Talking Points 10

EMPOWERING EDUCATION: Critical Teaching for Social Change

Ira Shor

1) If the student's task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted.

2) Not encouraging students to question knowledge, society, and experience tacitly endorses and supports the status quo.

3)Whose history and literature is taught and whose ignored? which groups are included and which left ouf of the reading list or text? From whose point of view is the past and present examined? Which themes are emphazized and which not? Is the curriculum balanced and multicultural, giving equal attention to men, women, minorities, and nonelite groups, or is traditionally male-oriented and Eurocentric? Do students read about Columbus from the point of view of the Arawak people he conquered or only form the point of view of the Europeans he led into conquest? Do science classes investigate the biochemistry of the students' lives, like the nutritional value of the school lunch or the potential toxins in the local air, water, and land, or do they only talk abstractly about photosynthesis?

Shor's article is powerful and achieved its goal by sparking a desire in me to flip the education of this country upside down. Im sick of never being taught about anything that happend in our history from both points of view. World War 2 is taught only from the Jewish or Allied forces point of view. Why? Im not saying I agree with the Nazi point of view but it would be beneficial to learn it, would it not? What about the American Revolution point of view from the English? Or, even the point of view of Blacks during the civil war and the fight to abolish slavery. We always here about these "heroic" whites who faught the rest of their race to get rights for slaves, but what about the slaves who were fighting for it, aren't their opinions and voices even more powerful? Why is history such a male-dominated, white point of view? Where is the female perspective, the "minority" perspective, the perspective of other cultures, religions, or even sexualities? Where is gay history in our history classes? Where is Harvey Milk? He's in a movie played by Sean Penn in the only medium "allowed" for the study of other's rights and history. History is a milk carton where 90% of the past is listed as missing in the picture on the back.

War in Korea

How do you feel the recent attacks in South Korea should be taught in school? Should they even be taught in school? What type of spin do you think the recent actions will take based upon the political influence in our schools? Personally, I feel that avoidance of this war should be our number one priority seeing as we do not have the money, the man power, or even a reason to join. I also feel that the knowledge U.S. participation will be limited as if it is even allowed, schools will be blaming north korea simply for their political views without evaluation the U.S.'s involvement in provoking actions by sending military personal to "train" with South Korea.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/29/koreas.crisis/index.html

Prison Parenting Program

What do you think of this prison parenting program and its possible application to helping children be ready for school?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/11/29/mich.headstart.prison/index.html

Talking Points 9

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

Christopher Kliewer

Matthew Sawyer

1)"Dialogue imposes itself as the way by which [people] achieve significance as human beings."

This quote is a perfect summary of most of the readings we have done so far in class, Delpit, Carlson, et. al. It is the perfect truth that being able to speak our mind and to have our opinions be heard and recognized is what makes us successful as a human being and a person. A voice that is silenced or that has fallen on deaf ears will never achieve the designation of being a person.

2)"Its 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."

I love this quote and can see why it was included in the text. Society spends enough time labeling people and telling them what they can and can't do so why should school reflect that ideal? Why shouldn't schools combat that belief and fight to teach these children everything they can do and how to deal with criticism so when they do enter the "real" world, they are prepped not only to ignore the critics, but to prove them wrong.

3)"No child was inherently an intellectual burden to a classroom; infact, she argued, each student contributed a unique and potentially valuable dimension to the web of relationships that formed a school community."

I really agree with this quote as i have found it to be so true while working with children who others deemed to be, different, and an inhibitance on a class because they do not fit the social norms, not by choice but by design. Rather than attempting to integrate and "use" these children for their own unique perspective, schools separate these students out of the classroom, destroying the possibilty of a unique learning experience for all students and teachers.

So we've read and discussed separating based on race and monetary funds, which we collectively decided doesnt work. Next we tackled separating based on ability which we learned does more harm than good. Finally we come to tackle a subject that hits home for me: separating based on ability. Were quickly hitting every letter of SCWAMP and destroying it and have arrived at Able-bodied, which i feel should contain able-minded as well. I can honestly say i always felt those with disabilities were intellectually different from me in every way. I am guilty of prejudice towards them growing up and even making fun of those children as a child myself. Once i got the opportunity to work with those children, and learned to care about them because of my brother, that my opinion and mindset changed dramatically. These children have such a loving heart and a fully functioning mind. NO their minds do not function exactly the same as everyone elses, but frankly no ones mind functions exactly the same. Children with disabilities just have a different way of tackeling a problem and forming a solution, a different way of learning that should not only be understood, but should be explored by others in order to create a vast array of knowledge and learning. Theses students need not to be separated based on ability, but to be thanked for their contribution to a classroom and "used" by teachers as a way of showing students how many different interpretations of a subject, a book, or really anything, is correct.

