Blog #10

Education In Politics

Ira Shor

1. If i were a primary - grade teacher, I would devote my time to problems if socialization.  The most important thing children learn is not the three R's.  Its socialization.

• The main thing that kids need to know is how to interact with other kids. This should be the first thing that is taught.  If kids don't learn how to socialize then they will not make it through school.

1. They favored student - centered curricula oriented to the making of knowledge rather then the memorization of facts."

• This is very true.  We should teach for kids to learn not to memorize.  When your memorizing something your not really learning it.

1. "Situated teaching avoids teacher-centered syllabi's and locates itself in the students culture."

• Children will learn better if what they are learning about is interesting and about them or their life.

This Reading was an easy read for me the only thing  that bothered me with it is about the socialization part.  My seven year old brother has social anxiety.

BLOG #9

Citizenship in Schools:Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome                                        Rachel Miale

By : Christopher Kliewer

1. "I started to notice that I didn't like the classes I was taking called special education.  I had to go through special ed. Almost all my life.  I wanted to take other classes that interested me.  I had never felt so mad I wanted to cry."

•  I believe that we shouldn't put special needs kids in seperate classes.  they are kids and they want to be around kids there own age. 

1. "Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full, rich life.  The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barrier for people with disabilities."

• I believe that we should start teaching kids at a young age the other kids with disabilities are the as everyone else, they just mught act and look different.  But kids should be tought  that its not right to make fun of them jusrt because they have a problem.  We shouod teach kids about each disibilities out there so they know about it and they would understand the child who has it more.

1. "I don't tend to see Down Syndrome ass something.  If you look at those three kids running around the room, they're incredibly different from each other."

•  Even though kids night have disabilities they are still kids and should be treat the same as everyone else.  They are still kids and want to do things like other kids.  These kids are special not because they have a disability but because they can do things others can't.

This reading was very hard for me because my little sister is a special needs child and its very hard to hear or talk about it.

Special needs in schools

http://youtu.be/hH9QvxAJnbk

Blog #8

Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

Jean Anyon

1.) "It is no surprise that schools in wealthy communities are better then those in poor communities or that they better prepare their students for desirable jobs."

       This is unfortunately true.  Schools in richer communities are better only because they have the supplies and the poorer schools don't.  For example Central Falls is in a poor community, when Cumberland in a richer communities.  The kids in Cumberland go further only because thy have the supplies and Central Falls doesn't. 

2.) "The social-class designation of each of the five schools will be identified, and the income, occupation and other relevant available social characteristics of the students and their parents will be described."

        I don't agree with categorizing a school only in categories.  Each school is different. No two school are the same.  I also believe that the parents income has nothing to do with how the student learns.. 

3.) "These differences may not only contribute to the development in the children in each social class of certain types of economically significant relationship and not other s but would thereby help to reproduce this system of relations in society."

     

This reading is an easy read.  However i do not agree with most of what is said in this reading.  I don't believe that two schools should be categorized in the same category. 

BLOG #7

Race, Class, and Gender

by: Peter Mclaren

1.) "Blacks and similar minorities believe that in order for a minority person to succeed in school academically, he or she must learn to think and act white."

        This s not true i have many black friends and they do not act white and they succeed in school just like i do.  I believe that everyone acts different and succeeds on there own level.

2.) "To act white includes speaking English, working hard in school to get good grades, being on time and so on."

    I don't see how these things is acting white.  Everyone does these things no mater what color they are or where they are from.  It doesn't make any sense to me. 

3.) "Many incidents of violence, sexism, and racism in the class room are in reality reactions to economic exploitation and culture dislocation and to what is perceived as the oppressive experience of schooling."

    

This reading was ready hard for me to understand.  this reading doesn't make any sense to me.  I don't agree with anything in this reading.

Number Six

A Particularly Cheap White Whine
By Tim Wise

1. "In truth, only 3.5 percent of college students of color receive any scholarship even partly based on race, suggesting that such programming remain a pathetically small of the financial aid picture in this country, irrespective of what a gaggle of reactionary white folks might believe."

• Most of the students that go to college have a reason and acually want to be there.  Students just dont go out and say that oh because there is a scholarship for black people im going to go to college. Its not like that at all.  I don't believe that we should get mad about it because theres scholarship for whites and blondes with blue eyes and more.  The people who make the scholarships arent trying to be races they are trying to be fair.

1. "In terms of ideology, racism is the belif on the inherent superiority/inferiority of one race to another, while institutionally it refers to polices, practices or procedires that have the effect of perpetuating systemic inequalities between the races, and which deny persons of a particular race equal oppertunity with those of other races."

1. "Black students are far more likely than white students to come from lower-income families, and in fact, at selective colleges and universities, the average black students comes from a family with half the median income of the average white student."

• This is right and wrong in many ways.  This quote is stereotypical.  There are black families out there that do come from money.  I disagree with this quote very much.

This artical was an easy read for me but there was some things that I did not agree with.

Number Five

In The Service Of What?

By Joseph Kahne

1. "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

• Its better to do things for other people.  You feel good after you do something for someone else.  It is better to put others first before yourself.

1. "The hope was that students' values and beliefs might Be transformed by these experiences."

• By having children do service for others, it will make them known of what people go through.  Having students do service with others.  Also teaches the kids to be grateful for what they have as well.

1. "Rather then assume erroneously, that all educators share the same vision, we think it is better to be explicit about the numerous and different visions that drive the creation and implementation of service learning activities in school."

• Every teacher has a different style of teaching.  Some teachers teach straight by the rules some don't.  It helps to have service learning activities can be about what the teacher is teaching and help the child understand." 

