Humanity and Unfinishedness

Freire’s work in “Pedagogy of Freedom” brings up many interesting viewpoints on human nature. The point that I feel that he is trying to drive home early in the chapter is the fact that as humans, we are unfinished. We are born, but not yet living. We merely exist at that point. By going through life and learning about the world around us, we then start living. Even at that point, we are still unfinished. Freire (p.54) states, “The invention of our existence developed through our interaction with the material world at our disposal, creating a life support in which life…became sustainable.” I feel that in our lifetimes, we are born existing, and by going through life, we are working towards self completion. We are never truly finished, but we are consistently building upon ourselves to reach it.

Freire goes on and begins talking about conditioning ourselves. He states, “Yet conscious of such condition, I know that I can go beyond it, which is the essential difference between conditioned and determined existence.” By accepting that we are unfinished, we can develop ourselves. We are not on a one track path of existence. The world is an open canvas for us to fill over our lifetime. This concept of being unfinished is a wonderful idea. It knocks people who are up on their pedestal down a few notches while it brings those who think lowly of themselves a hope to grow and make progress in their lives.

In our class last Wednesday, we had a discussion with two speakers. In this discussion, we learned about how our premonitions and perceptions of different people affect our judgments. We also learned that we are not free of preconceived notions from other people. In the current state of the world, we will all be subject to prejudices based on our race, culture, gender, along with many other social factors. It made me think about how different people treat others along with me based on these factors. However, it is these factors that allow us to take shape in the world. Gender, race, and culture are only a few of the myriad of various factors we are born with that shape us from amorphous blobs to individual people.

Understanding these traits will help us attain a better grasp on the world around us. As Freire (p. 62), “Good sense leads into critical epistemology, without which good sense is likely to lead to erroneous conclusions.” By using good sense, we can think critically about people, situations, and ideas. However, without critical thinking, it can lead us astray into faulty conclusions or half baked ideas. Prejudices and false perceptions is the fruit of the absence of critical thinking. It is not enough to know the facts. We must also understand them and apply them to our world.

Being an unfinished human myself, I agree with Freire. People are never finished growing. The world is always evolving and because of this, humans should always be keeping up. There is no complete, because if there were, there is no longer room to grow. By saying that you are complete, you are putting a capacity on yourself which you have already filled. The idea that we are always unfinished is saying that there is limitless potential and growth.

From Brittany: Human Pathways

Being a human, everyone feels as if there is a path that one must take in life and it is
already set for them. This idea according to Freire does not ideally work in life, “This
permanent movement of searching creates a capacity for learning not only in order to adapt to
the world but especially to intervene, to re-create, and to transform it (66).” This statement, to
me, makes a great impact on how I look at life. It is true that as we search for what life is
supposed to be for us, there are many lessons learned and we learn about who we are along
the way. The decisions we make for ourselves can affect someone else or change something.
Since we are all somehow connected, we learn from each other and we shape who we are by
the paths we take in life.

Juan Carlos’ idea of working with our own blind spots made me start thinking that in
order to try and be the best, democratic citizen, I have to know what makes me who I am in
order to ever be able to fix anything or anyone else. Learning what my blind spots are seems
like a complex idea because I’ve grown up not realizing I even have these but now becoming
aware of the idea, I have put thought into understanding what they are and how I could change
them or become a more open person altogether.

In finding who you are, the classroom is the first step to choosing the paths in life.
Teachers have a great influence on a person, while reading City Kids, City Schools, there were
many ideas of how teachers can inspire students, “The teacher should tell the kids, ‘you can
learn from me, but I can learn from you, too.’ Because it gets the kids more interested (17).”
This idea stands out to me because if you put yourself as an equal to the student, then they are
going to want to listen to what you have to say, but also, they will want to incorporate what
they feel is the right idea into what you are teaching.

Don't Wait Passively, Make Something Better Happen!

Zehara Eckert

9/25/11

Text/Service Reflection: (Freire Ch. 3 & CKCS #'s 2, 25, 31)

This chapter of Freire, “Teaching Is Not Just Transferring Knowledge,” was also my favorite. There were so many thought-provoking quotes, and it was rich in symbolism. “When I enter a classroom I should be someone who is open to new ideas, open to questions, and open to the curiosities of the students as well as their inhibitions” (Freire, 49). This quote should apply to students as well, because it is key to learning as well as teaching. Teachers should create an educational arena where critical thinking about a certain subject can thrive rather than just transfer their knowledge to their students. As stated by one of the students described by George Michie in the chapter from Holler If You Hear Me, “To me what makes a good teacher is someone who understands the students” (Michie, 13). I couldn’t agree more with this quote. Understanding the students and knowing how they think can make teaching easier for the teacher and the learning process more enjoyable for the students.

