Education is Politics (Quotes)

The article “Education is Politics” by Shor was very interesting and I loved reading it. I have always thought that this was the best way to teach. Open-ended questions and allowing the children to think on their own provides a deeper level of understanding and the children get more out of it because they believe they are actually learning rather than being told information. I know many teachers believe that providing information for students is the best way for them to learn, but that’s all they are really doing. Putting out information and hoping that it sticks. There were a few quotes that really stood out to me and I believe that all teachers should be aware of these things.

The first quote that stood out to me was “children naturally join the world around them” pg. 5. This is something that I have been constantly taught from my education program at high school. Children learn through play. It is very important for children to be exposed to different situations because it can simulate a real-life connection. This will open up the students mind to new experiences and allow them to grow. Teachers need to be aware that they are the ones providing this environment, so they need to encourage the students to work in it.

The second quote that I thought was important is “many withdraw from intellectual work because they are told so much and asked to think and do so little” pg. 6. I have actually never thought it this way. Of course we are forced to believe that people drop out simply because they do not want to put in the effort of learning, but some people may drop out because they do not feel like they are being challenged enough. This is very interesting because all students should be challenged and should question the material they are learning. If they are just handed information and are told to absorb it, then they are not actually learning. Students need to think about the information, relate it to the real world so they know it actually has relevance, and question whether that information is actually crucial to their life.

Another topic I just want to touch upon really quickly is standardized testing. I think that is an awful way to learn because rather than making sure children benefit from the things they are learning, the teachers are mainly preparing them for the testing they have to take. And obviously that is not the choice they would be making but are forced to. The picture I added above was a picture I also included in my social justice event blog because it is one of the posters they had up on the wall and it was the picture that really stuck with me. I think it has such a powerful message behind it.

The last quote that stood out to me was “problem-posing increases their ability to participate, because they can begin critical reflection in their own context and their own words” pg. 18. I think this quote is a good summary of the message behind this article. Once students are faced with problems, they have to use what they know to and find a solution. However, everyone has a different level of understanding of different topics so obviously people will have different solutions to these issues. I believe that all teachers should allow students to think about topics on their own and encourages them to share their thoughts so others can talk about why thy agree or disagree. It builds a community in the classroom and gets students excited about learning.

I can relate this article to “Literacy with an Attitude” by Patrick J. Finn. While he does mention all the levels of schools he discusses how children/students should also be able to make a connection to what they are learning because if they are not then they have no interests in the material and will not learn the things they need to.

Below is a video about the importance of student-centered learning:

Promising Practices: Social Justice Event

I attended the Promising Practices event on Saturday, November 4th. It was a conference that was held in Donovan Dining Center and the workshops were mainly in Gaige Hall. We had some breakfast and were given some opening remarks and then everyone dispersed into the workshop that they had chosen. I went to Workshop A which was Identity and Social Location Room. The workshop discussed issues about race, class, culture, gender and religion. It focused on the stereotypes surrounding these topics and how they are still relevant in our society today. We walked into the room and were greeted by the head of the program and 3 younger students who were later going to lead the workshop. The students were in high school (sophomore and junior year) and were part of a Youth and Action program offered at their school. The activity we would do was something that they do as part of their program. There were posters all over the boards in the classroom and they were of cartoons or posts people have made on social media.

We all went around the room and introduced ourselves, said our names and one thing that would use to identify who we are. After that we broke the activity up into 4 rounds. The first round we had to go around and look at the posters and just read them or figure out the meaning behind them. The second round we took sticky notes and a pen and wrote down what came to our minds as we looked at them. We didn’t have to do it for all of them, just whatever sparked our interest. There was a poster that had a screenshot of what came up in images when someone googled “three black teenagers” and they were basically all mugshots so I left a comment asking “I wonder what would happen if you googled three white teenagers?” The third round we would go around and comment back on other people’s comments and see what everyone thought and if we agreed or if we had anything else to add. It was basically like replying to someone’s comment. Someone commented on my post-it with an arrow that pointed to one picture in the google search that showed three white teenagers standing next to each other holding sports equipment. I just thought “of course that would be what comes up.” The fourth round we actually went around and talked to the people that were part of the workshop and had conversations about the posters. 

