Quotes
"Can education develop students as critical thinker, skilled workers, and active citizens?"
I really like this quote because the minute I came across it , it had me thinking. Of course education can make students become critical thinkers. That is what education does to you, it allows you to think freely and have your own thoughts about certain things. Education allows you to see other peoples point of views and helps you decide wether you agree or disagree. Without the knowledge a student isn't able to become a critical thinker, to become a critical thinker you have to allow yourself to see other peoples point of views. Everything comes down to education, such as jobs.min order for you to have a good job one day you need an education. Everyone needs some sort of education to become successful in life.
The picture below is a picture that shows what students need to become critical thinkers.
"A curriculum that does not challenge the standard syllabus and conditions in society informs students that knowledge and the world are fixed and are fine the way they are, with no role for
students to play in transforming, and no need for challenge".
I really liked this quote because I think it's true if the students are not challenged and aren't able to try new things they are not going to be engaged in education. Students should be allowed to think outside the box not just the way the curriculum wants them to. If students were allowed to learn things that they are interested in learning , more students would enjoy school. I think that students should have say in their education not just the teachers and the curriculum.
I really like the picture below. I think it shows how the curriculum doesn't allow the students to get out of their comfort zone and explore new things.
I really enjoyed this event, I learned a lot from it. I really didn't know what to expect from it. I honestly thought that their were going to be actual belly dancers during the lecture but their was none. I thought I was just going to be sitting down for 2 hours bored out of my mind, but it was actually the opposite of that. I think that all of those who went to this lecture would agree that it was very interesting.
The first thing that Afshan Jafar was write down in a piece of paper the words "Muslim women are ___ " and we had to finish the sentence. In my paper I wrote down "Muslim women all look the same". I knew it was wrong for me to think that but that was the first thing that popped into my head when I thought about Muslim women. Jafar then collected the papers and began reading them outloud, I knew I was going to feel guilty when she read my paper out loud. I was surprised to find out that a lot of people wrote the same thing I did. I think that this has to do with the fact that most of us , as soon as we hear "Muslim women" we think about them being all covered up and that is why they all look the same.
As the slides how began the first picture we looked at was a picture of jasmine from the movie Alladin. I thought to myself this is going to be interesting because I grew up watching this movie. As Jafar continued talking she brought up Disney and how racist they are. I never really thought of Disney being racist because after all it is a program meant for children. However Disney is indeed racist, Jafar explained to us that the original lyrics in the beginning of the movie are racist. The original lyrics say " oh I come from a land from a far away place, where the caravan camel roam. Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face.nots barbaric but hey it's home". This was very disturbing and I got upset because I thought to myself , how can Disney do this? Disney is meant to be for kids so why would they out such lyrics in a movie? Do they want kids to become racist? Most people have not heard this version of this song because Disney was forced to change the lyrics. That doesn't change the fact that th original lyrics are racist.
I think that this connects to the silence dialogue reading because what Disney was trying to do here was to silence their voices. They said so many bad things about them I'm the song so that they can be silenced and so that other people could think bad about this culture. I want to also relate this to the will it help the sheep reading? I really don't think that racist lyrics and racist movie clips will not help the sheep. What this is doing is making children see the Muslim culture in a negative way.
As Jafar continued talking about Alladin , she talked about jasmines appearance. Jasmine clearly doesn't look like a Muslim women. Jasmine looks more like an Americanized belly dancer. On the other hand the villain of the movie Jafar has the Muslim features. It is like they are saying that Muslim women should show their skin and that those who have the Muslim features are evil.
Another picture that we looked at that I thought was very interesting was a picture of an American women in a bikini , who is looking at a Muslim women and is thinking to herself " everything covered but her eyes what a cruel male dominated culture. The Muslim women right next to her is looking at her thinking "nothing covered but her eyes, what a cruel male dominated culture". I really liked this picture because I think that it shows how us as Americans portray Muslim women without even knowing anything about their culture. We automatically assume that Muslim women cover themselves up simply because the men tell them to, when unreality it is not like that. Muslim cover themselves up because that's their culture, that's how they feel comfortable. In this picture both women believe that both cultures are a male dominated culture, I think that this shows how people no matter where their from, are easy to judge people based on how they look.
I think that this can connect to the reading white privilege. I think that because of the white privilege people see as Muslim women as a male dominated culture. I think that it is the privilege that doesn't allow us to see that they dress that way because it represents their culture.
