Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us...

"Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us," Christensen (2003)

    For this week, I thought it would be interesting to see what the general take was with fairytales and Walt Disney movies. It's true that these fairy tales become the social primer which most kids base their lives on without even knowing it. Many people would say that fairy tales are important to child development, helping them understand violence and hope. I cannot say that I view that statement to be incorrect. However, these stories also confer things to children other than how to process good and evil. These stories often show what evil looks like, and what good looks like, which successfully creates boxes into which then everything, and everyone, in their life gets sectioned into. 

Many of the stories told by Walt Disney, are old tales, hijacked and "normalized" for the time (this site talks about some of the stories that Disney used to make his iconic movies). By doing this, Disney has inserted lessons that every child now unconsciously picks up. These lessons often come hidden, but rife with inequalities with gender, race, class, and even personal attractiveness.

I thought this video I found on good ol' Youtube sums up a lot of the controversial issues that were talked about in the text we read this week. 

As a child, like most girls, I dreamed of being a princess. I wove sheets around me in layers which became my satin and silk dresses, and wore towels and scarfs around my hair to serve as long flowing locks.I did this to become beautiful. Because the media that I was watching (most of the time Disney movies) told me that beauty and a good life came to those who were rich and beautiful, with long flowing locks. These movies told me what I was, just wasn't good enough.

So, what is Disney really teaching children? Many people would argue that Disney is teaching RACISM and SEXISM... And I think I would agree.

LGBTQ

"Safe Spaces: Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth," G. August, M. Kennedy, A. Vaccaro

"History is written by the victors" - Winston Churchill (but not really?).

What does this quote make you think of? Triumph? An underdog, or an "above all odds" story?

Is the intrinsic truth of the quote a "one size-fit all"? Think about it, we'll go back to it....


I have been thinking about an interesting point that Dr. Annie Russell had made during her presentation yesterday. She commented that when students are educated on the civil rights movements of our country, they rarely are, if ever, taught about important civil right movements that have to do with the LGBTQ community.

I know I didn't learn about any important information in my academic life that regarded to the LBGTQ community. Honestly, the closest I got to learning anything vaguely about the LGBTQ civil movements as an adolescent was in Psychology, when I had to remember the date when when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in 1973 (and you can see the APA's stance has quite changed since then). In many of my classes, I've come to realized I was taught about civil movements, but only the ones that were deemed "appropriate" or  movements that would directly represent the "world view" that those in power accepted as teachable.

Now as I look back on my education, I see many important civil movements that I was not taught about, which I think would have enriched my understanding of people today. I think that when speaking about civil right movements, or highlights, those of the LGBTQ nature could have been included into the discussion very easily. It is not a matter of choosing one over the other; you can introduce important historical LGBTQ movements via correlation. For example, in school, I learned about many civil right movements listed below on the right, the things on the left represent correlating civil right movements in the LGBTQ community.

What I learned…	What I could also have learned…
1963 — March on Washington; Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.	1979 — the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington, D.C.
1964 — Civil Rights Act of 1964 is      signed by President Johnson. President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964	1977 — Activists in Miami, Florida pass a civil rights ordinance making sexual orientation discrimination illegal in Dade County. Save Our Children, a campaign by a Christian fundamentalist group and headed by singer Anita Bryant, is launched in response to the ordinance. In the largest special election of any in Dade County history, 70% vote to overturn the ordinance. It is a crushing defeat for gay activists.
1968 — Martin Luther King is shot, and assassinated by James Earl Ray.	1978 — Harvey Milk, a gay man and a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, is assassinated by Dan White. Harvey Milk
1971 — The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds busing as a legitimate means for achieving integration of public schools. Although largely unwelcome (and sometimes violently opposed) in local school districts, court-ordered busing plans in cities such as Charlotte, Boston, and Denver continue until the late 1990s.	1996 — In Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court strikes down Colorado's Amendment 2, which denied gays and lesbians protections against discrimination, calling them “special rights.” According to Justice Anthony Kennedy, “We find nothing special in the protections Amendment 2 withholds. These protections . . . constitute ordinary civil life in a free society.”

