This American Life Extended Comments

For this blog post, I will be extending the comments on Amy's blogpost.

First things first I always love reading Amy's blogposts because she put the vocal she doesn't know at the top of the page. She includes the definition for the words and it is really helpful to read especially before I read the article, so thanks!

I really enjoyed the quote that Amy selected for the first quote for this blogpost, which was "I think that children can overcome the stigma of poverty. I think children can overcome the stigma of their ethnicity. But what they cannot overcome is the stigma of separation. That is like a damned spot in their being, in their self-image. And that's what segregation does to children. They see themselves as apart and separate because of the language they speak, because of the color of their skin, the origin of their parents." -  563: Part Two

This quote really shows what the problem is with the idea of segregation. While technically the schools have eliminated segregation, things are not completely intergraded yet. Many students are still separated by their social standings and how they are seen in society. They are only pushed to the point their school wishes to push them too, and schools in better neighborhoods will push them to do better. I really enjoyed how Amy connected to Kristof's article about how if you're poor you will typically stay poor. The way the school system is set up, it is extremely true. The same AP class at a poor school rather than a middle class school is so significantly different in the amount of work that you are expected to get out and this doesn't allow the students to learn exactly the same amount as the students in the exact same class at another school.

The second quote she used really helped with her argument as well, which was "In the schools where white families chose to stay, test scores for black transfer students rose. They were more likely to graduate and go to college. After years of resistance, Saint Louis had created the largest and most successful metro-wide desegregation program in the country. And then state officials killed it."

This shows that integration can actually work in a society, and it is helpful to the students involved. If all students were given the same opportunities in the educational system, then they would essentially all be at the same levels with the same experience. Schools that have more to offer the students help them to be everything that they could be, rather than being shaped by the society around them.

Questions/Comments:
Is there a good way to help these students get what they need in order to succeed?
I understand raising school funding would help tremendously, but is there an easy way to help these children? Also, this suggests that children should go to a school that is good for them and not just the one that is nearby, but if you are a low class family how are you supposed to get your child to the school thats good for them when the school thats nearby just picks them up?