Prompt for Whatever it Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America and start of Act Up Project

Part One: The Reading
Find and discuss quotes and places in the text that relate to colloquium themes:
What motivates Canada? What are the social justice issues that he seeks to address and what is his "vehicle" and/or philosophy?
What are some of his personal challenges/inner debates/dilemmas that he faces in his work?

The second chapter, "Unequal Childhoods," chronicles some of the history of the debate surrounding the causes of generational poverty: "Canada had come up against one of the most nettlesome questions in all of social science: Why are poor people poor?" (23). It is interesting to note how non-objective science can actually be, depending on who is designing the tool of measurement, deciding what should be measured, and how this data should be interpreted--on top of all of this, politics also enters the picture. Paul Tough does a good job of laying out some of the different approaches and attitudes to the issue.
What most surprises you? What appears finally to be fair and less biased accounts of some of the root causes of poverty?


Part Two: Starting the Visual Research for "Act Up"
For those of you who took photos of the murals on Balmy Alley, analyze your favorite. Discuss how it visually speaks to an audience about the issue it is addressing (composition, symbolism, style, color, context). For those of you who didn't take photos, use the image collection in the Research Guide that Annie created for this colloquium, find a mural/street art and do the same. Do the images reflect any of the issues we are discussing, reading about?

Watch Canada on 60 Minutes and check out Harlem Children's Zone

From John S: The Ideal Citizen

“Today many schools have been dedicating vast amounts of time and effort to create an architecture of adaptive strategies that promise incremental gains with the limits inequality allow” (63). Kozol examines the strategy of “one size fits all” within urban public schools. Scripted programs such as ‘Success for All’ drive curriculum changes, using models adapted from industrial efficiency and Taylorism. He also discusses the naming ritual that permeates the formality of each course taught by the school. Such as “Authentic Writing,” “Active Listening,” and so forth. “Teachers also tell me that these numbering and naming rituals are forcing them to sacrifice a huge proportion of their time to what are basically promotional, not educational activities” (77). I think that every teacher no matter where they teach should always break out of the bubble and bring their own uniqueness to the curriculum. However many times school boards emphasis too much how their should only be one which is the way set decades ago. It is crucial that are school systems adapt to these fast changing times otherwise our younger generations will get left behind. “Justified suspicion that the promises we hear today of new and even better ways to guarantee successful outcomes in our nation’s segregated and unequal public schools will one day be reviewed with the same sense of disappointment, if not irony” (192). Kozol describes his experience working as a teacher in New York during the implementation of Higher Horizons in the 1960’s. This program was designed to increase spending per child in segregated schools while also training teachers to increase their expectations. The program claimed to improve reading and math skills, lower suspension rates, and improve relations with parents. As the program began to work, money was reduced, and this quick reduction resulted in the abandonment of Higher Horizons after 7 years. While briefly successful, the promises of the program fell through. The high expectations we place on new superintendents and personnel bring false hope. The pressures of the cities they are placed in and the low achievement of the students make it impossible to achieve the long-term goals we set out for. “These are the schools I call “the treasured places.” They remind us always of the possible” (300). “Teachers and principals should not permit the beautiful profession they have chosen to be redefined by those who know far less than they about the hearts of children” (299). Kozol is devoted to showcase examples of excellence that he witnessed in his visits to schools in America’s most segregated schools. Such as certain staff members from an elementary in one of New York’s most segregated schools and demonstrate that even in the worst of situations there is still hope.
Educating the “Good” Citizen: Political Choices and Pedagogical Goals
“Students are no more in agreement on what good citizenship means than are teachers, policy makers, or politicians” This spoke to me because sometimes we can fully comprehend something better whenever we do not have an emotional feeling or bias towards the subject. Otherwise when someone does not closely follow something such as American politics we do not accuse the opposing side instead we examine the root of the problem and search to discover an honest solution. “There are three different types of US citizens; personally responsible, participatory, and the justice-oriented.” This is true I see the differences everyone and it can become evident when the topic of politics is brought up in a friendly discussion. I would like to believe that most college students are touching the identity of a justice-oriented citizen. This citizen is described as someone who, “Critically assesses social, political, and economic structures to see beyond surface causes, seeks out and addresses areas of injustice, and knows about social movements and how to effect systemic change.” For my response to all of this evidence and to both articles, I think that a good citizen is made through inspiration and self-interest. Keeping this in mind growing up we are always taught little things to help us become responsible individuals, which essentially means citizens of the United States of America. At the end of the day we are only as good as our last action of service for the betterment of our community or for our country. Unless we actually go out and act upon our beliefs towards the government and the current education system in place we have no reason to sit back and only criticize. If I were a teacher I would stress to my students that these sorts of issues come into our lives once we accept them because they are always going to be around us it is just up to the individual whether he or she wants to fully embrace and understand their meaning and how it affects their daily life. In correlation I think that young people like myself should just stay true to their own morality and by doing this they should be able to decide for themselves what makes a good citizen in today’s democracy.

