Empowering Education

Empowering Education 

Critical Teaching for Social Change 

By: Ira Shor 

(Connection & Refection)

For me, this reading wasn't what I would call hard, it kind of wrapped everything together for me. During this semester, we've learned so much about how our society is and throughout this time, we've really had to think about our experiences and if they fit what we're now seeing as the issues within the school system. During this piece, Shor continues to talk about how education is politics. I was able to connect this piece and things Shor was addressing to Delpit. Delpit talks about how when you know the rules and codes of power, you are more likely to succeed because you were told explicitly the rules. More towards the begining of Shor's piece, he mentions a lot about how teachers in the classroom need to work on having that kind of good relationship with their students and also be able to be there and tell them things that they might not being talking about at home. The students need to learn the rules and codes of power where the teachers need to learn how to follow them. In order to succeed, you're better off knowing a head of time what is expected from you. It will help you get farther and help you succeed. By knowing these rules and codes, you then know what to do. A Delpit lightbulb also went off in my head when I read these sentences. "The syllabus deployed by the teacher gives students a prolonged encounter with structural knowledge and social authority. However, it is the students who decide to what extent they will take part in the syllabus and allow it to form them." (Page 14) I'm not sure if I understood it wrong or not but this made me think of those first couple of days of school where teachers are giving our their syllabus. Some people choose to go by, and some people ignore it and hope to get by. Knowing the rules and codes of power I guess helps you in this situation. It's an option to follow it but you know you will do it because that's what we've been taught and we know it's the rules and the way to succeed. 

http://shawndriscoll.com/ezine/images/rules.jpg

I was also about to connect this piece to August and safe spaces. School shouldn't be a place where students go and feel uncomfortable. They should want to go and learn and be excited about it. On page 17 Shor says, "Participation is the most important place to begin because student involvement is low in traditional classrooms and because action is essential to gain knowledge and develop intelligence." Basically, he is saying that students get more in the classrooms and they are interacting with the other students and not just sitting and listening. I disagree with this because I went all through my school years also sitting and listening. I rarely talked and if I did it was because I was forced to by the teachers. If the teacher used it against my grade of course I started talking but if not, I would sit and do my work a lone and just listen to my other classmates if I got stuck. When I knew I had to speak up, it always made me nervous and made my experience at school in that classroom terrible. I guess it wasn't that safe space that it should have been in terms of not feeling comfortable. 

http://www.spinedu.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/blah2.jpg

Reflection to Service Learning

"School funding is another political dimension of education, because more money has always been invested in the education of upper-class children and elite collegians than has been spent on students from lower-income homes and in community colleges." (Page 15)

Volunteering at the school I do now, I can see where they run into issues with funding. They don't get enough and the students really do suffer from it. When I was in Elementary School, our desks were set up in groups of 4 and at each group there was a bin that was in the middle that had pencils, crayons, rulers and just little things that we might need. We never had the problem as simple as coming to school without anything to write with. When I work with this group of kids, every time I am there at least one of them tells me that they don't have a pencil or anything to write with. Now we have to waste more time trying to find one and that children and the rest of the other have to miss out on learning. The funding is that little in schools like that they can't supply any extra but they simply don't have it to spend. The money has to go somewhere else because it's the smarter way to use it. The lack of school funding just really messes with children's education. 

Comments/Questions/Points to Share:

Comparing my school and the one I go to for my service learning, it amazes me the differences. From things like funding all the way to being able to voice your opinion. At my service learning, I don't notice children really talking out and being a part of a bigger discussion as a class. In all my classes growing up, everyone was able to speak out if they wanted to and that's how a lot of the classes ran. Being use to that all my life even though I never participated in the discussion and then going to see things were students just don't speak out like that makes me think how they are learning anything. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKp8E9jwDH0

Ana Malaniuk is a 6 years old girl who has down syndrome. A few years back, she had a dance studio turn her away because they said she couldn't keep up and wasn't up to their "standards". Her mom then got her into a dance studio that welcomed her and enjoyed working with her. 

Video & Information from CBC News.

Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

Citizenship in Schools:

Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome 

Christopher Kliewer 

Quotes 

This reading was a little bit of a harder read for me and I had to go to other blogs to try and get a better understanding. Until I hit the parts of the writing that were more telling stories, I was lost. The stories did help but I still feel that I don't have a really good understanding. I also didn't get the chance to print this article out so I think having to read this one from this computer screen didn't help. What I did get from reading is that children with down syndrome and also other disabilities, are getting looked down on because people think they are not capable compared to any other child.  