I see it like Freire: right thinking has nothing to do with pre-established notions. “I, for example, do not feel anger but pity when angry people, full of their own genius, minimize me and make little of me” (Freire, 51). This quote is amazing. Those words of Freire are an important element of my life philosophy. Holding on to our own identity in regard to others and the world gives us a way to experience ourselves in a cultural and historical context. To tie this to the quote posted on your prompt, Professor Julia, like Freire I believe that in this context one must realize that one is an unfinished being in this world and allow one’s consciousness to grow. “Whenever there is life, there is unfinishedness, though only among women and men is it possible to speak of an awareness of unfinishedness” (Freire, 52). Our awareness of our consciousness is what separates us from other animals. We have the ability to think, to speak in language (written and spoken), to grasp intellectual thoughts, and to communicate what has been grasped. The realization of our unfinishedness is crucial to the human condition, and it is what allows us to evolve. This awareness allows us to adapt, intervene, and re-create the world. In this consciousness is where learning the possibility of being educated exists.

I have to agree with Freire that being human is not about reducing the value of others due to envy or anger, even if they are questioning your presence in the world. The class discussion and activity in Wednesday’s class with Julie and JuanCarlos evolved around this theme of our own perception as well as how others perceive us. What I got from Wednesday’s discussion and class activity is that one’s existence in the world is not pre-determined or pre-established. One’s destiny is not granted at birth; rather it is constructed throughout the individual’s growth. There is an amazing story my mom told me as I was growing up. A man was stranded on his rooftop in a flood, and boat after boat came by. Each time a boat came by the people in the boat urged the man to get in, in order to move him into safety. Each time the man refused, saying “God is going to save me.” When the water rose too high, the man died and went to heaven. In heaven he said to God, “Why didn’t you save me? I had faith in you and I trusted you.” God replied, “My son, who do you think sent all those boats?” The message is that you might have faith and you might be destined to do something, but you have to take the responsibility to do your part and make it happen. God helps those who help themselves. Your growth as an individual cannot happen by passively waiting for something better to happen. Going back to Freire and our Wednesday’s class activity, our unfinishedness makes us responsible beings.

Prompt-Text/Service Reflection: Freiere Ch. 3 and CKCS #'s 2, 25, 31

Note: This chapter in Freire is a pivotal one for me, so I am writing a pretty "heavy" prompt. I don't expect answers as I certainly couldn't answer my own questions--but, I hope that all of you will use this to probe more deeply into the readings, find connections, think about what oppresses or stops you, your own anger, joys, hopes for yourself and the world we share. . .

I am moved by Freire's concept of "unfinishedness." It fits with, and also validates, because I respect Freire, my own world and self-view, my personal philosophy that can not be separated from who I am or chose to be in the classroom with you. He writes and I feel that he is speaking for me. I am going to quote this piece in it's entirety because it is so central to what I hope you will think about for this reflection:

I like being human, being a person, precisely because it is not already given as certain, unequivocal, or irrevocable that I am or will be “correct,” that is bear witness to what is authentic, that I am or will be just, that I will respect others, that I will not lie and thereby diminish the value of others because of my envy or even anger of their questioning presence in the world. I like being human because I know that my passing through the world is not predetermined, preestablished. That my destiny is not a given but something that needs to be constructed and for which I must assume responsibility. I like being human because I am involved with others in making history out of possibility, not simply resigned to fatalistic stagnation. Consequently, the future is something to be constructed through trial and error rather than an inexorable vice that determines our actions.

I like to be human because of my unfinishedness. I know that I am conditioned. Yet conscious of such conditioning, I know that I can go beyond it, which is the essential difference between conditioned and determined existence. [. . .] I like being a human person because even though I know that the material, social political, cultural, and ideological conditions in which we find ourselves almost always generate divisions that make difficult the construction of our ideals of change and transformation, I know also that the obstacles are not eternal [. . .] awareness of our unfinishedness makes us responsible beings, hence the notion of or presence in the world as ethical. We recall that it is only because we are ethical that we can also be unethical. The world of culture, which is also the world of history, is the world where freedom, choice, decision, and possibility are only possible because they can also be denied, despised, or refused. For this reason, the education of women and men can never be purely instrumental. It must also necessarily be ethical. (Freire, 54-57)

That's enough! Use other parts of Freire's Ch. 3, the readings from CKCS to go deeper with these ideas and what they mean to you. You can also link to anything that you have thought about in relation to our last class with Juliette and Juan Carlos--in a follow-up email with them, Juan Carlos writes:

"it is critical for all of us to own our own perspectives and lenses that we carry that will be different from those different from us. This sounds logical but we have realized that it is quite challenging to have this engrained within our own actions. We don't see our blind spots simply because we are blind to them; obviously."

What do this week's reading say about the impact of our blind spots on others, how we might increase our perspectives, how we ourselves are impacted by the blind spots of others? What do these readings say about the ways in which we can all hope, we can all choose not to be neutral (which for Freire is to side with the oppressor)" How can use the "radical tension between good and evil, between dignity and indignity, between decency and indecency, between the beauty and the ugliness of the world" as a catalyst to see that it is our choice to exist humanely, "to decide, to struggle, to be political" to "know that things can get get worse" but also know that we are all able "to intervene to improve them" (Freire, 53).

When Teaching and Learning Become One

When I was reading City Kids City Schools I had a ton of questions come into my head. A couple of them were: Why is clam and “socially” well behaved a good thing? What makes the middle class way of life so fun and enjoyable? How many times have you seen someone who is financially comfortable but unhappy with their life? These questions make me wonder where the discomfort comes from.

