Empowering Education

QUOTES:
1."Participation is the most important place to begin because students involvement is low in traditional classrooms and because action is essential to gain knowledge and develop intelligence." The author goes on to explain that people are naturla learners. They question the whys of things around them. School needs to be more of give and take between the teachers and the students; letting the students form the purpose of thier education. Instead education today teachs students to be pasive and non-parciptory about thier education
2. "To help move students away from passivity and cynism, a powerful signal has to be sent from the very start, a signal that learning is participatory, involving humor, hope, and curiosity. A strong participatory and affective opening broadcasts optimistic feelings about whose voices are worth listening to, whose minds can carry the wieght of serious intellectual works, whose thought and feeling can entertain transfoming self and society." Studnts need to FEEL good about school. They need to know that thier opinion is valued, that they are valued. This will lead to students particpating more, to them acually getting excited about thier education, and tho them carring.
3."Situated, multicultural pedagogy increases the chance that students will fell ownership in thier education and reduces the conditions that produce thier alienation." This qutoe is SO right. We have been talking about this all semester! Includeing everyone in education makes people feel like they belong and like they are part of the bigger whole. It helps them relate to the material. We all want to make sure no one is maginalized or alienated. Taking simple steps like having a multicultural curricualum and having students disscuass materials rather than memorize it will help.

Comments:
What a great read for the end of semester. I felt it summed up everything we have been taking about nicely. These last few weeks we have been really hitting this issue of critticall inquary in classrooms, with the Oaks, Anyon, and Kahne and Westheimer readings. We have been disscussing having these open classroom settings were students can learn and learn how to think for themselves. Learning the why's and how's of something is the transformantive part not just memorizing facts that you will later data dump.
I also liked the whole socialzation portion; how schools are not just places to aquire knowledge but a place to become socialized. To learn what is expected of you in sociaety and how to cope in that society. This could go back to Deplit; we need to learn the culture of power and the rules of that culture and how to use them.

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

Christopher Kliewer Quotes:

1. ". . . society itself is hurt when schools act as cultural sorting machines - -locations that justify a competitive ethic that marginalizes certain students or groups of students . . . that legitimize discrimination and devaluation on the basis of the dominant society's preferences in matters of ability, gender, ethnicity, and race . . . and endorse an elaborate process of sorting by perceived ability and behavior." The author is taking about children with down syndrome and their right/need to be able to participate in school and the community. If we separate them and devalue them we will not get to know what they can bring to the community. Other children will not get the benefit of getting to know and have meaningful relationships with them. He goes on to say this is not setting up our children for the real world in which they must get to know how to work with everyone. So by separating them its unfair and hurting all in the end. This is soo similar to what we talked about in de-tracking. When all students get to work together it comes out to their benefit. We all learn is different way and have different opinions.


2. "Schools have traditionally taken a narrow position when defining and judging students intellect." The author gives examples of teacher who have inclusive classrooms. They do not label any of the students, they realize all students learn in different ways so they change the way they teach to them. The brake out of the traditional methods, which enriches the lives of all the students. This directly relates to last weeks readings (and most of the course for that matter). We need to change that way students are taught and break these barriers of "intellect". All have the ability to learn...just in different ways.


3. "perceived" This is a powerful word. Loaded with all sorts of connotations caused by our dominate cultural. It means to become aware of something -to realize-to understand. How can we believe we understand or know something or someone that we have not had personal contact with? It is our society that gives us the guidelines on how to judge this. We "perceive" things the way the dominate culture wants us to. If this is not a perfect word for this class to dissect I don't know what is. Perception is all relative. It is laced with cultural meaning. What we think we know may not actually come from us..... we are just primed to think that way. As in the way people think about down syndrome. This article shows that our perception of this is wrong.

Comments:

This article had some great points. It was a little dry but poignant. Children with disabilities are often lost in the system. They are labeled and thought of as their label. Everyone can learn. Everyone can be a productive member of his/her community -----if given the right opportunities. I loved how Shayne taught her classroom. She threw out the old curriculum which was one size fit all and tailored it to her students. Why don't more teachers do this???

The sense of community is a very important thing. I think all students need to be instilled with this. If they all had a more active role with the community and with the people in it I believe there would be more cohesiveness. Everyone would learn how to work together to better themselves and their community.

This article echoed the de-tracking debate. Integrated classrooms with all types of learners.

Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

Jean Anyon QUOTES:

1. " . . . schools in complex industrial societies like our own make available different types of educational experience and curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes. . . . classroom behaviors that correspond to personality traits allegedly rewarded in the different occupational strata." This is what Anyon is trying to prove. She did a study of five schools with differing income levels of the students families. She made correlations to the class and the type of education students get. This was a very inserting article. While reading it it makes you wonder if this is still how things are playing out in education. Then thinking back on most of our readings, it becomes clear that education is still somewhat stratified; the rich get the "better" schools and the poor are left with underachieving schools.


2. "In the middle class school, work is getting the right answer. 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." Anyon goes on to explain that in middle class schools they do not analyze the material its is just presented and regurgitated. There is no connection making. its on the how or why, its the is. Is this not how "urban" of the schools are run now? We have read so many things telling us that the students need to become more engaged; the material needs to speak to them more. With this type of education system that will never happen.


3. " The "hidden curriculum" of school work is tacit preparation for relating to the process of production . . . emphasize different cognitive and behavioral skills in each social setting and thus contribute to the development in the children of certain potential relationships to physical and symbolic capital, to authority, and to the process of work." What she is saying is that the schools are working against meritocracy and keeping the children in their class by only teaching them to think in ways that are required for the types of jobs held by that class. This is how the "hidden curriculum" works. The hidden curriculum then is how they are teaching the students and how this develops their thinking skills.

COMMENTS:

While this article was very interesting I think it may be slightly out dated. I am not an expert but I think education has come far since 1979. I believe the working class schools have been done away with. BUT there is still defiantly a divide among our schools according to class. We have been learning about this all semester. Every reading further solidifies this; our personal experience tells us this is true. We can physically see the divide among the lower and the upper and middle classes.

The way Anyon described the middle class schools is how out lower class schools run. Information is given and right answers are what is wanted. I believe our schools now do emphasize a little more reasoning and creativity but no where near that of schools for the upper class. There is also, now, a big divide in the quality of the education given to students, in the quality of teacher, in the quality of schools.

Also while reading this I noticed that in the "work" upper two categories were much like the "work" in college. It was interesting. Those students were and are being groomed to go to college and are MUCH MUCH better prepared to go to college.

I would be very interesting to see a study like this done today. I wonder if the teachers would be as a mater of fact as they are in this study. I wonder what other kinds of difference we would find. What would be the ramifications?

School Stress

Lately, we have all been talking about how stressfull it has been with school lately; with having to take tests, write papers, and now signing up for classes. Well I have been feeling this pressure and the stressors of home life too, being a mom and wife. So, yeasterday I was supposed to sign up for classes but when I went on I found my advisor had no taken the block off my account and one of the classes I needed was full. Frustration and anxiety started to emerge. This morning I tried again, still a no go anf another one of the classes I wanted was full. Anxiety city! I emailed my advisor and he said he would take care of it. Then, I get an email that he can't "see" the block and my major says social work?! So i go to class and can not concentate beacuse of this advising/enrollment situation. How am I going to stay full time if all the classes I need ti take are getting full and I CANNOT enroll because of some computer error. To say the least I was ready to call my old boss and get my job back. Befor my last class of the day I went to OASIS to see if they could remedy the problem. After takingto several people I got it fixed or so I thought. Beacuse when I tried to enroll it was still blocked. So back to OASIS I went. Finally the block was off. I went to sign up for classes and some sections I wanted were full and I had to reconfigure my schedual. I was emotionally exsauated. And my anxiety was still quite high. So, instead of go to class late I just left campus figuring I would get the note form someone else. While at home some time later, I remebered that in the class I skipped there was an EXAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Really did I just forget about an exam???????? How can that happen? Who does that? Now what am I going to do????

A Partucularly Cheap White Whine

Tim Wise Erika QUOTES: 1. " . . . less than four percent of scholarship money in the U.S. is represented by awards that consider race as a factor at all, while only 0.25 percent of all undergrad scholarship dollars come from awards that are restricted to persons of color alone." This is outlining how ridiculous it is to think that race based scholarships are taking anything away from Whites. Even without the historical oppression and the privilege implications on people of any color, this statistic is boggling! Only one quarter of one percent is awarded because of color! It seems so insignificant. 2. " . . . white students are twice as likely as their African American or Latino counterparts to be taught by the most highly qualified teachers and half as likely to have the least qualified instructors in class . . . being taught by highly qualified teachers is one of the most important factors in school achievement." The author was giving some support to his argument that race based scholarships are no only fair but needed. He says there should be more. This quote points out white privilege ( a recurring theme this semester). It is sad that there is such a difference between the quality of education received by whites and non-whites. 3. " . . . persons belonging to groups that have been systematically marginalized in this society, should have opportunities targeted to them, so as to allow for the development of their full potential which otherwise might be restricted by said marginalization." I agree that there needs to be more done in the big picture, but had I not taken this class and been educated on things like white privilege and silenced dialogue I may not have been so quick to take this authors side. It takes showing everyone that the inequality exists that then there may be a handful who will want to change it. Making people aware is always the first step. I believe that was the point of this article. COMMENTS: I liked this article. I thought it was a well written commentary on the absolute ignorance of some people. I couldn't believe a group of people could come together and rally support against race based scholarships. And with no real proof! The statics I quoted were astonishing! I couldn't believe it. White victim-hood...what a joke. There is no-one taking ANYthing way from white males. This echoed everything we have been reading from SWAMP to Johnson to Deplit to Christensen to McIntosh; you cant talk about one without talking about the other or relating it to the other.

