a news article on tracking

just saw this in the news today

dropping the gifted

wow what did FNED do to me

So I was looking through my files when I came across a file that just had this in it...

230 am friday morning

watching roseanne

guys playing poker

2 black males, 2 white gay male and two white straight males

conversation about how OJ trial, black men liked the verdict, said a black man" can't get a fair shake in this country". gay male responds with have you ever heard of gay bashing. both groups talk about how hard it is, hate crimes, struggles.  they argue SWM says hey guys knock if off, we've all got struggles... they look at him iike he's crazy. How does he have problems with the advantages of being a straight white male. SWM responds with how he is straight white male but he aint living the good life in a mansion. he had to struggle for everything he owns. thought it was interesting that this was the show on the same night we had the SCWAAMP discussion in class.

I don't know why I was up at 2 am, but apparently this class is getting to me. I took notes and totally forgot about it, at least I think I did. I don't know if I blogged on it. but anyways.

What can YOU do

NAME OF AUTHOR and TEXT

Allan Johnson and What Can We Do

AUTHOR'S ARGUMENT

Johnson says in order to end the privileges afforded to those based on whiteness, maleness, etc, we need to stop ignoring the oppressive attitudes and make changes to allow equal opportunities to everyone. In cannot nor will it end until those with the power make every effort to end it.

QUOTE

"Oppression promotes the worst kind of divisiveness because it cuts us off from one another and, by silencing us about the truth, cuts us off from ourselves as well. Not only must we participate in oppression by living in an oppressive society, we also must act as though oppression didn't exist, denying the reality of our own experience and its consequences for people's lives, including our own."

- here he is talking about the effects of oppression and how it hurts. We must remember not to oppress others, and those of us with the power and privilege need to help end oppression by joining in the fight against it.

"An awareness of oppression compels people to speak out, to break the silence that continued oppression depends on."

- When we're aware of the oppression, we can take steps needed to help end it one person at a time.

"For that reason, it's a good idea not to rely on the media for meaningful analysis of social oppression. As large capitalist enterprises, the media have a vested interest in ignoring most of what is known about privilege, especially anything that seriously questions the status quo."

- Here Johnson is talking about media influences and how it biases our opinions. We need to remember not to base our opinions on images that media gives. 

"Make noise, be seen. Stand up, volunteer, speak out, write letters, sign petitions, show up. Every oppressive system feeds on silence. sign petitions, show up. Every oppressive system feeds on silence. Don't collude in silence. Breaking the silence is especially important for dominant groupS, because it undermines the assumption of solidarity that dominance depends on."

MAKE NOISE! Do not stand silently. Dr Bogad, should I be that person who annoys the living crap out of everyone, educating the ignorant masses when they make a horrible statement? I encountered one today, but had no idea how to deal with it.

"Dare to make peoplefeel uncomfortable, beginning with yourself "

I can make myself uncomfortable, I feel bad making someone else. I'm going to have to learn to get over that.

"The more you pay attention to privilege and oppression, the more you'll see opportunities to do something about them. You don't have to mount an expedition to find those opportunities; they're all over the place, beginning in yourself. As I became aware ofhow male privilege encourages me to control conversations, for example, I also realized how easily men dominate group meetings by controlling the agenda and interrupting, without women's objecting to it This pattern is especially striking in groups that are mostly female but in which most of the talking nonetheless comes from a few men. "

I'M PAYING ATTENTION!!

Comments:

Obviously the last article is supposed to tie in all of the articles we've been reading all semester. This book seems redundant and repetitive at the least. I think by now we've all figured it out.. be aware, be educated, take a stand for the underrepresented, educate others and be a part of the solution, not the problem. Even today, just when I think I'm surrounded by worldly peoples in my human sexuality class, there are students in my class who are prejudice against others. And those who were considered second class citizens not too long ago still treat others like second class citizens. It amazes me, that even in the educated liberal atmosphere called Rhode Island College, hate breeds and spills. 

Here's how to make noise:

Christopher Kwieler... #8

So I am home on a Saturday night thanks to a brutal test this morning. That's right, I took my PPSTs. It really sucked waking up at 530 am. The test sucked more and what sucked even more was that I also missed a very important funeral because of it. 

As a result, I am extremely tired and thought my night would be better spent relaxing on the couch trying to do some homework. Next up, finished my huge advocacy paper. 

