Influences That Shape Schools

Many influences effect how schools are shaped, including myths and many external and internal factors of a school.

When many people picture rural, suburban, and urban schools many set images come to mind. These are images that are planted in our heads through the television programs, movies, and the news. Stereotypes are built upon mainly myths regarding rural, urban, and suburban education and are major influences that shape schools and define education. The Anderson and Summerfield article give examples of many myths that are proven statistically to be false, but these myths are still giving urban centers and schools a bad reputation. For example, there is a huge misconception that urban schools have the highest crime rate in the country. In reality, students in suburban schools are victims of most crimes and the suburbs have the highest crime rate compared to urban and rural locations.

Because of false myths like these, many people are turned off by the urban school system. Parents who believe this false myth will most likely send their child to a private, suburban, or even rural school if they can affort to do so. However, school violence is everywhere, even in rural atmospheres. Remember the Amish school shooting that took the lives of five girls in Lancaster, PA? It is important to realize that crime unfortunately happens everywhere regardless of location.

I am a victim of falsely judging schools and their environments based on stereotypes. When I think of urban schools I picture small, crowded classrooms with few teachers. I was surprised to read that the student/teacher ratio for urban, suburban, and rural schools are about the same. Now that I think of it, our CURR523 class is pretty crowded! Not that I am not excited to work with all of you, but it is important to point out that regardless of location, population management like school violence is always an issue wherever we are.

False myths and stereotypes are influences on how most people view different schools, but what truly and physically shapes schools? Schools are influenced both by a school's external and internal environment. Obviously, the physical conditions of an area labels the school urban, suburban, or rural, but other external factors consist of American history, the existing government, population densities, and area demographics/culture.

American history that effects urban education is the existing racism against African-Americans because of slavery. Fruchter discusses the Brown vs. The Board of Education, which ordered the desegregation of schools. Our government and school systems never followed through with desegregating school, which left many poor black children doomed for a terrible education and limited futures. Not much as changed since 1954 when the Supreme Court ordered desegregation, and there have been few efforts to change since then. I believe that there were good intentions to desegregate by passing this law, but not following through made matters worse. Additionally, our existing government heavily influences bureaucracy and school decisions. Teachers have benchmarks to meet and have to teach to the test thanks to NCLB.

Population densities and demographics shapes schools because it gives a school physical characteristics of the student body. Focusing on urban schools, these communities are heavily populated and consist of primarily Spanish-American and African-American decent. These people are poor and some live in extreme poverty. The culture of the students and surrounding community heavily influences the way schools practice such as school holidays, traditions, and academic content. Also, a student's family life effects their education. Some families may place an importance on family time, religion, or work, and some may be homeless and have to move around a lot.

Internal factors that shape schools are school policy, budget, curriculum, teaching techniques and experience. These internal factors directly effect urban schools' ability to function. Urban schools do not have proper funding, which results in small budgets, inexperienced teachers, and few teachers. It only takes a couple bad teachers to make a child turn away from education. I am not sure what I could do as a teacher to make a difference in the large scheme of things besides to be a great teacher to these urban children. Negative urban education influences have existed since the beginning of time. How will it change?