According to Lisa Delpit who believes that children who are of color are at a disadvantage to the "culture of power" I am at the advantage. I do agree with what Lisa Delpit does argue in Other People's Children I try to think back and remember how everything falls into place. I'm guessing most of it comes from the upbringing of my parents. My home life, and schooling have probably contributed to what I know as the codes of power.
1.Issues of power are enacted in classrooms.
2.There are codes or rules for participating in power, that is, there is a "culture of power."
3.The rules of the culture of power are a relfection of the rules of the culture of those who have power.
4. If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier.
5. Those with power are freqently least aware of-or least willing to acknowledge -its existence. Those with less power are often most of aware of its existence.
I'm from a middle class family. My parents work we live in a nice home I have 3 other siblings and some pets. I went to a good elementary school where state testing scores for the most part were usually really good. At school I always had respect for my teachers because my mother and father always told me all adults should be respected.
My parents have been very strict with me from day one, "Your room is a mess? Well then you're not going outside." or "If your homework is not completed when you get home, no friends over this weekend." It's funny to look back on now because back then I would be so angry with my parents but now I see every rule that was in my home helped me understand what is acceptable in our society and makes me able to function properly in a society. I am forturnate that I graduated in the top of my highschool graduating class and had the oppurtunity to continue on to college, while others don't have the same oppurtunity I have because they don't know the "culture of power" which does exist.
I want to travel all over the world when I'm done my college education. For me to make it in some countries it would be best if I learned what the country was about and their culture, not to forget a little bit of the language. I could offend someone accidently and not even know it because I don't know that countries "culture of power."
Not only do we learn from our own experiences as to what is acceptable, but we learn from others experiences. People talk in our society and thats how we learn different things through our ability to communicate with others. Others who are new to our country may not know the correct way to communicate with Americans and may offend an American but not intentionally mean it.
As for my future I can relate to Delpit's argument. As a teacher I am in charge of the future, well thats how I kind of see it. I will have the power to educate students who are new to the "culture of power" if I work in an inner city classroom. I agree that if we focus too much on standardized testing and skills testing what will become of everyone? Everyone will be the same person if they all had the same skills. Some jobs require different skills than others. Which is why there are so many different jobs out there because some people may never acquire those skills for a certain job. In my classroom I want to be able to teach students to survive in our society and to be demanded in the job market.
In conclusion, its unfortunate that not every student has gets the same experiences to the same set of rules. However, I do believe the skills teachers do teach the classroom do help prepare a person for their future. Standardized testing does however ruin the outlook employers have on a person. I don't think a test should state whether a person is suitable for a job or not. I think my relation to the "culture of power" comes from what I learned from my own experiences with my parents and throughout my years of school.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
The Silenced Dialogue
The Silenced Dialogue by Lisa Delpit
Delpit argues that there isn't just one way to teach students. We can't reinforce one specific "code". Since everyone is different, each student will have different ways of learning and interpreting that information which is that students own "code".
First off I felt this packet was confusing to read considering that some of the pages seem to have been missing...was it like this for anyone else?
Delpit also argues that the silenced dialogue is a miscommunication of "skills" vs. "process"
"My charge here is not to determine the instructional methodology; I believe that the actual practice of good teachers of all colors typically incorporates a range of pedagogical orientations. Rather, I suggest that the differing perspectives on the debate over "skills" vs. "process" approaches can lead to an understanding of the alienation of the "silenced diaglogue."
(p.24)
What I think Delpit means by this is that the classrooms need to be more diverse. Students need to be able to free express their diversity whether it be race, gender, religion, sexual orientation. Without these things in mind the teacher may never know the thought process of some of these children considering they come from different backgrounds and can't always necessarily relate to one another.
"The teacher cannot be the only expert in the classroom. To deny students their own expert knowledge is to disempower them." (p 32-33)
I think in this quote Delpit is trying to say that someone may be classified as "horrible at reading" or "can't divide math equations" the thing is...the student may need this information intrepreted in a different way and a teacher should encourage the student to do so.
