I teach in the rural setting and the inclusion of safety measures like metal detectors and a school resource officer have good intentions though I wonder if they just as well generate fear within student bodies.

"But there was no school-wide debate about it, or consensus. The community didn’t decide."

"Because here I am trying to build something with the school. Why didn’t you just involve me? Why didn’t you just tell me about it? Like, it felt like it was a secret. I don’t know if it was or if it wasn’t. I’m invested in the school. Clearly, I’ve proven to you I’m invested in the school. And you couldn’t tell us that you wanted to fundraise in a different way?"

Seeing the various forms of technology and what is displayed on the screens of our youth, it is horrifying to see the people and things they start to praise/prioritize over their academics. I completely agree with this quote, as instead of exposing our youth to violence, crime, etc, they should be hearing positive stories in their communities. What our students see on their screens definitely takes a toll on their personalities and daily actions.

This happens more often than not, as someone who comes from a district that quite literally splits elementary schools between lower-income and middle/upper-income, there are often parents who get upset about whether the money collected will stay with the school that already has plenty of money, or help the students in the other building gain more resources. Parents often forget that the main goal is ensuring all students have the resources they need to succeed, and that they should truly be a community; however, money tends to cause a lot of issues, whether it's one person or within a school.

This quote was said during the third discriminatory design as researchers want to look into the genetics of violence in hopes of preventing it. I think this quote can be used for various scenarios, even going back to some of the previous videos we have watched and articles we have read. It seems like people want to find an excuse or reason for anything that happens instead of learning from mistakes or owning up to them.

A school library program with a qualified, certified librarian can play a critical role in countering this phenomenon. When given the time and resources, certified librarians can offer students instruction in the areas of critical thinking and media literacy. Furthermore, they're trained to develop collections that include books that can be both mirrors and windows for these students (h/t Rudine Sims Bishop), serving as counterprogramming to the dominant, traditional narrative.

Did you think about yourself as integrators? Or did you think about —

Rob Hansen

No. [LAUGHS] My pause was because I was trying to think if that had gone through my mind. And no, no. The — not integrators. Participants in a school that was going to, hopefully, be diverse, but yeah, not — that’s not a framing or a way of thinking about it that would have occurred to me at the time. [LAUGHS]

To me, this exchange—and the events that follow, culminating in an elite fundraiser that is both physically and ideologically removed from the school community it was intended to benefit—is a cautionary tale about not considering your positionality before engaging with a community. It's upsetting to me to see that Rob didn't consider his position before bringing his considerable experience and talent as a fundraiser to SIS. What might have been possible if Rob had solicited unrestricted funding for SIS instead of focusing on the French immersion program, or if he had polled educators, parents, and students about their priorities before speaking with potential funders?

This quote was a key takeaway for me after reading the provided core material because it helped me understand or conceptualize the different ways in which education is intertwined with prisons.

This quote was a key takeaway for me after reading the transcript of the provided core material because it helped me better understand the statements from different groups of people within the school in terms of how they viewed the new influx of white students into the school.

This excerpt stood out to me because it led to me recalling when investigators after the Parkland Florida high school shooting were immediately trying to figure out what was going on in the suspect's mind before considering other items such as one's accessibility of firearms.

Joffe-Walt demonstrates how the arrival of white families at the School of International Studies profoundly changed the goals for decision-making, the resources available, and the makeup of the class. Although they frequently portray their involvement as supporting "the best" for the school, these parents' ideas of success and excellence are frequently based on their own social and cultural norms. This dynamic illustrates how access, opportunity, and influence within public schools can be shaped by social and racial privilege, sometimes at the expense of many students and families. It demonstrates that inequalities in education are caused by both who has the authority to influence school environments and financial disparities.

Benjamin highlights that the interests and biases of its designers are reflected in technology, which is never impartial. She uses park benches that are intended to keep homeless people out as an example of how even minor design decisions may ingrain social injustices into daily life. This idea also applies to digital tools, software, and learning platforms in education, which may unintentionally give preference to students who have greater resources or experience. She contends that in order to ensure that all kids can fully participate, acquire new skills, and interact creatively, equitable technology needs to be intentionally designed, accessible, and supported. Depending on how it is used, technology may either deepen already-existing gaps or be a potent instrument for inclusivity.

This episode reminded me of the one by Malcolm Gladwell, who commented on the way white parents and educators viewed Black schools as inferior to their way of doing things. Here, too, non-white children were in need of “saving.”

A related takeaway for me is that the things we value as a society determine what we see as inherently good (e.g. luxury, efficiency, ease; connection, satisfaction, effort) – but it is the privileged groups who have the power to assert these values.

How many of our systems are based in this short-term fix mentality?

Who wins from the spending of money this way? It certainly isn't people of color, nor do I think it's society as a whole who would benefit from less incarceration..

This echos the quiet violence of several institutions and their budgets by either locking them up, and not investing in them. This reframes the “school-to-prison pipeline” as a funding pipeline-money flows to cells, not classrooms.

“Everyone wants what’s best for the school, but they don’t share the same vision of what ‘best’ means.”

When tech is built without equity at its core, it stops being a tool for connection and starts becoming an barrier.

Page 3 of the Introduction really stuck in my mind as I was reading- "As the interlocking relationships between schools and the judicial system increased in the 1990s, select schools in the United sated not only resemble prisons and apply the same disciplinary and surveillance technologies, but they also use the same language, "pedagogies," and philosophies espoused by prisons and jails (Salman & Gabbard, 2003).

One of my takeaways was how there was a clear divide between the “new” parents and the “old” parents, which in turn created a divide between the “new” students and the “old" students. SIS was not a bad school prior to the influx of white families, but it was labeled by those families, creating the bad reputation.

As a native New Yorker and person of color, this piece really resonated with me especially when recognizing how truly segregated the NYC public school system is. With my identities, it was also really easy empathize and understand the feeling of colonization the parents and students of SIS felt when the new white familles had essentially taken over the PTA.

It feels so wrong that schools should be sold as a pitch and even worse that many schools are forced to do so in order to increase funding. Students that don't have the privilege of a choice of where to go to school, many times non-white students, are left to depend on the decision of primarily white families to determine funding and resources available to them.

In such a quickly moving society focused on immediate reward it is hard to imagine a time where long term meaningful change arises from addressing deep systemic issues.

This quote struck me instantly in terms of contextualizing the economics of education and who may be holding the main power. Instantly, I was able to connect this quote with the podcast we listened to last week which covered the significance of Brown v. Board. In the podcast, someone commented how a narrative had been spun that Black children in segregated schools "needed to be saved", insinuating that Black educators did not have the proper qualifications or skills to teach. In other words, there was a popularization of a "White Savior Complex", which demeaned the efficacy of Black educators across the United States. Hearing this quote made me further realize the lasting impact this mentality has had in education. It is not in the far past but rather, remains in our educational spaces.

the institutional narratives and media images that represent them

as violent and uneducatable and that contribute to the notion that

imprisonment is a reasonable, if not natural, option in their lives.

(Duncan, 2000, 39).”

The Nice White Parents Ep. 1 podcast notes the phenomenon of the white students making up the STEM classes of the public school (2:45). It was also notable that upon the walk through, the parent did not ask about this. If the white parents never ask about it, we know the institutions will not listen so easily to Black people who attempt to equalize society. 

R. Benjamin notes in the Ted video (14:00) that it “says something about us” that people seek genetic reasons to explain gun violence. To me, it says this about us: we would rather blame what is natural than admit what we have manufactured for society is wrong.