These students are not afraid to question what is happening around them in school or to voice their opinions. In Mr. B.’s class the students were engaged and when they couldn’t do what they wanted they asked why. These behaviors are not seen in a regular class. The students rarely express how they feel about the topics. Sometimes the students just agree with the teacher so they can get a good grade. On page 34 Paulo Freire expresses the problem with the ideas of teaching. He says teaching is not just importing your knowledge on to others but helping others understand what you know.

The story of Ellis, in “One of ‘These Children’”, is a great example for a student who does the right thing in school but because of his social life he was judged. Most low income students have to have associations with gang member for survival or a gang member might be in their family. However Ellis made the choice to be a part of his schooling and become an active student in school; a place that is thought to be positive and safe. If teachers continue to judge the students and not accept them for the culture each students has, then the students have a hard time at succeeding.

Learning and The "Lost Causes"

Last Friday, my class and I met at the Marin County Community School to introduce ourselves to the students that we would be working with throughout the semester. I found myself reminiscing about my first experience with the school. I went in nervous and not sure of what to expect. As I was led from the office to the classroom, I looked at the students and was extremely intimidated. Having been sheltered so much as a child and into my teens, I wasn’t sure how to go about tutoring. I sat in the classroom surrounded by students in dark green polo shirts. I was so naïve that thinking about it now makes me laugh.

Going in last Friday was completely different. I knew what to expect. I wasn’t as naïve as I was the first time. I was more comfortable and I knew what these students were like. At first, I had imagined them as just ne’er-do-wells and just generally bad kids, but by tutoring at MCCS my freshman year, I learned more about them. Most of the students wanted to get out of the school and start making their way in the world. They wanted to go to college and start working. Some wanted to be nurses, technicians, even artists. These aspirations are overlooked so frequently, however. Society has conditioned us that these kids were only up to no good and, in the best case scenario; they’ll end up as fry cooks or in less savory occupations just because of the way they talk or the color of their skin. These students are the “forgotten” and the “lost causes.” It’s exactly these descriptions that we, as a class, are working to change.

In my reading of City Kids, City Schools, I read the story of a teacher who was teaching in low-income cities and he recalled that he was teaching the same students that others had expected him to be because of his color and his race. He used this experience of stereotyping in his youth to help better teach the students he was currently teaching. The author stated, “As teachers and researchers, we are taught to be objective; to teach what we know, not who we are. But all teaching is autobiographical,” (p. 86). It is important to teach each and every bit of relevant information according to the curriculum, but as teachers, it just as important to teach from experience. While teachers do have to maintain a sense of keeping most of your life separate from their work as a teacher, I feel that if there is a personal story that can illicit an emotional or intellectual response, then it should be used (granted that the personal experience is suitable for the classroom environment). The author taught in a way that was unique to him and his experiences and through that he was able to communicate to his students.

Being able to help teach these students is something that I’m excited about. We will be opening doors for these students that they didn’t even know where there. Paulo Freire got this right in saying, “To teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge,” (p. 30). I have always felt that I had an innate ability to teach. I want to bring to others new possibilities and new spins on old ideas. I want to succeed by helping others do the same. Freire’s quote practically summarizes my intent with whatever I teach. As a guitar teacher, I can only teach so much before I have to let my student learn on their own. But that’s not exactly always a bad thing! I feel that the main focus on teaching is that we shouldn’t be putting our minds into other peoples’ heads. We should be preparing others’ minds to grow.

What we’re doing is different, but welcome, form of education. We are learning through educating others. This isn’t the regurgitation of facts on paper. This is real world experience. Through experience, we will be learning and making a positive impact in the worlds of other people.

-Gerard Cabarse

Community in the Classroom

"One of the most important tasks of critical educational practice is to make possible the conditions in which the learners, in their interaction with one another and with their teachers, engage in the experience of assuming themselves as social, historical, thinking, communicating, transformative, creative persons; dreamers of possible utopias, capable of being angry because of a capacity to love" (45).


It is important in any learning/teaching situation to make everyone feel like they have a right to be there. When people feel like they are lesser than everyone else, it is harder for them to learn; mainly because, even if not in the classroom, they are discouraged from actively thinking. They are told, directly or indirectly, that they are stupid, that other people are better, that they can't do things as good as everyone else. Negative expectations have a great effect on people, whether they show it or not. In a learning situation, negative expectations are extremely dangerous.

At MCCS, these expectations are everywhere. In the short time we spent there last week, I only saw a few things that supported this. The main thing that stood out to me was that there were only a handful of students in the class. In "regular" schools, students are expected to show up to class close to everyday. At MCCS, it seems like a surprise when there is a majority of students on campus. And that's just if they show up, let alone actively participate in class.

I think that in our visit, when we broke into groups, we were able to really connect with the students on the level that this passage talks about. The students were engaged and wanted to be part of the conversations; they wanted to talk about who inspires them; they wanted to know why we put certain things on our projects. Since we had the opportunity to also talk to the students about things we had in common, we were able to start building a sense of community. When one student stood to present, he began with the words "This is my group, and we came up with..." This may not seem like a big deal, but the fact that in such a short time this students had made the connection with the people he was talking with really shows a lot. He felt comfortable with his group; he wanted to be associated with them; he wanted to portray them in the best light he could. (Even if he didn't do all of these things cognitively, they were still present.) We were also able to show that ideas and motivations can be expressed in conversations. It's so easy to learn through talking to people. I love that we have these opportunities.