A new way to think of school

Annissa Byrd
"High school students whom I talk with in deeply segregated neighborhoods and public schools seem far less circumspect then their elders and far open int heir willingness to confront these issues. “It’s more like being hidden,” said a fifteen-year-old girl named Isabel...”its as if we have been put in a garage where, if they don’t have room for something but aren’t sure it they should throw it out, they put it where they don't need to think of it again.”(C.C.C.S. 147) This quote emphasise the conditioning that they go through in school stating that they just need to sit in the seats and listen and learn. The things is that all schools are that way. It is not just in the lower income areas. It is in Universities, private school and any other place where someone is trying to import knowledge on you. The only difference is the monetary value of the school. I realized that I wanted to go to university so that when i had something to say there was an idea that my word meant something to the greater good and that I was not just spewing words out of my mouth. I needed facts behind what I said and the way I get those facts is by siting in a chair and listening and learning what the teacher has to say.

I believe that these two quotes go together and show how our education system has become a place where a student sits and listens till the teacher is finshed
“There had been major changes since I had been there last. Silent lunches had been instituted in he cafeteria, and on days when children had misbehaved, silent recess had been introduced.” (C.C.C.S. 154); “ I want to change the face of reading instruction across the United States from an art to a science,” said an assistant to Rod Paige, the former education sectary,” (CCCS 156)
With an education system that thinks in scientific way the arts will be lost. They believe that the only way to show progress of the students is by having the students spit back what the said and be able to measure it in numbers. The reason why there is such a decline in reading among out society is because it is not taught as an art but has been broken down into a science. the reader will only read if they will have to answer lots of questions about the reading and know on what exact page the main character died, not why the reader cares that the main character died. The reader emotions are no long apart of reading. This change in how we look and measure inelegance is what is taking the passion for our schools away.

In the first quote the girls state that they are worth nothing and that is where they belong. Before the quote he said that the older generations would not talk to him and that they had trouble saying how they felt. The girls who talked to him had great ways of stating the way the education system was treating the lower class. This change in how the youth are looking at their worth to the greater humanity will bring about change to the neighborhoods and will allow for a greater understanding of the nation.

I don’t believe that it is one groups being separated from the other but I do believe that the finical differences are changing the perceptions of the problems. It is not just the problems of the poor but the problems of the education system because every student has something to say in all finical back grounds but the education system is a place where students go to learn and further their knowledge about the world. So, one day when they have something to say it will have weight and people will want to hear what the have to say.

I'm not going to lie.

I can produce word vomit with the best of them. But I'm not going to. I did not agree with this weeks reading. In fact, I haven't agreed with any of the readings this entire semester. To me they all seem to be reiterations of the same thing, which makes me wonder exactly how many times I can say the same thing.
Fact of the matter is: If the system doesn't work for you, find one that does and stop complaining.
It's not impossible.
Since I need three quotes from Kozol:
“’ This,’ he told me, pointing to the garbage bag, then gesturing around him at the other indications of decay and despair ones sees in ghetto schools much like it elsewhere, ‘would not happen to white children’” (Kozol, 149)
No. Bad things do happen to white children. Sorry.
But money alone is surely not the sole response. The values of the parents and the kids themselves must have a role in this as well – you know, housing, health conditions, social factors. “ “other factors” – a term of overall reprieve one often hears – “have got to be considered, too.”” (Kozol, 152)
Wrapped up in there, Kozol actually said something of value... "The values of the parents and the kids themselves must have a role in this as well" If that were all he were saying hip hip hooray. But it's not. Sooo...
and finally.
"There is no misery index for the children of apartheid education. There ought to be; we measure almost everything else that happens to them in their schools" (Kozol, 157-158 [in City Kids, City Schools]).
There is no misery index for anyone, anywhere. Misery is relative and so is an apartheid education.
As for the other readings,
"Unable to connect
Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at democraticdialogue.com."
Or maybe I'll ust blame it on bad schooling...
Oh wait, I'm not allowed.