NAME OF AUTHOR and TEXT 

Christopher Kwieler and Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome 

AUTHOR’S ARGUMENT 

The main point of the article is that school’s need to stop segregating students with down syndrome or other disabilities. It effects their learning process and development of skills that can be taught regardless of the label down syndrome puts these kids through.  A “citizenship” guided school base allows each and every student to learn through cooperative and interactive education that can enhance the development of every student regardless of disabilities or no disabilities.

QUOTES

“Jason ponders, "How do we erase those negative attitudes?" in light of the fact that "people without disabilities are Judging us" 

- a rule of thumb to live by.

“How absurd to be judged by others at all,especially by those who have never 

experienced a disability or who are unwillingly providing us with support 

or who don't listen to the voices we have.”

- ditto.

“The movement to merge the education of children with and without disabilities is based on the belief that to enter the dialogue of citizenship does not require spoken, or indeed outspoken, language. Rather, communication is built on one's ability to listen deeply to others.”

- here’s a quick recap to the argument on citizenship learning

“As Douglas Biklen (1992) has outlined, society itself is hurt when schools act as cultural sorting machines-locations that "justify a competitive ethic that marginalizes certain students or groups of students ... [that] legitimize discrimination and devaluation on the basis of the dominant society's preferences in matters of ability, gender, ethnicity, and race ... and [that] endorse an elaborate process of sorting by perceived ability and behavior" (p. 183). Such a model may meet bureaucratic organizational needs (Skrtic, 1995a), but it teaches little about the complexity of community membership and carries with it a tremendous intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and economic cost (Kozel. 1991).”

- supports the argument of the need to desegregate schools based on disability.

“Schools have traditionally taken a narrow position when defining and judging student intellect (Gardner, 1983). The presence of a thoughtful mind has been linked to patterns of behavioral and communicative conformity associated with competence in logical-mathematical thinking and linguistic skills. Assessments of how well a student conforms to expectations (measurements through which students come to be defined either as smart or as lacking intellect) tend to focus teacher attention on the child's adeptness at responding to classroom-based math and language tasks. These evaluative instruments supposedly measure either a student's understanding of a transmitted knowledge base (hence, a preexisting one) related to math and language, or the student's ability to discover the knowledge base through carefully contrived activities.”

- While I generally agree that many schools are narrow minded, thankfully more and more schools are becoming less so. Many of my professors and some high school teachers have learned to deal with the incredible differences and diversified learning styles that are present in the classroom.

“Vygotsky found that the culture of segregation surrounding people with disabilities actually teaches underdevelopment of thinking through the isolation of children from socially valued opportunities. As described in more detail below, altering the culture of disability requires that a child be recognized as an active learner, a thinker, and a problem-solver, but this cannot occur apart from relationships that allow for such engagement.”

- how can we as school systems incorporate a better learning institution for every student while instilling competitive skills in our students. 

“uneducable.”

I am pretty sure this is not a word... ineducable is.

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/POINTS TO SHARE

As usual, I have plenty of things to say. I can understand how it feels to be labeled as a disabled student. Have been my whole life. Unfortunately there are too many school systems out there who really don’t give a rotten hoot about how I can succeed in their classrooms. My school years have been a constant anxiety rush from high level of praises to refusing to attend class depending on the classroom. Too many teachers are not able to deal with mixed students and it is incredibly annoying. Yes, yes it is. Several of the students mentioned in the article were lucky to have such great classes. I am interested in seeing how those students in the kindergarten level are doing in the high school level. Obviously integrating students with disabilities need to help students be successful in their endeavors. As a hearing impaired student, there was a huge struggle so I cannot imagine being integrated if I was completely deaf. When I moved to Arizona, there was sort of an attached school of deaf at my school. Several of my teachers could sign and were able to sign lectures and directions as well as verbal cues. I was always mainstreamed and I have yet to decide if it hurt me or benefitted my needs as a person and as a student. Perhaps one of the differences between those with down syndrome and deaf, is the deaf community is large and well, exists. The article mentions several of the persons with down syndrome having huge communication and network holes in their lives that effectively inhibited personal growth in a variety of ways. Perhaps a larger community presence of those with down syndrome would help this. The deaf community vigorously fights to defeat mainstream society who label them as unproductive citizens. They even have a university for the deaf. Ironically I’m an outcast in the deaf community for not being deaf enough and not using ASL for my first language and an outcast in mainstream for having a physical disability. So how does one survive in a world of able bodied people. How do students with down syndrome and cerebral palsy and other  disabled persons find success in classrooms that are so bent on creating robots instead of exploring individuals and their complexities. My issue is how do we create a classroom that will do that as well as impart some very important knowledge that doesn’t necessarily have room for individualitiy such as Math, some history and science. I’m aware that it is very possible to make history individual and science is really easy to apply to life .  But how can we make it so that, until we get rid of standardized testing, our students, disabled and non-disabled can pass those ridiculous tests while expanding personal growth and education. I always talk about how throughout my entire education, the one thing I really learned about more than anything is myself, and those around me. I learned of those around me and their struggles, their beliefs, morals, religions and so much more. I’d have to agree in some ways with the article about citizenship, empathy and the rest of the jazz. How we learn to communicate with others, and create our social network have a huge impact.  While reading this article, I definitely made mental remarks on how this article relates to several of our other articles. Oakes and Carlson and isolation relates because we’re isolating our students with down syndrome. They’re, as a result, unsuccessful and uneducated, and basically deprived of a right. This article also compares well to the tracking article, in defining higher and lower ability students, and its repercussions.