I have a story to go along with this quote :)
My younger sister, was in special ed from preschool up until seventh grade. She let the fact that she was in special ed bring her down. Every night she had homework she would sit there and be like "I can't do this" and even sometimes shred her homework from being so frustrated. The thing is she wasn't stupid like she thought she was...and we encouraged her as much as possible at home. All she needed was to take her time to assess the information and acquire it in any way that best suited. She has found ways that work best for her when she has homework or even in the classroom. She was assessed and for her eighth grade year this year she was moved into a regular ed classroom and I'm very proud of her accomplishments she has had this year. She is an A/B student and I have seen her self esteem rise over her accomplishment. This just goes to show what a "label" can actually do to a student or an unencouraging teacher.
"The narrow focus of No Child Left Behind has driven them to despair as their administrators mandate more and more meaningless, mechanistic goals." (p.xvi-introduction)
These mechanistic goals Delpit sees as a waste. This quote I believe sums up the whole piece written by Delpit. Nevermind setting up skills test for children set them up so they can begin a process and you see the student grow in that process. Skills can come with process, which some skills may take longer to master. Thats why teachers and students need to have the communication that this piece is talking about. One student may love a teacher and think the work is great while another struggles. If too much is focused on these "mechanistic goals" what can be accomplished? and I think that is what Delpit was trying to get out of this piece the most.
Questions, comments, points to share?
I feel as though this piece was hard to read in the fact that everything skipped around since some pages were missing. Overall the piece was great and I could relate that to my life since my sister lives at home so I have experieced a situation that may deal with Delpit's argue. If anyone has anything to add or comment feel free. I tried to understand what was going on and interpret this the best way I could :).
Delpit argues that there isn't just one way to teach students. We can't reinforce one specific "code". Since everyone is different, each student will have different ways of learning and interpreting that information which is that students own "code".
First off I felt this packet was confusing to read considering that some of the pages seem to have been missing...was it like this for anyone else?
Delpit also argues that the silenced dialogue is a miscommunication of "skills" vs. "process"
"My charge here is not to determine the instructional methodology; I believe that the actual practice of good teachers of all colors typically incorporates a range of pedagogical orientations. Rather, I suggest that the differing perspectives on the debate over "skills" vs. "process" approaches can lead to an understanding of the alienation of the "silenced diaglogue."
(p.24)
What I think Delpit means by this is that the classrooms need to be more diverse. Students need to be able to free express their diversity whether it be race, gender, religion, sexual orientation. Without these things in mind the teacher may never know the thought process of some of these children considering they come from different backgrounds and can't always necessarily relate to one another.
"The teacher cannot be the only expert in the classroom. To deny students their own expert knowledge is to disempower them." (p 32-33)
I think in this quote Delpit is trying to say that someone may be classified as "horrible at reading" or "can't divide math equations" the thing is...the student may need this information intrepreted in a different way and a teacher should encourage the student to do so.
I have a story to go along with this quote :)
My younger sister, was in special ed from preschool up until seventh grade. She let the fact that she was in special ed bring her down. Every night she had homework she would sit there and be like "I can't do this" and even sometimes shred her homework from being so frustrated. The thing is she wasn't stupid like she thought she was...and we encouraged her as much as possible at home. All she needed was to take her time to assess the information and acquire it in any way that best suited. She has found ways that work best for her when she has homework or even in the classroom. She was assessed and for her eighth grade year this year she was moved into a regular ed classroom and I'm very proud of her accomplishments she has had this year. She is an A/B student and I have seen her self esteem rise over her accomplishment. This just goes to show what a "label" can actually do to a student or an unencouraging teacher.
"The narrow focus of No Child Left Behind has driven them to despair as their administrators mandate more and more meaningless, mechanistic goals." (p.xvi-introduction)
These mechanistic goals Delpit sees as a waste. This quote I believe sums up the whole piece written by Delpit. Nevermind setting up skills test for children set them up so they can begin a process and you see the student grow in that process. Skills can come with process, which some skills may take longer to master. Thats why teachers and students need to have the communication that this piece is talking about. One student may love a teacher and think the work is great while another struggles. If too much is focused on these "mechanistic goals" what can be accomplished? and I think that is what Delpit was trying to get out of this piece the most.
