Separation is keeping us Unequal

562: The Problem We All Live With
Separate and Unequal
Separate is Not Equal

Argument through the use of Quotes

On May 17, 1954 Brown V the Board of Education the U.S Supreme court created a law which dissolved any constitutional sanctions for segregation by race. This means that by law no school could refuse a student based on their race or ethnicity. Now, we know that just because a law is passed it does not mean that people are going change their change their opinion or mindset over night.... but i'd like to think that 64 years would be more than enough time to wrap our fragile brains around the idea of  social inclusion *rolls eyes*

562: The Problem We All Live With
"you gotta figure out, ok. How can I stand up for myself without proving to them(her peers and society) that Normandy is ghetto? That was going to be the hard part."
    I chose this quote out of the hour long interview between Ira Glass and Nikole Hannah-Jones because I believe it is the essence of the interview in it entirety. In this piece we talk about integration in today's school systems and how beneficial it has proven to be for students in low class/ low income demographic areas to matriculate into a richer school system. We are then introduced to two young woman who were given the opportunity to get out of their prominently black school and begin at a school whose occupants were more than 85% white.
   These girls talk about some of the pressure and ridicule they were subject to on a daily basis in order to be apart of a public school system. What I took away from this is something we have discussed in class before. These girls like many many others were forced to begin conforming to the dominant culture, in return they begin loosing a sense of their personal identity. This quote, given by Rianna Curtain said to me that Rianna couldn't even stick up for who she is and what she believes in because if she were to mimic the behaviors of her white peers then she would be viewed as barbaric and savage meaning that her peers had won.

Separate and Unequal 
"Schools are no longer legally segregated, but because of residential patterns , housing discrimination, economic disparities and long held custom, they most emphatically are in reality"

Word Bank:
racial integration
equal
education/educated
poverty

demographic
Black and Hispanic
poor
school
segregation

   For this article I used a skill we have been working on in class, as I read and took notes on the article I noted the words that were used the most to gain a sense of Bob Herbert's point of view on academic racial integration. He speaks about how poor Black and Hispanic school are characterized by their high concentrations of poverty. In return with lower standards these schools get lower educated teachers who do less to meet state academic standards, in return affecting consistency in scores, and this creates a lack of want for academic success. By segregating the rich from poor schools we are clumping similarly characterized individuals together based on demographic. This does nothing to improve standards, and only punishes the lower income group because of their lack of opportunity to improve based on their standards.


Points of Discussion:

• Studies have shown that the race of a person does not determine a person's academic successes. Rather it is dependent on well trained/ motivated teachers(that's us!), lowered class disruptions, academic engagement and the presence of an adult figure.  
• What do we do as future teachers to allow social, personal, and academic success for our students?? 

How Influential is gender to the 2016 Presidential Election?

Donald Trump, Locker Rooms and Toxic Masculinity by Jill Soloway
Hillary Clinton Raises Her Voice, and a Debate Over Speech and Sexism Rages by Amy Chozick

                                                Power, privilege, and voting

This, the 2016 Presidential election, has to be the most talked about, argued over, and exploited election in all of history. Or if not in all history, then most definitely the most controversial in my life time. Which is saying something because in 2008 America's first black president was elected and held office for two full terms! He inspired many people by defying statistics and rising above expectations by challenging the image of who is eligible to be the president of the United States. Our track record of white, wealthy, well educated men, upholding the position of power was diminished when Obama proved that anyone despite their ethnicity, race, religion, or upbringing is eligible to be president.

So, although people are in uproar expressing their outrage about the first female presidential candidate this isn't far fetched from the progressive steps we took as a country when electing Obama. But why are people loosing their shit?!? Hillary has great potential as our next President, she is "able to string together paragraphs of complex policy talk off the cuff" and does it with grace all while being harassed by her opponent and the media about her lack of attractive appeal, how she speaks, and her credibility as a candidate. We have people coming out of the wood works to making statements like her voice is "loud, flat, and harassing to hear", stating that she choices to use a "decidedly grating pitch and punishing tone", meanwhile she is just trying to be heard over a crowd of misogynistic mean who feed off of toxic masculinity. Besides, in this election have you seen a debate where Trump did not raise his voice to a punishing tone, yell over, talk down to, and humiliate Mrs. Clinton? Yea. Me either.

