GCD Reflection on Pre-Readings

In my personal experience of life in the university setting, I have come to the realization over the years that there is a class assumption made by students and staff alike. Having experienced the majority of my life living in impoverished conditions, or rather, as the word poverty changes meaning depending on place and time, the conditions of my pre-college life would be considered impoverished in comparison to the status quo of white American society. If I had asked myself before these readings the question, “why are people poor”, my answer would have been that people are poor because of greed and oppression. Poverty is a symptom of a world governed by the misguided and greedy elites that usurp land and labor from those who have lived life according to simplicity and with mindfulness of the members of their particular society and culture.

After these readings, not so much has changed about my impressions of class disparity and the condition of poverty, however I feel I have received clarification and more articulate ways of expressing this impression. What has been particularly clarifying to me has been the examination of the perpetuation of poverty caused by the education system, as bell hooks explores in her dialogue. This reading was especially important to me as I began a class this semester titled, Pedagogy and Power, where we will be spending the remainder of the semester attempting to understand the role of educators and curriculum in perpetuating broken systems, and what needs to be done to make this change.

The children and situations examined in the Kozol reading were all too familiar, and the struggles of the community against the racist structures in place brought up the sting of discouragement that I have personally experienced as a teacher. Although I only spend a few intermittent years of my early life in the urban setting, I have made the decision as an adult to return to the urban setting to teach. What I found particularly important about this reading was the portrayal of real people experiencing real struggle. As a white male journalist, Kozol did everything I believed he could to portray these people honestly and with minimal objectification.
There were a few points in this reading where I questioned the author’s ability to write in a way that was true to the people of Mott Haven. The challenge of white academically educated journalists working with low-to-no income predominantly non-white communities is practicing mindfulness of objectification and using the theory described in the Parenti reading, that “it is up to the rich nations of the North to help uplift the ‘backward’ nations of the South, bringing them technology and proper work habits.”

This theory does not only apply to the relationship between the North and the South, but also to the relationship between classes. This is where the need for educational work in community organizing comes in. A significant percentage of charities and non-profit groups approach working with communities plagued by poverty in the U.S. as well as the overexploited non-U.S. world using an outdated imperialist agenda, the “white man’s burden”. The objectification of these peoples and the reductionistic approach to working with them as a statistic rather than a unit of individuals creates more harm than good. Kozol made effective use of his literary style in creating a set of individuals facing their struggles and doing everything possible as a community to overcome the challenges of structural racism. One example in particular is Becky, Isaiah’s mother. She “coaches the team he plays on in the summer, organizes a reading group of children from the building, and gives support to a number of the boys who live downstairs when she has extra food.” Here is a woman that recognizes the limitations in place against the children of her community and is still doing all in her power to cultivate happiness and thoughtfulness.

In the bell hooks dialogue, she touches upon progressive pedagogy. Education systems need to be rearranged more in this style. Working as an art teacher for the past several summers, I realized that the oppressive structures in place, the No Child Left Behind Act of the Bush administration, prohibited these urban non-white children from succeeding in the traditional academic setting by enforcing a restrictive curriculum. Although in the school year, the children did not experience art education, I witnessed their progression throughout the summer as we used a more progressive approach of confessional narrative, digressive dialogue, and open-ended projects. Children not only enjoyed the time they were spending, but they also learned and thrived from it.

Identity and community are essential components in effective education. Teaching a biased Western patriarchal history to the groups that have experienced the most destruction as a result does nothing to cultivate learning. Despite what Eleanor Jackson told Kozol, that “We know the way things are,” does not mean that that is the way things have to be. Educators are charged with the mission to teach for the benefit of their students, not the benefit of a colonist agenda. Progressive pedagogy needs to be embraced in public schools immediately.