What Can We Do?

Johnson

Context/Premise:

power

exclusion

rejection

problems

privilege

understanding

support

society

Argument:

Johnson argues that the more knowledgeable we are about the issues concerning privilege, the better the chances are for change.

Evidence:

"It simply means acknowledging an obligation to make a contribution to finding a way out of the trouble we're all in and to finding constructive ways out of the trouble we're all in and to finding constructive ways to act on that obligation."

"..step off the path of least resistance that encourages you to defend and deny."

"Dare to make people feel uncomfortable, beginning with yourself."

"Whenever we openly choose a different path, however, we make it possible for others to see both the path of least resistance they're following and the possibility of choosing something else"

"The problem of privilege and oppression is deep and wide, and to work with it we have to be able to see clearly so that we can talk about it in useful ways."

Class went really well. Everyone from my group was there, and feel good about the project.

School Girls

Peggy Orenstein

Context:
schools
girls/women
boys
curriculum
self-esteem
inequalities
life

Argument:
Orenstein argues that in classrooms that have both girls and boys, there is a hidden criteria or curriculum which affects how each gender views themselves. Boys tend to view equality as a negative thing, while girls have low self-esteem and think negatively about themselves.

Evidence:
"...boys perceive equality as loss"

"It disturbed me that although girls were willing to see men as heroes, non of the boys would see women that way"

"the hidden curriculum is all the things teachers don't say"

"because i include women, i'm seen as extreme"

"At that time i wondered how the boys,... would ever learn to see the girls as equal"


Other Stuff:
I thought Orensteins piece was pretty easy to read. I never thought of the curriculum as having messages that could have affected me! I like how all of the articles we read are about things i never thought of or knew before reading them. I remember being in 7th grade and doing a project about heroes and all the girls chose women and men and all the boys chose men. I never thought of it as anything until reading this.

Whites Swin in Racial Preferences

Context/Premise:
race
privilege
affirmative action
racial preferences
generation/history
fair/unfair
equal/unequal
whites vs blacks

Argument:
Wise argues that most privileged whites look at racial preferences as unfair due to the long history involving white power. Wise argues that "It has skewed our laws and shaped our public policy and helped create the glaring inequalities with which we still live."

Quotes:
Bush thinks that "school's policies were examples of unfair racial preferences."

"Privilege to us, is like water to the fish: invisible precisely because we cannot imagine life without it."

"..white preferece remains hidden because it is more subtle , more ingrained, and isn't called white preference, even if that's the effect."

"the privlege that allows one to not have to think about race on a daily basis; to not have one's intelligence questioned by best-selling books; to not have to worry about being viewed as a "out a place" when drving, shopping, buying a home, or for that mattter; attending the University of Michigan."

Other Stuff:
Before reading this, i was agreeing with Bush. I didn't see how it was fair to give people advancements because of the color of their skin but i wasn't looking at the whole picture and how whites were privleged because of their color. I was confused when i left class last week and now understand what the University of Michigan is doing, and support them. Whites have racial preferences that are not named that simply because we are white. The article really helped me understand what we were talking about in class!

"One More River to Cross"

Charles Lawrence

Context:

• segregation
• people of color
• white
• privileged
• schools
• label
• seperate "but equal"
• Brown vs Board of eduacation
• power

Argument:

Lawrence argues that in the courts decision regarding Brown vs. Board, they did not recognize (or chose not to recognize) the true nature behind segregation as a deeply rooted issue that is not easily destroyed.

Quotes:

"If one views the Brown case narrowly, as a case intended to desegregate the nation's schools, history has proven it a clear failure."

"Segregation's only purpose is to label or define blacks as inferior and thus exclude them from full and equal participation in society."

"Equality of education is not enough, there can be no equality under a segregated system. The American negro is not a dominant minority; therefore he must fight for complete elimination of segregation as his ultimate goal."

Tracking:Why Schools Need to Take Another Route

JEANNIE OAKES

Context/Premise:

• schools
• students
• classrooms
• high-ability
• low-ability
• learning opportunities
• differences
• alternatives

Argument:

Oakes argues that the tracking system in schools is only affective in high-abilty classrooms. Students placed in lower-ability classes are not recieving the same learning opportunities.

Evidence:

"Sterotyped as "less-able" and have fewer opportunities to learn."

"Students who are placed in high-ability groups have access to far riched schooling experiences than other students."

"Students who need more time get less, those who have the most difficulty learning seem to have fewer of the best teachers."

Other Stuff:

I don't know if i agree or disagree with the idea of tracking. Being placed in a room filled with students who are educationally on the same page as you seems right. Being in a class where students are of different abilities could hold back the higher-abled students and loose the lower-abled ones.

On the other hand, mixing everyone together could help the low-abled students stay on track. Studies have show that "as children interact with their environment, they acquire cognitive abilities", and that higher-abled students do just as well in mixed classes.

In The Service Of What?

Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

Context/ Premise:
-politics
-community service
-service learning
- schools&classrooms
-education
-support&effort
-giving&caring
-feelings

Argument:
Kahne and Westheimer argue that learning about and actually participating in community service should be brought into school systems for students to experience first hand. This could be as simple has not even coming in contact with the people, just a good changing feeling for the students. From hands on participating, students can take in more then just giving a helping hand.

Evidence:
"In addition to helping those they serve, such service learning activities seek to promite students' self-esteem, to develop higher-order thinking skills, to make use of multiple abilities, and to provide authentic learning experiences--- all goals of current curriciulum reform efforts."

"Service learning can advance other priorities, such as the acquisition of vocational skills."

