The Trouble with Black Boys Ch. 10 and Overall Thoughts

NCLB: I think all of us as educators can point out the main issues with this. Unfortunately, "bad" schools get less financial support, fewer highly qualified teachers, fewer supplies, and more students in classrooms. Thus, it's a never-ending cycle that perpetuates failure of schools and students. Additionally, in very few circumstances (if ever?) does a "one-size-fits-all" solution work in educating students, because (surprise) every student is different.

I did think that his point that we have set high standards on students but not high standards on schools was an interesting one. I do think all schools would be better off with access to highly qualified teachers, well-kept facilities, and access to educational materials. However, he says, "Moreover, there is no effort afoot to ensure that schools provide students with an education that meets the new high standards." I am confused by this. Is that not what NCLB is? If you don't do ________, your school won't get __________. Isn't placing high expectations on our students likewise placing high expectations on us? I do agree that we focus entirely too much on standardized testing and tested subjects, for sure! But it is a difficult thing to assess whether millions of students have been adequately prepared or not without giving a test.

I like that he is finally outlining some practical solutions after he has spent nine chapters showing what dire circumstances many of our students our in, including taking measures to address the non-academic needs of students and focusing on the low-performing schools. I also really appreciated his stressing to form relationships with parents and communities of our students, as I truly believe education and the "value" of education starts at home.

However, my biggest issue with this book is that so many of the solutions are BIG-oriented. What I mean by that is that none of the solutions are focused upon what I as a family member, community member, and teacher can do. It is all about holding governments accountable and literally changing the way our nation treats education and poorer Americans. That's a huge "call to action" for a reader to encounter and endure. After reading how awful the state of things are for almost every group but white middle/upper-class students, I would've liked to also read how I can actually impact things within my classroom.

Another thing that I feel has been left out overall is the plight of lower-class white Americans. I teach in a very rural area. I have many students who are white, but they are legitimately very poor and lost within the system. These are kids who teachers are buying food and clothes for and taking them to the doctor when they're sick in the winter and have kids sleeping in a guest room at a teacher's house when the parents or guardians or foster parents don't (or can't) have a bed for them. While they don't get much attention because they are still the color of the majority, they are still in grave danger of not graduating and not having much of a future. I would've liked to see some statistics and projections for these kids, especially in light of the fact that by 2020, they will be part of the minority.

That's all I can think of for now! I will add some comments if I think of them later as I'm processing all of this information!

Have a great week working on your projects, guys! Good luck!

Literature Response 2

A few weeks ago, in the midst of the readings the first half of the class, I emailed Dr. Bauer with a few questions. Mainly, I was getting very overwhelmed with the readings (not just the amount, but the subject matter). I felt that every article I picked up showed just how public schools, and myself as a teacher invested in education, were failing a different group of people. How does one take all of the ways different groups of people (Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, Hawaiians, and even males and females) learn, and incorporate them into one classroom that runs smoothly? I am a very practical person, and I began to quickly become overwhelmed at the overarching lack of practical advice. Thankfully, I think I was where I was supposed to be in examining the idea of culture, as culture is so complex and circumstantial.

Moving into the second part of the class, “Classroom”, I began to discover different ways to incorporate our learnings practically within my classroom. First, Banks and Banks Ch. 10 was very helpful in determining my own, individual style of multicultural education. In teaching English to freshmen and sophomores, there is not much of a place for the Contributions approach, as that seems to be more of an elementary or early childhood approach. I can definitely see how the Additive and Transformation approach is how many of my literature textbooks are created, including mostly canonical “dead white guys” literature, but every once in a while throwing in a Native American story or poetry by African American authors. Finally, I greatly appreciated the Social Action approach, including all elements of the others but adding components that cause my students really to think critically about historical and societal events. This is what I seek to do in my classroom,