Everyone can do something

While reading some the kids remarks in "Shame of the Nation," I could picture kids from MCCS saying them. I've talked to kids there and they've mentioned little things that "normal" schools had that they didn't. When we first went to MCCS to meet the students a girl in my group asked about just having one teacher, rather than switching classrooms. The boys in our group said how much they didn't like it. They said that it was like being back in elementary school, and that it wasn't fair. Money is always such an issue... "Yet here I am one night, a guest within their home, and dinner has been served and we are having coffee now; and this entirely likable, and generally sensible, and beautifully refined and thoughtful person looks me in the eyes and asks me whether you can really buy your way to a better education for the children of the poor" (p.152). People are way too good at categorizing. "The children of the poor" are still children! It's disgusting that even "sensible" people can think of a kid and ask such a ridiculous question. It's as if the "children of the poor" are a sub species or something that makes them different from the other children (children of the wealthy). Every child has the potential to do amazing things and the fact that some don't even get a chance to see an opportunity to do so is really saddening. When people are told everyday they are lesser, chances are the majority of them will live to that standard. And when I say "told" I don't mean someone wakes them up in the morning with an alarm chanting "lesser human being." But maybe the kid wakes up to his or her parents arguing, or didn't sleep at all during the night because he or she had to take care of a younger brother because the parents had to work a graveyard shift. There are countless ways people are told they are not worth as much as other people without a single word being said. Just driving by a school that has a playground can tell a child that for some unknown reason they don't deserve that.

Another thing that stood out to me was the kind of "Taylorism" method in the classroom. Maybe it was just me but the image of the teachers silencing method kind of scared me; "his arm shot out and up in a diagonal in front of him, his hand straight up, his fingers flat. The young co-teacher did this, too. When they saw their teachers do this, all the children in the classroom did it, too" (p.155). I feel like a place designed to teach children has no need to treat them like they are already in lock down. By teaching kids with a method that prepares them to spend all their time doing exactly what they are told, the school is ultimately creating zombies. Zombies that cannot have a creative idea because they have had their creativity and imaginations stunted since the time they entered the education system. It's like the "how many uses can you think of for a paper clip" test. The more answers you come up with, the closer to being a genius you are. Einstein would have hit around 200. At this school I bet there is one answer; to hold a piece of paper to another piece of paper. How many geniuses can come out of a school that teaches you that there is only one answer? How many questions just have one answer??

I read the article "Learning to Lead: Building on Young People's Desire to "Do Something" by Joel Wetheimer, Joseph Kahne, and Bethany Rogers. The first thing I highlighted was the statement "apathy and alienation among youth and young adults have contributed to a new cynicism about the potential for change" (p.1). The questions "is it really gonna make a difference?" or "how am I supposed to change the world?" or even "what's the point, no one listens anyways", don't stem from nothing. I personally have spent a lot of time feeling that all my work doesn't really do anything. But I guess you'll never know if you can make a difference if you don't try. The program Do Something helps promote "young people's ability to envision change and their capacity to lead" (p.2). The program teaches them new ways of looking at things. It also teaches them that they actually can make a difference. The first course students take focuses on developing the participants' attitudes, skills and knowledge, meaning motivation, strategies and looking at problems in a way that addresses root causes, symptoms, and how to balance the different solutions. Another really important part of this program looks at the fact that "a lot of people have visions for the future, but...they don't know [how to] help" (p.5). Without breaking a problem down into it's root causes or just smaller pieces, it may seem impossible. But once you do that you can begin to look at the separate solutions.

"The other side of it is that everybody can do something. A lot of times we get so caught up in what we can't do, that we lose sight of what we can do. And I think just that statement alone, that says we can all do something" (p.4).

Shame on our Nation

Jessica McKean

Shame on our Nation

This weeks reading was very eye opening. The Shame of the Nation was really hard for me to read because it was so sad. I never realized how bad some schools are and that race affects the schools conditions that much. “’ This,’ he told me, pointing to the garbage bag, then gesturing around him at the other indications of decay and despair ones sees in ghetto schools much like it elsewhere, ‘would not happen to white children’” (Kozol, 149). The whole story hit me hard but this line made me realize how much people believe that race influences a school. I knew that it existed, but I didn’t think that it was as severe as it is. I think that race affects all schools including MCCS; it’s a school of minorities so it won’t get as much funding and care. Also, MCCS has students that are considered having “bad behavior”, which I haven’t seen much of, but therefore there would be even less funding and care. It’s unfortunate because schools that aren’t doing well need more care to get them to the “average,” which are still not necessarily that good.

