I saw this commercial on tv tonight. I thought it was an awesome commercial and made a great connection to the conversations we've had in the past about diversity in commercials as well as inclusion.

Privilege, Power, and Difference

“Privilege, Power, and Difference”
By: Allan G. Johnson


Author’s Argument:

Johnson’s argument in this article is that the only way that the only way that the problem of privilege and oppression can be taken care of is if all of us become part of the solution.


Quotes:

1. “Privilege exists when one group has something that is systematically denied to others not because of who they are or what they’ve done or not done, but because of the social category they belong to.”

• This quote is pretty much the best definition of privilege I’ve read so far and has helped me understand it all more clearly. It says that privilege is the denial of something to one group because of their social category, not because of who they are specifically or anything in particular they’ve done.

2. “Also paradoxical is the fact that privilege doesn’t necessarily lead to a “good life”, which can prompt people in privileged groups to deny resentfully that they even have it. But privilege doesn’t equate with being happy. It involves having what others don’t have and the struggle to hang on to it at their expense, neither of which is a recipe for joy, personal fulfillment, or spiritual contentment.”

• This quote reminded me of the saying money can’t buy you happiness. This quote is saying that privilege doesn’t cause you to have a “good life” so most people who are considered part of a privileged group deny that they are privileged because they don’t view themselves as leading a “good life” or having a lot more then others. Privilege also doesn’t bring happiness or fulfillment, it just brings stress and struggle and the need for denial.

3. “We don’t have to think sexist or racist thoughts in order to participate in a system through which sexist and racist trouble happens. Participating is all it takes to involve us. It’s also all it takes to give us the potential to be part of the solution, for when we see how we’re connected to the problem, we can also see how we can make a difference by choosing differently as we participate in making systems happen.”

• This quote is saying that in order to participate in a negative environment we don’t need to actually do a negative act we just have to be part of the system and to not try to be a solution. If we can all be part of the problem then we can all be part of the solution.

Questions/Comments:
I really liked this article by Johnson, much better then the first one we read by him actually. I have a much clearer understanding of the meaning of privilege and everyone’s role in the problem and the solution. Maybe I liked this article better because the first Johnson article was towards the beginning of the semester and it seems like I’ve learned and grown since reading that article.

Schooling Children with Down Syndrome

"Schooling Children with Down Syndrome"
By: Christopher Kliewer


Author's Argument:
In this article Kwielwer expresses the need for people to view and respect people with disabilities as equals and provide them with equal opportunities.

Quotes:

1. "How absurd to be judged by others at all, especially by those who have never experienced a disability or who are unwillingly providing us with support or who don't listen to the voices we have."

• This quote is speaking about judging others when you've never experienced what they are. This quote reminded me of a quote from Peggy McIntosh from the conference “Nobody is the authority on your experiences but you". It isn't fair to judge or refuse to help those who need us because we are ignorant to their differences.

2. "[Community] requires a willingness to see people as they are-different perhaps in their minds and in their bodies, but not different in their spirits or in their willingness and ability to contribute to the mosaic of society. It requires the "helper" to have the humility to listen for what the person says he or she needs. Also, the "helper" must see that the interaction "helps" both ways."

• This quote is saying that community means we must all view each other as equals even when we are different on the outside. Also, everyone's ability to participate in society must be recognized, we all play different roles that make up this very complex world. A person "helping" someone with a disability must realize they are helping and being helped through the experience.

3. "...society itself is hurt when schools act as cultural 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 dominant society's preferences in matters of ability, gender, ethnicity, and race...and [that] endorse an elaborate process of sorting by perceived ability and behavior."

• This quote made me think of the tracking article we read a few weeks ago. This quote is saying that society is hurt when schools track and that schools legitimize these practices based on what dominant society says who meets the standards. Also, it's saying that children of all abilities and standards are being judged in this way, children from all cultures, learning levels, and those with disabilities.

Questions/Comments:
I essentially agree with what everyone else said, this was a great article once you got through all the technical stuff at the beginning. I've always felt like there isn't enough stuff like this out there, in the mainstream, to make people understand what disabilities are all about and to teach them to be more compassionate about the topic. This article was touching, and even though my concentration isn't in special education I hope to one day have a classroom of mixed students, all working together in harmony, helping each other go further, and where there is no judgments passed.

One More River to Cross

‘One More River to Cross“
By: Charles Lawrence

Author’s Argument:
In this article Lawrence argues that African Americans were emotionally and physically affected by segregation. African American student’s education was affected by the segregation, and forced them to view themselves as inferior.

Quotes:

1. “The third is that the institution of segregation is organic and self-perpetuating. Once established it will not be eliminated by mere removal of public sanction but must be affirmatively destroyed.”

• This quote is saying that segregation is self-sustaining, meaning once it starts it continues on its own. Once segregation is established it cannot be gotten rid of by just saying it’s gone or has to stop but it must be directly taken care of and destroyed.

2. “That the purpose of the institution of segregation has always been to stigmatize and subordinate rather than to simply separate is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that whites in the antebellum South had no aversion to commingling with African Americans so long as the institution of slavery made their superior status clear.”

