To the Future Social Issues Class

To the Future Social Issues Class,
As I reflect on the information discussed and explored in the course this semester, there are key elements that must be expressed. When expressing these issues, it is essential to understand that this information can help enhance certain areas of students’ lives, schools, and the community. As educators, we influence these areas and even labeled these influences as focus issues. The focus issues that were discussed included: race, class, gender, sexuality, power, and privilege. As I continue to expand on these issues, a couple will be discussed as a pair because of the intertwining relationship. The others will stand alone as an individual subject. Eventually it will be clear that each discussed focus issue directly affects education.
Race and gender have always been a factor in education. It has gone past the episodes of discrimination and segregation to the updated version of placement and demographics. These are two issues that will change depending on the school location but does not change the fact that no matter the race or gender ever child can learn. As educators, it is important that we embrace these two key issues and be creative with our teaching methods. We have to stop looking at a specific race or gender as a weakness in education but appreciate the strength of diversity it brings to a campus. This will enable everyone to learn from each other to transform the campus to a true learning community.
As an educator, we have to understand the class or financial status of the students that we are teaching. It is important to know what type of background our students are coming from. For example, we should know if our student demographics involve low-income families, single-family homes, or even criminal and negative social areas. All of these areas effect education and how we teach our students. Students in the above example areas may have a problem completing homework or take home projects. Where as students in a two-parent home or high-income areas have the support and parental influence to get the take home assignments accomplished. Understanding class will give us the insight needed to alter our teaching strategies to our given audience of students.
Sexuality is something that is relevant to understand in this day in time. We are now in a social era where open human sexuality is prevalent in our schools. As educators we have to be able to recognize, diffuse, and positively influence students sexuality preferences. It is important that we accept our student’s sexuality decision and teach other students to do the same. When reflecting on the Laramie project it is safe to say that some of the problems that took place could have been avoided if the students were taught to accept others differences and personal choices.
Power and privilege are areas in education that are very similar because they are the positives that come from education. Thru education, both of these areas enable students the ability to demand and obtain all the wonderful things life has to offer. The power of education will allow individuals the strength and confidence to go after goals, while the privilege of education allows that same individual to express the qualifications obtained to grasp the goal. Each of them essentially allows our students to know that any dream can be achieved.
Reflecting on each of these classroom focus issues, it has given me a better understanding of the requirements needed to be an effective educator. Teaching is not about going into the classroom and teaching a lesson. In involves a more personal touch, which requires an educator to understand the surroundings and the factors that are affected by it. The more we understand the focus issues the better teacher we can become.

Teaching to Transgress:Education as the Practice of Freedom

Chapter 12-Confronting Class in the Classroom (About Order in the Classroom)
Main Ideas/Theses Impact on Teaching Beliefs and Practices- Information Organizer

Main Ideas & Theses
The disruptions of students within the classroom while the professor and others are speaking, it’s up to teacher to have order in the classroom. Students are disturbed when anyone is interrupted while speaking. It’s up to teachers to facilitate the classroom.

Consistent/Inconsistent with Experiences as a Student/Novice/Teaching Associate

Consistent- Within my TA year I have been able to facilitate my classroom to control the students but also keep them participating within the class. As TA’s we must come up with lectures to help facilitate heated discussions that include useful interruptions and digressions.

Consistent/Inconsistent with Teaching Beliefs & Practices

Consistent- This is consistent with my teaching beliefs because I think you have to give students the ability to interrupt each other on topics, sort of like a debate to keep them enthusiastic. Also it gives the students the ability to speak up and let their voice be heard on discussion that they disagree with.

So What? Impact on Future Professional Development

This has a major impact on the future of professional development because this will help students, that will later become politicians, presidents, or any profession that involves debates and being able to interrupt someone without disrespecting them.