PRAXIS

So I ook my PRAXIS I today. I think I did pretty good. BUT the hardest part was filling out the consent form!!! I had to copy a whole paragraph in CURSIVE!!! AGGHH It took me so long. I had to first remeber what the heck cursive is, then what the letters looked like and how to combine them. HAHA It looked like a hot mess and my hand hurt afterwards. I hope I NEVER have to write in cursive again!

In Service of What?

Joesph Kahne and Joel Westheimer.

Quotes:

1. "What values do service learning curricula model and seek to promote?" This is one of the main focuses of this article. What kind of values do we want our kids to come away with after these projects? Are the values these projects based on that of the school or child? Or are they that of the white upper-class power of culture?
2. ". . . service learning activities can achieve the first crucial step toward diminishing the sense of "otherness" that often separates students from those in need." This echos what we have read in previous articles we see it as them and us. It is their problem not ours, but by doing theses projects and thinking about the impact students can make they can start to break down that barrier. They can become part of the community not just an on-looker.
3. ". . . the combination of service and critical analysis that seems most likely to promote interest in and insight into these complex social issues." They argue in this article that service learning is not enough, that teacher need to get students to think about the issues on a higher level. They need to learn about the social injustice that lead to these issues and they need to act.

COMMENTS:

Service learning is a great thing to get kids involved in. But let me play devils advocate for a minute. Isn't any action better than no action? What's so bad about kids just caring? Seems like it's a good experience all around when students do these projects so why does there have to be a right way?

Well I'll answer my own question. These projects without a focus will do little more than make the person doing them happy. With out critical thinking the students will not know why there is this problem and that they can do something about it. With out guidance the students will no benefit as much as they need to.

Another thing I noticed ... who is doing these projects? White middles class students? I think that if we got student from a poor neighborhood to do these projects and to really think about what they can do, that it would improve these neighborhoods. All it takes is a little care and pride and realizing that they CAN make a difference.

The point made about President Bushes comments about:
"I am particularly pleased that [this act] will promote an ethic of
community service . . . . Government cannot rebuild a family or
reclaim a sense of neighborhood, and no bureaucratic program
will ever solve the pressing human problems that can be
addressed by a vast galaxy of people working voluntarily in their
own backyards."

WHAT? The government can and should help in rebuilding communities. We need more government based social programs NOT less.

Teacher Staples a Disiplinary Note to Childs Shirt!

http://news.yahoo.com/video/miamicbs4-15750840/teacher-criticized-for-how-she-sent-a-note-home-24445195


Personaly I think this teacher went a little overboard. There is no need to staple ANYTHING to a child. I don't understand why the adminisrtaion is backing her up. This is just wrong. I would be livid! UGGHH this is just really irking me. What was the teacher thinking. If she didn't think the note were getting home, then CALL! She let her frustrations get the best of her.

