Education is Politics

This was an interesting reading.  When you think about how some class rooms and schools are ran, you wonder how this plays a part in it.  I remember when I was in school, we would have different clubs and associations within the school that you could belong to.  It could be math club, english club, DECA club etc.  School is a social atmosphere.  There are social activities going on to help peak the interests of different students.  This allows for all students to feel part of something if they are shy or maybe not athletic enough to participate in a school sport.  It is basically another outlet for kids.

This should also be regulated within the classroom by the teacher.  If you are not doing your work and keeping up with your grades, then you should not be allowed to participate in extra curricular activities within the school.  However sometimes that does not happen.  Teachers will just let the student slide in order for him/her to play sports or be involved in something else.  By doing this, the student is basically being left behind.  When teachers do this, they are basically sending the message that the classroom work means nothing and you do not have to try.

Teachers and administrators need to sit down and make sure that the education of the student comes first and foremost.  That playing sports or being part of a club is a privilege, not a right.  How do you think this can be accomplished.

http://prezi.com/40amnstoa9ck/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Kliewer

This is a reading about special needs children in the classroom.  Sometimes special needs kids are seen as “off” or different from a normal kid.  But what is “normal”.  There is no solid definition of what “normal” is.  In the reading, a special needs student named Isaac is having a tough time in class.  He is not acting in the manner of the other students in class.  Therefore he is moved to another classroom where his teacher,  Ms. Robbins was able to help him with his struggles.  Isaac would make noises and grunts and before it seemed from the reading that the other teachers took it as him just making simple noises.  However, Ms Robbins said it was his form of communication.  He will also act out what story he is trying to tell you.  It takes a special teacher to take the time and realize what a student with special needs is going through and how they have to communicate in a different manner than what is normally expected.

Special needs kids can unfortunately be pushed to the side and not helped as much in schools.   That is a sad fact.  These kids are smart and just need someone with patience and a positive attitude to help them communicate and excel as best as they can.

Finn- Literacy with an attitude

This was a tough read to get through.  At times I had to go back and reread a sentence that I just finished.  Not one of the most exciting reads.  However it had some good points.

I can see why people were getting upset when they said that they had to act white in order to be in the mainstream of America.  They felt like they were wronged if they did not do that.  People love their individual culture and I cant respect that.  I love my culture and if I had to move somewhere and change it, I would find it difficult.  Unfortunately in America, we have made it tough to survive and work and succeed in school if you do not understand our way of life and our language.  I am not saying it is right, but it is the way it is currently.  This does have a common reference to the Rodriquez reading we did as well.  You want to learn, but you do not want it to be in sacrifice of your own culture that you were brought up in.

There were many of times that I was sent over seas and I had absolutely no clue of the language or the culture.  Different countries have different rules and laws that you must obey.  Some of the laws that do not even exist in America that can get you in a lot of trouble if you break.  I was lucky enough to always have an interpreter with us when we were doing what we were their for provided by the government.  That made it easier on me as well as my unit.  However, if I was to move to a different country, I would make sure I learned the native language and that I knew all the rules that go with the country.  I would do this, with regard to not losing my culture as well.

Tracking: Why Schools need to take another route

 

Jeannie Oakes states that tracking in schools is inappropriate and belittles all students below high-ability learning levels. She also states that high-ability students learn just as well when they are mixed in with mid level and lower level students.  It also helps the mid level and lower level students excel more when they are mixed in the classroom.  By keeping it mixed, it allows students to see first hand how hard work can pay off.

She also states how the teachers in the high level classes thrive and interact more with the students because the students are hungry for further knowledge.  The teachers care and try to help educate the students.  Where as in the lower level classes, the teachers seem to not care as much.  They are just basically going through the motions during the class day because they have it set in their heads that the students are not going to excel.  Even when it comes to the class work itself it is different.  The higher level students are continuously getting the better education.  The materials that they are covering are far excelling what the lower level student are doing.  The lower level students are basically just getting the basics handed to them.  They are getting handouts and workbooks. The bare minimum.

How is a student suppose to better themselves and get out of the lower level classes if the materials are not being supplied, and if the teachers seem not to care as well.  Kids at a young age feed of body language and energy.  If they sense at a young age that the teachers and the staff does not care about their education, then they will slowly not care about it as well.  They will unfortunately start believing themselves that they can not learn and get better.  And that in of itself is a tragedy.  All students need to be treated fairly!

Ladson-Billings, Lomax, and Orfield on “The Other 3 R’s: Race, Reform, Rights”

This was a interesting video to watch.  It definitely ties in very well with our class and what we have been reading about.  It was interesting to me that it was stated that the higher qualified teachers were placed in schools that had higher standards and whose students were achieving more.  This is a problem.  How are the lower students suppose to get better if the best of the best when it comes to teachers are not made available to them.  Buy doing this, it is making the teachers jobs very easy and it is keeping a lot of students with untapped potential down.  By doing this, it will also help the under preforming schools get to the next level and not risk losing their credentials.

