Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Lawrence Post

Premise
-Race
-Hatred
-Segregation
-Making a change
-Success vs failure
-Struggle

Arguement
Lawrence argues that how ever difficult it was to bring together people of different racial backgrounds, the overall action was a success. There were so many things that really made segreating schools such and issue and even though at the time, there was every reason to believe that the segregation was wrong, judging by how the majority of the public acted to it, the moral outcome was just and needed to be done at some point in time.

Evidence
"If one views the Brown case narrowly, as a case intended to desegregate the nation's schools, history has been proven it a clea failure. On the other hand, the success of Brown cannot be measured by reference to desegregation statistics alon, or even by looking only at how the schools are doing it."

"Too often we have been sidetracked in our struggle because we have lost sight of our goal, or accepted the oppressor's definitions, or mistaken the means for the ends."

I thought that this peice was particularly difficult to read. I found a lot of the vocabulary pretty difficult to understand but managed my way throught it. I think the message that the facts of this case are very interesting and really caught my attention. I had heard about the case before but really didn't know too much about it. I kind of feel like an idiot for not really knowing more than I did before becuase of the extream importance and the impact this had on American history today. Not only the histroy part, but just the overall idea that it really was this difficult to allow different races into public school systems.

Johnson Post 2

Premise
-Priviledge
-Power
-Difference
-Ignorance
-Change
-Stubborness
-Acknowledgement
-Point of Views
-"The little things count"

Arguement
Johnson argues that society today is built around an igonorant and stubborn world where everyone decides to ignore the major problems that make huge contridictions in our lives and rather pay attention to themselves and ignore the issues of race and gender tricking themselves into beleiving that by ignoring the problem, they are fixing it. Those of which who feel like they cannot make a difference are wrong in many ways and need to make a difference within themselves first in order to make a difference in the people around them. All things not matter how small or minescule add up and your "weight" has an effect.

Evidence
"This idea should suggest tah nothing will always be this way or any other, contrarty to the notion that privilege and oppression are here to stay."

"This is why most cultures of privilege mask the reality of oppression by denying its existence, trivializing it, calling it somethin else, blaming it on those most vitiized by it, or diverting attenion from it."

"The more you pay attention to privilege and oppression, the more you'll see opportunities to do something about them."

I found this reading very similar to the first Johnson peice that we read in class. However, in this chapter, there is a lot more talk of what we can do rather than what we have to do. I feel as though, by reading this chapter, Johnson tries to push it on his reader to make a change. I think in the first chapter, it was more of a discussion of what the problem was and the main fact that we have to do something to change it. I think in this chapter, Johnson provides with reasons to make a chage, telling the reader that every little thing counts and that the way things in society are now, will not be the same forever and can be changed. I feel as though there is more of an urgence to get out there and make a change right after I read this.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Orenstein Post

Premise
-Race
-Culture
-Understanding
-Gender
-Neglect
-Ignorance
-Privledge

Arguement
Orenstein's arguement to me is not too far off from Johnson. I beleive that Orenstein beleives that there are too many problems and confrontations out ther that are not being taken care of in any way shape or form. People today try to exclude themselves from theses problems leaving them with a "good concious" because they are not getting into the middle of it. The problem is however that they are the source of the problem. Because nobody decided to ever speak about "privledge" which continues to be a reoccuring word, nothing is ever done to solve the problem. Ignorance and procrastination seem to be the source of the problem, and although there are some people who are trying to make a change, they fall in the minority.

"Women are one-half of the world's people; they do two-thirds of the world's work; they earn one tenth of the world's income; they own one one-hundreth of the world's property."

"At the time I wondered how the boys, who could only see male experience as relevant, would ever learn to see girls as equals."

"I don't know why they didn't beleive me,...Every time I gave them information it was good information. It was good this time too."

Unfortunatly, I really was not able to read this book word for word. However, I strongly beleive that this is probably the most interesting peices that we have read so far. A lot of the stories that I read through were really interesting and kept my attention. I think the most grabbing was by far the last short story. As I have said in my other blogs, I think that all these reads tie into each other one way or another, and the main arguement that I think can sum up a lot of all this is what Johnson points out. I think that there are a lot of points and interesting facts that definatly relate in this case. Overall, I think that the read was great, and am really looking foward to reading throught it again.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Kliewer Post

Premise

-Tracking?
-Ignorance
-Democracy
-Down Syndrome\
-Society
-School Systems

Arguement
I think that the main arguement here deals with society being so ignorant. Not only in school systems, but in the community as well. We need to start overlooking all of these minor inequalities that make us different fom one another, and set out and do the job we intend to do, in this case teaching. Tracking seems to be the main cause to this and because of this, students are not given equal privledges.

Evidence
"Community acceptance requires opportunity for individual partipaction in the group, but opportunity cannont exist outside of community acceptance."

"Schools have traditionally taken a narrow position when defining and judgeing student intellect"

"School citizenship rejects the idea of a gap between normality and down syndrome."

