Talking Points #10

"Empowering Education"
Ira Shor

1)"You must arouse children’s curiosity and make them think about school. For example, it's very important to begin the school year with a discussion of why we go to school? Why does the government force us to go to school? This would set a questioning tone and show the children that you trust them and that they are intelligent enough, at their own level, to investigate and come up with answers.” (Pg. 11)

I liked this quote because it talks about making children want to learn. Most kids feel forced into school and don't want to go on a daily basis. I also like the idea of trusting the children's intelligence. They are smarter than many people think so when you start the school year with a question, they feel like you believe in them.

2)"If the students' task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted." (Pg. 12)

Children want the opportunity to learn something new and they want the opportunity to question what they are learning. If they are not allowed to question their learning when they are young, how can they be expected to think critically in college? Kids get so excited when they learn something new that they can teach to their families and friends.

3)"In school and society, the lack of meaningful participation alienate workers, teachers, and students. This alienation lowers their productivity in class and on the job. I think of this, lowered productivity, a performancestrike, an unorganized mass refusal to perform well, an informal and unacknowledged strike." (Pg. 20)

I think that this quote shows just how important participation is in schools. The students will not participate if they do not feel engaged. If all students actively participated in all their classes, then they would learn and retain more information. They would also want to go to school if they feel engaged.

I thought that the article was very interesting. I like that he talks about the curiosity in not just kids, but everyone. If curiosity is encouraged then the children learn a lot more. If a kid is not curious about what they are learning, then they'll have no desire to look any further into the topic. My brother came home from school one day and he was so excited about his gladiator project he had for his history class. For the first time, he wanted to do the research and find out more about the topic. My brother hated school for the most part, but that class was enjoyable for him. The teacher had the class participate in the way the class progressed. He did not hand out a syllabus because he allowed the class to decide which way the class was going. He did have some loose guidelines, but the class worked together to learn. I think that Shor would agree with his style.

Service Learning Story

I went to my school like usual on the Friday before Thanksgiving and the first thing the teacher asked me to do was to write down my address and leave it on her desk. I did and I was curious why she wanted it. However, when I asked about it, she wouldn't tell me anything. I went about the day helping the kids with reading and their vocabulary work books. All day I kept trying to think of the reason for writing down my address. I'm the kind of person who needs to know everything that's going to happen. I'm not a huge fan of surprises. I left for the day and went home. I forgot about Friday in all of the end of the semester craziness, but I was reminded when a package came to my door on Wednesday. It didn't have a return name on it and the address was not the address from the school so I didn't recognize it. I opened the package and inside were all paper turkeys and horns of plenty. Some of them were origami and others were colored pictures. Also inside was a card with Thanksgiving wishes from my class. I was so touched by it. It hit me that I'm really making a difference with these kids and I love it. Just thought that I would share that story with everybody. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

Talking Points #9

Christopher Kliewer
"Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome"

1) "Community acceptance requires opportunity for individual participation in the group, but opportunity cannot exist outside community acceptance." Pg. 75

I thought this quote was interesting because I think that it is totally true. In order to be accepted one has to contribute something to the group, but one cannot contribute anything to the group if one does not feel accepted. I like that it is talking about the reciprocity of community and acceptance. It's a two way street.

2) "The presence of a thoughtful mind has been linked to patterns of behavioral and communicative conformity associated with competence in logical-mathematical thinking and linguistic skills." Pg. 79

I think that this is a very narrow description of an intelligent mind. I think that many people can be thoughtful without having great math or language skills. A student may not be able to express their thoughts in writing or math, but they may be able to do so in art or music. I don't think that a person who cannot do math or speak well is unintelligent.

3) "If you came into the room and were told there was a retarded child in the class, a child with special needs, I don't think you would pick Lee out. The kids really agree that he's as capable as they are. Intellectually the same." Pg. 83

I liked this story because it shows that a child with special needs can fit in with the rest of a class. Special needs, to me, means that a child learns differently, but it does not mean that they are incapable of learning. I think that people are too quick to write off a child with special needs as unintelligent.

