Reflection on The Book Savage Inequalities

According to the book, Irl Solomon’s history class is described as the highlight of the school. The teacher, Mr. Solomon, who has been teaching in urban school for the past 30 years, mentioned that his original goal was to studied law but after a short a mouth of time he came to realize that law school is not for him and decided to be a teacher instead. His class was filled with four girls who are pregnant or have just recently gave birth. It seemed that those girls decided to have babies at that very young age and do not plan to have a higher education because have no hope for their future. The author explained that the diploma they will get from ghetto high school is not valuable in the States.

Jennifer, the student at the school in Rye, New York area, claimed that her family was originally form Bronx. She mentioned that the school in Bronx & East St. Louis area are very bad, she described them as “hell” and that was one of the reasons her family moved to Rye. Jennifer believes that someone else can not really do anything to help the people in that area to get a better life and education, it must be coming from them, it must be them that want it for themselves and take action. Jennifer agreed that everyone should have a chance to have equal education, however, she does not agree that a help from government or text money will change the life and education of the people in Bronx & East St. Louis area. She thinks that her parents should not be paying text to help support the poor areas because it’s not their responsibility.

East St. Louis is an urban the community that was full of poverty and the majority of the people in that area are blacks. The city did not have the enough money to do anything, they can’t even afford the toilet paper, there were a lot of trash piled up everywhere on the street and side walk, no money to repair the sewage pipes and caused it to explode everywhere in the city. The school in East St. Louis area did not at all have a proper help or funding to support the schools, they are facing a lot of problem such as shortage of staff, shortage of school supplies and it would be closed most of the time when the school is filled with sewage. It was the worst environment for children to be around. In contrast, at the school in Rye, New York area, the majority of the students are white and have money, so the school have a good funding from parents. In this area the schools were able to provide the students the supplies and good, relax educational environment they need.

In the past 20 years, I believe that there are some changes in educational system. It was decades ago that student who have less money mean they have less chance in having good education. Now, in this present time, students who don’t have money can still a good education. The schools now are able to offer some help by providing financial aid, books, transportation or even student loans for students who need it.