It also goes on how white students seem to learn differently and perform differently then non white people.  Even when the young black student would rap about science, it was looked on differently.  But why?  The student still learned what needed to be learned and was able to deliver it in a way that was comfortable to him.  If it helped him learn it, then why is there a problem.    There is unfairly  an issue when it comes to money and education.  It does seem the rich keep getting richer while the poor continue to struggle.  Like I have said numerous of times before, students should all get the same opportunity for education no matter what.  It is up to the student to run with that opportunity as well.

Social Justice event

The Future of Race in America

Michelle Alexander

Rhode Island College

Unity Center

Jeff Nardi

 

 Michelle Alexander is a professor of law at the Ohio State University Moritz college of Law and also a civil rights advocate and writer.  She is best known for her book in 2010 called The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

During her talk on Ted Talks that was shown at the Rhode Island College campus, she strongly believes that people are now being taught to redesign racism towards people who are incarcerated.  That the prison system is being used as a cast system.

Michelle Alexander talks about the Jim Crow Laws and states that minorities who are in prison basically are under a new form of Jim Crow laws.

She stated that when she worked for the ACLU, that she realized that prisons are being used as racial control, and that millions of minority children believe that they will end up in jail at some point of their lives.

She then goes into a statement that young black teenagers are branded as criminals and rushed into the prison system.  And by doing this they are put in a negative status that they cannot escape.  Facts were followed.

1. More blacks are in prison then enslaved in 1850.
2. More the ½ of black men have criminal records and are being discriminated against when they get out of jail.
3. Mass incarceration sky rocked over a 30-year span. In 1970 there were 300,000 people in prison compared to 2000 when there were over 2 million people in prison.  But during that time, crime rate was actually down.  She wants to know how those numbers actually add up.

She continued with the statement that “black incarceration goes up no matter what”

Also, I learned that 2/3 of prisoners are in jail for drug convictions between 1985-2000.  As well as that more people are in jail for drugs then all people in prison for all reasons in 1980 alone.

She goes on to say that the drug war that the police started was not used to get violent offenders or the drug kingpins.  In all actuality the police target the “lower laying fruit” as she stated.  That also, when police make a bust and seize either drugs, property, cars, money that the department actually gets a percentage (up to 80%) of what they are able to sell in for.  Buy doing this, police agencies gain assets from mass incarceration in her eyes.

This has been tried to be brought to the supreme court but it is nearly impossible to get the supreme court to hear a case about discrimination.

Ms. Alexander goes on to the issue of when the prisoners are released.  She says that they find it hard to:

1. Get a job
2. Get food stamps
3. Get housing
4. Wages are garnished to pay legal fees and court costs, as well as child support.

 

Prison is designed to have them go back to prison in her eyes.  She goes on to say that 70% of released prisoners return within a few years.  And that many return in a matter of months.

This makes me think of the article we read about “Unlearning the myths that blind us”.  Just like how we are taught to play with a certain toy because of gender, we are taught to shy away from criminals that were in prison.

Also it can relate to “The silent Dialogue “.  As the teachers feel like their voices are not being heard because they are black, the author of this program Michele Alexander feels that the words of the black community are not being met in helping to keep minorities out of prison and also by not being targeted because of their skin color.

The most obvious connection to our readings has to be with the “White privilege” reading we did at the beginning of the year. Michele Alexander comes across as blacks and minorities are being targeted by law enforcement.  She has facts to back up her statements.  That in turn, makes the reader or listener to believe that there is a sense of white privilege when it comes to incarceration.

 

 

Ms. Alexander goes on to say that a radical movement needs to happen to make this all change.  To pick up where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. left off.  Make another human rights movement.  To help prisoners with education, jobs once they get out and to eliminate discrimination for former prisoners.  She wants America to have a great awakening and to embrace former inmates and look not at their crimes but at them as humans.

 

Below are some hyperlinks to look at that solidifies Michele Alexanders talk.

1. http://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/
2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/23/poor-white-kids-are-less-likely-to-go-to-prison-than-rich-black-kids/
3. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324432004578304463789858002

Becoming Something Different; Learning from Esme by Fairbanks,Crooks, and Ariail

 

This is an article that is a little bothersome to read.  This girl was not given the opportunity of a proper education purely because she was not completely white and she spoke a different language primarily.  She was followed throughout school by the authors and during this time period she was put into remedial classes.  She was not given the proper opportunity to excel because the school system thought that is was just easier to put her simple classes just to let her get by.  Even when she was put in honors classes, she did have a tough transition because she never had to push herself to that level before.  When she was struggling they convinced her to go back to her regular classes.  Maybe with a little guidance and direction she would have excelled in the honors classes.  We are cheating our kids of an education if we continue to do this.  Teachers pay more attention to the “smart” kids in class and continue to help them because that is easy for them.  Maybe the teachers should challenge themselves and make it a point to give the student who may not completely get it, but is close and all they need is a little help.  Some teachers, not all of them seem to have forgotten why they have gotten into the career of teaching.  Who is to say that the person who may find the cure for cancer, or a brain surgeon isn’t sitting in a classroom right now, struggling a little and wont get the help they need because they are not white and American.

