Aria - Richard Rodriguez

            This short story Aria written by Richard Rodriguez talks about the obstacles young Rodriguez faced when he went to school. Rodriguez grew up in a Spanish speaking home, but that identity was ripped away from him and his family. Rodriguez's teachers wanted him to speak only english which forced Richard and his whole family to conform to the public language of "los gringos". Rodriguez goes on to explain how this Americanization changed his families ways they were not as close as they once were.
           
             Earlier in the story Rodriguez says "the odd truth is that my first-grade classmates could have become bilingual, in the conven­tional sense of that word, more easily than I. Had they been taught (as upper­ middle-class children are often taught early) a second language like Spanish or French, they could have regarded it simply as that: another public language." This is something I personally thought was odd about the American culture. Many people don't learn a second language but many other countries teach their people at a young age english language. American expect everyone else to learn our language but we don't take the time to learn theirs. And often times they don't like when people use a different language around them saying "this is America speak english" which is along the lines of what the nuns said to Rodriguez's family.
 
               Expecting students to change their identity and learn in a different language they are not used to sets them up for failure. Rodriguez even explains in the story "it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid." I think this is a very important point the author made and as a future teacher I will keep in mind. This also reminds me of my classroom I volunteer for this semester, in the morning while singing and such they say the days of the week in both english and Spanish. I think even something like this is very important for Spanish speaking students and non-Spanish speaking students is makes a small bridge between a gap they might feel.

             This story made me think of Lisa Delpit's meaning of Culturally Responsive Teaching, one way of allowing your students to be successful is allowing them to express themselves using their OWN language.

           

"White Privilege Knapsack" and "All Lives Matter"

      The following quotes are from the two articles I read "White Privilege Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh and "All Lives Matter" by Kevin Roose.


      White Privilege Knapsack. 
   
       1. "White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks." (McIntosh).
        I liked how she created a visual representation of what white privilege can be compared to. McIntosh is basically saying that though white privilege is invisible it is something that gives a person a much easier time getting through life, something that not everyone is given.

       2. "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).
          Now although it can be hard to admit this is what white privilege creates, a feeling of comfort to the white people and a feeling of discomfort to people of color. I feel like the second sentence of this quote relates to the second article I read "All Lives Matter". Because of my whiteness I have been able to avoid many issues that have been arising in society lately. White people don't fear for their lives nearly as much as people of color do and thats because we have this sense of comfort in our skin color alone.
 
       3. "To redesign social systems we need to first acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions. The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the key political surrounding privilege are they key political tool here. They keep the thinking about equality or equity incomplete, protecting unearned advantages and conferred dominance by making these subject taboo. Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist." (McIntosh). 
             This seems like a good way to possibly end this unfair thing called white privilege. The biggest factor when changing something like this is knowing it exists. However many people turn away and choose to ignore this or say it doesn't exist because it is an uncomfortable topic to talk about. Like McIntosh stated it is a "taboo" subject. Nothing will get better if changes aren't made.

            The second article "All Lives Matter" in my opinion was more interesting. It was an easier read and the content it provided was just as strong as the other articles. I agreed so much with the author of this article.

            1. "The real issue is that, while strictly true, "All Lives Matter" is a tone-deaf slogan that distracts from the real problems black people in America face."
              When people say "All Lives Matter", I can agree to that as a simple statement because yes, everyones life does in fact matter. But when people say black lives matter they are not saying that because they think no one else matters they are saying that because black lives are being taken away as if they don't matter. So when someone says all lives matter they are taking away from the important issue at hand which the author gets more into later in the article.

           2. "But the result is that, societally, we don't pay as much attention to certain people's deaths as we do to others. So, currently, we don't treat all lives as though they matter equally."
               Like I said above, not all lives are treated as though they matter. 


            3. "Just like asking dad for your fair share, the phrase "black lives matter" also has an implicit "too" at the end: it's saying that black lives should also matter. But responding to this by saying "all lives matter" is willfully going back to ignoring the problem."

         
     
          This article summed up the meaning of the Black Lives Matter movement very good for someone who maybe misunderstood what the movement stood for. And hopefully it opened some peoples eyes and changed peoples minds. Because this is a very important topic for everyone to understand.

         



     

U.S.A, Land of Limitations? - Nicholas Kristof

    While reading the article U.S.A, Land of Limitations? written by Nicholas Kristof, many connections, questions, and comments came to my mind. Kristof talks about the economic gap in America and how that effects students and the future generations of America.
   
     First off, in Kristof's article, he gets question going in the readers mind of is the United States really the "land of opportunity" or is it better described as the "land of limitation"? As I went on reading I was able to connect to what he was talking about. I come from a very small city has a very high poverty level. Many kids growing up were unmotivated to do good in school because they already knew they were set up in a place where people like them are "supposed to fail". Many of my friends decided to either drop out or not pursue a higher education because they needed to work full-time to help their parents provide for the family. Like Kristof said it is so easy to say "I grew up poor, but I worked hard and I made it. If other people tried, they could, too.". But everyone is different and everyone's circumstances are different, for some people, they don't have the choice to become successful. 

      I think it is very important to give everyone; rich, poor, black, white, asian, latino. Everyone deserves an equal chance to be successful in this world. But it isn't that easy because when you come from a rich family or if are privileged you are automatically starting ahead of everyone else. 

        Above I attached a video I found on YouTube and I connected this video to the article that we read. The video shows a good visual representation of the economic/race gap or "life race" as the narrator calls it that sets underprivileged kids back from winning or being successful.  

         I think a very common question would be "how do we end this limitation and actually become a land of EQUAL opportunity?" I cannot answer that question because as I see the rich will always be rich and not have to work as hard to be on top. Whereas the poor will have to work ten times harder to become on top.

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

Hello! My name is Caitlin Renaud, this is my second year at Rhode Island College.
I am a elementary education major with a concentration of english. 

This summer I went to Florida, this was my first time going since 2009! It was very exciting.
I also spent a lot of time at the beach with my friends, it is my favorite place to go during the summer. 

I work at Chevy's Ice Cream Parlor, best job ever. I have been working here for five years
 it is only open seasonally but I go back every summer because it is such a fun and easy summer job.

Whenever I can I love going to Fenway Park!