Supplies Matter

Schools by now should be able to accommodate different styles of learning after all the extensive research we have done on the matter and tests we have created on so many different ways people learn. To teach the future of our country we need the know-how tools to do so. We can’t even administer a test to find out how the children learn without papers and pencils if not a computer. You can’t teach children if you can’t find out how to do so. If all men are created equal we need to give them equal opportunities by providing different learning styles with the tools they need. These tools are more than a chalkboard and chalk. For instance, musical learners may need musical instruments, speakers for musical activities, and so on. Logical learners, who think in terms of mathematics and numbers, need calculators and measuring instruments, and so on. Every human being as different needs. We don’t just get thrown on the assembly line that is our educational system and all march off, uniform, into whatever occupation needs to be done. Reading words or lessons out of text books works for some but for others it goes in one ear and out the other and they don’t comprehend it until class time, where teachers are expected to help them actually encode the information. Conditioning occurs by different means from person to person. It’s time we respect and apply that to education in order to reform what is accomplished in valuable class time.
     In the past we have always used the bare minimum of supplies in schools. Schools can’t function without at least tables, chairs, and a roof let alone materials you run out of such as pencils and paper. Every public school, private school, charter school, magnet school and home school needs more than just a facility and a staff to foster learning. For example, in a science class at any accredited school you need labs to show how a concept can be applied to the world outside a textbook. Without experiments we can’t prove the theories that we teach. A child can’t be expected to understand the properties of displacement if they can’t experience it themselves because not every child is an auditory learner. Visual learners might need to see water being poured to and from various sizes of glasses. Some kinesthetic learners may need to pour the water themselves. For the schools in Savage Inequalities this wasn’t an option because their schools couldn’t afford beakers or petri dishes. The children in the book used cut-up soda bottles the teacher had fashioned into make-shift science equipment to attempt an experiment that couldn’t be successfully carried out due to lack of legitimate science equipment. What sets those children in the book apart from their peers at more wealthy schools is material worth. Money and supplies are what truly makes the difference, not their ability to learn or some perceived level of promise to the world. It’s a shame that it’s money and material worth separating capable, willing yet underprivileged children from a good education.
     In addition, supplies matter because some students need tangible tools for comprehending concepts that words and teachers alone cannot explain. Books, laboratory materials, pencils and paper, art supplies, and sports equipment are all necessary for English, Science, Math, Art, and Physical education because humans need “props” as part of the academic Discourse to demonstrate that what they’re doing is applicable to the world and empirical. There is an insatiable need for these kinds of supplies at schools because all of these supplies get used up and worn out. Some schools are barely getting enough funding to keep up with bathroom tissue let alone the luxuries of safety and security and lastly, classroom supplies. This constant need for materials in schools isn’t met and in turn students are suffering.
     Society has an obligation to prolong itself in the future by creating productive, hard-working citizens. Some children don’t believe they have it in themselves to do so and they turn to the streets for some type of direction and acceptance. In the book Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol, the streets are often safer than the schoolground. The children in Chicago are being flooded out of their schools by sewage that the city can’t afford to maintain while children just across the street are attending lavish, plentifully staffed magnet schools with selective admission. The children on both sides of this spectrum are born just as capable as one another but through rough circumstances and partisan legislation children in public schools get the short end of the stick. The children in these schools are meant to be kept from this “victim-thinking” the adults speak of that makes them pity themselves and “undermine their capability” (Kozol 57). The adults are afraid that their children will have to come to terms with reality but there’s no blinding them from the world around them; they all know what their options are. Reality to them is the transition over a period of years from “faith and optimism” to “the game’s already over” mentalities. That’s what comes of close to 60% of students in Chicago that drop out. Their unbounded dreams turn to consolations such as drugs and gangs which then set solid limits on their career opportunities and dreams. They’re in turn bound fast to the streets, whether it be by drug addiction or gang affiliation or a criminal record. Victim mentality gives way to street discourse and it’s not likely to change if they’re so submersed in it throughout their lives.     What sets the academic progress of these schools apart from private schools is lack of funding, and more specifically, lack of materials. The children must have resources or they’ll reach a point where they can’t advance any further. Children need not only supplies but confidence to reach their potential. Famous scientists wouldn’t have been able to make the progress we have as the human race without not only executing experiments that require supplies, but using an attitude driven by motivation and ambition. In an instance in another city children were using soda bottles that had been cut into makeshift petri dishes to do an experiment. They were instructed to observe the water’s reaction to a drop on its surface and explain the repercussions but due to lack of proper supplies the experiment cannot be executed and the children missed out on another opportunity. It’s truly embarrassing to America that we would allow the future of the country lie in plastic bottles and sewage. Not one parent in America should want their kids to have no choice but to attend a school without seats on their toilets. The more wealthy families indulge in the funding provided by their property taxes while the poor suffer, many without any property to their name. At some schools the children are expected to bring their own toilet paper. The principal can’t be proud to announce that to parents. A principal with no pride for the school gives off an ambiance that others can detect that he doesn’t care for the school. This attitude rubs off on students and the dropout rates climb.