The other part of this passage that stands out to me is the ending, "dreamers of possibly utopias, capable of being angry because of a capacity to love". This idea stands out to me because to me it's a very basic concept, but it's not this way for everyone. In order to be angry about something you have to have strong feelings for it or about it. Parents will get angry with their children because they care about them and wish for the best for them. When kids put themselves in harms way, or something bad happens to them and their parents get mad, it is probably because the parents love them and want them to be safe. We get angry and upset with the things, people, and situations we care most about.

In City Kids City Schools, in the story Mr. B, Mr. B is able to reach out to his students by having them read things that they can relate to. At one point they are discussing the reading and talking about leaving your past behind you and moving on with life. One students says, "You can't really leave it all behind because whatever happens, it's part of you. You got to deal with it some way" (82). Another students says, "Naw, you got to get up each day and say, 'Here I am world, a brand-new day'" (82). The first student responds, "In your dreams, man. In your dreams it's a brand-new day, but you're waking up in jail - the same old thing and what you did sitting right there with you" (82). These kids can relate to the text because they know how to relate it back to their own lives. They can connect with the characters in the text, and reference their own lives while discussing them. They have a sense of community with each other because of where they are, and they are able to discuss their ideas freely. They are not afraid to refute what others say if they disagree. I think this is something that people in everyday society tend to shy away from. It seems like we don't want to offend anyone by saying the wrong thing or have to defend our own opinions when someone else disagrees. These students are able to speak freely and learn from their conversations.

When you can build a community within a class, you can open the doors to types of discussions and conversations that might never have taken place. When people are confident in their abilities to form, develop, and speak their ideas, we are able to learn on a completely new level. In any learning situation people not only need to be allowed to speak their ideas, they must also want to. The kids in this story are stifled beyond belief in what they are allowed to do everyday, but when it comes to their class room, they are given freedoms that they can't wait to use. We have all these freedoms and them some, yet we still spend so much time in silence.......

When Judgement is Justifiable.

prej·u·dice

any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable.



Anyone who says they are never prejudiced is lying. Everyone forms and opinion about something before hand; be it thoughts about an event and if it will be lame or exciting, or snap judgements made about a person based on appearance, reputation, or even the school they go to.

This is a problem I have a lot, separating the "person" from the "idea."

My "idea" of MCCS was that the students would be juvenile delinquents, that they were scary. I thought more that once about calling in sick. But, I showed up, partly because I knew I was overreacting, partly because I actually enjoy this class (even if it IS at 9:25 am on a Friday...), and partly because I really need my grade to not suffer.

From the talks we'd had in class about proper behavior and avoidance of gang references, I was a little scared that that was what I would encounter. However, aside from being slightly irritated by the repeated mentions of "Gringa" thrown in in the rapid Spanish that was spoken a few feet from where I was sitting, the students were down to earth and fun.

When we talked in groups about our hero that we were going to choose, the MCCS students, Dora and Abel, both chose one of their parents. The more we talked, the more my tense muscles relaxed, and my inhibitions vanished.

I learned a lot that day, and reflecting of Freire's statement that we are all the teacher, and we are all the student, I find this to be true. Life is about giving and receiving, and the constant exchange of knowledge. As mentioned in the prompt, when he writes "teachers" or "teaching" we can think "human beings" and "being."

Our brains do not shut off. Ever. Unless we are dead.

Or vegetables...

Anyway,
“Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and who ever learns teaches in the act of learning” (31).

This class is not about teaching the MCCS students. It is not about the MCCS students teaching us. It is about a mutual exchange of knowledge, experience, and encouragement. As much as we are helping them, they are helping us.

I enjoyed reading what Freire had to say about education, “To teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge,” (p. 30) If we see knowledge as something concrete, to be written down, passed on, and never changed, then we have failed. Instead I like the idea that knowledge is alive and ever changing.

In that respect, it is important to remember that every moment in life is a learning opportunity. Every moment in life is a chance to defy our prejudices.
We can't escape them. But we can rise above.

THE END

"We are each burdened with prejudice; against the poor or the rich, the smart or the slow, the gaunt or the obese. It is natural to develop prejudices. It is noble to rise above them."
~Author Unknown

Text/Service Reflection:

Zehara Eckert

9/18/11

Text/Service Reflection: Freire reading in relation to first MCCS visit (also readings from City Kids, City Schools)

The quote that sums up my experience in relationship to our first Friday class with the MCCS students is “Right thinking is right doing” (Freire, 39). This quote stood out to me because it really emphasizes putting words into action. A lot of the time I’ve noticed people think one way but their actions contradict their thinking. This class advocated thinking for change and I strongly feel that we are not only thinking about it but we are actually doing it, which is amazing. “Intellectuals who memorize everything, reading for hours on end, slaves to the text, fearful of taking a risk, speaking as if they were reciting from memory, fail to make any concrete connection between what they have read and what is happening in the world, the country, or the local community” (Freire, 34). This class won’t be an example of this quote because our professors (Julia and Lynn) are giving us a very real experience and not just requiring us to memorize information and recite it back to them in exams. I never imagined that I would take a college course where service learning would be incorporated as a part of the curriculum. I am really glad and excited that this is the reality because the academic knowledge I will gain from this class will further benefit me because it also provides me with hands-on personal experience to make it relevant.

