Miscellaneous Post - Reflection on FNED

FNED has been an eye opener class, which I have learned a lot that allowed me expanded my horizons. This class informs former teacher what to be aware of while teaching as while as in today’s society. The expectations in the class are high, but beneficial. It requires many readings and reflections on the readings. Readings are important to read and reflect because they each teach something new, whether it be about racism, sexism, privilege, etc. Writing and class discussions are also helpful therefore you get other people’s ideas and opinions which also you to be able to see all sides of the issues. These readings will often be demonstrated in the classroom you tutor in, you’ll be able to relate readings with real life experiences. 


As we would all like to think that America has become a non-discrimination place it unfortunately has not. Although over the years progress had been made to eliminate discrimination but equality still does not exist. FNED has affected my perspective on equality in today’s society. Before this I just saw discrimination between different races, sexes and sexuality. This class showed me that there are more levels of inequality, which allowed me notice them more and more in the media and everyday life.  FNED gave me the knowledge to be aware of inequality that I have never noticed before.


I have learned a lot of beneficial aspects about teaching and will take everything I learned in this class into furthering my education studies. 

Miscellaneous Post - Gay Bullying

I found this video shocking. For one, gay bullying is something that should not be taken lightly. Gay people are more likely to commit suicide and suffer from depression. Something need to be done about this. Even though more people has become more accepting to it, but yet do NOTHING about it. The problem is not going to get fixed without taking serious actions.

Education is Politics - SHOR

"On the other hand, education is a social experience for tens or millions of students who come to class with their own dreams and agenda."

I do believe that education in schools do develop one’s social skills. Interacting with other people, especially your own age, is a way of learning. Also interacting with other develops communication skills to be fully functioning successful adults. This social experience is something a student learns during their first few year in school.

"Participation is the most important place to begin because student involvement is low in traditional classrooms and because action is essential to gain knowledge and develop intelligence."

Participation is very important in education. It’s important for both the teacher and the student. It shows the teacher that the student is engaged in learning and whether the answer right or wrong they are still making the effort to learn. For the student, participation keep them focus and active in a lesson. This is necessary to develop learning skills. It also is a way one gains knowledge from participating their own ideas and also listening to other’s ideas. Students learn a lot from their peer therefore participation is important for education in schools.  

"Situated, multicultural pedagogy increases the chance that students will feel ownership in their education and reduces the conditions that produce their alienation."

Learning about multicultural is important aspect in education. In today’s diverse society it is beneficial to all to learn about one another’s culture. This will allow students expanded their horizons of another culture as well as feeling connected when learning about their own. Also with this it would allow students to be more accepting to one another, to realize that people come from all over with different beliefs but that does not make them less important. This is important that children learn this at an earlier age therefore they’re more accepting.

I did enjoy this reading. I found it very informative about how to approach thing in a class. It also taught me problems to avoid. I agree with shor’s ideas and opinions.  

Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route - OAKES

OVERVIEW:

I fully enjoyed this article. It brought up a lot of great point about tracking in school. It allowed me to see both sides of the issue, and the positives and negatives about each. I do believe that changes should be made to the tracking system in order for equality for all students.

“Moreover, the nature of these differences suggests that students who are placed in high-ability group gave access to far richer schooling experiences than other students. This finding helps explain, at least in part, why it is that tracking sometimes seems to “work” for high-ability students and not for others.”

This is unfair for low-ability students for obvious reasons. If classes are divided by learning ability there should not be discrimination of classes getting less money and fewer amounts of the best teachers. It is wrong. All different learning classes should be equally divided with materials and concepts they must learn.

“In low-ability classes, for example, teachers seem to be less encouraging and more punitive, placing more emphasis on discipline and behavior and less on academic learning.”  

This is something that I have personal witnessed at my tutoring. While I am in the classroom as a whole, the less-ability students are more focus to the lesson. But when it is time to break up and the less-able students going into another classroom the aid teacher and myself the students become more rowdy.  It is harder to keep the students focus and I find that a lot of the time is wasted to keep reminding them to stay on task.

“For teachers, evaluations might involve more private, individual questions, such as, “What did she learn?” rather than “How did she compare with others?””

In schools I feel like it is competitive between students. Scores and grades are everything. They determine how much you really know and understand. But to be compared to other students is unfair because everyone learn at different rates and are stronger in one subjects than others. I do like this idea that Oakes suggests to compare scores to the individual student alone, and focus on what they learned. I believe it is a more positive way of evaluating students. 

Race, Class, and Gender Why Students Fail - McLaren

“Ogbu draws attention to no less than seventeen behavioral categories that constricted for black students what it means to ‘act white’. These include speaking Standard English, working hard in school to get good grades, being on time, and so on.”

For one I don’t believe these behavioral categories should be referred to acting white because there are many many whites who would not fit in all seventeen categories. Perhaps it should be called the “perfect student”?  Also getting everyone ethnic group to act like these categories would make them lose their native background, which is said in both this article and Rodriguez’s article “Aria”.

