Social Justice Event

For my social justice event I attended RIC’s 19^th Annual Multicultural Conference. Its theme was Resilience Across the Board: “A Strength Based Approach to Foster Resiliency in All Communities.” The keynote speaker was a clinical psychologist named Robert Brooks. Dr. Brooks’ speech was entitled “the power of mindsets: strategies to nurture resilience.”

To begin his speech, Dr. Brooks defined mindsets. He stated that mindsets are “the assumptions and expectations we have for ourselves and others that guide our behavior.” He said they were extremely important because “mindsets play a powerful in impacting on all aspects of our lives and the lives of those we work to become more resilient.” He also talked about the importance of empathy , which is illustrated in the video, “Brene Brown on Empathy”, which states that empathy “fuels connection” and it that is important not to look down on, or feel sorry for people, but to “feel with people”, to understand what people are going through and acknowledge their feelings. You can find this excellent video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw

 

He spoke of the “charismatic adult.”, which, according to Brooks, is an adult from whom one gathers strength. He stressed that as educators we need to be charismatic adults. He said children come from many different environments and some don’t have charismatic adults in their home lives so they need to gather strength from teachers to learn to believe in themselves. He stated that charismatic adults nurture resilience because they connect, reach out, and form trust with the people they are working with and developing a welcoming climate so that children feel comfortable talking to them. He stated that it is the adult’s responsibility to identify the child’s “islands of competence”, to focus on the strengths of each child instead of their weaknesses and comparing them to others.

It reminded me a lot of “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children” by Lisa Delpit because the children were judged by how well they measured up to a standardized test and not by what they actually knew. A child could not know how to add or read but might know how to zip up his coat or make food for himself and his brothers. In the article “Finding the Smart Part in Every Child” on America’s Angel website, states that “all children are smart, and the job of teachers and parents is to help kids find the style of learning that lets their unique natural intelligence shine through. “and that Researchers point out the traditional teaching and testing focus only on 2 of the 8 kinds of intelligence people possess – language and logic skills. So, kids who don’t learn in a style that relies on language and logic are labeled “deficient.” “ ( http://www.americasangel.org/parent-resources/learning-styles/finding-the-smart-part-in-every-child/ )Children are all smart in different ways and shouldn’t be judged on what we deem as important Also, as teachers we should realize that children don’t all learn and think in the same way and it is up to us to figure out how to reach them and bring out the best in them, not just write them off and discourage them.

 

Dr. Brooks also shared the importance of “connecting the dots backwards,” a phrase he heard from Steven Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University. He said when you look back on your life and compare it to where you are now you can see what an impact people have had on your own life and although you might not realize it at the time, certain people you have encountered in life had helped change your life and made you who you are today. He went on to say that the one or two comments you make to another person can make their lives go in one direction or another and that we don’t even know what an impact we have on others. He stressed that as an educator you really need to be careful about the words and attitudes you have towards students because it can truly change their lives.

An extremely interesting part of the speech was when he told us about something called the Rosenthal effect, or Pygmalion in the classroom. (I posted a diagram which illustrates my point about the Pygmalion effect at the bottom of the paper.) Basically, at the beginning of the school year, researchers tested the IQ’s of the students. They told the teachers they were lucky to have such smart, motivated children in their class. They then gave each teacher a list with the names of the “intellectual bloomers,” who the teachers thought were really gifted and would be doing much better than the rest of the class. However, unbeknownst to the teachers, the list was completely randomized, in fact, some of the worst performing students were included in the list of “intellectual bloomers!” but, at the end of the study, the children on the “gifted” list had higher IQ’s and better test scores than the rest of the children. Although some of the poorest performing students were on the list, because the teacher thought they were smart, they learned more and performed better than the smarter children in the class who weren’t included on the list.

