"Empowering Education" by Ira Shor

Reflection
This piece by Ira Shor really stood out to me for a couple reasons. The first reason being that he thinks its very important for students to ask questions and socialize in school. "You must arose children's curiosity and make them think about school"(page 11). When the students are asking questions, it shows they are paying attention and that they are curious about the topic. At my old school only some of my teachers encouraged asking questions ad talking, while other teacher did not want to be bothered with our questions. They preferred us to just copy down the information and study for the quiz. This was difficult. I agree with Shor here, having a discussion and questions can be very beneficial, the students will become engaged and learning will happen.
Shor also states, "People are naturally curious. They are born learners. Education can either develop or stifle their inclination to ask why and to learn" (page 12). I agree with this because I have seen it happen in my own schooling. When teachers don't want to hear your questions or they make you feel dumb for asking a question, that can do damage to someone self esteem and desire to learn. Teachers should be welcoming for all questions and be happy their students are engaged. 

I found it really strange how Ira Shor kept saying how important socializing in a school setting is. My previous schools had never encouraged our talking. There were acceptable times to talk in class but most of the time teachers wanted us to sit in silence and do our work. Doing this we would remember the lesson on our own. "Education is more than facts and skills. It is a socializing experience that help make the people who make society" (page15). I completely agree with this. Memorizing the information you learn in school isn't everything. Obliviously remembering the information taught to you in class is a good thing, but you have to be able to communicate it to others. Teachers should encourage social skills in the class room as well, this will make the learning environment comfortable for the students. This can relate to Delpit's culture of power; if the students know how to interact with one another and they know how to act in society, they won't have a big problem trying to fit in. 

"The Hunting Ground" -social justice event

Yesterday, April 15, I went to see a film that was being played on campus. The film was called "The Hunting Ground" and is was about rape on college campuses. Before I watched the film I thought it was going to be a boring documentary but it was actually very interesting and informative. By the end of the film, I was completely shocked as to how the schools handled the rape problem.
One thing I noticed during the film is they only showed males as the "predators". The perspective of the victim's was mainly from females who were raped by males. They were a couple of male victims, but they were also raped by males. Girls rape guys too. A female can drug a guy for rape, just like a guy can drug a girl for rape. A female could even rape another female but that also wasn't talked about.

Another thing from he film that was really shocking to me was how the dean and campus faculty reacted to the problem. The victims would finally work up the courage to tell the dean about how they were raped and the dean would blame the victim. The dean would respond to them by saying things like "what were you wearing?", "you shouldn't have been dressed like that", or "you shouldn't have been out drinking". They would try to make the victim feel bad so they would keep quite about the issue. There would never be a consequence for the rapist, even if they were found guilty or had multiple complaints. The rapist was extra protected if they were an athlete or in a fraternity. The college always a had some excuse.
This film reminded me of so many articles we have read in class. It connects to "Safe Spaces' by August, "Privilege, Power and Difference" by Johnson, and "The Silenced Dialogue" by Delpit.

Rape complaints from Colleges

"Safe Spaces" mainly focuses on LGBT issues but I feel like it can relate to this as well because the main point is having a safe school community. Allowing people to get away with rape is wrong and unsafe for other students. The video pointed out that people who commit rape once have over a 90% chance of doing it again. By the school not expelling the rapist makes the campus unsafe. They didn't want to expel students for rape because then parents won't want to send their children there.
The males who had the most protection from the school were the athletes and the ones in fraternities because those organizations bring in a lot of money for the school. This really reminded me of Delpit's articles because of the culture of power. It this is showing that the administrators have power over the students and if the students try to stand up for themselves they get in trouble.
Lastly this can connect to Johnson's book. Johnson talks about saying the words will help solve the problem that has been avoided. This will help solve the problem because people will become aware of the situation. Faculty at this school didn't want the issue of rape to be discussed for multiple reasons. Anyone who tried to stick up for the rape victims were fired, this included teachers.

In conclusion, the film "The Hunting Ground" was very informative, there were many shocking facts that I was unaware of. I didn't realize how big of an issue rape was on a college campus. Once the film was over, the people in charge were passing out papers related to the topic. Two of the papers were articles: "Myths that Make it Hard to Stop Campus Rape" and "We Have More Than Just a Campus Rape Problem. There is Invisible Rape All Over". They also gave out a list of References and resources on sexual violence, the list ranges from organizations that are local to national. Here are a few: www.itsonus.orgwww.itsonus.org, www.nsvrc.org, and www.nomoreri.org.

