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. 

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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. 

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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?

Who Cares What Makes Everyone Else Happy, Who Makes You Happy?

Safe Spaces

Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth 

Annemarie Vaccaro, Gerri August, and Megan S. Kennedy 

Schools should be a place where children and young adults go and know that there's a purpose for them there and are not being singled out for being "different".  I put different in quotation marks because that word is used a lot by people who feel as if people who are gay, lesbian, transgender etc., are different then people who are straight. The article expresses a lot how hard it is for children to feel safe at school because even some teachers, along with other classmates are picking on them and not allowing them to be themselves. Teachers choose not to express different family style units because they feel that children shouldn't be expose to anything other then a man and woman relationship. The idea is put in people's head that those relationships are wrong but they're not. People are people and they should be able to express who they are and who they are interested in without feeling like they don't belong. Kids go to school and express there time there to be unsafe. They get bullied for being who they are and that's wrong. No one goes around picking on someone who is in a straight relationship because that is the "normal" relationship style. In the media, most relationships are between a man and a women and there were very few situations where a different family unit is expressed. Over time, things have changed but still not enough. There are still kids who go to school scared of what his peers will say or do. For some, it's even the teachers who are putting them in such situations. 

August expresses a lot that things in the schools need to change. This is where the change will begin. A lot of the time the bullies in the situations are the kids who have never been introduced to any other family unit and that is why the sight of seeing two people of the same gender together is odd to them. They've grown up seeing a man and a woman together as normal so of course they are going to pick on something that they see as not normal. I think the ideas of changing the way the lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender youth is looked at would be useful. From a young age, children should be expose to families with two females as the role of parents and also two males as parents. To take a quote directly from the text, "As the issues become commonplace in the classroom, students may be better prepared to accept, support, and appreciate gays, lesbians and bisexuals out of the classroom as well."(August Page 92) It is because we are not expose to it at a young age, it is harder to accept, support and appreciate LGBT youth and adults. The issue came up a lot that the school felt that it just wasn't their place to expose other children to it. I do see where that is coming from but on the other hand I also see it as, everyone gets exposed to it sooner or later so why does it matter if they get exposed to something outside their normal a little sooner?

As a kid, I was never expose to anything like that. Not in TV shows, books, magazines and definitely not through conversations with my parents and family. There is not a single couple in my family that is not between a man and a woman. My family has always had a strong opinion on this issue and they have always made it clear to us that a marriage should only be between a male and a female. So with having that basically drilled into my head, it was strange to see couples who weren't like that. When I got a job and went to High School, I definitely saw more of how other people can be happy. I'm not going to lie, it was weird to me at first but over time it definitely became just another normal to me. Having such a strong opinion coming from my parents I did face hard things with my friends. My best friend for example is bisexual. She hid it from me for so long because she knew how I was raised and my opinion on the topic. When she finally came out to me I was lost for words. At this time, she was just telling me that she was talking to a girl and probably was going to start dating her. After fights and long periods of not talking, I aloud myself to see from a different point of view. I had to realize that she was happy even if she was with a girl instead of a guy. It took awhile and I know I said some terrible things over the time to her, but we got through it. Every one is entitled to their own opinion but I think it is important that I was able to see that I was wrong in this situation because it was unfair to her. She didn't feel that she could be herself around me but now she can and our friendship is closer than ever because I am able to accept her for who she is. 

I choose to include this video because it just a good video that expresses happiest can be found with everyone no matter who they want to be with. People who are with the same sex and feel like they are different are expressed through this. They should be happy everyday and should be comfortable and proud to be who they are. These people in this video talk about how scared and nervous they are to be coming out and I see that as sad because for a straight person, we don't feel scared or nervous to talk about who we are interested in. They have to face this and struggle everyday with the way people talk to them and treat them. This was just another eye opener for me because there's really nothing different about the people in this video. These labels mean nothing and we are all the same.  

