Monday, October 25, 2010

between barack and a hard place ~ wise

refection

i'd just like to start off by bragging about me going to the convention center and watching the motorcade drive through providence, i saw obama and it was sooo cool. =] please notice the protestors in the background, with their politically incorrect signs and ideas.



now back to the work at hand. the video on wise's book almost upset me. i mean, i completely understand the points he makes, and they are ones to be taken seriously. he was right in saying that we're not out of the woods yet in relation to racism. but who is he to be the one to judge where america stands? i like to also believe that racism "1.0" is no longer a problem, but 2.0? are we ever going to not be racist?

i really enjoyed the statement he made on the white males mediocrity and how that, in comparison to a black mans, is still not on the same level. in order for a black male to be taken seriously he cannot be mediocre. and as sad as that is, with barrack as president it almost enforces those ideas. but then i came to another question, if hilary clinton was to of won the office, would we still be focusing on racism? or would it shift to sexism, which is equality if not more important (at least in my eyes).  so then factoring in both racism and sexism, how hard must it be for black women to be taken seriously? condoleezza rice was the 66th secretary of state under the bush administration, and to be honest, one of bush's more significant mistakes. she was put up on this pedestal for being a black woman in office, but in the same token, not nearly as intelligent as someone would hope her to be. the american public did not take her seriously. again setting a standard that keeps the status quo in place. making it difficult for women of color to be heard, incredible women such as oprah, or even beyonce cannot and will not be seen as the intelligent women they are, not only because of their race, but also their sex.

in connection to the website, i really enjoy the brown vs. board of education trails. they were such a mark in history and incredibly fascinating. and i agree with wise when he said barrack obama's presidency is right up there with these significant moments, but we can’t just take it with stride. we must use it as yet another stepping stool to improve america and not just settle into believing there is no more racism.

i'd really like to discuss all of the questions i've raised in class, this was by far one of my favorite topics. and it’s also incredibly relatable to our lives. plus, i <3 obama. and if anyone is interested in the recent politics in ri, i've been trying to keep up with the elections and the recent "scandal" of frank caprio telling obama to "shove it" for not endorsing him there’s a great article on it on msnbc. i also found it really interesting that obama was in ri endorsing the openly gay david cicilline for congress, this might just be more well needed change.

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
 -Langston Huges

song of the moment my president is black

Sunday, October 17, 2010

in the service of what? the politics of service learning ~ Westheimer & Kahne

quotes

By finding and engaging in community service activities, Mr. Johnson explained, students would interact with those less fortunate than themselves and would experience the excitement and joy of learning while using the community as a classroom.

its also an eye-opener. growing up in the white middle class neighborhood, i never saw or could even understand how poverty could effect children. i also love the experience, although its not the first time i've  been in the classroom with children, i can personally agree that by using the community as a classroom it's much more benificiary.

This process can transform students' understandings of both disciplinary knowledge and the particular social issues with which they are engaged.

we can talk in class all we want about about the socail issues, but without actual practice theres no way to know whats going on outside our discussions. through service learning we can apply what weve learned to real life situations. putting our knowledge to the test, and then through tiral and error we can better ourselves to become the best teachers we can.

Rather than assume, erroneously, that all educators share the same vision, we think it is better to be explicit about the numerous and different visions that drive the creation and implementation of service learning activities in schools.

no two teachers have the same standards. through service learning we can examine different teachers, teaching styles, and the response of the children to see what works, through yet more trial and error we can observe perfessionals in there own enviornment and take whats working and use it later when we have our own classrooms.

i found an awesome video explaining more on service learning.

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song of the moment : clarity

Sunday, October 3, 2010

edit

in class i really want to talk about bullying and how as teachers were going to handle it, because im really not sure how id handle it.

by the way i drove by east providence high school and outside they have an electronic board with information about upcoming events, as of last night, it said "NECAP : it IS important" i honestly laughed because it was what we were just talking about in class, but also because is that seriously going to convice a kid into taking it seriously? i dont think thats the right way to go about it.

dennis carlson's : gayness, multicultural education, and community

connection

i really wanted to switch up my post this week, but i seriously couldn't get passed the connection i continued coming back to. normal, what in the world does that mean? and why does someone have to be it in order to be socially accepted? although it is kind of off topic, it just brings me back to a book i read in high school. i was doing my senior project and read a ton of books on autism, and one of the books was just a bunch of different incredible stories of children with autism, and one story has stuck through with me for years now. it’s off a 12 year old autistic girl, and the story concludes with this girl asking what is normal, and who wants to be normal any way? i just couldn't even grasp the fact that someone at her age and with her disabilities understood that "normal" isn't real.

i really enjoyed how carlson addressed the issue and explained it so well. the different discourses or the "invisible glass" we talk about in class, are all so real, and again because were unaware it takes something like this article to wake us up. sexual orientation is not something that should be forced into a category to classify as "normal" or "abnormal". but it still stands true; in the class "the family" it is taught that a family consists of a mother a father and children. and anything outside of that can be called a family but is usually given some other name deeming it different and unusual. and in our life under certain discourses this is true. this is our norm. but how can we just pretend it doesn’t exist? to not even acknowledge or accept it in the teachings of a general education course at a college seems just absurd.

carlson wants to change that norm, to make it so that someone with a "different" sexual orientation can feel accepted and normal. but in order to change the norm we need to pinpoint what it is, and that, is the problem. and how is it that one 12 year old autistic girl can just give up normal so easily? she is so sure that whatever normal is, she does not want to be it. i propose that at teachers we too break this idea of normal and make sure not to be ignorant of life outside our own, open the eyes of children to the world and make sure they know, that normal isn't normal.

to read a quick summary of the book click here, its the 6th book down
to see other books the "cup of comfort" company offers click here

song of the moment mine