Talking Point #7

     As I read through articles and watch videos about gender equity in the classroom, I have found one common observation - that American educators, regardless of their gender or the grade level at which they teach, continue to focus more attention on male than on female students.  Sadly I have found this to be true in the classroom that I volunteer in.  The most alarming part about this is that now that I think about it, I have done so myself.  A study done in the classroom by Sadker and Sadker found that boys are called on more than girls, boys are given more and different kind of feedback than girls, and boys are allowed more leniency for mild classroom misbehavior.  I can't say why the teacher that I work with does this but for me, I seem to think that the girls don't need as much of my attention, that they can self motivate better than the boys and are overall better behaved.  I'm definitely going to pay more attention to the way that I do things in relation to gender in the classroom.

This article titled Education expert: Classroom gender bias persists by Jill Goatz goes into more detail about the study done by Sadker and Sadker.


I like this video more for the questions that it raised.  It just gets you thinking about gender and it's role in the classroom


This is a video of a group of sophomores at Sydney Boys High School (an all-boys, selective, public high school in Sydney, Australia). Their goal is to raise awareness about gender equality as part of their High Resolves Community Action.

This article titles Single Sex Classes on Trial Expect Girls to Sit Down and Shut Up is about a schools principal who sought to segregate students based on a gender stereotyped idea that girls and boys cannot learn in the same environment.

In class I would like to see if anyone else has had any realizations about themselves in Service Learning?  I never realized that my way of thinking is actually a problem and can negatively impact students :(

Talking Points #6

Tim Wise Interview and Brown vs. Board of Education

     The interview of Tim Wise, the website on Brown vs. Board of Education and the article from The New York times all have one common topic - racism.  The article Separate and Unequal discusses the problems that minorities face in the classroom - de facto segregation which is segregation that occurs due to patterns in residential settlement and learning environments that are smothered by poverty.  The website Separate is Not Equal gives information on Brown vs. Board of Education, the troubles in overcoming segregation and the achievements towards equality that our country has made. The interview of Tim Wise discusses his book Between Barack and a Hard Place and goes into detail points that he made through his writing.
     Many of the points made by Tim Wise made me think of previous readings that we have done.  The first being Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege" which states that white people are often oblivious to their "white privilege."  McIntosh as one point in her article states "As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage."  Tim Wise says in his interview that there are many African Americans who are just as intelligent and well spoken as Barack Obama but they may not present themselves in that same way that he does thereby putting those other African Americans at a disadvantage because Americans have put Obama, in their minds, in a separate category than they put "stereotypical" African Americans.  Relating to the quote from McIntosh's article is something that Time Wise said, "The proof of racial equity will be the day that people of color can be as mediocre as white folks and still get hired," - the people of America would never have this sort of mindset with a white president and their fellow white citizens.
     Another article that we read which really stuck out to me was a combination of Delpit's and Johnson's articles.  Delpit says that there are cultural patterns which tend to show up across racial and socioeconomic communities and that they have a strong impact on the teaching and learning that goes on in the classroom.  Brown vs. Board of Education was a huge step towards embracing and preserving these differences but then helping to merge schools that were segregated.  Johnson's point about the "luxury of obliviousness" really connected to the polls of Americans that Tim Wise spoke about.  White people are rarely aware of the privileges they have and relating to Delpit, they are the least willing to acknowledge it's existence.  A combination of polls found that African Americans are perceived by white people as generally less intelligent, more aggressive, and prone to criminality.  Another poll taken in the early 2000's found that 75% of whites who answered yes to this said that they perceived that African Americans just wanted to live on welfare and not work.  This is appalling when in actuality 1 out of every 7 African Americans receive any kind of public assistance.
     In class I would like to bring up one of the things that Tim Wise said in his interview, "To pretend or to act as though we are heading towards this post racial place would be no more logical than to say that Pakistan was headed to a post sexist place because Benazir Bhutto happened to be elected head of state there in 1988." What do people think of this?