"Citizenship in School"

Connections

Kliewer's article "Citizenship in school" talks about the inclusion of children with special needs into the "regular" classrooms. He mainly focuses on inclusion of those with down syndrome. He believes that there should be acceptance of those with special needs and they shouldn't be segregated from the other students in the school. While reading this article I kept thinking about "Privilege, Power, and Difference" by Johnson and "Safe Spaces" by August, that we have previously read in class. Even though August talks about LGBT issues in schools I feel like her  points can relate to any of the "underdog" groups in a school system.

Johnson states "We don't have to love one another - or even like one another - to work together or just share a space in the world" (Johnson, 6). This is a very powerful statement that Johnson makes. In schools, children with disabilities are separated from the "regular" students, not because they are disliked. I feel like this is unfair to them. Separating the students is what points out the differences between them. When students notice the differences they begin to make fun of one another; trying to get them to fully accept one another becomes little bit more difficult at this point. This quote relates to Kliewer because he states, "school citizenship requires that students not to be categorized and separated based on presumed defect" (Kliewer, 85). Including children with down syndrome can be beneficial to them and the other students. The students will be able to work together everyday and accept each other. Doing this will create a safe space. I found this really inspiring video, its about a girl, who has Down syndrome, being including on her schools cheerleading team. She was being bullied but other students stood up for her. This made me really happy because now it made her school a safe place.

The classroom is supposed to be a neutral space for everyone and some teachers try very hard to make the space neutral. "Teachers cannot legislate friendships or alliances; they cannot single handedly change minds or hearts. Educators can, however, create inclusive safe classrooms" (August 98). By including children with down syndrome, or other disabilities, into the school system can be beneficial to them and the others with out disabilities.Kliewer feels like there will become a sense of acceptance when this happens. "Such acceptance is the aim when children with Down syndrome join their non disabled peers in classrooms, and many schools and individual teachers have entered into this effort, which seeks and finds community value in all children (Kliewer 74).

After reading this article I became very interested in the topic. I decided to do some research to see if any schools actually include children with disabilities, down syndrome in particular, into their classrooms. At my old high school the children who had disabilities had their own classroom and the only time I have ever saw them was at lunch where they all sat at their own table. I also looked to see if the students were befitting from inclusion. On this website that is all about Down syndrome,  I found many interesting points. They state that children with Down syndrome put in a regular classroom do better socially and academically, and they have studies to prove it.

"Literacy with an Attitude" Patrick J. Finn

Patrick Finn argues the differences in the education between schools in different areas. Finn believes that schools in wealthier neighborhoods provide a better education for their students. The teachers in wealthier neighborhoods are well off and aren't struggling. The students have complex work and they have to think logically. While schools in working class neighborhoods, have inexperienced teachers. The students here don't have as much complex work, they get the "easy" work.
After reading this article, it got me thinking about what is going to be done about these inequalities. I have never put much thought into these equalities and I guess that's because I never suffered from them. I came from an upper middle class area and I thought everyone, no matter where they live, got taught the same way. That isn't case. One quote that I really liked from the preface of the book is "An idea that is often associated with this point of view is that our schools offer literacy equally to all comers, but somehow the have-nots refuse to take us up on our offer. They're not smart enough or they're lazy"(ix). I don't agree with this at all and neither does Finn. I find it pretty crazy how people blame the less fortunate. Students who go to school in a working class area may need a little extra help with their work, that doesn't mean they are refusing to do it or that they're lazy.

wealthy vs. poor

The way Finn described his teaching style reminded me of Delpit. He was making his students aware of the rules and codes of power so they could succeed. "But, in fact I was schooling these children, not to take charge of their lives, but to takes orders" (3). He was teaching them how to be "obedient students because those are the ones who succeed.
I think it was a good thing for Finn to do this with his students, but change is important as well. I think it would be a good thing for children in the working class area to know they have a chance to do whatever they want with their life. That they are able to move up in the world instead of staying stuck in poverty. People need to be willing to make a change so that all schools can actually have equal education instead of only schools in wealthy areas benefiting. "it takes energy to make changes and the energy must come from the people who will benefit from the change" (xi). I agree with this completely. This is a difficult topic and  a lot people aren't going to stand up for it if they aren't being affected.

