Running head: FINAL 1

This I Believe
Michael Klein
Seattle University










FINAL 2

Matthew and Miguel had been best friends since beginning first grade back in the late
1970s. As they entered Parkview Middle School in Mission Bend, TX they were greeted with a
new multi-cultural approach as to how they would be treated in school. It was called equality and
it had not been seen in the surrounding schools in the previous years. Teachers and staff would
not give any preferential treatment to any type of student no matter what was happening in the
classroom. As the year went on Matthew began to excel in his classroom. He received grades in
the upper echelon of every test the class took and appeared to genuinely enjoy school. Miguel,
too, started out very well in the school year but as time went on his teachers began to notice a
decline in his performance. Fewer assignments were being turned in and his test scores suffered.
Considering Matthew and Miguel were partners for everything in school and received the same
amount of attention as the other, the teachers could not understand how this phenomenon was
occurring.
Matthew and Miguel were very aware of their differences but continued to mesh well
with each other despite the academic disparity. They joined in many after school activities and
played together during lunch activities. Soon after these school events ended, so too did their
time together. Matthew was from a middle class family where getting good grades was
consistently encouraged, while Miguel came from a single income lower class family whose
mom needed him to do side jobs around the neighborhood in order for them to put food on the
table. Miguels essential needs were not being met whereas Matthews were. Matthew flourished
because when he came home he could focus his attention on his homework and studying for
tests. His parents were also supportive as they took time out of their schedule to scaffold
Matthew along in his schoolwork. Miguel would arrive home and would immediately need to
attend to the upkeep of his house, family duties, or travel to another job at a different location.
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Unlike Matthew, he had no time in his schedule where he and his mom could sit down and work
on his school work or study for an upcoming test. Treating Matthew and Miguel equally at
school seemed like a great approach but it was having dire consequences in the heavily diverse
school district of Mission Bend, TX.
I will discuss in this paper how I will work out the above, ongoing problem using a new
approach that can help restore a better sense of fairness when it comes to equality. I will explain
it within the context of (1) my own positionality through my cultural identifiers, (2) what I
learned in my social justice class, and also (3) what I now understand more clearly all while
using insightful scholarly support. This will be followed by a lengthy conclusion that revisits and
summarizes my major points, explains why I believe what I believe about social justice relating
to this issue, and how these beliefs relate to my future professional practice. My philosophical
statement of this paper will be based on how I will promote social justice in my role as a future
school counselor and how I will resolve the challenges/barriers that those in my profession face
in the day to day running of a school.
My cultural identifiers put me in a position of great privilege considering I am a white,
male, hetero, able-bodied individual and that creates a dilemma for me if I want to better
understand those who are in a minority grouping. What this tells me is that I cannot become a
school counselor without a great deal of social awareness learned through my education. I must
be able to comprehend why students like Miguel and Matthew are getting such different results
from their schooling. Without an understanding of where Miguel is coming from it will be very
easy to pass along the concerns school staff have of him, about how he is a lackluster student,
and not assist him in the way that he needs. Also, my minority students will tend to have an
automatic suspicion of me as someone who is insincere with their concerns. My authenticity will
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constantly be in question and I will have to be prepared to consistently show my ultimate loyalty
to all students no matter what race, creed, color, religion, sexual identification, etc. at all times.
What I learned from my social justice class is that it is not enough for schools to treat
everyone equally. School professionals must encourage social justice because equal opportunity
and human rights are applicable to everyone, but social justice targets the marginalized groups of
people in societyit focuses on the disadvantaged (Holcomb-McCoy, 2007). In the school
district, I would like to include this ideology from class by putting equity over equality. As the
example included at the beginning of this paper shows; treating everyone equally will not
produce fair results. A one size fits all approach to education does not work anymore. There are
solutions for making things more equal, but those solutions are different for different people, and
multifaceted for others (2000, Adams, p.473). I could come across this type of ethical standard
from other professionals in my future career or even my whole school. And if I do than I will
know that the system in place may seem like a great idea to a lot of people but if it is not getting
desirable results than I, as another school professional, need to discover a better alternative
solution. And that solution, in this situation, is to replace equality with a new more equitable
style.
That solution, of implementing a more social justice oriented style of putting equity over
equality with my students, is what I understand more clearly thanks to this class and other
