This link above brings you to an article titled: Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap, by Mark Hugo Lopez. This article was VERY interesting as well as factual. Lopez explains why many Latinos tend to not do so well academically.
For example, Lopez states:
Latinos ages 18 to 24 are less likely to say they are currently enrolled in school than all young adults ages 18 to 24—33% versus 42%.
More than six-in-ten (61%) say a major reason they don’t do as well in school is that parents of Hispanic students do not play an active role in helping their children succeed.
Nearly six-in-ten (58%) say the limited English skills of Hispanic students is a major reason.
Fairbanks article, Becoming Something Different, is about a young Hispanic girl named Esme who was pushed to the side and was thought by others to be “hopeless” or a “lost cause”. Many never believe she would graduate high school, never mind get accepted into a college or university. Amazingly, despite her placement in school and doubt she would receive from others, Esme was able to work hard and stay motivated. Eventually, she was able to move out of her standard/remedial classes and into more challenging classes in school.
This article reminded me a lot about my friend, Janita, who I had met in Honduras on my mission trip. She had told me that her older sisters were all pregnant before any of them turned 18, and her parents never thought about any of her daughters going to “Universidad” (college). However, when my mission pastor looked at her report card, which consisted of As and Bs (and a C here and there), he decided to reward her with one of the 5 scholarships we were giving out to kids in the village so that they were able to attend college and one day move out of the village they lived in. Along with this, our group was willing to pay for her transportation to and from the college so that she could still live at home with her parents some weeks. Just like Esme, Janita was doubted by others, and was assumed to never amount to anything by her family.
Literacy with an Attitude very much reminds me of the movie we watched in class, The Freedom Writers.
I do think it is beneficial to separate the students who can learn and pick up quickly from those who need a little extra help. However, I do not condone throwing the troubled kids in these classes just because. I think students should be closer evaluated, and should receive a recommendation from their teacher as to what level class they would like to take in that specific subject.
At East Providence, it seemed like the kids in the lower level classes were the kids that simply did not want to learn or want to be in school. The standard classes were basically for the kids who, in the teacher’s eyes, had no hope. The “standard class” kids were also the ones who tended to have behavioral issues. After reading this article, I cannot help but wonder if some of the students were thrown in standard classes simply because of their behavior.
This article reminded me a lot of my boyfriend. He was put in standard classes through school because he had and still has issues with his vision. It was not until he was older that his parents and teachers realized that he was legally blind, thus, he fell behind in school. While he was in the lower level classes, he realized he was in the “dumb classes” and just accepted that he was “not smart”, and did not try in school. Even today, he will tell me things like “I’m not as smart as you”, “I was too stupid for college”, or “I was never book smart”. However, he does not realize that “book smart” is not the only “smart”. He has the most amazing mechanical mind I have ever seen in anybody before! He can fix anything and everything, from lawnmowers, cars, pipes, roofs ANYTHING. It angers me when he tries to tell me that he is not smart because he didn’t go to college, or because he can’t read as well as others can. He is mechanically brilliant! It breaks my heart when he doubts himself. I wonder how his life would be now if his teachers had just worked with him and helped him to catch up.
I do believe classes should be separated this way, but it should be the students choice as to what level class they want to take. They should be offered the help if necessary, and be encouraged to challenge themselves more. It would be great to say that all students could learn all in one classroom, but the reality is that students get frustrated. The top kids are annoyed by the kids who are lost and by the speed of the class. The kids with lower reading level and comprehension still feel lost.
I was happy to read Citizenship in School; Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome. This topic was something I had hoped we would eventually read about or even talk about in class!
In the article, Kliewer argues that even though students with down syndrome learn differently from average students, they should still be allowed to be a part of the typical classroom. He argues that they will learn a lot more if combined with the other children and also the traditional learning students will learn a lot more as well. There are some valuable lessons to be learned by everyone when special needs students are included in normal classrooms. All are likely to experience a richer community and learning environment if we include students who have disabilities.
“The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities.” – Kliewer
“Keep Calm It’s Only An Extra Chromosome”
Before deciding that I wanted to be an art teacher, I wanted to be a special education teacher. Since middle school, I was involved in many programs that allowed me to work with kids my age that had all different types of special needs. In middle school, I would work on getting the kids involved in gym class, and helped them to learn the different sports and games we would play for that day. In high school, I was in the partners program, where I would help tutor the kids in math and reading (kind of like what we all do now in the Inspiring Minds program!). It was then when I realized just how much patience you need every single day to teach special education. Just about every single student in a special needs class NEEDS somebody by their side constantly. It stressed me out, and I was always worried I was spending too much time with one student and not the other, or I was teaching something in a way that was confusing them more. I realized it was not for me.
