Quintin J.

Durov

Sociology of Education

Dr. Parks

September 23, 2017

Reflective Journal 1

This experience was my first working with kids and I enjoyed it a lot! It opened my eyes

to things I never thought about before and how little things can have a big impact on a person’s

life.

In the short hour I spent at Lincoln elementary opened my eyes on how some kids are

less fortunate due to their housing situation family’s and even race. I attended the morning

session so I only saw about seven children and they we tired but eventually woke up to read and

play with Legos. The ages ranged from five to nine or so. The five year olds having more energy

and the older children not having much energy at all.

All the children that went to the before school program was African American. I noticed

one boy was wearing a hoodie that looked like it was worn for quite some time. Then I noticed a

stain on the hoodie that was large but I obviously did not point it out. Watching a film in class

called 28UP the class talked about how some people are born into success and being well off

while others aren’t as fortunate. I see this while I was at the school. These kids are not as

fortunate as others just because of who their parents are or where they live. Schools were thought

to be an equalizer for education and social living but I some areas have failed to do so.
 This brings me to my next point of education shapes class and class shapes education as

we talked about in class. This simply means that if you are born into wealth or an upper class

family you are more likely to be more successful. On the other hand if you are lower class with a

lesser education you may not be too successful in life. There are flaws to this which are simple.

If you work hard and are passionate about what you want to do, you will have better chances of

being successful no matter who you are or where you live.

It is hard for me to connect the things we have learned in class with such a short

experience so I will talk about what I’ve seen in schools. Sponsored and Contest mobility is

everywhere in schools I think, especially contest mobility in American schools. You see it

everywhere, schools want you to do the best so you can go to the best college, and to get into the

best college you need to have the best scores on all work and tests. So kids have to compete

amongst themselves to be better than one another. And when you do the best you are most likely

given some type of reward so there is a drive to be the best but some don’t have that drive and

that’s why everyone isn’t a doctor. This is why some people are smarter than others because if

we were all geniuses the world would not function properly.

Sponsored mobility is seen as well. More in sports than academics. When a kid is the best

at the sport he plays, high schools and colleges will try and recruit theses players. These players

can be out of district and sometimes schools will bend the rules to get someone they want.

Basically if they want to have you they will make it known. This will play a role in what you do

when you grow up and what education you will get at a specific school. It can work out in most

cases but not all.

 This is what I have learned from my short time volunteering at Lincoln Elementary. I

hope I learn much more and grow connections with kids I meet. I want to create a bond and

hopefully impact someone’s life in a positive manner.

Journal 2

As my experiences with volunteering with the saint marks program continues, I still feel

like I have not had enough time to connect with the children. My short forty minute sessions in

the morning give me little to see how these kids at act especially when they are tired or grumpy. I

try to make the most of it though, trying to help kids read a short story or build a house with

Legos before they go to school. I try to brighten their morning so the rest of their day will be

easy going or easier.

With the two times I have gone to Lincoln I have seen the same seven kids. I was not

surprised by this as I was expecting to see the same ones and maybe new faces as well. But that

did not happen. The past few classes we have talked about stratification mostly relating to wealth

and groups in society. We have also read about privilege and equality of education and touched

on somewhat about segregation. I will be trying to touch base with some of these topics as I

relate them to my experiences with the saint marks program.

Seeing the same kids both times I have volunteered makes me thing that they are not as

privileged as most kids. Kids needing to be dropped off to school an hour early means that their

parents or care takers need to do other things to support them and make a living most likely. This

means that their family’s are not as well off as others and maybe the kids are not getting as much

attention as they should. Were as other students may have more benefits and be more privileged

than the students in the program.

 From the chapter in the book that talks about equality in the school system we can

compare it to the St. Marks program. The St. Marks program goes the extra mile with providing

kids who are living in poverty the same equal opportunities in the school setting by allowing

them to come in early to participate in different activities to get their minds ready for the day

before they go to start their classes for the day. Allowing them to come in early allows them to

get be able to be around the school setting longer by reading books and playing Legos let’s them

know that they are being given the same chances as other students.

One last chapter we can compare to the St. Marks program is the chapter in the book

about Deeping double segregation for more students. The St. Marks program allows for all

students of different backgrounds and ethnic challenges to come together to be in the same

setting before school. Lincoln does not want any of their students to feel segregated so this

program although most of the kids seem to be coming from the same background in a way we

can be sure that the program is open to anyone who wants to come and it not allowing for any

segregation.

Journal 3

My experiences with the saint marks program have begun to grow on me. I am enjoying

it more and more. I can tell the kids are getting to know me a little better and they are more

comfortable than when I began volunteering. The routine has been the same every morning on

Tuesdays, we begin with reading that takes anywhere up to ten minutes to thirty minutes. With

this I feel it helps the kids get into a learning zone before school so they are more focused. I can

tell they are more comfortable because one of the students asked me to help him pick out a book.

Surprising to me but I did and he read quietly for the allotted time.
 This past week we have begun reading a new book and its first few chapters or so, the

book is titled Our Schools Suck and its first few chapters are hard to relate to my volunteering

but some what I can infer that is has a connection. The book talks about how culture and society

can or cannot have an affect on how well you do in school, or the path you will live your life.

There are arguments that the society you live in and its culture it has suck as what it values and is

accustom for one to do will determine the path one takes. Mainly African American value hip

hop and is frowned on by many by promoting drugs and violence instead of schools and careers.

If you grow up in a community that largely supports these actions you are more likely to fall into

it.

But a main point we covered in class the past few weeks is segregation within states and

areas that are largely of lower class and under privileged students. This segregation of mostly

inner city students with lower class parents with minimal income will effect which schools they

can attend. Also the schools own restrictions on its boundary’s. With only having lower class

citizens in the area this produces less revenue for the community and its schools. This makes

students face problems of not being able to get the education they want and overall not learning

as much as other privileged schools.

