Education is Politics

Argument

In this book, Ira Shor is arguing that often in classrooms students are not given material that is related to the real world outside of school and this can often cause acting out in class by students that sabotage lessons. Shor argues that a lot of the lessons taught in school should involve students as a very big part, as well as making the teachers find new and creative ways to get students interested in learning and wanting to do the work. Shor addresses the politics involved in education and how it appears the United States is stuck in an old style of education that is obsolete, and even states that starting off a school year questioning the school system may be extremely beneficial.

I completely agree with Shor that is seems like America is stuck in an out of date education system. My only schooling experience I would mainly describe as less than interesting and today with all the research and resources on different ways to engage students, there is no reason why school should feel like a complete chore. Shor also addresses something that Finn had addressed in another article, and that is that is seems like currently the wealthiest of communities and schools seem to be partaking in the type of education that truky engages, when the other seem to be preparing students for an assembly line. My question to you is "Did your school seem like it was preparing you for an assembly line, or the CEO?

also speaking of the different resources for fun activities I found this LINK to some

MOVEMBER!!!

 Here's the Link to my MOSPACE

NATE'S MUSTACHE

If you could, any amount helps and also don't forget to remind the men in your life to get an annual check up, it's never tough to ignore your health.

and if you know anyone interested in attending the dance party, here's the facebook event

Mustache Party

The two djs are some of my close friends, one a resident dj for DGAF at the Colloseum, and the other was a resident dj for SHAKE, the former indie dance night at the Colloseum, so it's gonna be a great time!!!

Extended Comments

For this I will be using Kaela's Blog

"She's really doing well. People come to her for advice on what movies to get, on what's good, what's current. She knows it all. She's doing really well." Beginning with the simple act of listening, Shayne created not only a valued community role for Anne but one that the young woman relished."

I think Shayne did such an amazing job with the situation with Anne. People often forget that even though a person has down syndrome they still have aspiring dreams just like you and me. She took the time to get to know Anne as a person looking past her disability and helped find a job that would make Anne happy. Like Shayne said, it might not be Hollywood but its a lot closer to something she enjoys.

I completely agree that Shayne did something great there. I often feel people are often just clumped together because of certain aspects, instead of listening to the person and trying to accomodate  the individual. This whole text was about working with someone on an individual level and not just labeling them as a certain way.

"To value another is to recognize diversity as the norm. It establishes the equal worth of all school children, a sense that we all benefit from each other, and the fundamental right of every student to belong."

Van der Klift and Klunc hit it right on the nose with this quote. If you are going to be a teacher or any decent human being you have to realize that diversity is what makes us special. Being different is what makes learning and living fun. Once you accept that, the possibilities to learn and to teach will be endless. 

I completely agree and had addressed this in my observation of your last quote. The individual part of us is the unique and most important and what makes us, us. And since everyone is different, we need to recognize this in everything we do. Not every student will learn the same way, and not every student has the same thoughts or mindlessness that traditional schooling seems to assume and assert in today's society.

"Lee is, in a sense, in a way he's branded. People see him. They see Down syndrome. They see mental challenge, retardation, whatever you want to call it. That's what they see, but they wouldn't be seeing him. Do you know what I mean? Because Lee is Lee, and anybody who knows Lee knows, and this includes all the kids, they know he's gifted-in how he solves problems, cares about others, reads, loves math. So I guess what I'm arguing is that if you did pick Lee out, you wouldn't be seeing Lee. It's not Lee you're picking out. It's your stereotype, your mind-set. It's you, and it has nothing to do with Lee. But if that's how you choose to see him, I don't know that anything I could do, we could do, I don't think there's anything Lee could do to change your mind."

Reading this part made me think of the saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover". Yes on the outside Lee would be very easy to pick out in a crowd and he might not do everything the same as other "normal" children but he is smart. He learns and speaks and tells stories in his own way and if you try to get to know him or any child with a disability you will find their strengths. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and some may be be easier to point out but that will never take away what they do know. People should focus on the good, not the bad.  

And for a third time I agree with your point. At my work there are a number of kids with down syndrome, but mostly low on the scale. Still, those kids often do their own thing and I find myself most often the one to ask them about what they are doing and think the way they are thinking. One for example likes to lick everything around at least once, such as doorknobs or staff. Last night there was someone from the state running a training at my organization and i found myself trying to use the interests he has to appeal to him so he would stay away from where our guests were. It was a little comical due to his short attention span and adventurous mind, but I would never think of it as a burden or try to oppress his curiousness and individuality.

I loved reading this article. The way students with disabilities are treated is one of the many reasons why I want to work with kids with disabilities. I want to be a teacher like Shayne and Colleen and help others find the good in all children. I want to figure out which ways of teaching works for the children so they can become the best they can, without being judged. I will probably definitely hold on to this article for future reference to look back on. 

I also found this article to be quite interesting and enjoyable to read. I was laughing through most of it because I know may kids like this and I was thinking about some of the things that only they would do and how I would not change any of their behaviors for anything because these kids would not be the same kids if they did not have those features.

Also, exploring Kaela's link for the National Advocate for People With Down Syndrome, I found this intersting resource for expecting parents. Very interesting and pleasing that there are resources like this out there Expectant Parents

Promising Practices

       I got really excited for the Promises Practices event and I was looking forward to learning about all different elements to youth development. I went with a goal in mind and that goal was to find ways to not only serve those children that I will be teaching in the future, but also how I could better serve the kids I work with now and I was hoping to find some different activities I could maybe do with them.