Pecha Kucha Update

For the Pecha Kucha presentation I am working with Kristin. We thought it would be a good idea to work together since we both go to the same classroom so we have a lot of similar experiences. The authors we decided to focus on was Collier and Rodriguez since there are many students at the school where English isn't their first language. We also connected our experiences to SCWAAMP, Delpit, and Ullucci. I'm feeling pretty good about the project, its not as scary as i thought it would be. Kristin and I have already gathered a lot of information from the texts and a lot of stories from our experiences.

Brown vs Board of Education

Extended Comments

This week I decided to my blog based off Caitlyn's blog. While looking over the website and watching the videos, I noticed my thoughts were very similar to Caitlyn’s.

She started off by quoting the author Tim Wise, "The standard that I use, ultimately, if you want to know if a problem is still a problem it probably makes sense to talk to the ones who are the target of it, not the ones who don’t have to know because we are not………. I can be a good person, a decent person and remain oblivious and I think that is where white folks have been for a long time.”

Caitlyn points out that she didn’t agree with many things that Wise said but she agreed with this. She says, “I thought that he did not give enough credit to how much progress has been made towards racism and having equality in this country throughout the many years, but when he said this quote I realized that maybe he is noticing things that I don't.”

-Personally I feel like this country has come very far with racism. America used to be very segregated, but we have been slowly making steps in the right direction. Some of the many examples would be; the Emancipation Proclamation, the civil war, the fourteenth amendment, and a person of color is our current president. These things didn’t happen overnight, it took America a very long time to be like it is today. Also, I don’t see a lot of racism, I guess that’s my part of my “white privilege”.  Now from these videos and our discussions in class, I am aware that racism exists. I feel very positive that America will slowly keep making steps in the right direction.

Caitlyn also points out how the author used the words “black and brown folk”. She says, “It is comments like that which aren't helping us get any closer to eliminating racism and discrimination because everyone is from a different culture, I thought we were past just calling people things by the color that their skin is.” I completely agree with her. I don’t understand why some people feel so important to point out the color of someone’s skin when they aren’t white. I’ve noticed that when someone talks about a person with white skin, the color of his or her skin isn’t mentioned in conversation. On the other hand when they talk about a person whose skin isn’t white, their skin color usually mentioned. I feel like skin color should be irrelevant.

Lastly, Caitlyn had a really nice video on her bog. The video was about trying to get school to be less segregated. The video was very interesting because it gave the children’s perspective. The students had no problem with skin color. The video gives hope and is another piece of evidence that shows America is a few steps closer to being a post racial place.

"In The Service Of What? The Politics of Service Learning" by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

Kahne and Westheimer talk about community service  and volunteering in the schools. They brought up many great points that really made me wonder about my community service and service learning I have done. There were a few quotes that stood out to me.

1. "Educators and legislators alike maintain that service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom, providing rich educational experiences for students at all level of schooling" (page  2).
-This quote is saying that many people believe service learning can help improve the community. Personally I think that having a college student/ volunteer go to a classroom can be beneficial for the time they are there. The person can help the teacher with lessons and they can provide extra help to the students who need it. Also I think that a volunteer or college student can't provide many "rich educational experiences for students", since they are still learning themselves. I'm not saying that service learning is a bad thing, but it does have it's negatives along many positives as well.

2."Moreover, it is important to acknowledge that the choice of service learning activities--like the choice of any curricular activities--has political dimensions" (page 12).
-This quote is pointing out that service learning is a political thing. Many people do it because they are required to. The people that make service learning a requirement are trying to teach "students the importance of charity"(page 12). The service learners are sent to schools that are usually very diverse and are struggling with poverty so they can learn the importance of helping out. To me, this seems like the people in power are trying to help the schools in need without using the money that is necessary. As Jonathan Kozal would say they "are putting a band-aid on a broken leg"(they aren't really helping).

3. " This experience and others like it, quite common in the literature of service learning, emphasize charity more than change"(page 7).
-I loved this quote from the article, it really stood out to me. I agree with this quote 100%. From what I have noticed, service learning is all about the people going and helping out at a school in need. The people they are sending are still learning themselves, so how much can they really help with? Schools  that have students suffering from poverty, need money. They need to be able to have the proper materials for their students, since the students can't afford them themselves. Yes, having people come in and help is a wonderful thing but that's charity and that's only temporary. The school needs change and something a little more long term.