Social Justice Event:
Attending the Social Justice Event Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation I was able to hear an abundance of information about the changing and evolving of the education system in our society today. The keynote speaker,  Christopher Emdin was very engaging and entertaining while being very informative and eye opening as well. He used videos and pictures incorporated in a powerpoint to help prove his points about the education system today. Many of the things he said connected to multiple readings that we had discussed in class and throughout the semester. The first piece I could relate this event to was the most recent piece we read by Ira Shor titled Empowering Education: Critical teaching for Social Change. The title says it all, Shor discusses how the education system needs to change in order for change to happen outside the classroom as well as inside. The point that was made about being slaves to society and conformity was the most important part in the piece because that is exactly what people are. They are slaves to the bigger people, those who create the rules but these rules are what is causing the issues in the first place. This concept reminds me of the Silenced Dialogue. A video the speaker showed at the Social Justice Event also reminded me of the Silenced Dialogue as well. The video was of a student in the back of the classroom trying to answer a question the teacher had asked by yelling out the correct answer but the teacher would not call on him because he did not raise his hand. This video related both to the Silenced Dialogue and the point Ira Shor made about being slaves to conformity. There is a rule in the classroom about raising hands and if a student does not raise their hand they will not be called on even if they have the correct answer. The child in the video continued to put his head on the desk, feeling defeated and put down. It is the job of the teacher to make children feel welcome and comfortable in the classroom. Another point Emdin made in his presentation was the fact that people are from different backgrounds and it is important to blend these backgrounds in the classroom and make sure that judgments aren't made based on what a person looks like or their background. When the speaker asked open ended questions to the audience there were a variety of people who raised their hand and agreed with him on what he was asking, there was no one type of person who answered his questions or who agreed with his points when he asked about them. These exercised he did kept the audience engaged and it made me realize that being quick to judge someone on their appearance is not good. I already knew it wasn't good but it opened my eyes. These engaging exercises he conducted reminded me of the Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez because he talks about the young boy who grew up in an unsafe neighborhood and thought nothing of it. It is incredible was children go through when they are so young and as adults it is difficult to realize how much they go through because they don't directly discuss it. Working in the school as a tutor and listening to many stories told by classmates has made me realize how strong these kids are and the events that go on in their lives are difficult and I commend their bravery and strength every day for going to school.
There are many outside sources I could refer to relating to the speaker at the Social Justice Event. Reiterating the engaging exercises about how people have different backgrounds and it is important to be aware of that, it just relates to the many stories and personal experiences that have been shared in class. In my classroom there was a little boy who did not celebrate Thanksgiving and I had asked him about it. In doing so, I think I made him feel left out from the rest of the kids. When Emdin discussed the education system as conforming and not changing I thought about what Fred had talked about in his blog when he discussed the many children who were incorrectly classified with disabilities and how this has been going on for years, even more so now. Another connection to the conformity of the system was when Emdin showed pictures of classrooms and how they are set up and how class pictures are taken. All the students usually stand in rows and the desks are placed in rows as well; he used pictures from years ago and pictures from today's classrooms and there were not any differences. This struck me very hard because as a future teacher I do not want to give in to society's ideas of a perfect classroom and having the desks set up differently is important so the children can engage with different students. When I attended the presentations throughout that day I analyzed how the desks were set up and in the Henry Barnard school there are circular tables with chairs around them and in the Fienstein School on Broad Street there are square and rectangular desks with chairs around them but in my English class here the desks are lined up in rows. It was interesting to compare the classrooms and I thought about how boring my English class is and how that could correlate to how the desks are lined up. Overall, he was very informative and entertaining throughout the presentation and I enjoyed it.

Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change
By: Ira Shor

EXTENDED COMMENTS

I have decided to base my blog this week on the blog that was written by Wesley because I enjoyed his comparisons he used and the points he picked from the article were the same points I enjoyed reading as well. He posted a very interesting Ted Talk about critical thinking and how that is the way teachers should teach their students and how anybody should teach. I loved how the speaker, Steve Joordens mentioned that anybody can be a teacher, not just the adults in classrooms with an attendance sheet.
There was a point made in the video about being slaves to society and slaves to certain systems and slaves to conformity, I found this interesting because it made me think about how sometimes I choose not to speak up about certain topics because it is not the most popular opinion I have. Joordens then continues to talk about people with different opinions; he called these people opinion odd balls and he said he loved them. I think everybody is an opinioned odd ball but sometimes people don't like to show that.
Also, In Wesley's blog he discusses points made in the article. In particular I love his topics...in his words called PAPSMDDDRIA but this means 

• Participatory

• Affective

• Problem-posing

• Situated

• Multicultural

• Dialogic

• Desocializing

• Democratic

• Researching

• Interdisciplinary

• Activist 

I really enjoy how he emphasized how important these roles play in every day life as well as in the classroom. As future teachers we have to acknowldge that we will run into issues with politics and there are no ways to avoid running into these issues but there are ways in solving them and dealing with them appropriately. 

Points to bring up in class: Although my post is late and we already discussed the article I would have loved to touched upon this video and what other classmates thought of the speakers points on critical thinking and the difference it makes in classrooms when teachers think outside the box and outside the curriculum.

 

http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/TL/buchanan/