Brown Vs. Board of education (late)

    Reflection

          This weeks “readings” were very interesting. Before I used to think that Events like Obama becoming the first African American president and the court cases like Brown vs. Board of education, were event that marked history as victories towards the end of social injustices against people of color. However I do shared the same opinion of Time wise and Bob Herbert, when they say that denying the power of these events is unfair, because there were in fact very important, but there is a lot of work to be done. Tim wise and argues that we are nowhere near of a post racial America.

       Herbert argues that  even though it had been over half of a century of the court ruling on Brown vs. Board of education where the court made illegal for school to be segregated. We still witnessing segregation within schools maybe they aren’t as obvious as it was in the 50’s and 60’s but they are as unfair and injustice as they were back then. Because school places student according to where they reside which means is if a child lives in a poor neighborhood, that child is going to be going to school in a poor school.  I would like to connect what Herbert says about school segregation to what we learned in the article amazing grace by Jonathan Kozol, because he talks about how the culture of power keeps people in their place and makes it extremely difficult for them to get out of poverty. Which I think that is what, the school system is doing with students, keeping poor children in poor schools and wealthy children in wealthy school.

Point to share;   

    I would like to say that I agree with both authors when they say that even though a lot of things had happened in favor of people of color and minority in general, the fight is not over “If we don't figure out a way to create equity, real equity, of opportunity and access, to good schools, housing, health care, and decent paying jobs, we're not going to survive as a productive and healthy society”. Tim Wise

pecha kucha

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0CnjTbKUEPlV3gyNmRkdEd4UDFBcGp3NzY3Tllja21QLWNN/view?usp=sharing

Social Justices Event

Social justices event

         On April 16 I attended a play called La Negrita Chronicles by Frania Romulus. The play was produced by a new theater company called SpeakUp Productions founded by local New England’s artists whose only mission is to give a platform to traditionally unheard voices and stories. “We believe that by changing the face of theater in Rhode Island, by giving people of color, woman, the disabled, immigrants, transfolk, or any marginalized person the platform to tell their story, we can be part of the international movement towards inclusion and justice for all”- SpeakUp Production. I believed that the production company’s mission can easily be related the article privilege power and difference written by Allen Johnson, because Johnson talks about how important is to “say the word” that we as a society, we are obligate to speak up and be part of the solution.

I went accompanied by Samantha, I was very glad that she came with me, because I had a different idea of what the place was going to look like, when we got there it caught us by surprised how modest the theater was.

      La Negrita's Chronical is a comedic satire about a young college student falls in love with a rich boy, who only uses her and treats her like a property. While dealing with an abuse relationship, she is also trying to survive in a college where being a black woman is not very welcome. The play started with La Negrita talking to her friend who was in a mental institution her friend talks about how white people have the power to control everything, if you don’t do not follow their rules you get left behind. Which this reminded me of the article by Lisa Delpit “The silenced Dialogue” because Delpit says,      there are codes or rules for participating in power; chat is, there is a "culture of power."  And also. Those with power are frequently least aware of - or least less willing to acknowledge - its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.

     During the whole play all she did was to try to fit in, but on her quest to be accepted she loses herself and started “acting white”. La Negrita is very loved by her close friends, even though they don’t agree with the way she is acting, they love and protected her. During her time in school la Negrita experienced discrimination, violent, sexual assault and exclusion by her “boyfriend” who is a member of the university hockey team and because she is a black woman her oppressor does not get punished. Which can be relate to SCWAMP, because illustrates how “whiteness” and “maleness” is very valued. Even though La Negrita goes thru all of this negative things she doesn’t stop being an optimistic person who still dream of finding love and acceptance.

Empowering Education by Ira Shor

Reflection/Extended Comment

Wow can’t believe this our last post L

This week’s article Empowering Education by Ira Shor seen to me a little repetitive but at the same time, I feel that it was a great choice as our last reading for the class, because it summarized what we had read so far from others authors in this semester. This week I would like to do a short reflection from Ira Shor article and extended comment of Julianne post. I decided to do an extended comment post, because after I read Julienne post, I liked the quotes that she picked, how she explained them and the connections she made with her service learning and our class were right on point.

Reflection

In empowering education by Ira Shor, the author talks about how important is for school to have curriculum that makes children want to go to schools, creates skilled critical thinkers and active citizens. One of the point that Shor made that I liked the most was when Shor talks about how he wants students to become active agents on the way their learned. Shor calls for a partnership between teachers and students; because Shor feels that if student are include in the decision making of their own education they will be more eager to come to class. They will have a voice, they will be active citizens and I couldn’t agree more.  

