GLSEN blog
Reflection
The article I read on GLSEN.org is titled "GLSEN Releases Groundbreaking Study of Bias, Bullying and Homophobia in Grades K-6". LINK This article broke down some interesting facts of a study that made up another article titled "Playgrounds and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States". This breakdown of the article gives reports of percentage of children's understanding of different lifestyles, and what teachers do to make kids aware of these things. It also looks at the way hateful words are used by young elementary children who don't seem to fit gender roles exactly. One may immediately think it not probably that a 3rd grader would call someone "gay" but I know from my own personal experience and having an older brother, that I started using words like this to express not liking something when I was young. So when I read the fact that 49% of elementary school kids have used it I believed it. Even now today when I work with kids, I often hear sometimes 1st graders saying a television show is "gay". And it's no surprise that some kids who might have homosexual parents may feel uncomfortable in an environment where something bad is said to be gay.
Some of the facts and numbers presented in this overview are completely striking, especially in a society where we often see elementary school aged children as innocent and don't think they can really say things that are mean, but that is not the case with the number presented of children who do not feel safe at school. I remember when I was in 7th grade there was a female cancer survivor in my class and she was in the process of growing her hair back and would leave school some days crying because of other boys calling her "dyke" and other mean phrases thrown at lesbians. And while I was out of elementary at the time it wasn't by much.
What this article was trying to do was show that we need to do some educating at a young age to teach children that these words are not appropriate and that people who live different lifestyles are not different people and should not be treated as different. One thing I found cool on this site was a link to a website about something called the No Name-Calling Week, here is the link to that. LINK
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Saturday, September 22, 2012
BLOG #2
Richard Rodriguez- "Aria"
Connections
This piece title "Aria" by Richard Rodriguez is one that connections to a lot of the texts that we have been reading in class, but one I really connect it with is "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children" by Lisa Delpit. I connect it with this piece because the Delpit piece is all about the culture of power and how we need to help those that are not part of the culture of power join it. However, "Aria" is the first person perspective of someone joining the culture of power and how that culture in a way erased what their old culture had meant to him and his family, almost completely removing his father's interactions with him, due to a new cultural barrier. One quote from this text I find very powerful reads, "At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had been technically true since my birth: I was an American citizen". (Rodriguez 36) In this quote we see how the narrator finally feels apart of the society he lives in, but one is directly brought to think "at what cost?". Following this he mentions how his family, becoming more American lost something, "But the special feeling of closeness at home was diminished by then". (Rodriguez 36) He no longer has his "secret language" at home that mad his family close, and it seems to be kind of a shock to him. In the end it is clear that Delpit is right and the culture of power needs to be taught, but what this article is saying is that the previous culture of the personally newly introduced should not be completely erased, and there should be something left to fortify it.
Being from an inner city, growing up I was friends with a lot of ESL students and I decided after reading this article to do a little bit of research into ESL in the U.S. and I found this site that had just a little bit of number information on ESL students. This is a very large number and it makes me curious how many of their stories will match the Rodriguez piece.
Connections
This piece title "Aria" by Richard Rodriguez is one that connections to a lot of the texts that we have been reading in class, but one I really connect it with is "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children" by Lisa Delpit. I connect it with this piece because the Delpit piece is all about the culture of power and how we need to help those that are not part of the culture of power join it. However, "Aria" is the first person perspective of someone joining the culture of power and how that culture in a way erased what their old culture had meant to him and his family, almost completely removing his father's interactions with him, due to a new cultural barrier. One quote from this text I find very powerful reads, "At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had been technically true since my birth: I was an American citizen". (Rodriguez 36) In this quote we see how the narrator finally feels apart of the society he lives in, but one is directly brought to think "at what cost?". Following this he mentions how his family, becoming more American lost something, "But the special feeling of closeness at home was diminished by then". (Rodriguez 36) He no longer has his "secret language" at home that mad his family close, and it seems to be kind of a shock to him. In the end it is clear that Delpit is right and the culture of power needs to be taught, but what this article is saying is that the previous culture of the personally newly introduced should not be completely erased, and there should be something left to fortify it.
Being from an inner city, growing up I was friends with a lot of ESL students and I decided after reading this article to do a little bit of research into ESL in the U.S. and I found this site that had just a little bit of number information on ESL students. This is a very large number and it makes me curious how many of their stories will match the Rodriguez piece.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Jonathan Kozol- "Amazing Grace"
Argument
In this piece Kozol argues that the way New York treats it's poor and destitute is almost as if it is throwing it into a junk drawer and ignoring it. While not explicitly stating this, Kozol represents it through a series of quotes from people who live in these areas, facts about these areas, and his own experiences. Some examples are how they move the homeless into the housing projects, and the incinerator that was to go into a wealthier area, but fought against do to the burning of chemicals. There is also mentioning of people just dumping their "trash" in the streets, treating this area as a dump. Another argument that Kozol features here is one against the common idea that the people in these areas got their on their own accord and must have done something wrong to be in such a circumstance. He shows this to be very fictitious when outlining the life of his good friend Mrs. Washington who has always tried to rise above but her skin color and origin have repetitively held her down, proving that it's not all drug addicts and people who have messed up. He also takes a look at the kids that grow up being bombarded with the images of suffering and violence, needing to grow up at such an early age. Those children have done nothing wrong to get stuck in these awful human dumping grounds.
As a side note I was also curious about the part he mentioned about people handing out clean needles and I have heard about it, but never really looked into it, so I decided to see if R.I. does this at all. Instead I found a NY Times article that is contemporary to the Kozol piece and it tells how illegal giving needles to addicts is. It is very intersting.
Argument
In this piece Kozol argues that the way New York treats it's poor and destitute is almost as if it is throwing it into a junk drawer and ignoring it. While not explicitly stating this, Kozol represents it through a series of quotes from people who live in these areas, facts about these areas, and his own experiences. Some examples are how they move the homeless into the housing projects, and the incinerator that was to go into a wealthier area, but fought against do to the burning of chemicals. There is also mentioning of people just dumping their "trash" in the streets, treating this area as a dump. Another argument that Kozol features here is one against the common idea that the people in these areas got their on their own accord and must have done something wrong to be in such a circumstance. He shows this to be very fictitious when outlining the life of his good friend Mrs. Washington who has always tried to rise above but her skin color and origin have repetitively held her down, proving that it's not all drug addicts and people who have messed up. He also takes a look at the kids that grow up being bombarded with the images of suffering and violence, needing to grow up at such an early age. Those children have done nothing wrong to get stuck in these awful human dumping grounds.
As a side note I was also curious about the part he mentioned about people handing out clean needles and I have heard about it, but never really looked into it, so I decided to see if R.I. does this at all. Instead I found a NY Times article that is contemporary to the Kozol piece and it tells how illegal giving needles to addicts is. It is very intersting.
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