• This quote is a statement about the true purpose of segregation. It says that segregation was never meant to just separate people, it was meant to condemn a certain race and put them at a lower status. The quote gives the example of the South, and how segregation was meant to separate whites and African Americans, but it was ok for them to commingle when it was in the form of a slave and slave owner because the class and status differences were made very clear. So as long as in the situation it was made very clear the superiority of the whites, then it was ok for each race to be together at the same place and same time.

3. “Many African American schools that existed within the segregated school systems of the South were in fact superior to their white counterparts. It is ironic that most of these schools achieved their excellence as a direct result of the discrimination inherent in a segregated society, in that the best African American professionals were forced into teaching by their virtual exclusion from other fields.”

• This quote stood out the most to me in this article. Segregation was meant to not only separate, but as I said before, make a clear point to condemn and undermine a certain race. This would mean overall that whites viewed themselves as superior to African Americans and they made it known that they were of a higher status. So it is in fact ironic that the African American schools were better then the white schools because segregation forced very intelligent African Americans out of their original professions and into teaching. So if the purpose of segregation was to essentially prove white superiority, it did exactly the opposite in this case and made the African Americans better then the whites.

Questions/Comments:

This article was interesting but very long and drawn out. I do believe our country is still in a slightly less severe state of segregation and discrimination. I don’t believe it will ever end until some day, some how people learn that we are all equal. We are all made up of the same things, and the color of our packaging is the least important thing. It is in fact just skin, nothing more, and nothing to hate eachother over.

Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route
By: Jeannie Oakes

Author’s Argument:
This article is about tracking and ability grouping in schools and the students it helps and harms in doing so. The author of this article is saying that by grouping students into high, average, and low performing groups schools are limiting the resources each group gets. They are pushing the high performing students higher, keeping average students “uninterested” and “unspecial”, and keeping the low performing students down and unable to excel.

Quotes:


1. “Students who need more time to learn appear to get less: those who have the most difficulty learning seem to have fewer of the best teachers.”

• This quote is a reflection of how each group of students gets attention after they are grouped into those high, average and low performing categories. This quote states that the lower performing group is the one who needs more time in the classroom, working on the topics they are struggling with, but they are the ones who get the least amount of time dedicated to that. It also is saying that the lower performing groups are the ones who need the most help with learning and they don’t get the best teachers to help them, like they should, the higher performing groups get the best teachers. This quote stood out to me because it’s something being talked about a lot right now as part of the Presidential election campaigns. Obama has talked about giving the best teachers more money to work in lower performing schools to help them. Obama has said that he realizes it isn’t fair that the high performing get all the good supplies, teachers, buildings and funding and the lower performing schools and stuck being lower performing because they aren’t given a chance at better resources.

2. “…the proliferation of classes and special programs for students at the extremes-students with high abilities or with handicaps-had the effect of making students in the middle “unspecial” and guaranteeing that they were taught in quite “unspecial” ways.”

• This quote is a statement about how the average performing students are treated when it comes to tracking. The high performing students get the best teachers, and resources, and are pushed to excel. The lower performing students don’t get the best teachers, get the bare minimum of resources and aren’t taught the things they would need in order to excel and possibly become part of the high performing group. The average students on the other hand have very little expected of them. Their teachers set routines, lecture them, give them worksheets or “busy work” and all work and learning is kept to the minimum required. Distractions are encouraged and these “average” students are rarely asked or expect to thinking outside of the box or deeply about any subject they’re being taught. The average performing students are taught to do just that, skate by doing the minimum requirements and get “average” grades, don’t push yourself of try to be better or excel. This is INSANE.

3. “Perhaps the most important and difficult task for those who would change tracking is to confront deeply held beliefs, such as the belief that academic ability is fixed very early and is largely unchangeable or that achievement differences can be largely accounted for by differences in ability.”

• This quote is saying that in order for the act of tracking in schools to be changed the people doing it would have to change the belief system that is causing them to do it, which is that everyone has a set academic ability and that no one can do any better or worse if they’re given different resources or give more effort. This quote basically says if you’re a high performer from birth you always will be, and if you’re average you’ll always be average and never be able to excel and be better then average, and if you’re a low performer you’re screwed. Low performers are destined to nothingness, they’ll never excel or ever be better, so why bother wasting time helping them? This is also INSANE. Why should we help students who have trouble learning? Because everyone can be better. I was always brought up to do my best. If I brought home a 90 it could have been a 100. If I brought home a 100 I could have gotten the bonus question. How can we doom mere children to being stuck at a low level for life when maybe they just have a different style of learning then other children? You can’t give up on them. We can all do better, but it isn’t all up to us and out self-motivation, we have to all be given equal opportunities and resources to excel.

