Empowering Education by IRA SHOR

Education in Politics

                This article talks about Piaget’s work, and reading from this article reminds me of my psychology education class last year. Piaget’s work was based on how teachers should teach and how children learn. In this article, Ira Shor took Piaget’s statement, “To educate is to adapt the children to an adult social environment ...The children is called upon to receive from outside the already perfected products of adult knowledge and morality...” (Page 12) and elaborated in her point of view. I agree that for children to learn they must first take interest into the adult’s world and then will be taught about the world. If children have no interest there is no meaning of teaching the child when all they’ve learned will go to waste.

            It is true when Shor have pointed out what Piaget stated, “The deficiency is the curriculum in schools, which he saw as a one-way transmission of rules and knowledge from teacher to students, stifling their curiosity” (page 12). “Students in empowering classes should be expected to develop skills and knowledge as well as high expectations for themselves, their education and their futures” (page 16). I agree that students should have high expectation for themselves, but a problem that encounters with students’ skills are what doesn’t enable their power in a class. This relates to the article “Literacy with an Attitude” by Patrick J. Finn. A child would have tons of skills and talents but what if that child comes from a working class? Will the school and teachers have the appropriate material to teach that child? I expected that the working class doesn’t have the materials and educating method for that child. If the child doesn’t have the education they needed when they set high expectations upon themselves, it would make their education worthless and it would pull the child down a long with the rest of the children who attends the same school.

            What is a good teaching method? Here is one that Shor stated about in her article, “She or he must lead the class energetically while patiently enabling students to develop their thoughts, agendas, and abilities for leading. The teacher has to offer questions, comments, structure, and academic knowledge while patiently listening to students' criticisms and initiatives as they codevelop the syllabus” (page 25). This teaching method is very familiar and I know exactly who uses this teaching method. It’s Professor Stevos! As much as I wanted to point out other teachers, I couldn’t pick out a better educator then our Professor. Professor Stevos uses class discussions and she uses this method, where the students must speak among themselves and learn from one another and if there was no point being made, our Professor is the guidance. Professor Stevos’ method also relates to Shor’s teaching method located on page 28, “Instead of answering the questions in brief lectures, I posed them one by one, so that students could participate more, answer their peer's questions as best they could, practice thinking out loud, and display what they already knew...”

            I know that there are good teachers who teach with creative methods and there are others who use lectures that bored out the students. Shor pointed on in her article on page 27 where she stated, “The heart of the problem is that teachers are taught to lecture and give orders. These old habits have been overcome by many creative and democratic teachers now practicing in the classroom, but the change is not easy.” Yes it’s true the change is not easy because teachers do know more than students and many facts are taught by lecturing. Relating to “An Indian Father’s Plea” by Robert Lake, the teachers always gives out orders and lectures. That’s where things have gone wrong. When you are teaching a bilingual student, they like to be creative and social among their peers and if you were to put them in front of a teacher who lecture all the time and only gives order, they will barely learn anything because as hard as it is to learn a new language, you will have no interest if you don’t understand anything the teacher is saying.

            I find Shor’s statement on page 34 “By limiting creative and critical questioning, the banking model makes education into an authoritarian transfer instead of a democratic experience. Any material imposed by authority as doctrine stops being knowledge and becomes dogma,” corresponding to “Literacy with an Attitude.” Their similarities are stated upon working class education and how students are always following commands from the teachers instead of giving them some freedom to express themselves. Education is not simple and there can be an erroneous problem when education becomes a business instead of a school. 

Here is a video through empowering education through technology: 

Here are some websites that teach you about Empowering Education:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JrEPVE-G0k

http://www.cmtempoweringeducation.com/

Citizenship in School: Conceptual Down syndrome

Citizenship in School: Conceptual Down syndrome

By Christopher Kliewer

“Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community,” (Kliewer) page 73. I think this is the main statement found in this article because, to be successful you always need to have bonds with people to succeed your goals. It doesn’t matter, whether your goal is to be a Mayor, a government, or to graduate from college, you need to work with others to get through your obstacles and accomplish your goals. 

In Kliewer’s quote, “...schools must serve as the sites in which children develop both a sense of commitment to one another and a sense of self-direction leading to 'the deepest and the best guarantee of the larger society which is worthy, lovely, and harmonious,” page 74. Kliewer’s quote helps to discover the meaning of schools and teachers because a school is a place for companionship and not a place with hatred or racism. Thinking of labeling students, this article relates to the article, “Becoming Something Different: Learning from Esme” by Collen M. Fairbanks and Penny Mason Crooks. Their similarity was that they labeled students based on what they are or what they have instead of looking at the child as a student who’s a leaner. Another quote that support the previous quote says, “It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all her - kids, teachers, parents, whoever - it's about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that's what learning is, Don't tell me any of these kids are being set up to fail” (page 75). It’s sad that many kids are labeled just because of their differences but the truth is that we all are humans and as humans we all are equal. 

