Thursday, April 30, 2009

relates to kozol

I have two story that i felt relate to Kozol's article about poor getting poorer and rich get richer. The first one was just the other day i heard a song that basically says what Kozol is saying. The song is called ABCs by K'naan and the chorus lyrics go like this

"They don't teach us the ABCs
We play on the hard concrete
All we got is life on the streets
All we got is life on the streets"

This song points out Kozol's argument that we need to do something or the vicious cycle will continue.

The other story was on my last day going to tutoring when i got to the school i found a homeless looking man passed out drunk on the school front steps and i had to step over him to get into the building. This just pointed out how poor the area was i was tutoring in. I felt like it could be dangerous because the students were playing outside only a couple of feet from the passed out man. A teacher told me that that was the second time the man passed out on the steps in the last two weeks. This was surprising to me because i come from an area that is probably more middle class and never saw something like that before.

Diversity Event

The event that I went to for my diversity event was "Relay for Life." At the event there was a great turn out and a lot of students were involved. Sign ups cost fifteen dollar and all the money was going to cancer charity. This rate off the bat reminded me of Kahne & Westheimer's article called "In the Service of What?" By paying the sign up charge, my money was going to charity and charity is one of the two broad ways of framing a service learning experience. Charity is more of a donation and giving to to the community or a certain group, in this case cancer research. The other service learning is by change. I felt that I also experience change at this event because we listened to speakers at the event, who told there stories and after wards we had some silent walks around the track to reflect on everything. They turned of the lights and lined up bags around the track and everyone walked around and placed a glow stick in the bags. On the bags were names of people who died from cancer and as we walked around the track silently we reflected and these experience had a deep impact on me.

This event i feel also related to Dennis Carlson because the event was diverse with people from different cultures and races involved, males and females, etc. It seemed to me that a lot of people were represented and included marginalized students to make them feel "normalized." For example, there was a live band playing and they were playing all different types of music including rock, some Bob Marley, dance music, ect. so everyone had enjoyment. Overall the diversity event i went to, "relay for life" had a deep impact on me and seemed like everyone had a lot of fun.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Clip from sandlot that shows sexism



I the clip Hamilton says an insult "You play ball like a girl" and it is made to be the worst insult given.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Talking Point #10 (Johnson)

In this last chapter of Johnson's article or book he is arguing and talking about ways that we can change the patterns of exclusion, rejection, privilege, harassment, discrimination, and violence that exist everywhere in our society. We have to break the silences and talk out about privilege, oppression, and inequalities. If we want change we need to acknowledge that the trouble exists, pay attention, and do something (it only has to be something of little risk).

1. "Very often those with privilege do not know it, which is a key aspect of privilege."

This quote is saying that most people who have privilege not even realize it. If we stop being silent and talk more about the privileges than most likely people of privilege will start seeing their privilege and this is like the first step to changing this problem in our society.

2. "But there is less attention to the millions of people who know inequities exist and want to be part of the solution. Their silence and invisibility allow the trouble to continue."

This quote is saying their are many people that know privilege and oppression exist but they do not do anything about it. Instead they just stay silent and fail to talk about the problem we have in the society and this allows the troubles to continue.

3. "It isn't just a collection of wounds inflicted long ago that now need to be healed. The wounding goes on as I write these words and as you read them, and unless people work to change the system that promotes it, personal healing itself cannot be the answer. Healing wounds is no more a solution to the oppression that causes the wounding than military hospitals are a solution to war. Healing is a necessary process, but it is not enough."

In this quote Johnson is talking about how privilege and oppression is not a thing of the past but is still happening to day and needs to be dealt with. Also it says that this can not be done only on a personal and individual level, but it also need to be done with the society and community level also. The individual level is a step but not the solution. The analogy reminds me of Kozol's analogy about small bandages over a big wound or broken bone.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Talking Point #9 (Kliewer)

I believe that Kliewer is arguing that students with disabilities or students who are said to need "special education" should not be separated from the other students who do not have disabilities. By separating these students people are taught that students with disability are of lesser value to the society compared to the rest of the student body. Instead we need to teach that all students are of equal value to the society and their words should be heard and respected, this includes the disabled students. This can be done by intergarating all students, and this will also create a sense of community and will prepare students to form relationships with a varity of people.