I thought the article was interesting because I have worked with kids with special needs and have seen just how thoughtful or intelligent they are. In my dance class that I'm teaching this year, there is a three year old little boy who has down syndrome. He's absolutely adorable and does everything the other kids do. One of the mothers came up to me and the owner on Saturday and asked if it was safe to have him in a class with the other kids. For a minute I didn't know what to say, then I told her that down syndrome doesn't make a child dangerous or unstable. I feel like people are a little afraid of what they don't know and it makes them treat someone with special needs in a different way. One of my friends has a nephew with autism and she says the best thing about him. She says it's not "autism", but "awetism" because she is amazed by what he can do everyday. I think that she has a better attitude and more people or schools should adopt it.

Promising Practices

The day did not start of well. I woke up late and I wasn't in a very good mood so I was rushing around the house to get ready and get up to RIC. My mother and my brother were both up asking me about the night before and I really didn't have time for them. Their questions just made me more aggrivated than I already was, but eventually I got out the door. I headed up to RIC with a stop at Dunkin Donuts because I was definitely going to need my coffee.

When I arrived, the curriculum fair was being set up and I got in line to get my registration packet. I was a little disappointed in the sessions that I got because they were like my third choice. I didn't even remember picking them. After I got my packet, I sat and read over the materials and waited for the first session to begin.

The first session was about art and multiculturalism in the classroom, with a focus on Diego Rivera. The presenter could not get the powerpoint presentation to work so we had to follow along in packets that she gave us. She seemed very nervous about presenting, but I enjoyed what she was talking about. I thought that her presentation was interesting, but it would have been better with the powerpoint presentation. She talked about projects the students did on the American Revolution and it connects with Anyon's idea about creativity in the classroom. Also the students learned a little about the Mexican Revolution by studying Rivera. The subject also reminded me of Collier a little, in that studying a different culture allows students of different ethnicities to feel a part of the curriculum. The session went by quickly and we all left to go back to Donovan. I walked around the curriculum fair and then sat with some of the other members of our class.

The second session I was in was the power of numbers. It was about how important it is to know numbers in real life. It is very easy to be taken advantage of if you do not know how to do simple math like figuring out interest and percents. The presenter was interesting to listen to and she had us interact. We took a poll and worked with a partner so it was more interesting then listening to a lecture. This article that she included was about how hard it is for english language learners to talk about money. It was interesting to hear about language barriers in math. I wouldn't have thought that it was an issue in numbers. She had great videos and links that we used during the presentation. The one posted below is about an independent film made a couple of years ago. It was interesting and powerful.



I did not get to see Tricia Rose speak because I had a previous engagement that I could not be excused from. I hope to watch it in the library when the DVD comes in. From what was discussed in class on Tuesday, I could see that there were all kinds of references to Johnson and Delpit as far as being the change and power in the classroom or school setting. It sounds like she was a very powerful speaker and I'm interesting to hear the exact wording of the pledge. The event that I had to go to turned out to be miserable for me so I'm disappointed to have missed her. I'll add another post once I watch the video.

Talking Points #8

Jean Anyon
"Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work"

1)"In the middle-class school, work is getting the right answer. If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade. One must follow the directions in order to get the right answers, but the directions often call for some figuring, some choice, some decision making."

I thought this quote was interesting because this is how my elementary school was. The teachers were more worried about the right answer than the process of getting the answer. I used to ask questions on how to get the answer and many times the teacher had trouble explaining it to me in a way that I could understand. It wasn't until I got to middle school that the teachers starting giving points on math quizzes for showing the work. After thinking about it, I realized that my elementary school worksheets didn't even have spaces for work, just the answer.

2)"Work tasks do not usually request creativity. Serious attention is rarely given in school work on how the children develop or express their own feelings and ideas, either linguistically or in graphic form."

I think this is a problem in the school curriculum. I think that if subjects allowed creativity then students would be more open to them and more excited to learn. I remember once in the seventh grade, we had a book journal. It was essentially a book report, but we had blue journals that we wrote in after every chapter and we also drew a picture for every chapter. I loved it. It was way more memorable than the other billion boring book reports or other projects I did.

