Waiting for Superman was a huge eye opener. It proved to me that our education system is truly failing. We are not providing our children with the sufficient education they truly deserve. The movie showed five young childrens' lives and how they were not afforded an adequate education. The neighborhoods they lived in ranged from poor, to the upscale middle class family. It also showed that each child came from a different racial background. Although each child came from a different background they still dealt with a failing education system. All five of the children were trying to be accepted into better schools, and the way they were selected was based on chance. They were either randomly selected from a computer, their number was called from a random selection, or like the game BINGO their future relied on a ball. Out of the five children selected for the movie, only two were accepted into the new schools. The others had to go back to their failing schools and fight to get out of the education system. In our panel discussion we discussed how although there are other schools that are improving our education system it is costing MILLIONS of dollars every year. But one thing that stuck out the most to me is we spend more money on inmates, when we could be putting every child into private school for a better education for less the costs and actually have some money left over. There is a huge problem with that. To be honest it baffled me and I am seriously trying to find a way to correct this but I don't even know where to begin. Hopefully one day we can find some sort of a solution to end this epidemic.
Specifically, this course is designed to examine 1) the nature and function of culture; 2) the development of individual and group cultural identity; 3) definitions and implications of diversity, and 4) the influences of culture on learning, development, and pedagogy.