I watch Ellen  a lot and I remembering watching this video and it's really important in my opinion. All this student wanted was to go to Prom like everyone else in her school with the person she wanted to go with. It's because she wanted to go with her girlfriend that things got hard for her. She was told by her principal that it just wasn't allowed. To avoid her showing up with her girlfriend, the principal decided to just cancel Prom all together. Almost everyone looks forward to their prom, especially girls and now she wasn't able to go like she always planned because there was being rules put in place for her that restricted her to go with her girlfriend and have fun like everyone else. 

Relating to Other Text: 

Automatically I related this to our SCWAAMP activity. The S stands for straightness and how much we value it. People who are gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, etc are only facing these issues because of how much straightness is valued in our society. It's not likely to see a gay couple on the front cover of a magazine. It's not likely to see a lesbian couple be aired on TV. Yes, there are cases where it happens but if you hold it in comparison to how much a straight couple is in the media, there's a huge difference. 

Questions/Comments/Points To Share: 

This  topic really just bothers me because we are not exposed to it nearly enough and that is why this problem occurs. How can everyone accept, appreciate and support something that they know nothing about. In my High School, I remember only seeing one poster in my spanish class that talked about gay, lesbian , bisexual etc. relationships and it stood out to me. It stood out because It was one of the only ones up in the school. People just associated the teacher with maybe being gay because she had the poster up. I find that wrong because all she was doing was trying to bring the topic up in the classroom so people are comfortable. 

There's so much that just keeps coming to my head about this topic but another thing that I find important is just how people are able to throw around this words but either don't even know what they mean or are just not even using them right. People are just blurting things out, not thinking it is effecting anyone, but what they are really doing is bullying because words really do hurt. 

Another link to just add is a link I found that talks about things everyone should know. These situations are sad and I think everyone needs to be more aware, and open-minded so everyone can just feel happy and safe no matter where they are.  

http://www.oraminternational.org/images/stories/IDAHOT2014/oram_you-are-safe-here-poster_sd.jpg

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us 

By: Linda Christensen 

"Quotes"

This article really opened my eyes to these issues that are exposed to us since as young as we remember. A lot of the sexism and racism that was talked about in this related back to Walt Disney. It's crazy to actually think about and realize that movies and cartoons that we always saw as normal, really have underlining issues that are not clearly shown on the surface. This whole piece talks about these myths that are within the story lines that are going right over our heads. A lot of them shocked me but when I typed "sexism and racism in Disney" into Google, tons of examples came up. Towards the end and a little throughout of this, Linda Christensen talks about how people can be more aware of what is out there in these movies. I think it really all comes down to more and more people being aware so that children don't get expose to these things. Even though they might be too young to even catch on, they're being exposed to it and those are the things that they are being taught. That is the way they are thinking life should be. 

"Our society's culture industry colonizes their minds and teaches them how to act, live, and dream." 

&

"When we read children's books, we aren't just reading cute little stories, we are discovering the tools with which a young society is manipulated." 

(Christensen,Page 126)

I thought Cinderella was a good example to go along with this quote because this movie showed that fairy tale life that everyone wants to live up to. After watching this movie as kids, we now assume that step siblings are just horrible because we think of her situation. I think this movie shows that looks will get you wherever you want to be. Her step sisters weren't as good looking as her and in the end, she got that guy who chased after her. This makes us go crazy about our relationships also. We all want that "prince charming", who does all these grand things and is seen as the "perfect guy". We have these thoughts in our head of what our boyfriend should look like and act and we create these high, unrealistic standards because we saw this movie as kids. 

"Woman who aren't white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess." ( Christensen, Page 131)

This quote touches on the fact that all our disney princess's were white until a certain time. Even though there are princess's now in Walt Disney that are of color and different cultures, they are still not the popular ones. When some one says name a Disney princess, most people go straight to and say, "Snow White, Cinderella , Ariel and Belle." All these characters are white and those were the first Disney princesses that we were exposed to. Those are the templates of what a princess should look like and that definitely leaves people out. My point here is that there are people who think a princess should look a certain way. Even though there are colored princesses, not everyone agrees with it. I think it is great and it is important that everyone can feel special and know that they can live up to the standards of a princess. 

