Bridging the Racial Divide in American Education: Victor Rios Call for Inclusivity

Abstract

Education in Perspective: Victor Rios Introduction Education is the key to many doors in life. For this reason, it is the responsibility of any government to ensure that its educational institutions offer quality education to all learners without any discrimination. America, for instance, is a developed country whose economy remains vested in advancing technology. To this effect, all Americans deserve access to quality education that will equip such learners with knowledge, skills and core values to become productive and successful citizens in the demanding economy. Unfortunately, racism is not news within America in all odds of life. Skin tone, in most cases, defines privileges that match and do not match such a color. Unfortunately, education is among the primary sectors negatively impacted by racism. Victor Rios's Ted Talk "help for kids the Education System Ignores" offers clear insights on what needs to be done to change the education system embraced in America to accommodate all learners regardless of race or color. Rios speaks on behalf of all American learners arguing education is a human right entitled to all if America wishes to ensure productive generations in the long run. Victor Rios advocates for an education system that expresses inclusion for all learners regardless of race, social status or gender. Rios argues that a productive education system must view and treat learners who experience social exclusion, stigma or poverty as its primary asset rather than ignoring such learners. Unfortunately, the current state of affairs, as expressed by the operating American education system, is contrary to the authors' arguments (Rios, 2015). The American education system proves a challenge to access primarily based on the issue of race (Chapter 16, 2022). Race is a serious determinant of the type of education most Americans acquire, with the people of color suffering a huge blow (Garcia, 2011). White is a color that comes with enormous privileges attributed to the white supremacy exercised and experienced in America. Access to education and quality education is much easier for the whites compared to people of color who, in most instances, lack chances to other privileges like good job opportunities limiting their ability to access finances that proves essential in highly charging education institutions in America (Garcia, 2011). To this effect, Rios advocates for the need for an education system that considers all to ensure that all Americans get access to quality education which will prove a potential key to other success doors in such learners' lives. Rios emphasizes the need to see the socially excluded learners as empty vessels that deserve to become filled with knowledge by their educators (Rios, 2015). Teachers should stop associating learners’ behaviors with their background as doing so widens the gap between the student and the education urge (Chapter 16, 2022). In the Ted Talk, the author narrates how one of his teachers played a significant role in enhancing his educational success regardless of the deviant behavior that led Rios to prison three times in his 15 years of age. The teacher did not concentrate so much on Rios's weaknesses but instead spotted the strengths within this learner and nurtured them to ensure successful graduation for Rios. Arguing from his achievement regardless of what many teachers would have seen as a threat to the other learners, Rio insists on the need for Americans to embrace an education system that nurtures strengths within students rather than concentrating so much on the deviant behavior that most students express attributed to poverty, social exclusion or stigmas that prove personal to such students. An education system that offers solutions to the noted problems among students proves a potential key to equality in education acquisition among American learners. Rios argues that, though a student expressed violent behaviors, Ms Russ paid little attention to such inequities...