** Historical facts from here and here. :)

Multilingual Students and the ESL Experience

"Teaching Multilingual Children," Virginia Collier (2004)

Many will tell you, that one of the worst afflictions hounding children over generations has been, and will always be, school. For one reason or another, children, especially those in secondary schools, has found the act of learning to be extremely exhausting. So much so, that kids find any reason they possibly can not to go... A truth known to students even before Mr. Bueller took his day off in 1986.

So, kids find school to be difficult... what of it?



Let's pretend you're all taking a trip.

 A trip to another country entirely, and somewhat backwards in time as well. Let's pretend you're back in grade school, learning Physics, Algebra, Chemistry, Shakespeare, and proper essay structure, and all the other crazy intense stuff for your age.

And now, let's pretend that you now are taking all these classes and learning all this complex stuff in Sweden. That's right, Sweden. And did I mention you don't know a lick of Swedish, and the only thing your ever heard about Sweden is something to do with delicious red gummy candies?

Now really think about how difficult it would be for you to adjust, let alone to learn.

How you would like to be taught Swedish, as a native English speaker? How would you like your teachers to treat you? 

Suppose you are put into a classroom where the teacher only speaks Swedish. You're incredibly confused for most of the lesson, but you've got a few Swedish phrases down, but then you realize that you have to use the bathroom. And for the life of you, you can't remember how to ask to use the facilities.

So you go up to your teacher, and you say, "Ursäkta, lärare... um...Bathroom?" And your teacher looks at you and babbles Swedish. Of course you give a blank stare, because you have no idea what they're saying, so you try again,"Var... är... bathroom? Where is the bathroom?" And once again your teachers babbles in Swedish again, but this time pointing to the clock, and then to your seat. So, you go back to your seat feeling frustrated in your ability communicate, and wondering why the hell the teacher was pointing at the damn clock. After class, the teacher pulls you aside and tells you, for the umpteenth time, "Talar svenska endast i klassen. Nej , talar engelska." Which you have come to find out means, no English in class.

*English to Swedish translator used!

Welcome to the life of an English as a Second Language learner. 

Of course this is only an example, out of many other difficulties, I have thought of to give us some perception of how difficult life for a ESL student must be. In Virginia Collier's text, "Teaching Multilingual Children", it is situations like this Collier urges us as educators to avoid. 

If you look back at our transcontinental time-travelling example story, you'll see that the Swedish teacher taught in a way that directly conflicts with what Collier said was important when teaching an ESL learner (or SSL -- Swedish as a Second Language in our case :] ); specifically her listed guidelines #3 and #5.  

3. "Don't teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language." 

• In relation to Collier's text, the Swedish teacher chose to teach in a way that did seek to remove or eliminate your native language English from the classroom, and this can be seen in the teacher's refusal to use any other language but Swedish to teach the class.

5. "Do not forbid young students from code-switching in the classroom. Understand the functions that code-switching serves."

Virginia Collier

• Now let's think about how you attempted to communicate your needs to the Swedish teacher. You could not remember the word for "toilet" or "bathroom" in Swedish, so as you attempted to communicate in Swedish you used words from your native language, English. Collier states that doing this is called "code-switching," and this linguistic feature is very important. In Collier's text, she says "Accepting code-switching 'might produce better academic  results than a constant preoccupation with maintaining a single language'" (230). Collier stresses that doing this, when learning a new language is neither bad or lazy. 