In The Shame of the Nation, Kozol talks about how the students are embarrassed to talk about the schools conditions. He describes his reactions to a student talking about how bad the schools bathrooms where, “ hearing of these conditions in Mireya’s words was even more unsettling, in part because this student seemed so fragile and because the need to speak of these indignities in front of me and all the other students was an additional indignity” (Kozol, 159). It’s understandable that it would be uncomfortable to talk about the bathroom conditions. No one should have to complain about bathrooms being gross or not being able to use bathrooms when necessary. Another student, Edward, explains “students are not animals, but even animals need to relieve themselves sometimes. We’re here for eight hours. What do they think we’re supposed to do?” (Kozol, 159). He makes a great point; apparently schools aren’t treating the kids like people. People need sanitary conditions to stay healthy and especially if most schools don’t have a nurse to help students when they do get sick.

From Kozol’s story, it seems like many people want to change things about schools. There are many things that need to be fixed or improved, but the “higher ups” don’t hear about the issues enough. As a person from Learning to Lead explains "if you don't know [the issues], you're not going to be able to understand how to change things...Lack of knowledge, or, for a better term, ignorance, is a disease in this country” (Learning to Lead, 6). The government is being very ignorant if they believe that all schools are up to “standards.” Kozol’s stories prove that not all schools are and that people need to take notice and try to do something to change the schools conditions. The kids in Kozol’s stories seem like they want changes, but because they are so fragile the students either don’t want to talk about the conditions to adults or they believe that adults wont listen to them. The students don’t know how to change things, but they don’t know what to do; “people want change, but they don't know what to do about it" and “a lot of people have visions for the future, but...they don't know [how to] help” (Learning to Lead, 5). Many people want to help but don’t think they are capable of it, when in reality everyone can help if they have a direction. Many people also think about the things that s/he can’t do, which discourages him/her from doing anything, so s/he doesn’t try.

I think that this does not exclude the MCCS students. From what we’ve heard it seems that many students want to go somewhere and create a better life for themselves. But it can be challenging when others are treating you like you can’t do anything or like you aren’t important. It was brought up in Kozol’s story a few times. He talked about students getting put into classes that they don’t want and won’t help them get into college. One student explained that they are put into classes that suit their current living situations. “’You’re ghetto, …so we send you to the factory… You’re ghetto—so you sew!’” (Kozol, 161). Fortino said this unrelentingly; it’s so sad that some don’t think that s/he can change their lifestyle and go somewhere else in life. It is possible to improve your life and we need to give all kids the same chance to do that. Why are we keeping the status quo? It will not threaten anyone to give all students the same opportunities. Then students can take them if they want, but the students will have the choice. We need to make the educational system equal for all.

Westheimer, J., Kahne, J., & Rogers, B. (1999). Learning to Lead: Building on Young People's Desire to 'Do Something. New Designs For Youth Development. Special Issue on Social Justice, 15(3), 41-46.

