(Blog 11) "Empowering Education" by Ira Shor

QUOTES

"People are naturally curious. They are born learners. Education can either develop or stifle their inclination to ask why and to learn" (Shor 12). 

     This quote really supports the author's main idea. Socialization is crucial to student's education. Imagine a world where you learned with no interaction. People really are born curious, and one of the best ways to help those curiosities is to learn through others. 

"People begin life as motivated learners, not as passive beings. Children naturally join the world around them. They learn by interacting, by experimenting, and by using play to internalize the meaning of words and experience. Language intrigues children..." (Shor 17). 

     This quote is similar to the last one I used. It goes further to mention that not only are we born ready to learn, but we also are ready to be involved in society. We want to learn with and through others. It is in our blood. It comes easily to even toddlers. This is a really important quote for the authors argument as well. 

"...I routinely ask students to define what "news" means to them and to write down questions they

have about the news. Their definitions and questions launch our class discussion, not a lecture by me" (Shor 28).

     Shor gives a fantastic example of what all teachers should be doing. This is just one of her many ideas, but it's a huge game changer. Kids do not always want to be lectured. It is a boring, old fashioned style that does not help most children. Letting them engage more in a classroom instantly makes learning more fun for them. Not only that, but they'll learn, and remember a lot more when they are interested and engaged. 

QUESTION: What else can we do, as future teachers, to help our kids to interact, and make the classroom more fun? It can be difficult to find a good mixture of fun and education at the same time, especially when the kids are younger and get off topic and hyper easily! I think having more peer-to-peer socializing is a great method. 

(Blog 10) "Schooling Children with Down Syndrome" by Christopher Kliewer

REFLECTION

     This chapter really spoke to me. I work one on one with a ten year old girl who has down syndrome. I am not going to sugar coat things, it is a very hard job. As a future educator, working with special needs can be very frustrating. Of course, there is a spectrum for down syndrome, but the girl I work with is very low functioning. She can not speak and knows very limited sign language. There are days that I get very overwhelmed, because I am so use to working with children that society would call "normal" (as this article points out). It can be difficult to try to teach someone who does not learn at the levels that you're used to. The burden that Kliewer mentions is often how teachers perceive special needs. The main topic of this story is similar to that of Christensen's. Both deal with the reality of how stereotypes are affecting children. As someone who has given in to the stereotype of special needs myself, people must understand that not everyone with down syndrome is the same, as I have come to learn. As the story points out, some kids function just as much, if not more, than everyone else in their class. To treat them differently is unfair. Furthermore, even the children who are less functioning should still get a chance at education. People could look at the girl I watch and think she is incapable of anything. However, I have worked with her for about a year now, and know that this is not the case. She understands a lot more than you'd think, and it is very apparent when you really pay attention. Working with a down syndrome child has opened my eyes to be less judgmental. I think teachers with the same mindset could easily have a change of heart if they just gave special needs children a chance. They should definitely do some research, to realize that not all kids with down syndrome learn the same way. 

QUESTION: Do you think children with down syndrome should be integrated into the classrooms, or should they stay in their own classes? How would staying or not staying benefit them and their peers? For higher functioning kids, there are many strategies to teach them equally. Do you think this is an inconvenience for the rest of the class?

(Blog 9) "Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route" by Jeannie Oakes and "Literacy with an Attitude" by Patrick J. Finn

