• Who are the oppressors and the oppressed in this scenario?

• How does the education system maintain inequality?

• What would you suggest as a solution?

• Who holds power in this scenario?

• Why might the workers be hesitant to challenge their conditions?

• How can education and awareness lead to liberation?

• Who is the oppressed? The oppressor?

• How is the oppressor maintaining control?

• What options do the students and administrators have in this situation?

• What does this say about the role of education in shaping critical thinkers?

• How does the media contribute to intellectual control and oppression?

• How might this portrayal impact the community’s perception of itself?

• What could be done to challenge these stereotypes?

• Why might those in power want to erase these histories?

• How does this decision impact students’ sense of identity?

• What actions could students take to reclaim their education?

The education system maintains inequality by distributing resources unfairly amongst schools in the districts.

-Fatoumata,Lizbeth,Edwina, and Lomiah

The education system maintains inequality by redlining. It carves out neighborhoods into certain districts, and the homes surrounding whose housing taxes contribute to the schools money. The income of the neighborhoods is known by the people doing the redlining, so this inequality is happening purposefully.

I think this could be solved by not basing schools funding by local property taxes. This way, we could stop the cycle of poverty, which usually begins in the classroom.

-Bing A

I wanted to connect this to Freire’s idea of humanization. In the text, he says that liberation is a 'mutual process. Our solution of moving students to better districts gives them the tools they need, but as Freire argues, the students themselves have to be the ones to use those tools to transform their reality.

Adding to our point about moving students to wealthier districts in Chapter 1, Freire talks about how true generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. I think our solution helps in the short term, but through Freire’s lens, we have to be careful that this isn't just 'false charity. If we just move kids around without fixing the systemic reasons why one school is 'rich' and the other is 'poor,' are we actually liberating them or just trying to make them fit into an oppressive system

Fatmata / Napheca

Reading Chapter 1, Freire mentions how the oppressed are often fearful of freedom.' I think that’s exactly what’s happening here with the immigrant workers. They are hesitant to challenge the conditions because the 'freedom' of speaking up comes with the massive risk of being deported. It shows how the system is set up to make the oppressed feel like they have to choose between their safety and their rights.

Fatmata / Napheca

They might be hesitant to challenge their conditions because by protesting they would lose their wages and be nothing without their employers and by ruining their reputations, such as how labor unions were labeled as communists by the public because of their unorganized labor efforts and their history of violence.

-Fatoumata, Lizbeth,Edwina, and Lomiah

Schools claim they wanna teach critical thinking but at the same time, they teach that they should conform and be obedient to them instead of deviating.

They students can bring these policy changes to the public eye via social media and the news. Administrators can also do the same, and go against the other administrators. But these are very risky situations, so honestly a very appealing option would be to just stop protesting. this says that education is not really shaping critical thinkers that go against the status quo.

-Bing A

Alexiz, Ellenda, Markayla

allow the playing field to be slightly more equal, making test scores go up, resources to began to be equally divided.

Makayla, Alexiz, Ellenda the queen!

Lomiah,Edwina,Lizbeth,Fatoumata

I want to add a quote from Chapter 1 to support this. Freire talks a lot about 'dehumanization' and how the oppressor tries to take away the humanity of others. By the media only showing the 'criminal side' of a community, they are basically dehumanizing those people and making it easier for the rest of the world to ignore their actual struggles, like the lack of jobs or poor schools. It fits Freire's idea that the oppressor uses these narratives to stay in control

Fatmata / Napheca

This portrayal may make the community itself feel as though they are what the media paints them to be. This can create internalized issue as well and rationalize the struggle that these people are going through without acknowledging the systemic issues that cause them.

To challenge these stereotypes, people from the community could publicly speak out on social media or a more open-minded news station.

-Bing A

The workers may be hesitant because they may be under contracts, such as the one mentioned above. It is also important to note that by unionizing a labor effort or organization, they'd be subjecting themselves to humiliation and negative views considering the history behind labor unions and violence. For instance, the Haymarket affair was a bombing in Chicago caused by anarchists amongst the Knights of Labor. They were associated as communists and anarchists and basically had their reputation ruined.

Education and awareness can lead to liberation by allowing employees to know what they are getting into and to allow them to cross language barriers considering they're immigrants and such. And by knowing their worth and being educated, they can protest in an organized fashion without using violence and without ruining their efforts.