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Racism In Schools Essay

Decent Essays

Every day in Australian schools 1 in 5 students experience racism. There are so many words to describe how racism feels. Every student deals with this racism differently. Some may hide from other student’s and retract themselves from the classroom; others may fight back verbally or physically; maybe some will openly talk about how they feel. Across Australia there are thousands of students trying to learn and concentrate in a classroom. However how are these students reaching their full potential when they are exposed to racism and being told by others they are a worthless human being? (Patcher et al, 2010)

This essay will discuss the exposure of racism in society and the impact it has on children’s health, from both direct experiences …show more content…

This is common for children who are exposed to racism and these problems in turn severely affect their ability to learn. In addition racism can lead to behavioural problems including conduct disorder for children in the classroom, reacting aggressively, depression and even suicidal tendencies. These cognitive and behavioural problems for children ultimately affect student’s ability to develop and mature. As a result of this it can lead to poor health decisions down the track such as smoking, drinking, crime and involving themselves in risk-taking activities. (Gee et al, 2012)

Children exposed to direct and/or vicarious racism has been linked to poor child health, as well as development. Priest (et al. 2012) argues that racial discrimination is a key determinant in children’s development and health. She puts forward that arguably children and young people’s perspective on racism as well as their experiences and impact racism has on them, is given less attention in public debates about racism. Children are actually very vulnerable to the results of racism. Research has shown that racism does have a number of significant impacts on children’s physical, mental and emotional health. Not only this, racial discrimination effects children’s social and educational outcomes. However these implications don’t only effect their childhood, but the rest of their lives. Moreover, data was recently published from the University of

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