Extended comment

In her blog post julienne talks about an article that she read in one her class by Jean Piaget who like Shor is against the traditional way of schooling, that memorizing facts is not learning, instead learning come from experienced. She explained that in her service learning’s class the students seems like they don’t want to be there, because they are being force to learn information that is not interesting to them. I feel that maybe is not what they are being teach and it has to do more with the way that they are being teach, you did mention that, the teacher is very authoritarian maybe that’s why they seems so disengaged from the class.  

 Another point that julienne made, is the important of having student start the conversations and develop ideas instead of having the teacher lectured the entire time. Like Julienne, this reminded me of our classroom, where participation is valued a great deal also where our teacher does not impose her believes. We all have a voice in our class, I agree with you julienne if our class were more traditional, I do not think we were been as close as we are.

One of the quotes that Julienne picked that caught my attention the most is the following;

"Existing orthodoxies resist change because the standard curriculum represent more than knowledge; it represents the shape of power in school and society." (pg. 34)

Julienne connected this quote with the article, The Silence Dialogue, by Lisa Delpit. I think you did a great connection with Delpit; “there are codes and rules for participating in power” there is a “culture of power” and sadly they are the ones making all the decision of how and when things get done.

Point to share; Julienne you did and amazing job with your post as usual, as you can see I did not use your whole post, I didn’t want to take all of your ideas.

"Citizenship in school; Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome" By Christopher Kliewer

Reflection;

This week’s reading was by far my favorite because it talks about a topic that even though it is very present in our daily life some people tend to ignore. This week’s article was written by Christopher Kluwer. He argues that children with Down syndrome should be allow to participate in the same classroom with children that have no disability. Even though a child with Down syndrome may learn differently than the rest of the children.  I agree with Kliewer, because not only Down syndrome children have different way of learning but every children learn different even though they might not have a learning disability.

 One point that caught my attention from the article is a statement made by Jason Kinsley “now we know that people with disability can learn and have a full, rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitude about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disability” I feel that there are several ways we can change the negativism towards children with Down syndrome or towards any other children with disability. First one, is to stop segregating classrooms, I don’t know if any of you remember when we were in high school or even in grammar school, where they had the “regular kids” classes on one side of the school and the classes for children with disabilities at the other side of the building or even in the school basement like they were some contagious creatures. Keeping children with disabilities apart from the rest had created a sense that children with disability are being kept apart because somethings is wrong with them, that the rest of the children should feel afraid if god forbid they come in contact with each other something “bad” is going to happen to them. Society need to remember that precious quote by Nelson Mandela “no one is born hating another person they are taught” if children with disability attend the same classroom as children with no disability we will see a change on society’s negative attitude towards people with developmental disabilities. 

Another way to change the negativism towards children with disability is to stop treating them like they are less human, they can do the same things that other people can for example; I been working as a school bus driver for the past four years, I had driven different type of children; from behavior problems, special needs to children with no disability. I would like to share something that happened to me last year with a Down syndrome child who I would name “Bobby”. Normally children with special needs gets drop off as close as possible of their classroom. Their teacher or the teacher’s aide are always waiting for them at the door. But the rest of the children get drop off at assigned spot next to the cafeteria. One morning “Bobby” who become friends with another child from the bus, wanted to be drop off at the same spot as his friend. Bobby‘s new friend assured that he was going to walk him to his classroom. I didn’t see no problem with that because Bobby was a very smart and capable boy. When I finished my bus run I was called in to the manager’s office and I was suspended for a day because I didn’t drop Bobby off were I was supposed to and that I could have put him in danger. I couldn’t comprehend why this very capable child wasn’t allowed to socialize with the rest of the children? To me he was another pre-teen boy that wanted to hang out with his friends, but the school saw him as a defenseless human being. In this article I saw a lot of the article “safe spaces” by August because schools should be a safe place where children feel that the can be themselves. “Classroom lay the foundations for an inclusive and safe society: a just community where common interest and individual differences coexist.” By August

Point to share; I want to ask my classmates if I did something wrong by letting “Bobby” walk with his friends. Give your opinion on this because that incident still bothers me.

Literacy with an Attitude By Patrick Finn

Quotes;

First of all, happy Easter everybody.

