Education Both Maya Angelou and Term Paper

What school integration and political correctness have accomplished pales in comparison to the continued harm inflicted on students through class-based educational tracking. Moreover, Angelou in particular points out that some schools in America are inherently underprivileged. The Lafayette County Training School "distinguished itself by having neither lawns or hedges, nor tennis court, nor climbing ivy," (17). The all-Black school was in disrepair, its students cut off from the sources of power and prestige conferred on the white schools. Told that their school would not receive improved academic facilities but new pavement for the athletic courts, the students at Lafayette were not offered any other options.

Educational tracking doesn't just affect curricular content, it also affects who young people socialize with. Who children socialize with in class become their friends outside of school, where youth learn social cues and make connections with other members of the community who may reflect the same barriers and boundaries that schools do. A student placed in a vocational track will associate with similarly-labeled students, and together they reinforce the collective belief in inadequacy or inferiority. Similarly, students place in advanced or "elite" tracking would socialize with similarly-tracked kids and develop mutually supportive social ties. Had I not been labeled as "smart" I would have likely done what I was told and submitted to whatever courses the teachers declared my capable of. Overcoming boundaries and barriers to education like Angelou and Rose did is no easy task; they are our role models.

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