Brown, Mary Daniels. "Education World: Curriculum : Meeting the Educational Needs of Migrant Students." Education World The Educator's Best Friend. 24 May 2001. Web. 6 Feb. 2011. http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr347.shtml.
This article published by Education World focuses on the San Jose School (La Escuela de San Jose). Sister Gaye Moorhead was the director of the school as well as the Mercy Migrant Educational Ministry. Moorhead comments on the educational struggles migrant children face in the United State while many times working full time in the fields. Moorhead breaks down these struggles into four main components; Mobility, Language barriers,Poverty, and Self-Confidence/ Self-Esteem. Each of these struggles are specifically unique to migrant children who travel from farm to farm throughout the school year working to harvest crops. San Jose School addresses one of the most evident challenges, as not having a curriculum that is universal between schools when children relocate. To combat this the San Jose School moves between Ohio and Florida with their students. This provides a structure that wouldn't otherwise be available. The next challenge Moorhead addressed was the barrier between native Spanish speaking children and English instruction. San Jose School uses an all English curriculum to advance students to speaking English. This is coupled with small class sizes and one on one Spanish directions to students. Poverty and Self-Esteem and confidence work hand in hand as Moorhead points out. Many children come from low income families. These students also lack many of the same physical accessories that other students may have. The observation of these differences and lack of possession can create the largest challenge that students may face coming from migrant families. Michele Schroeck, San Jose's educational coordinator, stated that San Jose School “gives children the confidence and support they need to try and to learn.” However due to lack of funding and support of a traveling staff, San Jose's last scholastic year was in 2002.
Brown draws on some very key aspects in the development and environment that migrant students face. The focus on San Jose School, which is a pivotal step in the educational progress for the migrant community, points the educational community as a whole to start focusing on why there is a deficiency in the education of migrant children. While the dropout rate of farm and migrant workers continues to stay around 45 percent, there has been little done to make a lasting difference in improve the conditions in which these students learn. There have been small movements in the educational community such as San Jose School, to implement new methods of teaching migrant students. Because the daily lives of these children vary so greatly from a typical adolescence, Moorhead decided not to adapt migrant students to traditional schools but to create a new school specifically for migrant children. The creation of a “Migrant school” has had great results in helping students become proficient in their studies. “Academically, about 66 to 75 percent of our students end up on grade level in reading and math,”(Schroeck). This is a great improvement over national levels which are around 50 percent according to Schroek. This improvement is one that should not be overlooked by educators worldwide. Moorhead has proven this system to be successful and shown results in working with the first mobile schools.
My last post touched very closely to this article. I have looked for any examples of new and innovating migrant education pedagogies. This is the first example that I believe takes an approach that moves away from the traditional frame work of schools. With so many students in America, however still a great minority, who come from migrant families for there not to be more programs that model San Jose School's amazes me. San Jose became successful enough to establish federal funding, yet small enough to loose local funding and support from their communities. This program created a very heavy labor and financial hardship on the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, who alone established and administered the network of schools. They tried many attempts to continue this program, even creating a national advertising campaign to find staff for their school, yet failed to proceed. These programs I believe fall under all existing federal mandates for aid in migrant education. However there is an obvious lack of motivation from the professional side of education to take on the challenges laid out by Moorhead. For there not to be a significant group of educators available to staff a single school dedicated to this demographic of students seems very discouraging to me as a student of education was well as someone who still sees this country as a land of freedom and opportunity.
Continuing to look into the educational process and environment that migrant children face I'm puzzled to know whether this is a legitimate problem that American Educators feel the need to address, or whether it is another “minority” issue to be swept under the table of politics and budgeting. Too many times legislatures and policies focus on the bottom line, and cut programs that only benefit a few faceless groups. As the number of Spanish speaking families who ultimately make the United States their home increases, it is only a matter of time before this silent group speaks their opinion of an out dated system. There is a growing number of adults now, who grew up in migrant families, that are working to improve their communities and give back to the families that live in the same circumstances they grew up in. Is this the only source, along with a minimal number of educators, who actively purse the advancement of Migrant Education? Many times it seems that the general public may associate migrant workers with illegal immigrants, this misconception may be one factor that is currently hindering the advancement of migrant education. With the current economical environment in conjunction fiscal cuts across the board in education many educational professional may see this faction in education as a threat to their own funding. Rooted deep in American Education, one of the main goals is to assimilate or “Americanize” our youth to better serve in a democratic nation. John Dewey may have best illustrated these ideas in his book The Child and the Curriculum which focuses not only on the content that is learned but the action and involvement of learning new concepts.
Hi Joshua:
ReplyDeleteI'm responding to both of your posts, along with your in-class freewrite, here. First off, I appreciate the richness both of the sources you found and your writing in response to them. By looking closely at the challenges migrant populations face as they pursue an education, you're bumping against the complex political and cultural factors that contribute to these challenges. I say this, especially , because you're beginning to wonder about "why there currently are not more preventative education programs for migrant workers and similar student demographics." As you continue to move forward, you'll probably need to focus on narrowing your field of inquiry in order to keep it manageable. But for now, just keep it up!