The
dysfunctional nature of how urban
schools teach students to relate to authority begins in kindergarten and continues through the primary grades.With young children, authoritarian, directive teaching that relies on simplistic external rewards still works to control students.But as children mature and grow in size they become more aware that the
school's coercive measures are not really hurtful (as compared to what they deal with outside of
school) and the directive, behavior modification methods practiced in primary grades lose their power to control.Indeed,
school authority becomes counterproductive.From upper elementary grades upward students know very well that it is beyond the power of
school authorities to inflict any real hurt.External controls do not teach students to want to learn; they teach the reverse.The net effect of this situation is that urban
schools teach
poverty students that relating to authority is a kind of game.And the deepest, most pervasive learnings that result from this game are that
school authority is toothless and out of touch with their lives.What
school authority represents to urban youth is «what they think they need to do to keep their
school running.»
These days, it has become totally acceptable for education leaders to blame
poverty for our nation's achievement gap; to in effect say that all those kids can't learn in
school because they're hungry, their families are
dysfunctional, they are so far behind when they start Kindergarten that there's just no catching up, etc..