Tikay 1

Taniuska Tikay

Prof. Susie Huerta

English 1s

7 December 2017

The Disempowered Student

In a technologically advanced country that is an economic world leader, it is expected

that its citizens are entitled to the best education and resources: that is not the reality citizens of

the United States face. Schools in the United States do not empower students, they create

“standardized” citizens who do not know what it is to be part of a democracy. The majority of

students in this country are of the lower social class and the government has failed them by not

creating an equal opportunity for them to move up in social class or become better citizens. The

most disadvantaged are those who are of ethnic backgrounds and live in the working class

communities, those are the students who have inherited the legacy of being discriminated against

and have been subject to segregation within schooling. Public education in the United States has

disempowered students by not promoting creativity, full appreciation of life learning, or a focus

on culture through the arts and language.

Empowerment by definition is to give power to someone to do something, so

empowerment within education is to give students power through knowledge to strive to be

better people within a society. It is impossible to create the sense of importance and entitlement

within children who are conditioned to obey without question. These children inhibit attitudes of

insignificance towards schooling and are often unaware that schooling can also include a proper

education. In this type of traditional schooling where students are expected to conform and
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follow the curriculum without hesitation exists boredom that swallows students whole and

consumes them entirely. John Gatto, a former school teacher for 20 years, states that not only do

students live in boredom and as do the teachers who are stuck teaching insignificant work for

multiple hours a day. Teachers who are not interested in what they put out for their students

destroy all excitement in students to learn. A lack of interest in learning leads to a lack of

creativity and overall a lack of empowerment within schooling.

There are different types of schooling that different social classes receive, and the No

Child Left Behind attempt to make all education equal for every student by encouraging

standardization by President George W. Bush only made schooling worse, for it did not work.

The gap in differences between the working class schools and the upper class elite schools only

grew wider. In Jean Anyon’s, ​Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work​, she exposes

what differentiates the different types of schooling and why. Anyon was an education researcher

who went from a variety of schools that catered to different social classes in the eastern United

States, and came to the conclusion that schools are meant to keep people within their social class.

Anyon examined that schools in higher social classes encouraged more critical thinking and

more confidence in children to feel that their opinions mattered. While the lower income schools

had more restrictions on children and enforced limited questioning from the children to their

teachers. The clear divide between the way students are being schooled is reason why so many

students feel as if they have been cheated out of a proper education in this country. The lack of

power granted to students to make their own decisions on how they want to learn contributes to

the faults within public education in the United States.

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With no options in the curriculum, students are forced into standardized learning that is

meant to make education equal to all in this country has created a generation of students who

only know basic skills, unless they are from a privileged family. Historian of education and

professor at ​ ​New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human

Development, Diane Ravitch details that standardized schooling does not create citizens to

participate in a democracy, rather it creates workers for a capitalistic society in her work​ The

Essentials of a Good Education.​ If schooling does not create curious people to make important

decisions that affect others within a society, then what is the purpose of school? Ravitch explains

that there is a purpose for the type of schooling that exists and that it needs to improve. The main

purpose of schooling should be to help people be better members of society and to promote

economic growth of the nation through creating innovative, educated individuals who are

socially and politically aware.

Social and political awareness empowers students who otherwise do not receive life

learning through schooling, and allows them to grow as human beings intellectually that will

eventually be better citizens within their communities. In the movie, ​Walkout,​ directed by

Edward James Olmos, the protagonist Paula Crisostomo (played by Alexa Vega) notices the

injustices that her and her classmates face within their school and becomes socially aware with

the help from the Brown Berets and her history teacher. Crisostomo becomes an influence for her

peers and ultimately they start a movement known as the Chicano Movement that revolutionized

the way educators treat Latino students. This movement established a the relationship between

the working class communities and the school districts in Los Angeles, California and it

recognized a group of young Latin Americans who felt marginalized in the United States known
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as Chicanos. With this new sense of identity, the students that the movie ​Walkout​ was based off

of changed the way their communities viewed schooling and many of them became successful

individuals that contribute to society.

Throughout history people of color and working class citizens of the United States have

been racially discriminated against in society, and it is apparent that the racial and economic

segregation within schooling still exists. In a radio broadcast by NPR, Nikole Hannah-Jones,

journalist at the New York Times, explains why she still put her daughter in a public school

knowing that schools are segregated by race and social class. She claims that she believes her

daughter will have a good education because she, the mother, will make it possible and push the

school for proper education. Jones concludes that change in public schooling will only be

achieved if parents start to make choices that benefit more than just their child. This idea that we

are not just individuals trying to thrive in society, but we are a whole as a group that face the

same problems as a unit has been erased from our minds. People who are divided and who only

think for themselves are weak in a democracy, we must bring back the idea that strength is in

unity and that change is made through working together.

The reason why segregation within schooling still exist is because people have yet to

unite and change the way public education is structured. Students will continue to be

disempowered within schooling, because there hasn’t been a significant enough movement to

change the way things are done. Until that happens students will continue to lack creativity, and

lack of willingness to learn what is beyond “basic skills”.

It is true that schooling in the United States disempowers students, however in the face of

adversity there are always those who prevail. In the case of the movie ​Walkout​, the students
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acknowledged that they were being unjustly treated and learned from outside sources how to

improve their situation and left a legacy of positive change within their communities. In this

country, schools are segregated by social class and it is unjust, but not every student who comes

from a standardized school is doomed for failure. There are students who are discriminated

against racially and face more obstacles than opportunities, yet it is the human condition to keep

moving forward and to strive for their idea of success.

Through unity comes change in a democracy, for better or worse. It is up to those who

are left with a spark of interest in learning what is beyond the classroom: culture, friendship,

languages, and love to ultimately change the way students are schooled in this country. In the

face of boredom, racial and economic segregation, and unjust treatment within public education

there will always be hope for change and a call for unity will be made.
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Works Cited

Anyon, Jean. “From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work.” Rereading America, pp.

136–152.

Gatto, John. “Against School.” Rereading America, pp. 114–122.

Jones, Nikole Hannah. “How the Systemic Segregation of Schools Is Maintained by 'Individual

Choices'.” NPR, 16 Jan. 2017.

Olmos, Edward James, director. Walkout. 2006.

Ravitch, Diane. “The Essentials of a Good Education.” Rereading America, pp. 105–112.