3 R's Race Reform Rights
HYPERLINKS
There were many parts to this video that related to issues that we have previously discussed in class and to other articles we have read. There was a particular topic that related to me because of my plan to become a teacher. I feel like many of the people in this class can relate to this as well. Closer to the end of the video there was a question asked about whether having a non white teacher affects the students. I had never thought about it before but the only Spanish teacher I had was for my Spanish class and I think I have had only one black teacher in middle school science; he has since retired. This made me think about how non white teachers feel when they teach and whether it does make a difference or not. Gloria; one of the speakers said something in response to the question, "All students need to see a teaching force that more accurately represents the country." her response was clever and clear and not close minded and opened up many other questions to follow. She basically is saying that a non white teacher will not just help non white students but they would help every student. My Spanish teacher obviously helped me in my Spanish class but thinking back having my teacher in eighth grade be black affected me as well. He would actually make mild jokes about it and I realized he was one of my favorite teachers because he was so outgoing and knowledgeable....not because he was black.
I attached a video that appeared on the side bar of the original video and a picture of the logo of the Dual Language Immersion program that is opening up in schools. the video is of a Hispanic teacher talking about his experience in the classroom and how he incorporates his culture to help the students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWRriW9jm6Q
Points to bring up in class: Will we, as future teachers, be able to accommodate all children, Spanish speaking and not? Depends on school, administrations, curriculum, etc. Our experiences in the schools we are in now, I am in an ESL classroom and the curriculum is not great even the teacher complains about it.

Kahne & Westheimer, "In The Service of What?"
REFLECTION

I decided to write a reflection on this piece because I have completed a lot of community service hours in my life and service learning and community service is very important to me. I never realized there were controversial issues about this topic until reading this article but it seems it can be misconstrued that it is the "wealthy" helping the "poor" but it is just people helping people. In high school I completed the 30 hour famine where a group of us stayed at the school over night and played games that related to issues about hunger and third world countries and we did not eat for a complete 30 hours. It was not difficult because we had each other to distract us and we could sleep if we wanted to. Drinks were provided for us so if we felt hungry we drank water or juice. Knowing I can complete the 30 hour famine was a huge stepping stone in my life because I was able to learn what it was like to not have food but that was only for over a day. After those 30 hours were over I was extremely tired, my body was fatigued and felt very ill and it was difficult to eat after that too.
Another project I take part in is the One Day Without Shoes project and this takes place once a year. The point of it is to not wear shoes all day and get a feeling of what it is like to not have shoes. When I did it in high school it was raining and I remember walking to the bus stop without shoes, it was one of the most painful experiences. I could never imagine walking every day without shoes on the hard cold ground and I just kept thinking about all the diseases I could have potentially gotten. Over the years, I have convinced many people to take part in the day and it really changed my perspective on how people live their lives in other countries. I believe taking part in any community service opportunities will allow people to grow and learn and meet other people and change perspectives.
This article made me think of why I participated and continue to participate in the activities that I do. I think I may do it because I like helping people but honestly, I like changing as a person and learning. It is one thing to help others and know I made a difference in their lives but to know that an experience so simple can change myself is huge.

Points to bring up in class: What community service have other people done? Why do we do it? Community service does not have to be for people, it could be for animals or the environment. The possibilities are endless. The article has many points about the different parts of service learning and the ways it affects people and the people completing it but all in all, it changes people not just helps them. I disagree with many of the points made in the article. VIDEO OF ONE DAY WITHOUT SHOES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REXVN_aROuM
WREBSITE FOR 30 HOUR FAMINE
http://www.30hourfamine.org/?cons_id=0&ts=1414019841&signature=a7d5c2b3cb92e9feb8915a44ca2c05a6

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us- Linda Christensen
ARGUMENT

The first thing I analyzed was the title that Christensen decided to use for her piece. Before even reading I wanted to think about what I thought the piece was going to be about. I had an understanding for how media has influenced people and their actions but my eyes were opened to the multiple ways media could be used. I had always learned it was from television commercials or advertisements in magazines but it began when I was much younger as well. Christensen discusses the many stereotypes that exist in the world of Disney and one student wrote about the gender role issues that are secretly embedded in the Little Mermaid. I had not noticed that until reading this article and it made me realize how many hidden stereotypes there are in Disney movies and how those myths influenced me as a child. These are the myths that have bound me together and persuaded the way I think about certain situations.
Christensen's argument is that "Children's cartoons, movies, and literature are perhaps the most influential genre 'read'. Young people, unprotected by any intellectual armor, hear or watch these stories again and again, often from the warmth of their mother's or father's lap. The messages, or 'secret education,' linked with the security of their own homes, underscore the power these texts deliver. As Tatum's research suggests, the stereotypes and worldview embedded in the stories become accepted knowledge" (127). Her argument relates directly to the title she chose, the myths we grew up to accept became our knowledge and this knowledge is all we know so it does keep us together, or bind us, and we have to condition ourselves to unlearn it as we grow up because we learn that the information or stereotypes we learned to be true are actually untrue.
Comments to make in class: When I was younger there were no worries about whether I would be influenced by a movie or show, there was no paranoia that I would want to be somebody on television because I was taught right from wrong and I learned to be myself no matter what other people did or said. I enjoyed watching Disney movies, not for the stereotypes that were hidden but for the jokes and love stories and awesome characters and animation. Now we are so paranoid with what is being put into children's mind that we forget that it is not just the media that has an influence on children. So show them a Disney movie or a cartoon or read a book then explain to them the fictitious parts of it and let them enjoy the fantasy about it. This image shows the multiple influences on children and how closely related they are and how closely they affect children.

