In this section of the website, we will each reflect on how the process of making the ethnography, the information uncovered and the interviews conducted impacted our view of GAMP, of the community and of ourselves within those two contexts. Each of us will reflect on two questions, "So What?" and "Now What?"
In the "So What?" section, we will attempt to synthesize everything that we've learned and contextualize it within the context of larger conversations. In the "Now What?" section, we will turn to how these newfound understandings will impact us as educators and have interacted with, helped develop or complicated our emerging views of schools, our society and our selves.
In the "So What?" section, we will attempt to synthesize everything that we've learned and contextualize it within the context of larger conversations. In the "Now What?" section, we will turn to how these newfound understandings will impact us as educators and have interacted with, helped develop or complicated our emerging views of schools, our society and our selves.
Miriam
So What?
I was in charge of doing the research and presentation for the Society in School section of the page and the juxtaposition of the census data with the conversations that we had with various community members during our neighborhood walk fascinated me. In the census map, there was a consistent division between Tract 38 and the tract directly to its north. That tract was less white, less rich and less educated. In conversations with two different community members (one from the northern tract and one from the GAMP community) the latter tract was referred to as “ghetto” and was directly contrasted with the relative affluence (monetary and societal) of the tract in which GAMP is located.
A complicating factor between connecting the relationship between these two areas to the actual culture at GAMP is the fact that the school is a magnet that draws students from all over the city. The members of the school community praise it for its close knit nature and yet, because of the reality of being a magnet school, GAMP has to engage in artificial community building. One way that they arguably do this is through the ways in which the classrooms are set up. The middle school students are on the second floor and the high school students on the third. Within the third floor, every teacher has a specific room where they have each of their classes. This literal constructed geography gives the kids and teachers a common map, and could be construed as an example of micro actions taken to combat anonymity at the macro level.
I’m very intrigued by the ways in which various identity groups at GAMP overlap. Students all come from different areas in the city, 50.8% are considered economically disadvantaged, 46.6% are white, 25.6% black, 20% Asian, 4.5% Latino and 2.9% other, WHATEVER “other” means. Are there certain correlations between these groups? For example, are the kids who are white more or less likely to be considered economically disadvantaged than the kids who are black? How is that determined? What reasons could the school or the district have for not stating these overlaps? Finally, how do various instruments play into these relationships? One crude question is, are drummers more likely to be black and poor? Are harpists more likely white and rich? Obviously, these questions are overly derivative but musical instruments can be quite pricey and different sub cultures value different types of instruments. I think that my assuming those two correlations would pretty clearly be considered a microaggression, but I hope that by interrogating them and encouraging people to think about the correlations and about why they exist and whether they should exist could perhaps turn that border into a boundary.
A complicating factor between connecting the relationship between these two areas to the actual culture at GAMP is the fact that the school is a magnet that draws students from all over the city. The members of the school community praise it for its close knit nature and yet, because of the reality of being a magnet school, GAMP has to engage in artificial community building. One way that they arguably do this is through the ways in which the classrooms are set up. The middle school students are on the second floor and the high school students on the third. Within the third floor, every teacher has a specific room where they have each of their classes. This literal constructed geography gives the kids and teachers a common map, and could be construed as an example of micro actions taken to combat anonymity at the macro level.
I’m very intrigued by the ways in which various identity groups at GAMP overlap. Students all come from different areas in the city, 50.8% are considered economically disadvantaged, 46.6% are white, 25.6% black, 20% Asian, 4.5% Latino and 2.9% other, WHATEVER “other” means. Are there certain correlations between these groups? For example, are the kids who are white more or less likely to be considered economically disadvantaged than the kids who are black? How is that determined? What reasons could the school or the district have for not stating these overlaps? Finally, how do various instruments play into these relationships? One crude question is, are drummers more likely to be black and poor? Are harpists more likely white and rich? Obviously, these questions are overly derivative but musical instruments can be quite pricey and different sub cultures value different types of instruments. I think that my assuming those two correlations would pretty clearly be considered a microaggression, but I hope that by interrogating them and encouraging people to think about the correlations and about why they exist and whether they should exist could perhaps turn that border into a boundary.
Now What?
Now seems like a good time to talk about myself. I am white, from a fairly affluent family and a product of private school education (and I've been to the Grand Canyon!). In our opening assignment for this course, we were asked to write an educational autobiography and I wrote about my experience at the Miquon Day School, a progressive elementary school in Conshohocken. Additionally, many of the skills which I used in the research for this website I learned as an undergrad at Yale. My truly amazing, lucky and privileged educational background gave me both skills (to research and to think) and a very tailored framework. I looked at the production of maps over time because of a very specific course I took my junior year of college (“American Cultural Landscapes” with Dolores Hayden). This is the context that I am approaching this project, my school and my preconceived vision of the school. No matter how much I try to become objective in my formulation of the “So what” and “Now what” sections, these facts remain undeniably significant in shaping what I think and how I think.