1. "Community requires a willingness to see people as they are -- different perhaps in their minds and bodies, but not different in their spirits or in their willingness and ability to contribute to the mosiac of society. It requires the 'helper' to have the humility to listen for what the person says he or she needs. Also, the 'helper' mus see that the interaction helps both ways."

This quote is saying that people might look different and learn different but everyone is trying, willing, and can contribute to the society in many ways. That is why Kliewer is argueing that everyone needs to be respected and everyone is equally important to our society in a varity of ways. With classrooms that have both students with disabilities and students that do not have disabilities, it will create a community where every student has a special part and contribute and this will only prepare students for their future.

2. "How absurd to be judged by others at all, especially by those who have never experienced a disability or who are unwillingly providing us with support or who don't listen to the voices we have."

This quote is by Judith A. Snow and I liked this quote because it is saying that no one has the right to judge someone with a disability, especially if them themselves never expericenced being disabiled in any way. It is also saying that we need to listen and respect people with disabilities views and words.

3. "democracy can only occur when no person's voice is deterministically silenced."

This quote is short and sweet and it is saying that everyone, no matter your gender, race, sexual preferance, or ability, needs to be heard. This quote reminds me of Johnson who talks about talking about issues and not be silent. We need to talk about issues of priviledge and listen and do something about it.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Talking Point #8 (Anyon)

In this article by Jean Anyon, he argues that schools prepare students based on their social class. Through a study see did of fifth grade classes of different economic background or social class, Anyon concluded that these schools were preparing their students for a certain step on the social ladder. The working class students were being prepared to grow up to also have blue collar jobs and the executive elite school students were being prepared to have white collar jobs like lawyers and doctors.

1. "knowledge and skills leading to social power and regard are made available to the advantaged social groups but are withheld from the working classes to whom a more "practical" curriculum is offered."

This quote is pretty much stating what Jean Anyon is argueing in this article. Their is a hidden curriculum in schools which teaches lower class student to have lower expectations and only preparing them to have blue collar jobs by focusing on mainly following directions. While the higher class schools are teaching the kids to have more critical thinking to solve problems and this will help them to get a better education and a white collar job.

2. "One teacher explained to me, "Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use.""

This short quote from the text points out that the teachers at the lower or working class schools do not expect that their student will be anything special or get a good paying job, so she is only going to teach them the basics of language arts, while higher class schools are emphasizing the importance of know the complex language of English.

3. Talking about the teacher in the Affluent Professional School "She does not give direct orders unless she is angry because the children have been too noisy."

This quote reminds me of another article we read early this year by Delpit going over the "rules and codes of power". Delpit says that student that are black and lower class need to be taught using direct orders because they do not know the codes of power. This teacher does not teach using direct orders because she teaches in a upper class school where probably all the students already know the codes of power, but this teaching style would at the lower or working class school because the students would not understand.

Talking Point #7 (Orienstein)

In this article Peggy Orienstein argues that there is a hidden curriculum that is being taught by schools. Schools have been teaching not only math and science, but also about social roles and norms. Most classrooms that you go into mostly have pictures and posters of male figures and very rarely do you see females represented. In this article Orientstein talks about a teacher, Mrs. Logan's class, were see does the opposite in her classroom. In Judy Logan's classroom there are all posters and pictures of great female figures. This gives the girls in the class someone to look up to and also points out to the students how other classes focus many on male gender and that is not fair.

1. "This is a classroom that's gone through the gender looking glass. It is the mirror opposite
of most classrooms that girls will enter, which are adorned with masculine role models; with male heroes, with books by and about men-- classrooms in which the female self is, at best, an afterthought."

I liked this quote because I myself have never thought about the classroom as having a hidden curriculum, but after reading this article I relieve that most of the classrooms that I have been in growing up all have pretty much decorated the class with male role models, with posters, picuters, book authors and books about men. By doing this they are teaching about social roles and norms and they are forgetting to talk and teach about female works. This quote make a good analogy saying that boys are looking at mirrors in the classroom and females are looking through windows. Judy Logan does the opposite in her class allowing women to look at mirrors and men to look through the window probably first their first time.

2. "Women are one-half of the world's people; they do two-thirds of the world's work; they earn one-tenth of the world's income; they own one one-hundredth of the world's property."