Thee Doctor speculated that perhaps the teachers didn’t have the patience to help the children the perceived as not smart and sent other children to help them with their work instead of working one on one with the children themselves. Or perhaps when a child had a question the teacher said “weren’t you paying attention, we covered this yesterday?”, or told the children they should try harder. But when a child on the list asked a question the teacher would assume they didn’t explain it well enough the first time because if the “smart” child didn’t understand it there was clearly a problem. There is also an article which helps illustrate how the Pygmalion Effect effects all of us in our daily lives. It doesn’t have to be a teacher that makes judgements, it can be anyone in a position such as a boss or a supervisor. https://www.thebalance.com/pygmalion-and-galatea-effects-1918677

This reminds me of “Will it Help the Sheep?” by Lisa Delpit when she talked about the Algebra Project. She wrote about a group of students in Mississippi who, “initially scored in the lowest quartile of a low-performing school. These young people were representatives of the ‘throw away’ class from whom the school expect little.” But, when Dr. Robert P. Moses convinced the school to let him become their math teacher from 9^th grade to 12^th grade “all but one member of that ‘low—performing’ class entered college” (p3, Delpit.) This really shows how a teacher’s attitude can really have an impact on a child. For the children on the list it was great, the teacher believed in them and encouraged them and they learned a lot. Unfortunately, for the children who weren’t on the list the teacher was not as patient with them and didn’t help them enough. I feel like since the teacher already thought the other children were not as smart or not hard workers she didn’t want to take the time and effort to help them since she already had such a negative opinion of them. Or maybe the children could just sense that she didn’t like them or believe in them and they stopped trying as hard or stopped believing in themselves. Children aren’t stupid, even if you don’t tell them that you don’t believe in them or thing negatively about them, they can sense it.

Dr. Brooks made an analogy about a teacher who is anxious about math. If a teacher is anxious about math, even though she doesn’t state it to the students, they can sense it and then they will become anxious about math as well. I believe this is true because one year I had a teacher who you could tell disliked math and I was extremely nervous about the class, and struggled greatly with it. However, I took the class again in college and I was shocked at how easy it was. I was so much more comfortable with the subject matter and did extremely well in the class because I could sense the teacher’s confidence in her teaching and it made me feel much less stressed.

Teachers really do have an impact on children’s lives. If you are impatient and speak negatively towards a student, they can remember those words for the rest of their lives. It can effect their confidence and be detrimental to the students’ quality of life. If you don’t believe in a child and they don’t have any charismatic adults in their lives, how will they believe in themselves? I feel younger children are especially impressionable and don’t have “intellectual armor” as Linda Christensen said in “Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us”, so they take your words to heart and completely believe what you are saying. I feel that people have to be extremely cognizant of what they say and how you can truly impact students’ lives.

 

 

Links:

 

https://www.thebalance.com/pygmalion-and-galatea-effects-1918677

http://www.americasangel.org/parent-resources/learning-styles/finding-the-smart-part-in-every-child/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw

 

Education is Politics

This week’s reading was “Education is Politics” by Ira Shor. Shor asks many thought provoking questions about the education system and what it is really doing. Is it teaching children to nurture their creativity and love of learning or is it teaching them to assimilate and just obey others?

He explains that school has a dual purpose. “Education can be described in many ways. One way, suggested above, is to say that education is a contested terrain where people are socialized and the future of society is at stake. On the one hand, education is a socializing activity organized, funded, and regulated by authorities…On the other hand, education is a social experience for tens of millions of students who come to class with their own dreams and agendas.” (P13)

This shows how there are conflicting needs in the classroom. Educators are supposed to regulate how socializing occurs, so they have a plan to do so, while on the other hand students come into school with their own plans. So, what do you do when the two plans conflict and how can it be resolved? That is what the focus of “Education is Politics” is.

The teacher has immense power in the classroom. “The teacher is the person who mediates the relationship between outside authorities, formal knowledge, and individual students in the classroom. Through day-to-day lessons, teaching links the students’ development to values, powers, and debates in society.”(P13) This made me realize that teachers really do shape the way children see the world. They are the people that teach children about society, history, and what is considered “normal” or “appropriate” behavior.

However, this power is not to be taken lightly. “People begin life as motivated learners. They learn by interacting, by experimenting, and by using play to internalize the meaning of words and experiences…But year by year their dynamic learning erodes in passive classrooms not organized around their cultural backgrounds, conditions, or interests. Their curiosity and social instincts decline, until many become nonparticipants.” (p17). I find this very sad. These students come into school and into life ready to learn and explore and their passion is dimmed by a syllabus and curriculum which tells them what is important and what they can and cannot learn about. Teachers need to be very careful about the rigidity in their curriculum, but on the other hand they are unable to be more flexible because their students are continually being tested. So, it seems like the teachers are in a rough spot as well.