I agree that “Acknowledging students with Down syndrome as thoughtful, creative and interested learners with personal identities that distinguish them from all other people suggests an individual value that enhances any context containing the child,” stated by Kliewer. As a student candidate, I can only see students as learners during my tutoring session in Mary Fogarty Elementary school. I dislike how some teachers only see students with Down syndrome as a child with learning problem, and are slow but they can learn and they are growing. They don’t deserve to be labeled and treated differently from other kids. I can relate to the quote “She needs an education. Just because she is handicapped doesn't mean she can't learn,” (Kliewer). It’s sad when you think about the students who go through emotional anxiety because of their condition and what people labeled them. If I was in their shoe I wouldn’t want to be labeled because for the rest of my life I would represent what people had labeled me.  

 Here is a lovely video that tells the life of many Down syndrome children:

Here is a website where you can support and read many stories about/written by Down syndrome people:

http://www.ndss.org/My-Great-Story/

Literacy with an Attitude

By Patrick J. Finn

            I disagree with Patrick J. Finn’s statement, “There had been numerous literacy campaigns earlier in Brazil, motivated by the desire to make the poor better workers, better citizens, and better Christians - classic reasons for literacy campaigns among the poor since the invention of the printing press” (page 2). I disagree because there are people who are poor and they are the best worker there is and are good citizens who says their prayer every single day. What we need is education and better government organization to help support the people and by doing so the people become a good economy. 

            On the other hand, I agree with Finn when he stated, “I didn't say to an errant student, “What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Stop that and get to work.’ No discussion. No opening for an argument” (page 4). If I was the teacher, I would have done the opposite and ask the students why they are doing what they do? I like the advice that Finn has mentioned here and it helps me how to deal with students who misbehave instead of opening up the problem and continuing it to the next round. I disagree with the quote being said, “Obedient students were not kept in from recess, but most days there were one or two disobedient students kept in from recess” (page7). The reason I disagree was because tutoring at an elementary school, I noticed that if two or three students were disobedient, the whole class was held inside from recess. I know it’s not fair for those obedient students but it’s the teacher’s choice to not take her students outside. This relates to “Privilege, Power, and Difference” by the presence of power that the teacher represents and the students themselves who are, Hispanic, black, Asian and white are powerless, symbolically and intellectually. 

            On page 17, first paragraph relates to our class discussion how everything we learn in the class are being put in news Finn’s quote similarly stated, “The teacher's questions were designed to help them make connections between events in the news and what they were learning in school.” For us, we have talked about S.C.W.A.M.P. and LGBT along with Privilege, Power, and Difference or racism and we all learned from videos and news that relates to our topics. For example the video, “Between Barack and a Hard Place: Challenging Racism, Privilege and Denial” and “Gloria Ladson-Billings, Michael Lomax, Gary Orfield on ‘The Other 3 R's.”

            A statement that bothers my moral consciousness is one of Finn statement about other teacher’s decision, which goes, “...I heard among the working-class school's teachers was that they planned early retirement” (page 25). This statement bothers me because teachers should not teach just because it’s their job but they should teach to help as many students as they can. Page 158 stated, “Freire referred to the culture of Brazil's illiterate poor as a 'culture of silence” (158). This relates to “The Silence Dialogue” article and how the poor are being silenced along with their culture in comparison to the higher working-class or known as the rich peoples. The rich or higher-class have the power and they’re in control in comparison to the poor people who takes whatever is left for them to use and make something of it. 

            “Education, technology, and power are closely related” (page 168), this statement relates to our topic “Unlearning the Myths that Bind us” by Christensen. Both articles relates to the media and how technology support the media if not related to education it relates to people’s entertainment that sometimes becomes a bad stereotype. The quote on page 175 relates to the video we had watched in our last class about making the students want to learn. The quotes states, “First he created a positive atmosphere in the classroom through activities that stressed self-affirmation, mutual respect, communication, group decision, making and cooperation because he knew that these values and skills are associated with the gentry.” This kind of teaching skill is amazing and it can be time consuming.

