Thank you to Erica for taking the time to do an interview with Equal Opportunities for Students. She is an education major, intending to become a teacher, and did her interview for the Tell Your Story series.
As she said, teachers have a very large impact on their students. Students learn a lot more from their teachers than just subject matter. Teachers teach life lessons, practical skills, and values that often stay with students for the rest of their lives. Teachers also bring out the best in their students, and can inspire students to discover and follow their passions. However, the highest quality teachers are disproportionately placed in the highest quality schools. This means that students that go to schools in low income areas typically go to schools with not only less funding, but also teachers of lower quality. How could this issue be combated? Schools are also facing a problem with segregation. Schools today are more racially segregated than they had been in any time since the 1960’s. This also has a disproportionate effect on students of color, and leads to a cultural and racial divide, as it becomes increasingly more likely that students don’t interact with people from backgrounds other than their own. What would you do to solve this problem?