Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Warrior intelectuals of guerilla education
We are building a new movement in my garage, Kinchloe talks about Warrior intellectuals. These are students who are taught to think outside of the box; children from our urban centers, who have been expelled by the mainstream, for any number of reason, behavior, class failure or simply non attendance. These children are moving from the mainstream in to alternative schools to find education that speaks to them, that engages them that brings them past the limited learning that most school in the United States provide to students in urban/inner city schools. Under the recent No Child Left Behind (NCLB) format much of what is taught in not preforming schools is haigh scripted and extreme rigid to the test based curriculum.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The struggle we feel in being out of place.
I am reading a book of biracial/bicultural/multicultural/multiethnic experiences. It is strange to hear people resonate with how I have felt on and off much of my life. There is a strange aloneness involved in being essentially undefinable. People who seek outside of their own culture for some kind of belonging, people who have too many cultures to claim true belonging to any of their "cultures" look for meaning in all cultures. Strangely, I feel at home in places where I have no cultural or ethnic ties, and I have heard others say the same. How can a white Icelandic/Irish American feel at home in Saudi Arabia or Kenya, more so than at home in her native cultures? (To some this is illogical). Somehow for people who examine, study or attempt to "heal" these people, multis (for lack of a better name at the moment) are sad examples of failure, on their own behalf, their parents, and not seen as a failure of culture and society to look at them as full and true people who see the world in unique ways.
Yes, the struggle to be more than mono is sometimes hard, often alienating, and requires one to explain oneself more than one should, but for me and so many of the people I know, the ability to be many in one is a strength and a treasure. We can talk to, understand and sympathize with so many different experiences. We create our own networks, be they cultural, social, racial or ethnic. Each circle is different and has its strengths and weaknesses, but rarely do we feel less complete or less unified than a mono does.
The book speaks to me of a sadness not bound in confusion and lack of awareness, rather of sadness bound in pity for those who fail to understand, accept and need to constantly categorize us as one or the other or whatever seems to be appropriate at the time. We get angry, frustrated or saddened by people who are too short sited to accept and tolerate ambiguity. We are not psychologically damaged as teens when we form our identity, because this struggle is "torn from a oneness." We come out stronger and more vibrant, more creative, and ultimately enduring because of the external boundaries placed on us, by a narrow-minded society.
At times I have felt lonely and out of place, both here in the US and in Iceland. More often in Iceland where in the mid seventies, foreign born individuals and multiethic people where in short supply, and the culture was still homogeneous enough to consider Icelandic/Americans as not full Icelanders. I left with a deep cultural understands, abiding language skill in one of the most complex Indo-European languages, the ability to speak, read or understand six languages and the distinct feeling of an outsider. But I digress perhaps a tad, reading Half and Half, there is the same loneliness I have felt and begin to wonder if my child has felt any of these things.
Yes, the struggle to be more than mono is sometimes hard, often alienating, and requires one to explain oneself more than one should, but for me and so many of the people I know, the ability to be many in one is a strength and a treasure. We can talk to, understand and sympathize with so many different experiences. We create our own networks, be they cultural, social, racial or ethnic. Each circle is different and has its strengths and weaknesses, but rarely do we feel less complete or less unified than a mono does.
The book speaks to me of a sadness not bound in confusion and lack of awareness, rather of sadness bound in pity for those who fail to understand, accept and need to constantly categorize us as one or the other or whatever seems to be appropriate at the time. We get angry, frustrated or saddened by people who are too short sited to accept and tolerate ambiguity. We are not psychologically damaged as teens when we form our identity, because this struggle is "torn from a oneness." We come out stronger and more vibrant, more creative, and ultimately enduring because of the external boundaries placed on us, by a narrow-minded society.
