In The Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning, Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer- Reflection

         

    This weeks reading, “In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning” by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer looked at the benefits and affects the service learning projects have on a society and how important it is for students to get an opportunity to experience service learning, which I completely agree with. Service learning gives you a whole new outlook and breaks down the perceived stereotypes that are initially there.   Here is a list of some great service project ideas created by educators. This list varies from working with animals, to helping the environment to tutoring children and working with people of a different race and poverty (Which is the focus of our own service learning project for this class). This list shows there is something for any student to do and they have options!

                When I was in ninth grade a requirement was a community service learning project. I chose to volunteer at a soup kitchen once a week.  I remember being super into it and I wasn’t just doing it for a grade after as I continued doing it until Junior year. I feel like I learned  a lot about who I was helping as I got to know some of the regulars who would go every time this meal was offered.  

                This weeks article had an example of Middle School Class Service Learning Project where they volunteered at a school in a “poor neighborhood”. I am curious as to what type of neighborhood these students were working at. Is it like the neighborhoods we see from our service learning projects or  could it have been to the extreme as to the neighborhoods that Jonathan Kozol has described which is how the kids made it seem when they said, they were expecting the worse, “horrifying children running around on a dirty campus." They had expected them to be "rude, tough, noisy, and very unfriendly," and they even thought they would be "mean, gang-related blacks". What is worse is they got these ideas from their parents. Although their parents played a big role in their thoughts I bet the media did too because that is where the stereotype comes from these days. Last weeks reading proved that Disney cartoons even had these messages so even at a young age they get that idea in their head. After the visit the middle school students were shocked how well behaved and friendly  which is one of the over all goals for any service learning project. In the end you break down those stereotypes that have been put on them! 

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us, Linda Christensen-Hyperlinks

Linda Christensen's "Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us" article focuses on today's society and how children aren't getting the right messages from cartoons. Christensen claims that Disney shows many stereotypes including ethnicity, race, gender and image especially with Disney Princesses. 

In one time or another every little girl has wished to be a Disney Princess but these are the messages that little kids are getting from Disney Princessess and even Prince's! This article starts out by saying, "I was nourished on the milk of American Culture" Which made me think back to S.C.W.A.A.M.P and these princesses in the image above focus on the pretty and white categories that the little kids want and have. Yes there are Disney Princesses but like the article said those are newer ones. The princesses in the image above are the older ones and the classic Disney princesses who are still around today. I think that it's interesting that Christensen's student makes the connection after that, "Women who aren't white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess".

"If you ever wonder why disney tales all end in lies" This gives you a whole different look on Disney movies and makes you realize it isn't really a happy ending. It makes me question should Disney send out these messages to kids instead of the the messages in the pictures posted above?  

An issue I had with this article, and in order to get a man you need to be pretty and skinny. Just recently Frozen came out where you see the message that no man needed to save them. Although most disney Princesses send the message that getting a Prince is the goal, this video shows us "you don't need a man" 

 But today girls still think they need to find that man, here is an article I found on traits women look for in a man. Even though they know Prince Charming Doesn't exist they still have a little bit of hope!

Gerri August,Safe places-reflection

 More so then the other articles we have read thus far into class, this weeks article really exposed me to a new perspective, as the topic of the LGBT community is something that people try to avoid talking about especially in the school setting. I remember the first time I was exposed to a gay couple was when I was in high school and these two girls were kissing in the hall. I remember staring out of curiosity because it was something I wasn’t exposed to before. I found this article really interesting and it gave a powerful message on why we need to integrate LGBT into society.

To help break down the article I used the reflection questions and thought about experiences in my own life and other articles that we have looked at. So for this weeks blog post I thought I would share some of my answers to the reflection questions.

1.)  What messages did you receive about the LGBT community when you were in school? Which messages were explicit, which were implied?

We talked a lot about privilege in class, and one of the privileges that gives you all the power is being heterosexual, so that is the “norm”. This goes back to SCWAAMP. I think teachers just assume that everyone is straight and they try and avoid talking about same sex couples. Until reading this article it didn’t come to my mind just how unrecognized the LGBT community was. One of the after school clubs at my high school was LGBT, but it was barley recognized. In the morning announcements, there would be updates for every other club but never anything about the LGBT club. It also never got a page in the high school year book. Although there was a club for the LGBT community it went unrecognized by everyone else. Like in the article how students had to hide their sexuality from their professors.

