I Just Wanted To Say...

Thank you to everyone in my FNED 346 class, especially Professor Lesley Bogad, for everything you taught me this semester. I have learned so much about the changes in society, the rules and codes of power, privileges of race and ethnicity in general, how to improve teaching habits, etc. I am very thankful for you opening up my eyes to what is occurring in today's societies world wide. Everywhere I go I can end up relating an issue that we learned in class to the outside world. It just amazes me as to how I was so oblivious to certain matters that were occurring around me that I would have never even acknowledge without the information that was provided to me from this class. You have influenced me in more ways then one which in the end has caused for me to be a better person in general. Thank you again for everything and I can officially say that this was my favorite class this semester!

Talking Points #10 on Johson in Chapter 9 "What Can We Do?"

MY LAST BLOG POSTING

Premise:
This article discusses...

• Recognizing the problems dealing with privilege and oppression.
• How to deal with privilege and oppression.
• Changes in societies views and the systems.
• Making a difference.

Author's Argument:
Johnson argues that one of the biggest challenges that people face in every day life is change. Change needs to happen in societies due to the fact that privilege and oppression are not being recognized like they should be. People need to know that change is entitled to occur and need to be well-aware of it in order to make it happen.

Evidence:

1. "The challenge we face is to change patterns of exclusion, rejection, privilege, harassment, discrimination, and violence that are everywhere in this society and have existed for hundreds (or, in case of gender, thousands) of years."
2. "The problem of privilege and oppression is deep and wide, and to work with it we have to be able to see it clearly so that we can talk about it in useful ways. To do that, we have to reclaim some difficult languages that names what's going on, language that has been so misused and maligned that it generates more heat than light. We can't just stop using words like racism, sexism, ableism, and privilege, however, because these are tools that focus our awareness on the problem and all the forms it takes. Once we can see and talk about what's going on, we can analyze how it works as a system. We can identify points of leverage, where change can begin."
3. "The more you pay attention to privilege and oppression, the more you'll see opportunities to do something about them. You don't have to mount and expedition to find opportunities; they're all over the place, beginning with you...As you become more aware, questions will arise about what goes on at work, in the media, in families, in communities, in religious institutions, in government, on the street, and at school-in short, just about everywhere...If you remind yourself that it isn't up to you to do it all, however, you can see plenty of situations in which you can make a difference, sometimes in surprisingly the simple ways. Consider the following possibilities...Make noise, be seen...Find little ways to withdraw support from paths of least resistance and people's choices to follow them, starting with yourself.. Dare to make people feel uncomfortable, beginning with yourself...Openly choose and model alternative paths...Actively promote change in how systems are organized around privilege...Support the right of women and men to love whomever they choose...Pay attention to how different forms of oppression interact with one another...Work with other people...Don't keep it to yourself...Don't let other people set the standard for you...As powerful as systems of privilege are, they cannot stand the strain of lots of people doing something about it, beginning with the simplest act of naming the system out loud."

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
In order to make a difference people have to recognize change. To me, Johnson is one hundred percent right. Privilege and Oppression are very common in societies around the world, in fact they are so common that we as humans do not even realize they exist. Communities need to work together in order to make things happen. To create a difference is to overcome the impossible and recognize what can be accomplished with it. Overcoming obstacles is basically what life is about. People have to change themselves to fit the obstacles that are thrown at them throughout their lives whether by force or choice. If there was no such thing as change in today's world, then it would be one heck of a world to live in with so much more chaos and struggles then there already are with the struggle of power. Power, being one of the main controls of societies today, is always changing in different ways and it takes people in general to create these changes. By people being more recognizable and open to change, the world would be an easier place to live in. By reading this, it has opened up my eyes to the changes that are going on right now and the changes that need to occur in my life and the lives of others and it takes people to make a difference in this world, starting with me.

Talking Points #9 on Orenstein in "School Girls: Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap"

Premise:
This article discusses...

• Building up the self-esteem in girls or different races.
• Hidden curriculum's.
• Recognizing how women are just as equal to men in most things.
• Demonstrating the thoughts that others have about the equality of women.
• Women silencing themselves from the world.
• The emerging of women into male dominated societies.
• Male dominance vs. Female dominance

Author's Argument:
Orenstein argues that women should be recognized more in today's societies. When introducing a women who has done many accomplishments in their lifetime to a classroom where students have been exposed to more male dominance then female dominance, it is very different for them (both males and females) to adjust to. Their experiences and ideas in the classroom then tend to change.