    I share the same opinion of some of my classmate that this article was very difficult to get through because of how long it was but I felt that after reading it was very informative. here are the following quotes that I  selected ;

“Some minorities feel they have been wronged by mainstream Americans and that acting "white" is a betrayal of their people. They develop what sociologists call "oppositional identity."-(Preface I)

When I first read this quote, right away the author Rodriguez came to my mind, because in his article Rodriguez talks about how difficult was for him to manage going to school where he was not allow to speak his native language which created a gap between him and his family. Giving him the sense that he was betraying his own culture. I can also make a personal connection to it, after I graduated from high school, I started associating myself with people from different ethnicity than mine and stated speaking more English than Spanish, some of my old friends started treating me differently. They would said things like; oh do you think that you are an American now? It had been extremely difficult for me to manage being a Latina and also an “American”. The question if I’m betraying my “people” is always in my mind.

“Another teacher said, "You can't teach these kids anything. Their parents don't care about them, and they're not interested." Pg. 12

I picked this quote because it reminded me of how much I had learned in this class. Before I shared the same believe as the person who said this quote. I used to think that when a parent did not went to a parents and teachers conferences, or when I saw that  a child not dressed according to what I believed was the way they should be dressed, I thought that their parents did not care about them, that they were bad parents, but never for a minute did I thought that maybe it was because they were poor and couldn’t afford to buy new clothes or that they need it to work extra hours to make ends meet and that’s why they couldn’t keep up with their kids school. This quote can well be connected to the article written by Ullucci because it is a great example of what Ullucci calls “The Educability Myth” where parents are being blame of their student lack of success and also how being poor give the student a label as not being “that bright”. “That children in poverty are somehow categorically different due to their class, is highly problematic.”- Ullucci pg. 9

“People who have felt powerless are organizing and discovering their collective power. They are coming to realize that liberating education and powerful literacy is essential for their children. But demands for better schooling will not solve the problem alone. Teachers, parents, and older students need to understand the mechanisms that have subverted honest efforts to give working class children a decent education”

I really like this quote because it talks about how parents are taking charge of their children education. They know what their children need to be successful, but the parents cannot do this alone, if school’s officials don’t become aware that children from a low class background deserved the same type of education as children from a higher education background and how important is for the community to work together as a whole this type of chances will never happened. 

Point to share; Did you like reading this article? 

Pecha Kucha Update

    

     I was very confused on how to do Pecha Kucha , I didn't even know how to start. One of the things that worried me most how to condense  so much information since we only have less than seven minutes to do our presentation. After meeting with my partner Pat things seems more  clear, I’m glad that I have someone as smart as him as a partner. (You are awesome Pat!!!)

We are using Delpit culture of power with a little bit of Collier code-switching. We still deciding which other author we are going to add. I feel that we had accomplished a lot in such of short time.  At this point we have different stories from our services learning that we can relate to the authors and which picture we are going to use. Like I mention before there is a lot information to organized but as I study more and reread the articles the more clear things are getting. I don’t have any question for now. 

See you in class next week.

"In the Service of What?" By Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

                           "In the Service of What?"  By  Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer                            

Quotes  

This week’s blog I would like to share the three quotes that I like the most, before I do that I like to asked three minutes of your time to watch this video . I found this video in Facebook, I feel that this video sends a powerful message. There still good in this world .

           "Altruism can best be appreciated as an experience rather than an abstraction."

    I think this quote is very powerful, because it talks about how is more important to actual help someone than talking about helping someone. For example in the article that we read for this week, there is two type of service learning one is doing the actual volunteering and the other is more about learning about the situation. I feel that both service learning are great, but I agree more with the first one because it order for us humans, be more understanding of how bad other people have it, we have to see it firsthand.

                                       

“The requirement that all students take part in volunteer activities in either their school or community as a condition for graduation from high school."

    I picked this quote because a question asked by my classmate Kaileen asked. She asked- did anyone else have community service as a graduation requirement? Response; no, my school did not have a service learning as a graduation requirement. Now that I think about it, they were more worry about girls not getting pregnant and boys not getting arrested. That they actually forgot to teach us about being good to orders. Also kaileen your question got me thinking on the quote that is stamped in most of the Providence Public School walls “Helping to better the lives of others is the greatest of all Achievements” what an irony!! 

" The experiential and interpersonal components of service learning activities can achieve the first crucial step toward diminishing the sense of "otherness" that often separates students-particularly privileged students-from those in need”.