This article was an easy read for me.  I liked how they mentioned the famous quote from president Kennedy .

Number FOUR

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us

By Linda Christensen                                                                                           Rachel Miale

1.      

 When we read children’s books, we aren’t just reading cute little stories, we are discovering he tools with which a young society in manipulated.”

·    What this means is that children books are nice and cute, but it all has a twist to everyone.  For example take the book Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  In this book it goes to show kids that it’s ok to break into someone’s house and eat their food.

2.       “I don’t want students to believe that change can be bought at the mall, nor do I want then thinking that the pinnacle of a woman’s life is an “I do” that supposedly leads them to happy ever after.  I don’t want my female students to see their sisters as competition for that scarce and wonderful commodity-men.”

·     Not ever life ends happily ever after, every kids book ends t=with this line.  This is showing kids that everything will end great and sometimes it doesn’t.  The book Cinderella shows kids that sisters and step sisters are evil and you have to compete with them.  None of this is true.  It is hard to tell kids this when this is what these books are saying. 

3.       “Many who watched cartoons before we start our study say they can no longer enjoy them.”

·    After reading this article I can’t either.  I use to watch all these show and now that I think about it, it really bothers me.  I have a little brother and sister and it bothers me when they still watch these shows.  I never thought that a children show could be so bad.

This article was an easy read for me.  It really made me think about what in this world is actually good.  I was a little kid and I watched all these shows and now I find out that they’re not good for you.  It just really makes you think...

Talking Point #3

GAYNESS, MULTICULTERAL EDUCATION, AND COMMUNITY

BY CARLSON

Quotes:

1.      “No state currently recognizes gays and lesbians as legitimate minority or cultural groups to be considered in textbook adoption or to be included in multicultural education; and a number of states explicitly prohibit teaching about homosexuality.”

·         Making fun of someone for their sexuality is the same thing as making fun of someone for the color of their skin.  It’s called racism.  If we want to teach these kids that racism is wrong then we can’t pick and chose which type of racism to teach, we need to teach all of them.

2.      Like communist states, they have been based on the presumption that if students in the school community can be kept shielded from “bad influences” and provided only positive representations of community life, that they can be molded into good well adjusted citizens and workers.

·         To me there is no such thing as bad influences.  There are only bad influences if you let it be.  The more we learn the better we will be.  No matter if it’s good things we learn about or bad things we learn about it makes us more educated.

3.      For the first time in their lives, they begin to talk openly about sexual feelings with peers and friends of their own age and adult role models, whom they can admire.  Their worst fears are that they are out of their minds, full of sin and sickness, that they are doomed to dress as transvestites, molest children, hate the opposite sex or contract AIDS.”

·         People who are homosexual think that because they are different they are a bed person or that they will do bad things.  When truly that’s not true, you can be different and still be normal.  Without difference in the world it would be very boring.

This topic is a very emotional topic for me.  This was a thing that always bothered me.  Kids in my school never understood anyone else besides them self.  A lot of my friends were gay or lesbian and they were picked on all the time.  I don’t think that people should pick on anyone for who they like.  This article was an easy read just very emotional.

MEIER

Why Cant She Remember That?

By Terry Meier

Quotes:

1.       “Marisa transformed her Original threat into a game by playfully naming all of the family members she supposedly would hit.”

·         A lot of kids do this type of thing.  They turn what ever it is that they said into a game so they don’t get into trouble for it.  I have a six year old brother and he does this type of thing all the time.  Kids will do what ever it takes to get out of trouble.

2.       “Many children who are unused to books and being read to find it difficult to sit still for the time it takes the teacher to read even a fairly short picture book.”

·         On top of children having difficulty paying attention, if there not read to at home they will be behind the other kids learning wise as well as not understanding they have to sit there, quietly and pay attention.  It is very important to teach them at home as well as in school the basic learning techniques for entering school.

3.       “As an African American child, I have never saw my face pr the lives of my family, friend and neighbors in the books that I read.”

·         This quote is very true.  I have seen very few books about people of color or of different races.  Most books are about rich white people or just white people in general.  This is not right how are we suppose to teach these kids that its not ok to be racist when the material we use to teach them doesn’t show it as well. 

Overall this article was a very easy read for me.  I like how there are a lot of real life examples in it.  Like allthe other articles we’ve read they point out stuff that I have never noticed before.  This article goes to show you how much we have to change so racism changes too.

White Privilege by Peggy McIntosh

Quotes

1.   “I have come to see White Privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but which I was meant to remain oblivious.”

·         This quote is very true, it means that white people can have anything and everything, but we need to act like they don’t know. 

2.      “Whites are thought to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit other, this is seen as work that will allow them to be more like us.”

·         I truly don’t see this quote being accurate.

·         This quote states that we want others to be like us.  Why when supposedly whites don’t like the colored people. 

3.      “Many, perhaps most of our white students in the US think that racism does not affect them because they are not people of color, they don’t see whiteness as a racial identity.

·         We need to stress to these children that yes their white but people of color are racist against whites just as whites are racist against people of color.  It’s just as dangerous.

This article was right on the button with everything it said.  A lot of the stuff in this article, people doesn’t want to see it or even acknowledge it.  But it is there and it is true.  This article is very blunt and forward.

Intro

Hi, I am Rachel Miale, I am a elementary education major. I like school.  I grew up in Woonsocket and still live there when I am not in dorm.  I like military stuff and i also like soccer and dance. I have a big family and we all do everything we can for each other. I am really looking forward to meeting everyone and hopefully we can have some more classes together in the future.