2.)  As an educator, can you identify opportunities to incorporate LGBT voices into your curriculum? What would you need to take this step?

This article, as well as the Aria article showed me how teachers play a big role in influencing students about their choices. It was shown in the Aria article when his teacher came to his house to tell his parents him to speak English and then again shown in this article when a Spanish professor marked an answer wrong because it wasn’t masculine form and also the professor who ignored a student. Do educators have the right to ignore them, do you think they even know they are doing it? I don’t like how these students are getting bullied by their peers and in a way their teachers too.  My friend showed me about this article here which was about a teacher who told a student who was being bullied to “act less gay”. This made me mad as a future intended educator! As an educator I definatley want to incorporate LGBT voices. I liked the ideas the article gave about using different books and as a teacher I would talk about it positively! Especially little kids they have questions about people with two moms or two dads and especially during this time it should be acceptable to bring up in class. I would use props, like the flag and talk about differences in people. 

Richard Rodriguez Aria- Argument

Which students is english not their first language? 

Rodriguez makes a strong argument when he says, “children lose a degree of ‘individuality’ by becoming assimilated into public society” (38). He shares his experience about when he was a boy and his teacher asked his parents if they can speak English at their homes because it will help their kids do better in school. I know some people who have different backgrounds say they don’t know their first language because their parents also became Americanized and spoke English at home but it was the parents’ choice. The other article we looked at this week, “Teaching Multilingual Children” taken from Virginia Collier’s book, talked about how to include multilingual students and how it was a great opportunity for both the teachers and students and there are different ESL programs that offer students the extra help and attention. The article said, “Young children should be permitted to speak the language they know best” (229). Going back to Rodriguez’s article, Do teachers like the one that Rodriguez had, have the right to tell the parents that or is that overstepping boundaries in how involved teachers get with certain families? As his parents followed his teachers request Spanish soon became something that Rodriguez soon didn’t recognize, “One Saturday morning I entered the kitchen where my parents were talking Spanish. I did not realize that they were talking in Spanish however until, at the moment they saw me. I heard their voices change to speak English” (35). It was sad to see that this made Rodriguez lose touch with his heritage and his family. Because they became more Americanized and especially because his father struggled with English his family began to talk to each other less and less. I found an interview on YouTube, with Rodriguez. In this video he speaks perfect English and you can’t hear a hint of his Spanish background.

Students like Rodriguez were at a disadvantage and even after he started speaking English, he still seemed discouraged as a student and was questioning why him, why couldn't his peers learn his language. When I was a sophomore in high school, there was a bunch of ESL students in my history class. These kids should have already graduated and I feel like they didn't care about the work because English didn't come as easily to them. I found online ideas how to help ESL students. 

Peggy McIntosh, White Privlege:unpacking the invisible knapsack- Connections

As I was searching a picture of the author, Peggy McIntosh from this week’s article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” I found this, which is someone’s response to the article. After seeing this image, I thought about this question, “is white skin really fair skin?” and with the help of this article along with Salim Muwakkil’s “Data show racial bias persists in America” and Allan Johnson’s “Privilege, Power and Difference” article I have come to the conclusion that, although we may not realize it, white people are really privileged in some ways that white people don’t really see, but everyone else sees. During the summer when I was younger my family would do the Fresh Air Program where we would get a kid from New York come and stay with us for two weeks during the summer. This program was free for them to sign up for and would give these kids an opportunity to get out of the City. I thought it was crazy how this girl we had would always complement my house and how big it was and how long she would make like $50 that my parents would give her for spending money last, and at the end of those 2 weeks, whatever she had left over from it she would ask if she could take it home and give the rest to her mom. When my parents gave her money I would get so mad my parents weren’t giving me spending money. I know I never realized all the privileges I had that these articles that we have looked at has shown me.