    I really like this quote, because it talks about how important is to help others, and I helping unify us as a community. I would like to connect this quote with the article we read in class written by Allan Johnson. In the article Johnson talks about how ignorance is affecting us from helping others. Another point that Johnson make, that can be very related to this quotes is when Johnson talks about how people feel about the unknown and how that feeling can contribute to the mistreatment of others. “There is nothing inherently frightening about what we don’t know. If we feel afraid, it isn’t what we don’t know that frightens us, is what we think we do know” Johnson (pg. 17)

Point to share; I would like to leave you guys with a quote from one the greatest leader of our time 

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'

                                               Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us” by Linda Christensen.

Reflection  

   For this week I would like to do a reflection on the article “Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us” by Linda Christensen. After reading this article I can see why Dr. Bogad said that, when this class is over I will not be the same person, boy was she right!!

Dr. Bogad was like...

   Since I was a little girl I had loved Disney movies, I enjoyed that feeling that you get when watching those movies, princess finding their prince charming. Aww that happily ever after…. good wining over evil, blah blah blah… and as I got older I saw Disney movies as a great influence in children, because I thought that they did a great job teaching kids about good and bad.  I didn’t know the negative effect Disney movies has on children. Until now I had never pay attention to the actual message this movie were sending (shame on me, I know right?)  Disney gives this portrayal of unreachable beauty. 

                                             

I found this picture  in article posted in blogger. It clearly how unrealistic the Disney Princesses compared to how women actually look like. 

In the article Christensen talk about how in those movie children learned that woman are passive, men are strong and people of color are either evil or absent.  It wasn’t until I saw the most current Disney movie Frozen that I saw how I got played by Disney.  People are saying that with the new movie frozen Disney is trying to change the imagine people have of them. In the movie Disney tell that a woman doesn’t need a man to be happy, that she can take care of herself, and I congratulate Disney for that but, in the whole movie I dint saw one person of color. I guess ones can argue that at least they are trying but one question that I would like to bring to class is are they trying hard enough? 

Point to share:  I think that as future teacher is our job to teach our student that all this stereotype does exit. Also we should teach them to speak out when they don’t like something.  I feel that the more we point out all this stereotypes, the more we raise awareness things will become more obvious to others, and the “culture in power” will force to make changes. We are already seeing how Disney are being force to make changes with the movie of Frozen.

P.S. I adore Olaf  

This little guy is adorable  

Reflection: Safe Spaces by Vaccaro, August and Kennedy

Reflection:  Safe Spaces by Vaccaro, August and Kennedy  

First of all trying to do homework with a three year old, saying that she wants to play every five, minutes is extremely difficult.   

My Beautiful Baby Girl 

      This week blog I decided to do a reflection of the article. This article was very difficult for me to read, not because of the word but because of its message. Reading about how humans being are being deprived of their fundamental right, to freedom, to decide what they want do with their own life.  The thing that hurt me the most was my lack of knowledge in the matter. My lack of knowledge got me thinking, that as a member of the Latino community and a woman I had suffered my share of discrimination. But never had I ever been told that I cannot choose my own path that is up to society to choose for me. As a married woman who love her husband dearly, it would’ve cause an excruciating  pain  if I was told, that because of who I choose to be, I couldn't married the love of my life.

      As I continue reading the article, my three year old baby girl sits next to me, she wants to help Mami with her homework.  While I continue reading the article, l can’t help but to look at this three year old little girl coloring next to me, so smart yet so innocent. As her parent my job is to protect her from any harm and to teach her that she can be whomever she desires, that no one can’t tell her any different. But am I being realistic? Am I preparing her for the real world?  I can’t only imagine how hard it must for a parent, who has a child of the LGBT community that feels that the only option they have is to commit suicide because the felt that, they were unwanted, unwelcome.

    Point to share; yes I do agree that school has a lot to improve on how they deal with teaching kids about different type of families. But I do feel that this job belong to each and one of us, we need to stop using derogatory words towards the LGBT people. We need to be aware that we the heterosexual community are the privilege group, like Delpit said, we are the change that this world needs because, and we have the power to create a better world for our children. We have the power to say enough is ENOUGH!!!!