Talking Points #5

In the service of what? by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

"The idea that educators should foster a volunteer ethic and encourage youths to give something back to their school or community currently receives widespread support."
     I think that service learning is very beneficial to students.  It allows them to see more than what they usually surround themselves with everyday.  Children can only learn so much about what's in the world through the classroom and going out into the community really helps them get a better understanding of the world around them.  This is a great graduation requirement and not only does it better the student but it betters those who they are helping.
"We do not volunteer "to make a statement," or to use the people we work with to protest something."
     I really admired this quote.  I can't generalize and say that all people do this but the experience that I've had with people and volunteering is that they are doing it for the wrong reasons.  Those reasons could be anything from that they're doing it because they have to or they're doing to make some sort of a point.  When I volunteer, I do it because I want to be there and I want to help the people that I'm working with.  I like the fact that volunteer work is often required for things like graduation from high school but I also think that we should teach people to do it for the right reasons.
"Clearly, having students share their thoughts and experiences with one another can be valuable, but reflective activities (commonly in the form of journal entries and discussions) may simply reinforce previously held beliefs and simplistic, if generous. conclusions."
     This quote really made me think about the service learning required for this class.  At first I didn't really like the idea of having to write journal entries for our service learning but after doing a few they really made me think.  Anyone can do service learning and leave without a single thought about what they just experienced.  Writing the journals really solidifies the experience and makes us think less about what we did on and more about the details and what we should take away from the experience.


In class I would like to talk about which type of service learning people favor, Mr. Johnson's or Ms. Adams?  But get more into detail about why (the fact that students get to chose individually or the collaborative effort)

A Response to Vinny's Argument

Vinny, I understand that you believe that you should not read to deeply into cartoons and movies; however, subliminal messages intentional or not have a proven effect on the developing mind of a child. When I was younger I did avoid the sun due to a fear of being different than other white children, and social media of the time did not help to ease this fear. Disney movies are a perfect example of the stereotypes placed upon women. Aladdin is a perfect example of racism found in Disney movies. The first character we are introduced to is a stereotypical Arab "bootlegger" salesman, then we meet Aladdin a stereotyped Arab peasant stealing bread, wearing nothing but a vest, a fez, and harem pants.These stereotypes place an image of Arab people into the mind of young impressionable children. Aladdin, Jasmine, and The Sultan are fairer skinned than any other Arab character in the movie. All of these characters are or will become a person of power. These subtle changes in skin coloring can teach children that fairer skinned people have more power, or are held in a higher regard. There are many other characters in famous Disney movies that are hurtful stereotypes, such as the Indians in Peter Pan, the Crows from Dumbo, King Louie from The Jungle Book, and more. These racist stereotypes can had a profound effect on children. The original Disney Princesses are all white, about a Size 1, and need to be rescued from the clutches of evil by a muscular white male. That is all but Jasmine and Pocahontas. Yet, still Pocahontas falls for a white skinned, blonde haired, blue-eyed male. In a modern world where racism is still a predominate factor in children's lives movies like these tell girl's it is okay to stereotype, that you should be a size one, that you need men to survive, but it is up to that child to discern wrong from right. However, in a world plagued by vanity it is hard for children to see that they do not need to be conformists. These movies are meant to entertain, but they have subtle racist overtones and hurtful stereotypes. Games like Grand Theft Auto might not make children violent, yet there are proven studies that show that children who play first person shooter games on the Wii, or on XBox Connect are more likely to act out physically. This is due impart to the fact that to kill their enemies the children have to pull a real trigger. This conditions children that it is okay to act out physically. Whether intentional or not, the imagery chosen for a film, or video game sends a message to it viewers brain. Children, and girls especially, are impressionable. This racist and stereotypical media is allowed. Plain and simple. Children have access to a plethora of information in today's American society. Exposure to any kind of racist imagery or stereotypical cartoon depictions will shape how a child acts or thinks.

Talking Points #4

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us by Linda Christensen

     Of all the reading's we have done so far, I enjoyed this one the most so far. It really got me thinking about my childhood and things that were shaping me and my beliefs without me even knowing.
   Christensen, when working with her students and cartoons asks "What would children learn about what's important in this society?" I asked myself the same question and was really saddened by my thoughts. The very things we loved as children are contributing to issues such as the rules and codes of power and the luxury of obliviousness argued by Delpit and Johnson in previous readings.
  Something right in front of your face is often easy to look past.  How is it that all this stereotyping just sort of slipped by in editing? The fact that it did, is in itself the problem. We need to take notice and put forth the effort to change this and the fact that it is so engrained in us to overlook it.

