Social Justice Event

When I first went to my event I didn’t even think of it as a social justice event, but when started to analyze it, I could see some interesting ways that I could connect it. I think by being in this class I am more observant and I defiantly analyze things more. In a way I kind of like it because I feel like I now can see the truth.
Well, getting back to my event it was a Titanic exhibit at Foxwoods. It had a ton of information about the titanic and it also had different artifacts that they retrieved from the Titanic. It also had two actors there in complete character. The woman was from first class and the man was from third class and he was Irish. They were so in character it was amazing. I tried to stay away from them, but they kept coming up to me and asking me questions. Even though I didn’t like it I think it really made the experience better because I learned more and it brought me into the moment. There was a mix of people there and a lot of families.

*I found this picture online and it is kind of like the people in Character that I talked to, but they were dressed different.



When I was at the exhibit I saw a women talking to one of the people from the exhibit and her daughter came up to the woman and tried to ask her a question. At this time I figured out it probably was her mother. Her mother looked at her and said “ you don’t interrupt when to adults are talking because that is rude” then the girl just stood and waited for her mother to be done talking. At first I just brushed it off and thought nothing of it. Now looking back at it I can see I had a Delpit moment. A mother teaching her daughter the rules and codes of power. I think that this goes against Delpit because she says that teachers should teach there students the rules and codes of power because they do not learn them at home. This mother was teaching her daughter the rules and codes of power.
Going to the exhibit made me think about the Titanic movie. I remember when I was young I saw the movie and I thought it was so cool that two people could fall in love on the Titanic. When I talked to my mother about it she told me that part of the movie was fiction. I couldn’t believe it, why would a movie with the Titanic in it lie. When I told my friends at school they didn’t believe me and thought I was lying. I think this is like Christensen because she sees the underlining themes or secret education in movies. In the Titanic movie I think that the secret education could be many things, but the one I thought of was that Learning about Titanic was the secret education. I thought this because if the made a movie on the Titanic alone they wouldn’t have a had blockbuster movie. I think that the people who made the movie thought that a movie just about the Titanic would have been boring so they added a love story to make it more interesting. When people went to see the movie they would go and see the fictional love story, but end up learning about the Titanic and how so many people died.
On the Titanic there was discrimination based on the peoples social classes. From the first class to third class there was a big difference. This social class made a big difference because it all depended on how good of things you got. Like your meals and rooms. The room size in first class was far bigger and nicer then the rooms in third class. In the exhibit they had two example rooms one was the first class and the other was third class. The food that was eaten was far better then the food eaten by third class. The first class menu had about ten courses for dinner and third class had about five courses for dinner. In the exhibit they also had a set of fan blades they got from the titanic. The women in character from the exhibit told me that the first class rooms got the fans and that the third class passengers didn’t get them. The thing I found interesting was that third class rooms were warmer and they needed a fan more than first class. In a way I think this is kind of like Anyon because Anyon talks about the effects of school children, but I think it still relates a lot to the differences in social classes. It shows how the different social classes are treated. If you had more money you would get more and better things.
When the Titanic was sinking women and children were told to go on the life boats first and I could understand why they did it. I found this website that told how many people survived and who went out on the life boats. The website was about the Titanic’s demographics. I was surprised to see on the website that on the first life boat that went out that over half the people that were on the boat were man and most of them were not even traveling with there love ones. I was so shocked and couldn’t believe it. When I looked at the percentage of people who survived and found that the women and children percentages were higher then the men’s survival percentages. The women’s survival percentage was 72%, the children’s survival percentages was 50% and the men’s survival percentages was 18%. So I guess women and children did get off the Titanic before most of the men.

Talking Points 9

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome
By: Kliewer

1.) “[Community] requires a willingness to see people as they are-different
perhaps in their minds and in their bodies, but not different in their spirits or in their willingness and ability to contribute to the mosaic of society. It requires the "helper" to have the humility to listen for what the person says he or she needs. Also, the "helper" must see that the interaction "helps" both ways.” (pg73)
~ I liked this quote because I think it is true. Even though someone is thought to be different it doesn’t mean they are not a human being. I believe that Shayne had the right idea in how to teach her students to have a classroom community.

2.) It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all here-kids, teachers, parents, whoever-it's about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that's
what learning is. Don't tell me any of these kids are being set up to Fail(75)
~ I think every child has a different way of learning and you have to figure it out as a teacher. You(as a Teacher) should never label a child because then they think that they are bad at it and will always do bad. A teacher should never let a student fail you have to try your hardest so no students fail. I think this quote is also talking about the classroom community.

3.) The psychologist, who knew little about him, defined Isaac's actions as manifestations of cognitive defect separating the child from the intellectual norm. Shayne, who knew Isaac well, defined his actions as a complex, sophisticated, symbolic response to a difficult situation, one that transformed the context into a more meaningful and thoughtful experience. (85)
~ I think that this psychologist was wrong for thinking that just because Isaac didn't follow the exact directions that he not the intellectual norm. when I read the part about the psychologist I got a little angry. I think the way Isaac thought was different, but correct.