After every reading we have looked over druing this semester, i'm beginning to notice a continueing theme. Every reading in one way or another has a bigger arguement than that of what is in the text. Meaning that, I think each reading connects with one another in some way another either directly or having to read between the lines. In this case, Kliewer is arguing the harsh and rude stakes that children born with Down syndrome are forced to live with. I very much beleive that it can be looked as a much bigger issue dealing with our school systems and society as well.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Oakes

Premise
Tracking/Not Tracking
Grouping Students
Learning Capabilities
Privledge
Neglect
Teaching Style

Arguement
Oakes argues that the teaching style to toa needs to change to benefit all students, as opposed to those students who may have an easier time learning than others. Studies show that students who have an easier time in class become more privledged as time goes on because they are able to receive more help from their teachers compared to those of which who need more help, and are simply not getting it. Teacher need to stop "Tracking" and profiling students, and make universal rule or techniques that can apply to all students, rather than just some.

...This finding helps e xplain, at least in part, why it is that tracking sometimes seems to "work" for high ability students and not for others..."
"...Students with high abilities or with handicaps had the effect of making students in the middle "unspecial" and guaranteeing that they were taught in "unspecial" ways."
"It's ironic that when other, less able students are offered simliar advantages, they also seem to benefit."

I would have to agree with Oake's arguement. I think that the society that we live in today is a very complex one. I think that as time goes on, it is going to be almost impossible to get ahead in the world. Students who are able to go enroll in high class private schools are going to have a much better chance of getting into a high standard college or institute. Students attending public schools on the other hand may not have the same advantages. So I think that this notion of "tracking" happens not only in the classroom, but in the entire schooling stystem as well.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Service Learning Post

Premise
Service Learning
Community involvement
Advantages
Disadvantages
Involvement
Participation
Community Service
Arguement
I think the main arguement in this peice deals with the overall importance of service learning. THere are a lot of good points that back up the fact that not only is service learning a good thing for a variety of different things, whether in the class room, or in the community. It is also said that both sides are benefitting from the experiance. Not only those who may be direclty being helped or benefitted from the experiance, but also those who are participating in the activity and actually taking part in the service learning.

Evidence
"Almost all discussions of service learning practices emphasize the importnace of reflection...Clearly, having students share their thoughts and experiences with one another can be valuable..."
"By contrast, those oriented toward change embrace the importance of political activity."
"...Educators and legislators alike maintain taht service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom..."

Personally, service learning should be a big part of the class room. My biggest concern is to which age this type of activity should be used on students. I think that it is critical because depending on which age group of kids you may be working with, the project I think could be a major failure unfortunatly. I think that it should be focused on kids at a young age to allow them to be more comfortable with doing things like this later on in their lives, but also, it can be a major eye opener to them and may open them up to new things.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Christensen Post

Premise
-Misconception
-Race
-Gender
-Power
-Whats Populr
-Stereotyping
-"Accepted Knowledge"
-Images of Society

Arguement
Christensen argues that people of all ages should be more critical about what they see in the media; television, adds, movies, radio newspaper. If people start analyzing what they have failed to notice their entire lives, there will be a large push for change in society. People have been overlooking what they "think" they enjoy for so long, and by started in her class room, Christensen is sparking the minds of her students who are then going out and making a change outside of the class room after analyzing stereotypes that are being pushed onto youth, starting at very young ages, suggested what dreams they should have, and what is and is not accepted in society today.

Evidence
"...the Disney movie Peter Pan, were cited by the children...as their number one source of information."
"...I show a Popey cartoon, "Ali Baba and the 40 Theives," that depicts all Arabs with the same face, same turban, same body,--and they are all thieves swinging enormous swords."

There are many more quotes I think that could be taken out of this article that all show overwhelming evidence that depict certain stereotypes and power advantages by just using a few selected films that are very popular in modern day society. I have heard of certain anyalization like this in the past over kids films and I would have to agree that there is a large amount of evidence that Christensen could use to back up her arguement.
However, I think that by having the need to feel like you have to analyze everything that you see or hear on tv is going a little over the top. Even if Christensen sparks this extream revolt against the media today, I think that stereotyping will never be abolished. I think that there are so many things that are terrible that are happening in the world today. Any type of racism or hatred towards another culture is a terrible thing. The way films and cartoons have been made all these years up until now do portray a lot of these aspects. However, it think that in the last few years there have also been a lot of efforts to make these problems go away by the broadcast of new television shows available to kids. I would agree that the majority of television shows shown up until about five years ago are based upon white middle class lives, and I understand what Christensen is trying to do. However, I don't think that a problem like this is ever just going to go away. What happens when television shows start portraying just black, asian, or spanish families? The white population will have a problem with that. I mean as drastic as it sounds, the only real way to stop stereotyping is to shut down the media all together, and I don't think that that will ever happen any time soon.