At times I have felt lonely and out of place, both here in the US and in Iceland. More often in Iceland where in the mid seventies, foreign born individuals and multiethic people where in short supply, and the culture was still homogeneous enough to consider Icelandic/Americans as not full Icelanders. I left with a deep cultural understands, abiding language skill in one of the most complex Indo-European languages, the ability to speak, read or understand six languages and the distinct feeling of an outsider. But I digress perhaps a tad, reading Half and Half, there is the same loneliness I have felt and begin to wonder if my child has felt any of these things.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Response to a teacher letter
Thanks, Moni! It's so nice to hear someone talk about learning environments and
about students getting inspired to learn and about students participating and
thinking about the relevance of their learning. It's what Montessorians have been
doing for over a century -- though at a much more low tech level. His world
simulation is like a lot of activities that I've done with students on a smaller
scale -- like when DC and I taught The Colonizer and the Colonized class together
and the students played a complicated game in which they were trying to colonize
the world and had to deal with all kinds of issues of resources and rebellions and
wars. It is very like the original vision of Great River -- though of course we
struggled with students not using the technology properly and then, of course, you
need a really good financial base to be able to do this -- as well as more freedom
than the public school system gives. Thanks for sharing! Sara
In this day and age cost of technology is no longer the issue in
question, since there are so many online schools that provide computers
to each and every student, and these are not small suburban or exurban
schools, but urban and rural schools attempting to attract today's
students who are pushed out of other schools.
As for the use of the technology which isn't directly discussed in the
video, it is no longer a question of appropriate use as in are they not
using it when they should and what are they doing with it when they
should, but rather a question of looking at what technologies that are
out there are being use and in what capacity. Twitter is a method of
communication same as the texting students do in school, walking down
the street, sitting in bed. We tend to see this like other "out of the
box" behavior as inappropriate, rather than trying to understand the
technology and find a level of use in the class for it so it is no
longer disruptive but rather helpful.
The new iphones are a prime example of this since they can do most
anything. We assume that the children don't learn from the use of
"facebook" or the "internets" in general, but talk to anyone of your
kids or students and ask them to tell you about the most recent thing
they looked up on youtube, chances are they wanted to learn something
and then just went and found out about it. The true value of technology
here is teaching them that is is so more than just a toy, that it is a
tool that helps you get further than ever before. Technology has so
changed media, the music industry, the library, the political arena
that when we fail to use it in schools regularly we are leaving kids
out of the loop in so many ways especially those who may not have
access to in an outside of school setting.
about students getting inspired to learn and about students participating and
thinking about the relevance of their learning. It's what Montessorians have been
doing for over a century -- though at a much more low tech level. His world
simulation is like a lot of activities that I've done with students on a smaller
scale -- like when DC and I taught The Colonizer and the Colonized class together
and the students played a complicated game in which they were trying to colonize
the world and had to deal with all kinds of issues of resources and rebellions and
wars. It is very like the original vision of Great River -- though of course we
struggled with students not using the technology properly and then, of course, you
need a really good financial base to be able to do this -- as well as more freedom
than the public school system gives. Thanks for sharing! Sara
In this day and age cost of technology is no longer the issue in
question, since there are so many online schools that provide computers
to each and every student, and these are not small suburban or exurban
schools, but urban and rural schools attempting to attract today's
students who are pushed out of other schools.
As for the use of the technology which isn't directly discussed in the
video, it is no longer a question of appropriate use as in are they not
using it when they should and what are they doing with it when they
should, but rather a question of looking at what technologies that are
out there are being use and in what capacity. Twitter is a method of
communication same as the texting students do in school, walking down
the street, sitting in bed. We tend to see this like other "out of the
box" behavior as inappropriate, rather than trying to understand the
technology and find a level of use in the class for it so it is no
longer disruptive but rather helpful.