"..both the motivation and joy that come from giving and the importance of altrusim."

"The most broadly supported goal for service learning activities is to convey to students the importance of charity."

Linda Christensen

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

Context/Premise:

-media
-stereotype
-Disney
-influence
-racism
-young children
-hidden message

Argument:

Christensen argues that the media portrays bad stereotypes and that children are easily influenced by these characters leaving them with bad judgments.

Evidence:

“At the age of three, these children had a set of stereotypes in place.”

“Although these stories are supposed to merely entertain us, they constantly give us a secret education.”

“Many students don’t want to believe that they have been manipulated by children’s media or advertising. No one wants to admit that they’ve been “handled” by the media.”

“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.”

Other:

I really enjoyed reading this. I know a bunch of toddlers who love watching cartoons. I never realized they could get a negative message at such a young age.

First Black Princess

I thought this was really interesting!
A new Disney movie "Princess Tiana and the Frog" is coming out in 2009 with the main character being a young girl of color. Its about time! =]

Soo i was watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show , and this totally reminded me of what our class has been talking about. On Valentines day a 15-year-old boy was murdered by a classmate. The boy who was killed was homosexual. He had asked a boy to be his Valentine and the boy killed him. It was so horrible that a boy wanted to be his Valentine that he killed him. I couldn't believe it!

Homosexuallity is stereotyped as something terrible and bad starting at such a young age. It really is sad to think about. I couldn't imagine hiding my sexuality just so someone wouldn't kill me. =(

Talking Point # 3

"Gayness, Multiculturalism and Community"

Context/Premise:

Gay
Lesbian
Straight
School
Invisible
Separate
Normal
Abnormal
Oppression
Homophobia
Democratic
Public
Silence

Argument:

Carlson argues that reinforcement in the classroom about the respect towards gender and sexuality is crucial for the change in the outside world towards the issue.


Evidence:

"Public schools in particular have often promoted such "normalizing" conceptualizations of community that are based on defining a cultural center or "norm" and positioning class, gender, race, and sexual Others at the margins."

~Carlson is saying that public schools teach children right off the bat that the “norm” in this world is to be straight. Such things as teachers expecting all children to have one mom and one dad could through off someone’s judgment.

"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..."

"For the time being, at least, this means that the public schools are caught in a dilemma over gayness, unable to please anyone, and unable to act without inviting attack from one side or the other."
~School systems don’t know what to do. Whatever they choose to do, someone will be unhappy.

Talking Point #2

Aria
Richard Rodriquez

Context/Premise:

• Children
• Parents
• School
• Languages
• Home life
• Struggles/Difficulties
• English
• Silence
• Private
• Public

Argument:

Rodriguez argues that children feel safe with the language they grow up speaking. Being forced to learn a new language changes their individuality when they completely stop using the one they have known for their whole lives.

Evidence:
“Unsmiling, ever watchful, my teachers noted my silence”
Rodriguez tells about how he didn’t like talking in class. His family mainly spoke Spanish at home so he didn’t talk in school. (“Did I somehow suspect that once I learned public language my pleasing family life would be changed?”) He was pushing off learning English because he knew that this would change his lifestyle.

“…the clash of two worlds, the faces and voices of school intruding upon the familiar setting of home.”
This was when his teachers came to talk to his parents about speaking in English because Rodriquez was so quiet. This must have been so hard for him to see that his family, his safe place, would now start talking the language he had put off.

“They do not seem to realize that there are two ways a person is individualized. 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.”


Other Stuff:

I do believe that English should be learned for people living in America. However, I think Rodriquez is right when he says “Had they been taught a second language like Spanish or French, they could have regarded it simply as that: another public language.” Children that are born and raised speaking Spanish are dramatically changed when their private language is replaced with English (the public language.) I would be a different person if my school and home life changed to a different language.

He also talks about his father and how he knew that even his dad didn’t like talking in English and was much more enthusiastic when he talked in Spanish. “In Spanish, he expressed ideas and feelings he rarely revealed in English.” It’s hard enough to notice a change in yourself never mind the notice of change in your parents.

Talking Point # 1

Context/Premise:

poor,parents,children,people of color,unhealthy,lack of medical ,drugs,
treatment,violence,death,homeless,jobless,hunger


Argument:

Goldburg and Kozol argue that the environment children live and grow up in will affect their education. Children living in hunger, violent, disease stricken areas will not recieve the proper education.

Evidence:

Goldburg:
"There are a number of ways that the American education system has broken down over the years. Far too many of today's schools are violent and far too many are filled with kids who don't care much about learning."
The importance of an education is not seen in these children's eyes, nor is it being enforced.

Kozol:
"What is it like for children to grow up here? What do they think the world has done to them? Do they believe that they are being shunned or hidden by society? If so, do they think that they deserve this?"
It must be so difficult to grow up where they are. They probably think being poor is their fault. Children always find a way to make themselves responsible.

Kozol:
"With children having to deal with things like homicide, which is clearly beyond their maturity level, it is no wonder how that affects their emotional stability."
They have to grow up faster than they should.


Other Stuff:

I think Kozol went all out. He went to New York just to have evidence of what he was trying to tell his readers. He really caught my attention right off the bat when he said "only seven of 800 children do not qualify for free school lunches. Five of those seven, get reduced-price lunches." I knew the problem was bad, but i didn't think it was this bad.

Also, when Kozol is talking with Cliffie, the little boy tells a story about how he once witnessed a boy get shot in the head and die. The young boys next thought was about a cookie. It wasn't even a big deal to him, and that is scary.

The areas children are growing up in are both dangerous and unhealthy.