*****************************************

Now, let's think about the Swedish educator in the example. The teacher made no effort to communicate in a way that would be easy for a struggling multilingual student. The teacher relied heavily on complex verbal communication; although  provided with some gesturing, the message remained unclear to the original question, and left you, the student, feeling inadequate in the way you were able to communicate.
Collier would disagree with the way the teacher conducted the conversation because she states that, "...teacher should be aware of the special kind of speech that mothers and fathers use automatically with their children, and try to emulate this" (224). Collier calls this "caregiver speech"; and two important parts of this speech consists of:

• "Caregivers speak in short and simple sentences"

• "Caregivers provide models to children by saying for them what the children seem to want to say"

The teacher in this example obviously did not work to incorporate these guidelines in the conversation. Instances like these may hinder a student's courage to further engage in conversations with their educator, and may result in further engagement in the classroom.

As you pictured yourself as the student, did the situation make you mad? This is only one instance. What if you had to go through similar situations of miscommunication everyday, would you start to feel defeated and out of place?

So, again; what's my point? If life as a adolescent student is difficult and tumultuous at best when speaking only one language, when integrating a student into a curriculum or cultural setting that differs from their own native background, the everyday stresses of schooling may seem tenfold to a struggling multilingual student. I believe that Collier is absolutely correct in her assessment of how multilingual children should be taught. Although it is the educator's job to "facilitate academic language development" (225), it cannot be lost that it is extremely important "to allow the child to express [themselves]... which encourages learning" (230).

White Privilege... Thoughts on Peggy McIntosh and Others...

On Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege Knapsack":

I first wanted to say that I found McIntosh’s piece on white privilege very thought provoking. I like that in her text, she lists ways in which someone can recognize white privilege; giving examples to an idea that may seem foreign idea to most.

The first thing I enjoyed about McIntosh’s piece was her correlation of male privilege to white privilege. I think explaining some difficulties that women (as a whole & as a movement) have gone through to make men aware of their male privileged status in society was great. I thought her quote, “…whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege” (McIntosh 1). Pointing out some of the issues women face with men denying their societal power was a great way to introduce the idea of white privilege; since almost everyone is quite conscious of the Women’s Movement.

I also found McIntosh’s list of “daily effects of white privilege” mostly spot on. I do think that this may seem more relevant to me, because I’m of mixed ethnic background, and it is easier to see where I may become an outsider of the “normal” group. For instance, McIntosh lists a few things that I feel my white peers my take for grante

5. “I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented”

20. “I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children’s magazines featuring people of my race”

            For me, this is false. Sometimes I can watch television for an hour, and count on my hand how many times I see people who represent my culture on TV. The big screen is worst, there are definitely not many summer blockbusters that have a largely ethnic cast, or lead roles, for that matter, without being categorized as a “black film” (i.e. Medea movies). Most picture books I buy for my son feature all white families. The few books that do have multicultural protagonists were bought at Barnes&Nobles… After black history month… They of course were on sale.

And finally… I just wanted to say that I loved Pat Parker’s poem, “For the White Person Who Wants to be My Friend”. I actually laughed aloud. It was so true... For so many, it seems a precarious thing to have a black friend. What to say? And How to say it without being labeled as an “ignorant racist”. Well, to all my dear white friends, please read “For the White Person Who Wants to be My Friend”. Your other black friends, and I, will thank you! 

Watch Peggy MctIntosh speak about white privilege! 

Learn more about Pat Parker!

"Amazing Grace" Jonathan Kozol

South Bronx, 1980

After reading the excerpt from Jonathan Kozol’s “Amazing Grace,” I began to immediately make some connections with the prior texts read in class. The community members that Kozol visit in his text are extremely destitute and reside in Bronx, New York. One woman in particular, Alice Washington, paints an unfortunate look of her neighborhood and its inhabitants through interviews with Kozol. Many of those living in the community have contracted the AIDS virus, while several use intravenous drugs, twenty-seven people in Washington’s building alone (Kozol 13). The picture Mrs. Washington paints is altogether grim, leaving the reader to feel as if their neighbor had been forgotten, or thought of as unimportant, by those in power who could help.