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

Linda Christensen
Erika
QUOTES:
1. “The “secret education”… delivered by children’s books and movies, instructs young people to accept the world as it is portrayed in these social blueprints.” The article explains the underlying message in children’s works and explains that this “secret education” is often over looked. Yet it is taught to us by these works. This seems to be another way that children learn society’s culture of power.
2. “… two myths: Happiness means getting a man, and transformation from wretched conditions can be achieved through consumption – in their case, through new clothes and a new hairstyle.” This is explaining that even when a princess story is changed in terms of culture and ethnicity. There is still an underlying message that we must confront. It’s no wonder that most single moms can only “get out” of their situation of being poor by marring, it was taught to us.
3. “. . . most students wrote for local and national newspapers or magazines. The writing in these articles was tighter and clearer that for-the-teacher essays… the possibility of publishing their pieces changed the level of student intensity.” She asked the students to critique this “secret education” using proof from some works for children. The student excelled above and beyond what she expected and some even got published. They also got an outlet for their frustrations and opened other up to this concept.
COMMENTS:
I love the idea of raising awareness that children’s cartoons can have an effect on how/what you think. A lot of the time the content of cartons is not analyzed by the general public. We think they are innocent and pure entertainment. It is obvious that there are subtle underlying messages. Messages about how society and people in power want us to think/act. The culture of power is evident in some of these cartoons; older cartons portray male dominance and marginalize minorities. Now while we may not know how to change it and some may not even want to change it we still need to be AWARE of it. We need to, as future educators, be able to point these inaccuracies out and help overcome them. We need to address the issue with our students when they are feeling the pressure to act a certain way or wear a certain outfit. We need to let them know that they are in control of what and who they are.

Gayness, Multicultural Education and Community

By Dennis Carlson
Erika

QUOTES:
1. “Within normalizing communities, some individuals and subject positions (i.e., white, middle class, male, heterosexual, etc.) get privileged and represented as “normal” while other individuals and subject positions (i.e., black, working class, female, homosexual, etc.) are disempowered and represented as deviant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and in other ways “abnormal.””
What does this quote not say?! It sums up the whole class! It goes along with SCAWMP, Johnson, and Deplit perfectly summing them up. Within this article it is telling us how “normalizing” is working in our society.
2. “…normalizing texts systematically exclude and neglect the culture of those outside the norm for the purpose of ratifying or legitimating the dominate culture as the only significant culture worth studying. …we do not get very far if we look for what is said about gayness in educational texts. We get much further if we pay attention to … the “silent spaces” or the “not said” of the text.”
Schools are systematic in what can be taught and backhanded about what won’t be taught. Important things in educational texts have been left out because they did not fit the norm or support the dominate culture. This has been done to every marginalized group not just gay people. Without the whole picture students only “see” what the schools want them to see.
3. “…gay people have found more acceptances within the middle class and among the college-educated than within the working class. Similarly, gay culture has been overwhelmingly “white” and this makes it difficult for many young black gay people to affirm both their gayness and their blackness.”
What a double edged sword. While reading I was pondering this exact statement. A page before this quote I wrote, “White vs. Black and gayness. Which is easier? Whites more accepting and open about gayness? Blacks less tolerant/ less open about gayness?” So, when I read this quote it was like words taken out of my mouth. It is true that on college campus students are more open and accepting of gayness, so why is there intolerance in high schools?
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/POINTS TO SHARE;
This was a GREAT article. I enjoyed reading it. It seems a shame that schools are oppressing yet another group of people. This article screamed the key points in some of our other discussions, culture of power, silenced dialogue, SCWAMP, and Johnson. I was shocking on how the way gays are portrayed effect young gay people. I was shocked at the point brought up about engaging in dangerous behavior and them feeling like getting AIDS is part of being gay. ALSO this point may be a bit outdated. One point that seems right is the acceptance of the over feminization of gays and how that is just a way to keep gays in their place. I can’t say enough about how powerful this was but I’ll save some for class. :)

Terry Miller “Why can’t she remember that?”The importance of reading in multilingual, multicultural classrooms.

Erika W.
QUOTES:

1. "Children who don’t have many early book reading experiences learn their cultural lessons through interactions with family and other community members, from oral stories, and observations of other people’s behaviors."
This points out that there are many cultural traditions in which books are not the main way of providing children with lessons and stories of morality. Not all cultures uphold book reading like the dominate white middle-class does. In lower class families life lessons are learned through experience and stories from family members.

2. "Many children who are unused to books and being read to find it difficult to sit still for the time it takes the teacher to read even a fairly short picture book. Unfamiliar with book reading routines many teachers assume as common knowledge, children who have not been read to at home find these routines aversive, puzzling, or simply boring."
Children whom are not used to being read to don’t know “the rules” of reading. It’s not common knowledge for them that they must sit and listen carefully. The loaded word in this quote is assume. Teachers (who are likely white and middle-class) need to understand the needs of a multicultural classroom.

3. "Teach book reading behaviors explicitly."
So simple and so important. This point ties in to our Silenced Dialogue reading. We need to provide the students with the behaviors expected of them explicitly, so they will have these attributes in the future. It will provide them with success in the classroom setting. When the students know the rules for book reading they will feel more comfortable and confident when book reading takes place.


QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/POINTS TO SHARE;

What a great article. I loved how Meier listed explicitly how to remedy the problem. She took her own advice and using it on the audience. This article really ties in to other things we have read about cultural differences. It explains how schools/teachers need to “see” these differences and how to draw on them to mend the deficits. Books are a powerful tool in schools and children who are engaged in books do well. So, by teaching the students what is expected of them and making the books more relevant to their lives will greatly increase their odds of doing well in school. Children have active imaginations and more creativity during book reading should be encouraged. I believe that the students would get more out of the books.

It was really interesting that the children go so into the book series. They integrated it into their daily lives. I see this a lot with television shows. In fact a lot of children watch more television than they read books. I know mine does. That is another place they learn lesson and morals. They can relate to the characters struggles and achievements. I think television can be more appealing to children because it’s alive, it’s there, and it’s in your face. If we can take some of these attributes and put them to use with book students will be more engaged.

Interview with teacher

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/24209845

Suspended teacher defends critical blog

Just thought this was interesting. It makes the point you shouldn't use your full name because you never know whos reading. Also once its on the net theres no take backs!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110217/od_nm/us_teacher_blog_odd

Thu Feb 17, 11:50 am ET
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A high school English teacher who was suspended from her job after she blogged that her students were "rude, disengaged, lazy whiners," said on Wednesday that she did nothing wrong.
"Some of the students, parents and administrators don't want to hear the truth," said Natalie Munroe, 30, a teacher at Central Bucks East High School north of Philadelphia.
In a blog that she said was intended to be seen only by a handful of her friends but was shared on Facebook by a student who discovered it, Munroe was highly critical of some students and school administrators.
"My students are out of control," she wrote. "They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire and are just generally annoying."
Munroe, who is nearly nine months pregnant, was suspended with pay pending an investigation into her blog, said Carol Counihan, spokeswoman for the school district.
Steven Rovner, Munroe's lawyer, described her as a "working class hero for teachers" and said if she is fired he may file a lawsuit charging violation of her First Amendment right to free speech.
Munroe said she still wants to be a teacher.
(Reporting by Dave Warner; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton)

So today in class the clip from MSNBC was shown. I'm sure we could have debated and discussed this all class long. Was it racist?? In class I said I thought it was and I stand by that fact. Some thought that just seein one frame of the cartoon was missleading and the whole truth could not be told. BUT if you looked closer with the "historical eye" Dr. Stevos was taking about you could see in this one clip had blantant racism.

• The woman was dark in color.
• The had a forrowed brow.
• She was heavy set.
• She was making demands.

Now, let us think how black woman are potrayed and sterotyped..........
hmmmmm Are they not thought of as heavyset and overbearing, even mean. Some may say no that is not that case. But come on! That is the sterotype! It was there just look.... just think back to how we've seen black woman potrayed.
Just a little something to think about.

Kozol Piece

Jonathan Kozol Amazing Grace Erika

Quotes:

• The 600,000 people who live here and the 450,000 people who live in Washington Heights and Harlem . . . make up one of the largest racially segregated concentrations of poor people in our nation. This quote sets up the article the author was illustrating the grave and unfair nature of the situation.
• . . . waste incinerator that was put in operation recently over the objections of the parents in the neighborhood. . . . initially scheduled to be built along the East Side of Manhattan, but the siting of a burner there had been successfully resisted by the parents of the area. This quote shows how people of power wield it over the poor and destitute. The will make others unsafe and uncomfortable for them to feel safe. This points out the injustice the rich are coming upon the poor, which is what the article is about.
• I believe that what the rich have done to the poor people in this city is something that a preacher could call evil. Somebody has power. Pretending that they don't so they don't need to use it to help people - that is my idea of evil. This sums up what is seen in this article. This boy said it so perfectly it needs no explanation.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:

This was an extremely interesting read. The testimonials of Mrs. Washington were striking and the little boy was quite haunting. I thought i knew what poor was and what it was like, but this kind of poor is beyond my grasp. I cannot imagine living life in this way, being forced to live like this. How some people can say that it is the fault of the poor, that they are irrational and make bad choices is boggling. I cannot fathom anyone choosing that life. It is up to those with power and money to help these situations and advocate for people no one will listen to. Why hasn't the government done more?

Hi, I'm Erika! Outside of being a college student, which by the way is WAY better the second time around, I am a mother of a cute/energetic six year old. I recently have gotten married!! I got married in Oct and will be getting married again in Aug. No, not divorced already just family on both coasts! I have done many things in my life and have some good experinces and opinins I will bring to the class. This semester seems like it will be pretty smooth.