Talking Points #10

Allan G. Johnson - Chapter 9 (What Can We Do?)

This chapter is about...

Prilliage

Power

Discrimination

Society

Johnson argues that there has been a desperate need for change for sometime now. He says that

Talking Points #9

Peggy Orenstein - School Girls

This article is about...

Power

Sexism

Race

Education

Learning

Equality

Orenstain argues that equality between men and woman are not being taught correctly through the school systems and it is in desperate need to be altered. She also states that due to the over view of a classroom and the prints of a text book children (preferable boys) are not only being sheltered from all the great female hero's in history but are not even interested in learning about them at all.

1. "Woman are one-half of the world's people; they do two-thirds of the world's work; they earn one-tenth of the world's income; they own one-hundredth of the world's property."

2. (describing her classroom)"It is the mirror opposite of most classrooms that girls will enter, which are adorned with masculine role models..."

3. "I wondered how the boys, who could only see male experience as relevant, would ever learn to see girls as equals."

Throughout this article i found myself finding everything that i read completely believable. I can remember back in the 4th grade we also had to pick a memorable hero of the passed to research, present and try the best we could to resemble them. As i remember all the girls did females and all the boys in the class picked males for their projects. I believe Orenstein is not sexist and never intended to be. She is just trying to explain equality to young children so that they understand it at a young enough age to be able to follow it throughout the course of their lives and to reteach it to others.

Talking Points #8

Christopher Kliewer - Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

This article is about...

Down syndrome

Equality

Schooling

citizenship

Learning

Advantages/Disadvantages

Kliewer argues that

Talking Points #7

Charles Lawrence - "One More River to Cross" - Recognizing the real Injury in Brown: A Prerequisite to Shaping New Remedies

This article is about...

Talking Points #6

Jeannie Oakes - Tracking : Why Schools Need to Take Another Route

This article is about..
Fairness
Students
Ability
Placement
Teaching

Oakes argues that there is a variety of unfairness in the schools due to the way children are placed in groups according to their ability's in the classroom.

1. "Growing numbers of school professionals and parents oppose tracking because they believe it locks most students into classes where they are stereotyped as "less abled" and where they have fewer opportunities to learn."

2. "Students in the low-ability classes were likely to have little contact with the knowledge skills that would allow them to m into higher classes or to be success if they got there."

3. "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."

I found myself able to relate a lot of this article. I can remember as young as elementary school when 'resource room' was introduced and students were taken out of their regularly scheduled classes to receive 'extra time' with class work or homework help. This became a big deal when reaching middle school because those students resource room time was now given during other classes such as art, home and careers, health, music and technology. These students were thought of as 'slow' and even refereed to as 'special ed.' Its good to give children extra help when they need it but to shelter them away from other activities is the wrong way to do it. There is so much they were forced to miss out on for a reason that isn't even there fault. If there are a decent amount of problem students, putting them all together is just causing the problem to grow. They see everyone in the class work the same way and continue on with the bad behavior. Also, putting all the 'high-ability' students altogether puts a lot more pressure on the students in there. They might feel as though they have to constantly compete with each other for the better grade so that they will not fall behind in the class. I can understand where they are coming from by thinking that this would be a good idea so that the teachers with the 'low ability' students can take extra time reviewing when necessary instead of wasting time when other students don't need extra time but iv learning from experience that this teaching method does not work. The outside life for children can be hard enough, learning should not have to be another problem they should have to worry about, it should already be exposed to them. Without bringing color or ethnic backgrounds into it i feel as though this is just another way to label and single out students.

Talking Points #5

Jeannie Oakes and Martin Lipton - Teaching to Change the World

Talking Points #4

Linda Christensen - Unlearning the myths that blind us

This article is about...
-The media
-Effects
-Stereotypes
-Feedback
-Truth
-Reality

Christensen argues that through the media and other outside forms of entertainment, children receive a 'secret education' and subconsciously follow it.

1. "Dorfman wrote 'Although these stories are supposed to merely entertain us, they constantly give us a secret education.' "

2. "But i want students to understand that if the race of the character is the only thing changing, injustices may still remain" By this she talks about how even though producers have made an effort to change characters in movies and cartoons to a different race to accommodate more people the plots are legends and will probably always remain with the same outcome that is still discrimination in some sense.

3. "Both of these tales leave young woman with two myths: happiness means getting a man, and transformation from wretched conditions can be achieved through consumption- in their cases, through new clothes and a new hairstyle." In this statement she is suggesting the fact that growing up watching these movies, girls tend to come to the conclusion that everything possible must be done in order to get a male. It leaves out that woman can be just as content without a man. It teaches them how woman have no independence on their own and they must rely on someone of the opposite sex. It also explains that woman cannot be themselves. It talks about how being in style with a new wardrobe and the most up to date hairstyle you can achieve much more.

This article opened up a new view for me. In a way I feel like it took away what was left of my childhood innocence. Through the years I have noticed little things about race and 'perfection' of certain fairy tales but never this much in depth. Growing up I was a huge fan of Disney movies and I do believe it has made me view things differently. Almost every year for Halloween for probably five years in a row i was always the same thing, Cinderella. I always made my mother put my hair in a bun with a tiara as id prance around pretending to be the prettiest. Also, i often dreamed of growing up and running into my 'prince charming.' Although i see where Christensen is coming from I have to slightly disagree. Being raised by the media and other published works doesn’t necessarily mean that the child will grow up and completely assume a life like that seen on TV. It didn’t take long after my Saturday morning cartoons and Disney movies stage was over to realize that as a girl I am not helpless and i don’t intend to ever rely on some man to come around as my 'savior' so we can live happily ever after. In reality today i think things are progressing a little better but at the same time seem to become worse. Even though more cartoons are out with different races and ethnic backgrounds with a more logical ending the classics are legends and have been out for dozens of years and will most likely remain out for dozens more. However, its not just cartoons that kids tend to watch. Even when their not suppose to they tend to flip through the channels and find something that catches their eye while the adult is out of the room. I can remember when i was little i was watching the news when they announced that The Simpson’s was no longer a kids show but now for adult viewers only. I had a hard time understanding why and proceeded to watch it anyway. Also, the show Beavis and butthead was finally taken off the air because so many kids were imitating the bad things they watched and then laughed at it because that’s what they did on the show. I can recall hearing about several incidents from a kid lighting the living couch on fire to putting a cat in the microwave. The reality is that as long as programs get viewers, they will continue to trash the brains of minors.

"Crash diets, fat phobias and an obsession with the materialistic become commonplace." This is very well said. It’s not only children that the media targets its also young teens and perhaps even a more mature teen who has been raised on the media and will continue to do so. It's not only cartoons that give the image of perfection but reality shows also. They tend to have all different types of people involved but it’s always the same. The pretty skinny girl that attracts all the guys, and if their so happens to be an over weight person they get little or no attention and tend to have a very low self esteem. The conclusion is that nothing in society teaches the developing mind to be satisfied with who they are and to disregard people who think otherwise.