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?

When will I ever shut up? Probably never...

Okay so today in class, I felt like I had so much more to say on the topic of tracking (I know you're not surprised!). So I just reread my blog that was due Tuesday and I'm now thinking about class. I remember when Professor Bogad handed out the sheet and I started laughing when I saw the first question. I wasn't necessarily insulted only because I knew that there was a point behind this. Professor Bogad never gives us something without a reason. So I thought I was playing the game (just getting through the assignment) and wait around for everyone to finish. I will say I was pretty surprised and amused by everyone's reactions to the assignment. Some were stressed, anxious, worried because they didn't print the article and bring it with them. I, ironically, actually printed and brought the article with me. Something I never do. I'm usually all about saving the trees. It was pure chance that I even had the article with me. So we were supposed to rip the paper up and refuse. Unfortunately, we were, yes raised to obey without questioning. Can you blame us? We have been taught the codes of power our whole lives. Interestingly enough throughout the conversation of tracking, again some felt like it works some felt like it didn't. Again, I bring it back to personal motivation of each student. Also, Professor Bogad I am very intrinsically motivated which partly another reason I went through a lot of hell at the end of my middle school and beginning of my high school years. The codes of power come down like a hammer against kids like me. blah. I was always the kid who pushed to be the best at everything I did, in sports, in school. I got trophies and awards for academics and sports. Everything I did, I had to be the best at what I could be. It didn't matter to me that I could get treats at the end. I rarely cashed in by the way. Having more stars showed myself and others that I was that awesome. When I was in 8th grade, I was 14 I think, I began to have a major idenity crisis for many reasons. I won't go in to all of them. But one of these crisis was my self worth. I had realized somehow at the age of 14 that my trophies and awards MEANT NOTHING! Why did I need them, I didn't. I threw them all away. My awards for school, I ditched those too. I had realized that all the motivation I needed was inside of me. I didn't need stars, I didn't need stickers and all that stuff that teachers handed out. Unfortunately around this time, I had other issues, and my desire to learn a certain way was not being matched by my education system. Quite frankly, it completely sucked. I didn't appreciate that I couldn't listen to music while I did mind numbing unfulfilling worksheets like the one we did in class today. I didn't appreciate that I could not be critical of things we were learning in social studies or even why we called it Social Studies. For my MCAS testing, I wrote an entire essay of why we shouldn't be told what essay to write for the test. That my ability to write critically and analytically should have been the importance. That I didn't appreciate being told that MY OPINION was the wrong one. For years I fought with my so called "educators". I was kicked out of classes, labeled, punished, relieved of all my responsibilities as a student because my teachers felt no responsibility for teaching me. I was written off as a great failure. My former teachers who expected so much of me wondered what the hell happened. They didn't realize that I had the strongest desire to learn, and was extremely motivated in the most important way. I just didn't want to learn the way they wanted me to. Again there were other aspects that I didn't particularly at the time share with them. They figured it out eventually but thats another story for another time. I took it upon myself to learn the stuff without them. So they kick you out. I moved across the country. I learned that if I wanted to get through school, I had to play by their rules. So I played the game. I just added my own twist. I found ways to sneak my points of view, my sarcastic humor in a history paper. I wrote proverbs up on the board in my government class at least once a week that allowed me to display things I felt should be shared with the class. A class that was so drummed into read this chapter and answer these questions. I still have the list of proverbs that I posted. In my math class, I showed up determined to do more objectives than anyone else in the class, without breaking a sweat. I had a competition with another student for two years. I made that class bearable by reminding people I would never use the quadratic formula and if I ever needed to know how to problem solve that included imaginary numbers, I would retire from my job and spend my life doing all of those equations that I skipped. I appreciate the math that I do know when I'm tutoring the fifth graders who have no clue by the way to multiply a simple equation such as 524 x 8. I loved science because instead of learning the dumb periodic table like at my old high school, I got to take Marine Biology and Astronomy. We were taught by an amazing woman who challenged us every day and brought science into my every day life. I think we need more classes like that. In my old high school, I had to memorize the dumbest things in science and I couldn't tell you any of them. But I can find the stars in the sky, and I am an avid believer of not killing marine animals. I can even name crustaceans. We didn't just sit there and read books. We went to Sea World! Did I mention that at this high school we weren't separated by ability except for in Math. In fact most of my classes were a mix of freshman to seniors because of the size of my school. Like I said in class, I feel like most classes can be taught around different abilities, I just haven't figured out how to get around that in Math. Most school subjects can be taught without the useless inane homework assignments (though, math, how do you get around the 50 problems per night?) See this is where I get torn in two about Tracking. On one hand it may help, other hand is that it may help. Why does all the articles in this class have to make me think so much about everything. I even talked to one of my friends about it over lunch. He said it can be detrimental to lower ability students and positive for the smarter kids. He also said that mixing can be detrimental to both groups. Something I agree with to an extent. I would say it depends on the subject, depends on the teacher. I am also starting to think WOW thank god I want to be a P.E. Teacher and not a math teacher. I think that if we're going to get rid of tracking in schools, we'd have to get rid of standardized testing. I'm thinking about other countries now. We read all kinds of articles about the education system in America. I want to know what people are writing about their education system in other countries. Are we the only country who thinks we have so many things wrong with our education system. I think it would be interesting if that was included. I will probably when I get a free moment one day, after this semester is over because I have no free moments this semester, to take a look around and see if I can find articles like these that we read for countries like Spain, Italy, England, Canada, Mexico, Peru and et cetera. HEY that should be a class offered here. It could be the multicultural credit or whatever that's called. I would totally take that class. Okay I am going to class now.