My opinion on Muslim women has completely changed after this lecture. If I had a chance to write down in a piece of paper again "Muslim women are __" I would say Muslim women are, misunderstood, strong , beautiful, brave, open minded and much more. Muslim women are just like us , they may not dress like us but we are all same in the inside.
Quotes
"Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities"(71).
I think that their is a lot of negative attitudes towards people who have developmental disabilities but I think that this has to do with the fact that many people don't even bother finding out information regarding the disabilities. People just chose to ignore these people that have disabilities, and they see them different. Many people believe that people with disabilities are not capable of doing anything and this is not true. I think that people need to stop being so ignorant.
"If you came into the room and were told there was a retarded child with special needs, I don't think you would pick Lee out. The kids agree that he's as capable as they are"(83).
Many of the times people believe that they would be able to point out someone who has disabilities becausetxhey look different then us. What they don't know is that sometimes you can't tell and you wouldn't be able to tell unless someone told you the person has a dissability. Many of these people are very bright and they look just like us, they are able to do most of the things that we can do.
"According to shayne, the notion of Down syndrome often obscures our ability to recognize the child as a child"(86).
I think that this is true , many people have a hard time seeing a child as a child when they know that he or she has Down syndrome this is sad but it's true. I think this has to do with the fact that we automatically feel pitty for the child , and we just see the child as someone who has a disability that we automatically forget that he is a child not just a disabled child.
The link below is a video of girl with Down syndrome explaining teachers to not limit students with disabilities. I liked this videos because it really shows how people with Down syndrome can be succesfull too. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YOwDfnoek6E
I really loved this video it's informational and it shows how people with Down syndrome are able to do some of the things we do I this this video also helps us understand people with Down syndrome. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5M--xOyGUX4
"A principle was reported to have said to a new teacher 'just do your best. If they learn to add and subtract, that's a bonus. If not don't worry about it"(11).
Because of principles like this one students are failing in schools. If principles tell teachers to not worry about their students education then the principles themselves don't care about their students education. It seems as if the only thing they care about id the check they get at the end of the week, and that's not fair to the students. I think that principles, teachers, and the school faculty should encourage their students to care about their education not put them down. Teachers need to show students that they care about their education and not just the nice pay check they get. Students need some type of motivation.
"In the middle class about one third of the teachers grew up in the neighborhood of the school. Most graduated from the local state teachers college, and many of them lived in the neighborhood of the school"(12).
I think that teachers living in the same neighborhood as their students should help them connect with the students. It might help teachers understand their students more, it can help them understand their students life style. Teachers can use this as an advantage because they can try to find a way to teach their students and make them be interested in school and their education. If teachers don't show that they are interested then their students won't be interested either.
" Teachers In the middle class school seemed to believe that their job was to teach the knowledge found in textbooks or dictated by curriculum experts"(12-13).
I really dislike this teaching method. I don't think that this will help the students at all. This teaching method just makes students not want to learn because it's so boring. I know that this is boring from my own experience because this is what most of my high school teachers did and I honestly can say that I didn't learn much. I think that teachers should at least teach from the textbooks but make it fun in a way.
As I was reading this article I was able to connect it to another reading we have discussed in class, and that is "The silenced dialogue". The reason I connected it to the silenced dialogue is because in that reading it talks about how students are silenced in classrooms. In the article Becoming something Different, Esme was a silenced student. In the sixth grade Esme wasn't too sure of her status as a student. She says that she paid attention in class and asked questions but still had difficulty understanding. Esme's voice is silenced here because the teachers didn't do much to help her understand questions and assignments. The teachers responsibility is to help students learn not make them more confused when they ask questions, because if they ask a questions it's because they don't understand but that doesn't mean that they have a learning problem. Instead of helping Esme the teachers positioned her as needing help with academic tasks, so instead of being helped she was silenced in a way. I think that this is one if the reasons Esme didn't have confidence in herself , that why she said that she wasn't too sure of her status as a student. Esme says " I really don't know if I'm good" I think the teachers job is to help students instead if making hen doubt themselves and think that they are not good. Esme was silenced In the sixth grade but as she went to other grades she was able to have teachers that didn't silence her , instead they helped her and that's when she began to enjoy school more because she actually had helpful teachers. Her teacher had different strategies so she was able to understand more. Esme then saw herself as a "a lot smarter"(1).