      The keynote speaker, Dana Fusco, looked at how public schools while all trying to serve and educate the public are not all equal. She spoke about how certain communities are able to have schools that better serve students than others. This relates directly to the article by Finn that we had read that looked at how working class public schools are not equal to white collar schools. Also, Fusco spoke on an issue that hits close to home, and that is the closing and cutting of budgets of after school programs in areas that truly need it. She showed some videos that showed students protesting about the cuts to their programs. This keynote speech was very enjoyable and opened up my wonder for the day.

     The first session I went to was a session that discussed different ways to prepare children for college programs and classes that would engage them in a different way than their high school and middle school classes did. At this session, there was a panel of different people who represented different programs that are available for underprivileged Rhode Island students. The people on these panels, some of them success stories that went back to work for them, discussed the many different things they did to engage the students that they had in their programs. Some of the names of these programs were Upward Bound and Summerbridge. They spoke about some of the things one of the programs did this past summer where they wrote letters to Bank of American about the foreclosures and even went there to see someone in charge. This session gave me a lot of ideas that I could use with the teens that I work with to better help them prepare for college, something that the cards are against them to even have the opportunity to go. This session could have been compared to Kozol’s work on how things are often not addressed which these programs seem to be helping kids prepare for their college classes where they are going to connect what they learn to their lives. Here are sites for the two programs mentioned Summerbridge and Upward Bound

       The second session I attended was a lot smaller and possibly more interesting. This second session was presented by the Save the Bay organization which looks to educate people on the environment in Rhode Island and the preservation of the water ways. This session was something I was really looking forward to because at my work we are constantly looking for different ways to introduce environmental protection to the kids, especially since our building is located right on the Blackstone River which empties into the Narragansett Bay. During this session we did an activity where we examined a water shed and saw how this could drag pollutants into the bay which is very detrimental to the environment. After the session, I stuck around to speak to the two instructors about different ways I can engage the kids I work with about being better informed about the environment. They told me about these different places that we can get tours from that are free, which is great when you work for a non profit organization. A couple of these ideas were a trip to the Johnston landfill and learn about what happens to our waste, or to the water treatment plant to learn about the different ways waste water is cleaned before going back into the bay. I have already put the wheels in motion for trips to these places during the spring break that the schools in my city have. Here is a link to the Save The Bay site Save the Bay. And here is a video about water sheds.

          At the close of the event we were given a presentation by the A.L.L.I.E.D. group which spoke of the ways that people often get shut out or treated differently and how this can often be a deterrent to learning, this even came along with some examples of people leaving classes when feeling like they are all alone. This tied very closely to the GLSEN website that we had examined in our class.

          Overall, this entire conference was quite enjoyable and informational and I hope to go to more like it in the future because of how valuable all the information and activities I learned were.

Talking Points Finn

Literacy with an Attitude
Reflection

      Reading the chapters from Finn's work I couldn't help but look back at my own elementary school days and notice how my experience is identical to the working class schools that Anyon had described. But I also noticed that I had teachers that looked to try and help some of the more "ambitious" students. I use the term ambitious because I cannot think of a better word. I was always at the top of all my classes in elementary schools and sometimes my teachers would assign me special projects because I would be bored in class. When I got into 4th grade I was put into a program called enrichment where one day a week I'd spend all day in the library with a group of maybe nine other students and we did some pretty fun stuff like play a stock market game and even went often on trips to Boston and once to New York City. But this article made me curious on what exactly made me one of the people that did this. why were the other students not getting as good of grades as I did. While I went to a school that Anyon would have classified as a "working class" school, I had opportunity that seemed to coincide with the middle class and I am thankful for this opportunity because it taught me a lot.
      I just can't wrap my head around why I was successful where a lot of kids my age were struggling to just pass simple things like spelling and simple science. I had been with these kids since kindergarten and I was doing complex work that most of the kids in my class couldn't comprehend, but then I think about home life and I can honestly say all the kids that I was with in enrichment came from "solid" families, whom I saw at church on Sunday and the baseball and soccer fields, the other kids in my class seemed to have different home-lives. This is really the only difference I can think of.
    In a final thought, reading this article made me feel robbed. Why couldn't I go to a school where I would have been completely challenged and had all the opportunities that these other kids in the article had. I'm a person that always thinks I could do everything better, and reading this I feel like a higher class school would have put me in a position to obtain utter excellence. I was quite bitter after reading this article and I feel that definitely comes through in this rant of a blog.

Sam Jackson Video

Here's that Sam Jackson video I mentioned in class. I personally love this man.

Between Barack

Talking Points #8

Argument

The argument presented in the Tim Wise interview was that the election of Obama would be one of the most important happenings in America for black people and puts it in the same category as Brown V Board of Education. This court case removed racial segregation in America, but it did not eliminate racism. Anoter argument in the video that is made is one that there is still an inequality among black and white people in America. Wise speaks of how a mediocre white will get a position often that a black person would have to be absolutely exceptional in order to get. Wise argues that this is very wrong. Wise also goes on to say that by having a black president will be great for black kids in the nation. These kids will see different ways that they can excel in America and not just playing sports as a way to have a fruitful career when they become adults.

In my opinion Wise is right in his analysis of such pressing matters. His speech reverts back to articles we have read in class, such as the one about the invisible white privilege back pack. One of the features of the back pack deals with the previously mentioned aspect of not necessarily having to be great at something to stand out when a person is white which is the opposite for black people. This interview was very interesting as was the website we were linked to.

I hope everyone voted, here is a good tool to see how all the issues being voted on are going, including the famous question 3. HUFFPOST