insights from scholarly support. One scholarly insight I found that this methodology resonates
well with is written in Holcomb and McCoys book School Counseling to Close the Achievement
Gap, where they wrote that when we recognize social justice we see that there are situations in
which the application of the same rules to unequal groups can generate unequal results
(Holcomb, 2007). I did not have a firm grasp on that concept before I took this course because I,
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too, assumed that if you treat everyone equally then that is the most we can do. And I also
assumed that because the idea of equality was better than how things were done in the past than
it must be the right solution. I have a new found appreciation for the notion that we can never be
satisfied with the status quo. This is because I discovered that as soon as we settle in our current
circumstance and accept our surroundings as status quo than we have lost the battle for fairness
and equality because the world can always be better. Students like Miguel are depending on us to
be an advocate for his own needed social justice.
Another valid idea that is changing how we treat our students, in regards to their feelings,
relates directly back to equity over equality and entails school counselors becoming more
empathetic instead of sympathetic towards our students. Sympathetic school counselors feel
sorry for their students in difficult circumstances and work to try and lower expectations to help
them feel more successful. Empathetic school counselors, in contrast, understand the challenges
that students face, but instead communicate to their students a firm belief in their abilities to be
successful. They instill hope and help students to find creative ways to attain success despite
circumstances that might suggest that this is not possible (Howard, 2010). I can use this
philosophy when scheduling my students courses. A sympathetic counselor would give troubled
students more comfortable classes as a way to help them out in school whereas I, as a more
empathetic school counselor, would enroll these same kids in college bound classes and
encourage them to see how essential it is for their future. This is important to me because it
reinforces my transitioning belief of how I should be as a school counselor. I went from leaning
toward a more sympathetic style all the way to using a more empathetic style to students that I
have a hard time understanding and to have such strong support backing my decision to do this
helps me feel like I am making a good judgment for my students.
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I believe what I do about social justice because I was headed down a path of failure and a
school counselor took me aside and helped me pursue a more productive and successful direction
in my life. I have great respect for this career because of that one person and I have seen
firsthand what I can be capable of in serving students. If I can be helped so tremendously,
considering I am a white male, imagine how powerful I can be as an advocate for those who are
more oppressed in way more aspects than I was. Miguel, and many other children like him, are
misunderstood in todays schools. I can make a big difference in their lives. I can turn their lives
completely around from failure to success because I have experienced it myself. I want to see
students, after leaving my school in the years to come, writing the same response that I am in this
paper about how a school counselor improved their ability to become successful in the world
around them. I also believe that pushing for social justice in schools is one of the most important
movements we can do for our countries future and it is a key concept that I can add to my life
philosophy in order to become a better person and make me equipped to be an influential
advocate for my students.
Concluding with the example from the beginning of this paper, Miguel is getting equality
but he is not getting equity. Equity requires school counselors to treat students differently based
on aspects of students cultures, including race, ethnicity, gender, and economic class. These
decisions should be based on students specific needs (Holcomb-McCoy, 2007). What I have
learned and now understand more clearly from taking this social justice course is that true
equality does not come from school professionals treating everyone equal. It comes from giving
everyone the same chance to succeed. I recognize that this is a very daunting task to take on and
I do not believe that I will see it solved in my lifetime. But I do believe in making progress
toward this goal and I appreciate that we can never be satisfied with the status quo of the current
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system in place no matter how wonderful and/or brilliant it sounds. These beliefs that you have
read about in this paper will help my future professional practice and school because students
like Miguel deserve for me to fight for him instead of overlooking him.















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References
Adams, M., Blumenfield, W.J., Castaneda, R., Hackman H.W., Peters, M.L. & Zuniga, X.
(2000). Readings for diversity and social justice. New York, NY: Routledge.
Gorski, P. (2010). Critical paradigm shifts for multicultural education. Retrieved from
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/resources/paradigmshifts.html
Holcomb-McCoy, C. (2007). School counseling to close the achievement gap: A social justice
framework for success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Howard, T. C. (2010). Why race and culture matter in schools: Closing the achievement gap in
Americas classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press.