Education Is Politics

Since middle school I have learned to dread my classes throughout the day. No longer were my school days fun and interesting. Instead I was forced to live a life of bulleting and highlighting. Instead of being able to show creativity and imagination in school I was now limited to the studying of certain materials and then being tested on said materials. I feel as though this played into the Shore reading "Education is Politics". As I mentioned earlier since middle school I have been forced to just sit there and listen to my teachers and then when it came time to be tested, spit out the information like a puppet. And the only thing that changed through the years is the length of the class. Sadly while working at the Mary Fogarty school I have witnessed the same exact same thing happening.

As I sit there with my small group I watch on as the teacher stands in front of the class teaching her students the basics of math. But all why this is happening the students are either fidgeting with their fingers or the pencils in their desk. And personally I feel it’s because they are learning the same exact thing every day for weeks on end and as stated in the reading,  "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."

     This reading reminded me a lot of the movie "The Freedom Writer's". I think it reminds me of this movie because a lot of this reading had to do with the participation of the students in the class lecture and the stimulus of their brains. And when Ms. Gruwell introduced games and field trips and other things into her lectures she really got a large amount of participation.

   

Sexual Assault On Campus

 


      Recently I attended the Social Justice event 'Sexual Assault on Campus" in order to complete my requirement for this class. But what started out as just a simple assignment ended up turning into a major eye opener.
      Sadly although I cannot remember the name of the speaker that day I can tell you she was one in a million. She was a educated woman who had graduated college and began working with the police. But as the time went on I learned she was so much more. She was in a wonderful domestic partnership, she was making decent money, and she was also a victim of sexual assault. From first sight I would never have guessed, she seemed calm and seemed as though she had no worries, but it was through this amazing woman that I learned that sexual assault is everywhere. Even here at RIC.
     She began by asking us certain questions based around rape. She asked if we knew what it was and if we had been effected by it in any way. Once she got a census she began her seminar with the idea of power, and its connection to rape. This idea reminded me of Johnson's "Privilege, Power, and Difference" reading. I say this because as defined by law rape is forcible sexual relations with a person against that person's will. And as described in Johnson's reading people who have power  tend remain in power while the other's whether they be a different race, class, gender, etc. are oppressed. And in the case of rape the attacker has all the control in the situation and sadly the victim's are oppressed.
      Next she went into some of the statistics of sexual assault on campus. Did you know that it is estimated that 1 in every 4 woman who attend college will be sexually assaulted by the time they graduate. And out of those statistics 9 out of every 10 women will know their attacker.(http://www.nsvrc.org/saam/campus-resource-list) With these statistics came a sad story. Out of the audience a young woman stood up and shared her story of how she herself had been a victim of rape. And instead of being arrested and thrown out of college, the young man who committed the crime was allowed to continue attending college and was even allowed to be in the same classes as her. While she was sharing this horrific story I kept thinking of the "Amazing Grace" reading by Kozol. Just like what happened to the people in the reading, the young woman was viewed as powerless and the institution continued to oppress her by not properly dealing with the situation, and in the end causing her to suffer. After doing some research I found a similar situation that occurred at another institution. Like the young lady described earlier Margaux J. a student at Indiana University was forced to deal with the fact that her college "not only harbors rapists, but also disregards, ignores and fails women." when her attacker was allowed to continue attending the college.(http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Few-consequences-for-students-accused-of-rape-3198253.php)(http://www.publicintegrity.org/2010/02/24/4361/sexual-assault-campus-margaux-j-interview-part-i-0) (http://www.publicintegrity.org/2010/02/24/4361/sexual-assault-campus-margaux-j-interview-part-i-0)
     And finally this presentation reminded me of one last reading and that was "SCWAMP" by Lesley Grinner. I made the connection to this reading by discovering that it is because of the way our society values things such as gender, religion and other things that these victims are forced to live a life of oppression.
     And it is through this seminar and through the readings that I have learned of the fallacies victims of sexual assault are forced to face. Through oppression and views of society these victims go are faced with nothing but an uphill battle while sadly their aggressors walk free.

Respect: Pass it on

Shown above are my two cousins Allister (left) and Addison (right) on their way to a RESPECT conference.

 

Since a very young age I have been exposed to the idea of respecting everyone and anyone no matter their race, religion, sexuality, or in this case number of chromosomes. What I mean by this is that people with down syndrome actually have an extra 21 chromosome, which makes them the way they are. And I'm happy to say that I'm blessed with not only one but two amazing people in my family that live with this syndrome.

