A Particularly Cheap White Whine

For this post, I chose to read "A Particularly Cheap White Whine: Racism, Scholarships, and The Manufacturing of White Victimhood" by Tim Wise. Which I think is a very clever and funny name. The reading basically debunks the statement by the President of The College of Republicans at Boston University, who stated that "race-based scholarships for people of color are the worst form of bigotry confronting America today." 

What the students who agree with this statement don't understand is that "The reason is simple: namely, ongoing economic disparities between whites and folks of color, have left the latter in for worse shape, in terms of the ability to pay for college, than the former." Wise then fires off a series of statistics that prove why students of color have a harder time paying for college than white students, and also states that there is not enough race-based scholarships to help those who have been affected by the institutionalized racism that is embedded in our society. 

I agree whole-heartedly with Tim Wise. What I think needs to happen to stop these ignorant statements from coming out of anybody else's mouth is we need to educate privileged people on what it is like to be underprivileged. Since, statistically, in today's world, privileged people are the ones who have the most power, will also have the most power to change things. In dominantly white and middle class public schools, like the one I attended, we learned nothing about institutionalized racism or prejudice and how it affects people of color, and benefits the privileged. 

This isn't to say that their ignorant comments are not their fault. It is up to you as a decent human being to recognize other human beings regardless of race, gender, class, or sexual preference as equal to you. If these ignorant racists had any experience being marginalized, they would keep their mouths shut. Their ignorance disproves their point in itself. 

Here is a link to a creative and hilarious buzzfeed post: http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/the-conditions-upon-which-one-may-claim-reverse-racism

Here is a very clever comic on the idea of "reverse racism":

In service of what?

This article explores the method of education through service learning. Kahne and Westheimer specifically examine two classrooms, one seventh grade and one twelfth grade class. Student's in Mr. Johnson's twelfth grade class did a variety of individual service learning projects, while those in Ms. Adams class focused on homelessness as the main topic. All the students had to do in terms of course work was to write a reflection at the end of the course.

Personally, I find service learning projects to be extremely effective in learning a subject. Service learning not only gives you experience in the field, but also gives you practice dealing with other real world practices, such as working with coworkers or the public. I have done two service learning projects within the field of education, and it has taught me so much about classroom control, how to keep a classrooms attention, creating a lesson plan and so much more.

I think doing service learning projects dealing specifically with working with the public and those in need is educational in a way that is different than academic and will expand your mind in a much broader way. A lot of people never have experience working with and forming relationships with people in need. This causes many people not to see the human behind the drug addict, homeless man, or teen mother, and causes them to be ignorant and think of these people as though they are in a different tier of humanness than them. It is so important to educate people on social issues and the larger societal issues that may cause these perfectly lovely and capable human beings to slip through the cracks and wind up homeless, for example.

Below is a chart that shows retention rates based on teaching styles.

For more information on service learning visit: http://www.dropoutprevention.org/effective-strategies/service-learning

Unlearning The Myths That Bind Us

In "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us", we learn about the different ways the media controls our minds from a very young age. The large majority of young children watch cartoons on TV and display to them messages about standards for women, men, people of color, and people of low income. This article points out that there is a subtle bittersweetness to discovering the flaws to our once beloved cartoons that we watched over and over again as children. This is brought up more than once during the article, the question "why bring up the negative?". In examining the past we can gain insight into how to handle the future. One student, Justine, made a very wise and beautifully written comment that stated, "True death equals a generation living by rules and attitudes they never questioned and producing more children who do the same." So why should we bring up the negative? Why not remain ignorant and accept these racist, sexist, classist insensitivities as innocent cartoons? The answer lies in Justine's statement, to change people's minds, and to raise a new generation of people who will be more sensitive and accepting of people who are different from them. Many of the people in this class alone changed there minds drastically on the subject. " Before, I would have just walked into the toy store and bought them something I knew they wanted- a Nintendo or a Barbie. But this time, I went up to the clerk and said, 'I want a toy that isn't racist or sexist'." These student's minds have been changed drastically in the course of one class, imagine what just a little bit of education can do to change our society into a more accepting environment. 

Link: http://mic.com/articles/68219/6-disney-films-that-are-undeniably-racist-and-sexist

Speaking the Unspeakable in Forbidden Spaces: addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school

Just the title of this article alone says a lot about how sexuality is viewed in the school system. What is so "unspeakable" about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender sexualities? Why is a primary school a "forbidden space"? I suppose that talking about it in school seems inappropriate to some people because it has to do with sex. However, sex in heterosexual relationships is a topic that is avoided, yet the heterosexual relationships themselves have never been banned from discussion. Teachers don't have to think twice about mentioning their girlfriend or wife or boyfriend or husband if they are in a heterosexual relationship, but for a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender staff member to come out, it is an emotional declaration of self affirmation.

It is also important, and it is mentioned a lot throughout this article, is how to change homophobic language on the playground. When words like "gay" or "fag" are used as an insult, it reiterates the idea that identifying as gay is undesirable and will make others not like you. How the school in this article handled it was to simply talk about the subject in class, as well as after school clubs through resources like books, and teachers talking about their experiences. This school equated using "gay" in a negative connotation to using racial slurs like "paki", and talked about how it may make someone feel if they were called that word. A quote from this article I really liked was on page 322-3, which reads, "Arguments suggesting that LGBT teachers refrain from discussing their relationships within the school fail to acknowledge that children themselves might benefit from the openness of LGBT
role models for a variety of reasons: because they may identify (or eventually 322 A. Allan et al.identify) themselves as LGBT or just ‘different’, because they have gay or lesbian parents (Letts and Sears 1999; Kissen 2002) and because one of the duties of school is to prepare all children to live in a diverse society." I think that last bit is most important, even though there may not be children who identify as LGBT either in the present or future, or who don't come from LGBT families, every person can benefit from an education on this topic. It prepares us to open our minds and to be successful and happy in a diverse society.

Link: http://www.change.org/p/pepperdine-overturn-your-decision-to-deny-recognition-to-lgbt-students. This is a petition for Pepperdine University to recognize LGBT equality in their institution.

Below is a parental recognition map, The green states have laws that create legal ties to both parents for children born to same-sex parents in a legally recognized relationship, while the white states lack clear mechanisms that create legal ties to both parents for children born to same-sex couples via donor insemination. 

Why Can't She Remember That? by Terry Meier

Reading this text reminds me of when I taught a French lesson once a week to pre-schoolers last year. Pre-schoolers have very short attention spans and it is not always easy to keep them interested in the lesson. It is definitely true in that keeping the children engaged will keep their attention. Some of the ideas in this article to keep children's attention spans are useful! Using puppets and dolls to interact with the story keep story time from being a teacher talking at you, but it is also important to choose books that represent different children's culture and identity. "Books are not meaningful to children who do not see themselves represented in them", states Meier, on page 247. I recently read about a girl whose little sister of Indian descent did not see herself as beautiful because so many "princess" portrayals in children's media do not represent her cultural group. This alarmed her older sister, who was concerned about her sister's lowered self-esteem at such a young age. Below, I have added a book of words from a vintage Golden Book. As you can see, all of the children in the illustration are white, and there are very stereotypical gender roles as well. The girls, are doing the more delicate tasks, dancing, reading, playing, while the boys are doing more traditionally masculine and physical tasks, building, working, and running. Some food for thought about how diversity is portrayed not only in books, but in all children's media. I have also added a link to an NPR article called "As Demographics Shift, Kid's Books Stay Stubbornly White." http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/06/25/193174358/as-demographics-shift-kids-books-stay-stubbornly-white