Test Blog Post

Jonathan Kozol- The Shame of the Nation: Essay 1
Dear President Barak Obama,
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to be apart U.S. Commission for Improving the Quality of Education Opportunity for Marginalized Children in the United State. It is such a honor to be able to represent for the teachers. Jonathan Kozol’s book The Shame of the Nation was a must read book for me, and all future educators around the nation. Before reading the book I didn’t know what to expect from such a great book. The thesis of shame of the nation is the social issues in education, which are presented in schools, revolving around racial segregation politically, economically, and legal discrimination.
Politically it deals with what individual surrounding the schools can do to make the education better, for example what can the major of a school in Atlanta Georgia do to ensure that every school is receiving the same education even though they are in to different areas. Is the testing necessary for the students to have to graduation from high school and ensure they have a high school diploma? Is this necessary considering that all students put in 12 or 13 years of school to find out that they wont be receiving their high school diploma because of the states standardized testing in Texas and other states around the nation. This issue generally surrounds African American students and Hispanic Americans. Stating this does not mean that white Americans do not pass the standardized test or that African Americans and Hispanic Americans do pass. This issue deals with are the students receiving the same education? The suburban area schools generally have a better graduation rate and testing numbers because of their economically resources. Kozol mentions the high-stakes testing within inner-city schools is in chapter 5. There’s one passage on page 118 that stands out to me: “One of the distorting consequences that is taking an especially high toll on children of minorities, she notes, is the increasing practices of compelling children to repeat a grade or several grades over the course of years solely on the basis of their test results and, in some districts, almost wholly independent of the judgments of their principals and teachers. … Now, with non-promotion rules mandated by a number of our states and cities, many experts are convinced that the non-graduation rates among black and Hispanic students will increase, and some believe this escalation may already be observed.” Chapter 5 page 118
Economically there are some schools that can afford to bring in the better teachers with the good resumes and background. Why? The salary of the suburban schools, have the ability to offer to teachers a salary that has a massive difference then the schools that are in the rough neighborhoods or the low poverty to middle class neighborhoods. Teachers jump to the opportunity of being apart of those schools districts because those schools give the teachers the resources and the ability to bring the technology and material to ensure that every student within the schools will learn everything they need to know. Kozol shows the Apartheid Schooling throughout the book by discussing the issues of students. I think the whole showed the separation issues, how the students were treated everyday. The issues weren’t just racial separation, there was separation of the students that were smarter than the other students in the school which showed humiliation. “Advocates for school to work do not, in general, describe it as a race-specific project but tend instead to emphasize the worth of linking academic programs to the world of work for children of all backgrounds and insisting that suburban children too should be prepared in school for marketplace demands, that children of all social classes ought to have “some work experience” in high school, for example, But the attempt at even-handedness in speaking of the ways that this idea might be applied has been misleading from the start. In most suburban schools, the school to work idea, if educators even speak of it at all, is little more than seemly decoration on the outer edges of a liberal curriculum. In many urban schools, by contrast, it has come to be the energizing instrument of almost every aspect of instruction.” Chapter 4 page 99. In conclusion I would to mention that President Obama reading this book will allow you to remember something’s that occurred back when you were in school in Chicago Illinois.
Sincerely,
Will Cartwright
Baylor University Student

Race Matters-Chapter 5 to Chapter 8

Race Matters Chapter 5 to Chapter 8 (5-4-3-2-1)
5. In this section of the book Cornel West discusses the many issues of affirmative action. He discusses the many issues going in our culture today, such as sexuality, poverty, and religion. On the poverty stand point he discussed throughout the book a lot about the middle class and the lower class African Americans, and Americans in general’s issues within their society. I think what West wanted readers to understand from this section of the book is the struggle that many African Americans have today with finding their self in society and as a person.
4. If the Elimination of black poverty is a necessary condition of substantive black progress, then the affirmation of black humanity, especially among black people themselves, is a sufficient condition of such programs. Such affirmation speaks to the existential issues of what it means to be a degraded African (man, woman, gay, lesbian, child) in a racist society. How does one affirm oneself without reenacting negative black stereotypes or overreacting to white supremacist ideals? Page 97
How one defines oneself influences what analytical weight one gives to black poverty. Any progressive discussion about the future of racial equality must speak to black poverty and black identity. My views on the necessity and limits of affirmative action in the present moment are informed by how substantive redistributive measures and human affirmative efforts can be best defended and expanded. Page 99
Black sexuality is a taboo subject in America principally because it is a form of black power over which whites have little control-yet its visible manifestations evoke the most visceral of white responses, be it one of seductive obsession or downright disgust. On the one hand, black sexuality among blacks simply does not include whites, nor does it make them a central point of reference. It proceeds as if whites do not exist, as if whites are invisible and simply don’t matter. This form of black sexuality puts black agency center stage with no white presence at all. This can be uncomfortable for white people accustomed to being the custodians of power. Page 126
Of course, neither scenario fully accounts for the complex elements that determine how any particular relationship involving black sexuality actually takes place. Yet they do accent the crucial link between black sexuality and black power in America. In this way, to make black sexuality a taboo subject is to silence talk about a particular kind of power black people are perceived to have over whites. On the surface, this “golden” side is one in which black people simply have an upper hand sexually over whites, given the dominant myths in our society. Page 126
3. Anti-Semitism-the intense dislike for and prejudice against Jewish people. Bourgeois-being of the property-owning class and exploitive of the working class, businessperson: a capitalist who engages in industrial commercial enterprise. Conforming to the standards and conventions of the middle class; "a bourgeois mentality.” Entail-fee-tail: limit the inheritance of property to a specific class of heirs, the act of entailing property; the creation of a fee tail from a fee simple.
2. This section of the book just reminds me of being an African American in this society and how there are many difficulties of blending in with a crowed. As African American growing up I felt that I had to find my identity as a person through my family and my culture.
1. after all these years do you think that Martin Luther King would be happy with society today or still not satisfied if he were still alive?

