Shea Observation and Week 1

The first impression that I made at Shea High School is that the school is lacking resources and has had to make accommodations based on the school’s location. When we first arrived at Shea I observed that all the sports fields were down and across the street from the main school area. This observation is certainly an indication that Shea students have had to make some accommodations to the environment in which their school is located. On the day of our observation we met with the guidance counselor and she gave us a few facts and some essential information about the students at Shea. Right from the start I could tell that she took great interest in her students and cared a great deal about their personal and academic success. The thing that I was shocked by was the fact that she shared with us that a lot of these students have not even given thought about college and if they would like to go to college or where they would like to go to college. When we were in the guidance office at Shea during the observation I noticed that there was a whiteboard with all the colleges that students had been admitted to and I was very impressed with the names of the schools that I saw on that white board. This observation really got me thinking about the achievement gap that seems to be taking place within Shea high school. Where is the solution to this achievement gap that we have read about in class and now I see first hand. Why is it that some students have the world at their fingertips while other students feel trapped and lost within the same walls at the same high school?

For this first meeting and greeting with students Tara (the site coordinator) had planned icebreakers for us to do and also wanted to know what students wanted to get out of the EXPLORE program this year. The students all seemed to like the icebreakers and we were all having a good time together. For the sake of this course, I noticed that all of the students that came to our first official EXPLORE day were minority students. There was a mix of boys and girls and I believe the ratio of boys to girls was fairly equal. The students seemed to be in stark contrast of the myth that minority students are not motivated and do not want to learn and succeed and be successful that we have read about in both of our texts for this course. The fact that these students are taking up a part of their afternoon to better their present and future education stands as a stark contrast to the themes of ‘laziness’ and the so-called ‘unmotivated minority student’ that seems to be highlighted frequently by the biased and down-right cruel teachers that are present in both texts we are reading for class.