"It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all here- kids, teachers, parents, whoever- it's about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that's what learning is. " (Page 75)

I thought to include this quote because I think it is important to realize the labels. Labels are put are kids with down syndrome and there is no need to put labels on them. We are all the same. Within the school system, it's not that some are just not able to learn, it's the fact that all students can learn and succeed but not on the same day or by the same way. 

"He didn't get credit for it because he didn't do it right, but he clearly knew which was the block, which was the spoon. And he followed directions in an organizing sense." (Page 84)

The quote comes from the section in which Isaac Johnson was basically being tested on his skills and ability to sort the spoons and the blocks. In this situation, he wasn't given credit because he did it differently. I think it is important to realize and understand that everyone learns and shows how they learn differently. No one should be treated differently because no matter what, no one should tell them there are not capable of doing anything. 

"As such, the label "communication-disordered" attached to any individual makes no sense. It is not the individual who owns the problem; rather, the dilemma exists in the interconnected relationships that both form and hinder community." (Page 94)

Labels, Labels, Labels. That's just the big problem. People think that these labels entitle them to certain things and abilities and they don't. When a person has any kind of disorder, the problem isn't with them themselves. It's how the community thinks and how they put restrictions on what they can do. 

Connection to Other Text:

This piece connects right to August's piece about safe spaces. Children in the school system are not getting the right education because teachers either don't know how to teach them or just don't understand how they learn. School should be a safe place for anyone to go to especially children with disabilities so they feel comfortable to be there. 

Points to Share:

In order to create these safe places, I think it's important to then have educators go to talks, or just trainings so they better understand. Instead of turning on a child because you don't know how to work with them, they will be more comfortable and help.

Personal Chart

Map the Authors 

Connection

Literacy With An Attitude 

Educating Working-Class Children In Their Own Self-Interest

Patrick J. Finn 

(1999)

   For this blog, i'm choosing to connect ideas that Patrick Finn expressed with ideas and beliefs of Lisa Delpit. In Finn's writing, he expressed how their are different teaching styles. The way you talk to your students and how you go about teaching them, play a huge role in their ability to learn. As you teach all different kinds of students, you see a difference and that all goes back to class, the society we live in and the stereotypes we have on certain groups of people. There was a section that I came across in Finn's writing that immediately made me connect to Delpit.

"When I discussed discipline problems with other teachers, a frequent topic of discussion in the teacher's lounge. I would talk about my teaching methods as methods of control. I had work assignments on the board when the students entered the classroom, and so there wasn't a moment when they didn't have anything to do. I didn't say to an errant student, "What are you doing?" I said, "Stop that and get to work." No discussion. No openings for an argument." (Finn, 3-4) 

I was able to right away connect this to Delpit because this is all about the culture of power and being told explicitly the rules of being in that classroom. I think this example relates to Delpit's fourth aspect of power the most. "If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier." (Delpit 25) In other words, Delpit is saying that if your are not in the "power" group, it is easier to survive and "fit it"/ get by easier if you are being told the rules in all detail. How else would they know? Everyone comes from different homes and discipline comes in all different ways. One child might listen to something an adult says while it just flies over the other child's head. It's all about where they come from, how they were brought up and also, how their parents choose to show control in their own households. This also connects to Delpit's other example of the child having to take a bath. One parent approaches the issue with, " Isn't it time for a bath?" and another parent would say, "Get your rusty behind in that tub." (Delpit 34) Both parents are saying that their child needs to take a bath, but they say it in different ways because children see power in different forms. 

     Connecting back to the quote from Finn, in his experience he didn't give any room for  a child to get out of control and misbehave. Having that assignment on the board, gave all the children something to do. They know to come in class and get right to that assignment because that's the kind of power he had in his room. " Stop that and get to work", is his way of making sure every child understands it the same way. Whether each student sees control and power different, he created his power in the classroom in a way that everyone will understand who has the control. 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p5iJSz3UEsg/Vj4OhGDFu9I/AAAAAAAAAos/FLMemDa1mIg/s320/15%2B-%2B3

Questions/Comments & Points to Share: 

"The status quo is the status quo because people who have the power to make changes are comfortable with the way things are. " (Finn; Preface) 

** This quote is important and I think it will bring up discussion because it's almost like saying it's just an up hill battle. It's not going to go anywhere and the problem will always be there. In this case, the fact that stereotypes are still being supported by people's actions make it harder to go away. 