By no other means but coincidence two people on my mother's side live with down-syndrome. One is my mother's brother (Uncle Jay) and the other is my cousin Amy's daughter Addison. So you can say I can relate really well to the whole concept of respecting everyone.

While reading the  document "Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome" by Kliewer I realized that all I could make was connections. For example on the very first page it mentioned the negative stereotypes given to people living with down syndrome. The idea that just because they are different and take a little while to understand certain things they are stupid. And personally that couldn't be anywhere farther from the truth. For instance ever since  was little I have been going to my grand parents house every Saturday and given that my uncle lives with them I see him quite often. And every time I see him he never fails to impress me with his intense knowledge of every fact about the Muppets, and his ability to sing every song from every Disney Channel original Movie. And if you were a Disney fan you would know just how many movies there were. And even with my cousin Addison, at just 13 years old her reading ability is amazing and to be honest probably exceeds mine.

And even when it comes to education I have witnessed first hand the grouping and set schedules children with down syndrome are forced to face. For instance since elementary school I have been in class with a young boy named Matthew. And even though Matt is ranked higher in intelligence than many children who have down syndrome, I watched as he and the other children with special needs came to school and sat in the same class room every single day, unable to decide which classes they wanted to take. And even though I understand that the Bristol-Warren School District has one of the best special education departments I don't feel as though we should group them like mentioned in the Oak's reading and force them to deal with a life of set schedules.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDt_T-_-QPs

Above is a link to a video pertaining to Karen Gaffney, a young woman with down syndrome showing that even though she has this disorder she can function and thrive just as well as everyone else.
                                               

Should Children Be Grouped?

In the reading "Tracking: Why School's Need to Take Another Route" by Jeannie Oaks the controversial topic of grouping kids comes into play. Now by tracking and grouping certain children, it is said that there are both advantages and disadvantages. However I only see disadvantage. For instance in the reading it mentions that tracking "locks most kids into classes where they are stereotyped as "less able". And by doing this I feel as though it puts everyone at a disadvantage because they are now stuck and unable to be challenged. This reminded me of the video "Between Barack and a Hard Place" because in the film the speaker mentioned how children of black or Hispanic background were placed in lower ranking classes than him just because they were not white. And because of this they were viewed as less able and maybe less intelligent.

Another quote I found interesting was "A number of studies have found that top-classes spend more class time on learning activities and less on discipline, socializing, and class routines." I found this to be important because all though in some classes of lower standards there are disciplinary issues, teachers should always make it their main priorities to teach the students, and should find a way to still have stable order of the classroom. And finally "What about average kids? The quality of classes for average students usually falls somewhere between the high and low-class extremes" I feel as though this is really important because being an average kid myself I realized that many of my fellow class mates who were in higher ranking classes were asked to do more and were given more independence, and with kids in lower ranking classes, they were babies their whole way through high school. But with the average kids we were stuck in some awkward stage of life where there was either too much of one thing and too little of another and it eventually became frustrating! So overall though I believe this reading made some good points I feel as though by tracking and grouping children only harm can be done.

Identity in the Classroom

     After reading the article "Becoming Something Different' by Fairbanks, Crooks, and Ariail, I felt as though it connected really well with the readings we have done without the semester. For instance it connected really well to the readings of "Aria" and an "Indians Father's Plea". I think this because throughout the study on Esmé she was faced with similar situations that occurred to the young boy in "Aria" and from Wind-Wolf in "An Indian Father's Plea". However I feel as though this reading had more of a personal connection to me. Like many of you I am faced with a lot of diversity in our tutoring classrooms. And in mine I have witnessed first hand a young boy change from who he is in order to fit in. On the first day of tutoring I was asked to work with some students who had trouble working on some basic math problems. One was Rico(alias). Now Rico had moved here from Spain over the summer and really hadn't picked up on much over the past couple months. However after working with him through out the weeks I began to notice slight changes in him. What started off as getting new shoes, and a unique hair cut, eventually led to a big change in behavior and I watched as this sweet boy turned into a very agitated, mean young man. He stopped paying attention in class and when he would work with me had little to no interest in focusing. But last Tuesday while I was working with him, he seemed to open up. And began telling me how he was getting picked on for his accent, and the way he dressed, and he actually apologized for the way he had been acting. After this I went up and talked to the teacher and she had let me know how she was dealing with the situation and what was being done to make sure Rico was happy in the classroom.

