Pushouts Midterm Notes PDF

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These are the notes for the EDU 310 Midterm essay...

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The Pushouts What practices/policies/structures in the film produce social inequality and limit educational opportunity? Connection between state of education and school-to-prison pipeline? What ways do schools support the policing of children through notions of criminality/violence? 

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In 1994, Victor Rios was in a high school gang o Was in juvenile detention and had 3 felonies, loved to steal cars, sold heroin o 5 police cars always at this one junior high school o Mother had up to a 3rd grade education o Had a mentor in high school that was very helpful o House was covered in rats and had to sleep on the kitchen floor poor conditions Movie takes place in LA o Today, Victor holds a PhD  Has a guilt because he left his family and neighbor to live in better conditions  Had depression because he felt he wasn’t there for the people he should’ve been there for growing up  Wrote a book and was in a TedTalk o Becomes a gang prevention consoler o Has witnessed students having to drop up (pushed out) of school and become criminals o Dropped out of school in 8th grade to get a job did not want to be poor anymore  Decided to go back to school after 2 semesters and graduated on time and was admitted into college o Created this project to make children believe in themselves/support them More than half of the Black and Hispanic are poor One-third of them will not graduate Yo!Watts a program started by Martin Flores (Victor’s mentor) By saying “drop-out” you’re putting the blame on the individuals By saying “push-out” it is putting blame on the schools/institutions what are the schools doing wrong? What is wrong with education? William, 19 o Got kicked out of high school because school believed he caused too many problems in school o Loved being in gangs because it made him feel powerful but became depressed and had to go to hospital after that wanted to be a better man/change People are faced with choosing to go to school for education or choosing work in order to survive Communities called Watts In East LA where the program was o decreased in funding for important programs and an increase in gang activities o Very hard to stay out of gangs in Watts

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Rynisha, 19 o Her dad was shot all over his body responded by shutting down and just wanted to be alone o Grades started going downhill because she couldn’t handle the stress School kicked her out because of her grades Martin Flores, 21 o In 1994, spoke up and told students to stand up for themselves and demand to be educated o Believed people are getting pushed out of the educational system The reality is most young people do not have positive outlets It takes a long time to overcome the adversity Little connection between teachers and students o Children are taught to shut down their emotions so when there’s this one special teacher who actually cares about her students, it’s hard for the students to open up A child was smashed in the head with a baseball bat and his skull was split open decided to join a gang for protection “Once you go in, you have to be willing to die” that’s what the OG’s would say o Street life brings this sense of belonging which makes you forget that you can be sent to prison or die Majority of students do not go to college stop at high school or earlier Victor: Sometimes you struggle in your family, self-abuse, abuse, etc. and do not cope with it through violence and retaliation respond by journaling, working your soul, expressing your feelings because if not, you will be exhausted from holding in your feelings o His mother told him she wished he was never born wrote a letter to her saying he expects an apology one day  Must heal your soul to get out of this poverty life o Believes you can cry and you are still a man students believe if you cry/open up, you are weak o Has his mentored students write letters Students believe they have no help as they get older o Many children’s parent(s) are killed and are told to be tough and not cry you take care of the family now  Must teach their siblings how to survive on the streets and not turn your back on certain people At a very young age children have no one who they can trust, not family, not teachers Ms. Russ o First teacher to say, “I’m here for you” School arranges meeting between Rios and other gang members over the incident that occurred in school o This meeting was a chance to say, “I’m done with this” “The most dangerous weapon is to be educated” Tupac Algebra is the hardest subject to pass for POC o Teachers are boring and do not relate the content to student’s lives so they zone out Young people often do not here that they are smart and that they are doing a good job

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Have students view their stories and conquering struggles rather than stories that are detrimental to their lives Youth constantly try to pick themselves up but there are barely any resources to help them do so It’s not just about kids redeeming themselves, it’s about society redeeming themselves and changing education/ the intuitions that have set POC to fail 02/24