The new iphones are a prime example of this since they can do most
anything. We assume that the children don't learn from the use of
"facebook" or the "internets" in general, but talk to anyone of your
kids or students and ask them to tell you about the most recent thing
they looked up on youtube, chances are they wanted to learn something
and then just went and found out about it. The true value of technology
here is teaching them that is is so more than just a toy, that it is a
tool that helps you get further than ever before. Technology has so
changed media, the music industry, the library, the political arena
that when we fail to use it in schools regularly we are leaving kids
out of the loop in so many ways especially those who may not have
access to in an outside of school setting.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Identity
Research before 1990 on identity development of multi- and biracial teens, indicated that many of them where having difficulties developing stable adult identities. Gibbs et all (1991) found the majority of teens were more depressed and less sure about their future plans than other teens claiming mono-racial status. The studies over the years had similar results. These studies were notably all done with adolescents who received psychological counseling (Gibbs, 1989; Root, 1992; Rockquemore, 2003) . More recent studies have found that biracial and multi-racial teens experience similar identity confusion to mono-racial teens. Rockquemore et al (2003) found that young adults and teens with one white parent and one black parent were over all well adjusted. Rockquemore found that there are four distinct personalities held by biracial young adults: border identity, singular identity, protean identity, and transcendent identity. These four identities are represented in biracial youth to varying degrees.
A youth who hold a transcendent identity "consciously denies having any racial identity whatsoever" (Rockquemore, 2003, p. 71). For these youth race is not an identifying construct in their world. In her study Rockquemore supposed that individuals choosing such an identity would be biracials who could pass for being white. However the study showed that there was a spectrum of color difference in the choice of transcendence. In the first phase of the research the supposition of understanding identity by “color” held for the transcendent identity, but the second tier found that these youth had a large network of white friends and community and they had experienced a continues understanding of themselves from the pre-adult phases of their lives to the adult phase.
Individuals who held protean identities did not have “a single, unified racial identity,” rather they had constructed multiple identities the utilize in the required contexts (Rockquemore, 2003, p. 69). This identity coincides with what Major (1992) calls the “cool pose” where black men develop a variety of personae to cope with the racial discrimination and socio-economic difficulties they experience in their personal lives. These individuals are conversant in a wide variety of cultural experiences and are readily accepted as in members in different social settings. This identity requires a great sensitivity and “mastery of various cultural norms and values and an ongoing awareness and monitoring of the presentation of self” (Rockquemore, 2003, p. 69). Here the focus is on identity as process. The study found that this group felt the closest with both the black and the white social groups to which they belonged. Here the distinction from Majors 'cool pose' arises, as protean biracial do not feel put out or like they are masking their true selves, but rather this is the expression of their true selves. This identity corresponds well to bicultural individuals who can move through society fluidly, having developed high cultural competency and cultural sensitivity. This type of chameleon ability is distinctly different from the singular identity.
Singular identity identified individuals have chosen to pick one racial social category and stays with one or the other. In this case appearance plays a significant role in the choice youth make in belong to this category of biracial identity. This choice was found to be affected by exposure to the two racial groups during childhood. Rockquemore (2003) notes that racial composition of the individual's social network affects identity choice for biracial adults and young adults.
The final identity category is the the border identity which “encompasses both of the socially accepted racial categorizations of black and white yet includes an additional element” from the creation of additional identity. This was the largest group in the Rockquemore study, the group broke down into two smaller subcategories, those who had a validated boarder identity and those with an unvalidated boarder identity. Those who felt validated had childhood experiences where they were accepted with in the community where they lived, while the unvalidated felt to some extent excluded by both groups. Rockquemore found that those who were validated had experienced majority white sociocultural networks. The unvalidated individuals had a greater number of black pre-adult socio-cultural net works. These two subgroups were based on how the respondents felt out group individuals responded to the subject racial make up.
Factors the influence the identity selection of biracial individuals are as with multicultural individuals complex and multifaceted.
One of the most significant means of identification for biracial individuals is appearance. This identification is driven by a North American cultural norm that arose from slavery. The one drop rule has held in US culture from when slaves had mixed race children. If a child was born with a clear line of African blood that was traceable back four to five generations, the child was consider black and therefore a slave. While we no longer ascribe to either slavery or racial discrimination, the one drop rule is still in full force within US society. This can even be seen on application forms of all sorts from college applications to the US census, where individuals are required to select one category and the option of mixed, multi- or bi-cultural, or multi- or bi-racial are not presented as choices.