            I can relate to the quote, “I think that not only is it the teacher, but more importantly, it's the system. They purposely teach you using the 'boring method” (page 182). This quote reminds me of my Junior and Senior year in high school. Since there was a school program for that involves the NECAP, education became less interesting and more computerized. We weren’t able to learn in a fun way but instead we learn for the test that we would likely not pass and fail. I feel like my high school year of education was a waste because almost everything was taught for state tests and not for our own need with interest. It also relates to this quote, “However, until standardized tests can be devised that are free of class bias, it's unfair to use working-class students' performance on them as a measure of the success of the school reform - whether it be social justice classrooms or any other reform” (page 186). I agree with this second quote because students who come from lower-working class are not on the same level as students from high-working class so why give them a test that they are not trained to take? It’s practically close to a child with a disability and making them take a standardized test that students who are not disable might take. 

 Here is some websites about Standardized Testing:

http://standardizedtests.procon.org/

http://www.ride.ri.gov/InstructionAssessment/Mathematics/NECAPMathematics.aspx

Becoming Something Different

Becoming Something Different: Learning From Esme

By Fairbanks, Crooks, and Ariail

Esme’s life revolves around her family, friends and school which leads us to the quote located on page 2, “...relationships among cultural affiliations, identity, and the experience of school." Emse starts out as adolescence with unknown identity and similar to many other bilingual students as myself, it was difficult understanding what’s going on around you and trying to fit in and what not to follow. Like Esme, I found my own circle of friends who were into school activities and were dorky like myself. We were not a popular group nor were we super smart and nerdy but we were able to get along and connect with each other.

"Esme, who may see themselves as only 'Kind of smart' and dependence on others for guidance..." is similar to myself in different ways. An example was, when I was younger and I was very dependent on my older brother for help on my homework. I didn’t understand any English at all and the funny part was that my brother was only a year older than I am and our ability to understand English was almost the same.

I totally agree with Fairbank’s statement on page 4 when they mentioned, “Furthermore, other scholars argue that Latina/o students would experience greater success in school if their cultural and linguistic practices were considered valuable cultural resources.” That’s why spirit week was invented in schools to help express the student’s culture and in certain class, such as the Multi-cultural class, students often do better because it’s the class to express their culture and of their interest.

 On page 20, it was stated that “Being a good student, in other words, did not mean that she would be able to meet graduation requirements or pass the TAKS.” It’s true, not everyone is on the same level even though, they might be a good student or an A+ student who always does all of their work. 

 Here is another video I wanted to share with everyone:

Here is a website with more infor about the authors:

http://hepg.org/her-home/issues/harvard-educational-review-volume-81-number-1/herarticle/learning-from-esme_807

The Other 3 R’s

 

Some of the fascinating quotes that struck me were said by Gary Orfield, “After the great recession, black families have 1/19% of wealth, Latino have 1/16% and many black Latino families have no wealth…We have to prepare students and we have to make it financially possible for students to go to college…” It’s true, but there’s also those who have low incomes and have high rates of help from the government. Whereas, those who are white with a good income, like a friend of mine; have to pay for their education because they were not qualified to receive higher financial help. It’s quite stressful, when students have to work to pay for their education and those who have low income don’t. I believe it should be even out between both working classes and the education field. Another quote I found interesting was stated by Michael Lomax, who said “High performing low income student of color have a 1/10 chance of going to college and a moderate high income student not of color have a 90 % chance. That might suggest that race still matter...” Relating to our class FNED 346, race is a big deal in the education field. Many students could not make it to college because something probably happened to them before college. It could possibly be that they were put into low level classes which also bring them down.

Relating to our education field, Michael Lomax said, “…K-12 Common Core alternative approaches certification into coming into the profession with charters school…” which relates to Gary Orfield’s quote where he stated, “It is much better to have 1 or 2 pretty good test than 50 crummy ones, much better for students to focus on advanced skills so that I can teach them in college rather than have them recite things… You should not be tested on things you haven’t learned, that’s immoral… you shouldn’t be tested on something disrespecting your language and background… Language matters a lot in the society…” I agree with Gary’s statement about language, and language matters a lot in the society. Just because a test scores tells that the student didn’t reach the required score doesn’t mean that they are not smart enough, doesn’t have the skills to graduate, but it means that they are just in a different level and probably is smarter than you think they are. An example is myself, I came to the US when I was five and my whole family is a Hmong speaking language. I was listed as a slow learner but what they don’t know is that I know how to cook, clean, garden, babysit, and I speak two languages by the age of 12.