Map the Authors

Growing Up Public in Providence

I have lived in Rhode Island and attended providence public schools ever since I was 12. To be a young person in a providence public school is to understand 3 things:

There is a lack of money put into public schooling, Minorities are grouped together in the "worst" schools, and the third is to know that none of the flaws are typically discussed.

Although I have attended providence public schools all through 8th grade and high school, I was not very familiar with the conditions of the elementary schools, as I attended elementary school in DR and Connecticut.

My first day of my kindergarten project, I was very schocked to see that the structure of the building and the location of the school was very poor. Being right in the middle of one of Providence's more Dangerous streets, I have to admit that I was not too surprised to have stepped on a piece of glass that pierced through my shoe. I was, however, saddedned by the fact that a student could have stepped on that glass. When I walked into the school, I was greeted by a dark, drab environment that I must say, resembled the structure of the schools that I attended in a rural town of the Dominican Republic (and even there I never stepped in glass on my way to school). Walking into the classroom, I found a beautiful class of smiling kindergarteners, but I did notice that only one of these students were white. 

Connection to Kozol: Comparing Alan Shawn Feinstein elementary school to any of the predominately white elementary schools, such as Hoxsie in Warwick, you can truly see the advantages of attending a school with a higher percentage of white, high income students.

Connection to Herbert: Now, we understand that it is not solely the color of a student's skin that will determine their quality of education. But the fact that most minorities live in urban areas, makes it impossible for their children to attend a school of a better location due to the fact that you must live in the vicinity of whichever school your child will attend. This is an example of modern segregation.

Connection to Garcia: One of the pleasant things that I witnessed in my classroom, is the practice of translanguaging. Whenever the teacher pulls students off to the side to test them individually, some of the students that have a first language of Spanish, find it difficult to understand her questions. in these instances, the teacher will ask the student if they can answer in spanish, which most of the time will allow the student to provide an answer and ultimately help them with their English.