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“Our Voices Matter! Students from Allentown, Emmaus and
Parkland School District speak their truths!”
Does your education matter to you, and do you feel it matters to the people
in charge of educating you, such as teachers, and school district
administrators, and etc.?
(min. 25:25)
- It doesn’t mater how they see us learning or how they feel about it.
- Our education matters just as much as the next white kid.
- I’m probably smarter than some of the people who go to . . .
- It shouldn’t matter where you come from, it shouldn’t matter what you bring to the table, because at the end of the day we’re all trying to be great. It shouldn’t matter where you come from.
- My education’s extremely important to me . . . I’m an immigrant . . .
- Black and brown kids are really overlooked in the education process.
- There’s only one black teacher, and that’s really a problem. It’s really hard to connect when they don’t have experiences like you.
- The school board doesn’t really try to cater to the POC community at . . .
- I feel our voices really should still be heard, and our needs should be accommodated.
- I really don’t think we are being seen and considered.
- My education did not matter to them.
- There was always a level of disconnect between People of Color and teachers.
- You look at us a thugs, you look at us as criminals, you look at us a bums, you look at us as dumb, you look at us as if we’re not smart, you look down upon us.
- I’m supposed to think you care about me, I’m supposed to think you’re here for me.
- I’m not learning anything because you don’t care about me.
- We might not know how to put it into words, but we see the level of divide between student and teacher.
- We see how you look at us, we see how you treat us.
- Not every teacher, there’s good teachers.
- The school system is not set up for us, it’s set up for them.
- [gives credit to good teachers]
- I feel everybody should have an equal education . . . equal opportunity.
- I feel that the curriculum . . . is not equal.
- They get to do higher things [honor students], why shouldn’t everybody get that?
- Why make the other people go dumb?
- We see it . . . we talk about it all the time . . . how they categorize us.
- It’s almost like where you live is how you’re being taught.
- The kids on 4th St. will be taught differently than the kids on Randolph St.
- You’re categorized into those classes, and you can see that, and it’s so sad.
- I do feel like we’re not being taught right, that we’re not being cared about.
- I feel like we’re not understood, and I feel like we’re not equal.
- Why are they [People of Color guidance counselors] in those positions if their voices aren’t mattering.
- There are two people I know who will not say anything.
- We should have teachers who understand us, to come from us . . . community-wise . . . people who understand us and who won’t call us like animals, thugs, ghetto, trash, the underbottom.
- We need to be talked to like we are scholars, like we are something.
- They’re not treated like they are something, they are treated like they are nothing.
- Until they continue to treat us as if we’re nothing, then we’ll feel like we’re nothing and worthless.
- I just feel like the teacher won’t care . . .
- You don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors . . .
- . . . teachers too lazy to do their jobs, this isn’t a movie . . . I just need you to do what you’re paid to do.
- We need to fix this.