I thought the article this week had some very interesting stories, but was too long and some parts were hard for me to focus. I liked the story about Isaac in Shayne Robbins’s class. I thought that Shayne had a good approach on how to understand Isaac. I never knew that you could dance to a book like Isaac did. It really opened my eyes to see that yes a kid might be called different, but it is just the way the student thinks is different. I think that Isaac’s story is a powerful and everyone can learn from it. I also liked how Shayne talked about a classroom community.
I also liked the story about the girl that wanted to be a movie director. I couldn't believe that the people in charge of her placement wouldn't listen to her and what she wanted. She didn't like young children and didn't wanted to be placed their so I thought it was great ho at the end she ended up getting placed in the movie rental store. She was doing great there too. I don’t think it is fair that she had to fight to be placed at a job she is actually great at.
I think that if you separate kids it might not be equal. I can see the pros and cons to it. If you separate kids with down syndrome then you are taking the kids out of the classroom community and not giving every student and equal chance. I also know that by their might be some pros to separating children with down syndrome. I just don’t know. So the question I have is separate equal for this situation?

I thought these two video were very interesting. Both videos are about if parents should send their children with down syndrome to a mainstream or special needs school.

Talking Points 8

"Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Schooling"
By: Anyon


1.) “It will be suggested that there is a "hidden curriculum" in schoolwork that has profound implications for the theory - and consequence - of everyday activity in education.... “
~This reminded me of the hidden education in children’s books and movies that Christensen talked about. I thought this was an interesting idea.

2.) “In math, when two-digit division was introduced, the teacher in one school gave a four-minute lecture on what the terms are called (which number is the divisor, dividend, quotient, and remainder). The children were told to copy these names in their notebooks. Then the teacher told them the steps to follow to do the problems, saying, "This is how you do them." The teacher listed the steps on the board, and they appeared several days later as a chart hung in the middle of the front wall: "Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down." The children often did examples of two-digit division.”
~I think that only giving a four minute lecture on the terms is wrong how is a student going to understand the material if they don’t understand the terms. I think being a teacher you need to have all different kinds of methods for teaching. You can’t tell a student there is only one way to do a problem.

3.) “In both working-class schools, work in language arts is mechanics of punctuation (commas, periods, question marks, exclamation points), capitalization, and the four kinds of sentences. One teacher explained to me, "Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use." Regarding punctuation, either a teacher or a ditto stated the rules for where, for example, to put commas.”
~I was kind of shocked that a teacher would say that all the students will ever use is simple punctuation. What does she think that these kids will not need the other information she doesn’t know what these kids will become in the future.


I thought this article was a good read. I found the study that was done in this article interesting. I liked how you can really see the difference in each school in the way the kids are taught. I also liked how there were examples of every point Anyon made. The difference in the different schools didn’t really surprise me. There were something in each school that did surprise me like when one teacher told a girl that she was wrong for thinking there was a different way in making the grid they were doing. I think if a student thinks of a different way of doing an activity you should let them share it with the class because it might be a way some other students in the class learn the activity. I defiantly could see the differences in each different school. I don’t think it is right that the children’s schoolings depends on how much money their parents have and where they live.

Talking Points 7

Gender and Education

For this blog I thought it was a little difficult. I found it hard to find good information about gender equality in education.
One website I found talked about a New York Times magazine article. The article was about segregating boys and girls in public school classrooms. I think this would be a step backwards because it is saying that if you are different you can just be separated and everything will be just fine. In a lesser extent this reminds me of racial segregation. I know that there are some advantages to this idea I just can’t see it in public schools. The site says that one reason for doing this is that boys and girls learn differently. I don’t find this very accurate because I believe that everyone learns differently not just boys and girls. What if the way you are teaching only the girls doesn't work for some of the girls then what do you do. You would probably show them a different way to do the problem. So way not instead of segregating boys and girls in schools we have different ways to teach each student. I think this would be a more effective plan. A quote that I thought was interesting on this site was “Boys are nearly twice as likely as girls to be suspended; more likely to drop out of high school; boys makeup 2/3 of special education students; and are 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD.”

• Another website I found had an article called Gender Equality in Education: is it possible? I thought this was a good article, it talked about the reasons why gender equality was at a halt.



• I also found a site that had a Q&A sex discrimination in education and gender discrimination overview. It talked about Title IX, which to be honest I didn't know about until I read this article. “ Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities which receive federal financial assistance. Title IX states that: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

This video tells about gender discrimination in schools. I thought it was it was short and to the point.


Gender Discrimination in Schools -- powered by eHow.com

This video was also about gender discrimination and I thought it was also very interesting.

Talking Points 6

Brown v. Board of Education
and
Between Barack and a Hard Place
By: Tim Wise

This week I liked watching the videos because I felt like I paid more attention to it then sometimes when I read the articles. I wrote down some notes as I watched the videos so I could look back at them and I think that helped too.