We got together at the end as a whole group and discussed what we all thought and somethings that affected us personally or somethings that we see in everyday life. The entire time we were there I kept thinking about how the things we talked about relate to the things we discuss in our classroom, especially since this was right after we did presentations on stereotypes in television shows. It also relates to the overall theme of our class which is S.C.W.A.M.P. and how all of those themes are valued more in our society. Some of the pictures that were used as posters were actually some pictures that people have used in blog posts or in the PowerPoint presentation on television shows. Another article I can relate this workshop to is “Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us” by Christensen because we were discussing stereotypes, we grow up learning these stereotypes from the world around us and how we can make a change for future children to not believe these things. 

After the workshop ended, we moved into the auditorium to a keynote speech that was given by Lisa McBride. Her presentation was focusing on how innovating diversity and empowering leaders are necessary for a successful learning environment. She talks about inclusive excellence and how all schools should depend on the diversity of their students and staff and the inclusion of that diversity in all aspects of the school because once all genders, races, religions, class, and cultures are accepted and valued, people begin to have what I think would make a better education.

This article is almost a quick summary of what Lisa McBride discussed in her speech

McBride’s presentation reminded me of the article “The Silenced Dialogue” by Lisa Delpit. She talks about the importance in diversity in the classroom and how teachers should encourage all races to participate in the class.

This is because people come from all different backgrounds and experience different things in their lives so to hear new ideas or points of view on a subject can help a person understand the world around them. Even if two people share the same gender and religion and race, that does not mean that they believe the same things or think the same way. This is because all people have multiple titles that represent who they are. Those two people could have been raised in a different social class so their lives could have been extremely different even though their share some of the same qualities. It’s important to listen to what other people have to say, even if you do not agree, there could still be something to gain from what they are saying. The only way we can do this though is to recognize that people have differences, accept them and move on to discovering new things. 

Citizenship in School (Quotes)

In the article “Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome” by Kliewer, he discusses how students with Down Syndrome are segregated from their school because of their disability. They are put in different classrooms, “Special Education”, and are taught differently from their peers since people have stereotyped people with Down Syndrome to be less intelligent or difficult to work with in a classroom with other students. Throughout the article, Kliewer tells the story of many different students with Down Syndrome and some quotes really stood out to me.

The first quote is said by Colleen, a lead teacher in a classroom. She says “So I guess what I’m arguing is that if you did pick Lee out, you wouldn’t be seeing Lee. It’s not Lee you’re picking out. It’s your stereotype, your mind-set. It’s you, it has nothing to do with Lee.” (pg. 8) She was saying this because if a person was to go in the classroom and pick out the student with special needs, they shouldn’t pick out Lee based on his appearance. Even though he does have Down Syndrome, if you were to work with him, you would see that he is just as intelligent as the rest of the students. To pick him out would mean that you are focusing on the stereotype rather than the person he actually is.

Another quote that I thought was important is “They’re different in terms of what their bodies are like, how they best communicate, what they’re like socially, their interests.” (pg. 8-9) This was said by another teacher named Shayne Robbins. She was describing the three students in her classroom that had Down Syndrome and how they all act differently. Just like all students, they do things differently, interact with people differently and for a teacher to say there is a specific way to teach students with Down Syndrome would just be wrong. If they learn differently, then there is no one way to teach them. I believe teachers should find different ways to teach the material to their students because everyone learns in different ways and to segregate students with Down Syndrome and put them in a separate classroom and teach a specific way that should stereotypically help them all would not work. This is because they are all different.

The last quote that really struck a chord with me is, “I have Down Syndrome, but I am not handicapped.” (pg. 12) This was said in the school newspaper by a student named Christine who had Down Syndrome. She was talking about another student at a different school who was not allowed to go into the school simply because she had Down Syndrome. Christine was saying that just because she had this condition, did not mean that she was not allowed an education. Just because someone was born differently or their bodies treat them differently, it does not mean they are restricted from doing everything. Sometimes some things are difficult but that does not mean they can’t go through life. In this case, a person was being deprived of an education because it was believed that she would not succeed. I think any student has the ability to thrive as long as they are given the chance to.

I can relate this article to S.C.W.A.M.P. and the privileges of able-bodied people. Like I have mentioned before in this blog, students with Down Syndrome should be in classrooms with other students and not separated just because of a condition they have. Many of them are able to learn just fine with other students, and if not can be given tools to help them learn. Like in one of the stories mentioned in the article, a boy was unable to communicate his thoughts well so the teacher would use sign and eventually he caught on and was able to communicate and his tantrums lessened.

Below I have linked a video of a girl with Down Syndrome who talks about how they should be treated the same way as other students in a classroom.