Race Matters-Preface to Chapter 4

Race Matters Preface to Chapter 4
5. The introduction to chapter 4 seemingly solidifies the rest of the book. This section sets the foundation of the rest of the book. In this section of the book I think Cornel West, wanted to have the political issues with race these days be the back bone of his book. This section shows the rage that African Americans had with the different issues in schools and in the community and why so many were angry but waited for the Martin Luther King’s and the Malcolm X’s to take a stand for them first.
4.“This paralyzing framework encourages liberals to relieve their guilty consciences by supporting public funds directed at “the problems”; but at the same time, reluctant to exercise principled criticism of black people, liberals deny them the freedom to err.” Similarly, conservatives blame the “problems” on black people themselves-and thereby render black social misery invisible or unworthy of public attention.” Page 6
“ Hence, for liberals, black people are to be “ included” and “integrated” into “our” society and culture, while for conservatives they are to be “well behaved” and “worthy of acceptance” by “our” way of life. Both fail to see that the presence and predicaments of black people are neither additions to nor defections from American life, but rather constitutive elements of that life.” Page 6
Black intellectuals are affected by the same processes as other American intellectuals, such as the professionalization and specialization of knowledge, the bureaucratization of the academy, the proliferation of arcane jargon in the various disciplines, and the marginalization of humanistic studies. Yet the quality of black intellectual work has suffered more so than that of others. There are two basic reasons why. Page 62
Yet even effective jobs programs do not fully address the cultural decay and moral disintegration of poor black communities. Like America itself, these communities are in need of cultural revitalization and moral regeneration. There is widespread agreement on this need by all forms of black leadership, but neither black liberals nor the new black conservatives adequately speak to this need. Page 87
3. Revitalization-revival: bringing again into activity and prominence; restore strength. Hedonism-the pursuit of pleasure, as a matter of ethical principle. a school of ethics which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. Nihilism- a revolutionary doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system for its own sake nihilistic delusion: the delusion that things (or everything, including the self) do not exist; a sense that everything is unreal complete denial of all established authority and institutions.
2. This reading did connect to kozol’s book that showed that there were many angry people in the African American race and there were so many issues that seemingly could not be corrected. I explain the rest of the connection in the second section of kozol’s book in my second 5-4-3-2-1 paper.
1. Does anyone ever want to blame a certain race for the political issues we have to day?

chapter 9 and 12 Jonathan Kozol The Shame of THe Nation

2nd 5-4-3-2-1 paper on Jonathan Kozol The Shame of The Nation

After reading these two chapters, I think Jonathan Kozol wants readers and future teachers to understand the struggles that many high schools go through and how we can make a difference for the struggling schools around the nation. Is a student worth or what is a student worth is question asked, but I think I questioned that should be asked to teachers do you have passion for education or is this just another job. As teachers we need to make sure every student is getting the same education no matter what high school he/she attends.
But something good will have been lost. It will be lost not for a brief time, but enduringly. Once these things are set in stone and pedagogic malformation of the wish creations, preference holdings, concept-makings of a generation of young people is as hard as stone can be they may prove impervious to change for decades yet to come.
“It is a hard thing,” wrote W. E. B. Dubois more than a century ago, “to live haunted by the ghost of an untrue dream,” to know that “something was vanquished that deserved to live……All this is bitter hard.” He spoke of his people as “the children of disappointment” and, exception being made for children of black and Hispanic people who have had the means to exit from the segregated schooling systems altogether and who often send their children to the schools attended by the children of their white co-workers and acquaintances, the masses of children of the black and brown within our urban schools are disappointed still.
He didn’t seem embarrassed to have been corrected. This was the way the children worked with one another. They were obviously very interested in their classroom worms. They also had to learn their vowel sounds. Worms and phonics coexisted with each other nicely in this classroom, it appeared. Chapter 12 pg.298
At one moment in the morning, two of the children got into a quarrel with each other. The teacher had a quick solution to this problem. She had reserved a special place, a carpeted section of the room approximately three or four feet square, where children who had disagreements were allowed a time-out to sit down and “talk and think it out” with one another.
Autonomy- independence or freedom, as of the will or one's actions: the autonomy of the individual
Commemorate-to honor the memory of by some observance
Compel-to drive together; unites by force;
After reading these chapters I haven’t came across anything that relates to me. The thing continues to standout to me is, are every student getting the same education, is every student worth the same. I believe that all children are getting the same education but the suburban schools are getting the more educated teachers.
Is every teacher in education for the students or the money?