"At first glance the precocious ducks are cute, but look closer and see that the whole show is based on money." (Christensen, Page 136)

 I choose to include this quote just because it shocked me a lot. Just this past Christmas, I watched this DVD I had with a little girl I baby sit and it was all these different stories involving Mickey Mouse characters. There was this one episode that was focused on Donald Duck and his family. I've watched this tons of times in my life and I never once thought of the main focus to be money. Now, looking and thinking back I see where she's coming from with that statement. This proves that these cartoons have their way of manipulating children and in ways I think we all can connect. 

Connecting to Text: 

We can make the connection to Grinner's activity SCWAAMP. Mainly, the letter W, Whiteness. We value whiteness so much that we only had white princesses for awhile and now we have a few princesses that are different races. A Disney Princess was always thought to be as white and that's the problem. You don't need to be white to be a princess. 

Questions/Comments/Points to Share: 

I think this is important and makes us think of what myths we picked up on from children movies. I know one myth that stuck with me is the prince charming from Cinderella. Obviously, I know that's crazy but I do make jokes and say that Prince Charming would of done this, and Prince Charming would do that. It's a list of requirements that this film put in our head's of what a relationship should be like. 

Reflection on Richard Rodriguez

      Richard Rodriguez struggled his whole childhood growing up in a bilingual home. He would speak non-stop spanish at home with his family but when he was at his catholic school, he was expected to be able to speak English like the rest of the kids. His problem was that he didn't speak English like his fellow classmates. It wouldn't flow and it wasn't comfortable for him to speak English but being in the school he was in, he had to learn to be comfortable with it. In his essay, he talks about how things changed for him once teachers from his school made a visit to his home. At his home they asked his parent's if they could start speaking more spanish at home, which they did. From there, he got more and more familiar to speaking English that hearing people speak Spanish became strange to him. Richard said that learning to speak English better definitely helped him go farther and be more successful which was something that would of never happened if he stuck to only speaking spanish. Learning to speak more English than Spanish did push his family apart a great deal."The family's quiet was partly due to the fact that, as we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents." (Rodriguez 37) I see his situation as a win one, lose one. 

      

     While I was reading this piece of writing, I couldn't help but relate this story to the struggles that my little sister is still dealing with. My sister is sixteen now but when we were all growing up, my grandmother lived with us and all she spoke was Portuguese. Not a single word of English. I can understand a few words but I was never close to being able to have a full on conversation with someone. On the other hand, my sister Bethany can. Along with my grandmother, her godparents also don't speak a word of English. Basically, she has been around the Portuguese language way more than me for example, so she can have a conversation with someone in another language and it is more comfortable for her. She can speak more English but for some reason, she has always been more comfortable speaking in Portuguese. This comes to be a struggle for her because she starts to stutter and get nervous whenever she has to talk to someone in English outside my family. She's always saying how she think she sounds funny and how she can't pronounce anything right. When we go to Dunkin Donuts, she just now ordered what she wanted  for herself about a week ago. She has trouble being comfortable talking English and that relates to what Richard Rodriguez went through because she's learning to adjust and always talk English because that's what everyone else around her is speaking. 

      

       I related Richard Rodriguez's struggle in life to the issues that were brought up in the SCWAAMP activity.(Grinner) The fact that Richard went to a catholic school relates right to the christianity aspect of the activity. Also, I notice the connect to White-ness and also Americanness. White-ness because throughout this entire piece, you can pick up on the fact that the English language was the center of attention and it's because we value it so much, we expect everyone to speak it. Americanness relates also in a similar way because we see the language of American's to be only English. 

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:

I was always told that I should pick up on another language because it could only help me later on in life with my career, etc. , but this article kind of makes me think that it's bad to learn anything else besides English because is it really useful?  

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