Snowball's Chance

QUOTES REFLECTION Carla Shalaby’s Troublemakers wastes no time in making its point – connecting the dots in the first couple pages: “According to the most recent data from the Department of Education, black preschoolers are 3.8 times more likely to be suspended than their white peers.” “…children who do not read proficiently by the end of third grade are four times more likely to leave high school without a diploma. Securing a job with livable wages without a high school diploma is a challenge, to put it mildly. As a result, young people sometimes find it necessary to engage in unlawful underground economies in order to survive, and then we imprison them. “This is a continuation of America’s historic legacy of injustice. In the era of slavery, teaching a black person to read was illegal because reading and writing are forms of power, tools for organizing, means to freedom. Removing young children from school, hindering their capacity to acquire such tools, inevitably relegates c...

 QUOTES REFLECTION Patrick Finn’s discussion of the American caste system and the educational separation that fuels it details his journey from drill sergeant rookie teacher to well-meaning educational revolutionary – with a drop or two of conspiracy theorist mixed in. Here’s his basic premise, leaning heavily on the findings on Jean Anyon: “My explanation of why literacy is not seen as dangerous among the working people and unemployed of the United States is that we have developed two kinds od education. First, there is empowering education, which leads to powerful literacy, the kind of literacy that leads to positions of power and authority. Second, there is domesticating education, which leads to functional literacy, literacy that makes a person productive and dependable, but not troublesome.” It’s not quite as simple as the privileged Eloi and subterranean Morlocks from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine , but Finn does subscribe to the notion that students receive basic inst...

  FNED 546 Weekly Blog Assignment #7 – What to Look For In a Classroom (Alfie Kohn) & CLASSROOM TOUR – Middle School video (Megan Forbes) REFLECTION I enjoyed reading Alfie Kohn’s “What to Look For In a Classroom” chart-icle and it heartened me to see so many of the “good signs” reflected in the third grade classroom I am currently volunteering in. The room has multiple comfortable areas for learning, including two “learning centers”, one of which is a half-pentagon table with chairs around it. There’s also a large space for gathering at the front of the classroom. Two huge bulletin boards on the walls are covered with the latest writing and art projects from the entire class. There is a well-labeled area with books available for signing out, plenty of art supplies in a closet, and a few bins of wooden blocks and connective blocks for abstract building. Beyond these things that mirror Kohn’s suggestions, the physical layout of the desks in the room is very carefully arr...

QUOTES REFLECTION Lisa Delpit offers insight and a path to improvement in her essay “The Silenced Dialogue.” Her perspective begins with this quote from Education Week, “Culture doesn’t help you teach somebody. Start off with what is to the best of your knowledge good teaching. If you run into problems, then culture is one of the explanations that you can look into to solve a problem.” Her essay began with several quotes from black students and educators who felt their voices were not being heard. Frustration was a common theme: “I don’t know if they really don’t listen or if they don’t believe you.” “They won’t listen. White folks are going to do what they want to do anyway.” “When you’re talking to white people they still want it to be their way…they think they know what’s best for everybody, for everybody’s children.” Delpit delivers her insights and suggestions after clearly establishing her “five aspects of power.” 1.       Issues of power ...