In The link below the first minute and ten seconds is a video of students who had similar situations with Esme because they would ask questions and class but the teachers didn't help. The rest if the video is strategies that teachers can do to help their students understand a little bit better. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-bWU238PymM
This video really talks about most of the topics that we have discussed in class, it talks about how many people don't like to talk about certain topics such as racism. People chose not to talk about racism and they decide to ignore it because they say they are not racist and that's it they don't wanna have a conversation about it. Something that was said in this video that really caught my attention was " well I don't have to have this conversation, I'm not racist because some of my best friends are black, or I dated an Asian once". I found this interesting because I feel like I have heard this a lot. Many people say things similar to this as a come back when another person wants to talk about racism. Reality is that just because you have black friends or dated so,some of a different race this doesn't mean that you can't be racist.
Another thing that I found interesting was when he said, " are their men in this country who are sexest? Are any if them heterosexual ? How is that possible? Because by the logic of the person that says if I got friends who are black then I can't be racist, then if men date women or marry them or are simply attracted to them, the fact that I'm a heterosexual means that I cannot be sexest. The only sexest would have to be gay men". I really liked this because it really shows how ridiculous it is that people think they can get away with not talking about racism because they have friends of different race. The truth here is that people are scared to be called racist if they speak of racism.
I chose this pictures because I think that they go with this video. I think this just shows how we are used to hearing about people not being racist because they have black friends.
While I was reading this article I started thinking about all the times I have done community service. Ever since I was little my parents and I would do many things to help others. In church every year for thanksgiving and Christmas we would collect can foods, juice boxes and cookies and we would put them in boxes and give a big box to the families in our church who were of low income and were in need of extra help. One of the things that I love the most about helping people is the big smile I get in return. I think that it's important to help those in our community because it not only makes us feel better but it also makes other people happy and it gives them hope and lets them know that their are still good people out their that care.
Last year I did something I really loved and that was teaching english to children who come from other countries who only speak Spanish. I taught this class for 3 months in Scalabrini Dukcevich center. I had about 5 students who had just came from Guatemala and El Salvador 2 weeks before class started. They didn't know any english, and I was asked to teach them basic english because they were going to start school soon. This was such a wonderful experience because I got to help these kids, in 3 months they didn't know perfect english but they knew the basics. They told me they were so happy because they didn't feel so left out in school because at the end they were able to understand what the teacher would tell them. I really liked doing this I think I am going to this again in the summers, I like knowing that by helping others or doing something for someone else it has an impact in their lives.
The link below is the page for Scalabrini Dukcevich where I do most of my community service. http://www.slmri.org
Christensen's argument in her paper is that children and even us as adults are easily influenced by the Media. Christensen says, "Children's cartoons, movies, and literature are Perhaps the most influential genre "read". Young people, unprotected by an intellectual armor, hear or watch these stories again and again, often from the warmth of their mother's or father's lap"(127). Children learn from the cartoons or movies they watch daily but behind these cartoons their are many hidden messages.
Christensen discusses the many stereotypes behind children movies. I never really thought of cartoons and movies as having stereotypes until I read this paper. As I was growing up I always though of Media as just entertainment but this paper has opened my eyes and made me realized that that every cartoon is meant for teaching and influencing children. I found it interesting that one of my favorite cartoons as growing up has a bad influence on kids. I always knew ninja turtles is bad because of the violence but I never took a closer look at it. Towards the end of the paper Christensen shows a summary made by a student who took a closer look at ninja turtles. The paper says " The show is based on fighting the bad guy, shredder....they battle and fight but never get hurt. This cartoon teaches a false sense of violence to kids: fight and you don't get hurt, or solve problems through fists and swords"(136). Clearly the lesson taught with this cartoon is not good for kids they are being lied to because problems are not resolved with violence and if you do fight you get hurt.
A picture that I found online that goes with this article is the picture below. I chose this picture because it shows how Media basically feeds humans with information not necessarily true information.
“The primary is school often thought of as a place
of safety and innocence; a place where childhood is both nurtured and
sheltered, and attempts to address what are seen as ‘adult’ issues are
sometimes intrusions into or threats to this safety zone”(1).
School
should be a safe and comfortable place for children. School is meant for
educating and keeping the children safe. I think that it is important to have a
safety zone for children but I think that children should be protected up to a
certain point. It is important to teach children about some of the things they
will see out in the real world because they aren't going to be in a safety zone
forever. It is better to teach children about things they will see now that
they are young because it can help them have a better understanding and a more
positive perspective on things. We can’t
prevent children from seeing things out on the street and have them be
confused.