Evidence:

1. There is no single magic formula that will help girls retain their self-esteem. Scores of educators around the country are working to develop gender-fair curricula in all subjects and reexamining traditional assumptions about how children best learn. Some educators are developing strategies to break down gender and race hierarchies in cooperative learning groups. Others are experimenting with the ways that computers, is used to their best advantage, can enhance equity in math and science courses. Individually, teachers find that calling on students equitably, or simply waiting for a moment rather than recognizing the first child who raises his hand, encourages girls to participate more readily in class. On a national level, the Gender Equity in Education Act, which should be implemented in 1995 includes provisions for improved data gathering, for the development of teacher training programs, for programs to encourage girls in math and science, and for programs to better meet the needs of girls of color.
2. ...Mrs. Logan told me that the first year she introduced this project she assigned only one monologue, but she noticed that while girls opted to take on either male or female personae, the boys chose only men. "It disturbed me that although girls were willing to see men as heroes, none of the boys would see women that way," she said...Ms. Logan decided to adde her own hidden curriculum to the assignment. She began requiring two reports, one from the perspective of a man and one presented as a woman. To ask a group of boys, most of whom are with, to take on the personae-to actually become-black women forces an unprecedented shift in their mind-set. Yet Ms. Logan found they accepted the assignment without question.
3. As the girls talk, I recall what a teacher at Weston once told me, that "boys perceive equality as a loss." Apparently, girls are uneasy with it, too. Even these girls, whose parents have placed them in this class in part because of Ms. Logan's sensitivity to gender issues, have already become used to taking up less space, to feeling less worthy of attention than boys.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
I think that bringing females more into the picture of a so called "male dominated society" is a great thing. This article made me realize how much we are not used to being taught about females who have done many accomplishments throughout history or their lifetimes that are just as equal to the obstacles males have overcome. Females are not known to have as much acknowledgments as males do in societies. There are so many male dominant influences in today's communities that people are just used to things being that way and males being the main focus over females. By showing students that females do play a large role in history and also in today's societies, I believe that it can have a large impact on the way some people think about male dominance and female dominance in today's social environments.

Talking Points #8 on Kliewer in "Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndome"

Premise:
This article is about...

• The equal treatment of students with down syndrome with other students.
• Building the interaction of students with down syndrome with their other peers and teachers.
• How teachers should be able to accommodate their teaching skills for the students with down syndrome and the other students.
• Recognizing the needs of students with down syndrome in the classroom.
• Recognizing the individuality of the students.

Author's Argument:
Kliewer argues that students with down syndrome should be given the equal opportunity of learning the same way that students without down syndrome do. They should be integrated in the same classrooms as non-disabled students, provided with the same learning materials, taught the same academics, and taught the same and equal way as teachers would normally teach their students. By providing these opportunities to students with disabilities such as down syndrome, it gives them an equal chance at becoming better learners and become more socialized with their other peers.

Evidence:

1. The movement to merge the education of children with and without disabilities is based on the belief that to enter the dialogue of citizenship does not require spoken, or indeed outspoken, language. Rather, communication is built on one's ability to listen deeply to others.
2. Success in life requires and ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community.
3. In establishing a representation of citizenship for all, Shayne recognized the transactional relationship of human reciprocity: Community acceptance requires opportunity for individual participation n the group, but opportunity cannot exist outside of community acceptance.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
I completely agree with Kliewer on the idea that students with disabilities like down syndrome should not be segregated from their other peers. They should have to same opportunity as any other student to learn the same academics and receive the same type of educational treatment as their other peers. By integrating them, they also become better socialized and learn how to react to students of non-disabilities. The same goes for the other students, they can get used to how students with disabilities act and look a little bit differently then what they do. It is a great interaction process for children alike and not alike. By segregating them from the other students and the academics and treatments that are in the other classrooms, they are not receiving the right privileges they should be getting. They are also not being exposed to the social life that they should be receiving by interacting with other student of non-disabilities and by keeping them segregated they are only being exposed to students like them. They need that diversity to become more successful in the real world.

Talking Points #7 on Lawrence In "One More River to Cross"-Recognizing the Real Injury in Brown

Premise:
This article discusses...

• Brown did not solve most of the racial segregation that still appears in todays societies.
• Courts failure to recognize the nature of racial segregation.
• Denial of race in American communities.
• The injury of black children by the existence of segregation in the school environments.
• How segregation should have been dealt with in the environments too and not just in the schools.
  