Robin Goldschmidt
CLQ: Thinking for Change
October 23, 2011
Blog 8
Some very interesting things I found by reading the chapter by Jonathon Kazol are the statistics he states about ethnicity in public high schools. Kazol states that, “In St. Louis, 82 percent of the student population were black or Hispanic; in Philadelphia and Cleveland, 79 percent; in Los Angeles, 84 percent; in Detroit, 96 percent; in Baltimore, 89 percent” (146). I never knew the rates in major cities were this high, I thought it would be a pretty even split between the differing ethnic groups. From my experience in public high school, the ethnic makeup was about 80 to about 90 percent of the student population was white. However, we can see the same rate discussed by Kazol in the MCCS students. I also found it alarming when I read that almost all public schools in New York had libraries, art, and music teachers about 20 to 30 years ago. Now, it is rare to even find a public school with an art or music program as Kazol states that, “Art and music programs had also for the most part disappeared” (149). As we have discussed many times this semester art and music can be an essential part to an individual’s education and the opportunities they will have in the future. With music and art an individual’s mind is able to grow and maybe distracted from the harsh realities of life. Also, these two aspects can also make a student happy and boost their confidence, which will then make them want to attend school and strive for that education. It’s been stated that money is the sole reason that these school systems are faltering and that the students are not having such great success. I do not agree with this notion that it is the most important part, but it does play a smaller role in a person’s education. I agree with Karzol when he stated, “But money alone is surely not the sole response. The values of the parents and the kids themselves must have a role in this as well – you know, housing, health conditions, social factors. “ “other factors” – a term of overall reprieve one often hears – “have got to be considered, too.”” (152). I believe the most important thing for an individual to receive an adequate education is their own personal drive to wanting to receive the education. One can say the biggest problem is money, but I have seen a few people in my high school falter where money is not the issue because they had no interested in going to school and receiving the education. Probably the second most important thing is the community you are exposed to including your parents, if the community and your parents do not place an importance on school then you probably will not place much importance on the fact either. As money is only able to buy you books and school supplies it cannot make an individual want to try in school. Measurement has affected the MCCS students as that is mainly why they are at this school, but I do not think they are not victims of an apartheid education. I believe most of them are there because of the mistakes they have made and because they do not believe education is that important. You can see this as only half the class shows up and the individuals I have worked with have been different every time we have meet. The author of Learning to Lead made an interesting point in his argument stating that, “School Board elections, for example, often draw no more than five percent of eligible voters to the voting booths” (1). This goes hand in hand with what Kazol has been stating, as through school board elections many things can be changed. If parents would take part in these, there could be action taken in order to improve the situations in the poor school systems and the issues can be addressed. However, if individuals or parents do not take part much will not change because many people will believe the situation is fine if there is no complaining from the parents or students. Another important thing stated in the Learning to Lead article is when the authors state, “The Do Something leadership curriculum includes attention to knowledge of community history and affairs as well as issue identification and analysis” (6). This is another important aspect in order to envision and make changes to the current issues that taking part in society, but most notably in the school system as made clear by Kazol. In order to fix the big issue/problem one needs to know the root cause of the problem and then work your way up from there. I found that the author’s of the article Learning to Lead believe in the same issues and on how to fix these problems in society and in both of these cases the school systems. Our colloquium seeks to respond by spreading knowledge about the issues that are occurring and to speak out for those that cannot afford to and those that physically are not able to. Also, the colloquium seeks to actively make a difference in other people’s lives that are less fortunate than those that are attending Dominican. We are speaking up about not making assumptions about people we do not actually know. We need to be respectful for everyone and not make judgments based on an individual’s appearance and from the places they come from. In our case by just looking at the MCCS students as they are teenagers and high school students in the United States, which I was already doing before the colloquium made me aware of the issues that are occurring and what many of them are fighting against.

Article: Westheimer, J., Kahne, J., & Rogers, B. (1999). Learning to Lead: Building on Young People's Desire to 'Do Something. New Designs For Youth Development. Special Issue on Social Justice, 15(3), 41-46.

Prompt--Connect Kozol's Shame of the Nation to a reading from Democratic Dialogues

"Good citizens in a democracy need to have patience, tolerance for ambiguity, and an aversion to either/or 'solutions.' They must understand the tension between individual and group and how to satisfy individual needs while helping meet the needs of the larger community." (Roger Soder, "The Good Citizen and the Common School" from: Kahne and Westheimer, "Teaching Democracy: What Schools Need to Do" 37--one of the readings you can choose from).

"There is no misery index for the children of apartheid education. There ought to be; we measure almost everything else that happens to them in their schools" (Kozol, 157-158 [in City Kids, City Schools]).

(Is all the measurement and standardization of learning described by Kozol the result of an "either/or solution"? Do you think that measurement and teaching by formula impacts MCCS, do you think these students may be "victims of apartheid education"? An example of how you might draw a connection and then go on from there and use both texts and our MCCS experience to illustrate. Now do it yourself!)
While you may all read different articles from the selection at the Democratic Dialogues website there will be a number of connections that you can draw with Kozol's Shame of Nation. What are the issues that he outlines? What do the various articles say about educating for citizenship? Where are the gaps? How might people who are engaged in actively seeking to manifest democratic ideals respond to the issues that Kozol outlines and illustrates? Are we part of these issues? How does our colloquium seek to respond? What are you Speaking Up about? Please use at least 3 quotes from Kozol and 1 or 2 from whatever other article you choose. Make sure you cite which article you are referring to.

Barefoot College

Struggles of The Vocation

In chapter four of Paolo Freire’s “The Pedagogy of Freedom,” Freire goes over the importance of the dichotomy of education. In a previous reflection, I have stated that education is not a one way street in which knowledge goes into the minds of students. It is instead comprised of the efforts of both the teacher and the students. Freire explains this well by saying that teaching “doesn’t exist unless there is learning simultaneously,” (Freire, 88). There is a mutual respect between the teacher and the student that must be upheld in order for the goal of learning to be reached. The teacher must engage their students with lessons and ideas and the students must engage with the teacher with questions and an open mind.