3)"Scholars in political economy and the sociology of knowledge have recently argued that public schools in complex industrial societies like our own make available different types of educational experience and curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes."

I think that it is interesting that the curriculum of schools is different according to the economic level of the school. I don't think that it is necessarily a bad thing to have different types of educational experiences as long as the quality of the education is equal. I don't think that always happens though.

I found the article interesting and it was a very easy read. I could place my schools in the different categories. I moved from a middle-class school to an affluent school and I did notice the changes in style when I reflect. I think that it is important for creativity to be expressed not only in the affluent schools, but in every school. I think that when a child is allowed to use his or her creativity in school, they retain more information. It provides an outlet for all the extra energy young children have. Personally, I loved when we could make pictures from a scene in the book or do a replica of an archaeological dig and then make up a story about what we think happened there. Those are the kinds of things that stick with you and the rest of it fades in to the background.

Just a story

I talked about this in our small groups during class today, but I forgot to put it in my blog. I thought I would add it as a seperate post. When I was in high school, we had to do the presidential fitness test every year. The coach would conduct it during the first half of the semester. In freshman year, we were being weighed in before we started the test. I've always been athletic and always had a more athletic build. When it was my turn to weigh in, he told me that I was fat and I needed to loose weight. He said similar things to all the other girls in the class, but when a boy who was morbidly obese weighed in, he said nothing. The coach would pick on girls until they just gave up on the activity. He was an absolutely awful teacher and thankfully he was fired after we complained about him.

Talking Points #7

http://www.unicef.org/girlseducation/

I thought that this website had the right idea about education. It is basically saying that education is beneficial for everyone and that both genders should have the same opportunity for an education. It also said that education is a right and not a privilege. I totally agree. Everyone should have the same education whether they are male or female, rich or poor.

When I was younger, my mother considered sending me to an all girls private school. I hated the idea just because I didn't want to be with only girls all day. I thought it was weird. Looking back now, I still don't really like the idea, but for different reasons. It seperates the male and female education and curriculum. It puts home economics at the girls school and takes wood shop out of the girls school. I think that it is unfair to limit the curriculum based on gender. All kids should have the choice to take wood shop even if they're a girl or take home ec even if they're a boy.

This website had interesting data about the enrollment of girls in schools and how it has gone up, worldwide, over the past thirty years. This gives some hope that equality in schools can be achieved. If girls are just as educated as boys, then it will lead them to the same jobs as the males. Through equalities in schools, we can achieve equality in jobs, housing, and other important issues.

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/0,,contentMDK:20298916~menuPK:617572~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:282386,00.html

Talking Points #6

I thought that the videos were very interesting to see. Tim Wise actually mentions Brown v. Board of Education. He says that Obama being made president is just another step towards equality. He says that Obama's presidency is like Brown v. Board because they are both huge steps, but they are only part of the solution. Equality didn't automatically come with Obama's election. He says that people of color are only accepted by the dominant culture when they are above average in any way. Obama is very well educated and very intelligent so he is an acceptable leader. He says that by accepting the above average people of color we forget the people who are just average or below average. It is okay for a white person to be mediocre, but if a person of color is mediocre, they are shunned by society. I agree with Wise because he sees thst some things have changed, but there is much more to do. We have changed the obvious aspects of racism, but the more subtle ones remain from the past. We may think that we are different from the people of the 1950's and 1960's, but we are in the same boat they were. Hopefully, we can continue to move in the direction of equality.

Talking Points #5

Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer
“In Service of What?: The Politics of Service Learning”

1) “This experience and others like it, quite common in the literature of service learning, emphasize charity more than change. The experience was structured to promote giving rather than to provide the kind of understanding needed for the development of caring relationships.”

The quote suggests that the information available about service learning is slightly one-sided. There is more of an emphasis on doing charity work than learning from that charity work and using that knowledge to make a change. Most people think of service learning as a charity that they have to complete and not something that they can learn from.