The Problem We All Live With

This American Life 

These readings were really interesting to me. I wasn't really excited to have to listen to an audio version of a reading, but I really did enjoy it. What shocked me a lot was how recent this is. Both talks were released late last year. July of 2015. The issue of segregation and integration are still a huge one and it's clear that it is going to take a very, very long time to clear up.  For this week's post, I wanted to do a hyperlinked based one. 

562: The Problem We All Live With 
 In this reading, Nikole-Hannah Jones tells a story of  the struggle this particular student went through in the Normandy School District in Missouri. Nikole- Hannah Jones interviewed a student, Mah'ria Martin and her mother, Nedra Martin. Mah'ria went to grade school within the Normandy district for awhile with the school only having one accreditation. When the Missouri State Board of Education pulled all accreditation from Mah'ria's school, they were left with absolutely no accreditations after 15 years of probation. This is where the transfer law kicked in. This law give students that are in an unaccredited school to be able to go to a nearby school for free that does have accreditation. There was a meeting held at the school , Francis Howell , where parents, teachers, students etc. came so they can discuss as a school the changes that would be happening in their school. Students that were attending Normandy had the opportunity to transfer to a "better" school if they wanted to. In Mah'ria's case, she wanted to go to Francis Howell. Francis Howell was a school full of white students and had little to non people of color. At the meeting I mentioned before, parents spoke out and said very rude things. Asking that if these kids from Normandy come,they want metal detectors because apparently these kids were going to be extremely violent. They made comments that I found mean and rude regarding if their children's scores were going to be brought down. They even suggested ways so that these students wouldn't want to attend Francis Howell such as making the school day start earlier so it would be more of a struggle for them to travel. The comments these parents made were surrounding the fact that having Normandy kids come into their school would ruin the school as a whole.  Mah'ria wanted to speak up for herself but couldn't get herself to do it because while she was walking up to the microphone, she heard the hurtful things those parents continued to say and agree on. When she started her new school, she was scared of walking in on the first day because she thought it was going to be just as bad as it was at the meeting. Fortunately, things were great on the first day for her. People greeted her in a nice way and she was even able to make a friend. Things changed when her old school, Normandy got the new title of being a non-accredited school. This put them in a whole different category so this meant that all the kids that left when they had the chance to, now had to come back. Nedra Martin found herself struggling once again to get her daughter in a better school.  Finally after trying and trying, she got a judge to side with her. Mah'ria got to transfer back to Francis Howell. That was mostly the main points of this certain talk and I liked it because it shows the different views on this matter. As a reader, I was able to pick up on the real issues with segregation in schools and how it affects a students ability to learn. 

563: The Problem We Live With Part 2
In this reading, we get to hear from Chana Joffe-walt about how other people approach this issue. Chana talks about how she knew a young lady Kiana Jackson and how she approached integration with a more positive attitude. Kiana is a person of color and she loves interacting and communication with white people because she liked experiencing something different. This is a different look because usually when students notice skin color differences, they stick to their own color when communicating. Kiana even went to a college where she knew there would be a lot of white people because she says it is important that people step out their comfort zones and experience different things. Along with Kiana as an example, Chana talks about John Brittain and his role in the steps to integration. He fought and fought and was about to create Magnet Schools that allowed all different races to come together in a school so they could learn more/better. More and more people signed up their children in these kinds of schools and notice a huge difference. They also came to conclusions that it wasn't a terrible thing to be integrated. She gave an example of a couple, Ryan and Sarah Welcome who had a more negative view on enrolling their children in Magnet Schools. After visiting and seeing for themselves that these schools are a huge tool, they were able to have a more open mind. I think this reading is a good way to show people the benefits of integrated schools. A lot of people get scared of violence, different levels of learning and things like that but I think this is a great way to give everyone the same opportunities. 

Quote From "Separate and Unequal " by Bob Herbert 

"Schools are no longer legally segregated, but because of residential patterns, housing discrimination, economic disparities and long-held custom, they most emphatically are in reality."

I think this brings up something very important and it's that event though there is no legal segregation in schools, it's going to happen no matter what because that it the life we live in. Most people choose to stay with others within their own races because that's where they think they seem to belong and fit more. 