With the before school program I can help these students pick up skills like grammar and

reading that will hopefully benefit them in their academic experience. These skills will help them

score higher in state test and other tests along the way and will open doors in the long run of their

school careers.

Journal 4
 I’ve been volunteering for quite some time now at Lincoln elementary. Through it all I

have made strides to help students improve upon their reading and understanding of the sounds

of letters or words they don’t understand. The past view weeks I have grown close to a boy and a

girl. At first they did not pay much attention to me but now its like they know I will be there

every Tuesday and they come ready to read. That is if they are not hyper and want to show off to

me first. I know I will not be volunteering much longer so I am trying to benefit them the most I

can with the little time I have.

The past three weeks I have helped two students finish multiple short story books. It was

fun to say the least. I would read a paragraph and then they would take the next one and if they

stumbled across a word that stumped them, I would help them out. The past few classes we have

been learning about gender inequality in the book. For the most part it is hard to relate my

experiences in the past weeks with this subject. I will say however, that while reading I’ve

noticed that the boy I am reading with needs a little more help than the girl. They are in the same

grade and maybe a year apart in age depending on when the birthday falls. Anyway, the boy

seems to have more trouble pronouncing bigger words and is just a tad bit slower overall. This

can be because in studies done in the past that men are more fond to do better at math and

science than reading. This could just be part of why the girl has an easier time reading than the

boy does.

On to the next subject that we have been learning about in the past few weeks is class

inequality, race, and ethnicity and how it can be a factor in the school environment. I will be

focusing on the class inequality here. Specifically one theory is that of the cultural capital theory.

It states that “…Children from families with a low level of parental education are likely to lack

those abilities normally transmitted by the family and valued and rewarded by schools.”( pg.
277). We have talked about segregation and that schools put those of lesser income in groups and

send them to the same schools, causing them to learn less with less advantages of those who have

money and can afford the things they need to learn effectively. We talked about how this

happens in most elementary schools in this area, if not most I believe it is to be present in

Lincoln elementary. This means it also can run in the family as well. Setting up kids who come

from less educated families to in defiantly be less educated as well.

More on this topic and how education and class can affect how one learns in school is

that of the cultural capital thesis. It state that “…in most countries, education must be financed

by family resources which include direct costs and forgone earnings. Thus, it is reasonable to

expect the education is particularly dependent on the economic resources of the family of

origin.”( pg. 277). This means to me that if your family is of a low income status than you will

more than likely go to a school with other kids of a low income status families and those school

resources will not be as great as the schools with families with higher income to support what the

schools need to efficiently teach children. I can see this when I volunteer or maybe not see it but

feel it. There are parts of Dubuque that are of low income status and those areas I believe attend

Lincoln elementary. The cloths they were plus the reading ability I have seen in the past three

months indicate this to me.

I do my best to help improve the reading skills of the kids who attend these programs.

These are the programs that are needed in areas like this to help the less fortunate children get a

leg up or at least an even position with other children that are in wealthier communities and

schools.

Journal 5
 As this semester of school comes to an end so does my volunteering with the saint marks

program. I think this opportunity really open my eyes to new things and how people are different

not because they want to be but because of where they live and come from is part of how they

grow up. I’ve made new relationships that in the beginning of the year I never thought would be

made. That sounds relatively mean but that’s generally what I thought. But I was mistaken. I

have also learned a lot about some individuals and how they learn and what they think is

important. I’ve made connections to what we have learned in class this year and I have seen

some of those things present while I was volunteering.

In class the past two weeks we have been reading about adolescent culture and what they

do and what they think is important. Also we have talked and read about how employers and

companies are looking for people who are more educated and in some cases not so educated. I

will focus more on adolescent culture and how they think of school and what they like to do

rather than education and employment as that is farther away in life for these elementary

students. First you have to know that for most kids school at a young age can be on the far end of

importance. They like after school activities and hanging out with friends far more than they like

going to school. School is more like a job to these children but they probably don’t refer to it as

one. Most of my volunteering has been with a boy, it is easier to communicate with him than the

girls because he is more willing to open up to me. I’ve learned that he love watching television

after school and one of his favorite tv shows is SpongeBob square pants. I can definataly relate to

him because that show was made back when I was a kid and its good to see kids are still

watching it today.

Now thinking about this he could just be going to school and as a reward he gets to go

home and watch television. On page 524 of The Structure of Schooling it talks about the
activities boys look forward to the most and watching television is one on the list of hobbies they

do. After getting to know my student I’ve noticed he is more into the pictures in the book and

rambling off with his imagination with the books rather than just reading. This could be because

reading isn’t fun, or isn’t cool. Now all kids want to do is be a part of the cool group it seems and

I can feel he is moving with that crowd or assumption.

On page 567 of our book it talks about resistance. This I see mostly everyday from my

student. It isn’t too hard to get him to calm down and start reading but some days he is just not in

any mood to read and resists it as much as he can. “As such resistance is an oppositional form of

nonconformity that can commence drawn-out episodes of conflict, which often span a succession

of interactions. This conflict has the potential to change the normative pattern of interaction in a

class room and school” ( pg. 567). This being said students who resist school especially within

school have a higher likely hood of not conforming to what the institution has to offer. Which

bottom line is education. Where a kid comes from or how he is brought up also has a role in this

but if the student continues to resist this is were we see conflict in his or her life in the eyes of

education.

I have learned that all it takes is a little effort to get past this though. Just keep nudging

the students to read on Tuesday mornings and maybe one day they will be an English teacher.

This is a little thing called the butterfly effect. You never know how much of an impact you can

have on someone’s life. I sure hope I had an impact on my students as they had an impact on me.