            Well I was reading this article I thought back to Johnson’s Article and the line he kept repeating, “As a white male heterosexual, I have it easier”. According to Johnson he see’s fair skin the same way McIntosh sees it, as white skin being fair skin. These two authors both included similar lists of privileges that white people have. These lists were really eye opening, I know I don’t tend to look at some of the things and I know that I don’t have to worry about it because I am white. Some of these things I know I just often tend to skip over like one of the things in McIntosh’s blog was #26 on the blog and the word “Flesh” in referring to make up cover up. This went back to also the skin colored band aids in Johnson’s list. It is really easy for me to find cover up for myself but when I am buying cover up I don’t see many options for people who aren’t white but I never really thought about that.

                    Another thing that Johnson's article McIntosh's article and another article by Salim Muwakkil all had was when it talked about black people trying to find jobs and although they may be more qualified then the white applicant the white applicant gets the job over the black applicant and this goes for promotions at work as well. I never really thought about that until it was brought up in class with Jose having to Americanize his name and getting called back for interviews when he became Joe. It's sad that it's 2014 and black people are still being treated like this. These articles really made me realize that yes white skin is fair skin.

           

Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace-quotes

Jonathan Kozol  “Amazing Grace” article described  a poor neighborhood in New York. Kozol’s article informed me that neighborhoods like this really do exist and then gave me the idea on what the living conditions were really like and how the people who lived there managed to live. I am including some research I did on South Bronx which is one of the neighborhoods what it’s like to live where this article takes place today, South Bronx Today. Today South Bronx, is very similar to the information we got from the article and South Bronx is still a place for poverty and people of color. To show you how I understood these neighborhoods and the people of these neighbor hoods by giving examples of a few quotes and how I interpreted them   

This article told a lot about illness and how these people were treated in their homes and in the hospitals due to their illnesses. These people were not giving the proper care that they needed, and often didn’t even bother going to the hospital. One example from the text is, “‘It’s the difference between terrible and worse than terrible’ she says. The time before, when I had a fever, my doctor said I had pneumonia. I waited in the emergency room for two days to be admitted” (16). These people from these neighbor hoods had a lot of health issues aids was a big one and they weren’t taken care of which is why a lot of these people didn’t bother going. It is ridiculous that people had to wait that long to be looked at by a doctor. I know that when I get sick it is easy to make an appointment and to be seen by that doctor in that same day. The medicine is also available right away as well.

This article mentioned deaths of children. All of the deaths were tragic because of how they lived and how they were brought up and raised they got into bad habits including drugs. One example of this is, “Cop says, ‘I’m sorry to tell you this. Your son is a crack addict.’ He sold every stitch of his clothes even his underwear. A few months later he was dead…” (14). In this neighborhood these kids all get involved with drugs even if they had a lot going for them like this kid for example who was a senior and had a scholarship to play football. From what I got out of this article most these kids aren’t given an opportunity like these kids are introduced to it early on. It’s crazy how once you hit middle school, schools usually teach us about these drugs and how to say no. Stories from this article like this one is are stories that we hear teachers speak of. 

The first two quotes I chose to write about were realistically what it’s like to live in these neighborhoods like South Bronx. This church is the center of these neighborhoods and the only place people from this neighborhood feel safe. As you can see from this picture people are gathered, kids are sitting down talking and playing games. Everywhere else in South Bronx people aren’t acceped,  “People who don’t live here come and dump things they don’t want: broken televisions, boxes of bottles, old refrigerators, beat up cars, old pieces of metal, other lovely things” (11). People who live in this neighborhood just let people to continue to leave their trash there, that is how they get some of their things as well. South Bronx is the neighborhood of poverty and violence in New York. It’s sad that the people who lived there weren’t supposed to leave and are hated on by everyone around them.

Intro

Hi, 
My name is Alyssa Downing! This summer I worked alot at my towns after school programs summer camp I was in the first grade room and I loved it. I had weekends off so that was a plus! I went to some concerts, Luke Bryan, Beyonce and JZ and Drake! I visited the Cape and Rhode Island a lot and went to Myrtle beach where I went para-sailing for the first time which was a lot of fun!

I am taking this class because I am an early childhood education major and it is needed to get into the program (I WISH THIS WAS ONE OF THE ONLY REQUIREMENT to get in the program!)  I'm really excited for this class and can't wait to start going to the schools!