2) “Unfortunately, in many service activities, students view those they serve as clients rather than as a resource.”

The quote says that the people that are helped by others in a service learning project also have information to offer. It’s probably not the same kind of information, but it is something that the helper could learn from the helpee. If someone who is participating in service learning, learned from the person they are helping as much as they taught the other person it would make the relationship way more beneficial to both parties.

3) “To date, however, little attention has been given to sorting out the goals and motivations that underlie the spectrum of service learning projects emerging in schools throughout the country.”

The quote says that there are just as many reasons that people participate in service learning as kinds of service learning projects. The reason for doing a service project is just as important, if not more important, as the project. If a person has a weak reason for being there, the project may not go well. If a person feels like they are only doing a community service because they are obligated, then they may not put much effort or energy into the project.

I think that the article is trying to get more people to do service learning to create a change. They want the people involved to be the change similar to what Johnson and Delpit say. I like that they talk about the different motivations people have behind service learning. I know many people that just do service learning projects because they are obligated or they feel bad that people don’t have as much as them. I like to think that I’m making a difference when I do any kind of service project and the project we’re doing in this class is no different. I’m trying to help these kids acquire a very important skill and I’m learning about diversity and culture from them. It’s a two way street and the relationship has to benefit both sides. I like that we’re building relationships with these kids and not just teaching them to read.

Talking Points #4

Linda Christensen
“Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us”

1) “Early in the unit, I show a Popeye cartoon, ‘Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves,” that depicts all Arabs with the same face, same turban, same body- and they are all swinging enormous swords. At one point in the cartoon, Popeye clips a dog collar on helpless Olive Oyl and drags her through the desert.” Pg. 130

This quote surprised me a little bit because I remember watching Popeye with my grandfather when I was little. The cartoon presents myths that were believed and still may be believed in our culture. The people of ethnic backgrounds all look the same. I have heard people say this recently at my brother’s high school graduation, “I can’t tell them apart, those black kids look the same”. I was mortified when I heard it. Also the love interest is treated like a dog. She is expected to follow the man wherever he goes and never complain or rebel.

2) “But, like the original tale, Cindy Ellie’s main goal is in life is not working to end the plight of the homeless or teaching kids to read. Her goal, like Cinderella’s, is to get her man.” Pg. 132

The quote is explaining that while the problem of racism is addressed in the modern version of the classic tale, the other problems are not. Cinder Ellie is just as shallow as Cinderella. She just wants to be married and be in her proper place as a wife. She fit’s the role of the stereotypical perfect woman even though she is a minority. I think that it proves that the race of the character isn’t as big of an issue as the motivations and characterizations of the characters do.

3) “They accept the inequalities in power and exploitative economic relationships. Their acceptance teaches me how deep the roots of these myths are planted and how much some students, in the absence of visions for a different and better world, need to believe in the fairy tale magic that will transform their lives.” Pg. 133

The students accepted that the majority of the characters with power and the rich characters are white and the poor characters are people of color. The reason a lot of people read fairy tales as children and read them to their children because they like that the underdog characters often get what they long for. There is a promise of a better life that is not always visible in reality especially if the person has low socio-economic status or is of color.

This article was very interesting to me because I am taking a children’s literature class this semester. The class examines everything thing from Mother Goose to modern day fairy tales such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. We spend a good portion of the class examining the characters and the theme of the works. We found a lot of stereotypical female characters that would fit in with the characterizations in cartoons that the author discussed. There is the girl who wants to be the perfect wife, but there are also girls that end up saving their loved ones like Grettel who saves her brother from the witch who wants to eat him. We read some works that the character was an ethnic person and did work to better their own lives. “Yeh Shen” is the Chinese version of “Cinderella”. She works hard to please her family and to keep in favor with the spirits who aid her in her journey. She takes it upon herself to find the lost shoe and she does not go looking for it so she can fall in love, but so she can please the spirits. I think that there are stories and cartoons that do a good job of addressing issues of race and power, but it takes a little bit more of an effort to find them. They’re not as easily accessible, but they are out there.