With that said, in contextualizing the research I did on the internet about GAMP within the framework of the work that I did with High School students this summer at Mighty Writers’ SAT prep course, I was terrified by how dehumanizing the statistics about the school and the students are. These are people who don’t fit within very specific categories. This is more or less what I was circling in the “So What” section. Online, I researched student performance, race and SES; when we toured the school during our neighborhood walk, the students were represented by rows of desks in the room. These two combined in a dehumanizing and terrifying way. In both situations, I unconsciously switched to thinking of the students as statistics rather than as human beings. I’m sure that if I had seen the statistics for the Mighty Writers students (who are equally diverse in terms of performance, home location and life and SES) they would have been just as dehumanizing and intimidating. Those kids were delightful, but you wouldn’t have known it from such sterile statistics.
One situation where I saw the people who we interviewed on the neighborhood walk constructing borders and dehumanizing their (literal!) neighbors was in the differentiation between the tract that GAMP is located and the tract termed “ghetto” to its north. There’s a natural desire to simplify and make distinctions by the most obvious characteristics. I feel like I need to push against this and encourage others to do so as well. The bandying around of the term “ghetto” and the creation of the “ghetto” as an other (by two black community members) makes me stop and think. First of all, who am I to police their language choice or characterizations? Similarly, are they wrong? Should they change? What’s my place to facilitate that (or not!)? How can I (help) reframe a conversation in a way that celebrates diversity but focuses more on commonalities? How does this relate the conversation about borders and boundaries? Am I turning borders into boundaries or am I invalidating my students’ (and community members’) various subcultures?
This class has been really great in helping me specify what my questions are. I started out with really broad questions and a general idea that there was a lot wrong. Now I have so many more very specific questions. I know where my borders are and I know where my boundaries are. I’m in the process of figuring out how to turn my remaining borders into boundaries. I’ve always been good at asking questions, and this class has made me even better at it!
Finally, although this summer was really great in helping me learn about myself, I’m very ready to learn about and from my students. I know about as many of my borders and boundaries as I can in the abstract but I also know that there are unseen and unforeseen ones that I’ll only (hopefully) begin to discover when I meet my students and get to know them. GAMP seems like a great school with great students in a very interesting area. That said, I really won’t know how I fit in until it is populated and I am part of that population.
With that said, in contextualizing the research I did on the internet about GAMP within the framework of the work that I did with High School students this summer at Mighty Writers’ SAT prep course, I was terrified by how dehumanizing the statistics about the school and the students are. These are people who don’t fit within very specific categories. This is more or less what I was circling in the “So What” section. Online, I researched student performance, race and SES; when we toured the school during our neighborhood walk, the students were represented by rows of desks in the room. These two combined in a dehumanizing and terrifying way. In both situations, I unconsciously switched to thinking of the students as statistics rather than as human beings. I’m sure that if I had seen the statistics for the Mighty Writers students (who are equally diverse in terms of performance, home location and life and SES) they would have been just as dehumanizing and intimidating. Those kids were delightful, but you wouldn’t have known it from such sterile statistics.
One situation where I saw the people who we interviewed on the neighborhood walk constructing borders and dehumanizing their (literal!) neighbors was in the differentiation between the tract that GAMP is located and the tract termed “ghetto” to its north. There’s a natural desire to simplify and make distinctions by the most obvious characteristics. I feel like I need to push against this and encourage others to do so as well. The bandying around of the term “ghetto” and the creation of the “ghetto” as an other (by two black community members) makes me stop and think. First of all, who am I to police their language choice or characterizations? Similarly, are they wrong? Should they change? What’s my place to facilitate that (or not!)? How can I (help) reframe a conversation in a way that celebrates diversity but focuses more on commonalities? How does this relate the conversation about borders and boundaries? Am I turning borders into boundaries or am I invalidating my students’ (and community members’) various subcultures?
This class has been really great in helping me specify what my questions are. I started out with really broad questions and a general idea that there was a lot wrong. Now I have so many more very specific questions. I know where my borders are and I know where my boundaries are. I’m in the process of figuring out how to turn my remaining borders into boundaries. I’ve always been good at asking questions, and this class has made me even better at it!
Finally, although this summer was really great in helping me learn about myself, I’m very ready to learn about and from my students. I know about as many of my borders and boundaries as I can in the abstract but I also know that there are unseen and unforeseen ones that I’ll only (hopefully) begin to discover when I meet my students and get to know them. GAMP seems like a great school with great students in a very interesting area. That said, I really won’t know how I fit in until it is populated and I am part of that population.