My art teacher in high school had told me that I should try teaching art to these students instead. She helped me set up my schedule so that I could be present to watch her teach art to those with special needs. It was such a fun and relaxing experience for me! I helped teach them how to mix colors, helped them experiment using different medias (charcoal, graphite, pencils, paints, ink) and how to draw from pictures. Honestly, some of their work was better than kids who did not have special needs! I was surprised.
Here’s a 17 month baby with down syndrome showing his smarts by reading and showing sign language:
The message I got out of Citizenship in School; Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome was to never limit one with a disability. Never assume he/she will never learn how to do something. Never give up. If their dissability gets in the way, its your job as the teacher to problem solve and try every different technique and method you can think of until it clicks for them. Always encourage, give practice, extra help, and have hope.
The video above a girl named Megan Bomgaars’s message to teachers on how to teach students with down syndrome. This video is very relevant to the article we read this week, and hopefully we can view it in class so that EVERYONE can hear her powerful, inspiring message.
DON’T LIMIT ME by thinking that I can’t learn in your classroom.
DON’T LIMIT ME by thinking that I will always need someone to help me.
DON’T LIMIT ME by having low expectations for me.
Include me, and all of your students, in your circle of learning
while you are planning for my World Class Education.
Think about how I have the same needs as all students.
We all need life skills, we all need work skills.
I need for you to teach me skills beyond reading and math.
Teach me how to learn. Teach me how to act.
Think about what I need to know and be able to do when I leave school.
Help me to learn to be independent in class.
Help me to learn to be independent with friends.
Help me to learn to be independent, and safe, moving around our school.
Teach me to be independent so I can become an independent adult.
I need to work independently.
I need to speak up for myself.
DON’T LIMIT ME by teaching me to depend on others. – Megan Bomgaar
I attended the social justice event, what does the T in LGBT mean? Given by Elijah Edelman, the assistant professor of anthropology. The LGBT community is one that I have always been fascinated with, so it was easy for me to choose this event to be my social justice event for the semester.
I have a very personal interest in not only the transgender community, but also the entire LGBT community because I was once considered by most to be “religious”. I came from an extreme church that viewed being a gay, or a part of this LGBT community as a “sin”. Although I was very young, I can remember my Evangelical school teachers telling me that Santa Clause was “Satan Clause”, God hated kids that were disobedient, and that “all gays went to hell”. I can, to this day, still close my eyes, and hear my mean old pre school teacher’s voice, and saying those hateful things. When I had told my mom what was being told to me, and how those things made me upset, my parents decided to move to a church much more accepting and positive. However, I was confused for a while on whether being gay was a good or bad thing. It was not until I was in middle school that I fully learned what it meant to be gay, how people were born this way, and that this was not at all a “bad thing” or something God would send you to hell for being.
Just these past couple of years, I have heard the word “transgender” a lot! I watched the TLC show, “I am Jazz”, Bruce Jenner officially became Caitlyn Jenner, the Netflix series Orange is the New Black has a transgender character played by Laverne Cox, I took a gender studies class just last semester where we talked about transgender people a lot, and I have met my boyfriend’s friend who transitioned from a man to a woman. At the bar I worked at, I would get many opinions from others that differed from the opinions of people in my classes about being transgender. Some say it’s “crazy people” who are transgender while others emphasized that it was a real thing. For a while, again, I struggled with my own opinion. It did seem unusual to me, because there is not a lot of history about transgender people. Years ago, it was not acceptable to be gay, never mind transgender.
Something Edelman talked about during this event that really stuck with me was how people are not trained to critically think about gender. That, in result, can make people feel excluded and misunderstood. We get papers to fill out all of the time from the doctors, schools, etc. asking you to check off either the box labeled “male” or “female”. What box do gender non-conforming individuals check off? They are put in an uncomfortable situation where they have to identify as one or the other on the spot. As for someone like me, who identifies with their genetic sex, it is hard to put myself in the shoes of someone who would feel that way. Although I know what it feels like to be uncomfortable, or to feel left out, I could not imagine what people feel put in this position.