This quote which was early on in the article states that women do most of the work in the world but they still recieve very litttle income and dont own that much property. This is becuase of how people are thought to look at women. Males and females are taught through a hidden curriculum that men are better or superior than women.

3. "When boys feel like they're being forced to admire a women they try to pick one that they think behaves sort of like a man. Thats what they can best relate too."

This quote I feel relates a lot to my first quote about mirrors and windows. The boys are use to looking at a mirror and admiring a masculine man but when they are forced to admire a women they are not use to looking through a window so they find a window that is most a mirror by admiring a female who behaves more like a man.

This article reminds me of the Carlson article we have read earlier in the year. In carlson, classrooms are ignoring the gay population and in Orienstein's article, females are being ignored and Orienstein says we need to make the school curriculum include women and be male bias.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Talking Point #6 (Lawrence)

I feel Lawrence is arguing that the Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated schools back in 1954, was not really a success if we look closely at it. The case might of started a spark that ignited all the boy-cotts, sit-ins, and marches after the case decision but one can not be to certain. He says that the case only focused and dealt with the effect of school segregation, but did not recognize the purpose of segregation as a whole, which is to designate blacks as inferior in the society.

1. "It is the thesis of this paper that the Brown decision fostered a way of thinking about segregation that has allowed both the judiciary adn society at large to deny the reality of race in America, that the recognition of that reality is critical to the framing of any meaningful remedy-judicial or political- and that Brown may ultimately be labeled a success only insofar as we are able to make it stand for what it should have stood for in 1954." I got this quote pretty much rate from the beginning of Lawrence's article and he comes rate out and states the reason for this article and states what he argues. I felt by him coming rate out and telling the reader what his thesis, made it easier to follow along and understand.

2. "In short, segregation American-style, like South African apartheid, has only one purpose: to create and maintain a permanent lower class or subcaste defined as race." This quote or sentence from the article got my interest because I had a class that went over in depth about South African apartheid and this allowed me to compare segregation to something else.

3. "Once established it will not be eliminated by mere removal of public sanction but must be affirmatively destroyed." I got this quote from the section of the article that went over the three underlying characteristics of segregation. This pointed out that by the Brown case just merely eliminating segregation at schools was not enough. It was only a step, but a lot more need to be done to improve the society.

I was only able to read the first couple of pages of this article because I have had a lot of other work to do, but from what I read it has caught a good bit of my interest and can not wait until I have time to finish reading the rest of the article.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Talking Point #5 (Kahne/ Westheimer)

the authors of this article, Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer, seem to be arguing that service learning is a good way for people who are involved, to help others and change themselves and the community around them. It also seems that they argue that there still can be way to improve service learning experience. The authors say that one way for service learning is by "civic duty" and voluntaring in communities and another way is through knowledge of issues which will in the long run create "change".

1. "Mr. Johnson explained, students would interact with those less fortunate than themselves and would experience the excitement and joy of learning while using the community as a classroom."

Mr. Johnson's way of teaching and doing service learning is through civic duty, voluntay work, and giving. The authors explain that this is one way to do service learning but this way neglects the students fro having an in depth look at why these problems are happening and how one can start making change.

2. Mr. Adams seventh grade "examined the social, economic, legal, and polictical determnants of homelessness around the world and in the local school community."

On the other hand Mr. Adams's way of teaching and doing service learning is through giving his studnets systematic and critical analysis of the causes of homelessness and strategies on how to prevent it but this way neglects the charity aspect of it.

3. "more attention has been focused on moving forward than on asking where we are headed" "controversial issues surrounding the means and ends of service learning have been pushed to the background"

We have to ask ourselves what do we went to get from service learning and what is the proper way of get the most out of service learning. I believe that we need to get both knowledge on the issue and also get experience with volunteering and civic duties dealing with the issue we are looking at in class.

I found this to be a pretty easy read and was somewhat interesting the hear about the different types of service learning. I feel that we are doing a good job in class with getting some knowleged about issues we talk about and also get good voluntary experiences with the VIPS program.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Talking Point #4 (Christensen)

In Christensen's article "Unlearning the Myths That Blind Us", she argues that children's cartoons and shows and media are "secret education" that teaches kids what society thinks as acceptable and unacceptable. They teach kids stereotypes about different genders, race, and class that are not true. In this article Christensen explains what she does with her class to help here students to critique what they see and help them to act on what they see in cartoons to make change.

