Growing up in a very socially diverse community, I was introduced from a young age to

an array of cultures, religions, races, and ethnicities. Interestingly though, I still found that social
categories and identities played a huge role on the population of my schools while I was growing
up. From cliques to after school study groups, social identity divided and united students in such
a juxtaposing yet intertwining way. Throughout this week’s reading, I was introduced to 2 sides
of a story I had lived through as a child: the right and the left’s constant battle over social issues
and how they affect not only the community, but more pointedly, the school system and
education itself. The question of whether social categories are overstated in certain groups is a
difficult one to answer without bias, and my own upbringing plays a massive factor in the way I
answer this question. I believe that while yes, some of the studies discussed do exaggerate their
points and overstate facts, most of them are correct in their deductions. There is a massive
educational impact of social categories on the educational experiences of certain groups, races,
creeds, nationalities, etc.
It would be nearly impossible to discuss whether every social category on the colour
wheel was overstated in education or not, so this argument instead focuses narrowly one on one
social category: race. This discussion was heavily influenced by one of our readings, “The
Canary in the Mine”, which is used to help reinforce and even refute against my own point. This
article does a great job in providing a looking glass through which to see and understand multiple
points of view on the sensitive issue of race in education, in this case specifically white vs. black,
viewed through a liberal lens and a conservative one. Firstly, this article makes no bold or
exaggerated claims about social categories in education; instead, it chooses to make a moderate
and substantiated point: “the educational achievement gap is not an artifact. It is real and has
serious social, economic, and political consequences. Its roots lie in complex and historically
rooted ethnic relationships and characteristics. But the situation is by no means hopeless. We
can be encouraged by very promising experiments that have narrowed this gap. But we have to
start looking at the problem in new and deep ways, and we must avoid the temptation to seek
simplistic one-shot solutions if we are going to make any real headway.” (Singham, 1998, p. 15)
Singham realizes that there are massive social education disparities, stating facts that “the
average black SAT score was 956…while the average for white students was 1198” (p. 10) but
then by offering solutions, such as stereotype threat research on academic performance.
Through the readings, you can deduce that through the social identity of race, which I
think goes hand-in-hand with socio-economic class, students bring themselves down by
comparing themselves to other races and class statuses. Black people are afraid white people
will do better. White people are afraid Asians will outsmart them. White people are afraid black
people will beat them in sports. These stigmas and racist beliefs are still ever-relevant in today’s
classrooms, and charge the way other students view each other and themselves. “[W]hen black
students and white ones were given tests that they were told measured their academic abilities,
black students did worse than whites. But when a control group…[was] given the same test but
were told that the test did not have any significance…the difference in performance
disappeared.” (p. 12)
I don’t think any of these readings exaggerated the effect of social categories on student’s
education. I believe that culture exacerbates social identity, and culture is everything to children.
Therefore, students are more prone to feeling these social comparisons, and even making them
themselves. Especially in the America of today, where nationality and religion are the forefront
of political discussion, you can bet that children are emulating and propagating ideas found in
media, gathered from their parent’s discussions, and inferred through their social class and
category. Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter: our children are so
impressionable and that culture clash is rippled down through to our public-school systems and
effects the way we teach, what we teach and how we teach.

Singham, M. (1998, September 1). The Canary in the Mine: The Achievement Gap
between Black and White Students. Phi Delta Kappan.