I felt that that week’s readings of Chapter 10 from Banks and Banks and Chapter 6 of Hernandez connected really well. It was helpful for me to see all of the different approaches laid out plainly, and then it was helpful to see very practical ways to look for issues within curriculum as Hernandez shows- inaccuracy, stereotyping, biased language, portrayal of different groups, etc. I very much appreciated the inclusion of the chart on page 203 of Hernandez’s chapter 6 that shows exactly what to look for in the above issues within textbooks. When choosing the literature my class will read, I can easily take a copy of this page and analyze accordingly. I found that to be one of the most valuable resources from this class yet. Additionally, the charts on p. 223-226 of Hernandez have very practical uses for the classroom. Finally, my favorite practical resource from this class is the section on Analyzing Media Content beginning on p. 229, with the practical charts on p. 233-234. If anything, my students are entrenched in media- movies, you-tube videos, TV shows, songs, etc. Rather than trying to pull their faces out of entertainment, the fact that I have a practical resource that will allow them to not only view such videos with a critical mind, but also analyze how the media causes and controls society’s view of cultural characteristics. I LOVED that resource.

The most relevant reading to my teaching career for the next week was the Boutte, LaPoint, and Davis article “Racial Issues in Education: Real or Imagined?” about prejudiced and racist jokes. This statement, “In light of the racial disharmony in this country, early Childhood professionals and parents, who have a tremendous influence on young children's racial attitudes, must bring racial issues to the forefront and confront them” changed my attitude towards the way I manage my classroom. Usually, due to not understanding how to handle issues of race correctly, and most likely (although unknowingly) attempting to take the Colorblind Approach Banks and Banks talks about in Chapter 11, I would ignore or change the subjects or give a “look” to the person who made such jokes. However, this article has permanently changed the way I deal with such issues in my classroom. It is not enough to show disapproval; as an educator I must deal with such issues in a public, forceful, and educational way in order to better serve my students.

In the next week’s readings, my favorite was “The Apartheid of Children’s Literature” by Christopher Myers. The article started with the astonishing statistic that “Of 3,200 children’s books published in 2013, just 93 were about black people, according to a study by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin.” He went on to discuss the fact that there were more books about talking animals, wizards, superheroes, and many other fictional creations than people who look, talk, and act like students in my classroom. This was heartbreaking to me. It made me look at the different books we read in my classroom, most of which are older and without funds to purchase newer, more relevant books. I have decided that even if I have to purchase books myself, I want my classes to start reading books that portray people all around the world rather than just what the school purchased forty years ago. Especially, if this is the case for books published in 2013, what must our library be like where most books were purchased prior to 1990?! This article changed my classroom library forever. Slowly but surely I will buy more books for my kids to read to open them up to new worlds and people!

Continuing, “The Real Ebonics Debate” by Perry and Delpit opened my eyes to many things I have never even considered before. I had never thought to view Ebonics as an entirely different language, and those who speak Ebonics at home then come into school with teachers expecting them to thrive in professional Standard English as ESL or ELL students. I feel that if all educators read this article, and understood the paradigm shift in perspective of Ebonics, our African-American students as a whole would be so much better served. Rather than trying to “fix” these students, let’s embrace their heritage and teach them as bilingual students learning to thrive in a Standard English environment. As a teacher who teachers proper grammar and stresses professional speaking, this article was hands-down the biggest enlightenment during this course.

Similarly, in The Trouble with Black Boys, it does not necessarily discuss the Ebonics debate, but it does point out so many issues with the way public schools address minorities. We try to force African-American students to shrug off their identities and assimilate to what we expect them to be rather than embracing who they are. In my opinion, this could be one reason for the violence and resistance associated with black boys in school discussed in the book. Obviously, if someone is trying to take something from me and change me, I will be aggressive and/or defensive. Like in the video “Our Souls Don’t Speak English”, it is unfair to take students with a different culture and heritage and try to force them to assimilate. If we treat Ebonics as we did the Native American languages, culture and heritage will be lost and we will be doing a disservice to our students. One thing I learned in my choice text was the way schools were founded as being similar to mental institutions. Noguera writes, “When public schools were being developed in northeastern cities during the latter part of the nineteenth century, their architecture, organization, and operation were profoundly influenced by the prevailing conception of the asylum.” To our very core of public education, we have tried to control, assimilate, punish, and force students into success. Time and time again, Noguera shows how this is not a successful tactic.