“Literacy with an Attitude” Reflection

In chapters 2, 13, and 14 of “Literacy with an Attitude” by Patrick J. Finn, he discusses the many layers of schooling based on economic and social class. I wanted to write a reflection on this article since it was something that I was not aware of. Obviously not all schools work the same way, which is a result of many different variables, like the amount of money the school has, the quality of teachers, location of the school, etc. And every school has some teachers that are more effective than others, but when Finn was discussing the working-class schools, it seemed as though all the teachers collectively taught the same way. The students struggled to pay attention or simply did not care, so the teachers gave them minimal amounts of work and expected very little of them. I would understand that after years of dealing with students that did not want to learn, the teacher would also lose the will to teach. However, how is a student supposed to benefit from this? The teacher should find new ways of passing on the material that would keep the children engaged and motivated and I think the best way to do this is to find out what their interests are and relate the lesson to that. This way they get a real-world connection too and they realize that the material is actually useful.

One thing that bugged me that Finn mentioned in ch. 2 was that the teachers would just tell students what to do but not tell them what they were doing it for so they were basically doing work without knowing what the relevance of it is. In chapter 13, he shows pictures in a book and one of the pages has lyrics to a well-known song and it’s good because the students in those working-class schools will be able to learn how to read the words that go along with the song they already know.

A reoccurring statement that came up was what the students would say when asked “What is knowledge?” and it was interesting to see what the students from different schools would say because the middle-class and higher used more words and more of them believed you could make knowledge. It was also interesting to see that working class students were basically handed information and hoped that they would retain something if possible, so barely anything was expected of them. The middle-class students all had the belief that they had to do good in school (by answering fill-in-the-blank questions, or more or less close ended questions) and then go to college to get a higher education and a job. And the high-class students or “affluent professional/executive elite” students are given the opportunity to think for themselves and are asked open-ended questions where they are able to explore new ideas and the world around them.

“No-one has ever changed the world by doing what the world has told them to do” -A quote from the video below

Becoming Something Different

In the article “Becoming Something Different” by Colleen Fairbanks, Penny Mason Crooks, and Mary Abigail, they tell a story about a a girl named Esmé Martinez and her journey through school and life from the 6th grade to 11th. She considered herself to be a “kind of smart” student which is great because even though it may have been hard for her to learn a new language, she wasn’t letting that stop her from getting an education. She did very well in cosmetology school, which is why I think it is important for all students to have an experience in a vocational school, because they get a more job related education and actually learn about a subject that interests them before they have to jump in to the real world.

Since Esmé’s cultural background was not the same as the majority, she felt as though the school did not value her, which is always disheartening for a student because if a student feels as though they belong, or have a place in the school, then it will be less difficult for them to succeed. She did struggle academically, but she used the world around her to help her grow and learned from friends, parents, and teachers which all played a role in shaping her into the student she became. I think that any person, no matter the background or language barrier, has room to learn and become an excellent student, as long as they are provided the right tools and teaching methods that will help them learn. They also need to have patience because learning new things will take time so they just need to realize that they will eventually reach the point of where they want to be since it is not something that will happen overnight and as long as they keep striving for the goal and reminding themselves of what it is, then everything will go their way.

This article reminded me a lot of “Hunger of Memory” by Richard Rodriguez. It was actually the first thing that came to mind as I began to read this article. It is because both Richard and Esmé have similar struggles of speaking Spanish at home and making the transition to speaking English in school. They both had pressures on them to find a balance between the two worlds and somehow integrate them together so they don’t lose one of the other.

Below is a video that discusses strategies that can be used to support dual-language learners in an early childhood classroom: (skip to 27 seconds) I think this video is very helpful for the service learning project that we are doing because we can see what our teachers are doing to help the students learn.

“The Problem We All Live With” Quotes

I like that we get to listen to podcasts for this weeks blog post because you get to hear the emotion and emphasis that people use while speaking that cannot always be translated over text. This is why I think it is nice to also watch videos that relate to the topic because a visual is added on top of the emotion. Anyways, these podcasts discussed the issues involved with segregation of schools. Even though this was an issue that our country faced many years ago, it is still relevant and existent in our society today. Which is terrible because even with all the advancements we have made in society, we still have on going issues that need to be solved. This is alright though, because there are always going to be problems, but as long as something is actively being done to fix it, then it is okay.