“Aria” by Richard Rodriguez

Reflection

        This week article “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez are hitting close to home, when I first came to this country even though I had my family with it was extremely difficult. At the age of sixteen I found myself going to a new school in a different country. I spend the first few months of school, trying to adjust, most of my classes were in English. I didn't understood the teacher or some of my classmates, not all  of my teachers were understanding but one in particular made my life a living hell, I remember one time when she asked me a question and I couldn't comprehend, she just nodded her head with disappointment, after class I asked one of my classmate who spoke Spanish to tell her that I was new to the school and that I didn't spoke English, her answer was that “this was America and that I needed to get with the program, that she was not going to slow the class for only one person” (I got an F for the class), I remembered going home crying, I couldn't understand why she was being so unreasonable, I wish she could have  known how smart I was in Spanish. When I decided to practice English, I remembered getting laughed at by my classmate. I didn't let that stop me I successfully learned to write and read  English but, there are  a lot of kids like me that  come to this country where people don’t speak their language who ended up dropping out school because they don’t feel welcome or like they belong.  I can rely with the author when he talks about how the teachers put a label on him, “slow Kid” because he wouldn't participate in class.  Even now in college I find myself feeling out of place most my classes I am the only Spanish speaking person. 

Comments; while reading the article of “Aria” I find a connection with Delpit, #2 “There are codes or rules for participating in power, that is, there is a “culture of power”. Like me Rodriguez didn't follow the teacher orders (culture of power) therefore we weren't accepted, because we violated the rules of power. I bet that Delpit would have said that in order for us to excel in this culture we needed to be taught in English.  

Jonathan Kozol “Amazing Grace”

This article have been so far one of the most difficult piece that had ever read. It breaks my heart knowing that people living in one of the riches country in the world, are being deprived of fundamental care. As my fellow classmate julienne it was extremely difficult to pick certain quotes and leave others behind.

 “…..then looks up looks up at me and ask politely. “Would you like a chocolate chip cookie?”

This quote may seem insignificant but, to me it shows the innocence of a child, who is growing in one of the poorest, dangerous, unsanitary and deprived environment in U.S. A child who despite his situation is offering the only treat he has. A child who is an example to follow, even though he doesn't have much, he still find on his heart to share with others.

“Either you wait for hours until someone cleans the room or else you clean the room yourself”

This quote was said by Mrs. Washington when she was explaining to the author why she doesn't like going to the hospital. This statement broke my heart, I couldn't comprehend how is this possible that a hospital doesn't have clean rooms and bed made for their patients, I felt like I was reading about a place in a third world country not about “The world’s Capital”.

“I keep waking up myself. Even if my mother isn't up, I wake up anyway. I go in her room to see if she’s asleep. If she sleeping I just see there by her bed”

This quote was said by Mrs. Washington’s son David. This quote remind me of the Delpit piece that we read last week, about how sometime children would drop out school to take care of their siblings. The article mentions that David is a high school senior. I can only imagine how difficult is most be for him to manage school and a sick mother.

A point to share; since the article was written in the 1990’s I decided to do a little research to check if thing have change since 1990’s . I found this article article according to a new census data New York remains the number one state in the nation in wealth inequality.

  

Lisa Delpit: The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children

 (Quotes)

“I want the same thing for everyone else’s children as I want for mine”

This quote means that you as a teacher, want to educate your student the same way that you educate your own children. Even though this statement was made probably with the best intentions, as Delpit points out; “This is a very reasonable goal for people who children are already participants in the culture of power and who have already internalized its code” but how the parent of the children of color? Do they what their children to be teach the same way? Every parent have their own preference on how their child should be teach.  I know that it must be difficult to please every parent, but at least an intent should be made to understand that every student come from different social status with different aspiration.

“They want to ensure that school provides their children with discourse patterns, interactional styles, and spoken and written language codes that will allow them success in the larger society”

This quotes addressed the needs and wants that a parent of a child of color have. I agree with Delpit when she says that it is the lack of attention to this concert such a negative outcry in the black community. This quote got me thinking of the “No child left behind act.” And have raised a question in my head. If a teacher or an institution is not taking in consideration, their student background, language, race and ethnicity, how is this not leaving a child behind? We are focusing on keeping student in school and out of the streets, and this really good but in order for us to prevent students from dropping out of school. We should provide a minority-friendly schools.

“…….Because authority is earned, the teacher must consistently prove the characteristic that give her authority”

This quotes means that the teacher keeps his or her classroom under control, he or her will earn respect from their student. When children have respect from their teacher is more likely the student will be more productive in class. A good example of this is a teacher I had in high school, this teacher was one of the toughest teacher I ever had, but he was also the more respective teacher in school. He was what you call a nonsense kind of teacher but also very fair, everybody knew that they most do their work in his class. I remembered now that he used to say “I want for you guys to be a first class citizens, I want to get you ready for the real world, where their rules to follow” at that time I thought that he was an arbitrary man, but now that I’m older  I can see how right he was.