Talking Points #3

"Gay identity was constructed around the experience of being a sexual outsider,deviant,and (quite literally) an outlaw."
I picked this quote because I dont like the fact that we associate gays as outlaws. I support gay,lesbian,trangender,and bisexual people so I dont like when someone refers to them as an outlaw because it makes the whole topic sound worst and makes it seem like its something that shouldnt be talked about when really it needs to be. These people cant be looked at in such different ways just becuse they are interested in something different. Different does not equal bad.

"One thing we can conclude from the emerging shape of community in America is that becasue it is more fragmented, it is becoming more difficult to comstruct a "public" curricilum that is broad-cades support." I chose this quote because I completly agree. Because of all the differences in America we are making it so much harder to come up with ways to teach and making the learing enviroment for glbt people impossible to feel comfortable in which is upsetting.

"The objective of classroom discourse is thur not so much to achieve consensus on the "true" or the "objective" depiction of reality, but rather to claify differences and agreements." I liked this because when teaching we have to focus and learn from students differences and not shun them or not be accepting. It is important to be openminded and welcome all student differences and not just with sexual orientation. Talking about diferences actually unites a class room and makes the learning enviorment much more enjoyable and help the students grow together ane be excepting of each other which really should be every teachers goal besides meeting academic requirements.


Click here to look at RIC's Rainbow Alliance Club to support all sexual orientations.

Aria

"No longer so close; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness. Neither my older brother or sister rushed home after school anymore."
This quote made me so sad imagine being in school for about 6 long hours where you are forced to speak a langauge that is not your own and then be sent home and have to worry about continuing practing this other language when you native language just slowly dissapears. I certainly wouldn't wnat to rush home either if i had to be forced to express my feelings in ways that just wasnt natural to me.
"-mama and papa-I couldn't use anymore. They would have been too painful reminders of how much had changed in my life."
This really made me stop and think for a minute becasue not being able to call your mother and father what you call them in your language would be the absolute last straw for me these poor children are getting so confused and it is just over looked in the school systems becasue english is the right way and everything else is just secondary.
"Fewer words passed between parent and child."
How is a child supposed to succeed in something they are forced to learn when now there is no communication between themselves and their parents? The more and more english that was forced upon this family actually broke them apart and this is so sad because now they dont even know how to speak to eachother I couldn't imagaine going home and not knowing how to talk to my family but the school system is doing this to families all over.
This reading made me feel so sad for bilingual children. Being bilingual is amazing but i had no clue how painful it must be. I couldn't imagine having English be my second language and yet here children are getting a part of their culture taken away from them by being forced to use their English. I could not imagine coming home and being forced to speak Spanish but for Spanish people English is enforced so their children can do better I know if I had to speak Spanish to improve my grades my parents would certainly make me do it. This reading really opened my eyes to how one way school systems can be. I'd be appalled if someone made me speak another language before my own language but this is happening everyday in millions of homes and I never even thought about it. I'm 18 and I can't even speak two languages but now we have bilingual kinder gardens where these children are learning how to be perfect in English and just okay in their natural language. This reminds me of a girl in one of my classes in high school. This girl spoke three languages and English was her third and for the class we were in together we had to write a ten page paper. I could not imagine writing a paper in anything other than English but this poor girl had to put together ten well thought out pages of her third language. There is no way i could write a paper in another language so forget trying to write on in my third language. This reading really opened my eyes to how tough some children have it and how they are losing a big chunk of themselves when being forced to speak English. I feel like our education system really needs to adjust so everyone can learn properly and not be forced to do something in an unnatural language to get by and meet the proper"codes".

click here to see if you could understang the directions to this preschool spanish worksheet. Chances are you can take a guess because it is for preschoolers but there are words on the page i couldnt figure out if it wasnt for the picture.

Kozol & McIntosh talking points

1."At an elementary school that serves the neighborhood across the avenue, only 7 out of 800 children do not qualify for free school lunches."5 of those 7", says the principal"get reduced-price lunches, because they are classified as only 'poor' not 'destitute'."

I had no clue this many children were living in such bad conditions.I feel really naive for not thinking about this fact especially when New York is only about 2 hours away.

2."White privilege is like an invisible, weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks."

This quote opened my eyes to realizing that I am part of the white privilege and although it is called a 'privilege' I almost don't want it. I feel like although we cant feel it in weight we can feel it in our hearts and minds I didn't realize just from being white I have all these tools in my 'knapsack' I really don't like trying being better than everyone else especially when i didn't even have to work for it.

3."DOA"-dead on arrival."If you walk on St.Ann's Avenue at night, you will hear the dealers call it out. It's like they're saying 'Come on over here. I'll show you how to end your life.'"

This also blew my mind poverty is so bad that some people just do want to end it all and the drug dealers don't care if they kill anyone they just want money. Doing drugs is such a vicious cycle and its sad instead of saving money for food and basic necessities people are more interested in getting high, and don't even care weather they die or not. This to me is just so sad.

These readings really opened my eyes thats for sure I honestly feel so uneducated becasue I had no clue such poverty and devistation was so close to us I mean we all learn about and see commercials for poverty in other countries but why until the kozal reading did I not know about such poverty in New York? I also was blown away by how the number of people with AIDS. These poor children know people with aids, have aids, or have lost someone from aids, and here I am not knowing a single thing about the disease besides it's an std. I feel greatful for being priveleged to have nice things and not worry about poverty but i also feel so nieve and that I have alot of learning to do. I Also learned alot from the McIntosh reading because I am now aware of how I am looked at by other races just becasue I am white. I enjoyed both of these readings easpecilly Kozal was interesting I literally couldn't put it down once I started. I couldn't imagaine being a school teacher in an area like the one talked about in Kozal's reading. I'm excited to hear everyones thoughts in class because I feel so blown away!

here is a link of an organization in NYC to help poverty check it out there's many ways to help!
http://www.robinhood.org/home.aspx

Hello all! As you should know my name is Alyssa. I'm a very out going girl i love to dance and hang out with my friends. My major is elementary special education. Im from a very small town in Connecticut right on the boarder of exiter Ri. I live on campus and am currently looking for a job bartending because i just finsihed bartending school. The only sport i can actually do is snowboarding and i love it! Ive never blogged before so hopefully this goes well so far i enjoy our FNED class and i'm very excited to start the VIPS program :]
thats all for now!