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Alverno Blog
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March 12, 2008
Welcome to the New Alverno 20/20 Challenge
An Overview of our findings.
Rose Radford, 12th Grade
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Alverno is an all-girls school, so the students here are especially aware of the influence of that particular element of the school environment on the educational experience. There are obvious differences between co-ed and unisex education: an altogether mellower classroom ambience, an attitude of caring and nurturing that is not so common in a co-ed setting, the relaxation of inhibitions that results from not having members of the opposite sex around, and a more firmly established sense of identity apart from those others. These are all observable results of a unisex education.
High school dropouts—kids who discontinue their schooling at the high school level—are not so much an influence of education, but perhaps—dare I say it!—a result. Not so much a result of the educational system, although that plays a role in it, as a result of the entire fabric of our society and our attitude toward learning and education. As with most things, high school dropouts can’t be considered independent of their place in the larger picture, and of course it would be virtually impossible to outline the entire system here. Suffice to say, a solution to this problem would have to involve more than just reform in the educational system.
A reality that many high school seniors are facing at this very moment is the price of a college education. Despite the well-intentioned efforts of some organizations, communities, and universities, it’s a sad fact that a college education at a prestigious college is very difficult for a student from a lower-income family to receive. In California, community colleges and state universities make higher education more available, which is excellent in a world where a good job and a middle-class salary is almost impossible to have without a college degree.
This ties into the final topic: Poverty and Education. It’s a sad fact that although being poor doesn’t mean that a student will not succeed, the statistics make it obvious that academic success much less likely in a poverty-level family than a rich family. This phenomenon would probably be easiest to address by narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, but that is more an economic and political problem than anything. It would be harder to determine how to actually address the problem; as in high school dropouts, it’s a much more broadly-based problem than can be adequately addressed in the classroom alone.
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