Talking Points #3 (super late, but better than never)

Dennis Carlson
“Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community”

1) “At the level of state educational policy, it is noteworthy that no state currently recognizes gays and lesbians as legitimate minority or cultural groups to be considered in textbook adoption or to be included in multicultural education; and a number of states explicitly prohibit teaching about homosexuality.” Pg. 236

I thought this was interesting because I didn’t realize that homosexuality was being banned from the curriculum on the state level. I find it interesting that ethnic literature and history is beginning to be integrated into the curriculum for students, but nothing about gays and lesbians. I wonder if the continued avoidance of the topic is because some people believe you can choose to be gay or lesbian, but cannot choose what race you are. Therefore if it is shunned in school, it would deter young people from feeling that the gay/lesbian lifestyle is okay.

2) “Aside from being an absence in the curriculum, gayness has been made visible in some various limited and marginalized contexts. To the extent that gayness is recognized in the curriculum, it is likely to be in the health curriculum, where it is associated with disease.” Pg. 237
When a child is taught about homosexuality, they learn about it in a negative context. Homosexuals are associated with AIDS because they were one of the first groups of people it was discovered in within the country. Again the school system seems to be doing everything it can possibly do because they want to discourage the students from accepting the gay and lesbian lifestyle.

3) “Part of the problem to begin with was that the curriculum was developed by school district staff in the central office with relatively little input from the communities that were to ’implement’ the imposed plan for multicultural education.” Pg. 250

This seems similar to the problem with multilingual education in that the people who have to use the educational curriculum have little input on what it would look like. It causes tension between the school and the home cultures. Also it could make children feel like they are not good enough if their culture is not represented in the curriculum.

There was one part of the article that I could really connect to. It was when the “witch-hunting” of gay teachers was being discussed. This actually happened in my high school. I went to a pretty strict Catholic high school and we had a gay English teacher in our freshman year. The administration did not know that the teacher was gay for about three years. All the kids had their suspicions, be we all respected and liked him enough not to voice those suspicions to parents or the principal. One kid got a D as a midterm grade and he was pretty upset about it. He didn’t think that he deserved it so he decided that he was going to get back at the English teacher. He told his mother, conservative Portuguese-speaking Catholic, that the English teacher was gay and was making comments to all the boys in the class. Completely false information, but the mother took it to the principal and the principal had the teacher removed. He was allowed to finish the year, but the vice-principal oversaw all his classes and he was not allowed to talk to any of the students outside of class. He was humiliated and we lost a really good teacher just because he was gay. It was like the administration thought that gayness was contagious or something. The school is independent and doesn’t answer to the Diocese or the school district so there was no way that we could have the decision overturned.

Talking Points #2

Richard Rodriguez
“Aria”

1. “What they seem not to recognize is that, as a socially disadvantaged child, I considered Spanish to be a private language. What I needed to learn in school was that I had the right-and the obligation-to speak the public language of los gringos.” Pg. 34

What Rodriguez says in this quote is similar to Delpit in that he already knew how to speak Spanish and he needed to learn the things that would help him succeed in our English speaking society. He sees Spanish as a language to use with his family and community and English as a language to be used out in the world. He doesn’t seem to see that there may be an opportunity to use Spanish out in the world.

2. “Hers [mother’s voice] became the public voice of the family. On official business, it was she, not my father, one would usually hear on the phone or in stores, talking to strangers.” Pg. 37

Normally it would be the father’s voice that is the public voice of the family, but because he cannot speak English well, he couldn’t be the public voice. The language barrier keeps him from fulfilling that role and forces the mother to take the lead; at least in the public view. He wasn’t able to express himself in English like he can in Spanish and it limits his ability to do certain things for his family.

3. “So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality.” Pg. 39

Rodriguez is saying that a student, no matter the age, learning English as a second language does not give up his or her individuality, but gains a new aspect of that individuality. It’s not only the person’s culture that recognizes the individual, but the whole society. A person’s language ability does not make them any less of an individual.