I went into Friday’s class with the MCCS students with no expectations. I told myself I was going to take and accept the experience simply for what it was. I didn’t want to set certain standards because I didn’t want to set them to high and be disappointed nor did I want to set the standard to low and be shocked by how much better it was. I wanted to be free of biases and let the living experience teach me. When we did the icebreaker exercise where we all had to find three interesting things that we all had in common, I noticed that during that period of time, our different education levels, our age, and our social status didn’t play a part, which was really cool. It kind of took me back to pre-school where all I cared about was finding thing in common with the other kids and nothing else mattered. There was such a beautiful ease in how we exchanged our likes, dislikes and interests in our Friday's class.

Both Freire and City Kids City Schools emphasized the importance of appropriate emotional expression in the educational environment. For example, in the chapter by Monique Redeaux Ellis, one of her students’ was shot by a police officer and that story was described in great detail. A police officer shot Ellis five times and hit him three times when he was stopped because he matched a description of a robbery suspect in his neighborhood. Ellis had attempted to put down his BB gun and the officer mistook it for weapon and shot at him. The officer’s answer to justify his behavior was that he had a split second to analyze and react to the situation. During the investigation Ellis’s father asked the police board “As the father of that boy, I want to know one thing; did his race or community play a part in the split second decision” (Redeaux, 87). I think this story supports Freire’s point about how important it is for us to acknowledge our attitudes, process, perception and to question our reasons behind these. To tie it back to the chapters that we’ve read and to our first Friday class with the MCCS students, I believe that part of education should be to recognize appropriate expression towards injustice, disloyalty and violence. Part of the educational role should be to understand the expression of these feelings. After all, these emotions are incorporated in the very fabric of learning and questioning knowledge.

Prompt-Text/Service Reflection: Freiere reading in relation to first MCCS visit (also readings from City Kids, City Schools)

For Freire, education is crucial to our participation in the struggle for social justice. The way he talks about the process of education, and the reciprocal relationship between teacher and learner, can be applied both literally and conceptually to all our relationships. We are all both teachers and students. Meaning, when he writes “teachers” or “teaching” we can think “human beings” and “being".

Please bear in mind as you read - this is philosophical writing and a translation. “Correct” and “right” are used philosophically to mean what is intrinsically right or correct in terms of our humanity.

Critical reflection is about connecting the ideas/thinking with the doing and then using the reflection to impact and expand the ways that we do what we do—thinking and doing transform each other.

Thus, Freire writes that “without a correct way of thinking, there can be no critical practice" and “words not given body (made flesh) have little or no value. Right thinking is right doing” (39).

Lynn and I invite you to critically reflect on one or more of the following ideas in relation to our first Friday class with the MCCS students:

“Proper to right thinking is the willingness to risk, to welcome the new, which cannot be rejected simply because it is new no more than the old can be rejected because chronologically it is no longer new. . .”(41).

The ways in which "right thinking" that leads to "right" action encompasses the need to "reject decidedly any every form of discrimination. Preconceptions of race, class, or sex offend the essence of human dignity and constitute radical negation of democracy" (41).

The relationship between the anger/hunger/passion that can feed and drive the struggle against injustice and our ability to equally open ourselves to giving and receiving love: “One of the most important tasks of critical educational practice is to make possible the conditions in which the learners, in their interaction with one another and with their teachers, engage in the experience of assuming themselves as social, historical, thinking, communicating, transformative, creative persons; dreamers of possibly utopias, capable of being angry because of a capacity to love” (45)

As you form and describe relations between the readings and our initial meeting with MCCS students, consider what you noticed in terms of your own social, emotional, and/or physical engagement. Please also include at least one other quote from your reading of Freire and of course any points from the readings in City Kids, City Schools that help you to understand Freire.

There are no stupid questions

I've realized that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, there is no way to really see through someone else's eyes. This is simply because no matter what you have your eyes. Everything that has ever happened in your life, anything you've ever been exposed to, your family, culture, basically your life makes it impossible for you to see exactly what people mean when they speak. In no way does this mean that we shouldn't try. If you have the option of hearing someone else's story, I'd highly recommend you make time for it.

When I was sixteen, I got the chance to hear a fraction of my mom's story. It's funny because before this event I had never really thought, I mean actively thought, about my mom's story. I had lived with my mom my entire life, seen her practically every single day, and I was still surprised by some of the things she told me. You'd think that by living with people you'd automatically know at least most of their story, but in most situations that's not the case. Sometimes it seems to me that we really don't know anything. It's not our faults. It just kinda happens that way sometimes.

