One of
the pieces of this documentary that I found very interesting was the inclusion
of details about the Gary School; for example, the simple fact that the school
had its own zoo on campus. This sounds
insane to me because I’ve been raised in a time when most schools don’t even
have the money for up to date textbooks, but they found ways to provide animal
husbandry courses. It causes me to ask “when
did our country decide to stop funding education?”
I was
also caught off guard by how early students were being tracked. For some reason, I had it in my mind that
this system started in the 60s or 70s.
To think that our school system has been using this same flaw means of
segregating the students all this years is disturbing. It is clear that the system poses problems
for students, so I don’t see how it could be that old without anyone thinking
of a better way of doing it.
Most of
all, this film upset me because of the educational focus on “the American way
of life.” There were many students in
this time frame who were the children of immigrants, and I find it revolting
that the American school system wanted to make them conform, rather than
celebrate their diversity. I found it
particularly bad that students were being reprimanded for using their native
language in school. If a student speaks
in a different language, it could become a great educational opportunity for
the class to learn about different cultures.
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