The second most influential factor are social networks in which the individual lives and works. These relationships are impacted by the sociocultural situations as well as the socioeconomic status of the individuals culture group. Rockquemore found individuals from high SES had a larger white peer and social groups, while those from lower SES had a larger black social circle. Those who had a white reference group were less likely to develop a singular black identity as adults. As discussed above having a primarily white social group correlated with having a validated boarder identity. By comparison, those who expressed an unvalidated boarder identity had more African Americans in their pre-adult social networks. Thus identity is not solely influenced by family or peer groups, but rather they type of contact and individual has with the different racial groups and how they socially experience race that defines the relationship between social status and racial identity (Rockquemore, 2003, p. 62).
A youth who hold a transcendent identity "consciously denies having any racial identity whatsoever" (Rockquemore, 2003, p. 71). For these youth race is not an identifying construct in their world. In her study Rockquemore supposed that individuals choosing such an identity would be biracials who could pass for being white. However the study showed that there was a spectrum of color difference in the choice of transcendence. In the first phase of the research the supposition of understanding identity by “color” held for the transcendent identity, but the second tier found that these youth had a large network of white friends and community and they had experienced a continues understanding of themselves from the pre-adult phases of their lives to the adult phase.
Individuals who held protean identities did not have “a single, unified racial identity,” rather they had constructed multiple identities the utilize in the required contexts (Rockquemore, 2003, p. 69). This identity coincides with what Major (1992) calls the “cool pose” where black men develop a variety of personae to cope with the racial discrimination and socio-economic difficulties they experience in their personal lives. These individuals are conversant in a wide variety of cultural experiences and are readily accepted as in members in different social settings. This identity requires a great sensitivity and “mastery of various cultural norms and values and an ongoing awareness and monitoring of the presentation of self” (Rockquemore, 2003, p. 69). Here the focus is on identity as process. The study found that this group felt the closest with both the black and the white social groups to which they belonged. Here the distinction from Majors 'cool pose' arises, as protean biracial do not feel put out or like they are masking their true selves, but rather this is the expression of their true selves. This identity corresponds well to bicultural individuals who can move through society fluidly, having developed high cultural competency and cultural sensitivity. This type of chameleon ability is distinctly different from the singular identity.
Singular identity identified individuals have chosen to pick one racial social category and stays with one or the other. In this case appearance plays a significant role in the choice youth make in belong to this category of biracial identity. This choice was found to be affected by exposure to the two racial groups during childhood. Rockquemore (2003) notes that racial composition of the individual's social network affects identity choice for biracial adults and young adults.
The final identity category is the the border identity which “encompasses both of the socially accepted racial categorizations of black and white yet includes an additional element” from the creation of additional identity. This was the largest group in the Rockquemore study, the group broke down into two smaller subcategories, those who had a validated boarder identity and those with an unvalidated boarder identity. Those who felt validated had childhood experiences where they were accepted with in the community where they lived, while the unvalidated felt to some extent excluded by both groups. Rockquemore found that those who were validated had experienced majority white sociocultural networks. The unvalidated individuals had a greater number of black pre-adult socio-cultural net works. These two subgroups were based on how the respondents felt out group individuals responded to the subject racial make up.
Factors the influence the identity selection of biracial individuals are as with multicultural individuals complex and multifaceted.
One of the most significant means of identification for biracial individuals is appearance. This identification is driven by a North American cultural norm that arose from slavery. The one drop rule has held in US culture from when slaves had mixed race children. If a child was born with a clear line of African blood that was traceable back four to five generations, the child was consider black and therefore a slave. While we no longer ascribe to either slavery or racial discrimination, the one drop rule is still in full force within US society. This can even be seen on application forms of all sorts from college applications to the US census, where individuals are required to select one category and the option of mixed, multi- or bi-cultural, or multi- or bi-racial are not presented as choices.