Talking Point 8

Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route
By Jeannie Oakes

Matthew Sawyer

1) Some link tracking to our national security and economic well being, contending that the top students need special grooming to be leaders in science, government, and business.

2)In many classrooms the evidence of students' capability is a matter of public record.

3)Typically, low-track high school students have been in low-ability groups and remedial programs since elementary school.

With drop out rates being what they are and our country's overall knowledge being far below the rest of the world, it is quite clear that tracking doesn't work. We all are subjects of tracking but rarely recognize it. Do you remember being placed in low-ability or remidial classes? How about being placed in the advanced group? it constantly happens and little do we question its purpose though we must start doing so. Tracking acts as a way for those in power to recognize the "great minds" and separate them from the rest of us in order to further challenge them. These tracking classes do not truly find great thinkers but those who succeeded in wealthy schools with plenty of resources and once again places these students on the fast track to high grades and test scores. Where does this live the rest of the students now? well frankly middle-of-the-road students are given just enough resources to get by and never truly given an opportunity to prove their merrit. a largely ignored population, College Prep. kids are essentially prepared to survive, not excell, but simply survive with a mediocre setting. Low-ability students are the biggest sufferers of this teaching method, as not only are their needs for challenge ignored, they are also destined to continue through the low-ability track for their entire school carreer. Low-ability students needs are essentially ignored as they are believed to be unable or unwilling to learn and thus must be taught how to learn. rather than teaching to a students strengths and using the resources most beneficial to them, low-ability students are taught how they are supposed to learn and how they are supposed to act. Tracking doesnt work to help teach students, it helps to heavily fund those who succeed with extensive resources, ignore those who survive with mediocre resources, and silence those who struggle with little to no resources.

Talking Points 7

Teaching Boys and Girls Seperately
By: Elizabeth Weil

Matthew Sawyer

1. "Have you ever heard of Title IX?' referring to the 1972 Educational Amendments that outlaw all discriminations is education programs on the basis of sex."

2."He might as well have said 'Boys are active, Girls are passive.'

3. "There are too many exceptions to the rule."

*the following response is satire and sarcastic meant as the best possible outcome for venting my frustration of Dr. Sax's ludicris beliefs.

Why separate classes based on sex? Because we should. Infact, why stop just at sex? Why not separate based on race, religion, income, etc.? There is irrefutable proof that boys are more capable of learning what schools are trying to teach than girls are. Why not separate so we can train our boys for the working world and our girls for the kitchen? It would be financially responsible as well, as we could stop educating the female population once we train them how to cook, clean, reproduce and fake an orgasm. Boys on the other hand need proper training on how to perform manual labor, do complex arithmatic, and indepth analysis of documents. As a matter of fact, we should continue the separation to race. As scientific documents put out in the 1700's and beyond state that blacks are scientifically inferior to whites, why should they deserve the same education. And since the Jews killed jesus, why do they deserve education as well. The same could be said for the poor, who are only bred for manual labor. Why not just jump directly to the point and educate only the rich, white, straight, catholic, able-bodied men? why continue to waste money on these lesser classes when we can be funding the education of those that truly deserve it? The country's education program is in a downward-spiral because we are attempting to educate the uneducatable. So please Dr. Sax, help us educate only the deserving, push forth your gender separated education and help us put this country back to the 1700's where it belongs.

Talking Points 6

A Particularly Cheap White Wine
By: Tim Wise

Matthew Sawyer

"The president of the College Republicans at Boston University, announces raced-based scholarships for people of color are the worst form of bigotry confronting America today."

"However the College Republicans at Boston University may seek to sin it, make no mistake, the effort to end affirmative action, whether in terms of admissions or scholarships, will have an undeniable impact."

"Colleges will become increasingly populated with white students whose SAT scores might be mightily impressive, but whose moral and ethical compasses, to say nothing of their understanding of the real world, leave something just as mighty to be desired."

As explained in the first quote, Tim Wise's article focuses on a growing feeling that race-based scholarships are in fact forms of bigotry themselves rather than a means at reducing such bigotry. Wise is very adamant in his position and also very convincing, citing various articles and statistics supporting his claims. Throughout most of his article, Wise had me convinced about the legitimacy about his position, until his final sentence, the third quote i chose. This quote for me, underlines the main purpose of Wise's paper, a statistically backed racist rant explaining why Black students are more deserving of a scholarship than white students. Rather than explaining the need for stricter guidelines regarding race-based scholarships, or scholarships based more on financial need rather than race, Wise continues to explain that Black college students simply have something more "real" to offer to the college than white students. In Wise's mind, white students have compromised morale and ethics and have no real understanding of the real world. It is in this statement that wise's article fails, transforming from an informative essay attempting to persuade a point, into a statistically sound article catered to one man's racist view.