Destined to Fail :: Free Essays Onlinevv

Destined to Fail Imagine having to wake up every morning and going to a broken down old building for seven hours a day. In the building you complete the same tasks which are easier in other buildings five minutes away, but since yours is poor it is difficult to, if at all, complete these tasks. The outlook is so bleak that it almost seems as if you are destined to fail. For children in Camden, New Jersey this is school. Students in Camden are faced with an obvious, appalling educational disadvantage when viewed against suburban schools, such as in Cherry Hill which are only five minutes away. The crux of the problem with the Camden public schools is the impoverished state in which it is forced to educate its children. The main cause for the destitution in the Camden public schools is the serious lack of funds for educational materials including those for school facilities. The schools are in such dire straits that most do not have the necessary materials with which to teach. Students at times do not even have their own textbooks and science labs lack the necessary equipment to teach lessons properly. If a student is lucky enough to receive a textbook it is either outdated, falling apart, or at the incorrect level of learning. In one Camden school, eleventh grade history class is taught from an eighth grade history text, (Kozol 152). This unfortunate condition applies not only to school supplies but also to the school itself. School facilities are in a state of trouble, many are falling apart or have serious problems which inhibit learning. In one of the Camden high schools, the malfunctioning heating system not only makes the building extremely hot all year round, but also melted approximately forty of the fifty computers in a lab, (Kozol 149). Is this the proper environment for education? Would you want to go to a school like this? Disadvantages such as these do not provide a proper atmosphere or environment conducive to learning. They also add a number of components to the problem of the lack of funds and increase the students' feeling that they are destined to fail. The lack of proper educational materials prevents students from learning. Since it prevents students from passing state mandated tests which control funding, they have to spend approximately eight months of the school year, usually in high school, preparing for these exams.