There is so much controversy regarding education today and so many different viewpoints it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that children’s lives are being impacted. We all need to work together and find a solution to this problem before it is too late.

What do you think is the biggest problem in education? How do you think we can solve it?

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2015/05/01/education-is-political-can-teachers-afford-not.html

 

 

Connections to “Literacy with an Attitude”

Reading “Literacy with an Attitude” by Patrick J. Finn reminded me of an article I recently came across on the Huffington Post website entitled “Rich vs. Poor: The Growing ‘Class’ Gap in Higher Education” by Dr. Brian C. Mitchell. It’s main point, as well as the point of Finn’s “Literacy with an Attitude”, is that there is a difference in the education each economic class in America receives, with the middle and lower classes receiving a poorer education than that of the upper class. As a result, the upper class is more likely to succeed. The people who do not receive a quality education stay in the same class and are not able to achieve their full potential.

The author quotes a reading by Isabel Sawhill called “Social Mobility Memos” which states that’ “the rungs are only widening in terms of income inequality. There are growing class-related gaps in family structure, parenting styles, school test scores, college attendance and graduation, and neighborhood conditions…whatever the gaps in an earlier generation between kids from more or less advantaged families, they are much wider now.” This is extremely unfortunate because the larger the gaps become, the less possible it will be for the lower classes to receive a quality education and succeed in life.

Mitchell also states that, “Education plays a vital role in democracy because it is perceived as a ‘great equalizer,’ supporting social mobility and creating productive, adaptable citizens.” This shows that if everyone cannot receive a quality education it will create more of a disparity in class and income. This will affect the whole country because democracy relies on people becoming well educated and becoming productive and successful to keep the economy afloat.

A quality education is essential for all people, not matter what their social class is. How can we fix the disparity in education? Have you seen it firsthand?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-brian-c-mitchell/rich-vs-poor-the-growing_b_7534056.html

Response to Becoming Something Different

My blog this week is my response to Mariclaire’s blog Becoming Something Different-Thoughts. I thought she wrote a very powerful blog. It was about the reading ‘Learning From Esme’ by Fairbanks, Crooks, and Arial. I definitely agree with Mariclaire; Esme’s case and struggle definitely represents the sad and unfair experience that faces minorities and students that have English as a second language every day.

Her statement, “If assumptions such as this are made purely based on race, how are these minorities in the primarily white schools given a fighting shot?” was extremely true. Educators can’t just assume that some children are smarter and will be better learners just because of the color of their skin or where they are from. It is very sad to me. Non-Caucasian people have made incredible advances in the world and I believe many more would as well if they were not judged from the start. Nobody has the right to look at a small child and determine their worth and future based on their skin color or primary language.

If we, as educators, don’t believe in the children we teach they will certainly sense that and begin to doubt themselves. Mariclaire’s statement about how self-confidence is extremely important in life so you can move forward and achieve your dreams. If we are undermining students’ self-confidence, we are doing them a disservice and negatively impacting their future. This article shows that, unconsciously or not children are being judged and put into categories based on their race.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html

 

Teaching after Brown Vs. Board Education

Thinking about Teaching after Brown Vs. Board of Education made me want to see if racial segregation still exists today. I found a New York Times article entitled “Why Don’t We Have Any White Kids?” which illustrated how racial segregation is still prevalent in our society, specifically in charter schools. In the article, the author explored they dynamics of Explore Charter School in Flatbush, New York.

The author states that “the city’s public school population looks diverse-40.3 percent Hispanic, 32 percent black, 14.9 percent white, and 13.7 percent Asian-many of its schools are nothing of the sort.” In explore charter school “92.7 percent are black, 5.7 percent are Hispanic, and a scattering are of mixed race. None are white or Asian.” (Kleinfield). The article goes on to state that charter schools are significantly less integrated than public schools nationwide.