• State is the main cause that can take action against segregation.
• Remedies need to be formed to help deal with the situation of segregation.
• Defines how segregation functions.

Authors Argument:
Lawrence argues that the decision created by Brown did not solve all of the segregation issues in American societies. Brown only made very slight changes to the society but not drastic ones which is what needs to happen. The decisions made in this specific case ended up putting them in a completely different predicament then what they wanted to be in and changes occurred that the American people were not ready for.

Evidence:

1. It is the thesis of this paper that the Brown decision fostered a way of thinking about segregation that has allowed both the judiciary ans society at large to deny the reality of race in America, that the recognition of that reality is critical to the framing of any meaningful remedy-judicial or political-and that Brown may ultimately be labeled a success only insofar as we are able to make it stand for what it should have stood for in 1954.
2. ...the court chose to focus on the effect of school segregation. Chief Justice Warren began the crucial portion of his opinion by describing the importance of education in achieving political equality. He then proceeded to cite evidence presented to the court by social scientists indicating that the effect of school segregation on black children was the generate "a feeling of inferiority" that in turn affects the motivation and ability of these children to learn. In short, segregation violated the equal protection clause because of its empirically demonstrated discriminatory effect on the educational opportunity afforded blacks...By focusing on the effect of school segregation rather than its purpose the Warren Court confused the issue and led us to look to separation as the sole source of black children's feelings of inferiority rather than at the larger institution of which segregated schools were only a small part. This confusion has limited us both in proving injury and in our search for appropriate remedies.
3. The Courts failure to recognize and articulate the true nature of racial segregation was more the product of an intentional, knowledgeable decision than the result of any inability to comprehend.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
This article to me was very interesting. It helped me to realize how much racism still occurs in todays societies. In my high school I was given the opportunity to learn about Brown vs. The Board of Education and at that time I thought it solved the segregation problems in the American communities, but reading this article made me realize that it is just the opposite. This court case basically did not solve anything but a few minor issues in the school systems. But, what about outside of school? When this case came to a decision, they did not really focus on the issues outside of the educational department as much as they equally should have. This is causing for them to have difficulty in coming up with remedies to subside these racial issues in the communities. I hate to hear that children are being neglected better learning opportunities just because they are of a different race. Thats not right!!!!!! In order to come up with remedies for this issue, people need to get over their own racisms and help out the community in any way possible. I believe that the American society will benefit from this a lot better once we all learn how to put aside racism.

Talking Points #6 on Oakes "Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route"

Premise:
This article is about...

• Ability grouping
• Tracking
• Educational matters
• Stereotyping students
• Learning opportunities
• High and low ability students
• Tracking alternatives
• Different types of curriculum's
• Classroom environments
• Teaching habits
• Student evaluations

Authors Argument:
Oakes argues that students need to be taught better by using better practices other than "Tracking." By tracking students, it provides them with fewer learning opportunities due to the fact that the teachers focus only on students who are more advanced or less advanced then others instead of providing them with the same treatment. Oakes suggests that we should come up with alternatives to tracking to benefit every student.

Evidence:

1. On one side of the issue, many educators and parents assert that when schools group by ability, teachers are better able to target individual needs and students will learn more...On the other side, growing numbers of school professionals and parents oppose tracking because they believe it locks most students into classes where they are stereotyped as "less able," and where they have fewer opportunities to learn.
2. One fact about tracking is unequivocal: tracking leads to substantial differences in the day-to-day learning experiences students have at school. Moreover, the nature of these differences suggests that students who are placed in high-ability groups have success to far richer schooling experiences than other students.
3. In classrooms where the curriculum consists of a sequence of topics and skills that require prerequisite knowledge and skill master, mixing students who have different skills is difficult. Students do differ from one another, and the most striking differences among them might be in the speed at which they master sequentially presented skills. Unless students are similar in learning "speed," such a curriculum raises horrendous problems of pacing. Some students are ready to race ahead, but others lag behind. Enrichment for the quicker students often becomes make-work; reteaching becomes a chore; being retaught can be humiliating for the slower students.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
I think that this article makes a good point about how schools should come up with alternatives for "Tracking." When i was in elementary school and high school, I was considered to be of the normal student who got mostly A's and B's, along with a C or two here and there. I was not of the high or low ability students. I was eligible to take college prep classes but yet was not eligible to take honors classes with most of my friends due to the fact that my GPA was not at the level it needed to be until towards the end of my junior year of high school. When I was finally able to take a college course and receive the credits for it, I noticed a major change in the way the teacher taught the materials and they way she treated us in the classroom. The teacher treated us more maturely then those of my other classes all because we were in a college classroom setting. Which to me did not seem right because it was not right for the teachers to treat the students differently. I agree that teachers should not use the practice of "Tracking" only because it can make some students feel out of place and not as equal as the rest of their other classmates.