I think the real problem is as a country we have never had to deal with gender such an explicit manner as a country. Lisa Delpit demonstrates to us in  "Other Peoples Children" that our society runs off of a set of silent codes and rules for participating in power, and these guidelines lay out exactly what type of person would be considered fit to be our president. And i'll give you a hint, it not a woman. Much like Delpit, Griner who introduced the acronym S.C.W.A.A.M.P to us also defines our societies dominant ideology as straightness, Christianity, whiteness, able-bodied-ness, american-ness, male-ness, and property/ ownership.
Trump is a wealthy, educated, established white man who comes from money and demands respect simply because he fits the concrete mold of what our society views as powerful. In Soloways article she discusses how Donald Trump, and men alike, consistently degrade, judge, and itemize woman publicly as a way to defend their masculinity and threaten their opponent. In Chozick's article she speaking in simple negative sentences, with lack of purpose. Often when pressed with questions based on his ethics(instead of taking responsibility) he will turn the prompt of his opponent and highlight their faults and disadvantages.
discusses just how many men have passed judgment on Hillary Clinton for not only political policies but for how speaks, her body language when she speaks, and her lack of sexual appeal.. The last time I checked every time Trump opens his mouth during a debate he is loud,


Points of discussion:

1. Why is it that when a woman raises her voice its shouting and shrill but when a man raises his voice it's considered enthusiastic? 
2. This debate is so frustrating and causes me so many anxiety.. I am not necessarily pro Clinton, but if Hillary becomes president then Trump will not be in office... and that is what is most important to me.... How about we have Obama and president forever!

Why we must improve American education

Unlearning the Myth that Blind Us

Unlearning the Myths that Blind Us  By Linda Christensen

Hyperlink

Linda Christensen discussed how societies cultural industry colonizes how our children act, live, and dream. She says that the industrially produced fiction "taught a certain style of violence, the latest fashion, and sex roles by tv, movies, magazines, and comic strips; also taught how to succeed, how to love, how to buy, how to concur, how to forget the past and suppress the future." What this means to me is that the main source of information we are receiving as children is mostly bias and distorted opinions expressed to us by our family, and social environments.

This article How do parents' own biases impact their children? discusses just how influential adult opinion, body language, facial expressions are to their children and how a parent can take the right steps to allowing their children to make their own conscious opinions.

Talking Points:

• Parental influence is more than just how children view the world but also how they act in our societies. Parents who are loving, warm, open and responsive will have children who go out into the world as loving, warm, open, and responsive individuals.
• In return families who are often angry, yelling, and belittling to their children then breed children who go out into the world as bullies belittling their peers.
• Children learn more from what you are than what you preach.

Richard Rodrigues "Aria"

Richard Rodrigues "Aria"
Lisa Delpit's "Other People's Children"
Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
Lesley Griner's SCWAAMP

Connection:

This week, the reading I will be covering is that of Richard Rodrigues who wrote "Aria".  The first hand account of a young Spanish speaking boy who, living in America was forced to speak English in all aspects of life and was subconsciously taught the codes and culture of power. The code and culture of power is a topic which Lisa Delpit confronts in "Other People's Children". She outlines the idea that there are strict invisible standards set for everyone living in today's American society. Through these standards there are certain stigmas to obtain power such as speaking the right language and presenting yourself properly in order to be seen as a person of quality.

 Having spoken very little English and feeling detached from the language, Richard clung to his family's Spanish heritage and had lack of confidence in his ability to have his English voice heard. He did not feel like his English voice belonged to him. So, for a long time this bullied Richard into staying silent during class discussions, when called upon he kept his voice low and mumbled the best answer he could devise. This lack of interaction did not conform to the standards of the school system(which we know to be the code and conduct of power) and the Nuns from his school came to his home to speak to his parents about properly integrating English into Richard and his siblings lives. From there on out his parents would insist on speaking in English only and what seemed to be a fun and tactical way of becoming more confident in a foreign language soon turned into the detachment of how close he once was with his heritage.

Richard discuses how difficult this transition was for him and it reminded me of a quote from Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" where she states "as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups were likely being made un-confident, uncomfortable, and alienated". After reading this article I can not agree with McIntosh anymore, through the Culture of Power people are so focused on making everyone look and act the same. The Nuns saw Richard as an introverted child and blamed it on his inability to fully understand the English language, and even though Richard really did struggle with speaking the language out loud it was not because he didn't know how to speak in English. It was because English was not his language, he was un-confident in how he pronounced the language. He was uncomfortable with having people hear his accent, and he constantly felt like an outsider who no one beside his Spanish speaking family would understand. Sooner or later he gained confidence in his ability to speak in English and began becoming embarrassed of his parents who had thick accents and did not understand the language as well as their children. He began feeling distant and alienated from them because their ability to understand English lacked in experience. This is a never ending cycle that is forced upon people in America whose first language isn't English. What can we do as future teachers to stop this cycle?

Questions/Comments/Point To Share:

• How can we as future teachers make our classrooms more comfortable and accepting of all students who speak all languages?  Is it acceptable to integrate some Spanish and French into our daily classrooms? 
• Why is the major focus on students being forced to learn English when all other students aren't forced to learn Spanish or French in the classroom. It should be implemented into all elementary class curriculum, to mainly benefit those who are still learning the English language but it will also be for the students whom are going to spend the rest of their lives surrounded by Spanish speaking people having no idea what they're saying. 

Eighth Grader's opinion on White Privilege