What as future teachers can we do to make sure this does not happen in our classrooms?  We have to stay on top of each and every student and try to get the absolute best out of them.  Just because a student fails a test does not mean you have to try less to help them achieve what possibly could be the next great healer or leader.

Brown vs The Board of Education

 

I still amazes me that segregation is still a major issue today in this world.  You would think that we are educated enough to know what is right and what is wrong.  Each kid should get the same education as the next one no matter what his or her skin color may be.  I lived in the south for a little while back in the late 90’s early 2000’s when I was stationed down there and segregation was still going on near the bible belt of America.  There were separate areas to eat and go to the bathroom.  And it was socially acceptable down there which completely blew my mind.  Imagine if parents and activists did not fight for the right for equal education for kids of different races?  Where would America be right now.

Even with all the action that is being taken to fix the problem, it is still actively happening throughout the country.  The ones that are hurt and affected the most are the children.  The same children that are our future leaders and the next generation of growth for America.  This is why the Brown vs The Board of Education is so important in American history.  It finally stated that having separate schools for black kids and white kids was unconstitutional.  Not only was it a victory but it was ruled unanimously (9-0) that racial segregation in public schools violates the 14th amendment.  We as a country are not completely there, as you can tell during the podcast that we listened to.  Other issues play a part in schooling like privilege, economic, location etc.  We have to continuously work on this problem until it is no longer an issue!

Service Learning

• https://youtu.be/z-MxJ01zeN4

     Service learning is a great idea for students to get out into the community and learn outside of their comfort zone.  When I was in high school we had to do some service learning at a local soup kitchen.  This was a humbling experience.  I didn’t’ know how it was to have to live this way.  It is something that has never left my memory.  Also, while in the military, we would as a unit when we had time, give out water in the dead summer in Texas and also passed out christmas gifts to the children who without that would not have a Christmas.  Currently, during our service learning project in this class, I am placed in a rather large kindergarten class.  The teacher even said that a lot of the children do not have a positive male figure in their life and even at the school they do not interact with men much.  So, when I am their, the children hang on my every word .  I do feel like I may make a difference when I am in the classroom.  Maybe, just by bringing a smile to a young kids face for the day.

My wife and myself donate time and resources whenever we can.  We even have my little daughter participate when it is acceptable so we can install in her the value of giving back and helping others that may be in need.  It is not only helping the person you my directly affecting but also it is a learning experience for you and it can actual make a large impact in the persons life who is providing the service.

If you have the free time, why not try to give back even once outside of college?

Education can be gained outside of the classroom, so why not embrace the opportunity?

MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Unlearning the myths that blind us, By Christensen

This is a very interesting read.  I have seen numerous documentaries about the adult innuendos that are in cartoons and children shows alike.  Growing up I would watch cartoons like G.I. Joe, He-Man, Tom and Jerry.  They were violent cartoons in todays societies eyes, but back then parents did not think anything about it. TV shows back in the 80s were racist like All in the Family, the Jeffersons, Beverly hillbillies etc.  I believe that is because parents back then took more time to teach their children what was right and what was wrong.  that it was just a TV show and not reality.  Yes, there are some adult content in mostly every Disney or Pixar produce movie.  Do I agree with it? Not really, but it is a issue because people make it an issue. You would never see any of the content for the most part if you did not search for it on line.  I believe it is put there from the creators as a joke amongst themselves.  But today, society is to up tight in my eyes.  Maybe, if parents would get off of their cell phone and pay attention to their children, then the children would know right from wrong and reality to non reality.  A lot of parents are to busy posting things on facebook, instagram, twitter or snapchat.  Take the time you use on that and educate your children and maybe, just maybe children will become better adults.  As a parent myself, I am not raising a child, I AM RAISING A FUTURE ADULT!  Stop blaming issue with how children see thing on TV, movies, etc.  You are the parent.  Act like it and control what your child watches and if there is a touchy subject in the movie or a question asked about it, then take the time and answer it.  Don’t tweet or post how Disney is going to corrupt your kids mind.  My daughter watches Disney movies and will continue to watch Disney movies because it gives her an imagination of princesses and castles and talking animals.  It helps keep her innocents before she has to grow up and realize what the real world is like.  There is not a tv show, or movie that is out there today or in the past that you cant find something that would fall under the SWAMP category.  As parents and adults alike, it is our job to educate and teach our children that what is portrayed on the screen is not always reality.  I know my feelings may rub some people the wrong way, but isn’t it our job as educators to teach children the right way, but in doing they, to make sure we do not shelter them to a point where reality and make believe become one?