talking points # 6

1."we are no where near a post-racial america." Time wise
I think this quote is very important because I do believe that even though we have a black president does no mean that racism as magically disappeared. it is far from gone. While reading about the brown vs board the same misconception was made after the civil war, African Americans thought that now they could finally be equal becasue slavery had ended but look what resulted years later, white and blacks were not allowed to go to school together.

2."they view him(Obama)... as transcending race, as being different from the black and brown norm." Tim Wise
I think this quote is very important becasue it brings up this issue that you can only be a successful african american if you dress and act like Barack Obama. What Wise was saying was that it is important to realize that African Americans can be successful people and just as smart if not smarter that Obama without being just like him. He also talked about how it would be acceptable for a black president to be like Bush and he probaly not be elected. I thought that was very interesting.

3."to keep our eye on the prize so to speak and remember how much work still remained to be done after those events." Tim Wise
Here Wise is talking about how yes this is great that we have a black president...but to remeber after brown vs board how much still needed to be done, this issue of racism is not gone and it is important to realize that. There is so much more than can be done the problem of racism has not stopped with the election of Barack Obama.

Kahne & Westheimer

1."students would interact with those less fortunate than themselves and would experience the excitement and joy of learning while using the community as a classroom."

i feel that this quote is very important. i feel that working with your community will not only benefit you in the classroom, but it will also benefit those you are helping. learning about other things besides math and science, like things that people are effected by daily and showing students that they can help will get them excited for learning and help their community.

2. "we attempt to "apprehend the realityof the other" and then to "struggle (for progress) together". in so doing, we create opportunities for changing and understanding of the other and the context within which he or she lives."

this quote i feel is very important because it talks about how we can learn from each other within the community and understand their life styles. also i feel that it deals with being able to understand how people live each day and to avoid any judements that may have been percieved earlier.

3. "with the current interest in and allocation of resources to service learning comes a growing need to clarify the ideological perspectives that underlie service learning programs."

i dont understand why service learning projects must be clarified. most high schools have a requirement that they must do community serice hours of some sort to graduate. i feel that helping the community should never have to be justified. students dont always just have to learn about the four major subjects, but they should also learn about what happening around them and waht they can do to help.

i think this article is very important, however i must say i found it lengthy and a bit boring. i lost interest on the third page. but i do think it is important for students to get a all around eductation.

while reading Unlearning the Myths That Blind Us by Linda Christensen i really started to understand what exactly the " secret education" was. i had always heard about disney movies having an underlying message, however i never really understood what is was and how it affects children. i also really enjoyed the reading. i feel that it was very interesting to read about something i was very famliar with, afterall i think i have seen every disney movie at least twice!
1. the first quote i chose was "our society's culutre industry colonizes their minds and teaches them how to act, live, and dream."(pg126). this quote really makes me think how badly i wanted my prince charming to come and rescue me one day because i saw it in EVERY disney princess movie. it really gave me a false sense of reality.
2. the second quote i chose was"they assure me that they make their own choices and the media has no power over them-as they sit with Fubu, Nike, Timberlands or whatever the latest fashion is." i really like how she compared fashion and how the media manipulates us to wear certain brands, and how the childrens movies and cartoons manipulate young minds. i think it is important to show te different waa the media has effected its viewers.
3.the third quote i chose was "we look at the roles women, men, people od color, and poor people play in the cartoon." i think this is very important and very interesting. before reading this essay i would have never of thought to watch out for these stereotypes, but once you notice them, you realize how obvious they really are. it is very disturbing to view.

While reading Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community by Dennis Carlson i must say that I found it a little difficult to read in the begining. Ifeel that it didnt really have a flow, but as I contiued to read I felt it become easier to read. I do agree with Carlson that "Gayness" has been left out of class curriculums on purpose. and i feelt hat they should be incorporated within a child's education starting off at ayoung age. If students learn about different sexual orientations early in their education I feel that they will understand and not be so judgemental to their fellow peers as they get older that may be gay or have gay family members.
the first quote i chose was "the cleansing of gayness from the literacy canon is often defended as an effort to maintain the reputation or "good name"of authors by not "outing" them."(pg 236) this quote really does make sense because if a gay writer was out and open about his sexuality he may be looked on in a negative way and his work may suddenly not be worth what it was if no one knew. this really upsets me, why should a person be judged because of their sexual orientation?
the second quote i chose was, "to the extent that gayness is recognized in the curriculum, it is likely to be in the health curriculum,where it is associated with disease."(pg 237) this quote just makes me sick, it gives gayness a negative appearence. if something is associated with disease your going to think it is bad. so if a child sees this in class they may never see pass that.
my final quote is "so gay teachers were to be fired because they too were understood as contagious."(pg237) this statement makes me laugh almost. it is such an ignorant statement. this just goes to show how people who do not understand something can make it such an issue and make it a negative.