Response to Shame of the Nation book by Jonathan Kozol

Chapters 1-6 Shame of the Nation
After reading the first six chapters of Shame of the Nation you seemingly felt the way the students were treated while reading the text. I felt that I was there as a student or a guardian angel floating around the room. The primary thesis of the book is the education in the black community and a white individual seemingly trying to make a change in education. What the other wants the reader to remember is the many struggles that students and teachers deal with within education. The author seems to want readers to understand that the education system is not perfect and that there has been many changes made in the past and there is many more to come. These six chapters as future teacher and faculty makes you want to make a difference in a student’s life. I definitely agree with the disciplinary action in the schools then as far as whippings. What I didn’t like or disagreed with is where it stated on page three that, an older teacher would dip the whip in vinegar to implement more pain two the students. Jonathan Kozol stated on page 99 it stated that children of all social classes ought to have “some work experience,” I disagree with this because in high school these days students have stressful other problems dealing with exit testing, final exams, and the SAT, and ACT. The students need to use high school to prepare for college and learn everything there is to know before attending college.
These four paragraphs in the book standout to me about the direction the book was heading.
“Equality itself-equality alone-is now, it seems, the article of faith to which increasing numbers of the principals of inner-city public schools subscribe. And some who are perhaps most realistic do not even ask for, or expect, complete equality, which seems beyond the realm of probability for many years to come, but look instead for only a sufficiency of means- “adequacy” is the legal term most often used today—by which to win those practical and finite victories that may appear to be within their reach. Higher standards, higher expectations, are insistently demanded of these urban principals, and of their teachers and the stuethical respects appear to be expected of the dominant society that isolates these children in unequal institutions.” Page 34 chapter 1
“Teachers working in a school like this have little chance to draw upon their own inventiveness or normal conversational abilities. In the reading curriculum in use within the school, for instance, teachers told me they had been forewarned to steer away from verbal deviations or impromptu bits of conversation since each passage of instruction needed to be timed and any digression from the printed plans could cause them problems if a school official or curriculum director happened to be in the building at the time. Supervisors from the organization that designed and marketed the scripted reading program came into the classroom also to police the way that it was being used “police” being the word the teachers used in speaking of these periodic visitations.” Chapter 2 Page 71-72
“Advocates for school to work do not, in general, describe it as a race-specific project but tend instead to emphasize the worth of linking academic programs to the world of work for children of all backgrounds and insisting that suburban children too should be prepared in school for marketplace demands, that children of all social classes ought to have “some work experience” in high school, for example, But the attempt at even-handedness in speaking of the ways that this idea might be applied has been misleading from the start. In most suburban schools, the school to work idea, if educators even speak of it at all, is little more than seemly decoration on the outer edges of a liberal curriculum. In many urban schools, by contrast, it has come to be the energizing instrument of almost every aspect of instruction.” Chapter 4 page 99
“This is not the case with high stakes standardized examinations, the results of which supplant and overrule the judgments of a teacher. “What worries me most,” writes Deborah Meier, “is that in the name of objectivity and science,” the heavy reliance upon high states testing has led teachers “to distrust their ability to see and observe” the children they are teaching and derive conclusions based upon their observation.” “For a teacher who sees a kid day in and day out to admit that she won’t know how well he reads.” Until the day the test scores are delivered by an outside agency “is not good news.” She says.
Advocate- one that argues for a cause; a supporter or defender. To speak, plead or argue in favor of something or someone.
Segregation- The policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes, or ethnic groups. As in schools, housing, and public or commercial facilities, especially as a form of discrimination.
Deprive- to take something away, to keep from possessing or enjoying.
This book reminded me of education today because there is still issues that schools all over the country deal with that this book to talked about in much detail. The three major points are race, testing examination, and budgets in schools. These three things are something I was aware of when I was attending public school. There are still students today that have problems with all three of these issues that come out in the news, newspapers, and magazines. These three issues will continue the only thing that teachers and parents can do is hope to erase these issues from schools and control these issues in a sense that they are not keeping kids from learning.
Does standardized testing really show what a student has learned throughout school? Is standardized testing needed in schools?