Social Justice

      For my Social Justice Project I watch the 25 Mini-Films for Exploring Race, Bias and Identity With Students from the New York Times. The twenty-five films were all on the topic of race and how race is factored into many American's day to day life. The films were separated into four categories being The Conversation on Race, Who, Me, Biased?, Confronting Racist Objects, and Hyphen Nation. 

        The first heading was The Conversation on Race, in this sub-section of the article there were seven mini films talking about problems that come with race and racism. The seven videos were titled; A Conversation With My Black Son, which was parents shared the emotional conversation they had to have with their black sons when it comes to dealing with police. A Conversation About Growing Up Black, which was black boys of all ages talking about the challenges and racism they have gone through thus far in their lives. A Conversation With White People on Race, A Conversation With Police on Race, A Conversation With Black Women on Race, A Conversation With Latinos on Race, and A Conversation With Asian-Americans on Race.
     
        In the film, A Conversation With Black Women on Race, African American women were talking about the effects of social media and beauty standards had on them as children. One woman shared how in school many of her African American friends were single or didn't interest any boys, she was confused by this because she thought they were all beautiful. And this was because society paints certain beauty standards that many black apart of, such as long straight blonde hair, blue eyes, etc. This film went hand in hand with Linda Christensen's Unlearning The Myths That Bind Us. Which talks about Media feeding the youth ideas on how they should be/look, stereotypes that may not be so apparent to everyone and how they effect us, and how race and gender are portrayed in media such as cartoons. In Christensen's section A Black Cinderella? Linda talks about how Disney's lack of colored princesses can have a negative impact on the younger girls of color watching.

       The second set of mini-films talks about implicit bias. Implicit bias is the unconscious attribution of particular qualities to a member of a certain social group. These sets of videos reminded me of a test my roommates took for their psychology class. The test is conducted by students at Harvard and the test shows a series of attributes and you connect it with either a race or a word such as "good" or "bad". What I found interesting was my white roommate took the test and it said she favors white people, my other roommate who is hispanic took it and her test concluded that she has no bias with either white or black people. Now because my white roommate took the test and it ended up she in fact did show bias does not mean that she is racist at all it is just that she has an unconscious bias towards people who look more like her. In one mini-film in particular Check Our Bias to Wreck Our Bias talks more about this. Here is the link to the test my roommates took. This section reminded me of the article by Peggy McIntosh White Privilege Knapsack. In McIntosh's article she compares white privilege to an "invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks." which is similar to the implicit bias it is something that no one can see including yourself until it is pointed out to you. 

       The third set of mini-films is about Confronting Racist Objects, this section includes three videos on a collector, activist, and a seller of these racist objects. In the mini-film "The Collector" Harriet Michel shows her collection objects that presents African American's in a negative caricatures type of way. However Michel keep these objects in her house to keep as a reminder "of how we were seen and depicted and not to forget that lesson.” In the mini-film "The Activist" Robert Roche, an American Indian has fought for decades to change the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo mascot, which appears on the baseball team’s uniforms, and promotional items of all kinds. Racist mascots are used in many sports teams my own high school used a Native American as their mascot, which was protested by a teacher at my school. Here is a link to even more famous mascots that are racist. And lastly the film "The Seller" Caitlin Sevier manages her parents’ auction house, she is conflicted on whether to sell certain objects because they will be used in a joking matter when she believes they should be sold to museums so they are showed off properly. 

        The last section of mini-films is titled Hyphen-Nation. This section consists of nine Americans talking about there struggle of belonging to a nation that rejects them and embraces them. They talk about things that made them feel the most American, and things that made them feel least American. One man Ayman talks about how America can mean so many things to so many people but to his family it meant opportunity. But to him speaking Arabic and being muslim made him feel rejected by the other Americans around him. Ayman's mini-film made me think of Kristof's USA, Land of Limitation? article. Because although America is looked at to be full of opportunity for some people it is clearly not equal for all. Each of these mini-films really opened my eyes even more to the struggle of these people dealing with what almost seems like two identities. Like in Ayman's case to white Americans he not from here, he is not viewed as an American but in Sudan he is viewed as American not Sudanese. 

          

          In this article Nicole Draffen wants to get rid of the hyphen and just be called American. The Hyphen adds a certain stigma that a person is not American. Taking away they hyphen however could take away a persons ethnic identity. However keeping the hyphen divides the American people.