Speaking the Unspeakable: Sex Education
ARGUMENT
This writer states many valid and arguable points in this piece discussing the issues of gender identities in schools and places outside of school and how these places connect. The ideas of place and space, public and private and the combination of these is quite confusing because of the many topics that can relate to any of them. In this piece the argument was that place is neither a unitary experience nor a neutral stage upon which social relations are enacted. This means that the idea of place is always changing and it is based on the social relations that surround it. The argument is then reiterated at the end of the piece, "the public and private boundary appears to have a permeability that challenges the notion that sexuality is necessarily contained in one sphere or another, and the notion that there is indeed such a boundary despite the fact that our own perceived ‘private’ spaces can come to take on a material existence that we truly believe in, spaces can never really be fixed, for their boundaries are always open to continuous struggle and they are continually being made and remade through social relations". The process of bringing young children to the light of reality is not an easy process and there are many things that need to be taken into consideration before teachers begin forming lessons around those ideas and plans. Many teachers decided to come out to their children in the hope of making them more comfortable discussing it in the classroom and in turn discussing it at home as well. This is proof that the public space of school and the discussions that are based in school meld over into the private places of the students homes. Both public and private spaces go hand in hand and affect the other. This piece reminds me of the video we watched in class about the teachers introducing a day in the school that is dedicated to teaching children about the differences in sexuality. It was then melded into their home lives because they would ask their parents many questions about what the teacher had taught them in school. This can create controversy because the parents may not want the child to grow up thinking a certain way. The most amazing thing in the video was a little girl who was sitting with her two mothers looking so happy and comfortable in the classroom environment. This combines the home and school lives, public and private.

Points to bring up in class:
In the piece there was a lot of discussion about the staff room and how it becomes a more private place for the teachers to discuss issues but they are in a public place, the school still. I wonder, as a future teacher how I will react to such an environment and if I will face these decisions one day also. I would also like to talk to the parents in the classroom about how they plan, if they haven't already, to talk to their kids about gender identities in the public and private spaces.

I found an article describing a disorder that is Gender Dysphoria:
http://psychcentral.com/disorders/gender-dysphoria-symptoms/

Hunger of Memory: Richard Rodriguez
HYPERLINKS

This piece, being an autobiography was more moving than other pieces we have read in class because it is not a person writing about or referring to another person but every experience was a first hand one and what he experienced as a child and even as an adult is truly eye opening. I think everybody can relate to his situation in some way, maybe not experiencing the same situations but knowing somebody who has. We all have grown accustomed to certain societal beliefs about immigrants and how and why they travel to the United States. We have forgotten the purposes of them being here and why it is so crucial to help them adapt and help them channel their heritages to add to our "melting pot" or "salad bowl" of a country.
I related this piece to another class I am taking right now, CEP 315 and in this class we have recently been discussing language barriers in schools and how programs are being created to help those who are not native English speakers. Rodriguez talks a lot about his home life and how comfortable he felt inside his home, despite it being in the US but it was because of the language that was being spoken that made him feel so at home. His parents and three other siblings always addressed him in Spanish and this was his norm. On his first day of school his teacher addressed him as Richard instead of Ricardo and every student in the class were native English speakers. There is a program that is developed in the D.C area that is about incorporating the English and Spanish languages every day in the classroom. In our CEP 315 class we watched a video about the program. After reading this piece I began to think about if the program existed when Rodriguez was in school if it would have made a difference for him.
There is second video I posted that discusses the status of education programs and how bilingual education programs are becoming more popular throughout the country. The history of immigrant flow and the relation that this has to the current issue is extremely relevant. The number of immigrant children affects whether or not programs like the Dual Language Program will work.

Personal thoughts/comments:
I believe it will benefit all children, those who speak English as a first language and those who do not, to have multiple language programs in schools. I think we start learning another language way too late in life and miss the opportunity to actually understand and comprehend what it means to learn another language. It was very moving to read about the experiences a young child had in school and relating that to their home life as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6PwrSSZ3co

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tIppleeIjk