The Impact of Teaching Meritocracy - Valerie Kunze

The Atlantic published an article this week about how poor kids are hurt when they believe that effort is linked to success. Check out the article here: Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color
“If you’re in an advantaged position in society, believing the system is fair and that everyone could just get ahead if they just tried hard enough doesn’t create any conflict for you … [you] can feel good about how [you] made it,” said Erin Godfrey, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of applied psychology at New York University’s Steinhardt School. But for those marginalized by the system—economically, racially, and ethnically—believing the system is fair puts them in conflict with themselves and can have negative consequences.
“If the system is fair, why am I seeing that everybody who has brown skin is in this kind of job? You’re having to think about that … like you’re not as good, or your social group isn’t as good,” Godfrey said. “That’s the piece … that I was trying to really get at [by studying] these kids.”
 This was fascinating to me in light of a lot of the conversations we have had in our classes and surrounding high poverty schools. The teacher in the article observed in his high poverty students that “Students who are told that things are fair implode pretty quickly in middle school as self-doubt hits them,” he said, “and they begin to blame themselves for problems they can’t control.”

 His solution was  weaving in concepts such as racism, classism, oppression, and prejudice into the curriculum, and giving students the opportunity to fight the unfairness, instead of telling students that it is fundamentally fair. 

 What do you think?

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 1, 2017 at 4:17 AM

    Done right, I think it could be very engaging for the students to learn about things that largely go unsaid in the school setting.
    A potential rub is that systems may fear teaching kids and families how to use the lenses you speak of, Valerie, for fear the lens might be turned back upon those who are instructing about it. It takes some guts to wade into the deeper water.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 1, 2017 at 9:07 PM

    This topic is very difficult to discuss in a school setting due to the sensitive nature of race, class, and privilege. I think the subject remains buried in the minds of well intended educators, but is often left unspoken due to the double edged sword effect. On one side of the blade racism tells the high poverty student that despite great effort your social economic status is already predetermined, your low achievement ceiling has been established. Why would a teacher convey a lesson as though he/ she were preparing students to attend a Ivy League school when 99% will not have the opportunity. A great majority wont attend college therefore what level of mastery should the teacher teach ? This internal battle for high poverty educators is a constant battle. While on the other side of the knife this is where hope, miracles, and dreams live. The high poverty parent and strong willed student believing they can rise above the ashes of despair and achieve on a level similar or comparable to the elite members of society or become the next Barack Obama. The concerned parent would be outraged if a teacher didn't teach this type of hope in the mist of despair, and equally upset if the teacher taught mediocre due to the classroom demographics. Hence the double edged sword that the teacher must decide how to slice and feed the high poverty student the right amount of hope, the right amount of truth, but at all cost do not further handicap the high poverty student.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 2, 2017 at 8:24 PM

    Great Topic!

    This makes me think of young kids of color who equate success academically with acting white. It is as if they have been conditioned to think of underachievement as their lot in life. The flip side of the coin is that those who are successful will experience survivors guilt, or self sabotage in order to continue to identify with their peer group!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Positive Reinforcement - Zach Dean

It took me a year or two to learn that negative consequences in the classroom aren't generally successful and can sometimes lead to worse behavior and less student engagement. A case in point is when you put a name on the board, call a parent, take away a portion of recess the students generally are upset and may be violent depending, on the situation, in reaction to the punishment or because they are upset with themselves for their behavior. Don't get me wrong I know there is something to be said for home/school contact but if the child will get a spanking when they get home sometimes the rest of their day is less than stellar. We spoke in class about building relationships with our children and figuring out what matters to each individual child, I took this into consideration with a "rewards choice board" I put in things that the students liked like, "using the teacher chair for a day, lunch/movie date in the classroom with 3 guests, free use computer time (o...
Read more

The Punishment Mentality - Roshonda Elder

In keeping with our discussion about about ways in which to shape and change behavior, I began to think about why punishment prevails. Despite research that speaks to the contrary, punishment is widely used by schools and teachers especially in high-poverty, urban districts. As a student, majority of all my experiences involved some type of punishment to stop negative behaviors. From having your name put on the board to out of school suspensions, myself and other students were conditioned by the punishments we received. The idea of punishments is not new and has been used to condition children for many years. I think back to the Bible verse that says, "spare the rod, spoil the child" which indicates that discipline is necessary for correction. Many cultures have this idea ingrained causing the punishment mentality to grow. Many parents punish their children because they, too, were punished creating a prevailing generational mindset. Punishment has the effect of, usually, ...
Read more

Student Athlete or Athlete Student?

Big news in Dayton yesterday.  The DPS school board voted in favor of lowering the GPA requirement for athletic eligibility from 1.5 to 1.0.  Over the last decade, the requirement for participation in athletics has gone from 2.0, to 1.7, to 1.5...now 1.0.  This item was not on the agenda for this week or next week's regularly scheduled board meeting where there could be public comment or questions.  The board or superintendent did not call a town hall meeting with parents or other stakeholders in the community, but opted to schedule a "special meeting" to discuss and vote on this issue.  Only one board member voted against the drop. There has been various arguments from different viewpoints, some supporting (or at least understanding why he board voted for this), and others who are completely against it and view it as a disservice to DPS students. According to DPS' public information office, "student athletes who carry a GPA between 1.0 and 1.99 will have to...
Read more