       Overall the 25 mini-films gave incredible insight to the lives of Americans that must deal with daily bias and prejudices. The films made me question my conscious and unconscious ideas I may have. And wonder what can I do to promote equality in the world. How can I work to fix these things? And as a teacher the best thing you can do is teach the students how to not base ideas off of stereotypes or prejudices. 

      

Empowering Education - Ira Shor

QUOTES

1.) He urged teachers to encourage students to question their experience in school: "You must arouse children's curiosity and make them think about school. For example, it's very important to begin the school year with a discussion of why we go to school. Why does the government force us to go to school? This would set a questioning tone and show the children that you  trust them and that they are intelligent enough at their own level, to investigate and come up with answers"(Meier 1990).

This is an important to question the children before going into school each year. I remember growing up my dad was talk to me about the importance of my education and why I must go to school. I would ask why are we forced to go to school. However my teachers never raised any of these questions until later in my schooling career. 

2) "Human beings do not invent the themselves in a vacuum, and society cannot be made unless people create it together. The goal, of this pedagogy are to relate personal growth to public life,

by developing strong skills, academic knowledge, habits or inquiry, and critical curiosity about society, power, inequality, and change."

Incorporating this quote to the article is important to remind the reader or teacher that everything taught is reflected onto the society. This is important to remember especially in order to better the world. 

3.)  "Large numbers of students are refusing to perform at high levels. de-moralizing the teachers who work with them. At time, performance strikes become organized resistance to authority, with leadership and articulate demands."

While I was in high school I remember performance strikes being a thing for standardize testing, students wrote petitions and had their parents sign papers allowing them to miss these test. This is similar to what the author is talking about because the students that refused the testing where given detention for not obeying the schools required tests. 

Tracking: Why Schools Need Another Route - Jeannie Oakes

             Reading Jeannie Oakes' article on "tracking" gave me a good sense of both the pros and the cons of the technique of tracking. Some parents believe that tracking could be good because their "smart" child would be placed with all the other smart children and therefore they would never get placed with the lower level, or misbehaved students. However this causes a problem of segregation in the schools. Many of the times these lower-performing students come from a low income family or are many times people of color. Tracking is another way that these students are faced with a greater disadvantage than their white, or wealthy pears.

              I connected my blog this week with Emily's blog, I have the same opinions on tracking as Emily does.  I feel as though tracking is not a good technique used in the school system and I feel as though we can find a better, more efficient way of teaching students. Emily says "Being integrated into a classroom with less and more successful students will help influence those who are less academic to do better." I agree with this idea, however I feel like the students who don't do as well may feel discouraged if they don't perform as well as the "smarter" students. But on the other hand tracking can be just as discouraging. 

         
          I too saw in my school that when students were separated in AP, honors, college prep, and essentials the higher up groups always thought they were better then say the college prep and essentials kids. What I did like that my high school did was the groups weren't set for every class for example, in math and english I was placed in the college prep classes and for science and my anatomy class I was in honors. So based on how well I did in a certain subject I was place in a certain level class. 

        Here is a video that I really enjoy watching and I can connect to this reading:

         The question I formed while reading the article was "what better system can the schools use to end this education segregation, and keep all students and parents happy?" is that even possible? 

In the Service of What?

I chose the following quotes from Joseph Kane and Joel Westheimer's "In the Service of What?"

"These two service learning projects have much in common. Both provide authentic learning experiences, reflection on matters of social concern, and opportunities for interdisciplinary study linked to curricular goals. Moreover, the goals of both projects have broad-based appeal. They stress the importance of compassion for those in need, and they encourage children and young adults to find ways to help."

     The two service learning projects being talked about here are those conducted by two different classrooms. One classroom allowed the students to individually pick exactly what they what to do for their projects while the other classroom worked together and focused on helping the homeless. While I was in K-12 school many of my classes did what the second classroom did (helping the homeless) everyone brought in can goods around thanksgiving time, other years we brought in articles of warm clothing to give to those less fortunate. Either approach at service learning projects are both beneficial for the the student and those in need. 