   I really love the Disney princess movies, but I see both sides. The first being where Disney likes to think of the princesses as role models but they're the source of insecurities and they teach young girls that they need a man to be happy (this example being in cartoon form above).  The other side however is that the movies really do teach good lessons.  For example, Mulan teaches girls that courage is often rewarded, Pocahontas teaches girls to never be afraid to lead and be yourself, and Belle teaches girls to never be afraid to explore beyond the limits. Both are valid arguments with much support from all the movies.

     This also got my mind reeling about Disney princesses and race. All of the princesses are beautiful, thin, well spoken WHITE women.  I'll give it to Disney - yes, you did add in Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan and Esmeralda (who I consider a princess!) but it took them until just recently to have an African American princess. Disney makes many attempts to create cultural diversity in its films and its other products and tries to reach a broad audience and occasionally has marketing campaigns directed towards minorities, but are they really successful?  It honestly still seems like Disney films work to maintain the invisibility of whiteness.

     What made me feel better about this reading though, was that I wasn't oblivious to these things. For whatever reason - I've always noticed the flaws in media and television shows - probably because I would consider myself a victim of the stereotyping of women. As a child, I always remember wanting to look more like the women in magazine adds; thin, white and beautiful - and I never felt like any of those things growing up. I even wanted it to such an extent that for a long time, I would avoid going outside in the sun because for whatever reason, in my mind, I hated getting a tan (being Native American, I get a tan very easily). I'm repulsed by the fact that I was driven to that as a child, not for health reasons like the avoidance of skin cancer but for vanity purposes.
   In class I would like to bring up what I mentioned before about Disney princesses - mainly if anyone else had noticed it before this reading. I could probably talk about this article for days so I'm hoping other people have have as much to say about this article as I do.

Talking Points #3

ADL, GLSEN and StoryCorps Create LGBT History Resource Unheard Voices

“LGBT people have played an integral but often untold role in our collective history, and GLSEN research clearly shows that the positive portrayal of LGBT people, history and events in curricula has a positive impact on the entire school community and helps teach students respect for difference.”
            An important point made through this quote is that all people are influential.  Regardless of their race, gender or sexuality – everyone can make a difference.  It would be ridiculous to think or teach that there was no one who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered throughout history.

"According to GLSEN's 2009 National School Climate Survey of more than 7,000 LGBT students, less than a fifth (17.9%) reported that LGBT-related topics were included in their textbooks or other assigned readings. When asked whether they had been taught about LGBT people, history or events in school, a vast majority (86.6%) of students reported that these topics were not taught in any of their classes, and only 11.7% of students were exposed to positive representations of LGBT people, history or events."

Out of the entire reading, I was most angry about this - however, I'm not at all surprised.  All throughout my high school years, students were rarely educated about anything LGBT related.  Come to think of it – never once was anything LGBT mentioned in the classroom.  There was one club in my high school called the Gay Straight Alliance. This club wasn’t even created until my sophomore year of high school and my high school has been around since the 40s.  How can anyone expect our future generations to be tolerant if we can’t embrace and educate students about those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered?

“Conversely, the GLSEN study indicates that in schools with positive representations of LGBT topics in the curriculum, LGBT students were less likely to report hearing homophobic remarks or experiencing victimization at school, and more likely to report that school personnel and their peers intervened when homophobic remarks occurred”
            I think that this should be a goal for all schools and educators.  We wouldn’t allow a student who was of a different race or gender than the majority to be bullied because of these things that they can’t change.  Everyone should have the same learning environment - a safe and accepting one.

In class I would really just like to bring up and ask what everyone's experiences in high school were like in relation to GLSEN.  One of my childhood friends is lesbian and was never bullied or judged in my high school.  But I'm always hearing the high percentages of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students being bullied. This article can be found at http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/2798.html