One quote that stood out to me was “She almost didn’t graduate because the school lost track of her credits.” This is just completely ridiculous because the rest of the student’s life basically depended on graduating so if the school could not stay organized enough to keep her credits together, then how were they providing education for all the children that were attending the school? A little after they discussed this, the same student mentioned how she had to bring the invitation to a special breakfast because she knew they might mess up some how, and when they did not call her name, she had to show the invitation to prove that she was supposed to be there. This all just seems awful to me that a school would be this disorganized because their job to provide students with the best education, where it seems here like there was no way a good education was given to the students.

Another quote that upset me was “Can I just mention that during desegregation, this is what parents did? They put their kids on the bus to go integrate the schools, and they followed behind because they needed to make sure their kids were OK.” Like that is just so sad because parents were so worried that their children were going to be hurt on the way to school that they had to follow the bus that was bringing them to an all-white school. I understand at the time things between different races was very violent and aggressive, but imagine having to follow the school bus and worrying that your child was going to get hurt at school? Schools should be a safe environment where students can grow and become wonderful people, but that sadly was not the case. And even in today’s society with all the shootings, schools still are not a safe environment, but I won’t get started on that because that is another topic for another day.

One quote that made me happy was “It was great, because I never expected to have a long term friend like that.” Mah’Ria was talking about a girl named Brittany who said hi to her on the first day of school and wanted to get to know her and became her friend. This is was weird for her because she was not expecting a white person to be so kind to her so quickly but it was nice to see that even when times were bad in all of society, on the smaller scale, you can still find people who are very accepting.

These podcasts reminded me of Johnson’s article because he talks about some people are scared of or fear what they do not know, because in this case, the white parents who did not want black students being moved into the white schools were just upset because they did not know how the education system would change. Many white people did not even interact with black people, they just assumed that they were bad based off of societal standards and did not get to know who they actually were.

Below is a video of an interview where they discuss ways of solving segregation in schools:

In the Service of What? (Quotes)

   

I really enjoyed reading “In the Service of What?” by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer. I have always thought that community service and service learning were not only great ways to help a community grow but to also help students learn and understand the world around them. In high school, I had to complete 20 hours of community service in order to graduate. We had to give a brief description of what we did and what we gained from the experience. I just helped out at my church festivals and got my hours done that way, but after reading this article, I kind of regret not doing more in my community.

Some of the quotes really stood out to me as I was reading, one of them being “The experiential and interpersonal components of service learning activities can achieve the first crucial step toward diminishing the sense of “otherness” that often separates students” (pg. 8) This quote relates to the story being told about how students did a service learning project in a bad neighborhood, but after being there, they realized that it wasn’t as bad as the media and their families made it out to be. Students were surprised that the kids they worked with were very friendly and well behaved. This shows that with some exposure, students are able to break down stereotypes they hear because they now have first hand experience. It allows the students to feel closer to one another which will translate into their future.

Another quote that I thought was extremely important was, “We try to see the homeless man, the hungry child, and the dying woman as the people they are, not the means to some political end” (pg. 10) This quote is at the end of a longer paragraph that discusses how students are curious about people and other’s lives and want to learn how other people are dealing with their lives before they go into the “real world.” Students are not trying show people they are better just because they are helping out, but are doing it in order to learn.

The last quote that I think makes a good point is, “The effect could become even greater if students discussed the possible causes of these rumors and their impact.” (pg. 12) Many times students complete their service learning and either write a quick description of their experience or discuss it with their classmates. This quote is saying that it make a bigger impact if the students actually talk about why there is a stereotype (like where did it stem from?) and what is happening because of that stereotype (how are those people’s lives effected?). It’s good to talk about each other’s experiences but it would be nicer to talk about what can be done to make to make those experience’s better.

I can relate this reading to “Will it Help the Sheep?” by Lisa Delpit because in that article, she talks about the importance of teachers in students lives and how teachers should always push the students to better things and here they can encourage the students to out and participate in service learning activities to gain a better understanding of the world around them.

Below is a video about ways to make the world a better place:

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us (Reflection)

The article “Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us” by Christensen discusses how influencing cartoons can be towards children’s ideas of the world around them. Cartoons have so many stereotypes in them that are not very noticeable at first, but that is also because we have become numb to them and cannot distinguish the issues brought up. I have always been aware that there are problems in cartoons but it wasn’t until I was reading this article that I realized just how many stereotypes are actually in cartoons. The primary stereotyped cartoon are Disney princesses and usually they are saved by a handsome prince and that just gives young girls the idea that they need to have a man in their life that will make everything better for them when really they just need to be independent and have faith that they can take care of themselves. Also it puts a lot of pressure on men to take care of themselves and the women they end up with which should not be something they need to do. Characters that are overweight typically are portrayed as “buffoons” that are incapable of doing anything. Poor people are viewed as slaves and people that have to take care of people who have tons of money.