"By contrast, those oriented toward change embrace the importance of political activity. Boyte, for example, believes that service activities should develop students' abilities at "public speaking, recruiting other students, organizing meetings, analyzing problems, developing action plans, and conducting evaluations. "

        Many times people think that service learning projects only help those in need, but Boyte talks about how it helps and teaches the individual when they do such a deed and its more than just the feeling of gratification. Here is a video of another example of service learning in real life:

"Maybe this [community service] is what citizenship is all about, acting in a decent way toward people who live where we live."? Citizenship in a democratic community requires more than kindness and decency; it requires engagement in complex social and institutional endeavors. Acts of civic duty cannot replace government programs or forms of collective social action. Citizenship requires that individuals work to create, evaluate, criticize, and change public institutions and programs. "

          This quote too can be connected with the video above, service learning is not only a kind think to do that can create a change in the community but it is also beneficial for the students who is involve in it.



Question for the class: do you think that service learning is more beneficial for the student preforming the act, or the people in need of the services?

Gender and the 2018 Election.

      The article "Stacey Abrams Didn't Play It Safe. Neither Do These Females Candidates." Talks a lot on the topic of Stacey Abrams and the fact that she is an African American woman running for governor in the sate of Georgia.

     This years election we have seen many more women running. “I feel this year we are seeing far more women who woke up one morning, turned on the TV and said, if he can be president I can run for the state legislature, Congress or governor,” said Debbie Walsh, the director of the center at Rutgers. “I don’t know if this will be an anomaly or this is the beginning of a shift.”. The article also included the follow video: 

   

     I related this New York Times article to the Linda Christensen "Unlearning The Myths That Binds" because it is not so common to see women running for such a powerful position. The stereotype of women is always a stay at home mom, cooking, cleaning. Another previous reading that this article made me think of was "White Privilege Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh. It is obvious that white men are seen as more superior, they have more opportunity and privilege "In proportion my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups were likely being made unconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated. Whiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which I was being trained to visit, in turn, upon people of color." (McIntosh). What these women are doing is a big step forward for women and especially women of color. 

Class 13 LGBTQ+ Vocabulary

ASEXUAL-
    experiencing little or no sexual attraction to others and/or a lack of interest in sexual relationships/behavior.  
      Comedian Janeane Garofalo is asexual she says "I don't have a fear of intimacy, I have sort of a genuine lack of interest." (ranker.com) 
       here is an article about Janeane Garofalo and her sexuality. 

BIGENDER-
   a person who fluctuates between traditionally “woman” and “man” gender-based behavior and identities, identifying with both genders.
   Ruby Rose, actress, model, and DJ has come out as bigender or gender fluid stating "I am very gender fluid and feel more like I wake up every day sort of gender neutral.”
 

CROSS-DRESSER-
   someone who wears clothes of another gender/sex.
    Rupaul is well known for his show Rupaul's Drag Race, he is a famous cross dresser.

TRANSMAN/TRANSWOMAN-
 Transgender people have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from their assigned sex.
     Jazz Jennings is a very well known transgender women, she is so famous for her reality tv show "I Am Jazz" she was one of the youngest people to identify as trans. From since she learned to speak she expressed herself as having "a girl brain with a boy body".

11 and gender fluid -Erin Zelle

    This article posted by Erin Zelle in the Los Angeles Post is very admirable. Erin Zelle is a mother to an eleven year old gender fluid daughter. This article was admirable because not many parents allow their children to express themselves in the way they want, and many parents would not be as supportive as Erin Zelle seems to be. In this blog I will incorporate quotes that show importance of the topic talked about in Erin Zelle's article.

    3 QUOTES:

   "My 11-year-old daughter Sullivan's style is defined as gender fluid, which translates as a "fluid" shift between masculine and feminine, depending on how one feels."
        It was important for Zelle to define this in the beginning of her article for people who may not be familiar with the term. I think she did a good job describing it in the way she did.

     "She explains to her peers in simple terms: Not all girls wear pink and not all boys wear blue."
         I feel like this was one of the very first gender stereotypes forced on almost all children at an early age. However this is one of the most simplest ways that Sullivan can explain to the children her age of how she is "different". 

     " Hello Kitty printed dresses, purple kurtas and Lilly Pulitzer A-lines were relegated to the back of the closet with ballet flats and anything else pink. I mourned their loss but felt excited by her exploration." 
          At this part in the article I admired the way Erin Zelle handled this part in her child's life. She says she mourned the loss of her "feminine" daughter but is excited to see how Sullivan will express herself in her knew way. This is so important for parents to do. 

             


               "A lightness followed. It was as though Sullivan's skin finally fit, gloriously and   comfortably, and she was finally her own — exactly as she wanted to be."