Ecological Environments: Is Learning Seen As Such?

The definition of ecological is the science of relationships between organisms and there environments according to the free dictionary.com. In summary of this definition, and in the context of the reading, we can say that it is the study of how minorities and immigrant students learn in an environment (ie:school). While reading this article, I discovered that a lot of the imformation presented in the study echoed what many of us, especially if you are a minority or from an immigrant family, felt while we we in the 'middle childhood' stages of life. I can remember times when if I did not have a strong sense of self which I gained from my parents and from having a stable childhood with support from many adults, I would have become overwhelmed with the amount of racism and inequality that I experienced.

For example, I did not realize that often our school was at a huge disadvantage when it can to the type of equipment and programs that were offered as compared to more affluent, majority white schools. I knew we were not inferior and could not learn, but it seemed to be the view that was supported by the mainstream. Because of the location that the school was in, because it was geared toward mostly black students, our school did not get the funding that other schools did (test score probably had a lot to do with this) and therefore our school was not able to afford new equipment or money for new textbooks and such. While I do think that we had a high standard for the teachers that were employed at the school, a recent visit back seems to show that the standards for the teachers have become lower.

Of course this may not be the norm. There are always more factors that go into a matter other than what you are able to see just by looking directly at an issue. I would like to think that the way a child develops has nothing to do with the type of environments that they grow up in. We all have the potential to do all things. But, I know that this is not the case. I know because I have seen classmates give into the stereotypes of the society around them. I have seen people and continue to see people surrender to the pressures of the media, the mainstream way of thought etc. This type of disparity however, is definitely something we as a people need to address.