Appropriate Reflective Curriculum For Low Income Students example essay topic

"Most people are caught in the socioeconomic strata into which they were born, and the political-economic system ensures that they remain there". (Gollnick, 2002) A person born into to poverty will most likely live a life of poverty. Impoverished people work in low-paying manual jobs, at best, or will not hold jobs at all. Education is seen as a means to overcome poverty and lead to more social mobility between classes. Since the 1960's, there have been many educational reforms intended to overcome the effects of poverty on students.

These reforms have had very little affect, test scores from low-income groups have not met the expectations. The reforms focused on bringing more money and jobs into low-income groups. These are both necessary but not sufficient to overcome the effects of poverty. School curriculums need to reflect on the in-equalities in class structures.

Social mobility needs to be seen as achievable. Low-income students need the resources and a clear vision of how to achieve social mobility. They need to see it being accomplished by their hero's, leaders and peers. School curriculums need to explain the different class structures that exist and what the affect these classes have on one's socioeconomic status (SES).

The curriculum should indicate to low-income students that they are not considered to be of lower status and lower ability, but that they are capable of upward mobility. It is important for low-income students to see themselves in the curriculum and to develop critical thinking skills necessary in understanding where values came from and are changed. Students not only need to see themselves in the curriculum, but they need to see what path they can take to achieve social mobility. More importantly than learning about leaders and hero's of the upper-middle class, they need to learn of the successes and leaders of their groups.

Children that grow up in the ghetto often dream of becoming famous, basketball stars. The resources for playing and practicing basketball are available and there are famous basketball players. Children growing up in the ghetto see this dream as achievable. As educators we need to build curriculums tailored for these specific needs. We are all products of our influences.

What we see, what we hear, what we experience and don't experience makes us who we are and what we believe. An educational reform that provides the necessary monetary resources coupled with the appropriate reflective curriculum for low-income students, can increase social mobility and assist in overcoming the effects of poverty. The US is considered to be the land of opportunity. What is this opportunity? Well, opportunity is the available choices that one has based on ones's socioeconomic status.

Changing one's social mobility between classes changes ones' opportunities.

Bibliography

Gol lick, Donna M. & Chinn, Phillip C. -6th ed. (2002) Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, (Columbus) OH: Merrill Prentice Hall. If an educational reform can change one student, it can change one classroom, then it can change one school and ultimately diminish the affect poverty has on education one student at a time. Students develop critical thinking skills while seeing themselves on a path of an evolving class structure.