“I talked quite openly with my class about the
princes’ sexuality. We began the lesson with a letter from prince asking the
class for help (because he has to meet all these princesses but doesn't want to
marry any of them) and then we read the book”(3).
Although
some children may feel confused at first when talking about sexuality it is
important for them to know that there are gays, lesbians and bisexuals. In
order to teach children about this teachers should use strategies like the one
that this teacher did read a story and help them understand what is going on. I think that telling the children the story of
the prince who was supposed to meet princess is a good way to teach children
about gay people because they will understand that the prince is not happy
finding a princess because that is not what he likes. The prince wants to be
with a prince and that’s okay because that makes him happy.
“kate asked her class how her Muslim colleague might
have felt if she were called ‘paki’ and followed this by asking the class how
she might feel if she were called ‘gay’”(8).
Children
should be taught that name calling is a horrible thing and that makes people
feel sad. Here she asked her class what they think her friend might feel like
if she was to be called paki she did this to show the children that it doesn't matter what someone may call the other person it is wrong. Whether the person
may be Muslim or gay people shouldn't be called any names because people shouldn't have to make others feel less about themselves because they are what they are.
I found this link that connects with this article it is a site where their is a list of books for children that include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families. I like this because i found many books that i have never even heard of and I am now interested in reading.
“At one point when the teacher asked, “how many
mittens are there?” Gabriela the bilingual puertorican sitting next to me
turned and asked me in an exasperated tone “why can’t she remember
that?”(4).
Gabriela’s
teacher had read the book a couple of times already and all the times that she
had read the book she would ask the same question, “How many mittens are
there?” The teacher’s purpose here was to see if her students were paying
attention. Clearly Gabriela was paying attention because she noticed that she
would ask the same thing each time, but Gabriela still didn't answer her question even if she knew what the answer was.
I think that it was in fact very clever of Gabriela to catch on what the
teacher kept on repeating and ask why it was that she couldn't remember the
answer when the answer was right in front of her.
“Many children in multicultural, multilingual
classrooms are not used to an adult asking them questions for which it is
obvious that the adult already knows”(4).
Coming
from a Hispanic family I don’t recall memories of my mother or father asking me
questions that they already knew. I think that this is because parents or
family members assume that we know the obvious.
My parents wouldn't have to ask me constantly how many mittens I need to
go outside and play in the snow because I already knew that I needed two
because I have two hands. In Gabriela’s case she clearly knew how many mittens
there were because the picture showed her, so she didn't think that she should have been asked that because adults in her life didn't tend to ask her obvious questions.
The teacher’s likely assumption in this case was
that Gabriela didn't know the answer to the question, possibly leading to the
conclusion that she needed more simplified instruction or perhaps more English
language vocabulary, rather than more interesting questions”(4).
From
my own experience I know that a child not answering to a question doesn't mean
that he or she doesn't understand what the teacher is saying. Many of the times
they don’t answer because they are shy or just don’t feel like answering an
obvious question like in this case with Gabriela. When the teacher sees that a
child is not answering a question I don’t think that they should assume that
it’s because they need more English vocabulary if the child is bilingual. I
think that the teacher should try to ask the question differently make it more
interesting for the child so that the child can be motivated to answer what the
teacher is asking.
I think that this picture connects with this because
many times children have so many things to say but they
chose not to and this is not because they don’t understand what the teacher is
saying or asking it’s because they are not confident enough to say what they
actually want to say.
Another link that I found that goes with this article is this video about a teacher who teaches a classroom with multicultural and multilingual children.
We live in a very
diverse world today, where we all come from a different background. But looking
different from the outside doesn’t mean that we should be treated a certain way
simply because a skin color We all have
the ability to think for ourselves, to learn, to be intelligent to better
ourselves. Looking different from the outside or having other beliefs doesn’t mean
that people are slow or dumb. The reading An
Indian Father’s Plea by Robert Lake allows us as readers to see how a child
is treated in a classroom simply because he is different.
