Stereotypes In Education

Education is a system that allows those to receive information that will help you gain knowledge on developing new skills, techniques, and self-growth which usually takes place in schools. In early education, students are taught to do things to the best of their ability. However, how can a student do so if equity in education does not exist? Being that equity in education does not exist, some students are being negatively stereotyped due to race.

Specifically in education, “stereotyped individuals” begin to mentally internalize these inquiries that society has forced upon them and begin to “perform below their potential.” These students are being evaluated by society and academia based on race determining their chances of success in education.

Incidentally, some of these stereotypes are based on race. To further explain, African Americans are opted from educational success because of the negative stereotypes that they face as children. At a young age, African American students are being taught that their work will be unsatisfactory in school. For instance, Ronald Takaki states in his book, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, “Stereotypes of blacks as children were linked to notions of black intellectual inferiority (Takaki, 100).” Before African-American students enter schooling, they are being reassured that they are inferior to White students. By learning and understanding some of these stereotypes, African American students do not perform to the best of their ability through “practice so that future failure reflects less on their ability.” These students are preparing themselves for failure because the educational system has already prepared it for them. Regretfully, African American students are expected to fail instead of excel because of the stereotypes that they are being told, therefore proving them right by not executing in education to the best of their ability. When students of color start to internalize these ideals they begin to believe them. For instance, “Rowley, Kurtz-Costes, Mistry, and Feagans (2007) found that middle schoolers of all races were more likely than fourth graders

In many cases, some students are first exposed to race in education. For instance, in many schools that are placed in a diverse community, schools educators are not of the same race as the students, which can be a model of what race is superior to others. This is where race plays a huge role in education because students are being taught about the world in one races’ perspective. When educators ignore these facts that race is non-existent in schools, it blocks students from the truth. For instance, “schools that reward white students” usually “penalize minority students” which starts to create an environment “where students’ of color feel marginalized and excluded.” This can create the idea that educators are purposely leaving minority students out of praise and only praising the work of students their race. This can confirm for some students that education has a color line for both educators and students that are being praised. As a result, in early education students are being exposed to race learning the dominant race in society and