Tracking... argue with me people, I like it.

NAME OF AUTHOR and TEXT 

JEANNIE OAKES and TRACKING: WHY SCHOOLS NEED TO TAKE ANOTHER ROUTE

AUTHOR’S ARGUMENT 

Oakes believes that dividing students up based on ability hurts the education of all those except the students with the greater ability. That the tracking education system has no place in the school systems, and that it widens the gap between higher ability students between lower ability students.

BEFORE I START.. I DO NOT THINK TRACKING IS NECESSARILY THE PROBLEM... MOTIVATION IS A HUGE PART OF THE PROBLEM IN OUR EDUCATION SYSTEMS, FROM THE STUDENTS TO THE TEACHERS TO PARENTS AND THE  ADMINISTRATION!

QUOTES

“the nature of these differences suggests that students who are placed in high-ability groups have 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.”

- Here oakes states that students in higher ability groupings have greater resources and therefore better schooling experiences.

“In classrooms where the curriculum consists of a sequence of topics and skills that require prerequisite knowledge and skill mastery, mixing students who have different skills is difficult.”

- I would think that mixing students in subjects such as math and most history would be difficult with the emphasis on math. Math is one of those subjects where each objective needs to be mastered in short amounts of time, quickly moving to another topic with almost no room for errors.

“When curriculum is organized around the central themes of a subject area rather than around disconnected topics and skills, all students stand the greatest chance of enhancing their intellectual development. Students need not be held back from ideas because of skill differences; rather they can acquire skills as they become ready. Moreover, classroom knowledge that remains connected to its larger context is much easier for students to understand and use. Finally, when students grapple with complex problems, solutions have to be compatible with so many ideas that two people rarely come up with identical solutions. While right answers certainly have their place, with a concept-based curriculum there are opportunities for multiple right answers and multiple 

routes to success.”

- I generally have problems with statements like these... “rather they can acquire skills as they become ready.” Unfortunately, the education system here in America, and many other countries do not work like this. There are set expectations of each particular grade in each subject, and students who do not meet these requirements do not pass on to the next grade. If I decide that I am not ready to learn certain skills, how can I expect that I will reach the 8th grade? The term I will learn when I am ready is not a choice that I have, so why would I want a teacher who presents a theme and then says to me, oh you’ll learn the skills to matter critical thinking of this piece of literature when I’m ready. That sounds like a crutch to me. This is my education resting on learning what I need to know NOW. This is not just me not ready to be potty trained. Sound familiar? teach me the rules I need to know to make it in this world. America has not given way to a liberal minded path of learning. I have certain skills I need to acquire by a certain timeline. No one cares if I am ready for it.

