Rachel's School

George J. West Elementary School is a large school filled with a diverse population in a seemingly low-income area.  When arriving to the school one of the first things you will notice is that it is an old three-story brick building with bars on the windows. There are roads in both the front of the building and the back. There is a grassy area across the street from the school but no area on school ground [on their side of the road] for the children to play. The only playing area they have is on pavement. However even this area is crowded, leaving little room for the young children to run around and let out some energy.

There are signs on the front doors, one in English and one in Spanish. For every English poster there is one in Spanish. This instantly tells the visitor that they will be walking into a diverse area. The secretaries speak a language other than English until they see the visitor and switch to something they assume the person can understand. The principal is a white woman. Her assistant is also a white, English speaking female. This is an interesting factor in the schools environment because the other teachers’ are Latino.

            Most of the students I have seen in this school are African American, Latino, Native American, Chinese or Portuguese.  There is only one white girl in my class. The other students speak multiple languages. You can see it on their face, and hear it in their names. They also speak with slight accents, something they picked up from home, by speaking another language or because their parents taught them how to speak and they pronounce the words like their parents. 

All in all George J. West is a diverse school affected by poverty, the code of power and language barriers.