Kozol

This reading connected to me, and caught my attention because it took place in New York. It was in the South Bronx, which from what I know about that part of New York, I kinda got the idea of what it was going to be like. He decided to go to the poorest, toughest and “scary” neighborhoods. Getting to know each person day by day, he learned that the rate of people that live like this is because there is a lack of caring about it. For example, one person he got to know was Alice Washington, who was HIV positive. As many know, medication for that is highly expensive and she couldn’t support herself to get that.

Overall, this reading made me open my eyes to what I have been ignoring, but not even realizing that I was doing so because of the society we live in. We are taught to ignore each other and mind your business, but really it should be the opposite.

Empowering Education

Education is something that most people take for granted because it’s so common in the United States. But when we read articles, we notice that while everyone can get a basic education in the US, it doesn’t mean that it’s effective. Most students face huge struggles with money, race and therefore that leads to the classroom because some parents implement the idea that not everyone is the same to their children at a very young age. We need to start questioning the status quo, and break the norms that are placed at such an early point in children. The idea of authority is not even from teachers anymore, it’s from the ideals placed with a classroom, and students will typically already know how to behave.

Many people make the mistake of labeling school as a place that they hate, and that should be changed because we all need to realize that school isn’t something that’s guaranteed and we are so very lucky to have such easy access to it.

The Black Panther: Social Justice Event

In the first twelve days, The Black Panther sold 700 million global tickets. Premiering in Black History Month, it was rather obvious what the main idea was. The cast was all African American, not one white cast member to be seen. Some argue that this needed to happen, others claim that this did nothing but increase the issue of diversity. Diversity means there is a range of different things. In this case, they claim that this film showed diversity because it was an all black cast, which in my opinion was breaking grounds in the movie industry.

The main idea of this film was that for the first time, there can be a cast with all black actors, not mixed or all white. It made African Americans feel confident, strong and that there was finally change happening. This idea became way bigger than many expected. This spread all over the nation and changed the idea of diversity forever. No longer will there be this idea that you have to be white to succeed and that casts should be both races, not one over the other.

Diversity has been something that the United States has been struggling with for years, in many different ways. The way I find to be most shocking is the diversity in classrooms. We have read many articles this semester where we can see that not everyone is looked at the same, treated the same, and even taught the same. For example, readings such as Kliewer discusses the importance of not separating children with special needs, and just to understand the focus that needs to be on students that need more attention. Also, “The Silenced Dialogue” is a reading that is very important to this topic. There are things that don’t need to be said for people to do. Such as the thought that if a student doesn’t understand the way something is taught in one way, they need special help and they’re “not as smart.” But that is the complete opposite of what is going on, the teacher should  be approaching different ways to teach those struggling before giving them a label. Lastly, “Speaking the Unspeakable” is important to understand that kids are all facing different things once they leave the classroom.

The world has been trying to address the issue of diversity for years, because recently it has started to affect the way some children are learning. Ctl.yale.edu discusses that the sense of belonging in a classroom is the first step to help the issue at hand. Theedadvocate.org talks about four reasons as to why we could be struggling: We are not being straight forward with the issue, were hiding from it. Teachers need to recognize and structure lessons to reflect student differences. Facilitating the process of learning overall and lastly, assimilate what they know already, and what they need to learn. The last source, Greatschools.org share statistics on this: 44% of American students today are non-white. 65 school districts nationwide have started to change the idea of diversity. They say something very important: “Economic and racial diversity in a classroom causes unstable, often dangerous educational experiences”

Overall, the outcome of changing diversity could be something that changes the United States as a country, because not everyone looks at another race as equal. Most people struggle with thinking that one race is above another, which is not the case. The Black Panther put the idea out there that things are changing, and things are going to keep changing as long as we keep trying.

Kliewer: “Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome”

“I wanted to take other classes that interested me. I had never felt so mad, I wanted to cry”

I have always felt that children and adults that have special needs should feel no different than anyone else in a school environment. When I was in high school, it was very important for my school to have multiple unified teams and make the students feel involved, as a whole community, not separated. This article was very interesting to read, considering that I have felt this way about this topic for quite a while. Even being labeled special needs is offensive, because it gives off a label that there isn’t really a need for. To be able to make this change the article says it’s about being able to listen to others deeply and be aware of who is surrounding you. Schools are supposed to be a sense of community and you are supposed to feel as if everyone there, goes for the same reasons. However, these days schools are so divided on who is learning what and what is the correct way to teach. When to me, there is no say what one student can and can’t do, if they’re correctly taught and helped. The author says that “joining disabled students with the rest of the student body equals community value in all children.” I completely agree, because the students will start to get rid of looking at students differently also, the students with special needs will start to feel better.

