Week 4 Reflection

If you were given a chance to re-organize schools in ways that made sense in the 21st century how would you do it? What would you keep and what would you get rid of? How would you make schools more reflective of a diverse student body with myriad and changing needs?

 If I were given a chance to re organize schools in a way that made sense today, I would start from the top down. I would make sure that school's budgets were more free and equal and that everyone had access to a free and appropriate public education. I would make sure to keep a structure that is culturally relevant and individualized for every student and make sure schools were safe havens for students. This would include adding in trauma informed decision making in schools and making sure teachers and staff were trained well before a student walked into school.

 Because kids spend most of their time in schools a day, I would potentially model after the Harlem school zone that provides students with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Giving parents the responsibility of putting their kids to bed at the end of the day essentially. This effort will provide some sort of equality between students and give them each a head start into their week. 

 I would enhance teacher training making sure on top of trauma-informed care, to also train on Social Emotional Learning and behavioral interventions.Teachers should be given the support and pay that is worth their time and effort that they put into the students everyday. I would also increase indolence of students allowing the school to reflect the diverse student body. If a student truly wants to explore STEM or African American History, they would be provided opportunities to do so whether specialized classes or research teams. Students will be empowered to take direction in their education and not be strangled by state tests and core curriculum.

 There would be no separation of special education and general education. The schools would focus more so on inclusion and adding aides in general education classes if needed. Peer mediated interventions would be used so that typically developing peers would have the opportunity to help their peers with special needs. 

 There's plenty of ways to answer this, and these are only a few suggestions to close the gap in educational systems we see today.

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