This was shocking to me, since I thought the premise of charter schools was to provide quality education to all. If so, shouldn’t the population be more diverse? A blogger from Brooklyn, Tim Thomas, decided to investigate. He went out to the community and asked white parents why the schools weren’t more integrated. The responses he received were shocking. “’They say things like they don’t want to be guinea pigs,’ he said. ‘The other day, one said, ‘I don’t want to be the only drop of cream in the coffee.’”

This is ridiculous to me. It shows how racism is still prevalent, even in culturally diverse areas. How are you a “Guinea pig” by sending your child to a school that contains primarily minorities? Regardless of the cultural makeup of the school, aren’t the children still supposed to receive quality education? Don’t all children deserve that?

However, Explore Charter School is not doing well in terms of ratings. In the 2011-2012 school year, the education department gave it a C, and a D in terms of student progress. This clearly shows that the education at this charter school is not as good as at the public schools, or private or religious schools in the area. Why is it that the school predominately filled with black students has their education and progress lacking when compared to other schools?

These children are clearly put at a disadvantage from the start. The schools with a larger white population have a higher success rate. There is no way that it is because they are “smarter”. No, it is because those students are given more opportunities and a better education, which will put them at a distinct advantage for the rest of their lives. Schools cannot continue to be segregated like this. Something needs to change.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/02/concentration-poverty-american-schools/471414/

 

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/rich-black-flunking/Content?oid=1070459

The Value of Service Learning

This weeks reading, In the Service of What? The politics of service learning by Joseph Kane and Joel Westheimer focused on the two different approaches to service learning projects. The first, charity, focuses primarily on altruism and doing your civic duty. The second, change, focuses on social reconstruction. The goals of both types of service learning are “to respond to the needs of the community whole furthering the academic goals of students…in addition to helping those the serve, such service learning activities seek to promote students’ self-esteem, to develop higher order thinking skills, to make use of multiple abilities, and to provide authentic learning experiences.” (P 1). Service learning can be a very valuable experience for both the students and the community as a whole when done correctly.
The reading focuses on two different service learning cases where the teachers have two very different approaches. In the first, the teacher, Mr. Johnson, had his students pick their own projects. The  project included “only minimal attention to the systematic analysis of the ills his students were helping to alleviate. Instead, his class focused on inculcating a sense of civic duty.”(p2). Some students worked in centers for babies whose mothers were on drugs while pregnant, others ran errands for doctors and dd chores for their grandparents. the impact of the project in Mr. Johnson’s class was drastically different form the project in Ms. Adams classroom.it reminded me of scwamp where the privileged remain privleged and disconnected from the rest of society.
In contrast, Ms. Adams class picked an issue that concerned the class as a whole then they examined the social, economic, legal, and political determinants of homelessness around the world and in the local community.(p2) They had speakers come in, read books and newspaper articles about homelessness and wrote several reflection papers. They also developed action plans to help the homeless and raised money for advocacy groups.
Personally, I don’t understand the value in the charity service learning project. It seems to focus more on making the students feel good about themselves for volunteering and donating their time than on humanizing issues in society and trying to make a positive impact on society. What do you think? Are they both equally valuable?

 

The Myths That Bind Us

                                                             BECAUSE:

The reading this week, Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us by Linda Christiensen was very interesting. It is about how children’s books and movies, “instructs young people to accept the world as it is portrayed in these social blueprints…that world depicts the domination of one sex, one race, one class, or one country over a weaker counterpart.”(p126, Christensen).
At first, I was very skeptical about that. They are entertaining children’s stories and movies that families have been watching and reading together for decades. How bad could they actually be? Sure, in the older cartoons and stories people were sterotyped and the stories weren’t exactly politically correct, but in this day and age things are different aren’t they? We even have more diverse princesses in our fairy tales.
However, as the author stated, even if the stories include more diverse princesses of different races and cultures the sterotypes still remain. An example of this is when the students in Christensen’s class read “Cindy Ellie, A Modern Fairy Tale.”  In it, the main character, Cindy Ellie, is African American. However in both versions of the story the message remains the same. “Both of the Cinderellas compete for their men against their sisters and the rest of the single women in their cities. They “win” because of their beauty and fashionable attire… Happiness means getting a man, and transformation can be achieved.. Through clothes and a new hairstyle.”(p132, Christensen).
That example was the turning point for me on this reading. It made me realize how much these sterotypes are embedded in our society. How many girls and women think that they need to be attractive to be happy and successful? Women spend hundreds of dollars on name brand clothing and makeup and plastic surgery is becoming commonplace in our society, all because women think that their lives will improve if they are more attractive.
This is even shown on seemingly innocuous television shows like What Not to Wear. The whole premise of the show is to change the volunteer’s appearance so that they will be happier and have a better quality of life.  Unless people start asking the difficult questions about how the media is ingraining cultural ideals and perpetuating stereotypes, then nothing will ever change and the cycle of inequality will continue.