Imagine going into a classroom where you don’t know anyone
and the whole school environment is new to you. In the reading Wind-Wolf is a
five year old Indian child who is in kindergarten, he has never really been in
a school environment. Wind-wolf was taught by his family their cultural ways,
so going to a whole new different environment such as America it was all
different to him. Wind-wolf is a very intelligent child explains his father. He
knows how to count and knows many things about nature things that most children
his age in America don’t know about. In school he has already been labeled as a
slow learner and this is honestly just because teachers don’t understand his
cultural background and they choose to teach him the same way that they teach
their American students. Wind-wolf’s father says “And like so many Indian
children his age, he is shy and quiet in the classroom. He is 5 years old in
kindergarten, and I can’t understand why you have already labeled him as a ‘slow
learner’” (1). Many times it comes easier
for people to just label others instead of taking time to try to understand
them and their culture. Instead of trying to find out a way to teach this child
in a way that he will understand perhaps using his culture to teach him how to
read and write and count like his classmates it was easier to say that he is a
slow learner. Wind-wolf’s father says in the reading “he is not culturally “disadvantage”,
but he is culturally “different”. If you ask him how many months there are in a
year, he will probably tell you 13” (2).The father is right just because a child doesn’t know the American culture
it doesn’t mean that he is disadvantage, he is different because he was born
into another culture but this doesn’t mean that he is not capable of learning.
He learns in different ways but he is still smart. He does think that there are
13 months in a year but that is just because that was what he was taught in his
culture but that doesn’t mean that he can’t count. Teachers as well as students
should learn about different cultures so that it can be an easier transition
for students.
I like this picture because it signifies that all classrooms are multicultural. Skin color or cultural background shouldn't change the way a person sees someone else.
In the article White
Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh the author
talks about the white privilege and how many white people are not aware of this
privilege. Her main point in this article is that those who are privilege are
oblivious.McIntosh writes in her
article that whites are taught to not recognize white privilege they don’t really
see where they are privileged because they have been privileged from the start
because of their color. As the author begins to think about white privilege she
says, “I have come to see white privilege as
an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day,
but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious”. McIntosh is describing
white privilege as an invisible package because it’s something that she cannot
see and that is meant for her not to see as a white person. She can count on
her invisible package every day. Whites
usually see their lives as normal and don’t see the unfairness of certain situations;
they don’t see the advantages of being light skin. McIntosh writes in her
article, “My schooling followed the pattern my colleague Elizabeth Minnich has pointed
out: whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and
average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as
work which will allow “them“ to be more like “us.” The author here is saying
that whites think of themselves as average people so they think of their lives
as normal.
In this article the author provides
a list which shows where some ideas on where people think that whites are more privilege
then those who are not white. Down the list McIntosh writes, “I
can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be
followed or harassed.”
The author here is giving here an example of something which is seen a lot now
days many employees or owners follow people who are not in the white category
just to ensure that they are not stealing. This doesn’t usually happen to white
people. As I read the list that was provided by the author in the article I was
reminded of the Johnson reading Privilege,
Power and Difference, this reading also had a list of white privileges and
it also said that white people are not followed around in stores. I can relate
this to myself because although I am not “white” I am Spanish I don’t get
followed around in stores because I look white. In a way here I am privileged but
then I start thinking about my family members who are not as light skin as I am
many of them have had experiences where they get followed around in convenient stores
because they are not white.
I found a picture online it is a
flyer on a post that says “what can white people do about racism? And then in a
bubble it has a quote that says “I can go shopping alone most of the time,
pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed” this quote is also
in McIntosh article. I think that the point of this picture is to show white
people that the first thing to do to help racism is to realize that there is white
privilege. I think that the quote is their so that white people can realize
that they don’t have to be harassed at a simple corner store just like black or
Spanish people are. http://orbismediologicus.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/404.jpg
Online I also found a page where there is a list of some picture we see online constantly
where people try to show that there is white privilege in a humorous way. http://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelblackmon/17-harrowing-examples-of-white-privilege-9hu9
one picture that really caught my eye was a picture of Justin Bieber and
picture says “You can wear and act however you’d like without being labeled a
thug, low life, gangster etc.” I found this very interesting because Justin Bieber
in the past years has been dressing like a “gangster” but he isn’t called names
or anything he can do whatever he wants but he isn’t called a “thug” because he
is white. White privilege is something that is seen daily but it is something
that many white people deny and say that they are not privileged that they are
just like everyone else.
Hello my name is Evelyn Vargas this is my third year in Rhode Island College. My major is early child hood education. I chose early child hood because all my life I have loved working with children. I hope that one day I can make my dream come true and become a teacher.