A point that Wise made that really interested me was when he talked about racism 1.0 and racism 2.0. He said racism 1.0 is old school racism and when you see it you realize it. He then said racism 2.0 or he also called it enlightened exceptionalism is what we have to look out for now. It is when white people can support Obama, but still look down upon people of color. They support Obama because they view him as different then the people of color norm. I thought this is a good way to look at racism because even if Obama is president it isn’t going to stop all racism. Some people still don’t like people of color because they associate people of color with these ridiculous negative stereotypes. Wise was saying that yes we have come a long way but it isn’t long enough. Racism 1.0 has been defeated, but we still need to watch out for this new racism 2.0.

Wise did say that President Obama’s election has made a big change, but some other events were bigger like Brown v. Board of Education. The case brought a major change by saying “separate but not equal.” After the case when the supreme court allowed kids of color to go to the white school there were angry mobs of people outside the schools and they were spitting and yelling and I think that is horrible. I think wise would say that yes they got the kids in the school, but now they are harassed. So even though the supreme court got rid of segregation in schools it doesn’t stop the racism, but I do believe that this was a big step to stop racism. Overall I think that Wise brought up some very good points and I would like to know more about when he said that racism is not an excuse, but a reason or obstacle.

This is an interesting video I found on brown v board of education. I thought it was interesting and informative. It is an expert from the discovery channel.

Talking Points 5

In The Service Of What?
The Politics of Service Learning

By: Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer


1.) “Relationships that emphasize charity we will call "giving." Those that aim primarily to deepen relationships and to forge new connections we will call "caring." (p.5)
~This quote tells you the two different sides of service learning the caring and the giving side. I believe that you need and equal part of both to have a good service learning experience. You need to help and learn about who you are helping.

2.) “By engaging in meaningful service--whether tutoring children for whom English is a second language, helping patients in a hospital, doing difficult chores for the elderly, or supervising younger children's recreational activities--students will have opportunities to experience what David Hornbeck, former Maryland state superintendent. referred to as "the joy of reaching out to others."
~I really liked this quote because it reminds me of when I go to my school for my service learning project. I am teaching a ten year old girl from Africa basic skills like reading and teaching her how to speak English. Every Friday when I leave I feel happy that I am helping some and I also feel more confident every time I go. I do feel “the joy of reaching out to others”.

3.) These curriculum theorists and education reformers wanted students to engage in service learning projects so that they would recognize that their academic abilities and collective commitments could help them respond in meaningful ways to a variety of social concerns.'
~Students should be aware of what is happening in their communities and I think having a service learning project helps students be aware of their communities. I know with my service learning project give me a better understanding of what the problems are with classrooms and how you can fix them.


I thought this article was interesting especially since I am doing a service learning project. Going to my school each week I feel so rewarded that I can teach someone the skills they will need to know to survive. Every time I go I feel more and more like a teacher. I am happy to say that VIPS program has had a positive impact on my life. Now I am positive that I want to be an elementary school teacher. I believe that it will be such a rewarding job. Getting back to the article I liked how it told you the difference between a “giving” service learning and a “caring” service learning. I thought this article had some good points and really made me think more about service learning projects.

Talking Points 4

" Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us" by: Linda Christensen

1.) "When we read children's books, we aren't just reading cute little stories, we are discovering the tools with which a young society is manipulated." (126)

• This quote made me think about how this is true, Some children’s books do this. It is like most of the book parents have in their house have only white people in them. They don’t see it as wrong, but they are causing problems they might not know. It is sad how kids grow up and they are being manipulated.

2.) "I realized these problems weren't just in cartoons. They were in everything -every magazine J picked up, every television show I watched, every billboard I passed by on the street." (Pg. 134)

• It surprises me that these kinds of messages are every where. This quote also makes me upset because I don’t want to go around and see the wrong in everything, but I know that I can’t live my life being oblivious to the world.

3.) “Early in the unit, I show a Popeye cartoon….that depicts all Arabs with the same face, same turban, same body, and they are all thieves swinging enormous swords.”(130)

• I was surprised how stereotypical Popeye is, this is horrible how they portray Arabs. I think it is wrong how the cartoon made the thieves all look a like and they didn’t care about who they are hurting in the process of making a cartoon.
  
  

I liked this article and thought it was a good read. I found myself shocked when I was reading some parts. Like the part in the article about all the cartoons have these messages in them. I was surprised by how many subliminal messages were in cartoons, movies and TV. Now by reading this article I can see all the wrong in these cartoons. I am surprised that I never really notice maybe because I guess, I was oblivious to it. I think it is like the invisible backpack we carry around, we see these cartoons and movies all the time but the problems in them are invisible to us. Overall, I find it sad that these movies and cartoons that I grew up with had such bad things in it that I never knew.

This video shows when you play a song backwards sometimes you hear it say a message. I know that these can be debated, but i think it is strange that these songs have subliminal messages.