In my earlier years, I put no thought into just how much effort it took teachers to teach. I figured that school was just a place I went to so that people could tell me to do things and then I could leave. Freire provides an eye opening quote by saying, “There is something mysterious, something called ‘vocation,’ that explains why so many teachers persist with so much devotion in spite of the immoral salaries they receive. Not only do they remain, but they fulfill as best they can their commitment. And do it with love,” (pg 126). The effort put into teaching as a lifestyle is insurmountable. The teacher is not only guiding students towards knowledge, but is also looking for it themselves. My respect for teachers has grown now that I have gotten older. Nowadays, with the hopes of becoming a teacher, I understand what it actually takes to be a teacher. The creation of lesson plans, lectures, class engagement activities, and understanding of the many dimensions of the classroom learning experience is daunting. But even knowing this, I feel that I can fulfill this task.

I believe that our experience on Friday was also a difficult task. The MCCS students that we worked were disengaged and it took some effort to pull the least bit of interest out of them. After a while, they finally began putting in their input or ideas, but even then, I feel that they weren’t putting in as much as they could into the group effort. I don’t think that this is because of a lack of respect or a general disinterest in the work. Instead, I feel that they weren’t used to being able to come up with their own ideas of what they wanted to share. They were given a completely blank slate to fill up with their ideas and sometimes it’s harder to decide when there are no restrictions and limitless options. I feel that we are so used to putting out our own ideas and our own voices in this colloquium class, if not other classes. As far as I know, the MCCS students aren’t used to this kind of freedom. I feel that it was our responsibility to work with them and show them that they also had the freedom to express themselves that we have.

Respect In An Educational Arena

Zehara Eckert

In this chapter “Teaching Is A Human Act” Freire demonstrated complex and deeply moving ideas about the importance of respect between teachers and learners. “The climate of respect that is born of just serious, humble, and generous relationships in which both the authority of the teacher and the freedom of the students are ethically grounded, is what converts pedagogical space into authentic educational experience” (Freire 86). I strongly feel that my group established and demonstrated this quote on Friday with our two Marin County Community School (MCCS) students. I am not saying we (as college mentors) are teachers because I think we are learners just like the MCCS students. Although as Dominican University student mentors we were given authority to take charge in the “speak up” collaborative class activity, in our group we were not in a position of authority. This created ease because it allowed our two MCCS students to really speak up about matters that were dear to their hearts. We did not judge the worldviews of our MCCS students. As a group we came up with really powerful slogans like “see me and not my record” and “self defense is not a crime” because there was a mutual respect between the Dominican students and the MCCS students. We made the “speak up” activity all about the MCCS students and what they really wanted to speak up about. We made it their voice and it was fascinating because it gave us insight about their concerns and situations they might be experiencing. We were less authoritive which showed them that we respected their freedom to form their own thoughts and to speak up which as Freire described created a serious, humble and generous relationship and an environment that created an optimal educational experience. As a result of our collective learning and teamwork we were able to come up with meaningful slogans that will artistically “wow” viewers.

“One is to make it always obvious to the students that respect for them is fundamental” (Freire 87). I believe that the reason our group was able to come up with such powerful “speak up” slogans was because we respected each other. This level of respect got the MCCS students comfortable enough to denounce injustice and to really speak up. “On the contrary, it’s in knowing how to listen well that I better prepare myself to speak or to situate myself vis-à-vis the ideas being discussed as a subject capable of presence of listening “connectedly” and without prejudice to what the other is saying” (Freire, 107). Again, the importance of respect in an educational arena is emphasized by Freire. In my group, none of us considered ourselves superior to our MCCS students even in our educational level so it allowed us to be better listeners, which comforted the MCCS students and they really opened up and spoke their minds. The strengths and deep meaning behind our group’s “speak up” slogans illustrate the comfort and respect level that was very much present in our group activity on Friday.

Text/Service Prompt: Linking Freire Ch. 4 w/Friday Collaborative Process

The beauty of the practice of teaching [or being human!] is made up of a passion for the integrity that unites teacher and student [human and human]. A passion that has roots in ethical responsibility, . we are engaged in an effort to overcome debilitating dualisms because we are talking about the impossibility of separating . . . practice and theory, authority and freedom, ignorance and knowledge. . . As a teacher, I cannot help the students to overcome their ignorance if I am not engaged in permanently trying to overcome my own” (Freire 88- 89)

Lynn writes: The paradigm of artists and designers working on their own, in isolation, is becoming less relevant in light of today's diverse cultural and democratic needs. The practice of creating and designing is more about groups people working together, in teams, and creating solutions together. Situations where we are designing for, with, and by people, give us the opportunity to work alongside the ambiguity and complexity of today’s society. Based on your experiences working as a group in class last Friday, consider describing ways we develop as an individuals when we work collectively. What does it mean to own an idea? and what does it mean to collaborate on ideas?