The second most influential factor are social networks in which the individual lives and works. These relationships are impacted by the sociocultural situations as well as the socioeconomic status of the individuals culture group. Rockquemore found individuals from high SES had a larger white peer and social groups, while those from lower SES had a larger black social circle. Those who had a white reference group were less likely to develop a singular black identity as adults. As discussed above having a primarily white social group correlated with having a validated boarder identity. By comparison, those who expressed an unvalidated boarder identity had more African Americans in their pre-adult social networks. Thus identity is not solely influenced by family or peer groups, but rather they type of contact and individual has with the different racial groups and how they socially experience race that defines the relationship between social status and racial identity (Rockquemore, 2003, p. 62).
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
A Portal to Media Literacy
This is getting there on what I am thinking about in terms of what I want to do with the Brown and the education of our teens.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Opening clip naration
Parents are told, lead to believe and accept that schools and teachers have their child's / children's best interests at heart. (There are no doubt some teachers are doing their best with our students.) We trust the teachers' and school's authority, believing in a system that is supposed to help us raise our children. (A modern necessity since most of us need to work to support a family, we have to place our children in the care of others from a very early age). We can't watch them and teach them any longer, there is no school at work, no program of apprenticeship in the US work system for young children. We devalue learning that can be done in context. We fall pray to the belief that if we place our children in the hands of trained professionals they will turn out alright, they will learn the skills they need to survive in the modern world, the reading, the math, the analytical skills to make them good citizens who can make informed decisions, can take part in the civic leadership. If this is true then why are minorities lagging so far behind. Graduation rates for African American and and Hispanic and Latino Americans still hovers around 50% nationally.
As the parent of a minority child, one who is Icelandic/Irish and Haitian American I would like to explore my experience of minority education and the Minnesota school systems attempts to educate my son. From his first enrollment in a school in Minnesota he was an out cast. His teacher thought him too young for her third grade classroom. The result was a trip to special ed and testing to see what was wrong with him. He came out as well above average intelligence, but behind on writing, so he got six months of tutoring. With frequent communication with school officials and teachers, my son continued to fall behind. He couldn't preform, couldn't turn in the home work, couldn't fill out the planner, the only thing we could expect was that it would get harder. The teachers said he would not be prepared to go to junior high school. At home he was reading novels, solving complex math problems, engaging in discussions on politics, philosophy and learning about US and World history. By the time he was in junior high school he had build his own computer and continued to fail in school. For the longest time I trusted the schools, the teachers and the school officials, there was something he, my son, was doing not to fit in. At thirteen every night was a fight, a crying argument. An angry boy had taken over the child who asked questions about democracy, thought about why we spent money on things we wanted rather than focusing on the things we need. The light of learning was successfully turned off by being told he was bad, under-performing and over all just didn't belong. It became such that I got emails on a daily basis from my son's teachers about how bad he was, how he had failed.
As a parent it is hard to hear that your child is bad, especially when every where else he was a model child. He had plenty of friends, our back and front door always had children looking for my son, he babysat for neighbors, parents repeatedly told me that he was helpful in their homes, respectful and interesting to talk to, so where was the disconnect coming from? I realized after medicating him for a little over a year that the only result was a sullen angry child who still underperformed and didn't want to do anything. So I embarked on a search for the perfect school. Since we have limited resources I was forced to stay in the public school system, but luck for us we live in Minnesota the land of the charter school. (Every year at least five new charters are approved.) Working on a degree in Education made me aware of the different educational methods available and I found what I believed to be the ultimate solution to our educational problem, Montessori. Open education focused on educating the whole child and bringing out the student's learning and growth potential through guided learning rather than sitting behind a desk for six to eight hours a day. Only this school was just as bad. Teachers threw pencils at the students, told them to shut up, banished them from the classrooms when they felt the student had overstepped the bounds. My son often got called on for lack of attention and when pressed to explain what the teacher had just said would repeat back verbatim the lesson and then be told to leave the classroom. At least this school payed lip service to his apparent intelligence, but it still seemed to get him in trouble. Too much lip, too many smart answers, too much standing up for his and others rights landed him in the dean of students office, it became so that my son would check himself out and go to the dean's office to avoid the confrontation, he knew he was angry and would self monitor, but he was still failing. This school while espousing the Montessori method made the students attend block classes of two to two and a half hours each day. Teachers would group non performing student with other nonperforming students, and single out the “trouble makers”, the most vocal of all students.
