“In short, physics has traditionally been a discipline that reinforces the “second-class status” of low-income and minority youth in schools.(Basu 2007)”

In theory, education is supposed to provide at least comparable opportunities to all students, but each week we read a text about how that isn’t true at all. The education system seems like it’s built to do the opposite, in fact. Last week we read about how some students, whose test scores don’t measure up, are placed in classes where they’re discouraged from thinking critically, and making their own decisions.

This week’s reading discusses how physics, a natural science requirement for most STEM fields, is rarely taught to students who do not meet certain, unofficial qualifications. These qualifications, which restrict physics courses to high scoring math students, aren’t necessary; students with lower test scores can take less intensive physics classes and/or build up to/from them. In actuality, these qualifications bar large numbers of low-income minority students from being exposed to physics material in a classroom setting. In this way, schools, through limiting education opportunities, turn themselves into a determinant of social class in our society that reinforces the status quo. If a low-income school doesn’t even offer physics because that school’s test scores are too low, how likely are any students from that school to become engineers, even if they wanted to. To that effect, low-income students are being denied the opportunities that other students receive, which in turn limits their social mobility. This is a shame – schools shouldn’t disempower disadvantaged “low-ses” students by denying them opportunities, they should can and should do the opposite.