I add: From a broader perspective, I would say that our whole paradigm/concept of what it means to be an “autonomous” individual is flawed and has led to a lot of the fragmentation, alienation, and dehumanization that we have discussed in class in terms of education and our democracy.

So, in thinking about Friday, use Freire to help you go deeper. Make connections between the process you experienced Friday and what Freire writes about teaching and learning—which, I propose is also about what it means to be human, to strive to increase our humanity through the challenge of seeing and addressing issues of equity, power, injustice. How did you see this happening or not on Friday? What was your role? What, in relation to Freire, might you now think about expanding in your own approach to this process?

Makre sure you include specifics from your Friday group process and at least 3 quotes from Freire that help you to reflect more deeply on your role, how you worked with others, how the ideas evolved through collaboration.

From John: Curiosity and Community of Practice

“Curiosity is essential, no amount of moral preaching or political correctness can replace what the imagination gives us when it places us in other people's experiences, opening our eyes to vistas and views we never knew existed” (Nafisi). This quote is one of the few I have stumbled read this semester that embody everything this course strives and achieves for each meeting. In addition, this quotation goes hand in hand with the message we are trying to give the students at MCCS. Curiosity is a fundamental attribute that gives people new inspiration, knowledge, ideas, and creativity. To imagine a world with no curiosity this would mean that everyone would be the same and nobody would be unique or have different qualities. Curiosity leads to creativity and individuality, without either of these things our life would be plain and boring. In order to give ourselves character we all follow and pursue our own self interests. If everyone had no curiosity then we would all end up doing one universal job that becomes a routine. In life it is important to find a harmonious balance of stability and spontaneous acts. This is vital because both qualities play off one another, which allow us see what is important in life. I think that the students at MCCS have had obstacles in their lives for whatever reasons and with these roadblocks it has hindered their ability to be curious. Most of the students that I have met or dealt with through the visionary project have been boys. These boys all seem to be very up tight and defensive especially at first with the guys like myself from Dominican. However, once you let them know that you are not an enemy and simply here to help them find their curiosity and creativity they open up immensely. On Friday I was partnered up with Abel, who can be known as the boy with the soda in his hands at all times and a moustache. Once you get past the exterior prejudices one can come to understand that he is a very caring and gentle young man if treated the right way. I think that many times these students mostly the boys such as Abel for example feel like they are treated as a child. For example when someone came up behind him while he was drawing and commented on his artwork with a surprised “Oh wow great work Abel,” for whatever reason he finds this offensive and simply responds with a negative “No!” “The most valuable learning might emerge from failure” (Radical Teacher). I think that this quote has a big message because it goes along with the most cliché phrases, “We learn from our mistakes.” However, it is greatly true in almost every are in our lives. Keeping this in mind, everytime we learn something new, whether it be in the classroom or out of it, it was because we had a pre conceived notion or understanding base upon something false or our own misjudgment. However, once we get it right there is that feeling of absolute success and are comparable with some of the best feelings we know. I think that it is extremely important that the MCCS students realize this because they are always learning and trying to better themselves everyday from the bad habits or misjudgments. In a final summary, are we creating a community of practice with the MCCS students? Yes, because each meeting we are putting forth our best efforts in order to help these students see that there is hope, while teaching and inspiring them to be curious to the world around them. In the end it is not like these kids are old and they have little time left on this earth. Instead, they have many years in front of them even though they have made some bad decisions they still have a lot of time to fix it and begin a successful adulthood. By providing the students with a community that encourages curiosity and creativity they will become comfortable to carry this outside the classroom and resist temptation to go back and to their old ways. With their hopefully newfound curiosity they shall see that the grass is truly greener on the other side and with curiosity and creativity comes a land of opportunity

Freedom Of Speech

In a society where “freedom of speech” exists, we often take for granted how fortunate we are to be able to use it. There are many others who often abuse this privilege, but I come to ask myself; “how often do I speak out about my ideas?” Reading Azar Nafisi’s article, “The Republic of Imagination,” I learned what it’s like to live in a society in which freedom of speech, let alone freedom of expression, don’t exist. Individuality is stifled. However, this oppression only exists in the outside world. In each individual, the passion of creativity is still there. There is no way that government or society can take that away from anyone.