Generally as a disabled student, I try my best to get through mainstream society without any help. I have a 504 hanging around somewhere but rarely use it. And when I need it, it seems the teacher takes a look and ignores it. So it has become useless anyway. Most of my professors though, seem to look out for me and are aware of it in any case. I look back on this article and think to myself about those students with down syndrome, and their right to be educated especially when they have a desire to do so and want to be successful. Equality, meh... How about some “Equity”.

Awesome Comic that happens to relate to our Awesome Class

Just when I think I've got nothing...

 

lawrence; and me shutting up

NAME OF AUTHOR and TEXT
Charles Lawrence and "One More River to Cross"Recognizing the Real Injury in Brown:
A Prerequisite to Shaping New Remedies

AUTHOR’S ARGUMENT

Lawrence argues that the decision by the court to strike down segregation failed in the sense that the judicial system really had no idea what they were doing. It failed to be useful in the school system.


QUOTES

"I have argued that the Supreme Court's reasoning in striking down an interdistrict desegregation order in Detroit was flawed in that it misunderstood the true nature of the institution of segregation.'"

- He is stating that the court did not base its decision on a equal clause but on a "feeling" clause, therefore not taking any responsibility for the effects on blacks.

"The Court then went on to quote the federal district court in Kansas that found"a sense of inferiority" engendered by segregated schools "has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children:"

"By focusing on the effect of school segregation rather than its purpose the Warren Court confused the issue and led us to look to separation as the sole source of black children's feelings of inferiority rather than at the larger institution of which segregated schools were only a small part. This confusion has limited us both in proving injury and in our search for appropriate remedies."

-again proves my point

"We must Devise and Demand Remedies That Go beyond Mere Pupil Placement"

- how do we go about this?

"We Must Continue to Demand that the Affirmative Disestablishment of the System of Segregation Be Recognized As a Constitutional Right"

- and how do we do this?

Something I felt like sharing...

Back in the day schools for women were meant to reinforce the role of women in a man's world, living as the inferior sex. Can this be parallel to the effect of segregation based on race? Also, again I have issues with most groups only concerned with blacks. What about the other ethnic groups that existed in the U.S. at this time? Were those ethnic groups subject to segregation also, discriminated against? To what extent? How has this court case affected other ethnic groups?

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/POINTS TO SHARE

I think I've shut up.

Okay so after printing the article (instead of off the screen like I usually do) and rereading it several times, I feel like I finally got a better grasp of this article. I think that the author is talking about that the court never really made the actual statement of why segregation is wrong and basically referred to segregation's effect on blacks based on a "feeling", rather than the case. The difficult aspect of this article though is getting through his legal mumbo jumbo. I literally had to just read it paragraph at a time. I never had such an issue before. I'm still at a loss about the real effects of the Brown vs Board of Education. How much of it stills runs rampant, through housing segregation though.

here's a link from a newstory

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20081107/us_time/shouldkidsbeabletograduateafter10thgrade

so I was reading the yahoo news and this came across my attention. NH plans on making it easier for kids who are "ready" to graduate high school after tenth grade by passing numerous examinations. so I wondered how this would fit in with the Tracking article. Would this new rule benefit "lower ability" students, give them even more of a disadvantage, and on the flip side, how will this effect higher ability students? Which one would benefit from this more... anyone have any thoughts on this?