REFLECTION

     In the article, Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route by Jeannie Oakes, she talks about the two sides to tracking in schools. Some parents are for keeping track of student's scores, because they want their kids to be around other successful peers. These parents think that the less academic students will have a bad influence on their kids. The parents that are against tracking think that tracking not only excludes kids, but also neglects them. Personally, I related a lot to this article while reading it. I also have some strong opinions on the topic. I am against tracking. I think that tracking causes the students that are put in the less academic groups to fall even more behind. Being integrated into a classroom with less and more successful students will help influence those who are less academic to do better. I think that tracking is unfair segregation. It makes students feel bad about themselves, which will only make them give up in school. Teachers will also lose hope on these kids, and only the students in the more advanced group will get attention, when they're the ones who need it the least. When I was in middle school, we had groups that were based on academic scores. The groups would never get along. Everyone would always think one group was better than the other. It caused constant conflict. I was in a less advanced group, and I didn't feel like I belonged in it. I was never able to reach my full potential. If I had been challenged more, I could have been a lot more educated. Placing students in a group off of only test scores can be completely off as to what their actual abilities are. Tracking will only cause kids to be over or under challenged. 

     The preface and chapters one and two of Literacy with an Attitude, by Patrick J. Finn was written in 1999, but is still a very prominent topic today. Finn connects his topic to Kozol's, which I though was pretty cool. Finn mentions that he was born with a birth defect, which made him unable to follow the family business like all of his other siblings were. This left him with school as his only backup to figure out what to do for his future. Of course, as a future teacher, I also have a very strong opinion about education. I believe that college is not for everyone, it really just depends on what career choice you make. However, I am a strong believer in getting your high school diploma. Like this article states, it is a hard era education wise. It is nearly impossible to find a good paying job without some sort of education. This article closely related to how I grew up. I always knew I'd have to go to college to become a teacher, and though it isn't ideal, it is the society we live in today.

QUESTION: Do you think that education should be important in finding a job? What can we do as a society to lesson the stigma that not having a college degree is bad? 

(Blog 8) "The Problem We All Live With" Parts I and II, "Separate and Unequal" by Bob Herbert, and the Brown vs. Board of Education website

ARGUMENT

     Since there are three separate pieces to look at for this week's blog, I decided to talk about each of their arguments individually, and then connect the three at the end. I first listened to the radio show, "The Problem We All Live With". There were a few different speakers on this podcast, but they all had the same argument; integrated schools are very beneficial for student's education. The podcast talks about the Normandy school in Missouri. In 2013, it was very behind in racial matters. When the school wanted to bring in kids from a less fortunate background, the parents reactions were shocking. One parent even mentioned that they were worried about their child getting stabbed. The blatant racism is hard to listen to, and the teenage speaker in the show really proves this racism. She had, first hand, experience on what it is like to be treated differently because of your skin color. For the time being that the school was integrated, the new student's education improved greatly. However, as stated, it was too much for everyone, and sadly, they did not continue it. Overall, this radio show was very surprising, but definitely showed that racism still exists today.

     In "Separate and Unequal", Bob Herbert's main argument is that there is still segregation in schools, and that this segregation is holding students back from their full potential. He is very big on the matter of integrated schools. Separating students automatically makes their education unequal. Keeping kids that have bad tendencies with similar peers can only make them worse. They need motivation. It is very similar to putting someone out of shape into a running competition. That person will see everyone else running much faster than them, and it'll only discourage them. They'll most likely feel bad about themselves and will give up on trying to run faster. 

     I then explored the Brown vs. Board of Education website. While they don't really have an argument, their work relates closely to this podcast and reading. It is for the exact cause that these resources are arguing. I found the project's history very interesting. Integration in schools would not be what it is today if it weren't for this association. 

     To relate these three resources, they all have very similar arguments. They all stress the importance of mixing students from poverty backgrounds (who are doing poorly in school), with students that are more fortunate. They kids that are doing better in school can really influence students who have worse grades. They will catch up much faster, and all the students will have a chance to be equal. Overall, these resources send a huge and important message.

QUESTION: After listening about the Normandy school, I looked up their website. They seem to be a lot more diverse than back in 2013. However, I did find this issue that happened two years later. I also noticed that on the Brown vs. the Board of Education website, they had no accomplishments on their timeline since 2003. Do you think the issue of integration is still around in 2018? If so, what could we do to get less diverse schools to expand their racial backgrounds?