Okay so it’s been a week since my last post. A lot has happened in the world and I have read a lot. So let’s talk about how the things that I have read connect to what is happening in the world.
This year has been filled with a number of school shootings and students protesting the accessibility of guns. The latest shooting was in Texas at Sante Fe High School. With a large number of school shoots across the country this year, many schools have decided to have armed police officers and/or administration in their schools to help protect the students if there is an active shooter. I found this to be a very interesting concept, police officers in the school. Why do we need that? Is the mental health of students so bad we need to combat it with police officers rather than adding mental health resources to the school? What role does the parents play in this active shooter phenomenon?
My curiosity about why this young man decided to shoot his classmates lead me to do more researching and pondering. I guess that is why I am in a Phd program. My curiosity for knowledge drives me! I then stumbled upon a very interesting article, for which the father of the shooter explained that his son was a victim because the school system failed to protect him from the bullies (read article here). As I considered the thought of the shooter being a victim, I began to think about other victims of the school system, how the school system fails to protect and education students, and what message is the school system sending to students by having an armed officer in the school.
Before moving on, I have to stop and acknowledge the privilege in my thought process and writing. I had the luxury of attending schools where the need for armed officers was unnecessary and as an African American female student I felt supported by the school system for which I was educated. However, I understand that there are many school systems especially in urban low-income areas where the students do not experience this same support, nor do they have the confidence that the school system will protect them from anything (e.g bullies, outsiders, the school system, etc.) because the real bully is the school system.
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| shh… my dad may actually read this |
I read two documents by Kathleen Nolan that discussed the school systems in New York and the zero tolerance discipline policy. In these schools, the armed police officers are the bullies. These students are often harassed and intimated by the policies officers at their schools. Often a minor joke or a little horse play in these school could lead to a disorderly conduct charge which could land you in jail. Let’s take a moment to think about that… when you were in high school how many of us did something that landed us in the principal’s office saying “please Mr./Ms. So and So don’t call my parents”? (shh… don’t tell my dad I can still get in trouble). Imagine if you got in trouble at school and you found yourself at the precinct in front of the judge pleading your case about why you should go back to school and not to jail. That scenario looks dramatically different right? This is the reality for most students in school systems who have zero tolerance discipline policies. If you were always scared or told that one mistake in school could send you to jail, would you want to go back to school? (my rebellious mind says: If going to school could land me in jail, then I might as well do something great like rob a bank because either way I am going to jail!..lol) Ogbu’s caste theory (1987) explains “ethnic minority students living in a racist society perceive their educational and life chances as quite limited and thus adapt accordingly by
collective action or hustling for example. Once overwhelmed, such minority students develop a dysfunctional oppositional culture that leads the to believe that they cannot be both academically successful and ethically different” (Valencia, 1997). This thought process leads the student to think they are deficit (see deficit thinking model) and education is unattainable.
Nolan also explains the reproduction theory and theory of punishment which all affect how these student view and see themselves in the school system. She explains that the reproduction theory when examined within the school system, reveals the presences of social class and hierarchies which reflects the role that economy and government plays within this system. Nolan explains this by revisiting the history of industrial urban public school systems to show how ones culture along with social economic status can reproduce “social and economic stratification.” Nolan’s explanation of the reproductive theory within education is similar to Ogbu’s caste theory. If your parents or environment doesn’t see the value of education or views education as an unattainable goal than the students will also see it this way creating a reproduction of their socioeconomic status. In my opinion, reproduction theory is another form of deficit thinking.
Nolan also explains the theory of punishment throughout both documents as it plays a key role in understanding the zero tolerance school discipline policy and why it is used. She explains this theory in two ways: 1. The use of punishment to discourage bad behavior and 2. Students are punished because they deserve to be punished because they have violated a law, policy or rule. As Nolan explains the zero tolerance policy was put in place to help low achieving urban low income schools improve their high stakes testing. This policy was designed to discourage bad behavior however through the implementation and execution phase of this policy it has adapted. Now this policy looks at students as deserving of the punishments. This can be seen through Nolan accounts at UPHS. This view often leaves the students feeling as if school is prison and that learning is difficult in this type of environment.
As I continued to dive into Nolan’s working, my curiosity wants to learn more about the school to prison track. How often are there success stories that come out of this track. How can I use my privilege to help those students who are in this track? When did school transform from a place to escape the realities of your environment or family situation to a place of discipline and reform? Why are there new detention center being built every year, but students have to go to schools that are run down? As I continue to explore my curiosities, privilege, drive for knowledge, and areas of activism, I am sure many of these questions will be answered.
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| But why Kim? |
On a much lighter note: Kim Kardashian went to the White House to talk about prison reform (read article here)… I wonder how that went…maybe she should read these articles to be better informed.
Reference:
Valencia, R. R. (1997). Conceptualizing the notion of deficit thinking. In R. Valencia(Ed.), The evolution of deficit thinking. London: Falmer.
Chiquita, thank you for sharing your thoughts in this post. I am impressed by the ways in which you connect current events to our readings. Our current political climate has created many problems for my students and I am saddened by the amount of hatred that is expressed and displayed on a regular basis. People who ask for fairness and justice are now regularly described and associated with ignorance. More troubling is the speed in which some people are forgiven for their disgraceful behaviors - it turns out that it is not our behaviors that matter, but who we are!
ReplyDeleteHello Chiquita! I enjoyed reading your post and how you made a great connection between Nolan's work and the current situations in our schools. What's making headlines, with all the school violence and shootings is unthinkable. Like you mention this was never ever heard of when I was in high school. I wonder how our experiences would have been differently today with so much activity around hyper-vigilance and punitive discipline practices in schools. I have two children and it's dreadful to think of them being unsafe in some way in school, a place I once thought synonymous with safety and growth. Where I teach we have regular drills for intruder/lockdown practices and I can see the look on my students fearing someone is actually in the building. Not only this, but how districts are collaborating with police to take over control of school discipline. This is the focus, not academic reform for underprivileged and urban youth. As with the critical theories Nolan outlines, this is meant to maintain control over the lower-class population through intimidation and restricted upward mobility by those with greater capital. I really hope that we can have some impact with our own studies and voices to disrupt this system, or at least educating our students of this broken system and coming together to confront it.
ReplyDelete"...police officers in the school. Why do we need that?" --> This is a very important question. One of the things critical social theory helps us do is interrogate the "common sense" that underlies policy decisions. How did/do police in schools come to be imagined as a policy solution to social issues? That is, how do policymakers (and large segments of the public) come to see that "we need that"? What structures and ideologies are at work?
ReplyDeleteI don't think social reproduction theory frames students or their families in a deficit way, as "lacking" something intellectually or culturally or not caring about school. Rather, I think in this case it highlights how oppositional behavior is a form of active rejection of and resistance to a school system that is not designed to actually meet your needs. Perhaps the behavior reveals more about the nature of the institution and its reproductive function within a racial capitalist society than it does the individual student?