Questions, comments, points to share?
I feel as though this piece was hard to read in the fact that everything skipped around since some pages were missing. Overall the piece was great and I could relate that to my life since my sister lives at home so I have experieced a situation that may deal with Delpit's argue. If anyone has anything to add or comment feel free. I tried to understand what was going on and interpret this the best way I could :).
Thursday, May 22, 2008
First Day in VIPS program.
So today was my first day at Anthony Carnevale Elementary school. I had to be there for 9 so I showed up at quarter of just so I could get everything situated. The prinicpal wasn't there for me to introduce myself so I sat and waited. I was sitting in the main office waiting for the reading coach I would be working with and I was observing my surroundings. This one little boy came into the office crying. He said he got punched in the stomach by some boy who had been bullying him all year! I felt so bad.
After that little dilemma the reading coach Ms. Sasso came in and I met with her and she told me what I would be doing the two days I came in every week. I have 3 esl students. Two are in second grade and one is in fifth grade. The students have very different situations as to why the can't speak english. The fifth grader has never gone to school in her life! So this is a big jump for that student and today while I was working with the student and she was learning site words she did such a great job. I helped her sound out words which became easier for her and it got to the point where the student was able to sound them out on her own.
I noticed that she was confusing H and R. The student got the letter R right all the time but when it came to the letter H she would say that it made the sound the letter R did. I wrote little things like this down and after I returned the student back to the classroom I talked with the reading coach and she seemed very impressed that I noticed these things and knew to write them down because whatever I notice may be a way where we can think of something to help her.
My other two second grade students did so well. We took turns reading pages in a book and I stopped to ask questions like: "do you think that peg will be mad that Tag the puppy and Kit the cat took her wig ?"
The time went by so fast and I had a great time getting to work with these students. I even learned some new lingo. One of the second graders was telling me she was from the "R" and I had no idea what the "R" was. She turned and looked at me like "you have to be kidding me!" and she said "The dominican republic!!! where else would I be from??" Unfortuenatly I cant go back tomorrow because one of the classes has a field trip so I had to do a schedule change, so I will return on Tuesday after our class.
After that little dilemma the reading coach Ms. Sasso came in and I met with her and she told me what I would be doing the two days I came in every week. I have 3 esl students. Two are in second grade and one is in fifth grade. The students have very different situations as to why the can't speak english. The fifth grader has never gone to school in her life! So this is a big jump for that student and today while I was working with the student and she was learning site words she did such a great job. I helped her sound out words which became easier for her and it got to the point where the student was able to sound them out on her own.
I noticed that she was confusing H and R. The student got the letter R right all the time but when it came to the letter H she would say that it made the sound the letter R did. I wrote little things like this down and after I returned the student back to the classroom I talked with the reading coach and she seemed very impressed that I noticed these things and knew to write them down because whatever I notice may be a way where we can think of something to help her.
My other two second grade students did so well. We took turns reading pages in a book and I stopped to ask questions like: "do you think that peg will be mad that Tag the puppy and Kit the cat took her wig ?"
The time went by so fast and I had a great time getting to work with these students. I even learned some new lingo. One of the second graders was telling me she was from the "R" and I had no idea what the "R" was. She turned and looked at me like "you have to be kidding me!" and she said "The dominican republic!!! where else would I be from??" Unfortuenatly I cant go back tomorrow because one of the classes has a field trip so I had to do a schedule change, so I will return on Tuesday after our class.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Privilege, Power, and Difference
Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan G. Johnson
The introduction of this piece states the position of Johnson. We have differences in our society which the people of our who created the problem cannot seem to fix. The differences Johnson talks about include; gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and social class. Johnson's position relates to the S.C.W.A.A.M.P exercise we did in class. These are issues that need to be addressed but I think we are always going to have issues because people seem to always look to the past for their answers instead of what is really happening today. An example, women get the same education as a men. Why would a man be more qualified for the job? Especially if they have the same education. The thing is, people have this idea in their mind that men were the ones who "bring home bacon" and they think thats how it should be.
