This sentence shows that the writer has actually been to many classrooms and seen really good teachers in all kinds of schools, even in places that outsiders usually think are “bad” or “not enough.” It kind of breaks the easy idea that good education only happens in rich or famous schools, and that poor schools equal poor teaching. It reminds me of how some people think community college or less “prestige” schools must be low quality, but then you meet one prof who change the whole way you think about a subject. My question is, who really has the right to call a school “substandard” if they never sit inside the classroom and watch what happens there?

Angelou is saying that for a Black person in this country, racism is not a surprise but something they expect from childhood, as common and close as the taste of salt in the mouth, and just like too much salt harms the body over time, constant racism quietly hurts people’s lives and health. This image shows how danger can hide inside what feels “normal,” and it makes me think about how I sometimes treat small comments on my accent or background as nothing, even when they sting a little. It pushes me to ask myself, at what point should I stop just swallowing these “salty” moments and start naming them as real harm?

Since no definition is written here, the first word or definition that came to my mind is something really negative because I thought it might be an educational form that pushes students to their limits by criticizing them most of the time. However, I think it does not make sense because the article says that there is an increasing trend of using such educational system. so I guess that it is a way to help student develop their critical thinking ability and critical analysis or judging something critically (since the article mentioned that it helps student too fight for educational Justice) I’m very interested to explore how this can be put into a classroom environment.

I totally agree with this. In high school, most of the kids are still very immature, and that they have to rely on other peoples judgment as a standard to judge himself. Therefore, choosing the right group to get along with would be very important, because you will use a better standard to judge yourself since you’re imitating them or seeing yourself in a mirrorI totally agree with this. In high school, most of the kids are still very immature, and that they have to rely on other peoples judgment as a standard to judge himself. Therefore, choosing the right group to get along with would be very important, because you will use a better standard to judge yourself since you’re imitating them or seeing yourself in a mirror

Personally speaking, I have never encounter very severe struggles since my school has a very good environment. However, I did hear a story from my dad. He grew up in an environment that is relatively poor. Once the school gets dismissed, he was blocked by a group of 4 high school kids, who tried to rob him. In order to save his money, he resisted them. But they got knives in their hands, and poked to my dad‘s back. Fortunately, it only left a scar instead of killing him. Therefore, I just want to say that school is very much a war zone, where people have to try their best to survive.

I totally agree with this. Many people started to discriminate others based on their environment for friends that they make with. Because of the fact that you are immersed in an environment with lots of hatred to another race, it is barely possible for you not to discriminate that same race. Also, children stepped into their youth, they might get in many different new things such as smoking or vaping, and they think that copying others behavior might make themselves look cool. And I guess copying other people to discriminate another group of people also makes certain people feel like it’s a cool behavior. Hence, the problem lies with how to hinder children from copying inappropriate behaviors at their youth. And my answer to that question is school should educate them in advance by telling them what is wrong and what is right.

Speaking of standardized test, it is definitely most of the Chinese students strength. However, I would like to share phenomenon I see in my high school. I attended the top tier international school back in China, so most of the kids are very smart and hard-working. Therefore, many of the students who are in our school achieved a 1550+ SAT standardized score. For those that usually perform academic excellence in school subject, people would not doubt the authenticity of their score. However, for those who did not perform that well on school subjects, but did perform very well on the standardized testing would be doubted. When I was in the bathroom, I heard people saying a person must have been cheated on SAT because she is not good at school subjects, and that Asians are prone to be cheating. The point I want to make here is that there are rumors saying Asians love cheating, but this is not true, because it depends on individual‘s values. When I hear people of my same race targeted at our own race and play around with the typical stereotype as a joke, I got very angry. This is the same case as for many Black people. I watched a movie regarding slavery, and a line in the movie that stand out the most to me is “ we as the blacks must stop using the N word ourselves before anyone else start to respect us”. This should applies to all different races of people in order to win other peoples respect