Two days ago, I received some pretty big news: I got into USC's Master's in Teaching program. Woo! The MAT program is something that I only learned about a few months ago, but I've totally fallen in love with the idea: take super-interactive classes online until you're ready to student teach, get your teaching practicum out of the way, and graduate with a master's and a California credential. Of course, it's always super exciting to get into the school of your choice, but I'm even more thrilled about USC's great history as a superb institute for urban education initiatives. My courses will focus on helping me connect with and understand the needs of urban students, the ones most stricken by the achievement gap.
So, in lieu of a "real" post, I thought I'd post one of my application essays, written totally in earnest, about my feelings about the achievement gap and how it ties in to the ages-old Matthew Paradox. As an added bonus, I'll also post a word cloud of the essay... consider it the lite version.
Here's that
image (sorry guys, I usually have no problem posting pictures, but this one seems stubborn)
And, here's that essay:
The achievement gap is a perfectly apt illustration of the Matthew Paradox. In the Gospels, Matthew states that “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” (Matthew 35:29) That paradox precisely describes the cycle of failure in groups with low socio-economic status. The job of the teacher, then, is to distribute fairly, denying the paradox and ensuring equity.
So often, we find the students with all the advantages given every incentive to learn; they have after school activities, music lessons, and well-educated teachers. Instead of putting our most brilliant educators in the neediest classrooms, we reward our disadvantaged students with the most inexperienced teachers with the least training, the fewest programs. There are three things that we can and must do to close the achievement gap: we must be the best teachers possible, we must offer our students every opportunity to learn, and we absolutely must appeal to our lawmakers to pass necessary reforms.
One of the simplest ways to level the playing field is for great teachers to take work in low-end schools. Working in Compton is much more difficult than working in Beverly Hills, but students demand fairness and find inequity everywhere in depressed areas -- it is the teacher's place to offer equal treatment. Short of moving all good teachers to Compton, though, what other options remain? Teachers in tough schools need to work hard, harder than their peers in high-end communities, to continue improving themselves and keeping abreast of the latest advances in their fields.
Alongside polishing our pedagogical pedigrees, we must work hard to reach out to our students. We need to rely on practical strategies that we can employ daily to reach out to low-income students and their parents. If we are to connect to them on any level, we must begin to understand poverty and our student's lives. We can teach about the history of and current struggles with poverty and workers' rights. We can teach them about Che Guevera, explain the role of labor unions, and champion anti-poverty activism. We can teach them that “low-income” does not have to mean unprivileged and we can never assume that low-income students cannot achieve as much as any wealthier student.
Teachers in high-need areas need to be more flexible than their peers. We need to host extra tutoring sessions whenever students can attend, even if that means sacrificing a Saturday morning. Similarly, we need to involve parents using whatever means available: written notes, phone calls, weekend office hours. We cannot hold back when attempting to break our students free from the cycle of poverty; we owe it to them and to ourselves.
We must never lose sight of the intelligence of our students, understanding that poverty is a social disease, not a diagnosis of personal failure. Above all else, when working to bridge the achievement gap, teachers must not lose sight of their goals: to produce well-rounded, productive adults out of whatever students we receive. Though the Matthew Paradox has defined urban lifestyle for centuries, we can and will overcome the past.
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