After reading the articles for this week, I feel as though there are far too many people who need to step back and evaluate the stereotypes that we carry around with us. In many cases, they are overly generalized and when we use them as teachers, we are causing untold amounts of damage to our students.
When reading through the politics of caring article, I found it horrible that the teacher Mr. Johnson actively said that many of his students are going to be dropouts, that they were immature, and generally knocking them down in every way possible. It is probably the worst kind of attack that a teacher can do to their students. Teachers are speaking from a position of power, and it is being abused when you talk down to students like that, who have no direct recourse to challenge what you are saying. Not only that, but doing so creates an incredibly negative atmosphere that is just not conducive to learning.
In the hardcore article, I was equally disgusted by the details of a police officer that was completely disrespectful to a kid due to his held stereotypes. Even when the kid attempted to apologize (when he had done nothing wrong) the officer continued to be disrespectful of him.
I hope that I can recognize instances where I fall into some of these patterns (we all do from time to time) so that I can correct them before they are as damaging to individuals as these two examples are.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Caring
While reading through the caring article, I found myself wondering why the article was focused specifically on the Latino population. It seems that the whole idea behind the article could be applied to all students, not specifically the Latino population.
While it is true that the minorities may run into more issues with genuinely caring teachers due to a cultural disconnect, I feel as though true care of the students is something that this article should be pushing for ALL students. It has positive effects for all students to feel as though they are cared about, and the sentiment that teachers only care about teaching is likely not only seen in the Latino population.
So while I agree with what the article is trying to get across, I just felt that it could have focused more on care overall, with some added attention to the minority populations and the challenges they face, instead of being entirely focused on them, and ignoring the majority populations in the equation. Are they feeling the same things? It's hard to tell in this article.
While it is true that the minorities may run into more issues with genuinely caring teachers due to a cultural disconnect, I feel as though true care of the students is something that this article should be pushing for ALL students. It has positive effects for all students to feel as though they are cared about, and the sentiment that teachers only care about teaching is likely not only seen in the Latino population.
So while I agree with what the article is trying to get across, I just felt that it could have focused more on care overall, with some added attention to the minority populations and the challenges they face, instead of being entirely focused on them, and ignoring the majority populations in the equation. Are they feeling the same things? It's hard to tell in this article.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Masculinity
During the discussions on blackboard during week 5, there was a good deal of discussion that brought up name calling in schools. The Kimmel article, Masculinity as Homophobia explains the situation pretty well from a male perspective. Unlike women, men are held up against a perception of what is masculine. Anything that is perceived as feminine, either emotionally or physically, leads to harsh reactions from peers. As Eric pointed out, students even go as far as to cover their tracks when they do anything that may be perceived as a homosexual or feminine, as seen by the phrase "no homo."
I begin to wonder if there is anything that can really be done about this in a classroom setting. While it is possible to tell students that the language is inappropriate, it will just lead to them censoring themselves in the classroom and starting it up again once they leave. As this is more of a universal issue, I feel as though the best course of action is to avoid adding to the pressure ourselves. Students have enough to deal with from their peers and self perceptions that we should be trying to alleviate, not add to.
I begin to wonder if there is anything that can really be done about this in a classroom setting. While it is possible to tell students that the language is inappropriate, it will just lead to them censoring themselves in the classroom and starting it up again once they leave. As this is more of a universal issue, I feel as though the best course of action is to avoid adding to the pressure ourselves. Students have enough to deal with from their peers and self perceptions that we should be trying to alleviate, not add to.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Unraveling...
The Unraveling the Model Minority book got me thinking about dynamics in the Asian cultures that I had not thought of before. I had honestly never thought that there were such deep and varied separations within the Asian student bodies.
While The idea that Asians would prefer to stick with their own ethnicity, such as was shown to be the case with the Korean students in the book, I never really considered that multiple other groups of "Asian" existed within the broad label. It was interesting to see that there were multiple distinct groups depending on if they identified as Asian, Asian-American, or "new wave."
In terms of teaching, the biggest concern that this book brought up to me is that if Asian students have a stereotype following them that says "you are good at school," I worry that approaching a struggling student may feel as though I think that they can perform better "because I see them as Asian" rather than believe that they as an individual can perform better. Worse, how can I get them to seek out the extra help when some are carrying the perception that needing the help in the first place is something to be ashamed of?
While The idea that Asians would prefer to stick with their own ethnicity, such as was shown to be the case with the Korean students in the book, I never really considered that multiple other groups of "Asian" existed within the broad label. It was interesting to see that there were multiple distinct groups depending on if they identified as Asian, Asian-American, or "new wave."
In terms of teaching, the biggest concern that this book brought up to me is that if Asian students have a stereotype following them that says "you are good at school," I worry that approaching a struggling student may feel as though I think that they can perform better "because I see them as Asian" rather than believe that they as an individual can perform better. Worse, how can I get them to seek out the extra help when some are carrying the perception that needing the help in the first place is something to be ashamed of?
