Back tracking through education history uncovers numerous failed attempts to create positive spaces for
specific student populations.
Today, as in the past, space seems more often created for negative rather than positive experiences. These disturbing existing conditions reinforce the idea that deficit areas in education must change drastically in order for
nurturing educational environments to flourish rather than flounder. As
suggested by James Allen, students’ minds may be likened to a garden, which
needs to be intellectually cultivated or allowed to run wild. He also notes
that whether this metaphorical garden is cultivated or neglected by its
gardeners or in this case, teachers, it must and will bring forth. Therefore, useful seeds must be planted
into students or we will all reap what we sow and an abundance of weed-seeds
will fall therein, continuing to produce a form of renegade misguided
vegetation posing as students. Essentially, what society and academia choose to
feed into students will eventually become the buds of either positive or
negative “floweration”. Students will then deliver what was given to them and
if we cannot put anything productive in, we will not receive the rewards of a
successful harvest. It is important to
remember that children very often live up to the expectations placed on them
and we will not see equal achievement in our schools, in the workplace, and in
American society until we expect the same level of accomplishment from all
students offering them the same opportunities to learn as well (Chideya, 1995).
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