Form
The Ira Glass podcast has much higher quality sound than the homemade podcast. In the homemade podcast, the speakers seemed to be speaking into a microphone and just relaying facts without a personal tone to their words. Ira Glass speaks in a much more compassionate tone and appeals more to the listeners’ emotions. The Ira Glass podcast was also much easier to follow as the speakers did not speak as fast and there were not as many speakers. The background and transitional music in the Ira Glass podcast sounded more professional and blended in better than the music in the homemade podcast. Overall, the most noticeable difference in the two podcasts was the clarity of the sound in the Ira Glass podcast.
Content
Moving from an urban Akron elementary school to a suburban Copley-Fairlawn elementary school in third grade, Jada looks back on the experience with only positive memories. She was only in the Copley schools for two years before being kicked out when the school discovered she was falsifying her address in order to attend the Copley schools. According to Jada (2013), the Copley school she attended was “more educational.” The Copley-Fairlawn elementary school had a much better school building complete with a large library, computer labs, and a hiking trail for recess. Jada recalls the suburban school having many more resources and hands-on science activities as opposed to just textbook learning as she did in Akron.
In talking about moving back to the Akron public school system, Jada seemed very upset. She does not like how the other students there are disruptive and do not listen to the teachers. Jada just wants the same opportunities as the kids living in the Copley-Fairlawn school district, and she does not understand why she does not have the same chance at a good education as kids just like her only a few miles away.
Jada is just one of many students who are not granted the same opportunity as others for a quality education based solely on where they live. School funding comes primarily from local property taxes meaning neighborhoods with more expensive homes will have better funding for their public schools. One way to combat this funding issue in low-income neighborhoods is to change the allocation method for funding public schools. This could be changed so that the money is more centralized either within the county or even the state. This would provide more equal funding and hopefully keep low-income neighborhoods from having schools that fall behind their nearby wealthier counterparts.