Jodi
So What?
My contribution to this project allowed me to talk to different teachers at GAMP. They shared with me their insights into what life at GAMP is like for students. Overall, the picture they painted for me is wonderful. The students seem to get along well and bond through their shared love of music. I think being a member of this community will be very enlightening for us student teachers. Particularly, it will be very interesting to see how such a diverse population functions in and outside of the classroom. Aside from music, what else connects these students? Do they feel like a cohesive group, or are there more segregated communities within the larger population? Though uncommon, there have been issues of late between individuals of different races and sexual orientations. How will this impact the dynamic among students? What will teachers and administrators do to build on their efforts to unify the population? One teacher said that improving student relations across the races as well as among gender and sexuality lines was a priority, so I look forward to seeing how they work to achieve this goal.
As a magnet school, GAMP attracts students from around the city. This means that for some learners the trip to GAMP can be as long as an hour by public transportation. I wonder how this affects one’s perspective of the school. Are students who commute from further away generally more invested in music? Do communities form around neighborhoods, or do friend groups span different areas around the city? Will there be significant differences in ability based on a student’s neighborhood? I wonder whether the higher achieving students come from East of Girard and students exhibiting more difficulties come from areas further west. Does distance from the school impact the degree of student involvement with their peers or in extracurricular activities? Having
A very special component of GAMP is the value placed on music. I am curious to see just what this looks like across an entire school community. As someone who played instruments myself, I have seen what how a love of music influences groups on a micro scale, like in band, but I am curious about the population as a whole. My initial concern was that students would be less invested in math and science because of their musical inclination, but this assumption was unfair on my behalf. Should I try to incorporate musical themes into my biology curriculum? Does music take priority over other academic subjects? It will be a worthwhile challenge to consider how to reach a diverse group of students, particularly those with a yearning for creativity.
As a magnet school, GAMP attracts students from around the city. This means that for some learners the trip to GAMP can be as long as an hour by public transportation. I wonder how this affects one’s perspective of the school. Are students who commute from further away generally more invested in music? Do communities form around neighborhoods, or do friend groups span different areas around the city? Will there be significant differences in ability based on a student’s neighborhood? I wonder whether the higher achieving students come from East of Girard and students exhibiting more difficulties come from areas further west. Does distance from the school impact the degree of student involvement with their peers or in extracurricular activities? Having
A very special component of GAMP is the value placed on music. I am curious to see just what this looks like across an entire school community. As someone who played instruments myself, I have seen what how a love of music influences groups on a micro scale, like in band, but I am curious about the population as a whole. My initial concern was that students would be less invested in math and science because of their musical inclination, but this assumption was unfair on my behalf. Should I try to incorporate musical themes into my biology curriculum? Does music take priority over other academic subjects? It will be a worthwhile challenge to consider how to reach a diverse group of students, particularly those with a yearning for creativity.
Now What?
Having grown up in a predominantly white, upper middle class neighborhood, I walked around with goggles of ignorance. I didn’t realize I was wearing them, because most of my peers had them as well. Issues like racism and homophobia seemed like problems of the past because I had these shades over my eyes. Unless slapped in the face with injustice I rarely noticed it. I do not consciously support the prejudices, but I just didn’t know what to look for. Having spent the summer in School and Society, I feel fortunate that my goggles have come off. I still struggle with my ability to perceive slights, but at the very least, I am exceedingly more sensitive to those around me. All of the readings have challenged me to break through the glass over my eyes in order to see the world differently. The journey has been painful, yet invaluable. I feel more prepared than ever to step into GAMP, and believe I can handle most of what will be thrown my way.
I have become more aware of the issues that my future students may be struggling with. We discussed signs to look for that indicate an individual may need more support, and I believe I now will be able to recognize some of them. My experience in Upward Bound Math and Science this summer taught me that sometimes even the signs remain invisible. I met many incredible learners with vibrant personalities. They had a diverse array of interests and unique set of challenges that I did not know about until privately conversing with one of my students. She shared with me information, which I would have never known had we not sat down together. The time I have spent discussing issues like racism and poverty prepared me for my role at GAMP. My GAMPers will come from a variety of different cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Some will have more needs than others. Regardless, the onus is on me to listen carefully, observe, and be sensitive to the challenges they face. If I do not understand, I need to try harder. If I commit a microaggression, I need to apologize and learn from the experience. UBMS and SSS both taught me that there are a lot of things that we don’t know, and many we don’t understand. However, recognizing this is the first step to developing relationships with students.
