Part 3- George Ghattas

 After reading part III of the book, my group and I discussed how the fight for equal access to education, particularly for marginalized groups, has become central to the conversation about public schooling. After reading part III I began to think about these historical issues that still mostly happen today. For example, the debate over standardized testing and its role in perpetuating inequalities is one that continues to shape educational policy. The book helped me understand that education, while often seen as a means of social mobility, has often been used as a tool to maintain existing power structures. The tension between education as a tool for individual empowerment and as a mechanism for social control was something that I had not fully appreciated before. Reflecting on the readings, I found myself thinking about the role of teachers and professionalization of teaching. The book highlighted how the teaching profession, particularly in the early 20th century, was often undervalued and underpaid. The rise of the teaching profession as a recognized field of expertise, with formal training and standards, was an important shift, but it also highlighted how education has been impacted by gender, race, and class dynamics. The professionalization of teaching was in many ways, a response to the growing complexity of education, but also served to reinforce existing hierarchies within the system. What my group and I mainly discussed was how everyone in school was being treated unequally and all this was due to either skin color, home income, or sometimes even gender. During our group project we showed a photo of how the school back then was and how they segregated individual students with income on one side and students without income on the other side. I thought to myself how would the students make friends if everyone sees each individual differently. A quote I found in part III was “We cannot make friends, we will be isolated and discriminated against.” After reading this quote it showed me how difficult everything would be if children would be segregated from each other. It also revealed how education is not just about what is taught in the classroom but is deeply embedded in larger social and political struggles. It also made me reflect on the ways in which historical struggles continue to shape and educational experiences of students today. 

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