Talking Points Shor- Education is Politics

“You must arouse children's curiosity, and make them think about school. For example, it's very important to begin the school year with a discussion of why we go to school. Why does the government force us to go to school? This would set a questioning tone and show the children that you trust them and that they are intelligent enough, at their own level, to investigate and come up with answers. A school year that begins with questioning school could be a remarkably democratic and critical learning experiences for students.”

In my opinion this is a very good idea, why not question why we are forced to go to school? If you can discuss this and create hypothetical scenarios like “what would it be like if we weren’t made by law to go to school?” I would ask students what they think would happen if this were so and if they would choose to go to school or not go. Obviously some kids choose not attending, this is where I would have to have these students question themselves, their choice and what they think would happen to them further on in life if they did not have an education. Then have the other students who would opt to go to school explain why they would want to go to school and what will come of their decision. I think this would make for a very good discussion in any classroom.

“If the student’s task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted.”

I strongly agree with this quote, without questioning anything, how do you really learn anything? I’m not saying you don’t learn from just reading and memorizing, you obviously do, but learning that way is kind of being programmed like a robot in a factory, it knows what it’s programmed and then does the task it’s programmed to do. This may be a bit of an extreme analogy, but I remember cramming for tests in high school the night before and then regurgitating the info the next day on the exam, getting a good grade, but if I took a similar or even the same test a month later without preparation I wouldn’t remember most of the information and do poorly on the test. It was like a programmed myself to take that particular test. I always learned better in a discussion type setting asking questions, getting answers and then discussing and elaborating on those answers. The way our class is conducted is much more likely to get me to learn rather than read the book and take the test which was like a class I had last semester and I hardly remember anything from that class and that was only 5 months ago.

“School funding is another political dimension of education, because more money has always been invested in the education of upper-class children and elite collegians than has been spent on students from lower-income homes and in community colleges. Moreover, testing policies, in which women and minorities have traditionally scored lower than men and whites.”

I chose this quote because it really supports the “culture of power” concept and also made me think of the Johnson reading as well as the Anyon and Oakes readings with it referring to the education of upper class children and how they are more advantaged than the lower class by having more opportunities. It’s rather apparent that white privilege gives the upper class and elite much more of an advantage over everyone else where the school system is underfunded. This is too bad because the students without privilege are the ones who need the most help and a student who has great potential my just be left behind due to the fact that they didn’t have an outlet or opportunity to express or use their potential.

"Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome" by Christopher Kliewer

“Those who appear not to make use of these conditions (supposedly open to all), or who appear to lack the potential to accrue privileges, are systematically devalued as less than full citizens – charged as they are with having the differences that matter.”

Basically what is being said here is that people with mental disabilities are not given the right to be full citizens. Disabled people should have the same rights as everyone else. But as far as the classroom goes, I don’t know how effective it is to mainstream disabled persons. It’s like when you put a non- English speaking student in an English speaking class they will eventually catch on and learn but someone who is limited by disabilities may not do so well and just get frustrated which would be a bad thing. I don’t know much about this topic, but I do remember in my high school Spanish class a student with down syndrome attended the class with an aid, but always became frustrated because the teacher couldn’t understand him, most of the time the aid couldn’t understand him. It was too bad and kind of sad, this student left the class halfway through the first quarter. Obviously putting that particular student in the classroom didn’t work for him but maybe it might work for other students with disabilities.

"How absurd to be judged by others at all, especially by those who have never experienced a disability or who are unwillingly providing us with support who don't listen to the voices we have."

A truthful quote, kind of like putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. It’s kind of like school administrators who forget what it’s really like to be in a classroom preaching to teachers on how they should run their particular classroom, my sister is a middle school teacher and she and her colleagues complain about this quite a bit and how it just makes problems.

"As mentioned earlier, people with Down syndrome are joined in their struggle for citizenship by other oppressed groups."

This is a good quote because it goes along with the first quote I wrote about first. I never thought of people with disabilities as being oppressed but after reading this, it does seem as though that they are. When I thought about it, it makes a lot of sense that they do have to struggle, a good example would be that disabled persons get special treatment such as handicap parking spaces, but many people don’t respect disabled persons or just don’t care so they just take the spot or some people that may have a handicap parking pass when they don’t really need it and use it so they don’t have to walk as far, which in my opinion is even worse that just taking the spot.

From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work JEAN ANYON

I found this article somewhat interesting but not so surprising. Children are usually products of their environment so why would schools be any different. They should be different and give kids from lower or working class families more of a chance to attain an education that will allow them to excel to higher standards that would allow them to get better jobs and have more of the opportunities that middle or upper class students would have.

April 7,2010 Racial Stratification and the Politics of Culture

This article seemed like more of the same to me, but at least this article focused on the underclass and not just minorities being oppressed. In my opinion one of the main reasons students fail especially younger students is lack of parent involvement. I see this every week with one of the students I work with in the VIPS program. This student has very little support from home, he usually doesn't get breakfast so he is hungry and this distracts him. Also there is no help with homework or readings that are sent home. This student is clearly behind because of this and the lack of support is always going to hold him back. Granted there are other factors, but this is a big one.