WHAT ARE WE TAUGHT TO FIGHT FOR?

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              “If you see her with her phone out again, take it away.” Cell phones were not allowed in the tutoring sessions and one student in particular broke this policy continuously. The tutoring program I worked at for the summer was implemented for students that did not pass their classes. This particular class was filled with students that failed multiple courses during their freshman year of high school. If they completed the summer session and they passed all their assessments then they were eligible to receive a C on their transcripts for that particular course.
                The following day, the student had her phone out again and I confiscated it as instructed. The student had many choice words for me. Later that day her mother came to the school demanding that her daughter have her phone back and insisting that no one had the right to take that away from her. Working with at risk youth had many obstacles, but that day  was particularly difficult for me.
              That night I went home and cried. I cried for a student that fought harder for her phone than for her education. Why did her mother feel that she could fight for a phone but did not take a stance for her daughter’s education? Where was this same fight and assertiveness when her daughter was failing out of school? After working a summer with this population I learned that the students were not told of the possibilities that come with attaining an education nor were they always given the resources to succeed. This mindset sets people up for a continuous cycle of failure. Even if implicitly it still  tells this group of people what they are allowed to fight for. These messages tell this group of people that they can fight for their turf but not their education. Parents feel more confident fighting for material items such as phones because no one stresses college, after school activities, or academics at all. During the breaks we were instructed  to teach cosmetology tricks but these children should be taught that there are possibilities outside of the city's walls. They should be taught about about internships, public speakers, traveling abroad, or job opportunities both with a high school diploma and with a college degree.  At fifteen and sixteen years old, they had the world at their feet but society's confidence in them caused them to be masked and blind to all those possibilities.
                This lack of effort toward school may be a product of the area. In San Jose alone the number of violent crimes in 2014 was 1,629 ( San Jose Police Department, 2014). The amount of crime and the lack of funding may contribute to this disparity. Over half of the school qualifies for free or reduced lunch plans which may hinder their ability to get the basic supplies needed to be successful in school ( California School Ratings, 2014). Also I don’t believe that it is a coincidence that a school that is ranked by the state as a three out of ten or that over half of the school's population identifies as a minority group is also the school that has such a large population failing and are not being told of the possibilities education provides (2014).Is it possible that race and money have a large impact and can determine what type of education one receives. This pattern of being affluent and receiving a better education has been seen in the past as well.
                For years there has been inequality in the education systems. Prior to Brown v. Board of Education children who were not categorized as white were put in different schools. These schools did not receive the same resources and were often inferior to the white schools. For example, many Indians went to boarding schools where they were underfed and often faced physical punishment ( Golash-Boza, 2015). There seems to also be a link between those schools who are predominately  minority groups and were segregated. Data demonstrates that higher rates of poverty were within the minority groups for example, “88 percent of schools that were over 90 percent non-white were also majority-poor schools” (Orfield and Lee 2014). All of this demonstrates that there are still disparities in the education systems in particular when one compares the resources given to each racial category. When laws or policies are put into place to the benefit of one group and to the disadvantage of another, then it is institutional racism which is often seen in the school systems. The blatant segregation of schools prior to the 1950’s further demonstrates that institutional racism was very prevalent. Previously many areas it was against the law to desegregate schools.  While education is not the only key to success, it should be equally available to everyone regardless of class, status, or race.  I believe that this racism persists because there still is a separation of races. While laws or policies may not explicitly say to segregate schools today, schools that have a larger minority population are often less privileged than those who have a higher white population. White privilege still exists and may make people feel as though they have to act white  to succeed. This is not the message that should be sent to youth and if education inequality continues then it will continue to be a cycle of education disparities that more often affects minority races.