Sunday, February 24, 2013

SAFE SPACES


Safe Spaces- Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth Annemarie Vaccaro, Gerri August and Megan S. Kennedy

Reflection:
I wanted to write a reflection on this piece because I feel strongly about this topic. It doesn't necessary relate to me personally but I know a lot of people who have struggled with this. It makes me feel sick to my stomach that YOUNG adults have so much hurt that they consider taking their life due to issues of sexual orientation. We hear more and more about suicides and the ages are getting younger and younger. Even though there are many LGBT organizations, a lot of people don't feel comfortable reaching out. In this story it talks about how educators can create safe spaces which I find really important. Students should feel safe at school since that is where a lot of discrimination happens.
 "When someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing. Our classrooms need to be mirrors and windows for all students-mirrors in which youth see themselves in the curriculum and recognize their place in the group, windows through which see beyond themselves to experiences connected with, but not identical to, their own. Creating safe spaces for all students..." I really enjoyed this quote, I think that it is saying that sometimes we all don't have the same experiences and sometimes we all don't agree on the same things and not everyone has to, but everyone has had an experience in life where they felt they didn't belong, and somehow that connects us to eachother. 
Points to Share:
Thinking back to when I was in High School, we never talked about these issues in the classroom. The "norm" was having a mom and dad at home, or being boyfriend-girlfriend. I think it is very important for educators to get on board with this even if they don't agree. If you are a teacher you obviously care for children and to see children taking their lives due to issues in the school, how could you not want to help?

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Aria By Richard Rodriguez

Argument:

I decided to read Aria written by, Richard Rodriguez. 
Richard Rodriguez is arguing in his story the struggle of bilingual children. In this article he is sharing his story as a young boy who speaks Spanish as his primary language, but trying to learn English. He states that "supporters of bilingual education today imply that students like me miss a great deal by not being taught in their family's language." He refers to English as the public language and Spanish as the private language. I think that it is almost like he is being forced to learn the English language because in school that is what they spoke. Rodriguez says that as his family started to learn how to speak better English, they grew apart. He started to feel that he belonged in public, that he was finally an American citizen, even though that special bond and closeness his family once shared was gone. He often refers to it as the "silence". 
"Fewer words passed between parent and child, but more profound was the silence that resulted from my inattention to sounds."

I pulled this picture because overall I think that Rodriguez is saying that by forcing students to learn the public language at home instead of their native language, takes a huge toll on the family and potentially ruins their bond.
"The bilingualists simplistically scorn the value and necessity of assimilation. They do not seem to realize that there are two ways a person is individualized. So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality."


In class I intend to speak about this overall story Rodriguez shares. I think that we are working towards this problem in the classrooms. In schools today other languages are offered at younger ages. There are also many TV shows that help younger children learn different languages. When I was younger I never remember watching shows that taught me spanish. I didn't even take a language class in High School, but now as my daughter grows up a lot of the TV shows she likes speak both English and Spanish.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

TAKE TWO!
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack By Peggy McIntosh

Quotes(Forgot to mention this in my first post)
I wanted to start this post off with one of the first quotes McIntosh writes. "I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group." I liked this quote because it reminds me of what we discuss in class. Racism is categorized, an individual can act racist but they learned it from another person or people. Growing up I didn't know that racism was talking about white people, I just thought that it was an individual person acting it out.

"Whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege." I like the comparison she made in this quote because I agree. I was never brought up thinking I was privileged because I was white, just like males don't think they are more privileged.

This video talks about both points I wrote about
He is a comedian- hope this video it ok to post!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Nemo Fun!


Hey everyone! My name is Alicia, this is my first semester at RIC, I am a transfer student from CCRI. My major is Elementary Education, still deciding whether I want to concentrate in Special Education or English. While I'm not at RIC I am at home with my two children. I have a 3 year old daughter and a 3 month old son. This is my first time blogging so I hope I am doing this right! See you guys in class :)
Emmaline & Mason

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

I chose to read the White Privilege article. In this article Peggy McIntosh talks about how she felt like whiteness protected her from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence.

"In proportion as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable and oblivious, other groups were likely being made unconfident, uncomfortable and alienated." (McIntosh, page 4) In this quote she is saying that because she was white, people didn't make her feel uncomfortable. She was just accepted due to the color of her skin. 

She says "that for this reason the word "Privilege" now seems misleading. We usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck...Such privilege simply confers dominance because of one's race or sex." (McIntosh, page 4) When she talks about this it brings me back to both stories by Johnson and Delpit. We don't realize that we are privileged until we actually look at the big picture. White people don't always agree with this so they fight the issue or walk away from it. In Delpit, this was the problem with the teaching methods. The main issue becomes silenced.