Do you feel like stereotypes in the media effect you?

https://mic.com/articles/68219/6-disney-films-that-are-undeniably-racist-and-sexist#.wuGK8wnEG

 

 

Connections to “Speaking the Unspeakable”

 

Reading Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equality in the primary schools reminded me very much of S.C.W.A.M.P, specifically how straightness is valued in our society. It also reminded me of the reading Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan Johnson.

I am reminded of S.C.W.A.M.P because being straight in our society is very much a privilege. It is assumed that people are straight unless they explicitly state otherwise. Children grow up thinking that being straight is “normal”. In Johnson’s article he states “we all like to feel that way: accepted, valued, supported, appreciated, respected, belonging.” (P7 Johnson). However, if you are taught all of your life that being heterosexual is normal and you are homosexual will you feel accepted, valued, supported, appreciated, and respected? Obviously not. If you are not considered “normal”, then you will not be accepted, you are going to feel like an outcast and you are going to feel like something is wrong with you; especially as a child.

On page 317 of Speaking the Unspeakable the author states that when a teacher mentioned lesbians in the classroom children started laughing and saying “yuk”. These are children in primary school and they are already being taught by society that being a lesbian is wrong or gross.

The author also states that “the idea that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people ‘flaunt’ and ‘promote’ their sexuality, and as such force their ideas onto other people, invading their private thoughts and spaces, is a dominate one that is regularly rehearsed in the media.” (p 319). However, I feel that it is very much the opposite. Heterosexuality is flaunted and promoted in everyday life because heterosexuals are privileged. They are “normal”, they are accepted, and they are the people that are allowed to speak about their partners without fear of judgement. How many of us have ever been in a class where a male teacher speaks about their wife or girlfriend, or a female teacher speaks about their husband or boyfriend? I’m sure we have all have. But if a homosexual person speaks about their partner it is deemed strange and inappropriate. There is such a double standard here because heterosexual people are privileged, while homosexuals are not.

If we do not teach children about diversity early in life, I feel that we are doomed to have a society of judgment and hate. Children need to be taught that there is no such thing as normal, everyone is different and no one is less of a person or unworthy of respect just because they are not exactly like you.

In class I would like to discuss if people think it is appropriate to speak about sexuality in the classroom, and at what age they think it is okay to start introducing it to children.

 

People need to speak up or nothing will ever change:

 

Matthew’s Story

The importance of reading. Observations from my own life.

Reading “Why can’t she remember that?” The importance of storybook reading in multilingual, multicultural classrooms by Terry Meir was very upsetting to me. It was about how a lot of children entering urban schools aren’t accustomed to reading books. The author states that in some families reading books to children is not part of their culture, or that some families can’t afford to buy books or don’t consider them important. However, on page 246 Meir states “the sooner children forge a deep and authentic connection to books-the likelier it is that they will be successful in school.”

It is very disturbing to me that some families don’t read to their children and don’t stress the importance of books. It was upsetting to me personally because some of my best memories from my childhood are of my mom reading me three books every night at bedtime and me begging her for “just one more!” Some nights she would be so tired that she would start to fall asleep while reading to me but she still did it anyway. She recognized the value of reading books and made time for me, no matter how exhausted she was.

Her hard work paid off. She definitely did instill a love of reading in me! I was constantly reading as a child and to this day I still read a book every night before I go to bed!

