Blog Entry #5

In my service learning placement, I have seen the importance of the Brown vs. Board decision. Brown vs. Board was a court case that decided that there should be no segregation in schools. I have a student who is African-American in my service learning placement class. It is crazy to think that a little over 60 years ago, she would not be able to be in this class. I love walking around the school and seeing all of the different ethnicities that the students are. The coolest thing that I see in class regarding students of different ethnicities, is how none of the students care about it. They do not see each other by the color of their skin but rather by their personality and the way they act. This is in part caused by the fact that student of different ethnicities have the opportunity to interact in schools, unlike the past. The diversity helps the class to be able to grow and helps to teach the students about how to deal with differences.

I have also seen evidence of how the National Defence Education Act (NDEA) has affected classrooms. The reason that this act was originally put into place was that people were worried that the USSR has superior education to the United States, because of their advanced space technology. This caused Congress to put more money into education, specifically science. In my placement classroom, I get to be in the class for a little bit of science. I can see how much they are learning about technology and how much critical thinking skills they get to use. For example, one of the science rotations in their 6th grade is engineering. They get to design backpacks, see who can build something to keep an ice cream sandwich the coldest, build marble rollercoasters, etc. These activities help their brains to think in new ways. It also gives students an interest in science. The fact that these programs have funding is greatly improving children's interest in and knowledge of science.