I liked reading “Aria” because it is the author’s story. It was written in first person so it was personal not just some collection of research. I felt more connected to the story and I could definitely relate. I remember a little boy that used to go to the summer camp I work at. He was a native Spanish speaker, but he had no problem speaking and understanding English. He was very shy and he would only speak when he was spoken to be a counselor. He eventually met another boy who was a Spanish speaker. He was so much more outgoing when he was speaking with this other boy and he even started interacting with the other kids more. He just needed someone who understood his situation to make him more comfortable in his new environment. I was reminded of the little boy when I was reading about the father and how he was so much more outgoing when he was in his element. We all want to feel comfortable and we all are more friendly or outgoing when we feel comfortable.

I could also relate when Rodriguez spoke about his communication problems with his family. The parents could not understand what the children were saying and the children would get frustrated. I think that everyone feels like their parents don’t understand at some point, but it must be even more frustrating when there is a language difference. I dance and it’s like a different language with all the terminology you need to learn. I’ll try to explain something to my family and they just don’t get it. It’s frustrating especially when you are trying to communicate something important to you.

Bilingual education helps a child acquire the skills they’ll need to live in our society, but it also distances a child from their personal culture. They might feel like two different people; who they are in school and who they are at home. However, there must be a way to rectify the situation and I don’t think that having this disconnect was the intention of bilingual education.

Talking Points #1

Peggy McIntosh
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”

1. “My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture.” Pg. 2
We don’t learn to see ourselves as a pawn in the culture of power, but as an individual who determines their own behavior. Therefore we see ourselves as detached from society and its actions. It makes it easier for an individual to ignore the problem because he or she doesn’t feel involved.

2. “The pressure to avoid it [white privilege] is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country” Pg. 4
It is easier to ignore the issue of white privilege because admitting that it exists compromises the foundational values of the country. It would shake the country to the core which may not be a bad thing. We need to be able to see what’s wrong before we can fix it.

3. “Many, perhaps most, of our white students in the United States think that racism doesn’t affect them because they are not people of color; they do not see ‘whiteness’ as a racial identity.” Pg. 5
Whites only see racism as outward meanness to another race of people. We don’t think of our color as something that earns us advantages; we like to think that we get what we have because of who we are as individuals. Since we are not African-American or Hispanic or Asian we don’t think that there is a need to use our racial identity or even identify it in any way.

I found Peggy McIntosh pretty easy to read and her argument was presented in a clear and straightforward way. I saw elements of Johnson in her argument especially when she wrote about unearned advantages and unearned power (4). McIntosh uses similar language to Johnson. I liked that she wrote from a personal point of view. It makes me feel more connected to what she’s saying and it doesn’t seem like she’s just throwing research data at me. Something different from Johnson was when she wrote about the positive advantages we have. There was a little ray of light in her argument. An example she uses is feeling like we belong in a group (5). That feeling of belonging is not a bad thing, but when we use that feeling of belonging to alienate other people that positive advantage becomes negative. We need to make a decision on what advantages to use and when to use them. To be frank, the whole white privilege thing reminds me of children on the playground. Some kids will make a club and they won’t let other kids in. We are doing the same thing in our society. So should our society share a common element with a group of kindergarteners?

So I'm here

This is my first blog ever and I was a little nervous about putting it up, but it's actually kind of fun. I'm Amanda Chace and I'm supposed to be graduating with a liberal arts english degree this may, but I just changed my major to education. It's not even official yet. I'm super busy all the time. I teach dance classes and take dance classes so I end up dancing 5-7 days a week. I love it! I also work part-time and babysit so fitting the SLP in should be interesting. I love to travel. My latest trip was to Italy (Milan, Genoa, Pisa, Montecatini, Florence, Assissi, and Rome) and the one before that was Germany (Cologne). Italy was amazing and I can't wait to go back to Europe! I come from a pretty conservative Catholic background and college has opened my eyes to so much. I hope this class will open my eyes to even more!