Literacy with an Attitude

To me, the best part about teaching is the variety that is offered all over. For example, a school in a city completely differs from a school in a small town, which is what this article proves. However, no matter where you decide to teach, I believe that you should always teach above average. But in this case, not all teachers do so. Although the school was nearly all white students, teachings were not where they need to be. Most of the teachers are from the same city but different parts, which is not something that is out of the ordinary. The way they teach, is their way, or it’s wrong. When in reality, there are usually multiple ways to approach a certain topic, and just because it’s not the way you learned it, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Educating is all about taking risks and seeing what your students can handle, and when they said things like “it’s too hard” or “this is extra work” just makes students not feel good, or that they are doing assignments for no reason. I’ve learned, from being around children, that they have an understanding for what people say, that is so much deeper than a typical person. What you teach needs an explanation and most times when it interests the child, they’ll have more interest in doing it. One quote I liked from this reading was “bring the world into the classroom” because most students don’t get introduced to how the world works until they’re older, when it should be younger.

Overall, this reading gave me another look into how some people run classrooms. Some the “right” way, and some the “wrong” way.

 

Kahne and Westheimer

“Service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom.”

This quote is something that I do agree with. Service learning is a very valuable experience, and most people leave feeling better and learning that sometimes they don’t appreciate all that they have. Not only do you help others, but you teach younger children and people that helping when you can is something you should always do. As I went through high school, I did simple, but meaningful service learning projects. One for example, was people went out and bought Christmas gifts for their “Adopt a Family” and we went and helped wrap all the gifts and then load up all the cars.

A big issue that one of the teachers decided to address with her students was homelessness. This is a very big issue in the United States that really nobody knows how to address. Children can analyze social, economic, legal and political determinants on this topic, and have a further understanding for homelessness because most people just don’t understand how someone can become homeless. When you see someone experiencing something that just doesn’t seem well, you feel compassion. That is something that needs to be taught to children because they are surrounded by people who have the same experiences until they go into a classroom. Further, this will teach children and young people to find ways to help, because making a difference is a pretty cool feeling at such a young age. There are many things in this world that children don’t understand so this topic needs to be stemmed from the ideals of who is rich, and who is poor. This lesson can take them throughout their lives successfully, if it is brought up and put across correctly.

Speaking the Unspeakable

This reading is one that really caught my attention. Even the title gives you an idea of how people feel about this topic. The classroom is where “childhood is nurtured and sheltered” by the teachers and administration. But when the children are at home, they face a variety of different things, because no parent raises their kid the exact same way as another parent. To me, this topic is something that today is not an avoidable conversation at all. Teachers are a big part of the children’s lives and most of the time they will go to their teacher to ask a new question, instead of their parents. Teachers can even help children understand and see sexuality. If there is a gay or lesbian teacher, they have their own space, whether with other teachers, or by themselves where they feel as if they can be themselves. However, entering a public space and being in a private area is what this reading is talking about. Children are very curious with everything and chances are, they will ask about what sexuality is or even more, ask what the word gay means. Most schools establish safe spaces for teachers and kids, so that they have somewhere they could go if they ever needed to feel safe, even my high school had them. Sexuality is a “forbidden subject” in the classroom for many reasons, such as: teachers explaining too advanced, parents getting offended that a teacher thought it was okay for them to explain this topic and most of all, the children not understanding and causing further issues. The ones who face the biggest struggles are the teachers who feel comfortable to come out to their students. They are immediately threatened with: their credibility, homophobia, social media reactions, loss of privacy, and even some schools could go as far as firing the teacher because they came out. In my opinion, this topic could be discussed in the classroom, but parents need to be aware of this conversation before the children go home and tell their parents, as most kids do.