As Meredith Rode puts it in The Hunt for Democracy: The Lion's Perspective, we have to deal with "the difficulty of not knowing where our ignorance lies" (22). Without asking questions, we put ourselves in the position to be victimized. But how are we supposed to know that we should ask questions when we are never told that there may be a different answer than what we've always been told? In school we learn that there are right answers and there are wrong answers, but don't worry because there are no stupid questions. It's funny though because we are told there are no stupid questions but the fact that we put the words "stupid" and "questions" right next to each other automatically makes us second guess our questions. I'm not sure if this is completely intentional, but it seems to me that a better way to get this point by would be to say something more along the lines of "every question has value." Or something like that. Rather than endlessly hearing the phrase "stupid questions," "stupid questions," "stupid questions."

Hearing from different points of view helps to show the big picture. As if there were a smaller picture. There is no "smaller picture"; only one that is lacking the depth of perspective. It's sad because we are not just given the opportunities to see from different perspectives. We are forced to fight for them if we wish to see them at all. Many times it is discouraged because people want to get a certain point by. I agree with Rode when she says, "I prefer recognizing our differences and appreciating them, not denying their existence" (22). The bigger problems start when these people who wish to only have their points heard are given power. When these people get that power over the minds of children, there is no reason for them to ask about other points of view. Most will accept being spoonfed this information that they don't anything about simply because they have no reason to question it. It sucks, but it happens.

The funny thing about power is that even little things can have a lot of power. In A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn says "the little things that people do multiply and connect at some point in history at a point that you can't even predict. And then important changes take place" (85). Little things do make a difference. Every question has value. You might as well ask it.

"You never know when what you say or do is going to be the thing that people remember"
-Brooke Griffin

Annissa Byrd
9/14/2011

A Change Within the Citizens

“And that kind of focus, which is also repeated in the media again and again, drives home to the American people the idea that we are a passive, that the making of history is not up to us, that it is up to the people in Washington ”(Zinn, 84).

This quote at the end of Zinn’s paper illustrates his key points. I had trouble finding what he wanted to say until I read this sentence. It encouraged me to read the whole paper over again so I could really relate to the ideas he was getting across. Zinn’s point that the history we study today is not the true reflection of the events, lead me to think of the history I have studied. It made me think our history was not solely dependent on a list of acts approved by a hierarchical power or a politicians actions. Our history is the movement of the people. The way the people dealt with the struggles or joyous moments that our country has created.

The history students are being taught today persuades them to think of government as a super hero and that the government will solve the problem. BUT the problem now is that government is helping the corporation not the people. Government bailouts and substitutes for corporations the people who are hurting are no longer able to trust our government. These actions have hindered the belief in liberty, justice and pursuit of happiness for all Americans because the senators’ presidents and Supreme Court justices are looking out for themselves.

Americans can no longer rely on the politicians to make the change they want to see. It has to be brought out through our new social media and the new found ways of connecting with others. Our educational system has to be challenged by the students. The students cannot be ok with the ideas of the teacher being forced into their minds. Instead, we should learn for the teachers and continue to ask for more information not asking what is going to be on the test but to understand the topic. We can no longer stand for multiple choice questions; instead we need to know the actions happened. I want to encourage everyone to ask the question Why?. It is something that we asked so often when we were kids and have taken it out of our vocabulary as we grow. It is no longer acceptable to ask because it is questioning the authority. But that is what a democracy is. We need our country to now be more active in our democracy because we are becoming passive and will allow the politics and media to tell us what is a monumental moment for our country. We need to be part of our and Democracy.

Wir betreten feuertrunken

I was at the top of of the Twin Towers exactly one month before 9/11. I was told that elevator was the safest place to be in the event of an earthquake. The morning I came downstairs to hear the news of the attack was the morning I really understood what it was to be mortal. What happened on September 11th 2001 was a tragedy. But it was not an unwarranted attack, and it was not justification for a war.

I do not oppose history textbooks and schools teaching about 9/11, in the same way that it would be silly to oppose the teaching of things like Pearl Harbor or Jim Crow. This country is built on the lessons learned from disaster.

That being said, it would be prudent for me to point out that history is relative, subjective, and easily modified. There is nothing we can do about this either, it is human nature. Memory is faulty, our brains remember things with our own bias applied to them. And so in history books, not only in America but all around the world, "history" is slightly different.

There are examples of this everywhere, going as far back as history can possibly go with stories from the Bible or the Gilgamesh Epic. It is widely accepted that these could have at one point been true stories, and thus history. The Deluge Myth is mentioned in both of these works, as well as in other stories from other cultures, and illustrates how quickly history can become myth, or myth can become history. Before anything was ever written down, people relied upon oral tradition to share the stories of their past. It was hundreds of years before these stories could be written down and in that time hundreds of voices had told those stories, and hundreds of modifications had been made to them.

This still happens today, even with video and media technology stories are still slightly altered and skewed each time they are told. The teller bends them to fit their needs, or their own idea. As Meridith Rode stated in "The Hunt for Democracy: The Lion's Perspective," " Works from other times, cultures, and traditions have often been force-fit into the Western idea of art, and this sometimes has distorted or deformed the work itself" (28).

To wrap up my point, and actually tie in the reading:
"So, yes, history can be trivial and history can be really important, depending on what you do with it and depending on what you learn" (Zinn, 71).

