Totally had a Delpit moment with my daughter today! Caught her with a piece of candy and asked her if she was supposed to be eating that. She replied with "Yes." Next time I will tell her she is not supposed to be eating the candy! Whoops!

(She won the candy at a fundraiser)

Social Justice Event

Social Justice Event

I decided to do my social justice event on The Immortal life Of Henrietta Lacks. For one my classes we are required to read this book, and we had to attend a discussion on how race played a big role in Henrietta Lacks’ treatment.

            For those of you who have not read the book, it is about a poor black woman whose cells were taken form her without her knowledge. They called them HeLa Cells- these cells became one of the most important tools in medicine and produced billions of dollars. Her family was very poor and never received anything from Henrietta’s cells.  Often people question if this process would have been different if Henrietta was a white female, would she have known that doctors were going to take cells from her?

            The first text I would like to relate this too is “Tracking” by Jeannie Oakes. I know her story is all about why Schools need to take other routes and has absolutely nothing to do with hospitals, but it totally reminded me of this.  Henrietta Lacks was very poor; she couldn’t afford any type of health insurance that is why she ended up at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Hopkins was known as a charity hospital and one of the few hospitals that would actually treat black people. This hospital was totally tracked; they had one section for white people and one section for black people.  I believe that this is a main reason why people are starting to question of Henrietta’s treatment was standard, or if it was an experimental procedure. If Henrietta were a white female on the white floor would the doctors have asked permission for them to take a piece of her cancer tissue. One of the big issues that Oakes points out in the reading is that by tracking it causes uneven opportunities. This can totally apply to Henrietta Lacks’ story!

            The second text I would like to relate this too is Amazing Grace by Jonathon Kozel. Kozel basically says that history repeats itself. Racism and poverty repeats due to the system and codes of power. Kozel tells a story about a woman who was being treated in a hospital and she talks about how poorly she was treated. “I went to the hospital and, when I get there, it’s six hours before they can put me in a bed. Then, when I go upstairs, the room is not prepared. The bed is covered with blood and bandages from someone else. Flowers are scattered on the floor. Toilet’s stopped with toilet paper. Bed hasn’t been made. I’d been through this once before. Either you wait for hours until someone cleans the room or else you clean the room yourself.”  This quote reminds me of Henrietta Lack’ experience in the hospital. Due to the fact that she was a poor black woman with no health insurance her stays at the hospital were miserable. She would have to wait hours in severe pain before she would get meds. Because of poverty and the codes of power these doctors treated this who side of the hospital this way.

            The last text this relates to is Privilege, Power and Difference by Allen G. Johnson.  Johnson says, “A huge store of knowledge, from scientific research to passionate memoirs, documents this trouble and leaves no doubt that it causes enormous amounts of injustice and unnecessary suffering.” Johnson wants to change the rules of power. The reason this reminded me of Henrietta Lacks is because her race played a big role in the way she was treated. It was injustice that because of her race, she didn’t have an option on what hospital was going to treat her. If the codes of power were different back then, maybe she wouldn’t of been pushed away so many times.  I feel very strong, that If Henrietta was a white woman that she would have been taken more seriously.

EMPOWERING EDUCATION IRA SHOR

EMPOWERING EDUCATION

IRA SHOR

Argument

I believe Shor is saying that socialization is one of the when teaching students.  He states that is super important for students to be able to socialize with other students and teachers. He opens up the reading with questions on what kind of system we have and what kind do we need? He adds a quote from Bettelheim, saying, “If I were a primary grade teacher, I would devote my time to problems of socialization. The most important thing children learn in not the three R’s. It’s socialization.”(Quoted in Merier 1990, 6). I think that socialization is a really important key in teaching young students. Every child will socialize different but if a student can’t socialize with their peers or teachers then it can harm their learning. Shor also goes on describing the many ways of Education. “On the one hand. Education is a socializing activity organized, funded, and regulated by authorities who set a curriculum managed (or changed) in the classroom by teachers. On the other hand, education is a social experience for tens or millions of students who come to class with their own dreams and agendas, sometimes cooperating with and sometimes resisting the intentions of the school and the teacher.” This totally relates back to what he is saying in the beginning of chapter 1, students need to be able to socialize mainly with their other peers.

Show also says that empowerment is critical for self and social change. When Shor talks about the empowerment in classrooms I immediately thought of the rules and codes of power.  When students are socializing with their teachers and peers every student should be taught all the different rules and codes of power.

