Unequal Education Video

In  class we watched a video called Unequal Education. This video consisted of taking videos from two very different schools for a time period of the semester. One school was in the Suburb called Riverdale. The second school was an inner city school and I do not recall the name of this school. The school in the suburb had very new equipment and much more equipment than the inner city school, there was a nice rec area and many activities for the students to do after school. On the other hand the inner city school had no such thing. There gymnasium was small and crowed, they have only basketball hoops to keep the children busy. This school is also in the bad part of town so the fact that they have no place to escape to after school is very upsetting. The education between the two school is drastically different. The suburbs school is equipped with fully trained teachers, text books and equipment. Many of the teachers in the inner city school are not qualified to be teaching in the areas that they are teaching in. For example their science teacher, he did not go to school for anything related to science, he is a dance instructor. Although the principal at the inner city school is very inspiring. He knows that his school does not have the best educational system, but he goes out everyday to make sure these children get to school, and receive some sort of education.

The video also followed around some children from each school. Lonnie is from the inner city school. Lonnie is a smart boy, but he hates school and is very bored with his classes. He feels they are too easy but has no interest in even doing the work that he claims to be "easy." I feel he would do much better in classes that are of interest to him and if he knew that he was getting a quality education. The students they talked to at the suburb school knew what they wanted to do after school, assumed that they would be going to a good college. It is very disappointing to me to know that these differences in schools is a reality. All students deserve an equal education but that just doesn't happen.