Thoughts on Delpit's Article

I found Lisa Delpit's article, Education in a Multicultural Society: Our Future's Greatest Challenge, to be very interesting and one in which can be linked back to my project proposal topic quite nicely. Much of the information within the article deals with issues I intend to look at and write about.

For example, Delpit discusses the clash between students and the teachers and/or school. She makes the observation that African American teachers are more likely to be straight forward and direct when giving directions while white teachers use more indirect commands and their power and authority as the teacher is diminished and lost in the bustle of the classroom.

She also makes the point that for teachers to be effective with the classroom, they must be able to recognize the "importance of student perception." Delpit gave some great examples of situations where the students' needs needed to be accommodated.

The most striking section of the article was on stereotyping which can definitely used as a parallel for my paper. Delpit uses the example of Asian American students and Native American children as example for the stereotypes found in schools today.
Its my goal to look at most of the things which I have listed above and find out how we can change this. Is it us personally and individually who can change it or is it a group of educators collectively?

Crossing Over to Canaan: Chapters 4 & 5

After reading and considering these two chapters, I found one of Billing's comments to be quite interesting. In chapter four it said, "Most teachers have little or no geniune experience with cultures than their own. Although many teacher education programs offer courses, etc that address multicultural education, these offerings tend to be superficial to the real lives of students..." I would have to agree with this. Although we have come a long way in the area of teacher education programs and multicultural education, we still have yet to achieve the perfect balance of learning and teaching diversity. Despite being in a multicultural education course, I still know very little about other cultures other than my own and I believe my outlook will change by the end of this course. What Billings said is true. I have no experience with other cultures than my own and if I am to teach in a diverse classroom, this must change. I do need to exposed to other cultures, the question is - where do I begin?
In order for me to be able to teach about diversity and whatnot to my students, I first must be able to embrace my culture as well the culture and backgrounds of all my students. Then I can promote and influence my students on what it is to be "culturally aware."

I also found Billings discussion in chapter five of "concept of school" for social justice to be ironic to the fact that this could easily be tied into the Jesuit Ideal of an Educator. Its John Caroll's ED department''s goal for us to promote social justice and better humanity - and for us to be able to do this, we need to be accepting and caring of other people regardless of race, color, religion, etc - and this circles around and ties into the whole idea of diversity and multicultural education.

Crossing Over to Canaan: Chapters 1 & 2

Why is reflection so important as an educator?

I found it very interesting that something which I discussed with my advisor during my student teaching interview, was here starring me in the face in chapter one. I never really gave any thought to reflection as a teacher, but my advisor brought up some good points on why it is important. First off, when you think about it, a teacher is constantly on the go, all day and everyday. A hectic school day of teaching lessons is followed by an evening of writing more lesson plans, grading papers and assignments, and a few hours of sleep before starting the routine all over again the next morning. A teacher needs to slow down and take a few minutes out of the day for his or her self to consider what went well with each lesson taught or what could have been done better or what should be changed. If not, the teacher may keep on using lessons or doing things which may not necessarily work well or it may be the complete opposite - not taking time to appreciate how well a lesson may have gone. So as a future educator, I am going to take all this into consideration and make sure that I can put aside some time to think and reflect back on the school day, perhaps even keeping a journal or notebook in which to write ideas and thoughts down.

"A Community of Learners" - why is this so important and why isn't it being done?

Chapter two gives brief insight into the lives of several teachers and their experiences, but the introduction of chapter two is what I would like to focus on. I found this particular quote quite striking and I am wondering what could be done to change it; "prospective teachers are treated only as individuals who must construct and implement lessons alone. The notion that collective thinking about teaching and learning should be an aspect of preparing to teach is not prevalent in most programs. Rarely are new teachers encouraged to come up with new ideas and pedagogical innovation. . ."
I believe that collaboration is the key - teachers and schools must build a community of teacher learners. Teachers should be able to feed off one another for new ideas, input, or support within their school or school district. By doing so, teachers can bring fresh ideas to their classroom and a sense of harmony between teachers and faculty may bring the school that much closer together. I think that collaboration is something that should be taught in teacher education programs and be instilled in the future educators of this country.

"African Americans: Deculturalization, Transformation, and Segregation"

After reading over and considering Spring's chapter 3 on "African Americans: Deculturalization, Transformation, and Segregation," I found much of the information to be quite interesting and shocking.

