When I was in high school, I was saddened to see a group of students who were the target of bias, prejudice, and oppression. There was a group of students who received additional services from the special school district. These students were noticeable because they spent a small amount of time with the general population, and they were also accompanied by a teacher's assistant. Lunch was one of the few times where they were allowed to be around peers and this is where the unfair treatment would take place. Other students would yell hurtful names at them such as retarded, stupid, and dumb. Along with the name calling, they would have to endure being pushed in line and having their trays knocked to the floor. When they finally did get to their table, they would eat together and leave the cafeteria early. Just because of their abilities, this group of students was not treated fairly. Their equity was diminished because they did not get to enjoy their lunch like the other high-schoolers. All high-schoolers feel like lunch is the only enjoyable time during the school day. The students who received special education services did not get to have this same experience. For them, lunch was a time of physical and emotional pain.
This incident brings up feeling of hurt and anger for me. I am hurt because I understand how it feels to be treated unfairly due to one or more of your identities. I feel anger because I hate the isolation that results from bias, prejudice, and oppression. Just like the students in the incident above, people who are targets of unfair treatment often isolate themselves from others to avoid discrimination. Isolation is not beneficial to either group because we can all share, learn, and grow from the knowledge provided by people from different groups.
In order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity, educational institutions must change the way in which they include special education students in the classroom and other school settings. It starts with early childhood programs and classrooms educating young children about all children and including children with differing abilities in their curriculum and other aspects of the classroom. Hopefully, by educating young children early they will have accurate knowledge about this group of children, which will alter the negative messages they receive from the dominant culture. Additionally, schools need to establish a policy that indicates there is no tolerance for bullying and the consequences for such behavior. During the times these students were bullied, I wondered why there were no adults who stepped in and stopped the behavior. The adults must share in the responsibility for making sure the policy is implemented and setting standards that result in the equitable treatment of all students.
Krista,
ReplyDeletePeople can be very mean in general, let alone high school students. Thinking back on my high school experience, I remember students that didn’t have much money were teased about their clothes or any other aspect that the “popular” kids didn’t like. It does upset me when I think of these incidences. You are right, it does bring isolation and I feel that no one likes to be isolated.
Krista,
ReplyDeleteWow. I share your bewilderment. The absence of any intervention by school personnel is frightening.
We begin our lives in ignorance and count upon those that we look up to mentor and guide us. When their is a failure of such guidance, our ignorance proceeds unchallenged... our biases become more firmly established.
In this situation, I am far more disappointed in the school personnel than in the children.
By the time we get to High School, the capacity that we have to do harm with our biases is far more than when we are young children. I think that along the way, many adults missed opportunities - both to mentor and guide the bullies and to support and nurture the students with differing abilities.
Hello Krista,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Isolating children from other children gives the notion that it is okay to segregate and they grow up sharing that view. Children are not born with biases or prejudice thoughts. It is learned and educational system within society has taken decades to finally impellent inclusion within the classroom. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was a big eye opener for many people who did not think that they were making injustice acts by segregating children from experiences of being with all children. The words accommodations and accessibility took the place of the word, accountability in the educational system. Many people would rather stay quiet and go with the flow even if they might feel it is wrong. I, as you, experienced watching small groups of peers in elementary be only allowed to join the rest of the population during lunch. This shows that by sometimes bringing bias and stereotypes into the open, it can break them and create better understandings between newer generations to eliminate the oppressions.
Hi Krista, your example is a good an example of how anti- bias education is so important in our curriculum. It is sad to learn how people are targeted just because they are different from someone else. If students begin to learn about anti-bias education early, then we have a less change of these incidents happening.
ReplyDeleteThanks for Sharing,
Andrea