1."depicts all Arabs with the same face, same turban, same body and they are all thieves swinging enormous swords." This is from a Popeye cartoon and this is pointing out how this cartoon stereotypes Arabs.

2."Both of the Cinderellas compete for their men against their sisters and the rest of the single women in their cities. They "win" because of their beauty and their fashionable attire." This quote is talking about the story of Cinderella and teaches little girls that watch or hear this story that if they want to win they need to be beautiful and compete and fight against all other women, including their sisters, to get a guy.

3."Many who watched cartoons before we start our study say they can no longer enjoy them. Now instead of seeing a bunch of ducks in clothes, they see the racism, sexism, and violence that swim under the surface of the stories." This is what a lot of Christensen's students are saying after taking her class. It is hard for them to realize that cartoons is a "secret education" before taking the class, but after they can know critique and take action to start changing this "secret education."

Monday, February 23, 2009

Talking Point #3 (Dennis Carlson)

Dennis Carlson argues the same thing that Johnson and McIntosh argues kind of. Carlson says that schools and communities do not talk about "gayness" and try to keep it in silence and have hidden practices. He says that we should talk, recognize and have dialogue about cultural diversity and now a days in our schools and communities that is slowly starting to happen.

1." I want to suggest that public schools may play an important role in helping build a new democratic, multicultural community, one in which sexual identity...is recognized, in which inequities are challenged, and where dialogue across difference replaces silencing and invisibility practices." This reminds me of Johnson and talks about how we have to talk about the silent thing if we want to improve and fix them.

2."Within normalizing communities, some individuals and subject positions get privileged and represented as "normal" while other individuals and subject positions are disempowered and represented as deviant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence and in other ways "abnormal." Carlson says that this what the views have been like for most of this century and i feel that this is an important thing to point out and we need to change this view because everybody is different from one another but that does not make it right to view them as being sick or criminal.

3."Three techniques of normalization and (hence) marginalization have been of promary importancein this regard: (1) the erasure of gayness in the cirriculum, (2) the "closeting" and "witch hunting" of gay teachers, and (3) verbal and physical intimidation of gay teachers and students." These are the ways that Carlson says that school communities have kept "normalization" and i feel that it is important to first know the ways that schools have been silenceing gayness and then work to fix and change it.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Talking Point #2 (Rodriquez, "Aria")

I feel that Richard Rodriquez is saying that it is important for students that don't speak English as their first language, should be taught as soon as possible to be able to communicate in English or the language of the culture of power. But also Rodriquez says that the students should still learn to appreciate and recognize their native language. Some of this article reminded me of Lisa Delpits argument about culture of power. Rodriquez says that a student should learn the language of the culture in power if they want to succeed, but also they should not forget their native language.

1. "What I needed to learn in school was that I had the right and the obligation to speak the public language of los gringos." Here Rodriquez is talking about if he wanted to succeed then he was going to have to learn to speak the public language or the culture of power language of English.

2. "it would of pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom...But I would have delayed...having to learn the language of public society." Rodriquez is talking about how he would of felt more comfortable if his teachers would have spoken Spanish to him, but this would have not prepared him for the real world.

3. "while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilate into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality." This is saying by learning the public society language to make achievements possible, one is losing some of there individuality and this should not happen, I feel they should still recognize their culture.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Talking Point #1 (McIntosh/Muwakkil

In the articles that McIntosh and Muwakkil write, they argue that there are unearned privileges and power that white people and males have. The article talks about how most of the people who are privileged do not like to recognize it and are taught to be oblivious to it.

Some quotes and statistics that interested me from the articles were "white applicants with prison records were still more likely to be hired than black men without them." This was surprising to me and shows that there is still a good bit of racial biases in the united states. A quote I liked was "White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks." This quote from McIntosh's article helped me look at her argument a different way and understand it better

I liked how in McIntosh's article she gave us a list of ways that showed white privileges. This also helped me to follow her argument a little better. I felt that this weeks read was much easier to follow compared to Delpit's article because in these articles it got rate to the point and gave good examples. I think that both of these articles are with Johnson's argument because they say there is privileges that are ignored and not realized by some and Johnson would say that we should talk about these privileges and powers