Talking Points #5 on Oakes and Lipton from Teaching to Change the World

Premise:
This article is about...

• The ability for any child can be good at something if they put enough effort and determination into it.
• The idea of performing hard work equals success to privileged children more than the underprivileged.
• Children who are poor tend to receive as much help from the institutions as possible but yet also have to help themselves along with it in order to do better.
• The role of merit emphasizing the responsibilities of the individual more then those of the school or society.
• Teachers are taught better teaching methods to prepare students for admission into colleges.
• The usage of scientific management in schools.
• Educational reform.
• The marketplace theory states that the most successful people will survive and the people who are not will disappear.
• Progress becomes more controlled with each generation.
• "Informational Democracy" states that not everyone benefits from progress.
• Trying to change the world rather then promising for a better future.
  
• Democratic Schooling.
• "Modern" theories in teaching.

Author's Argument:
Jeannie Oakes and Martin Lipton argue that people in today's societies must adapt to the changes that are being made within the schools and educational programs. In order for students to be able to do good in school, they must be able to understand the material that is being taught to them. Teachers and schools need to provide them with the assistance they need to do good in the classroom. If teachers want students to do good, then the teachers need to keep updated with the newest materials and programs to use in order to aid their students throughout the class. Parents also need to keep up with what their children are learning about so that way they can help them and encourage them to perform their best in the topic.

Evidence:

1. Among those students who have the resources, opportunities, and connections that come with privilege, the more ambitious and hardworking may well go farther than those who simply do okay in school. Nothing said here belittles the ineffable qualities of character, ambition, or even charisma. However, these meritorious qualities occur with no less frequency in low-income families and among blacks, Latinos, and immigrants. yet these groups cannot parlay these qualities into economic success to the same degree what middle-class and wealthy whites can...When it comes to explaining "success," ability and ambition are often important, but that is not all there is to it. Americans' belief that success in school (and life) follows from ability and aspirations masks the reality that schooling, within the broad social structure, favors children from privileged families.
2. As schools grew larger and mre expensive, politicians, industrialists, and social reformers criticized them for their inefficient methods and dubious success. Many critics suggested that, like workers in all large enterprises, teachers could achieve greater success under factory-like management systems. University professors and school administrators set about conducting the same types of scientific studies of schools that Taylor had done in industry, and they developed schemes for making schools run more like efficient factories. To mention just a few of these new efficiencies, schools divided their large auditorium-like spaces for a hundred or more students into today's familiar classrooms that separated students by ages and subjects. Texts such as readers and spellers proliferated, making it possible to standardize curriculum. Colleges began to specify sequences of courses that would prepare students for admission. Normal schools (the first teacher education institutions) started training teachers in correct and efficient teaching methods.
3. In short, teachers and the public must look both closely and broadly at any "noncommon" school. If the school thrives because of its focused sense of purpose and community, it may benefit its students and the community. But if the school's strength results from winning the local competition for scarce educational resources (i.e., support from the politically powerful parents, money, and highly qualified teachers), then the community will soon suffer. If schools of choice succeed because their students forge closer links with the widest cross section of adults and other students in their communities, then they should be emulated for that reason. But if they serve elite or isolated interests that further divide communities, they will not serve social justice.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
This article states that teachers, schools, and parents need to keep up with modern day techniques about how to teach children. Children in today's societies are influenced by everything around them. They are constantly learning new things everyday whether these matters are being taught to them inside a classroom or outside of one. it is the job of the teachers and parents or guardians of the children to provide them with the necessary information and support they will need to do good in school.

School environments should also provide children comfortable places for them to learn in. These children need to be given as much support from their teachers and school environments along with their outside environments as much as possible. If students are not supported throughout their learning processes then they will not be motivated to do their best in the subjects. By teachers and parents providing their children with all the necessities they need to become better in school, then children will become more interested to learn.