From what I have learned in school, you always hear of the North being opposed to slavery, espcecially at the time of the Civil War, but in this chapter it discusses the slaves and living conditions they faced here in the North. On page 44, it discusses the increase of slaves that were hired to work in the workshops and warehouses of northern states. I was very surprised upon reading this because when we think of slaves, we traditionally think of plantations and the slaves who worked in the fields. It just goes to show that history is sometimes hidden or missing from one's learning repritore.

I also found it interesting that today we talk of education being an equalizer, that is, everyone is deserving a decent education. I find it striking that back in the day, education was used to "subjugate a population" (page 42) and that the power of education was used for bad instead of good. "It can be used to control a population after it has been conquered or to deny a population an education or try to limit their educational oppurtunities (page 42)." Slaves and freed slaves were put into segregated schools which were "designed to keep them at a low level of education. (page 49)." Inferior teachers and shabby classroom conditions did not help the situation either.

In some ways this still happens to students today - some face shabby classroom conditions and teachers who may not be up to par in their teaching skills. Also, considering what area students attend school in, they may be kept at a low level of education and may never reach their full potential. Its saddening to think that this is still going on since schooling of the 1800 & 1900's - we have made strides in the field of education, but there is still much to be done.

Reaction to Zinn's Article & Teacher's Guide

After looking at Zinn's article and the National Museum of the American Indian Teacher's Resource Guide, I found several differences among them. Zinn's article gave the harsh reality of what the Indians really suffered when the Europeans overpowered them. The National Museum's Teacher's guide in my mind, while giving valid information, seemed to "sugar coat" the whole ordeal and didn't get down to the real nitty gritty matter of it. The resource guide was made for children and the information at hand was written in a somewhat tasteful and age appropriate way. It reminded me very much of the material I may have once read in grade school while Zinn's article created a vivid image in my mind of the hardships the Indians' faced - this clearly showing the article was intended for a maturer audience.

"Native Americans: Deculturalization, Schooling, and Globalization"

Learning finger songs at Carlisle Indian School, ca. 1900.

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/erdrich/boarding/gallery.htm

(This is a mock up letter of me portraying a character from the text read)

Dear Sir or Madam:

Take a look at this picture. At first glance it may just look like a typical classroom from days gone by. But really it is a picture of Native American boys and girls dressed in what appears to be American clothes, standing in rows with desks and are being what was then thought of as being "civilized." This is what Thomas McKenny and dozens of others thought of as proper for these children. To place them in schools; some being seperated from their parents only to be taken to bording schools such as The Spencer Academy for boys and New Hope Academy for girls, where they had to learn math, reading, and writing, and for the majority of them - the English language. The educational policy of that time was "replacing the use of native languages with English, destroying Indian customs, and teaching alligiance to the U.S. government" (pg 31).

While the U.S. government (in their eyes) at that time had good intentions of trying to help and "civilize" the Native Americans, I do feel that they may have overstepped their boundries just a bit. While its good that they wanted to educate the people, I don't believe that the government should have tried to a ban all the Indian's customs and languages. As a school teacher for some of these poor defenseless children, I had to instruct them and put all my tireless efforts into teaching them the ways of the new American world, one that was quite different from theirs. The language barrier is what made the school day endless and being a woman, who would have listened to me and my concerns for the children? If there had only been a way to educate them while keeping their Indian customs/culture instilled in them, I think they would have been better off - very much like a multi-cultural education approach where children are learned to appreciate their background and yet be accepting of the things in which they are learning.

Thought on Sonia Nieto's Article

After reading Nieto's article, "Solidairty, courage, and heart: what teacher educators can learn from a new generation of teachers," I started to have some thoughts of what my goal is for this ED350 course. Growing up in middle to upper class schools my whole life that had very little diversity, almost none in fact made me realize that I want to learn more about multicultural education and how to be an effective teacher in a diverse school or classroom. I found this article to be very interesting and the teacher's experiences and personal stories made it all the better - it really made me think about what types of experiences we may face once we hit the teaching job market.

The four questions that the author gives on pg458 are ones which all educators should take the time to consider - teachers should have some knowledge of how to run a classroom with diverse students. An educator should also know how to handle things in an appropriate manner when a situation arises to his or her attention or when discussion of diversity or multiculutral education comes up. I did agree with Nieto's comment on the "achievement gap" and "resource gap" - these two are very much alike in the sense that these can belittle and actually harm the chances of diverse students getting a decent education.

There were also some pretty shocking facts that I found interesting in this article - that here in the U.S. "20% of new teachers leave during the first three years of teaching" (pg459) and that there are an increasing number of dropouts and lack of school participation when diverse students are having to take high stakes testing (pg460).