It just so happened that these students were predominantly students of color, but the unique thing about all of these students was that they were the product of biracial relationships. Boy and girls raised by a white educated mother seeking the best opportunities for their children. These students were vocal, raised to speak up for themselves, knowing no one else would, encouraged to question and learn. More often than not my son would come home with some story of racial discrimination, harassment or being singled out. At first I thought that this was just a young man's attempt to understand himself and his place in the world, but as I spoke with more and more parents with similar experiences I began to understand that racism was alive and well and operating in our Minnesota schools. My son was not imagining that he was being judged and treated as a black man who frightened the teachers, by being vocal, tall, deep voiced and in search of equal treatment. He knew he was intelligent despite years of being told otherwise, yet he got comments like “You should have spent more time working on this than starting it the night before” for a project he worked on for three weeks or being failed for turning in a project at the end of the day because the two other students failed to do their work on time. These students were not even allowed to pick groups, but where rather assigned by the teacher who grouped the under and non performing students together, rather than splitting them up to help them on the way.
What education has my son gotten out of all of these experiences, that he doesn't measure up, can't perform and will never ever fit in. As a parent, I am highly disappointed in what this system purports to be education. Five schools, five different methods, teaching styles and for the first time ever my son is finally successful in a school that encourages critical thinking. He is believing in himself, he is using his research skills, self taught; he is writing poetry, composing music and finally will have the opportunity to take college classes before he graduates, because we found a school for “misfits.”
How many parents out there find themselves in the same or similar dilemmas? Many, I talk to many parents as part of my interest in developing modern and appropriate schooling for this century and beyond, but the experience leave a sour taste in many mouths and produces children who can not read, can not reason and will never feel valued in a society that criminalize them and penalizes them for wanting to learn to be free thinkers. We need to revolutionized education, find a way that speaks to all students not just one group, the ones who are willing to conform. The goal for our future systems should be to open a dialog with those whom the system has failed, from there we can begin to build the system that will successfully educate students to move into the 21st century.
As the parent of a minority child, one who is Icelandic/Irish and Haitian American I would like to explore my experience of minority education and the Minnesota school systems attempts to educate my son. From his first enrollment in a school in Minnesota he was an out cast. His teacher thought him too young for her third grade classroom. The result was a trip to special ed and testing to see what was wrong with him. He came out as well above average intelligence, but behind on writing, so he got six months of tutoring. With frequent communication with school officials and teachers, my son continued to fall behind. He couldn't preform, couldn't turn in the home work, couldn't fill out the planner, the only thing we could expect was that it would get harder. The teachers said he would not be prepared to go to junior high school. At home he was reading novels, solving complex math problems, engaging in discussions on politics, philosophy and learning about US and World history. By the time he was in junior high school he had build his own computer and continued to fail in school. For the longest time I trusted the schools, the teachers and the school officials, there was something he, my son, was doing not to fit in. At thirteen every night was a fight, a crying argument. An angry boy had taken over the child who asked questions about democracy, thought about why we spent money on things we wanted rather than focusing on the things we need. The light of learning was successfully turned off by being told he was bad, under-performing and over all just didn't belong. It became such that I got emails on a daily basis from my son's teachers about how bad he was, how he had failed.