Points to Share:

First I wanted to say that this story was very long, I found myself skimming towards the end. Besides that I would like to share the fact that I never really thought about socialization being taught to students. I thought it was just something that we picked up when we got to school. So my ultimate question is whether or not we focus enough on students socializing or if it’s more about the learning. Obviously learning is one of the main reasons why students have to go to school but should we be focusing a little more on ways to socialize? 

Ira Shor's opinion on what is a "good" pre-school!

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down syndrome By Christopher Kliewer

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down syndrome

By Christopher Kliewer

Connections:

Right when I began to read this reading, I immediately thought of the last reading we did, tracking my Jeanie Oakes. Jeanie would agree that tracking in school doesn’t give all students equal opportunities and in this reading Kliewer is saying by separating students with Down Syndrome- they are not getting to take the same classes as the other students.

I think it was really good to start the story off with Mia Peterson. She says that she noticed that she was different, and she didn’t like the special ed classes that she had to take. She wanted to take other classes that weren’t offered to her. It’s not fair because she is just as smart as other students so she should have access to the same resources other students have.

Douglas Biklen outlined, “Society itself is hurt when schools act as culture 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’s} endorse an elaborate process of sorting by perceived ability and behavior.” Basically he is saying that this is no good for everyone, it is really not right that schools do this because it really affects the way the students feel. No matter what category a student falls under, they should not feel like they are dumb or left out.

I really liked when they talked about the student Lee. Saying even though he had Down syndrome and struggled with certain thing, he was still considered a full member of the class.  This is important because teachers and schools need to believe in their student’s abilities.

Points to Share:

I am curious to see how others liked this story. I felt like this was an easier read and I really enjoyed reading this. When I was in high school, I never thought it was a big deal that we were all separated. Tracking was a big thing in my school and because I wasn’t actually the one being separated, I never thought of it. I am so that I am reading stories like this because it opens my eyes to things I ‘ve never known.

Tracking By Jeannie Oakes

Tracking By Jeannie Oakes

Quotes/Reflection

“Most teachers realize that for students, feeling comfortable in class is more than just a nice addition to learning. They also know that when teachers and students trust one another, class time and energy are freed up for teaching and learning. On the other hand, without a positive classroom climate, students spend considerable energy interfering with the teacher's agenda, and teachers must spend more of their time and energy just trying to maintain control.”

I chose this quote because I feel like this subject if very tricky! Should classrooms be tracking? This brought me back to my service learning. I feel like it is so hard to not group children because they all learn on different levels and if we don’t pull the ones who need help, then they won’t get it. But at the same time it is kind of wrong to group the students because it can make them feel like they are not smart. Elementary students don’t get the whole concept so it is touch to figure out what works best…where as high schools are grouped by class- so everyone is usually on the same level.

“Students in low­ ability classes more often feel excluded from class activities and tend to find their classmates unfriendly. Their classes are more often interrupted by problems and arguing, while students in higher-ability classes seem to be much more involved into heir class work. When they're not being disruptive, students in low-ability classes are often apathetic. The reason for this may be that because they're more likely to fail, they risk more by trying.”

This quote also made me think of my service learning.. Could this be the reason why the kids act up? Has me thinking!!

Points to Share

What Is everyone else’s opinion on tracking and grouping younger students?

Sperate Is Not Equal

Separate But not Equal- Connection

“What I think is a shame is that we have to do all of this humiliating dancing around the perennially uncomfortable issue of race. We pretend that no one’s a racist anymore, but it’s easier to talk about pornography in polite company than racial integration.” Bob Hebert

This quote can relate back to many of the stories we read.

 Mostly I thought of White Privilege by Peggy McIntosh. She says “whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow “them” to be more like “us”.

This quote is really important and relates to what Tim Wise was saying about how Obama got elected president. He says that Obama was an exception, and people view it like the world is changing because we have a black president, yet people are still blind. Even though Obama is president, he still had to work extra hard and be very very smart, where as we voted George Bush president and he was the total opposite. It goes to show that the two different race’s are different.

Tim Wise says that have Obama elected was a step towards the right direction but we still need to keep our eye on the prize and have things move forward, but we still have a lot more work.

Points to Share:

I am a little late on posting this blog, so we already have shared our opinions in class. My group discussed Racism 2.0 and we came up with..

1.     The United States pretends that there is equality

2.     White people are not effected because they don’t understand

3.     Not everyone has experience