     Children are the future of technology, innovation, design, invention, and the world. We need to give them the tools they need to make the best of it. These tools are both psychological and material. Without instilling confidence in students we’re depriving them of more than school supplies. Students who realize that they have to strive much harder than students born into better circumstances sometimes don’t believe they have what it takes to maneuver through the educational system and prevail because of many reasons. They may truly not have what it takes if we don’t provide them of both the determination and school supplies they need. We deprive students of the most basic needs and they have no choice in the matter. It’s difficult to make the best of the situation because that requires much more effort than it does to give up on school. America is supposed to be “the place of opportunity” says Chilly, a young Cambodian girl (Kozol 156). She was disappointed to find that her teacher was instructing her to pick easy, low-paying jobs. This sends the message to the student that she’s limited as to her career choices and future careers and that she’s not worthy or capable of a job requiring extensive training and education.
     Supplies can make or break a school. With so many different electives and classes to supply the first thought to some is to cut classes. We must choose which supplies and knowledge our kids can live without. Children are forced to surrender their favorite classes to make way for ones that call for more time and attention. Children have so many different interests that some suffer while others thrive. Some children such as Francisco in the movie “Waiting for Superman” have specialized interests that can’t be facilitated in by a traditional school. Francisco wants to be a “recorder”, which to him means a cinematographer. In the best circumstances he could attend a private school that can afford a film program. In decent circumstances he could attend public a school with a small learning community that specializes in cinematography and film. These SLCs (Small Learning Communities) invest their money in whatever their particular division of education mandates. Instead of spending money on medical supplies, as a healthcare-targeted SLC would, they can spend that same funding on an enriched, film-based curriculum. It seems the solution would be to send your child to a magnet school that focuses on their intended major but in some neighborhoods magnet schools are not an option. There isn’t sufficient funds to pay enough teachers to split children into small learning communities. It’s difficult to attract great teachers in these communities because they can’t offer very high salaries and the result is overly crowded schools with high student to teacher ratios that can’t afford to give each child the supplies they need and the attention they deserve.     Supplies are absolutely necessary for an education because even if a student has a bad teacher, they can still learn the material with enough determination. Amidst the world of problems within public education, resilient student make the best of it and pull through successfully. Students aren’t the problem with education. It’s apparent that the problem is in lack of money and supplies. Some people’s definition of a bad teacher is one that solely reads from the textbook and assigns workbook activities. It seems almost everyone has had a teacher of this nature. For me it was an 11th grade Spanish class in which the teacher would sit in the corner of the room on the phone as fights were erupting throughout the class. It was my health teacher my 2nd year in college that lectured for hours, prohibiting the “distracting interruption” of students’ questions. Neither of these teachers cared enough to interact with students but students from both classes managed to get an “A”. We can’t eradicate bad teachers, especially with the existing teachers’ union contract, so we must conquer what we can and that is lack of supplies.
     Supplies are tools that can indicate the overall quality of the school. Schools that are well-funded tend to achieve more because they can afford not only more educated, experienced and capable teachers but the necessary tools for them to use. Walking into a classroom out of the book Savage Inequalities, you can guess by your surroundings how well the school performs as a whole. More privileged private schools have colorful classrooms with extravagant decorations and supplies and small class sizes. Juxtapose one of the poorly-funded public schools in the area and the classrooms resemble prison cells. What sets these schools apart is supplies. To reform education we need to provide each child with equal supplies and opportunities. Do we really believe that other children deserve more than others because of circumstances they have no control over? If schools don’t have adequate materials to teach children the most fundamental lessons they need to learn they will be left without the drive for advancement. If they realize they’re limited, which will happen eventually, they will lose the drive to pursue anything further. If the future is left in the hands of unmotivated citizens we’re not headed very far. The solution isn’t always clear because you can’t so easily change what the rich have fought so persistently to preserve. What is clear is that lack of supplies and funds is what sets private and 1st tier schools apart. Funding should be distributed by number of pupils per school and teacher, not by whose residence is worth more. The poor can’t afford to be taxed any more for their schools because they have other worries like toxic waste and crumbling houses with rotting pipes. The rich should be taxed proportionately and the money apportioned equally or we will perpetuate the vicious cycle that is the educational system today.