Before I begin I would just like to state that I don't completely agree with Johnson on this topic. He often talks about "privileged" people but what standard does he hold for someone who is "privileged." Is owning a house a "privileged"? Or just having a job that pays "privileged?"
On page ten Johnson states that,
“Privilege is always a problem for people who don’t have it and or people who do, because privilege is always in relation to others. Privilege is always at someone else’s expense and always exacts a cost. Everything that’s done to receive or maintain it-however passive and unconscious-results in suffering and deprivation for someone.” (Johnson page 10)
I don't agree with this at all because like I said in class everyone has the oppurtunity to become privileged. Life is basically what you make of it. People in other countries do not have what we have here. We have help systems here to help other people. Subsidised living that goes by your monthly earnings,(wellfare, foodstamps) If everyone really had such a problem with eachother like he says they do, why do people give food to soup kitchens? or clothing? Not everyone participates in this but people do have the chance in America to go to school and earn a degree. Everyone has an oppurtunity to work. In another country if your parents are farmers well guess what? YOU are going to be a farmer you have no choice. Here in America people have that privlege to be what they want to be.
Another quote that I found seemed to be a little contradicting to his argument.
"And we're astonishingly adaptable. We can figure out how to live just about anywhere under almost any conditions you could imagine. We can take in the strange and unfamiliar and learn to understand and embrace it, whether it's a new language or an odd food or teh mysteries of death and dying or the person siting next to us on the crosstown bus who doesn't look like anyone we've seen before."(Johnson page 6.)
If we can adapt to differences then why does he make it such a point that people make such a big deal about someone being different? If you can adapt to someone being different from you on the bus, why can't you adapt to see them in your neighborhood?or on the job site? It just doesn't make sense to me. If someone can come up with a way this wouldn't be contradicting feel free to comment because I am open to any other point of view on this situation.
However, I do agree with Johnson that society does have a problem but I believe it is getting better or has the potential to progress and get better. Johnson does have a point when he says,
"As a white, male, middle-classs heterosexual, I know that in some ways these words are about me. There's no way to avoid playing some role in the troubles they name, and that's something I need to look at. But in equally important ways, the words are not about me because they name something much lareger than me, something I didn't invent or create, but that was passed on to me as a legacy when I was born into this society. If I'm going to be part of the solution to that difficult legacy, it's important to step back from my defensive sensititivy to such language and look at the reality it points to. Then I can understand what it names and what it has to do with me and, most important, what I can do about it." (Johnson p. 14)
What I think Johnson is saying that a huge portion of society's problems with differences relates to the history of people. The background they have that you don't necessarily know about. I think we have a strong society and issues have been getting better. Gays and Lesbians are getting more rights when it comes to marriage even though they had to fight for it. The situation has come a long way. Our society has interacial marriage, children are more than one ethnicity. Our society does its best to make sure every child has food on the table by offering the programs of foodstamps and welfare to help people get the help they need to supply for themselves and family. We have aid that helps students who want to pursue their education and go to college. It may take a while for things to get better but I think our society does have a start.
The introduction of this piece states the position of Johnson. We have differences in our society which the people of our who created the problem cannot seem to fix. The differences Johnson talks about include; gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and social class. Johnson's position relates to the S.C.W.A.A.M.P exercise we did in class. These are issues that need to be addressed but I think we are always going to have issues because people seem to always look to the past for their answers instead of what is really happening today. An example, women get the same education as a men. Why would a man be more qualified for the job? Especially if they have the same education. The thing is, people have this idea in their mind that men were the ones who "bring home bacon" and they think thats how it should be.