THE END

Zehara Eckert

9/12/11

A People's History of the U.S. and The Hunt for Democracy

“How Free is Higher Education,” this question from chapter four of A People’s History of the U.S really stood out to me because as a college student I lingered with the same question. The educational environment is the only place where young adults are told to read, write, and discuss topics under the guidance of a mentor. However I always imagined that college would be an educational arena where students were able to freely discuss and hear many different viewpoints from not only other students but from their professors. I remember my high school teacher telling us that we couldn’t disagree with his viewpoint as high school students but once we got to college we could disagree and in fact we were encouraged to do so by professors. I found the freedom to disagree and share our viewpoints in the classroom very interesting and I couldn’t wait to be apart of that environment. Once I got to college this wasn’t my experience, maybe it’s due to my major. The only thing that comes close to the educational environment my high school teacher described to us is this Colloquium course.

I feel like the freedom of higher education is hindered by the fear of the guardians of the status quo. I think that if teachers actually used this freedom and created an educational environment where students were introduced to new subjects, new readings, and extraordinary and unconventional ideas which challenged authority, this would enrage the guardians. So it’s understandable that teachers stick to what they know and is safe because they don’t want to upset the fundamentalists of educators or lose their job. It would have been great if the fundamentalists of education allowed us the freedom to discuss what we learn and find in higher education.

The similarity that I saw between A People's History of the U.S. and The Hunt for Democracy was the importance both the professors emphasized about stating their view on a subject under discussion and they encouraged students to disagree with them. They both taught minority students and they showed their students our history and how it was written from one cultural perspective. They showed their students an inclusive vision of our world the past and the present. As the professor from A People's History of the U.S. stated “They would hear viewpoints other than mine in other courses and for the rest of their lives.” They allowed their students to disagree and question the topics of discussion. For example one of the professors expressed respect for her students who missed class to demonstrate against racial segregation. She was allowing her students to live democracy and encouraged them when they did while the other professors encouraged their students to stick to their studies and refuse to participate in social conflict outside the seminar room.

All education involves selection of book, events, and voices to discuss and I think it’s really crucial that these teachers understand the importance of judgment being made from different frames of reference. This will build tolerance and understanding among their students. Teachers have power and how they want to use it is up to them because the knowledge they impart among their students affects their attitude and the new information they learn can alter how one perceives the world and other humans.

Prompt for A People's History of the U.S. and The Hunt for Democracy

"Democracy depends on us and what we do--even on the little things. . ." (Zinn, 85).

Both these pieces make a case for "democratic" education that is not "neat", that helps students to understand and maybe even embrace the complexity of our lives, especially our collective reality. In "A People's History of the U.S." Howard Zinn tells us of the way he learned about democracy in action through his involvement in the civil rights movement and how that differed from the "neat" democracy he was taught in school"

"But of course, democracy can't be put on the blackboard. It's not a formula, it's not a constitution, it's not laws, it's not a framework, it's not a structure. Democracy is people acting on behalf of justice" (83).

Both Zinn and Rode makes the case for critical thinking and consciousness that make us capable of this type of action. Zinn writes, "If you don't know important things about history, then it's as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, then you will believe anything that is told to you by somebody in authority and you have no way of checking up on it" (69).

The piece that I posted in the news forum about educational standards and methods for teaching 911, makes Zinn's point abundantly clear (read it!). Civic discourse and the ability to discern, engage, and analyze multiple perspectives comes through the ways in which we are educated and how we chose to educate ourselves: "So, yes, history can be trivial and history can be really important, depending on what you do with it and depending on what you learn" (Zinn, 71).

Zinn's point about history is that there is rarely, if ever, one narrative, one side to the story, one perspective, or a single understanding of any experience. Meredith Rode illustrates this through the story of art and teaching art history in her paper, "The Hunt for Democracy: The Lion's Perspective". She writes about the ways in which, " Works from other times, cultures, and traditions have often been force-fit into the Western idea of art, and this sometimes has distorted or deformed the work itself" (28).

Seeing from multiple perspectives and challenge stereotypes and assumptions allows us to engage in real thinking and in dialogue with others are civic skills that allow us to take civic knowledge (all the societal issues that seem and are so huge and complex) and find ways to act:

"New awarenesses create new possibilities, both for individual learning and for societal change. What we have been doing no longer meets the conditions of our time, and what we must create will require a relinquishing of ideas and structures so familiar that they seem inviolable truths. What evolves must come through dialogue,exchange and difficult debate"(Rodes, 31).

What are other places in these readings that speak to you about these issues? What other connections do you find between the two pieces and your own experience? Who are the people who have helped you learn or who have inspired you to want to want to be involved in change or a movement that you are involved in or would like to be involved in?

The Brain v.s the Hand

In chapter six he Rose talks of the placement of perstgue in cretin careers. He questions how we look at the intelgance level of vocational workers compared to the intengance of office workers. "mind and hand vs brain" how dose a persons intelangance depend on the job they hold. Their job is just a refelcation of where they decided to place their knolwedge. At my job one of my managers was a math majior and wanted to be an engineer, until life circumstances forced him to to work more and focus those educational abilities at IN and OUT Burger. This job is not a reflection of his prestuge because his intelgance is much higher then it is percived.