Monday, February 6, 2012
Week 2 - Children of Immigration
Overall, I enjoyed reading the Children of Immigration book this week. The book does an excellent job at bringing up the challenges that immigrant children deal with as they progress through school and life. It gives various perspectives of the children themselves to connect the various statistics to the real world.
The main thing that I found interesting was the statistic that immigrant children and children of immigrants are over represented in both the highest and lowest levels of achievement. It makes me think about the kinds of pressures that those students are put through on a daily basis. Pressures to assimilate compete directly with pressures to maintain the old culture. Combining this with the sometimes dangerous areas that immigrants end up living in, it is amazing that they are able to focus on school work at all.
The book also brought to light the fact that I, as a future teacher, need to be very aware of stereotyping that I may otherwise not notice. Even things that I would not be consciously aware of, can be perceived by the individuals to be negative. Even "good" stereotypes can lead to an overall negative reaction. Not much of the information in the book struck me as counter-intuitive, however I don't think I would otherwise think about the topic as deeply as this book allowed me to, which is extremely important to do from time to time.
The main thing that I found interesting was the statistic that immigrant children and children of immigrants are over represented in both the highest and lowest levels of achievement. It makes me think about the kinds of pressures that those students are put through on a daily basis. Pressures to assimilate compete directly with pressures to maintain the old culture. Combining this with the sometimes dangerous areas that immigrants end up living in, it is amazing that they are able to focus on school work at all.
The book also brought to light the fact that I, as a future teacher, need to be very aware of stereotyping that I may otherwise not notice. Even things that I would not be consciously aware of, can be perceived by the individuals to be negative. Even "good" stereotypes can lead to an overall negative reaction. Not much of the information in the book struck me as counter-intuitive, however I don't think I would otherwise think about the topic as deeply as this book allowed me to, which is extremely important to do from time to time.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Week 1.
The topic of race and racism is a difficult one to tackle. There is so much history and deeply ingrained processes that define racism that we could spend the rest of our lives investigating it. The Racial Formation article got me thinking about some of the ways that I think about racism, and how others might look at it.
I did not fully agree with the white privilege article, however. I understand that the author was trying to bring attention to it in terms of things that we as a majority would not think of, but some of the things that she mentioned aren't really a privilege that I would have for being white compared to just being something that is a fact because a non-white person would be a minority (numerically speaking). For example, number 2 on her list: "If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area
which I can afford and in which I would want to live." This really has nothing to do directly to being of any color, and is all about how successful the individual is. Granted, indirectly you could argue that a non-white is at a disadvantage in terms of job acquisition and fair pay, but there are just as many white people who can't afford to buy or rent in an area they would want to live.
I feel as though the "invisible backpack of white privilege" is really a backwards way of approaching the topic. McIntosh argues that these all need to be brought to light in order to "give up" the privileges to others, instead of looking at what other people of color may be missing in order to try to close the rift. Some of the other things that McIntosh mentions in the article don't seem to really help anything even if rectified. For example, she lists many things that involve the lack of strong cultural ties in areas where another race may be a minority, " 1 can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair." I suppose that these could be considered a "privilege," that whites would have, but it isn't a useful point to make an argument on. There's literally nothing that can be done to infuse these things into another part of the world without having a significant population there. This isn't a privilege that I can give up, or spread to others if I lack a full understanding of their culture. In addition, it doesn't solve anything important, such as ending hostilities or distrust for other cultures, which should really have been the focus of the article.
The topic of race and racism is a difficult one to tackle. There is so much history and deeply ingrained processes that define racism that we could spend the rest of our lives investigating it. The Racial Formation article got me thinking about some of the ways that I think about racism, and how others might look at it.
I did not fully agree with the white privilege article, however. I understand that the author was trying to bring attention to it in terms of things that we as a majority would not think of, but some of the things that she mentioned aren't really a privilege that I would have for being white compared to just being something that is a fact because a non-white person would be a minority (numerically speaking). For example, number 2 on her list: "If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area
which I can afford and in which I would want to live." This really has nothing to do directly to being of any color, and is all about how successful the individual is. Granted, indirectly you could argue that a non-white is at a disadvantage in terms of job acquisition and fair pay, but there are just as many white people who can't afford to buy or rent in an area they would want to live.
I feel as though the "invisible backpack of white privilege" is really a backwards way of approaching the topic. McIntosh argues that these all need to be brought to light in order to "give up" the privileges to others, instead of looking at what other people of color may be missing in order to try to close the rift. Some of the other things that McIntosh mentions in the article don't seem to really help anything even if rectified. For example, she lists many things that involve the lack of strong cultural ties in areas where another race may be a minority, " 1 can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair." I suppose that these could be considered a "privilege," that whites would have, but it isn't a useful point to make an argument on. There's literally nothing that can be done to infuse these things into another part of the world without having a significant population there. This isn't a privilege that I can give up, or spread to others if I lack a full understanding of their culture. In addition, it doesn't solve anything important, such as ending hostilities or distrust for other cultures, which should really have been the focus of the article.
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