As a parent it is hard to hear that your child is bad, especially when every where else he was a model child. He had plenty of friends, our back and front door always had children looking for my son, he babysat for neighbors, parents repeatedly told me that he was helpful in their homes, respectful and interesting to talk to, so where was the disconnect coming from? I realized after medicating him for a little over a year that the only result was a sullen angry child who still underperformed and didn't want to do anything. So I embarked on a search for the perfect school. Since we have limited resources I was forced to stay in the public school system, but luck for us we live in Minnesota the land of the charter school. (Every year at least five new charters are approved.) Working on a degree in Education made me aware of the different educational methods available and I found what I believed to be the ultimate solution to our educational problem, Montessori. Open education focused on educating the whole child and bringing out the student's learning and growth potential through guided learning rather than sitting behind a desk for six to eight hours a day. Only this school was just as bad. Teachers threw pencils at the students, told them to shut up, banished them from the classrooms when they felt the student had overstepped the bounds. My son often got called on for lack of attention and when pressed to explain what the teacher had just said would repeat back verbatim the lesson and then be told to leave the classroom. At least this school payed lip service to his apparent intelligence, but it still seemed to get him in trouble. Too much lip, too many smart answers, too much standing up for his and others rights landed him in the dean of students office, it became so that my son would check himself out and go to the dean's office to avoid the confrontation, he knew he was angry and would self monitor, but he was still failing. This school while espousing the Montessori method made the students attend block classes of two to two and a half hours each day. Teachers would group non performing student with other nonperforming students, and single out the “trouble makers”, the most vocal of all students.
It just so happened that these students were predominantly students of color, but the unique thing about all of these students was that they were the product of biracial relationships. Boy and girls raised by a white educated mother seeking the best opportunities for their children. These students were vocal, raised to speak up for themselves, knowing no one else would, encouraged to question and learn. More often than not my son would come home with some story of racial discrimination, harassment or being singled out. At first I thought that this was just a young man's attempt to understand himself and his place in the world, but as I spoke with more and more parents with similar experiences I began to understand that racism was alive and well and operating in our Minnesota schools. My son was not imagining that he was being judged and treated as a black man who frightened the teachers, by being vocal, tall, deep voiced and in search of equal treatment. He knew he was intelligent despite years of being told otherwise, yet he got comments like “You should have spent more time working on this than starting it the night before” for a project he worked on for three weeks or being failed for turning in a project at the end of the day because the two other students failed to do their work on time. These students were not even allowed to pick groups, but where rather assigned by the teacher who grouped the under and non performing students together, rather than splitting them up to help them on the way.
What education has my son gotten out of all of these experiences, that he doesn't measure up, can't perform and will never ever fit in. As a parent, I am highly disappointed in what this system purports to be education. Five schools, five different methods, teaching styles and for the first time ever my son is finally successful in a school that encourages critical thinking. He is believing in himself, he is using his research skills, self taught; he is writing poetry, composing music and finally will have the opportunity to take college classes before he graduates, because we found a school for “misfits.”
How many parents out there find themselves in the same or similar dilemmas? Many, I talk to many parents as part of my interest in developing modern and appropriate schooling for this century and beyond, but the experience leave a sour taste in many mouths and produces children who can not read, can not reason and will never feel valued in a society that criminalize them and penalizes them for wanting to learn to be free thinkers. We need to revolutionized education, find a way that speaks to all students not just one group, the ones who are willing to conform. The goal for our future systems should be to open a dialog with those whom the system has failed, from there we can begin to build the system that will successfully educate students to move into the 21st century.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Why do childless people think they know about education?
I know it is my own fault that I brought it up, but talking to childless people always brings out the combative side in me. I get the same thing, it is not the schools fault that children are not successful. Last night it was the same, I went to school. I learned nothing and you just have to go and who cares if you learn, besides learning is something that parents are in charge of. And you need to support the school by not fighting against it. My favorite part was the argument that we don't need to change schools for minorities to learn, wait I should mention that Latinos, Asians are not having a problem in schools. So changing schools for 13% of the population. Argh even when I think about it I get frustrated.
So now I have to look up the information.
