Reading this book, was interesting to me. Growing up there were a few students in my classes that were pulled out for what I believe(d) to be english lessons. I never paid them much mind, they were just other students in my class. I never thought about how our class environment might have been affecting my fellow classmates. The holidays that were discussed, even the crayons. (In the book it was mentioned that Crayola has a box of crayons that's different skin tones, which I didn't even know or think about.) Now whenever I do my observations for classes, I think about the holidays they talk about and wonder if they're missing any holidays that the students might celebrate instead or with. My awareness about what they discussed in the book seems to have heightened.
Susan
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Final thoughts on the book: Eyes opened wider now.. Beth -Final Blog entry
After reading this book I see myself in the community and as a future teacher differently. We were asked to investigate White Allies...I didn't know what this term was. But I looked and learned.
White Allies are people who advocate for diversity in the community. This link is to a web survey that you can take to see where you rank as being a white ally. It is from another local college’s website - Cortland.
http://web.cortland.edu/russellk/courses/hdouts/raible.htm
It's questions are good and helps you to think about what a white ally is.
I also checked out this article which I helped me to understand what being a white ally is
Guidelines for Being
Strong White AlliesAdapted from Uprooting Racism: How Whiteby P a u l K i v e l The full article can be read here:
The article points out many ways to be a white ally but two that I found most powerful were:
1. Assume racism is everywhere, everyday. He asks us to assume it because its true and because we are a part of the dominant cultural and do not have to face it daily. He asks us to notice it, to be aware of it around us in life daily.
2.The second request that I found really powerful was to: take risks. That even if its scary for you, to risk embarrassment or failure by trying to stop racist talk or actions that you see or hear
When I started to read this book, I don’t think I realized how much of an assimilationist I was. I am very much a part of the dominant culture and my education that embraced a melting pot approach to life in the U.S. just seemed so normal. As I child I didn’t think of anyone being hurt by the way our school was run.
As an adult today in the world, I knew that there are people with bi-cultural backgrounds but I hadn’t thought about how our educational system might impact them. I just thought, everyone who comes here becomes American and it may take time but they will learn English and blend into our culture. This book was a great example to how naïve my prior thinking was. And it was a catalyst for me to think about these things, where I previously had not considered how being an immigrant to this country today might impact education.
Embracing the differences and bi-culturalism helps students of minority groups to feel welcomed, important, understood and it helps to succeed in our schools. There are many things I think I would have done inherently, like talking to the ESL teacher and seeing what my students were doing with her or if she kept the lessons of my classroom going. Or having kids see representations of themselves in their class…but would I have taught the individual cultures? Or asked parents to?
I didn’t even know what White Allies were until this class and now that I have researched what it is to be one I feel my eyes are open wider than before.
--Elizabeth Francescotti
People Can Work for Social Justicehttp://www.paulkivel.com/articles/guidelinesforbeingstrongwhiteallies.pdf
White Allies are people who advocate for diversity in the community. This link is to a web survey that you can take to see where you rank as being a white ally. It is from another local college’s website - Cortland.
http://web.cortland.edu/russellk/courses/hdouts/raible.htm
It's questions are good and helps you to think about what a white ally is.
I also checked out this article which I helped me to understand what being a white ally is
Guidelines for Being
Strong White AlliesAdapted from Uprooting Racism: How Whiteby P a u l K i v e l The full article can be read here:
The article points out many ways to be a white ally but two that I found most powerful were:
1. Assume racism is everywhere, everyday. He asks us to assume it because its true and because we are a part of the dominant cultural and do not have to face it daily. He asks us to notice it, to be aware of it around us in life daily.
2.The second request that I found really powerful was to: take risks. That even if its scary for you, to risk embarrassment or failure by trying to stop racist talk or actions that you see or hear
When I started to read this book, I don’t think I realized how much of an assimilationist I was. I am very much a part of the dominant culture and my education that embraced a melting pot approach to life in the U.S. just seemed so normal. As I child I didn’t think of anyone being hurt by the way our school was run.
As an adult today in the world, I knew that there are people with bi-cultural backgrounds but I hadn’t thought about how our educational system might impact them. I just thought, everyone who comes here becomes American and it may take time but they will learn English and blend into our culture. This book was a great example to how naïve my prior thinking was. And it was a catalyst for me to think about these things, where I previously had not considered how being an immigrant to this country today might impact education.
Embracing the differences and bi-culturalism helps students of minority groups to feel welcomed, important, understood and it helps to succeed in our schools. There are many things I think I would have done inherently, like talking to the ESL teacher and seeing what my students were doing with her or if she kept the lessons of my classroom going. Or having kids see representations of themselves in their class…but would I have taught the individual cultures? Or asked parents to?
I didn’t even know what White Allies were until this class and now that I have researched what it is to be one I feel my eyes are open wider than before.
--Elizabeth Francescotti
People Can Work for Social Justicehttp://www.paulkivel.com/articles/guidelinesforbeingstrongwhiteallies.pdf
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Overall Summerization of the book
I cannot say i had a real grasp of what this book would discuss and how it would speak to me. In the end though, it spoke to me on many different levels and about an idea that had not really occurred to me as a future educator yet. People in the United States, in particularly the white dominate culture, often times forget the melting pot that the USA was founded to be. I have always been an advocate for a multicultural classrooms, even if that might be tough for the dominate culture. As educators we take on the responsibilities to speak up for the children in our classes and make their futures' brighter. Myself, as a white male, I need to take on the role of a "white ally", a term Professor Ahmad mentioned to our group. A white ally is a member of the dominate culture, generally white in this country, who actively resists the role of oppressor and is an active ally to people of color. (Google.com).
