A deteriorating, overcrowded, dirty, struggling, and polluted environment
Thirty-two urban education students from Swarthmore College recently watched the introductory First Person DVD on their first day of class. Over the next several weeks, excerpts from their responses will be posted as part of this blog.
When I think of urban education, I most often envision a poor school within a deteriorating, overcrowded, dirty, struggling, and polluted environment. I imagine noisy, crowded classrooms with inexperienced teachers who cannot control their students. First Person, on the other hand, gave little attention to this aspect of urban education. Instead, the film was devoted to highlighting the lives outside the classroom of students who attend schools in urban environments. As an outsider, it is easy to remove the individuals from such an environment and become caught up with how depressed and hopeless their situations appear. The six students in First Person, on the other hand, are not looking for sympathy. Although some of the students’ schools resembled the picture of urban education I had in my mind, the students try not to let these factors distract them from their goals, for most of which included going to college.
After seeing this film, I believe that all children really want to do something meaningful with their lives, whether that means going to college or being a positive influence to younger siblings. Although self-motivation is important, children need reinforcement and someone to believe in them in order to remain focused and motivated towards achieving their goals. They need someone to support them as they work towards graduating high school and college and transitioning to living independent and productive lives. Despite the conditions of their schools, most of the students in First Person remained optimistic about the future because they had support from their friends and family along with self motivation.
This film has also made me realize that you cannot generalize students in urban environments. Although the schools of many of the students in First Person face many of the same issues, each student lives a very different life. Each student faces the daily pressures of school while dealing with a variety of issues at home and on the streets. As a result, education policy must account for and reflect the diversity of the students it affects.