Questions/ Comments:

I enjoyed reading this article even though it was kind of upsetting. I hope that tracking is something that they are getting out of schools ASAP because it isn’t helping anyone. This says that some children benefit from tracking because if we put all children in the same classroom and taught them all at the same pace that some children would be bored and some would be stuck on certain things. Well I’m doing the reading buddies program as my service learning project, and I’m helping children who are struggling with reading and phonics. We have special programs in schools for high and low performing students. The children I work with aren’t taken out of their class because they’re struggling, they just get a little bit of extra help on the side, just like high performing children can be guided to learn more on their own so they wont get bored. I don’t believe tracking helps anyone and should be removed from all schools.

In The Service of What? The Policies of Service Learning
By: Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

Author’s Argument:
In this article the authors discuss the important of service learning projects emphasizing meaningful service. The authors believe that a service learning experience should inspire a desire for change, not just charity.

Quotes:

1. “Educators and legislators alike maintain that service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom, providing rich educational experiences for students at all levels of schooling. Service learning makes students active participants in service projects that aim to respond to the needs of the community while furthering the academic goal of students.”

• This quote is trying to stress the importance of service learning projects in all schools by explaining how they enrich students educationally while at the same time helping the community. I completely agree with this quote. All students should have the experience of working in the community as part of a service learning project. Service Learning isn’t just helping others, it should be an experience where the student learns from the person they are helping or learns about the situation they are helping to change and make better.

2. “To tap into the full power of service activities, however, these practitioners would want to combine critical inquiry with action. This process can transform students’ understandings of both disciplinary knowledge and the particular social issues with which they are engaged.”

• This quote is talking about how service learning can’t just be a community service project where the student is allowed to just do work and stay disconnected from the people involved. The school needs to first get the students educated and involved with the actual problem they are dealing with, whether it be homelessness or a natural disaster they are helping victims of. The students need to have a background and full understanding of the problem at hand in order to come to an understanding and brainstorm a plan to CHANGE and best help those in need. We need change and solutions, not just a band aid on all of our problems.

3. “These statements testify to the transformative power of service learning experiences. The effect could become even greater if students discussed the possible causes of these rumors and their impact.”

• This quote is from part of the article that is talking about students who were nervous about going to a certain neighborhood for their service learning because of what they had heard about the area. This quote is saying that service learning has the power to transform the minds of the impressionable and teach them that not everything is what people say it is and that people can be different then what you always thought they might be. It is also saying that if the students who go to those “bad” neighborhoods take the time to talk about the way people judged those neighborhoods, and how it had made a bad impression on them that would have stayed if they hadn’t gone to see for themselves, they might be able to urge others to be more open minded.

Questions/Comments:
This wasn’t my favorite of all the articles we’ve read so far but there were some parts I liked. I do like certain things that they said about service learning such as that it should be about change and not charity and how it has the power to transform people. I love that we talk about our service learning projects in class, it helps me look at my own project in a new light and I’m happy to share and hear how other people are opening there minds to theirs.

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us
By. Linda Christensen


Authors Argument:
In this article the author discusses the “secret education” taught to children through books and movies. The “secret education” Christensen is talking about is to see the world, sex, race, and class a certain way, subliminally through cartoons.

Quotes:

1. “The “secret education”, as Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman dubs it, delivered by children’s books and movies, instructs young people to accept the world as it is portrayed in these social blueprints. And often that world depicts the domination of one sex, one race, on class, or one country over a weaker counterpart….When we read children’s books, we aren’t just reading cute little stories, we are discovering the tools with which a young society is manipulated.”

• This quote is saying that children are taught a “secret education” through books and movies, and that this “secret education” teaches them to see the world, sex, race and class a certain way. This “secret education” is taught subliminally through these children’s books and movies, and also through cartoons, so as to be deceiving to someone not looking for racism or sexism.

2. “ It can be overwhelming and discouraging to find out my self image has been formed mostly by others or underneath my worries about what I look like are years (17 of them) of being exposed to TV images of girls and their set roles given to them by TV and the media…..So why dissect the dreams? Why not stay ignorant about them and happy?”

• This quote is talking about the influence of advertising and media on girls self image. The girl who said this was acknowledging the fact, not happily, that her life has been influenced by the media and other people. She felt as though she’d rather live in ignorance of it all and be happy with the way she was living her life before rather then dissect everything in the media and see it for what it really is and be miserable that she let herself be influenced so much, and question her true identity.

3. “Because we can never look like Cinderella, we begin to hate ourselves. The Barbie syndrome starts as we begin a lifelong search for the perfect body. Crash diets, fat phobias, and an obsession with materialistic become commonplace.”

• This quote is a reference to how the media, even children’s stories, portray women. The image of women in the media is tall, skinny, and beautiful and by starting to show children this image at such a young age in everything they read and watch it gives them “Barbie syndrome”. These unrealistic images of women influence girls and women to do everything they can to achieve that perfect look, the perfect body and they become materialistic and most of the time live with an unhealthy obsession with weight.

Questions/ Comments:

I thought this article was great. It really made you think about how much you let media influence and control your own life, since you were a child even. It also made you look back at some of the movies, TV shows and books you read as a child and break them down and think of what the characters may have portrayed and taught. It was especially important to me that this article contained so much about the role of women: the portrayal of women in children’s books/movies, how media influences women, and the Barbie syndrome.