The Privilege of Education
By Aidan Guilfoyle For most, school is a daily part of life something that is constant; for others it's something from a dream–a luxury. I grew up knowing I would be in school for the foreseeable future. I was sure I would go to college, earn a degree, and then start my life. It never dawned on me that this was not how everyone thought. For some, college was something that was a fact, for others it was a dream and goal, and for a large group of people that is far too big. It is something far more that what they dream. Like most students in the United States I dreaded waking up every morning to go to school, I hated the fact that I would have to spend seven hours sitting in a class only to spend the rest of my day doing homework. I thought school was something to be hated something useless and unnecessary. I always thought everyone in the world who wants to go to college would go. That cost was not ever going to make that impossible. Then I started to hear students paying for their own college, how they were in debt 10 years after they graduated. I learned about children not being able to pay for school and children who had to help their family to survive. Instead of studying a textbook, they studied the way the crops grew. The way the copper shined in a pile of trash, they learned how much a soda can could be sold. This made me realize education is a privilege. Going to school every day to learn so that I can build a future for myself. But I also learned that every person who didn’t have the same opportunities as me is still my equal and just because someone doesn't have the opportunity to go to a good school and isn't at the top of their class that doesn’t mean they aren’t human. By the end of this project I hope to have a collection of macro photography of eyes and the reflection of their lives at the moment to show to everyone that they are all equal. I would like to mostly focus on private and public schools in the san diego and Tijuana area. And I would like to understand the difference between the two and what stereotypes true or not have an impact in their community. I would like to interview teachers and students to understand their thoughts on education and what stereotypes they have on people who ether can afford a higher education like private schooling and how others think of people who work or teach at private schools. This topic is very new to me because I have no experience in private schools or any schools in TJ but because I grew up knowing family that went to private schools. I had never thought about stereotypes on our side of the border. So I have been very excited to learn about this new topic that affects everyone's life – if they realize it or not. The book into the beautiful north inspired me to learn about education because very early on in the book the main character talked about how she still wore her high school uniform because she could not afored more clothing. And that sparked the Idea for my recherch topic because even tho she could not afored to buy new clothing she still found the money to go to a private school. For my sources I interviewed teachers and students to understand what their thoughts are about education. I asked them What their thought are on private/public schools. If they feel they are being prepared/ preparing students for the future? what they wish other schools would take from theres? Is there anything they wish they could change about their school? If they have any stereotypes about public/private schools? I had a lot of trouble finding resources because my original plan was to start by interviewing my partners in Tijuana. But because of scheduling difficulties I only was able to talk to them once and was not able to interview them or ask them any questions I had about their experience in education in their school. I noticed that for most of the people I interviewed there seemed to be a lot of favoring in there style of schooling, for example the private school teachers and students thought that public schools were wild and reckless while the public school students and teachers thought that the private schools where pointless and just full of upper class children. From the students I have talked to there seems to be a lot of stereotypes about students in public education in TJ and students in private schools In San Diego. In TJ public schools are perceived as unorganized and the teachers there are thought of as lazy and that they are only there for their paycheck. And the students are thought of as wild end reckless and don't take their education seriously. In the US Private schools are thought of as privileged and full of students who are only there because they have parents who are willing to pay, the students are perceived to not care for others that are not in their tax bracket. Private schools, in the eyes of the students I interviewed, are seen as an unnecessary luxury that would not likely have an impact on their lives other that a fancier graduation. Because my topic of interest was equality in education I chose to have my papel picado show a scale and how some things are weighed more than others. For example your gpa and test scores in traditional schools are more important than truly understanding what you have learned. I have had experiences with stencil making in the past so I used that knowledge and skill set to help me with my papel picado, because I knew that you cannot have too much negative space that is not connected. I chose to incorporate a wall into my design to add stability and have another layer of meaning to my work. However, because I chose such a complex design with many small lines it was very easy to rip the paper or cut too far and make it unable to hold its shape. And after many hours of refining my design, I received critique from an artist who visited our class and then created my final design. Our partners visited us from TJ. Because I only met my partner once before over skype we did not know much about each other. So in the beginning we stared to find we had some of the same interest, and we talked about how we both played soccer. And we talked about the differences between your schools. For most of the day we were just trying to get to know each other and we walked around the High Tech schools and gave a tour of our own school. Because our partners visited on a wednesday we had advisory so my partner came with me to my advisory. I learned that they did not have anything like advisory at Iman and we talked about what we do and why our school gives us the time each week to have this in our schedule. ,Laura. Personal interview. November 16, 2017 , Monica. Personal interview. November 16, 2017 Padmanabham, Prasanna. Personal Interview. November 29, 2017 Prall, Aidan. Personal Interview. November 13, 2017 Sanchez, Vichy. Personal Interview. November 5, 2017 |