Article of The Providence Journal 
I choose to include this article because I found it interesting that it relates to the school we are in. This article talks about schools in Rhode Island, Colleges for the most part. It seems to come up a lot in class how people view our school. Either people say it's the whitest school they've been to, or they say that it's the most diverse. Out of all the schools in this state at the time, Rhode Island College had the most amount of people of color attending. Each year our school seems to become more and more integrated.
** More on Statistics **

** Making Progress, but Not There Yet **

http://www.theinclusionsolution.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/High-School-Graduation-Rate-Disparities1.png

Connection to Other Texts:
Automatically I can relate this to SCWAAMP. W stands for whiteness in this activity. All these issues revolve around how much we value whiteness in this country. It's easier to go to school and get an education if you're white. It's easier to get a job if you're not a person of color. A lot of people have their stereotypical ways of thinking of people of color and that makes it harder harder to feel equal to white people. 

Questions/Comments/Point to Share:
Why must it be so hard to view everyone as equal. We are all capable of the same things but still, I think stereotypes really stick with people. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, not everyone can look past the skin color someone might have. I don't believe that one race is better than the other. Everyone should get an equal and fair opportunity at anything they want to do.

I think this is saying that everyone goes to school, but if you go to a lower end school, you're not getting anywhere near the same education as someone else who goes to a higher end school. Everyone should have equal opportunities so when they go out into the real world after school, they all have a fair shot. 

In The Service of What ?

Resources That Helped Me Get A Better Understanding: 
* Elizabeth's Blog 
*Jasmine's Blog

Terms I Needed To Look Up: 
Altruism: The belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others. 
Alleviate: make (suffering, deficiency, or a problem) less severe.
Invigorate: give strength or energy to. 

In The Service of What?

The Politics of Service Learning 

By Joseph Kahne & Joel Westheimer

Extended Comments on Kate Gould's Blog 

   For this week's blog, I choose to write a response with Kate's blog as the focus because I think she did a good job at explaining and getting right to the main points. Kate explained in her post how the main concept of this piece was to show the different ways service learning effects the children, teachers and the volunteers involved. She goes on to then explain the two different learning cases that were talked about. Mr. Johnson's project  was set for students as individuals to go out and help different groups of people. On the other hand, Ms. Adam's worked with her students as a whole to raise money and from there they worked with a specific group. I agree with what Kate said next and that was, "The students in Mr. Johnson's class I think they really benefitted from the experience. This type of work helps students explore different types of careers and experience all different life styles; while also helping out those in need. Ms. Adam's class however I think is creating more of a difference towards those who need help."(Kate Gould) These two projects are really alike in some ways but then again have differences. For Mr. Johnson's project, they were able to experience and benefit more because of what they were exposed to. They were able to see different kinds of life styles that were still in need but maybe not too much in need compared to the people Ms.Adam's class worked with. Ms.Adam's class focused on more of the homeless and helped with their shelters. Both projects helped a variety of different people in their situations but in different ways through their services. 

"Are people participating in service learning because they feel they have a sense of duty or are they doing it for the greater good for those in need?" (Kate Gould)

    I think this was an important question to add in because it I think it is important to ask yourself this when you are someone that in participating in some sort of service learning. I love going into the classroom where I've been assigned and helping these kids and I don't see myself doing it just because I have to for this class. Yes, for this class 15 hours is a requirement so I go to complete the requirement but I plan to keep going and hope that I am making a difference for these kids. I go each week and work on math with them and I can already see them improving with their skills. In this case, I am doing in for the children's benefit and not just because I have to. In these classrooms they need that extra body or two to work with a smaller group of children to make sure they really understand whatever topic we are learning about. Service learning should be something we enjoy doing and see purpose in it rather then just going to say that you did. 

   Kate mentioned at the end of her blog that she can relate this article to the one we read before by Kristof's. I completely agree with how she related these two articles. If Rick had people come into his school, he may have enjoyed going to school and therefore got more out of it. 

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/216x146/c2/85/5c/c2855c9d973de1c71ff4f04f329f44d7.jpg

Points To Share: 

I think it is important to talk about how much service learning can benefit people and people who choose to volunteer their time,should take it serious. If there is someone who does volunteer their time and goes into a school for example to work with children, they should want to be there. They need to see the value of their time there. If you go just to go, can you really say you made a difference for those children? Did you help them learn? Do they enjoy you being there? And mostly, do they feel good about the time they have spent there?