        He writes about the achievement gap less as trying to determine what factors in motivation, family status, etc. are causing such a gap, but more about how those achieving are being better served by the public education system. He echoes many of the articles we read in the first section of the class about how Hispanic, African-American, Native American, and even Hawaiian students are underserved. Rather than looking at how we can change those students to be more like the achieving students, we need to look at how well schools serve achieving students and endeavor to serve the under-achieving students equally as well. This was a shift in perspective for me.

Finally, Banks and Banks Ch. 10 was revelatory for me. The most intense part of the reading was about the fight for women’s education. I have never considered that merely 150 years ago, women were not allowed to be educated and were not even seen as mentally equal. Even more so, education was seen as a detriment to women’s health (and ovaries). That is preposterous to me! Now, I am sitting reading and writing for a master’s degree as I parent two children, am pregnant with another child, and teach students full-time. This reading caused me to value my education even more, and while not the main part of the chapter (gender bias in curriculum), I felt that it was one of the more important things I can communicate to my teenage girls this upcoming year. School is an amazing opportunity, and we cannot waste the sacrifice and fight of those who made it available for us. Additionally, I enjoyed the practical solutions in how to evaluate textbooks for gender bias, and I am eager to implement them into my classroom.

All in all, this class has broadened and changed my view on some issues in education I had not considered before. While it was overwhelming to learn of all of the injustices in education, I did enjoy the second half of the readings much more. I did not find anything that I really disagreed with, so I am having trouble citing anything I have an issue with, but I realized almost everything I read was new to me. I learned a lot, and I am still processing much of the information. I am eager to use some of the more practical solutions into my classroom and curriculum in the future.

Chapters 6 and 8 of The Trouble with Black Boys

As I read this chapter, one major thing that stuck out to me was his statement, "I argue that schools must seek ways to create more humane learning environments, both to counter escalating violence and to transform social relationships within schools, so that those who spend their time there feel less alienated, threatened, and repressed."

This directly correlates with a unit I do in my classroom using Jodi Picoult's best-seller Nineteen Minutes. Nineteen Minutes is about a school shooting, but in her typical fashion, she works through the event showing all sides, including the shooter's. This is a long novel, but my kids like it because it is modern, they can relate to at least one, if not many characters, and it keeps their interest with twists in the plot. However, the greatest thing that I see coming from it, are the conversations we have in the midst of discussions. It's interesting to see them think through the social workings of their school and peers, as well as "walk in someone else's shoes" through the book. I definitely recommend reading this book, as well as teaching it!

I also found it really interesting that he says, "When public schools were being developed in northeastern cities during the latter part of the nineteenth century, their architecture, organization, and operation were profoundly influenced by the prevailing conception of the asylum." This idea and his following description made me laugh, because while it is an interesting fact, some days I do feel like I work in an insane asylum between the teachers and teenagers! (Obviously kidding, but hey, if you have to read this, you might need a laugh or two...)

I didn't enjoy the reading about the student who brought the gun to school in an effort to protect his father, although I think it is very telling. The push to make school rules and consequences black and white, one size fits all, no exceptions is not good for our students. In that particular situation, someone should've been stepping in to help the student, not figure out the punishment according to the handbook. It further enhances his argument that schools must humanize the learning environment rather than do the opposite.

I find that as I have read more and more in this class, the achievement gap discussed in chapter 8 should better be referred to as something like a "school serving gap". It is not necessarily that minority students are not achieving or are unable to achieve, it is that they are underserved. Those achieving are the ones the school is serving best. The paradigm shift in changing our thinking to that idea would be revolutionary for some teachers and schools. Additionally, I felt that most of the beginning of Chapter 8 reiterated much of what we have read in other articles and sources, even citing some of them.

He further re-states this idea by saying, "As is true in all of society, the other side of racial inequality at BHS is racial privilege...Disparities in student achievement are most likely to be attributed to factors related to student motivation. The various ways in which the operations of schools serve to reproduce and maintain racial disparities in academic achievement are less likely to be considered in discussions about the achievement gap."