Lecture: Film Pushouts: The Crimination of Black girls in School 

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Major argument to integrate schools Segregated schools were teaching different notions of beauty/ effects the notion of what is considered beautiful o Black students feel less than white students (beauty is small lips, light skin/white, straight hair) 1890-1910 15,000 increased to 50,000 black teachers 4 million teachers in American today but only 7% are African Americans o Re-segregation of schools Some black girls feel like teachers are afraid of them o Black girls are constructed to seem as though they are ghetto and scary Small misbehaviors result in drastic consequences for black girls compared to white girls o Teachers will bully black students o If a black girl speaks without being called on, they get kicked out of the classroom white student would just get a warning or be ignored o Parents tend to believe the teachers over their own children because teachers are adults (but they sometimes abuse their power)  Simiah wanted to commit suicide at 7 years old because teacher was rude/racist and parents believed teacher over her daughter Simiah felt alone/unloved Police did not intervene to help the 7 year old African American girl who left school early even though she was by herself at this restaurant (Simiah) School lost Simiah since 9am but no one reported it for awhile, then called her parents o Parents go to try to find her, the police was called Under the age of 13 years old, Black students are 2x more likely to commit suicide than white students Young black girls need to see themselves in the curriculum of school black teachers, black ancestors/history empower black girls o When you don’t focus on/include black girls when talking about racial injustices, their families and communities suffer o Black girls should know about their history because it involves them Misunderstanding of black girls leads to over punishment suspension expelled o Teachers need to understand and take into consideration if black girls have more responsibilities that the other students in the classroom  Has to take care of their siblings in the morning, not provided transportation to school, etc  Do not push a black girl for being late to class when it was not her fault

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Good girl vs bad girls based on history’s view of what a good girl is o Good girl white, religious, virgin Society says black girls have bad attitudes, they go through puberty earlier compared to other students “they’re so tough, tall” but they are still children but teachers will not treat them as children o Boys are received as being older and more dangerous than they are o Girls are sexualized and seen as caregivers at a much earlier age ACE Scores make black girls feel better and feel as though they are understood o Goes beyond the scores ultimately about understanding the score/information and how to recover from the trauma a person has faced in their live “Don’t all kids go through this?” --- teachers o It’s not about how all kids go through this, let’s analyze how black girls are going through things compared to white girls  Black girls are dragged out of the classroom/abused for talking in class vs white girls are asked to be quiet Emma, African American 16 y/old, bullied other people said not to talk to her or else they would get roaches in elementary school o She felt as though she had to shut down and hold all of her feelings in since no one defended her grades went down, got more aggressive and protective of herself, depression, anxiety  Made one friend in summer school allowed her to understand that not every student is there to hurt her, gave her a sense of confidence Debate: whether children in public schools have the same rights (of privacy, beliefs, expression, etc) o 4 pre-teens/teenage black girls were forced to strip because adults thought they had drugs on them since they were happy and laughing they must be on drugs because they’re happy  It is acceptable for black girls to be treated this way because they are already criminalized This incident would never happen to white girls in Beverly Hills or else adults would be outraged o Black girls constantly have to fight for their space and find their importance in the world Ingrained stress black girls faced stress from school (inequality from teachers or bullying), parents (when they feel like their parents are doing the best they can but it’s not good enough, abuse, etc) o They will misplace their anger and they have no one to advocate for them  People do not take into consideration everything that they’ve been through in their life and will respond with punishment rather than compassion or showing an understanding  Society: Scared girls look like this small, petite, white girl tall, bigger black girls don’t have fear Kiara: I put on a front of anger/being so tough but in reality very depressed, anxious, low self-esteem of being “fat girl” and “ugly”, no friends people thought because she was acting tough that she was not hurting o If she did not fight everyone she would just be considered the fat girl and not the tough fat girl

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“You push a girl out of school and you push her into the streets, violence, trauma, all types of negative experiences” -film o Black girls have a higher number of assaults, sex trafficking, being molested o Girls are sex trafficked and then are the ones who are arrested for prostitution and are criminalized rather than being seen as survivors or the attackers being arrested...