“These changes also require fundamental changes in the structure of schooling and teachers' work.”

- I would say these changes would be hard to make in schools unless we have done away with standardized testing. The testing requires factual memorization in many school subjects, with no room for critical thinking, problem solving and creativity. In order for our teachers to be granted room for changes in the educational system to allow a more fluid learning style for all students regardless of abilities.

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/POINTS TO SHARE

I have several problems with this article. Personally, in my lifetime, I have always been subject to grouping in school. I have seen firsthand the differences of the grouping. When I was in high school, and a rebel, I was put in what we called level 2, (level 1 was the worst). These students had no desire to put forth any effort into their education, and was obvious. Held true to what the article said, expectations were super low, homework was minimal and thinking for oneself checked itself out when you walked in the door. The students told the teacher how much time we felt we should spend on homework, and basically ran the class. I got my butt switched out after I refuse to attend class. The class was a joke. The new class I ended up in, everyone cared about passing, most students were highly motivated, and class went rather smooth. I got an A. That year was the last year we had five different levels of classes. The following year, they combined all of the level one, two and three classes into one, and then had an honors (level 4, 5) class. We went from five levels to two. Now, I’m in all these classes with kids who don’t care about their education, do not care about their grades. I am now in classes where too much time is spent on discipline. And now, somehow kids like me (disabilities) get grouped with others who could careless because our teachers group us within the classroom regardless. I preferred the five levels. The article calls for mixing all the ability students. It lists all the positive outcomes but let’s look at the issue from the flip side. Do students who feel as though they as not as smart as others feel intimated if they are in classes with “higher ability” students? Are they really getting a better education if they are less inclined to participate because of fear of not being able to compete with other students? Are higher ability students better off as well? my entire elementary and middle school years were spent working with the one or two other kids in my class on the side, because I was labeled as higher ability, and was blowing through the subjects while other students needed more time. They’re not going to put kids who  weren’t ready for certain skills in algebra two if they haven’t mastered the basics of algebra 1. If we say oh, he wasn’t ready to learn those skills, then we haven’t done them justice. Now in english, we could probably mix the students as so they article says, mostly because english is more subjective than objective. Critical reading skills need to be mastered but it can be taught through literature, and like the article says there is more room for the variety of right answers. Math doesn’t wait for you to master a skill. You gotta run with it.

I feel like I jumped around a lot in here, in fact I know I did. I will probably come back to this and fix it up. All I know is my experiences. When I’m surrounded by similar “abilities”, I work harder, I am more competitive, motivated. You’ll notice I quoted the abilities. It’s mostly because I feel like the article missed out on one thing. Intrinsic Motivation in the students. I noticed when I was grouped in with many different attitudes about education, I’ll say because I do not necessarily believe that the students in level two were not capable of being in level 4 or five, but more or less their motivation and desire to do well in school inhibited their potential success. I believe especially by high school, most of us are more than capable of meeting the requirements of “higher abilties” and that all students in the lower grades can if taught well be in relatively the same level of their peers. This article I feel left out a HUGE part. Quite honestly, personal motivation is a huge impact on the level students. You can have a mixed group of students, with a great teacher who motivates and does amazing things  that helps all the students learn from each other and still have students who are not doing so well because of things that have nothing to do with school. I think we need an article, if we want to help decrease the so called gap, increase learning abilities for ALL abilities and help ALL students learn and master the skills they need, called “How to Keep Our students MOTIVATED to LEARN” That is what I think it is. It’s not that I’m smarter than the next kid, or that the average kid is average, it is my motivation to do well that helps me master my skills. I’ve come to this conclusions after many years in school listening to the dorks like me say I want to get an A to the kids who say if I get a 65 I can pass and not do much. I think if we can figure out how to motivate our students to expand PAST their potential, this education gap we have will fix it self. I know the kids in level two weren’t there because they were idiots (they definitely weren’t) but because they didn’t care. They wanted out, they were done and they had other goals in life. keep in mind people, this is just My opinion. Agree with me or disagree, seriously... I wanna know what you think.