Before I begin I would just like to state that I don't completely agree with Johnson on this topic. He often talks about "privileged" people but what standard does he hold for someone who is "privileged." Is owning a house a "privileged"? Or just having a job that pays "privileged?"
On page ten Johnson states that,
“Privilege is always a problem for people who don’t have it and or people who do, because privilege is always in relation to others. Privilege is always at someone else’s expense and always exacts a cost. Everything that’s done to receive or maintain it-however passive and unconscious-results in suffering and deprivation for someone.” (Johnson page 10)
I don't agree with this at all because like I said in class everyone has the oppurtunity to become privileged. Life is basically what you make of it. People in other countries do not have what we have here. We have help systems here to help other people. Subsidised living that goes by your monthly earnings,(wellfare, foodstamps) If everyone really had such a problem with eachother like he says they do, why do people give food to soup kitchens? or clothing? Not everyone participates in this but people do have the chance in America to go to school and earn a degree. Everyone has an oppurtunity to work. In another country if your parents are farmers well guess what? YOU are going to be a farmer you have no choice. Here in America people have that privlege to be what they want to be.
Another quote that I found seemed to be a little contradicting to his argument.
"And we're astonishingly adaptable. We can figure out how to live just about anywhere under almost any conditions you could imagine. We can take in the strange and unfamiliar and learn to understand and embrace it, whether it's a new language or an odd food or teh mysteries of death and dying or the person siting next to us on the crosstown bus who doesn't look like anyone we've seen before."(Johnson page 6.)
If we can adapt to differences then why does he make it such a point that people make such a big deal about someone being different? If you can adapt to someone being different from you on the bus, why can't you adapt to see them in your neighborhood?or on the job site? It just doesn't make sense to me. If someone can come up with a way this wouldn't be contradicting feel free to comment because I am open to any other point of view on this situation.
However, I do agree with Johnson that society does have a problem but I believe it is getting better or has the potential to progress and get better. Johnson does have a point when he says,
"As a white, male, middle-classs heterosexual, I know that in some ways these words are about me. There's no way to avoid playing some role in the troubles they name, and that's something I need to look at. But in equally important ways, the words are not about me because they name something much lareger than me, something I didn't invent or create, but that was passed on to me as a legacy when I was born into this society. If I'm going to be part of the solution to that difficult legacy, it's important to step back from my defensive sensititivy to such language and look at the reality it points to. Then I can understand what it names and what it has to do with me and, most important, what I can do about it." (Johnson p. 14)
What I think Johnson is saying that a huge portion of society's problems with differences relates to the history of people. The background they have that you don't necessarily know about. I think we have a strong society and issues have been getting better. Gays and Lesbians are getting more rights when it comes to marriage even though they had to fight for it. The situation has come a long way. Our society has interacial marriage, children are more than one ethnicity. Our society does its best to make sure every child has food on the table by offering the programs of foodstamps and welfare to help people get the help they need to supply for themselves and family. We have aid that helps students who want to pursue their education and go to college. It may take a while for things to get better but I think our society does have a start.
First post, About me!
My name is Katelin, but I mostly go by Kate. I'm ninteen years old. I'm from Woonsocket, Rhode Island. I just completed my first year at RIC, and it was a great year for me. College is different from highschool but I enjoy it! I'm looking forward to my education at RIC and being an elementary school teacher. As for now, I work at a restaurant Uncle Ronnies Red Tavern as a waitress. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. The weather is great, and summer is fast apporoaching, which is fine with me! School takes up so much time so it will be nice to just kick back and relax! Especially now that all my friends are back it will be nice to see everyone. When I'm not in class, I like to go the gym, and go biking when the weather is nice. I like shopping and buying pocketbooks...really random, I guess? I play the piano and used to take voice lessons, I love music. I have two cockerspaniel dogs Roxie and Lillie and I love them! They are seriously my shadows! I will see if I can get some pictures up. I'm not very good with technology. Tomorrow is my first day in the VIPS program, I'm looking forward to that very much. Hopefully everything goes okay...I'm sure it will...I will update about what happens.
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