What Are The Major Influences That Shape Urban Schools - continued.

It appears that one of the factors that shapes urban schools in particular is culture- and using or understanding that culture as a means of teaching effectively. Along with that, it appears that we also have to take into account the stigmas and stereotypes of urban schools that influence how much people care about them as an institution and the children in them and their subsequent opinions. I took Norm Fruchter's chapter on the achievement gap and the culture of schooling to heart. I felt like there was a lot of truth there in terms of the cultural pre-sets that we bring to the classroom and to anything else we do. All of these things need to be taken into account and it appears that culture is a major influence within urban schools because, according to Fruchter, it shapes how diverse children learn. He writes, "The culture of schooling is what results from how a society structures, organizes, and implements its educational system." (26) He explains that to change the education of children in urban centers, we have to change the traditional system to meet their needs. This is a major factor in creating schools that work for all children as, in urban areas, we, no doubt, as educators have to take in cultural pre-sets, language, customs, and opinions formed by all three. Not to say this couldn't occur in the suburbs, but teachers may be battling more of these unique outside influences in an urban center. Curriculum, the schooling organization, primary languages, instructional tactics, the accountability system, and the discipline system differs in urban areas. These children have different needs and need to be reached by creative, committed teachers who think outside of the box.In turn, children can be shaped by their teachers as much as they are shaped by outside influences if done correctly. Again, there is little statistics and data wise separating suburban schools from urban schools, yet they are seen as different. It appears that changing parent culture, school culture, and child culture is a huge undertaking- but shifting it will shift the achievement gap.

Secondly, information communicated from Perry's Young, Gifted, and Black stands out in terms of how urban schools could be changed and the struggles of the children being taught there. Fruchter explains, "Since many black students come to the culture of American schooling shaped by histories, beliefs, and language use that is differ from those white students and white teachers, Perry argues, black students are often perceived as having little familiarity with the kinds of cultural capital that schools use and value." Again, the culture and other factors that students bring to the table is a definite aspect that influence and shapes urban schools. These factors should be worked with. Urban schools and urban centers should work with these differences in order to use cultural capital to shape a schooling system that works along the experiences of urban children.

On top of that- and perhaps a bit off topic- I found the story about John Edgar Wideman's brother, Robby, to be very interesting. Additionally, it was a good jump off point in terms of explaining what diverse children need and the fact that there may be more than one avenue to reach them and that other ways to teach certain children may have to be explored. I think this idea also shapes urban schools in that since it appears to be such a different, culturally diverse environment shaped on outside influences then it would be worthwhile to understand what may be pulling on a child and keeping him or her from succeeding. Knowing this would be a way to reexamine how to reach a particular child- often before it's too late.