“I witnessed numerous daily incidents in which girls clashed physically and violently with boys or with other girls. In fact, some of the girls were among the school’s most menacing and gifted pugilists.”

‘Bein’ Tough: Bein’ Female’ was one of the larger sections. It showed that girls did have a lot more pressure in schools than boys. In the article it states that girls care a lot about the trend (e.g., hair, makeup, clothes) and the competition with other girls. Also girls have pressure with boys/relationship, not to give “too much” or too “cold”. Girls have higher standards than boys which more a lot of pressure on them, which may be a reason why girls are more popular.   I do agree with McLaren in this quote. Throughout my years in grade school I have witness or heard of more girl fights than boy fights. Girl fights are also more intense and vicious compared to boy fights.

“‘Psychologizing’ student failure amounts to blaming it on individual trait or series of traits (e.g., lack of motivation or low self-concept).”

I believe this has a major impact on a student’s success. It is not the student fault who has develop such traits but things within their background that has triggered them. Although many reasons may cause these traits, it is possible for the teacher to get behind them and eliminate them. That is what makes someone a good teacher. To be able to take a failing students and shaping them into a successful by learning about them and where these negative traits come from. 

A Particularly Cheap White Wine - Wise

“First, although white students often think that so-called minority scholarships are a substantial drain on financial aid resources that would otherwise be available to them, nothing could be further from the truth.”

I do not agree with Wise, at all. I believe that there’s a percentage of Whites who do believe this way but on the other hands they a many Whites who do not see anything wrong with minority scholarships. Besides saying this, the author should have got statics. He should have shown how many Whites agree and how many disagree. Then also get the percentage of the amount of money lost from minority scholarship. Although this is he’s opinion, I believe it was too general to state.

“Indeed, schools serving mostly white students have three times as many honors or AP classes offered, per capita, as those serving mostly students of color”

I do agree with Wise. Statics have shown this. It could be because school with more students of color are for the most part in poverty areas and cannot afford funding for it. Students in honor and AP classes have a higher opportunity of receiving a scholarship. I believe this plays into a factor of the ratio of Whites and colors and scholarships. When scholarship groups are picking their candidates, they are looking are the person grades, classes they took and extra activities. In case, I can see what whites have a higher chance of receiving a scholarships over than Blacks or Latinos.

“In effect, there are not scholarships based on race, but rather, scholarships based on recognition of racism and how racism has shaped the opportunity structure in the U.S”

I believe that race scholarships do exist because of racism. Racism is still an ongoing battle in the U.S still today, whether people want to admit it or not. Scholarships based on race are in effect therefore people can say it is equal. Scholarships are awarded to everyone and not just Whites. These scholarship original were established to set equality. That there’s scholarships for both Whites and non-whites. 

Unlearning the Myths That Blind Us - CHRISTENSEN

OVERVIEW:

I agree with a lot with what the article was entailing. Racism, sexism, etc. is shown within Disney movies, cartoon, commercial, etc. It is an unsaid message to young children. The clear messenge of white dominant power began more apparent to me as I recalled Disney movies I used to watch.  Also women’s image in cartoons, T.V show, magazines, etc. These have created the image of the perfect body. Because of such a image of   the “beautiful” girl, young girls feel pressure into fitting the same image. This has lead to extreme measures from girls who go on crash diets or develop eating disorders. 

QUOTES:

1.      “I start by showing students old cartoons because the stereotypes are so blatant.”

While I was reading this article I began to recall Disney movies that I used to watch, and still do. Not once did I ever think of them as being racist, sexist or anything like that. I just always watched the movie for the underlining life lesson. But, when I began to think back to these movies I could see that racism, sexiest, etc. was clearly demonstrated. Most of the main characters are white, girls are shown as having the perfect hour glass shape, and men a shown as always being dominant to women.   

2.     “Many who watched cartoons before we start our study say they can no longer enjoy them. Now instead of seeing a bunch of ducks in clothes, they see racism, sexism, and violence that swim under the surface of the stories.”

People said that they saw such things on TV and would shut it off. I believe that taking this to such an extreme is a little ridiculous to be honest. Although that racism, sexism, etc. is present the overall message is more powerful for young children. I could feel like way for the simple fact that I am a white girl and these issues are not as clear to me, at first, than it is to someone of color. I don’t believe shutting off such cartoons is solving the problem. Although times are changing and people believe that racism is no longer present in the U.S, it still is. Its shown everywhere, even if it’s not on purpose or not suppose to be seen as racist.

3.     “The Barbie syndrome starts as we begin a lifelong search for the perfect body.”

I do strongly see the issue with women’s role in cartoon, TV show, magazines, etc. Most of the girl characters are either drawn with the perfect hour glass shape or have it. It puts a lot of pressure on young girls to look like that, to be skinny with curves. This often discourages girls, and makes them believe their bodies aren’t good enough leading to crash diets and eating disorders. Coming from a girl perspective, I believe that this is one of the more powerful unsaid messages than most.