What I wondered afterwards was why do forms like this ask whether you are male or female? I realize it may be used for demographics, but for the most part, is the “gender box” necessary? Although the Transgender status is not necessarily a gender, some people may wish to be out and publicly identify as trans. So in addition to having an optional way of selecting a gender, there should be an optional Gender Identity field where someone can choose to select transgender or cisgender.
Before listening to Professor Edelman at the social justice event, I thought that once transgender people were out as transgender, life was much easier for them there on out. How wrong I was! Although their feelings of depression, anger, and fear of coming out are better than before their transition, they still struggle every day. It’s important to remember that although it seems as though most people around here are accepting, it’s not the case in other places. A lot of people are brought down, made fun of and abused for being transgender. Often times, these feelings can even lead to suicide.
People, educators especially, need to keep in mind that their students have situations that go on outside of school. Some of their lives may be more difficult than we ever would have expected. Some may be transgender, some may be transitioning, and some may have no idea. Educators must be sensitive to their trans students and remember that they may be bullied outside of school, they cannot comfortably go into bathrooms or locker-rooms, they may be isolated and excluded by others, and have families that are not being supportive. We need to really stop and think about what we are saying.
I’m glad to have read the article, A Particularly Cheap White Whine: Racism, Scholarships and the Manufacturing of White Victimhood. This article addressed a racial issue I kept hearing about over and over again my senior year of high school when myself and all of my friends were applying to colleges. It was not until then that I realized how strongly race and ethnicity influences scholarships and acceptances into colleges and universities across the country.
In my senior year, my friend, Mary graduated as salutation at her school and applied to the college she worked so hard to get in to (the name I currently do not remember). It was a very prestigious school, and had a very low acceptance rate, but Mary was confident that she would be accepted. She had completed hours and hours of community service work, she had received close to perfect scores on her SATs and ACTs, she was involved in various clubs, sports, and National Honors Society, and never got a grade lower than a 93 in any of her classes. Her letter came back from this university, and unfortunately, she did not get accepted. Rather, she was put on the waiting list. I can’t quite remember who brought the idea up first, but as I was talking about her situation with her and some of my other friends, they began to talk about how she wasn’t accepted because she was white. “Universities like that are looking for more African Americans to enroll so that they don’t seem like a race biased school”. I remember somebody saying to me. From then until reading this article, I did believe that schools did sometimes favor the student who was not white rather than the student who was white, despite their achievements.
In truth, only 3.5 percent of college students of color receive any scholarship even partly based on race, suggesting that such programs remain a pathetically small piece of the financial aid picture in this country, irrespective of what a gaggle of reactionary white folks might believe.
Wise does a good job with including statistics to support his reasoning, but I was VERY impressed by what he wrote about what we need to keep in mind before we claim that those who are not white get the benefits. Wise states we, white people, need to remember the average white student in this country typically attends school with half as many poor kids. Where as the average black or Latino student will attend a school with MORE poor kids, “which in turn has a direct effect on performance, since attending a low-poverty school generally means having more resources available for direct instruction”. We also must keep in mind that white students are twice as likely to be taught by better, more highly qualified teachers. “This too directly benefits whites, as research suggests being taught by highly qualified teachers is one of the most important factors in school achievement.” Finally, whites are far more likely to be placed in honors programs and classes than their African American and Latino peers.
Wise’s article really taught me that it is important to keep background context in mind before claiming that African Americans and Latinos are the “privileged ones”. The nonwhites who grew up in low-income households, we must remember, are the ones who have been denied the same rights as whites all their lives.
Kahne and Westheimer really opened my eyes to how important volunteer work is for everybody to experience and participate in, especially the youth. Any type of volunteer work from volunteering in soup kitchens, doing missionary work, or even raising money for charities or those in need really goes a long way. It benefits not only the people receiving the service, but the volunteers as well.
This article took me back to my own experience in volunteering In Honduras back in 2009 and 2010. Although this trip was so long ago, I bring it up a lot to friends and family because I have so many fond memories and learned so much from this trip. It truly was a life changing experience, even at the age of 13 and 14. I traveled to a village called Chachaguala, and there, I helped to build homes, repair churches, schools, make “pilas” – which are like big outdoor sinks used to hold fresh water. Being as young as I was, I did more exploring of the town rather than helping to build with the adults. I visited the children’s homes, helped them make food, played games with them, and let them take pictures with my digital camera, which they were FASCINATED with.
