and when she sees one of them unable to focus or beginning to doze, she’ll have a snack ready.

The children are clothed adequately (with help from caring teachers: I witnessed one teacher offering a like-new pair of pink and white shoes to a few girls to see it they would fit), but sometimes hygiene is a problem. When parents can’t pay the water bill, students will sometimes go weeks without showering.

Mrs. Steele says there is one student in her class who smells poorly quite often, and it draws complaints from other children and teachers.

The student body is diverse. The male-female ratio is 60-40. It is 41% black, 33% hispanic, and 13% white, with an Asian population making up much of the rest. A considerable 30% are English Language Learners (ELL); Mrs. Steele says that the school sees many first generation immigrants. Equally significant are students with disabilities, who make up 16% of total enrollment (kckps.org, 2011).

Historically, Silver City Elementary’s region was neither so poor nor diverse. “Principal Rivers” says that when the school was built and opened, it was dominated by middle-class whites.  

“What accounts for the change over the last forty years?” I inquired.

Mr. Rivers, who grew up in the area, explained that economic downturn in the late 1970s and 80s sent middle-class whites packing and provided inexpensive housing attractive to immigrants of color. Home prices are low compared to the rest of the nation. According to Neighborhood Scout (which provides U.S.-census data on each neighborhood and city), “Rents here are currently lower in price than 67.1% of Kansas neighborhoods” (2010), usually around $400 a month. Both Mrs. Steele and Mr. Rivers reported most Silver City Elementary School families rent. One girl with greasy hair wore around her neck what I suspected was an apartment key. When the bus takes her home, she is probably alone for a few hours.

After school, there is a “Kids Zone” program for students who stay later. Most students take the bus. Bussed kids are dismissed separately from those being picked up, and there are usually only one or two of the latter, in a class of 17. Most of the parents will still be working when school gets out.

“What do most of the parents do for a living?” I asked Mr. Rivers.

“Most are what I would call ‘laborers.’ You obviously won’t have ninety-seven percent of students on Free Lunch if parents were managers or executives.” Neighborhood Scout confirms this, reporting most people are in manufacturing and labor, and only 12% of area adults have a college degree or higher (2010). Between the refinery and the railroads, labor has been the dominant occupation for over a century.

I asked the principal what he saw as the key to turning this neighborhood around. He answered, “Education” without hesitation.

He pointed out that the teachers’ and administrators’ diplomas are on display in the lobby, to serve as an example, to demonstrate that students can go to college if they are willing to believe in themselves and work hard. Doing well in school and making it to college will help break the cycle of poverty, he says.

“Is college hard?” a boy asked me.

“It can be a lot of work.”

“I’ll be there someday,” he said.

Silver City Elementary is preparing students for a lifetime of academic success.

“We have done very well,” Mr. Rivers says. “Despite our challenges, our test scores are very high.”

Indeed, even with high percentages of ELL and SPED students, Silver City is excelling. “90% of our students exit 5th grade on-track and on-time for 6th grade,” the district’s website, kskps.org (2011) reports, adding, “90% of all our students will meet or exceed grade level expectations as measured by the MAP assessment.” Many of the teachers have master’s degrees, and the ones I observed genuinely care about students and their success. They do not appear to play by the rules of Ronald Takaki’s “Master Narrative.”

Takaki, professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, writes that American schools perpetuate an ethnocentricity called the “Master Narrative” (2008, p. 4). This ideology preaches that “true” Americans are white, and it can be felt not only in our schools and history books, but also in our media, businesses, and public policies (p. 5). Takaki says, “Through this filter, interpretations of ourselves and the world have been constructed, leaving many of us feeling left out of history and America itself” (p. 5). This view ignores the history, contributions, and overall relevance of immigrants that did not come from Europe, a great and growing population in the United States. It is also a great and growing population at Silver City Elementary.

The effect of this ethnocentric force is that educators who perpetuate it serve an injustice to their students. They see nonwhite students as less worthy of their attention, as less valuable to society. Vito Perrone, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an immigrant himself, writes that he has heard teachers comment that students of color “are not worth worrying about” (1998, p. 16). He writes, “I have conversed with many alienated students who believe most adults in their schools are hostile toward them, wishing they would just stay away” (p. 16). When teachers don’t see darker-skinned students as “Americans,” their education and self-esteem will suffer. Racial tensions will flourish. If said students are impoverished, this will only entrench them deeper into the cycle of poverty.

Nothing like this can be seen at Silver City Elementary. Indeed, it is more like Leonard Covello’s public school in New York that Perrone writes about. Covello, a teacher and Italian immigrant, helped create an atmosphere of racial tolerance and celebration of other cultures in the impoverished East Harlem of the 1930s. He focused on the needs and interests of diverse students and, like Silver City, helped provide food, clothing, and other non-academic services to students (Perrone, pp. 42, 69). He was a teacher who cared. He believed with all his heart that the school was key to creating a more democratic and less hateful society (Perrone, p. 66). And it worked.

“This boy is my friend,” a black student told a reporter, placing a hand on an Italian student’s shoulder. “That’s all I know” (Perrone, p. 127).

When one observes Silver City Elementary, it feels very much the same. Race is a non-issue. Perhaps this is more likely considering the young age of most of the students, but the attitudes of the teachers surely help. Many of the teachers are white (while the principal and many of the paras and staff are black or Hispanic), but all the adults treat the children with respect. They care about their success, never hesitating to explain a concept over or work one-on-one with a student, regardless of skin color. The teachers arrange desks in diverse clusters, helping students of different ethnicities work together and build friendships.

Despite the pervasive poverty and the hunger, Silver City Elementary provides an effective education and, equally as significant, a safe and caring environment. People are people and Americans are Americans regardless of physical traits. The attitudes of the teachers are best reflected by those of the students. Students of color are just as eager as white students to leap up and help the instructor erase the whiteboard or clean up the classroom. The majority respect and appreciate their teachers, and even those who do not surely know their teachers care about them anyway. The Master Narrative doesn’t exist. Teachers care so much that college is not spoken of as a pipe dream, but a possibility. And, most importantly, when students swarm outside for fitness period, they run and shout and play with the same blindness to race they had in the classroom moments ago.                      

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References

(2010). 18th st expy/ruby ave neighborhood profile. Neighborhood Scout website. Retreived March 28, 2012 from http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ks/kansas-city/ 18th-st-expy-ruby/#desc.

(2011).  [P-S] Elementary school profile information. Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools website. Retreived March 28, 2012 from http://kckps.org/dera/profiles2.php#p.

Blackmar, F. W. (1912). Kansas: A cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. Chicago, IL. Standard Publishing Company.

Perrone, V. (1998). Teacher with a heart: Reflections on Leonard Covello and community. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Plucker, O. L. (1986). Schools in KCKs in years of change 1962-1986. Excerpt from http://www.kckps.org/disthistory/openbuildings/silvercity.html.

Shutt II, E. D. (1976). “Silver city,” a history of the Argentine community of Kansas City, Kansas. Kansas City, KS. JOELitho.

Takaki, R. (2008). A different mirror: A history of multicultural America. New York, NY: Back Bay Books.