     Now even though I will never experience what its like to change my culture in order to fit in, by working with Rico I managed to see just how big of an effect it can have on a young child.

 

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=latino+students+in+the+class+room&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=5CBBE4B8902F96EE80BD5CBBE4B8902F96EE80BD
In the video above it talks about the importance of affirming identity inside the classroom.

The Talk On Racism

   
     After watching the two videos I really found that the "Between the Barack and a Hard Place:Challenging Racism, Privilege, and Denial played a huge role in the various readings we have been doing. From the very beginning of the presentation the speaker made amazing points towards the battle of racism. For instance one that I really enjoyed was when he said the excuse of "Some of my best friends are black...". I really enjoyed this because he mentioned that just because you have friends that are black, it does not mean that racism does not exist. In addition to this idea he mentioned a study that had been conducted where 75% of Americans stated that they had many black friends. And in correlation to the term "many" is the idea of 4 or more. So that would mean that 142 million white people would have at least 4 friends who were black but at the time of the poll there were only about 35 million black people in the country, so this poll would be viewed as very inconclusive.
     In addition to this, the speaker also mentioned that people of color were usually placed in lower ranking classes while children of Caucasian background were usually placed in higher ranking classes despite their academic ability.He also mentioned a study in which 626 white students keep a journal for 6 weeks and were asked to report every sign of racism they saw. And after the six weeks there was a total of 7500 accounts of real racism recorded. ( http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/01/12/reid.race.lessons/) And it is from these different experiences that I can connect this video to Idea's like SCWAMP where whiteness is the prominent factor over other  races.
     Furthermore another thing that I found extremely interesting was a study where a black man and a white man both went to the same doctors with the same symptoms, occupations, and insurance. Yet received different diagnostics and prognostics. And in the case of the white male, there were almost immediate treatments, where as with the black male the treatments were different and seemed to be spread out further. And also when it comes to black students, 14 studies show that they were 2-3 times more likely to be suspended over white kids, even if they committed the same act. These incidents remind me of McIntosh's reading "White Privilege" where people who are white are treated better than people of color.
      In conclusion I feel as though these videos played in perfectly with what we are learning in class. Especially the idea that even though we may not be racist ourselves, by remaining silent we are no better than the ones making the racist remarks. And also the absurd idea that just because we have a black president all racism in the world is gone. For the only way to end racism and inequality is to "befriend the unequal".

Service learning: In the service of what

In today age, service learning has become very prominent in local schools. 

The ability for students to get out in the world and do their part to make a difference has really become a large part of our educational norm. But as the title of the reading  "In the Service of What?"  by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer states that doesn't mean whether or not you are working at a food pantry or the senior citizens home down the street but whether or not you actually understand why you are doing it. From this reading I pulled some fairly important quotes. The first one is " In addition to helping those they serve, such service learning activities seek to promote students' self esteem, to develop higher-order thinking skills, to make use of multiple abilities and to provide authentic learning experiences- all goal of current reform efforts." I picked this quote because I felt as though it helped give a better idea as to the many benefits students get form doing these service learning projects. I firsthand can tell form my experiences of working in schools that I have learned so much from working with the kids and feel a thousand times more comfortable working with them now then I did before. In addition I feel as though I have gained so much new knolege and feel as though I know how to use these abilities to my advantage. The second quote I enjoyed was " The approach to service learning by Mr. Johnson stresses charity and the ways in which participating in service and reflection can develop students' sense of altruism." I chose this because I feel as though in today's world many children don't see the need to help anyone but themselves and by making kids, especially older ones begin helping people of less fortune without expecting anything in return, the world will become a better place. And that connects to my final quote "In contrast, much of the currant discussion regarding service learning emphasizes charity, not change."

The reason why I chose this quote is because as shown in one of the charts it states the charity is the art of giving while change has to do with the aspect of caring. And if children only focus on the idea of charity and giving I feel as though they will never reach true altruism and care about the difference they are making. And in the following link http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=service+learning+project+effects&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=7948D401E1947CB778F37948D401E1947CB778F3 it discusses the service learning project going on at Fred Becker Elementary school.

 Finally In conclusion I feel as though through service learning projects children are becoming more aware of their surroundings and how they can improve the world around them.