This trip taught me how easy I have it back at home. How I take things like my bed, digital cameras, schools, a solid home that isn’t built out of mud, and access to supplies and food. I really grew up a lot from those trips and have memories photos to last a lifetime. It is true that volunteering is very important, and to teach young people about the importance of helping others is one step in the direction of creating a better world, and changing not only the lives of others, but also their own lives.
Here are some awkward tween phase photos of myself in Honduras with the children of Chachaguala:
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Here is a link for those interested in getting involved locally or around the world. http://www.worldvision.org/get-involved-world-vision
This article was very informative and brought up great points about the media that is exposed to young children and how it can be manipulated by the “secret education”. At the same time, however, it was a little sad to read these truths behind disney movies that I watched religiously as a child. You can also tell that this article may be a little dated because it makes no mention of the new African American Disney princess, Tiana. I do feel that today’s Disney movies are making a better attempt at trying to steer away from stereotypical ethnic and gender roles.
The author of Unlearning the Mythsthat Blind Us, Linda Christiansen, argues that starting from childhood, people are manipulated by what is called the “secret education”. The “secret education” is the education a child recieves about the world specifically through the media. Examples include children’s books, movies, television programs etc. Older cartoons and children’s literature are especially obvious in portraying stereotypes. For this reason, Christenson shows these cartoons and older stories to her students and asks them to really focus in on the gender roles, class, and ethnicities of characters.
When the author wrote:
My waiste didn’t dip into an hourglass; in fact, according to the novels I read, my thick ankles doomed me to be cast as the peasant woman reaping hay while the heroine swept by her wih her handsome man in hot pursuit.
It reminded me that the true heroes and main characters in these stories and cartoons are all created to be beautiful. The princesses all have unrealistic bodies, hair, and facial features. This leads girls to have unrealistic expectations about their own looks and bodies and can lead to poor body image or eating dissorders. Below is an image of a realistic female body compared to the body of a disney princess, Jazmine from Aladdin.
The 9 Most Racist Disney Characters Is a website that lists 6 Disney movies that may have racist or sexist characters or points in the story. I was amazed by how much went over my head as a child after reading this page. For example, did you put a lot of thought into The Red Man from Peter Pan? Or how he was the only character who spoke for his tribe, since he was the male chief of his tribe.
Questions:
In class, I think we should talk about Disney movies or stories that we remember from our childhood and see if we can point out any types of gender roles or racism within the movie or story.
Do we believe that Disney movies are getting better about sexism and gender roles?
I really enjoyed Allan’s Speaking the Unspeakable in Forbidden Places: Addressing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality in the Primary School. I personally have an interest in LGBT rights, and I was excited to read this article and learn about how these issues are addressed in the classroom. Whether it is a teacher, faculty member, or student who struggles with coming out, or faces obstacles for being openly gay.
A quote that really stood out to me in this article was found at the beginning of the text:
“The primary school is often thought of as a place of safety and innocence; a place where childhood is both nurtured and sheltered, and attempts to address what are seen as ‘adult’ issues are sometimes seen as intrusions into or threats to this safety zone. In this context, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) identities are made absent in one sense through the fact that they are not addressed in formal school contexts, while being made doubly present by the fact that they are taboo, and are brought into being through the popular discourses of homophobia.”
This quote really opened my eyes to how the primary school may not be viewed as a safe or accepting place for some students or faculty members. For me, I felt very comfortable referring to guidance counselors or teachers if I had any issue, whether that was a social or academic issue. However, this is not always the case for others who are LGBT in other school systems besides my own.
It is true that being lesbian, gay, transgender, or bisexual is very Taboo, and maybe more so for teachers. It is unfortunate that people have to feel so “hush-hush” about their own sexuality.
Hyperlink #1: When They Ask, “Ms. Are You A Lesbian?” I reply, Yes
The link I posted above relates to Allen’s article because this teacher was also gay, and was contemplating whether or not it would be okay to come out to her students. In this teacher’s case, she was asked if she was gay. However, her audience was not only her classroom, but a camera crew that was there to film the documentary, Mr. Drew’s School for Boys. Courageously, she replied “yes”.
A paragraph that really stuck out to me in this article was:
“Mostly, I have been lucky: on the whole, I’ve worked in schools with realistic staff and accepting students. Even Tom from the summer school was fine once I had explained myself. Supposedly, he was one of the most challenging children in the country, but he didn’t feel the need to challenge me. He told me my sexuality didn’t matter, that it was fine and that I should never try to hide it. And that’s the joy of being a teacher: sometimes, your students have more wisdom than you do.”