I could go on and on about the several different stereotypes that are in children’s cartoons but the main point is that children are heavily influenced by the things they watch. Especially in a time period where media is a huge part of our lives, it is extremely important that children get a positive view on all different body types, genders, social status, and races rather than believing that one is superior to the other.

The article I have linked below is about women becoming animators and breaking down how stereotypes are built in the way a character is drawn:

Female animators break down cartoon-women stereotypes

The video below is about how television can affect children’s ideas on gender:

“Speaking the Unspeakable” Argument

The article “Speaking the Unspeakable” collaboratively written by Alexandra Allan, Elizabeth Atkinson, Elizabeth Brace, Renée DePalma, and Judy Hemingway discusses how LGBTQ+ topics are not always brought up in schools but they are important topics to talk about. The authors argue that subjects like lesbian and gay relationships should be open for discussion in a classroom setting. It is best to start these kinds of discussions when children are young so it not such a huge deal for them once they get older. I know I personally did not know about gay relationships even existing until I was in middle school: 1. because my family never talked about it and 2. because it was never brought up in school by teachers. I’ll be honest, I did find it weird at first and many other students were making fun of it, but that has to do with never being aware of these types of differences. However, unlike many other people I accepted it and moved on because it is just a normal part of life and should not be argued. Teachers should not be afraid to have these types of discussions in their classrooms, even though I do understand why they are hesitant. Some parents feel as though it is their job to talk about this but that is because they want to have control of the conversation and be aware of what their child knows. Now, its not a bad thing for a parent to want to know what their child knows, but I believe parents should let the child think for them-self and develop their own opinion rather than be forced to think a certain way. Some parents do not want their children to be exposed to different beliefs, which again is completely understandable, however children should be exposed to new ideas to help them grow as people, and to help them understand the world they live in. If they are not exposed at a young age, they will become resistant to accepting the new information once they are older.

I think it is crucial for people to realize that children are very open-minded and take in new ideas very well. They are accepting of new information even though they may be resistant at first – but this is because they are just starting to understand the world around them so it can be hard for them to wrap their head around this influx of new information. However, shortly afterwards, they will become accepting and quickly move on to a new topic. I may not have described this as clearly as I could but the videos below can help show some examples on how children view new topics.

This is a video on some children’s opinions on gay marriage:

This video is some of the same children from the last video’s opinion on gay marriage becoming legal in the United States:

“Why Can’t She Remember That?” (Hyperlink)

I read “Why Can’t She Remember That?” by Terry Meier. I found this article extremely interesting. One of my absolute favorite parts about teaching preschoolers is reading stories at meeting time. I love getting the children to interact with the story. I like changing voices to differentiate characters, using props to enhance the story, and asking open-ended questions. Its important to keep children engaged and bring the story to life. A teacher that Meier mentions in her article used an actual bell any time a character rang the door bell. That is an excellent way of keeping the child’s attention and drawing them into the story. I think asking open-ended questions is very important because it allows the child to begin to have a deeper understanding of the text because they are thinking about what is happening.

The article talks about asking “silly” questions repeatedly like “How many mittens are in this picture?” and one child responds “Why can’t she remember that?” which shows that child knows the answer and is confused as to why the teacher keeps asking, but that is because none of the students are raising their hands to answer. I have not had experience working with multicultural, multilingual students in a classroom so this article is very helpful in giving tips on how to engage those students in stories. I never realized that some cultures do not use books for storytelling so it can be difficult for them to stay engaged in the story. The author brings up another point that it is important to have cultural representations in stories so all children feel as though they are relevant and are just as important as another race. If all stories were written about white people, children of color would not connect with the story as well and vice versa. It’s critical that students have a character in which they can relate to so they realize their problems are just as important. In my own reading of stories, I find it more enjoyable when I relate to character, whether it be through a physical trait or a personal struggle, and I want to continue the story rather than lose interest in the beginning.

The link below is for an article that has some more tips on how to engage children during storytelling. I think there is a wonderful connection between stories and real life and children should have an exciting relationships with books.

Easy Ways to Engage Children During Story Time

This video below is an example of storytelling that will keep the children engaged. She reads the entire story first and then goes over some of the strategies that she used to enhance the read aloud.