I feel like he has set up all the research thus far in a very practical and understandable way. He has enabled me to see things from others' perspectives that I haven't considered or encountered thus far. I am interested to read Ch. 10 and see what sorts of practical solutions he suggests (at least, I am hoping he suggests some practical ways to help! This wouldn't be a great book if it just showed how awful the world is without a glimmer of hope!).

Have a great week!

The Trouble with Black Boys Chapter 4

In Chapter 4, entitled "How Listening to Students Can Help Schools to Improve", my first thought was addressing the title: OBVIOUSLY. If we want to know how effective our teaching is or what can be changed to make schools better serve students, why wouldn't we ask the students themselves??!! But, in fairness, I do think the students as resources themselves beyond test scores and statistics are often overlooked.

My second reaction was to all of the statistics and issues with public high schools listed in the first two pages. Obviously, this is just an introduction to the actual point of the chapter, but I couldn't help but feel a little defeated when reading these. So much of what I do feels like intensely hard, heart-breaking work, yet as a general whole, I am part of a very large failure to reach kids. When all the ways public high schools fail are listed out for me to read, it is somewhat defeating!

The conversation then switched to the push to create small high schools. I have been part of a TINY high school (165 students total) for the past five years. This upcoming school year, our community and one next to it voted to merge into a cooperative high school. Both high schools are equally small, so even merging together will only mean a high school a little over 300 students. This can prove difficult in offering the range of opportunities larger high schools can offer, but at the same time, this can be an amazing experience. I taught and will continue to teach every single freshman and sophomore. This gives me two years with students, and it means I know the entire school throughout their four years. This personal interaction and relationship can serve some of my students better than extra-curricular activities ever could. So while he debates this point, I do feel in some (not all) of my students, smaller schools better serve them.

I am not surprised that student-teacher relationship was the number one idea for improving schools. I do know my kids, and I know what they like and dislike, and many times I am able to cater the curriculum accordingly to engage them better. Another aspect I found interesting in this was that the students said, "Teachers should show respect to students in the same way that they expect to receive respect." I have always strived to do this, but I realize that some older teachers around me still have the mindset that they "deserve" respect because they are in authority. My response to that is that many of our students are not in families where respect is a valued trait. If we as teachers don't respect our students first, how then will they learn to respect us? We are the teachers. We show the examples. We don't get to demand respect while talking down to our kids. They won't respond to that! I liked that the student voice in this section emanated that point.

I do agree with the students that too much emphasis is placed on testing and test-prep. This year, with our students doing both PARCC and the ACT, some of our juniors were testing for 6 school days in a row. Obviously, by the end of the first or second day, their brains were fried and the tests will never be an accurate result. It's unfair to put that much pressure on these tests. I haven't studied what other countries do as far as testing, so if any of you know, please enlighten me! Surely there are other ways!

In the Discipline and Safety section, I thought it was interesting that so many of their punishments were to do more academic work, spend more time at school, and do something to make the school or community better. I like that they chose discipline measures that cause students to "own" their education and school.

I love the idea of Student Goals and Motivations. By helping our students make goals for themselves, we are helping them to stay focused on how to get there.

My favorite part of the chapter was "In schools where decisions about reform are made in a top-down manner by administrators with little, if any, input from teachers, it is highly unlikely that such an approach to listening to students would ever be embraced." I feel that so often, in Education, reform and standards and decisions are made without ever consulting the teachers, the ones who are actually DOING education every day. Similarly to that, and to circle around to the beginning of the chapter, listening to students, the ones who are actually RECEIVING education every day, would also be a fantastic source of information on what needs to happen in schools!

Ch. 2 and 3

Chapter 2 and 3 of  The Trouble with Black Boys were very enlightening to me- as in, blow my mind, knock my socks off, how can that be??! enlightening. :)

While much of it was very good and cause for thinking, I decided I am only going to focus on the two main parts that really struck me. That way this post isn't all over the place and forever long (I'm sure you all have a ton of other things to do, such as our many readings!!)