In chapter ten he bring up Kevin, a college student that was not destioned to go far in his youth but he attended college to further his knowledge. I think the the use of education to divide the country and the abilities of the working class from the elite is what is going to seperate America. It is not the persons knowledge that holds them back from a larger career. It is self will and comfort. Kevin wanted more and wanted to have a specific field to focus his abilities. College gave him a place explore different fields and different places to work.

My brother is someone who does need to leave our home town because he feel comfortable there. He knows there is more to explore and it can have different ways of life but for him his way of life are perfect for him. He is content with just staying at home and studding at the local university to become an accountant and a local accounting firm.

I think that the world need people with that personality because it provides a natural balance within our economy. If every one wanted to become the CEO our population would not be happy and the people who are content with the way of life give us a balance.

Even though the education system is hard to navigate. The ideas of each student provides education for people. A class room provides us with a place express and create. Our system is hindering the abilities and creativity by taking the expression out of the classroom and placing it on a test.

Josie Santoyo

Reflection 2

Imagination For Change

September 6, 2011

Why School?

After reading the second part of Why School?, by Mike Rose the issue of “hand work” vs “brain work”(76) really stood out to be. People believe that they are considered intelligent because they have gotten an education and a degree. Many people who have gotten a school education don’t always take the advantage of the knowledge they have. They sometimes end up working at a part time job such as a fast food restaurant. I know a guy who was really book smart but one day after he graduated from high school he gave up on studying and decided to work at a fast food restaurant. He continues to work there now and he says that he likes to be working rather than studying because that way he learns by doing not just by reading. We go to school in order to do get a job in the future. But in order to get a job we need to be experienced and know what to do. If we just learn from books and don’t actually learn from doing, than is not going to make us exports. For example, we can read directions in order to build something we can read and think we can actually assemble something. But we don’t actually know if we can build it if we don’t try and practice. I like the quote, “It took a guy with a college degree to screw this up, and a guy with a high school degree to fix it” (67). This just shows that not just because you have a degree mean you can always solve things and be considered intelligent. Every single person is intelligent in their own way, people just need to be able to practice and learn from the experience. People learn in different ways. Many people rather learn by watching someone do something rather than reading a book explaining how to do it. Some students are not always “book smart” and they have a harder time learning in class because it takes them a longer time to understand the book or material. But when it comes to practicing a technique in class such as building something or creating a art piece than they will have an easier time with the material because they have practice more.

Why School? Second Reflection

Gerard Cabarse

9-6-11

Thinking for Change

Why School?

When I was younger, I was told by my friends that I was “book smart.” This meant that I knew what I learned in my books, but I wasn’t going to be able to survive on the streets because I wasn’t “street smart.” This seems like a strange conversation for a group of kids in the 8^th grade to have. Granted, chances are that we had no clue what we were talking about at the time, but Rose’s look at “hand work” vs. “brain work” had reminded me of that conversation I had a long time ago.

Nowadays, society has been conditioned to think that if a person doesn’t go to college, they won’t be successful. We’re all bred with the idea that to be successful in life, we go to college, graduate with a degree, find a career, and then make money. On the other hand, if you don’t go to college, you end up being a bum and living off minimum wage. This stereotype is not the basis on determining how intelligent someone is. This creates a wall that segregates “smart and successful” from “uneducated and hopeless.”

Learning and education is not as black and white as using your brain or using your hands. It is an experience for the whole. You cannot separate your brain from your hands. An office worker will punch numbers in a calculator and write down his figures with his hands just as a painter will visualize his work before even toughing his canvas. Everyone learns as an entire person, not just specific parts. The myth that people who do more brain work are more successful than their hand working counterparts is an illusion.

This illusion, however, is being upheld by the modern school system. Students today are being conditioned to learning more and more information, rather than towards a specific calling. Students are given books and expected to know each bit of information inside of them. Rose (p. 82) states, “It is the academic curriculum, not the vocational, that has gotten identified as the place where intelligence is manifest.” He’s saying that by working on learning more information and becoming more educated, more people will think you’re smarter than someone who learned a specific vocation. By learning more from school, you are automatically deemed smart. But learning is not only possible through school. Everyone is learning everyday from everything. Learning is a process that never ends and can come from any source.

I wanted this to show in my “Wake Up!” project. I wanted to convey the idea that we are constantly learning from the outside world. I also wanted to show that I had learned with my entire body and all of my senses. Everything I learned has made me who I am today. Outside of my silhouette, I used black and white pictures of everything that has affected me in my life growing up. Pictures of album covers, pictures of sports players, bands, and other people are scattered among the background in black and white. Inside my shadow, I put pictures of myself growing up and some of me today with everyone who has personally touched my life in one way or another. I had learned from them not only with my brain or hands, but through the experiences I have shared with them which have shaped me to become the person that I am.

If I could travel back in time to meet myself during that conversation with my friends about “book smarts” and “street smarts,” I’d tell them that the difference wouldn’t matter (along with winning lottery ticket numbers and Superbowl winners). The most important thing was to keep learning regardless of the source. Through learning, we make our way to understanding the world around us and how to live in a way that is unique to ourselves.