Christensen Reading

As I read every reading, it becomes more and more clear how media is constantly influencing everything around the world. When we are doing something the first thing everyone does is post on facebook, instagram, twitter or snapchat. And it is most certainly not influencing one age group, it has even started spreading to little kids, which honestly blows me away. Society teaches them how to act, live and dream, it is the hidden education. From such a young age, they are shaped into who they can and should be as a person, and I couldn’t disagree with this more. There is such an importance in having a childhood where you play outside and use your imagination, but kids are not experiencing this at all. While there were many quotes that stuck out to me, the one that says “the impact of racism begins early.” Not realizing the meaning behind this until it was explained, I finally understood. Little girls don’t see the differences of race and they are automatically influenced to believe so many things from the “fairy-tales” they read about. “They win because of their beauty and their fashionable attire.” Almost all of these stories they’ll interact with are male-dependent and teach girls that the final step to their lives is the happily ever after, with the prince. Which is the furthest from true. However, time and time again these flaws are noticed, and pointed out but there is still little to no action being made, which defeats the whole idea. Children are fueled by the idea that at such a young age, they can teach someone something that they didn’t realize or have never seen before.

“Why Can’t She Remember That?”

In this article, Terry Meier talks about the importance of introducing children to education at an early age. As I was reading the article, it became extremely prevalent that the children who had been introduced to such a simple thing as being read too, progressed at a higher rate. The overall population of public schools is 40% children of color, which is how it was introduced that children learn language in more ways then just in the classroom. For example, children will learn language in culturally specific ways. Between the children who learn in different ways, and those who were introduced to reading at a young age, show no real differences, they just show differences in verbal interactions. However, children are very quick thinkers and adapters, they don’t typically see the bad in life but they certainly know how to adapt to a lot of different situations. What I found most interesting about this article was that the children who had someone reading to them at a young age, were able to have a much stronger vocabulary because they can recognize sounds that seem similar to what they have heard. From what’s around children they can learn gender roles, family relations and  cultural lessons because they are able to pick up on little things that most people would not be able to see. Just the idea that reading is such a simple thing, and it can help children so much, but people do not even realize this. Without it, they learn certain things in very different ways, such as: learning culture through experiences, observing other peoples behavior and they become overall unsure with reading and the environment children are in when reading. Meaning, they will have a difficult time sitting still and being quiet. The name of this article comes from a little girl not understanding a reading environment. Teachers will often ask questions to the group, when they obviously already know the answer. But this have proven that, multilingual children are not used to adults asking something they already know, which makes sense. Reading to children can present some issues, like catching their interest. The article offers this advice: book choice has to compel the children, relate to their lives and most importantly, establish what behaviors are expected and what behaviors are not allowed during the reading time of the day. Most of all, make the reading exciting. Use different voices, because using one monotone voice will make the kids tired and bored. Early reading for children is very easy to detect, and those who have been exposed can have an easier time in the years of education that is coming.

“The Silenced Dialogue”

In this article, written by Lisa Delpit, talks about what seems to be left out in conversations, how to educate children of color. More times than not, teachers will make the mistake that if one type of teaching works for a majority of his/hers class, it will work for the entirety of the classroom, which is a mistake. When I first started reading this article, I was not sure if I was going to agree with the overall focus of it because at first it was saying how when the topic was brought up, white people didn’t listen and if they were listening, they weren’t actually hearing what was being said. But as the article continued, I started to agree with the points that were being made, such as: the five issues of power. The one that really jumped off the page at me was the fifth one, about those who have power aren’t aware of it’s existence. I find that to be very true, because while someone on the outside can notice that the power is very obvious to a persons character, the one who has the power if often very blind to it. However, in my opinion, teachers for example could be very aware that they have power because they are the oldest in the classroom and have control over the children. To me, this oblivion to power depends on the person and the job that they have. My favorite quote in the article is “To provide schooling for everyone’s children that reflects  liberal, middle-class values is to ensure the maintenance of the status quo, to ensure that power, the culture of power, remains in the hands of those who already have it.” The reason I like this quote so much is because it’s proof that teaching the same way for every students ensures that those who have power are staying that way, but to me, I think a teacher should be able to switch up the way he/she teaches every week to see what works best for students and for the class as a whole. If we get all issues on the table, we can address them the correct way and also fix the dialogue that has been silenced. Most of all, seeking perspectives of those who are left out or completely differ from the typical response, is one the best ways to learn about things that are completely unaddressed. Those responses will take us to a whole new level on working to fix things.