In Chapter 2, I really appreciated the discussion about structural explanations of behavior and cultural explanations of behavior- especially where the poor are concerned. To be honest, this subject has become such a politicized issue, and for better or for worse, I really hate politics. I hate the debate over people like they are merely statistics and words on paper rather than human beings with hopes and dreams and hurts. I hate the fact that it seems politics is mostly just arguments between two sides who are forever condemning one another and never willing to compromise and actually DO something. All that to say, when discussions about welfare or cultural poverty or whatever it may be come up in conversation, I usually shut off due to my annoyance with the overall political structure. Reading this chapter, however, forced me to understand the theoretical position of both sides. For instance, structural explanations of behavior generally focus on economy- the availability of jobs, the economic opportunities, the class structure, etc. People are products of their environment, nothing more. Culturalists treat human behavior as a product of beliefs, values, norms, and socializations, and view people as trapped within a "culture of poverty". It seems to be the age-old nature vs. nurture debate, and one political side holds to structuralism and the other holds to culturalism. However, is anyone every really ONLY nature or ONLY nurture? I don't think so, and I am inclined to think the author agrees as he goes on to say, "Even as we recognize that individuals make choices that influence the character of their lives, we must also recognize that the range of choices available is profoundly constrained and shaped by external forces." I feel that if maybe, just maybe, both sides would acquiesce and realize that both sides are equally right and wrong, perhaps we could move forward into breaking down these issues and making progress rather than spending all of our time focusing on how the issues came to exist in the first place. {end rant} :)

In Chapter 3, I was shocked to find that Latinos have the highest dropout rates and the lowest college attendance rates. Again, because immigration is such a political issue, my ears and mind have mostly remained closed to the debates. However, I very much appreciated following Miguel Fernandez's story. It humanized the issue, and I relate to stories of real people rather than abstract theories (which is why some of these articles are really hard for me to grasp!) One thing that really struck me in the chapter was this, "We are accused of taking American jobs , of making neighborhoods unsafe, of causing the quality of life in affluent areas to deteriorate, and spreading communicable diseases. Although American society is historically a nation of immigrants, and although increasingly the US economy is dependent on the labor of Latino immigrants in particular, we are treated as a burden, as unwanted parasites, and problems that must be tolerated or, if possible, removed." That honestly broke my heart a little. For any human being to work hard to achieve "the American Dream", and then feel treated as if a parasite, that is despicable. I think the word parasite really struck me. It is vivid language, for sure. I felt that this opened my eyes to the way people must feel when the immigration debate is going full-force.

Again, the best part of the book for me are the personal stories paired with the statistics. I am interested to begin Part II, as I am hoping for a little more practical advice in how one teacher can change the world, or at least one teacher can change his or her classroom. :)

The Trouble with Black Boys Ch. 1

I began by reading the introduction, and the statistics listed absolutely floored me. The fact that Black adult males make up less than six percent of the overall population seemed a little crazy to me, but the fact that Black adult males make up over fifty percent of thelp he population absolutely astounded me. So much of our media is focused on Black males, whether good or bad, and the fact that they make up a very small minority of the population did not make sense with the attention they receive. Additionally, that such a small sector of the population makes up so much of the incarcerated population signifies huge problems to me. Obviously, we as a society are failing this group in some way. I felt like my eyes were opened and my heart was broken a little reading these statistics and knowing my son will have to encounter so much of the world like that.

Another aspect I had not considered before is the dichotomy in which Black men are viewed. We all grow up seeing Black men as one of two extremes- either super-wealthy and successful as athletes or musicians, or as "thugs" and "gangsters". Very rarely in our society do we see average, middle-class and working-class Black men who are educated and working hard for their families. Although, we have to believe the majority of them fall into these categories as does the majority of all other races. I had never evaluated that dichotomy before, so I found this part very interesting.

In chapter 1 it was very interesting to me the connections between the author's son Joaquin and his friends. I can see the racial identity spectrum being played out in my own two sons, one black and one white. Right now, at 2 and 4, their skin colors and the difference in the two are just as simple as the differences in hair color or eye color. Neither of them find much identity or lose much identity in the color of their skin...yet. It was interesting to me to see that even though my black son will be raised in a middle-class, hard-working, educated family, he may still encounter some of the same struggles Black children do in impoverished families, simply because he will identify with his peers and struggle to find his identity for awhile in adolescence. I am very eager to continue to read this book to see how I can help my Black students during public education and also my own son.