Race In the Classroom

This article should have been the model for the entire book. "I started with children and actual events rather than the literature or theory."(476) I usually read something with a highlighter in one hand and a pen in the other, but halfway through this article I put both down. Had I continued to use the highlighter, I would have ended up with a lot of yellow pages. This was the first article that made me truly reflect upon my own experience as a student. The section on whites as the minority was of particular interest to me, since I attended MPS. It was interesting to see that although one of the primary goals for the school was to create a diverse and equal environment, paying more than just lip service to the idea, the author still felt that they had fallen way short of their goal. Race is something that just doesn't get talked about; it's like the 500lb gorilla in the room, everyone knows its there but no one wants to acknowledge it. I tried to remember an instance when race was seriously discussed in one of my classes. All I came up with was a particular instance during the LA riots, when my teacher sat down with us to discuss what was going on. I don't remember any of the particulars, but I can remember that it was one of those moments when you no longer feel like you're in school; the classroom and the real world kind of melt together. This teacher, Mr.Baumgardner, was the best teacher I had because he was so real, but not everyone has a knack for discussing such controversial subjects as race. I think it is simple enough to provide minority students with a forum to air their grievances, but a truly productive conversation has to include whites too. I think that a lot of times, white students in urban schools are afraid to express their sentiments on race. First of all they are the minorities in these schools, and therefore may not feel so emboldened to speak up. Secondly, white students may worry that they will be labeled racist if they express any misperception or prejudices they may have. I think we are all prejudice in some degree, and until we can admit that and try to sort through the stereotypes, it will always be extremely difficult to deal with race.

I Love History!

Reading about the unique perspective each student takes into the classroom made me think about how much I love history. There was an excerpt in the article that pointed out that we tend to focus on the "great" men of history while we tend to disregard the struggle of people inlower socioeconomic classes. Yes these great men were responsible for many of the great events in human history, but their actions would have been forgettable had it not been for the support or resistance from common everyday people. I look forward to utilizing primary source documents that highlight the experience of people that my students have never heard of. This is an essential means of creating social awareness in the classroom. It is important to create an awareness of the issues of the past, so that they won't be repeated in the future. When students see that everyday people from the past dealt with many of the same situations that they face today, it can create a sense of empowerment. It might also be cool to create a problem based lesson based on a situation in history. I'm really interested to see how problem based learning works, and how it can be practically implemented in the classroom.

Bilingualism and Homosexuality

Does anyone else feel like this book was a big waste of money? All I read in this book is problems, problems, problems. The solutions offered usually speak in terms of scholastic glittering generalities. "Recognizing the complexity of the individual, family, and social dynamics of adolescent development can be invaluable to gay, lesbian, and "straight" students alike." Sounds great, but what does it mean? I've read some blogs where people talk about clubs in their schools for gay and lesbian students; I would be more interested to hear the dynamics of their stories. How did students, parents, and teachers react to the formation of these groups? I don't think its impossible to institute such programs in all schools, but it is certainly more difficult in some settings. In the context of the urban school setting, I think it would be rather difficult to form such groups. The article eluded to the point that certain minority groups have hyper inflated ideas about gender roles, a phenomenon in Hispanic culture known as "machisimo". Certainly progress has been made in recent years, but their still exists a deeply ingrained homophobic sentiment in our society, a sentiment that is not only socially formed but culturally as well. This article could have spent one page talking about the problem, and the rest could have provided solutions and examples.
The article on language could have also been much more interesting. Once again it was all about the problem. What about the fact that in many societies, bilingualism is the rule and not the exception. Most of the focus of this article was on ESL students, but I think the bigger issue is a lack of Americans who can speak a second language. Being bilingual is an invaluable asset in almost every career field, and yet, our nation's colleges and universities don't really emphasize its importance. In most cases, all that is required is two years of a foreign language in high school. Most high school Spanish classes are a joke, I know some people who took four years of Spanish in high school and can't remember a single word other than, Como te llamas? I myself was a Spanish minor at one point, but I had to give it up because it would have meant me spending another 1yr and a half to 2yrs in college. When I think of all the useless time and money I've spent in classes that will have no bearing on my ability to teach, it infuriates me to no end. So far, every education class I have taken has just been a regurgitation of the information I learned last semester. All this time, I could have been learning another language.