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.