Especially that last line, “Sometimes, your students have more wisdom than you do” really stuck with me. Although this teacher was a bit hesitant about coming out and was afraid of a negative reaction from her students, she was relieved to find that many of them still accepted her. Even the students she feared would not be so accepting, such as Tom.
Another interesting quote:
“I feel I have normalised homosexuality for them. I’m not the lesbian teacher: I’m a teacher who happens to be a lesbian. And nobody cares. Or, at least, it seems that way. But if you dig a little deeper, you find a whole raft of students and adults who do care: the bi-curious girl in year 8; the year 11 boy who has just come out; the transgender student in year 10; the cleaner whose daughter has just moved in with her girlfriend. All these people are made to feel safer and more accepted because I am out and I am safe and I am accepted. Without a doubt, having an out teacher in a school is invaluable when discussing diversity and tackling homophobia.”
Hyperlink #2: Texas School Suspends Teacher for being Transgender
The article above (would be a fun one to talk about in class as well) was very interesting to me. This article is about a transgender substitute teacher who was fired for being transgender. The article claims that parents thought this substitute was a “distraction to their children”. I’d love to bring this situation up in class, and see how others would feel, or react to their child having a transgender teacher (whether it was a substitute teacher or their full-time teacher).
Questions:
I’d like to talk in class about whether or not coming out to a classroom is a “good idea”
At what age is it okay for students to know that their teacher is gay?
At what age is it okay for students to learn what it means to be LGBT? Would you be okay with your child having a gay teacher? Would you be okay with your child having a transgender teacher?
This article really reminds me of the importance of trying all different learning strategies for different students. Students can either be visual learners, auditory learners, reading/writing learners, or kinesthetic learners. Teaching a lesson one way may get through to some or most students, however, it is very unlikely you will get your lesson through to ALL of your students. For example, auditory learners learn through traditional teaching techniques, such as lecture. However, a visual learner may have trouble learning and retaining information through a lecture. A visual learner may need something more hands on (like myself).
In the case of this article, Why Can’t She Remember That?, the author gives different examples of what types of activities and learning exercises are beneficial to children to get interested in reading as well as obtain knowledge from the reading. For example, the author talks about using puppets or stuffed animals to act out a story, for a visual effect (which is beneficial to visual learners). This way, you can “make the book come alive”.
In class, I think it would be cool to talk about what kind of ways we learn (visually, reading/writing, auditory, kinesthetic) and how we can keep these types of learning methods in mind when teaching different lessons/subjects (math, science, literature, language, etc.) What kinds of activities for each of there learning types are useful for reading like in Why Cant She Remember That
Education activities in classroom at school, happy children learning
I really enjoyed reading Lisa Delpit’s, Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. The main idea of this reading focuses on the importance of understanding the culture of students that teachers work with on a daily basis. For example, a white teacher who graduated from Barrington High School may have a harder time teaching to a nonwhite student who does not live the same privileged lifestyle. Whereas a black teacher, depending on where he came from, would most likely able to better connect with this student. It emphasizes the importance of trying to understand where students come from in order to better reach out to them and gain their trust.
A line that stood out to me in the reading was:
But both sides need to be able to listen, and I contend that it is those with the most power, those in the majority, who must take greater responsibility for initiating the process. To do so takes a very special kind of listening, listening that requires not only eyes and ears, but open hearts and minds. We do not really see through our eyes or see through our ears, but through our beliefs. To put our beliefs on hold is to cease to exist as ourselves for a moment – and that is not easy.
I think that this line really stood out to me because it is true that we must put trust into others. Although we may not have the same ideas or beliefs that others may have, it is still important to listen and do our best to understand different perspectives. All teachers have the same goal: for their students to grow into responsible people and to achieve academic success. This goal can be achieved many different ways through many different techniques. We all need to be more open minded, and realize that all teachers make decisions and come up with different ideas and strategies.
The author, Lisa Delpit, believes that a successful teacher is one who connects with their student as well as their families both inside and outside of the classroom. This way, the teacher can better understand the individual student he or she is dealing with. Also, this way the student will be better able to trust their teacher. I also believe that a good connection and relationship with a student is crucial to their individual learning process. When this topic was discussed in class, just about everyone agreed that the teachers they had the best connections with are the teachers they trusted the most, learned the most from, and made lasting impressions.
Reflection:
Caroline Whitaker: FNED 