The first text I connected Kozol’s text to was Johnson’s text Privilege, Power, and Difference. There Johnson lists and comments on different instances of “what privilege looks like in everyday life”. One of the bulleted ideas is, “Most whites are not segregated into communities that isolate them from the best job opportunities, schools, and community services” (Johnson 29). It seems as if Alice Washington’s community is just that, isolated from the people and services that can help. On Kozol’s journey to meet Mrs. Washington and others, he notes that, first, many taxicabs refuse to take him to the part of town he needed to go. Secondly, when he travels via train, he notices by the time he reaches near the end of the line, and Kozol’s own destination, there are fewer and fewer white riders. Kozol makes sure to comment that the train that he rides to meet his interviewees goes from “the seventh richest congressional district in the nation” at the start of the line to the poorest all in a “18-minute ride” (Kozol 3).

 Washington recounts a story in which she tells Kozol how difficult it is to obtain help from government programs like supplements for food stamps or SSI. In her sickened condition, she must travel across town to different government offices. Washington often wonders “…how sick you have to be to qualify for SSI” (especially after being denied SSI when she was living with cervical and uterine cancer). In addition to that, Washington’s community has become a dumping ground for other communities. Even after oppositions from community members, an incinerator was installed that burns “red-bag products”, some of it containing “amputated limbs and fetal tissue” and medical waste from 14 different New York City hospitals (Kozol 7). It is worth noting that parents and families who lived in Manhattan, an economically better area, were successfully able to keep the incinerator from being built in their community.

 It is here that I made a connection to another one of the class reading, this time from Lisa Delpit’s “The Silenced Dialogue”. The parents, who live in Manhattan, as Kozol has already pointed out, are among the richest in the nation; and they, as Delpit would say, are a part of the culture of power. Due to their inclusion of this group, the parents were successfully able to ban the construction of the waste burning center citing cancer risks to children (Kozol 7). Unfortunately, for people like Cliffie and Alice Washington, who are located firmly out of the culture of power, such demands cannot be made to those in power.

Washington’s son tells Kozol, “Most of the addicts and prostitutes are black. Some are Hispanic. But they’re all people of color. It made me feel frightened for my race” (Kozol 23). The similarities and correlations between power, ethnicity, and economic class are clear.

Here's a somewhat time relevant article on racism and classism in the neighborhoods of The Bronx and Manhattan these days, here.

A Little Something About Me..

Hello All!

My name is Tora-Yoshida Chanel Jones. Since people butcher my first name, I generally go by my middle name, Chanel. I'm currently a junior here at Rhode Island College; majoring in Secondary Education as a full-time student. I have also been thinking about picking up Creative Writing as a minor. I transferred here from the Community College of Rhode Island last semester, and I'm quite happy with that decision so far. 

I'm currently taking this class because it is needed to get into the Feinstein School of Education. 

Besides going to school, my time is spent between being a mom and working two part-time jobs. My son Kegan is six years old, and has just entered the first grade (which he was totally excited for). Although, Kegan is my only human child, I also have a few four-legged children. Bark Lee, my super cute puppy who is almost a year old, as well as Leopard Spotted geckos, Buddy and Spicy.

Over the summer I spent my time working at my two part-time jobs. During the days, I worked at Ryan Family Amusements, which is an arcade. I absolutely love this job because I work with some of my best friends, and the company itself, is absolutely fabulous to their employees. During the evenings, I could be found at my night job, Bridge Liquors. I have been at both companies for over five years, and they have been very accommodating with me about with the hectic schedules motherhood and education bring. 

When I'm not in class, or at work, I love spending time with Kegan. I'm a big supporter of DIY projects, so Kegan and I will often make fun crafts together (homemade playdough, making figurines, paper mache... etc). There is also nothing better than going on hikes and walks with our pup. On rainy days, and the days I feel too lazy to go out, are often spent reading, playing video games, or watching TV.