Poor Donny? No, poor personnel!

Quote:
"Donny's failure to learn was not considered worthy of attention, and Jenny's inability to get herself was intimately related to this fact. Jenny wasn't taken seriously as a rightfully concerned mother because it is a deeply held belief, or stereotype, of the middle class that poor urban Appalachians are unfit as parents (Starnes, 1990)."

Response:
My response to this quote is probably going to be rather unexpected being that I am going into my student teaching next semester; however, here's my heart and soul. This quote truly sums up, one major reason why I will not pursure a career as a teacher. These "deeply help belief(s)" that manipulate a child's learning process are ridiculous to me and heartbreaking! I am not going to sit here and claim to be perfect (because I am not!), however, in the little bit that I have been in the schools, whether it be for clinical hours or for my coaching job, I have seen entirely too much of this manipulating already!
For example, I was in a school just last year where special treatment was given to a little girl  because her dad was a part of the WVU Basketball staff. This little girl was praised by the teachers around her and she was excused from doing a writing assignment (two days before the writing assessment) because there was a close WVU game on and one of the teachers had pulled her into her classroom to watch the end of it.
This example, I realize may seem minor. However, the next week I was working witht his little girl on a different writing assignment and she struggled tremendously in both spelling and grammar. In this case, a little girl who needed extra help, was, in at least one instance, denied the help because of "who she was" (or rather who her father was!). This little girl's need for attention in writing was set aside to glorify her for something that she didn't even do.
Also, in this same classroom, there was a child who was very intelligent but who had some social issues. It broke my heart everyday to walk into the classroom because the room was set up in three groups of six people. The only person not in a group was this little girl. I asked the teacher in the classroom why she was excluded from the groups and the teachers response was, "She doesn't like being around people. Her mom is a single mother and she doesn't really care much for her so the little girl has some issues working with people." More than the teacher telling me that, the teacher also didn't require the little girl to do any of her work. Literally, I watched this beautiful (although, poverished) child sit in the corner of the room with her knees up against her chest, head buried in her arms, nearly all day. One activity that I did with the children required them to find the rest of their group by the fraction piece that they had, and the little girl wasn't moving. So I went up to her and I said, "There are six people in your group that are looking for you right now." I'll never forget how she responded, "No one is looking for me. No one wants me in their group. I am invisible to the rest of the kids in this class just like I am to the teacher and my parents." This little girl literally thought she was invisible. I, taken back, said, "No dear. You are a part of that group and they can't do the work until they find everyone in their group. You are an important factor in this game we are playing and I, and your group NEED  you to participate." At first, she said, "Nobody needs me!" Then a little boy in the class called her name and said do you have the other 1/6th piece because we need it and you to complete our whole circle. Yep, and that's all it took. This was a humbling learning experience, but also, heartbreaking to me that only one conversation with this child was needed to make her feel important. And because I wouldn't back down. This little girl wasn't worth of the attention because her mom didn't care about her. To me, that makes her more worth of the attention she needs.
I feel as if the education system is set up for failure for children and I hate it. This article basically explained all my reasonings for not being a teacher. Although I think I could do a good job, I don't think I could sit and watch other children failing simply because of who they are.

Related media:
This article talks about how stereotypes not only affect students directly, at immediate times but also how it affects them as humans later on down the road.

References:
Negative stereotypes shown to affect learning, not just performance. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/07/28/negative-stereotypes-shown-to-affect-learning-not-just-performance 
Purcell-Gates, V. (n.d.). "as soon as she opened her mouth" .