Jeshurun Nuu 

Mrs. Chastain

ENG 100

Nov. 8, 2010

Inna City

            Inner city schools today are not being supported very well throughout the country. They don’t have the supplies, teachers, or just sometimes the heart to even still want to go to school. Students are not being helped, and teachers are not really caring for what they do in class. Other schools might have the advantage over inner city school, such as suburban schools. Some of those schools have everything new that you can think of, that belongs in a school. They have new supplies, teachers that care, and a building that’s really new. They get supported from the city, unlike the inner city schools. They barely get supported by anybody.

            In the book, (Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools,) written by Jonathan Kozol. He sits in a classroom, on the East Side of St. Louis, in an inner city elementary school observing the little kids that come to school. Condition of the school is in horrible shape, and that many inner city schools don’t really care about the student’s education. He also tells us that many classes also stand out in a school like this one.

A teacher by name the name of Mrs. Hawkins seems to be the one that influences many of her kids. Her class seems to be the most fun for all the kids, because they seem to be more comfortable around them. He tells us that their faces seem to brighten up every time they come to Mrs. Hawkins class. Mrs. Hawkins is one of those teachers that want their students to become something in their lives. She buys most of the supplies that the class needs with her own money, also helping parents earn their GED, and the church choir. She’s basically a light for the inner city school students. She does everything she can to give them the best education they can have.

When I was in middle school, my family moved around a lot. I moved from Independence to a Kansas City school. When I was in Independence I went to a school called Pioneer Ridge. The school was amazing; mostly everything in the building was brand new. It was a new building with a Green House. The school also had two gyms, everything was just really big. Than when I moved to an inner city school, called Nowlin, you could tell the difference about both schools. The school was really old, and the other thing was that when I went to Pioneer Ridge. There were a lot of white people, than when I went to Nowlin. There were more black people and Mexicans. Nolin was very poor compared to my school in Independence.

Making the transition from school to school hurt me. It made it hard for me because I had to catch up with everything I missed when I transferred to Nowlin, but they ran into a problem. In one of my classes they ran out of books to give out. So I and another student had to share books. In Independence, they would have had a copy for everyone. Many students today in inner city schools run into this problem or even worse. The City and the community need to support the schools. I think in order for us to thrive and succeed more as a country, we need to help the future generation get it together and get a better start.

When I say that the community needs to support the inner city schools, I mean they have to stand behind the schools and guide them. Give them the best that they can have out of everything. Have fundraisers to but new supplies, just little things that can help them or encourage them to do what it takes to finish school. Try to set good examples, and set up activities in school so that the students would have a better chance at not getting tempted to join a gang. Inner city schools always lose their students to the streets or just dropping out because they don’t want to do it anymore.

The city also cuts many of the financial money that the school needs to do in school and out of school activities. The reason for that is because the students are not doing well on their test scores. I believe the reason for this is that teachers as well as students are not putting enough effort to actually learn.

The suburban schools also don’t really deal with the violence that the inner city schools deal with. The student’s from the inner city school also get influence by their surroundings. Many gangs and just drugs that they always been around. The suburban schools don’t really have to deal with that. They’re surrounded by a safe community and people who really care about the students education. The inner city schools don’t really have that kind of support. The inner city schools need the support so they can have at least a chance to succeed in life.