Welcome

Dear Reader, 
Welcome to my blog. Here, the discussion of the educational gap between Affrican Americans and the white population will be discussed. In history, African Americans were segregated in schools and placed in separate institutions. Through the analysis of A Lesson Before Dying, readers can infer some of the factors that create an educational gap for Grant’s students. However, in this blog I will dig deeper into other factors that may influence this gap, presently and historically. The purpose here is to learn, analyze, and understand the education issue as it still presents itself and as it has presented itself in the past. 
The perspective on this issue that will be discussed is that this educational gap needs to be closed and the items contributing to the issue need to be discussed and changed. Because there is a lack of funding for African Americans  and a lack of African American school teachers today, the student achievement gap is widening. Even though segregation was deemed unconstitutional in the past, districts are still segregated today, but not by law. 
The primary text for this blog, as previously mentioned,  will be A Lesson Before Dying, which will provide the historical context through literature for the discussion on education. Low expectations were set for African Americans, leading them to believe their futures would be unsuccessful. In the novel, Grant’s higher education as a black man was judged and ridiculed: “You’re smart, Guidry said. Maybe you’re just a little too smart for your own good” (49). Men and women were not “supposed to be” this educated, according to societal expectations. Furthermore, the other contributing factor that created a gap in the novel was history in general. Grant’s school is housed on a former plantation, where the ancestors of his students could have been once enslaved. In a compelling scene taken from the movie, one of Grant’s students says he wants to go to Yugoslavia and Grant looks at him with doubt, knowing that that young boy may never be able to escape Bayonne, Louisiana. 
Historically and presently, there lies an issue in education. To conclude, this blog will analyze that issue and allow readers and the author, myself, to gain a better understanding of the United State’s education system and how history has the potential to never escape us in small ways. 



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