I am trying to instill the importance of reading in my children as well. I don’t think not being able to buy books or not having enough time are valid excuses for not reading to your children. If I can’t afford to buy a book for my children I take them to the library. I am very busy, I have a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old and work and go to school. I’m absolutely exhausted by the end of the day but every night, without fail, I read to my children. I do everything I possibly can to instill a love of learning through reading in them and its paying off. Sometimes my 1^st grader will disappear to his room and when I go to check on him I find him in his bed, reading, with a stack of books by his side.

When you go to school how are you taught? With books. Every single class I’ve ever had required reading books. Yet Meir states that “children who have not been read to at home may find these routines aversive, puzzling, or simply boring.” (245, Meier). That is not a good way for them to start their educational journey. Teachers can only do so much, there is a limited amount of time in a school day and they have a curriculum they need to follow, specific things they need to teach. They can try their best to foster a love of reading in their students but if it is not valued in the children’s home lives the teachers will be fighting an uphill battle.

In class, I would like to know how many of my peers were read to at home and how their families felt about books. Then, I would like to know how my fellow students feel about reading and books now.

 

Some interesting articles:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dallas-rico/get-more-kids-of-color-excited-about-reading_b_8727620.html

http://www.best-books-for-kids.com/benefits-of-reading.html

http://www.inspirationboost.com/8-reasons-why-reading-is-so-important

 

 

Silenced Dialogue: Observations from my own life

 

Today I read an article called The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit. In it, the author discusses obstacles of cross-cultural communication and focuses on how it impacts teachers and students in the classroom. One excerpt from this article in particular reminded me of experiences in my own life. On page 34 the author discusses how people from different socioeconomic backgrounds communicate with their children in completely different ways, which can effect how they interpret a teacher’s directives in the classroom. “Middle-class parents are likely to give the directive to a child to take his bath as, “Isn’t it time for your bath?”…By contrast, a black mother, in whose house I was recently a guest, said to her eight-year-old son, “Boy, get your rusty behind in that bathtub.”” (p34, Delpit)

This difference in communication styles became immediately apparent to me as I started my first teaching job at a preschool in the city. It was a very diverse city, with children from all different ethnic backgrounds, which was wonderful. The only problem was, it was hard to reach all the children. At times I found it very difficult to gain their respect.

When I began, there was a particularly challenging boy in my class. He would jump off of tables, try to climb up shelves, and hit the other children. The other teacher and I were very frustrated. We tried every teaching strategy we knew and collaborated with other teachers. Still, nothing seemed to work. Finally, after a particular challenging day, I spoke with the child’s grandmother, with whom he lived.

She asked us how we spoke to him and then explained the problem with our way of communicating with him. Where we would say “Geo, please clean up and get ready for lunch,” his grandmother would say “Geo put the blocks back on the shelf, get your lunchbox out, and sit at the table.” She was much more specific, direct, and had a sterner tone when she spoke with him. Her way of speaking was much clearer and left no room for interpretation. When the other teacher and I changed the way we spoke to him the change was amazing! Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t turn into a perfect angel but he began listening to us and we were able to build a much better relationship with him.

Then, there was the time a new set of children, a pair of twins, transferred into my class. It seemed I would never get them to listen to me. I would tell them to clean up, or ask them to pick out a story and they would just sit there looking at me. However, there was one child they would frequently play with, and every time they played with her they would speak exclusively in Spanish. It turned out that when their mother filled out the form for the school, she said they were fluent in English when they didn’t speak or understand it at all! While this deception frustrated me, I also realized I was partially at fault by making assumptions about what the children knew. I assumed they knew English. I assumed they were being disrespectful. I assumed they were shy because they only played with that one little girl. If I had just observed instead of assuming I could have made their transition to a new preschool much easier and much smoother for the both of us.

In each case I mentioned, if I had taken the time to observe the children with their families, as well as their interactions with other children instead of assuming things about them, and instead of thinking that children would automatically respect me just because I was given the position of a teacher, the year would have begun much more positively, and smoothly for all of us.

In class, I would like to speak with my peers about making assumptions about others, what assumptions other people have made about them, and what type of impact it had on them.

 

Cultural differences effect everyone, not just students and teachers.