Here are some stats from 1998:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report's main findings are the following:
* The national graduation rate for the class of 1998 was 71%. For white students the rate was 78%, while it was 56% for African-American students and 54% for Latino students.
* Georgia had the lowest overall graduation rate in the nation with 54% of students graduating, followed by Nevada, Florida, and Washington, D.C.
* Iowa had the highest overall graduation rate with 93%, followed by North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.
* Wisconsin had the lowest graduation rate among African-American students with 40%, followed by Minnesota, Georgia, and Tennessee. Georgia had the lowest graduation rate among Latino students with 32%, followed by Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Less than 50% of African-American students graduated in seven states and less than 50% of Latino students graduated in eight states for which data were available.
* The highest rate of graduation among African-American students was 71% in West Virginia, followed by Massachusetts, Arkansas, and New Jersey. The highest rate of graduation among Latino students was 82% in Montana, followed by Louisiana, Maryland, and Hawaii.
* Among the fifty largest school districts in the country, Cleveland City had the lowest overall graduation rate with 28%, followed by Memphis, Milwaukee, and Columbus.
* Fairfax County, VA had the highest overall graduation rate among the districts with 87%, followed by Montgomery County, MD, Albuquerque and Boston.
* Cleveland City had the lowest graduation rate among African-American students with 29%, followed by Milwaukee, Memphis, and Gwinett County, Georgia. Cleveland City also had the lowest graduation rate among Latino students, followed by Georgia’s Dekalb, Gwinnett, and Cobb counties. Less than 50% of African-American students graduated in fifteen of forty-five districts for which there was sufficient data, and less than 50% of Latino students graduated in twenty-one of thirty-six districts for which there was sufficient data.
* The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) finds a national high school completion rate of 86% for the class of 1998. The discrepancy between the NCES’ finding and this report’s finding of a 71% rate is largely caused by NCES’ counting of General Educational Development (GED) graduates and others with alternative credentials as high school graduates, and by its reliance on a methodology that is likely to undercount dropouts.
So now I have to look up the information.
Here are some stats from 1998:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report's main findings are the following:
* The national graduation rate for the class of 1998 was 71%. For white students the rate was 78%, while it was 56% for African-American students and 54% for Latino students.
* Georgia had the lowest overall graduation rate in the nation with 54% of students graduating, followed by Nevada, Florida, and Washington, D.C.
* Iowa had the highest overall graduation rate with 93%, followed by North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.
* Wisconsin had the lowest graduation rate among African-American students with 40%, followed by Minnesota, Georgia, and Tennessee. Georgia had the lowest graduation rate among Latino students with 32%, followed by Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Less than 50% of African-American students graduated in seven states and less than 50% of Latino students graduated in eight states for which data were available.
* The highest rate of graduation among African-American students was 71% in West Virginia, followed by Massachusetts, Arkansas, and New Jersey. The highest rate of graduation among Latino students was 82% in Montana, followed by Louisiana, Maryland, and Hawaii.
* Among the fifty largest school districts in the country, Cleveland City had the lowest overall graduation rate with 28%, followed by Memphis, Milwaukee, and Columbus.
* Fairfax County, VA had the highest overall graduation rate among the districts with 87%, followed by Montgomery County, MD, Albuquerque and Boston.
* Cleveland City had the lowest graduation rate among African-American students with 29%, followed by Milwaukee, Memphis, and Gwinett County, Georgia. Cleveland City also had the lowest graduation rate among Latino students, followed by Georgia’s Dekalb, Gwinnett, and Cobb counties. Less than 50% of African-American students graduated in fifteen of forty-five districts for which there was sufficient data, and less than 50% of Latino students graduated in twenty-one of thirty-six districts for which there was sufficient data.
* The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) finds a national high school completion rate of 86% for the class of 1998. The discrepancy between the NCES’ finding and this report’s finding of a 71% rate is largely caused by NCES’ counting of General Educational Development (GED) graduates and others with alternative credentials as high school graduates, and by its reliance on a methodology that is likely to undercount dropouts.
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