Learning about GAMP has gotten me excited about what lies ahead for me. I think student teaching at GAMP will be a terrific experience. The faculty seems fantastic, and I cannot wait to learn from them. My challenges will be to help them deal with the fallout from last year’s incidents. Fostering an environment that is tolerant of individuals of all races and sexual orientations is not easy. However, every learner that walks through the door has the right to an excellent education in a safe environment. I look forward to being a part of the high school team as we try to teach students to become more accepting citizens. Another challenge I face will be teaching science to a population that is musically inclined. Traditionally individuals who like music prefer English to math and science. This will not be the case for everyone, but I will have to find a way to make the material engaging for all learners regardless of their initial interest level. The task of bringing biology to life will be tough, but I am up for the task. Lastly, my goal is to determine which students may be struggling with the material, and monitor their progress. Since the applicant pool has become slightly less competitive, I want to be conscious of learners who have difficulties. It is easy to unintentionally neglect individuals that need extra support, but my goal is to design plans that cater to the needs of all GAMPers.
I have become more aware of the issues that my future students may be struggling with. We discussed signs to look for that indicate an individual may need more support, and I believe I now will be able to recognize some of them. My experience in Upward Bound Math and Science this summer taught me that sometimes even the signs remain invisible. I met many incredible learners with vibrant personalities. They had a diverse array of interests and unique set of challenges that I did not know about until privately conversing with one of my students. She shared with me information, which I would have never known had we not sat down together. The time I have spent discussing issues like racism and poverty prepared me for my role at GAMP. My GAMPers will come from a variety of different cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Some will have more needs than others. Regardless, the onus is on me to listen carefully, observe, and be sensitive to the challenges they face. If I do not understand, I need to try harder. If I commit a microaggression, I need to apologize and learn from the experience. UBMS and SSS both taught me that there are a lot of things that we don’t know, and many we don’t understand. However, recognizing this is the first step to developing relationships with students.
Learning about GAMP has gotten me excited about what lies ahead for me. I think student teaching at GAMP will be a terrific experience. The faculty seems fantastic, and I cannot wait to learn from them. My challenges will be to help them deal with the fallout from last year’s incidents. Fostering an environment that is tolerant of individuals of all races and sexual orientations is not easy. However, every learner that walks through the door has the right to an excellent education in a safe environment. I look forward to being a part of the high school team as we try to teach students to become more accepting citizens. Another challenge I face will be teaching science to a population that is musically inclined. Traditionally individuals who like music prefer English to math and science. This will not be the case for everyone, but I will have to find a way to make the material engaging for all learners regardless of their initial interest level. The task of bringing biology to life will be tough, but I am up for the task. Lastly, my goal is to determine which students may be struggling with the material, and monitor their progress. Since the applicant pool has become slightly less competitive, I want to be conscious of learners who have difficulties. It is easy to unintentionally neglect individuals that need extra support, but my goal is to design plans that cater to the needs of all GAMPers.
Yelena
So What?
GAMP does not suffer from many of the ailments that plague other Philadelphia schools. It is relatively small (with just over 500 students) and a curriculum centered around a love of music and the performing arts. Consistently, GAMP has outperformed the district average in reading and math, and has higher SAT scores (on average) than most other Philadelphia public schools. GAMP students come from an array of backgrounds. 50.8% of them are considered economically disadvantaged and 59% receive free or reduced price lunch. As a magnet school, it draws students from all over Philadelphia. In meeting some of the school staff and talking with GAMP’s neighbors, I could see that GAMP is not only a school, it is a social community!
Now What?
As I begin my work at GAMP I hope to share my love for thinking deeply about things with the students I meet. This ethnography, the course readings, my fieldwork site, and personal educational history have expanded my knowledge of public education and provoked me to think more about my role in fostering a more equitable world. I believe that such a goal can be nourished in my classroom through the pursuit of knowledge.
As a student-teacher at GAMP, I strive to understand the affective and emotional effects of the macro and micro societal forces on my future students. I can help them interpret, make sense of, and reconceptualize the world around them and their relation to it. By creating a classroom culture that is collaborative and mutual (one where students are the center of the learning experience) and by supporting environments where student interests are interwoven with academics and civic issues (where students can ask critical questions and develop projects that help them find answers) I intend to contribute to the expansion of democracy.
As a student-teacher at GAMP, I strive to understand the affective and emotional effects of the macro and micro societal forces on my future students. I can help them interpret, make sense of, and reconceptualize the world around them and their relation to it. By creating a classroom culture that is collaborative and mutual (one where students are the center of the learning experience) and by supporting environments where student interests are interwoven with academics and civic issues (where students can ask critical questions and develop projects that help them find answers) I intend to contribute to the expansion of democracy.