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.

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).