Often times, as we talked about in class and in our group, children who have a conflicting cultures between school and home are labeled as disabled. As an educator, this book made me realize that often times these children are really just desperate for something to relate to. They just want to feel welcome and appreciated in class. They need to see their home life in society. Many of the problems Mrs. Starr was dealing with, the language barrier, the cultural barriers and the celebration of only dominate cultures, are things I myself may have fallen into had I not been made aware of them in someway. Being aware of the children in my class who may not be of the dominate culture, I will now do my best to be an ally to these individuals and their families.
Another thing, and I made mention of this in my Chapter 8 blog, I will try to include a wraparound program in some way for all of the children in my class. I want to make my future classroom a place where children feel comfortable with myself and their fellow classmates, almost how they would feel with family members at home. Communication lines will be opened early and often to the parents of my students. Are their any other ideas that you feel could be used to make a classroom feel more like a home?? I would like to hear about them
Often times, as we talked about in class and in our group, children who have a conflicting cultures between school and home are labeled as disabled. As an educator, this book made me realize that often times these children are really just desperate for something to relate to. They just want to feel welcome and appreciated in class. They need to see their home life in society. Many of the problems Mrs. Starr was dealing with, the language barrier, the cultural barriers and the celebration of only dominate cultures, are things I myself may have fallen into had I not been made aware of them in someway. Being aware of the children in my class who may not be of the dominate culture, I will now do my best to be an ally to these individuals and their families.
Another thing, and I made mention of this in my Chapter 8 blog, I will try to include a wraparound program in some way for all of the children in my class. I want to make my future classroom a place where children feel comfortable with myself and their fellow classmates, almost how they would feel with family members at home. Communication lines will be opened early and often to the parents of my students. Are their any other ideas that you feel could be used to make a classroom feel more like a home?? I would like to hear about them
Karen Paine - Rigorous Researcher of White Allies (Final Post)
"White ally" is a term coined by Beverly Daniel Tatum (who wrote "Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?"). Tatum defines a white ally as "an antiracist, a white man or woman who is clearly identifiable as an ally to people of color in the struggle against racism (Tatum, 1994, page 462).
In my research of white allies in ESL education, I discovered the book "Refusing Racism: White Allies and the Struggle for Civil Rights" by Cynthia Stokes Brown. Brown takes a white ally to be someone who "takes a public stand against the racist assumptions that surround one, against the prevailing system of white supremacy" (Brown, 2002, page 4).
According to Brown, the issues that surround white allies are:
1.) Are there consequences for white people in their stance (ostracism, loss of job opportunities, loss of upward mobility)?
2.) How can white people understand an oppression that they had not experienced?
3.) Are white people really able to support people of color?
4.) Even if they can talk equality, can white people relinquish privilege to balance the scales?
These are applicable to the issues presented in the epilogue of Schmidt-Ruggiano's book. Mrs. Starr did experience some ostracism in her push for multicultural curriculum. Regardless of her approach in class, it was not until Mrs. Starr was able to meet with Raji and Peley's families that she was better able to understand their experience and how that influenced their schooling. Can anyone else find any other connections between what I've researched on white allies and the experience of Mrs. Starr, Peley, and Raji?
Monday, November 1, 2010
Chapter 8: vocab; Susan
Assimilationist:
a person who advocates a policy of assimilating differing racial or cultural groups
Assimilating: To absorb into the culture or mores of a population or group
diversity: the condition of being diverse : variety; especially : the inclusion of diverse people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization <programs intended to promote diversity in schools>
impetus:: a driving force : impulse (2) : incentive, stimulus b : stimulation or encouragement resulting in increased activity
a person who advocates a policy of assimilating differing racial or cultural groups
Assimilating: To absorb into the culture or mores of a population or group
diversity: the condition of being diverse : variety; especially : the inclusion of diverse people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization <programs intended to promote diversity in schools>
impetus:: a driving force : impulse (2) : incentive, stimulus b : stimulation or encouragement resulting in increased activity
2
: the property possessed by a moving body in virtue of its mass and its motion —used of bodies moving suddenly or violently to indicate the origin and intensity of the motion
Chapter 8, post5 : Susan Schuler
In the epilogue Mrs. Starr expressed her concerns of how she had taught the class in the past. I appreciate that she didn't become defensive as a lot of people would and deny that the way she taught was anything less than perfect, she actually thought about the way she had done things and was willing to change to improve her future classes' experiences. It would be interesting to follow two of her students in her 'after' classroom to see how the changes affected them. To show what the changes were and if they really did improve the experiences for minority children.
It would also be interesting to have some other teachers in Mrs. Starr's school read this book to see how they react, to see if maybe it will help them to realize why Mrs. Starr is doing what she is doing.
Does anyone else think that these are good ideas? Why or why not?
It would also be interesting to have some other teachers in Mrs. Starr's school read this book to see how they react, to see if maybe it will help them to realize why Mrs. Starr is doing what she is doing.
Does anyone else think that these are good ideas? Why or why not?
Blog #6 Idea Illustrator - Elizabeth Francescotti
It seems like such a basic tool for the classroom and one that makes sense if we have our eyes open...people come in a wide array of colors.
I was disappointed that Mrs. Starr bought these and they all came back un-used from the other teachers.
I was also dissapointed that she was put down, as forgetting American Cultural when she decided to celebrate Spring in the variety of ways it is celebrated around the world. It makes me think about how or current school calendar is still based on an agricultural society...students don't need all this time off to leave school and pick crops...we don't live that way anymore. But, I think it says a lot about how CHANGE happens slowly in the school system!
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