In “The Republic of Imagination,” Nafisi writes, “…when when confronted by utter degradation, by confiscation of all that gives life its individual worth and integrity, many instinctively go to the highest achievements of mankind,” (Nafisi). This quote is inspiring, as it speaks to such a truth that appeals to a wide audience. When someone is stripped of everything that makes them unique or even alive, there is one thing that can save them from this oppression; their ideas. Through these ideas, tides can be turned. This oppression can be reversed and the ideas that individuals can have in times of oppression can become empowering. Solutions or resolutions can still come out of the most desperate situations when all we have is our imaginations.

In this sense, this freedom of expression needs to be nurtured in order for it to thrive. While we are aware we have a “freedom of speech,” there are some who do not really know what it means. It is not merely a free ticket to literally say anything you want. It is a privilege that allows us to express ourselves in not only speech, but in art and sound. Peter Hocking writes about his experience in working with New Urban Arts, a non profit agency that helps high school students who would not normally have the opportunity to embrace art, do so. He speaks of one student who says, “School is a place where youth are told that they can pass or fail, but New Urban Arts provides a space in which the most valuable learning might emerge from failure,” (Hocking). In art, where failure is taken out of the picture, students can learn through any kind of progress, even if it is “failure.” This art program is teaching students how to use the voice they have been given

That is why I believe that our efforts with MCCS are so valuable to both MCCS and Dominican students alike. As Dominican students, we are teaching MCCS students not only how to create different types of artwork, but also how to break out of the box that society has placed them in. Some of the students from MCCS have fought with failure too many times, but they might not see that there is the possibility for growth in it. By working with them, we are learning together through whatever failure we may encounter over the time we have with them.

Finding Comfort

Annissa Byrd
10/12/11

Both of these text have different ways of helping me find a place to fit in in my own life. They both talk of how it is important to have a place to feel like home or where u are most comfortable and how to find comfort. Nafisi lost her home multiple time and each time she was able to look in the right places to find her comfort. "I made peace with my new home in England and later in America through its generous and magical language. The first Shakespeare play I read was "Much Ado About Nothing," and I can still feel the thrill of his words in my spine. I cannot tell you much about the experience, except that it was real; indeed, it was transforming." (Nafisi, 2). I love how the only words she can describe her experience are "it was real" there is nothing like discovering your comfort in the new town and home you live in. it take strength and being alright with out the sugar coating of the people close to you. New experiences are nothing but the truth and the reality of life.

When I moved to San Rafael I tried all different things to make it feel like my home and nothing worked. Until I tried to find places here that made me comfortable and did not compare it to my home before. I looked at it for the beauty it had and no longer tried to change it. I now look at Marin as a much different and more beautiful place to live.

When working with the MCCS students I think it is important to show them the difference that we have so they can find there own beauty and comfort with us. On Friday when we were walking to the art room one of the kids said something like "It's hella different here. I don't feel like I belong here." When I heard this I wanted to say "NO our school is very welcoming and that it is a place where all different people come to learn." For some reason I felt that he need to see it for himself. He needed to see how the school would welcome him there and how it was a place where he could express himself openly. As the day went on I saw him become more and more open to what we were doing. He was ok with touching things in the art room and the room became his class room. It was both hard and painful for him at first but as the day went on it became expressive and joyful.

Both Nafisi and Hocking have a way of show the importance of comfort and the importance of a home. Theses texts show the reader that comfort in the places you are come from what you make of them and how you look at the beauty that can be in front of you.

Curiosity is Essential

"We write and read not because we already know, not in order to reassert habits and expectations, but because we are in search of what we don't know, of what is dangerously new, unpredictable" (Nafisi, 1)

When I think of the practices we enforce in our school systems, it seems like many of them are done just to do rather than to learn. I remember in high school I hated doing "busy-work." The assignments teachers would give us when we finished everything they had planned in class so we could "reinforce" what we had just spent an hour and a half learning and reviewing. I understand the need for repetition when it comes to certain subjects and many ideas, but when I had to fill in the blanks on a pointless work sheet for 20minutes, I couldn't find a point. Many students get bored with their classes because it feels like they arn't learning. I had good grades and finished the majority of my work, but I found myself staring at the wall thinking of what I was going to do after class rather than actually paying attention to what my teachers were saying. This comes from a lack of interest. In many class situations I didn't even bother trying to pay attention because I had gotten so used to the boring class structure I'd been in all year. But when it came to classes that were taught differently, I was able to focus and really learn a lot. Outside of school when I found something that interested me, I could spend hours learning about all the parts and pieces that went into whatever had struck me as worth learning about.

Curiosity plays a major role in learning and teaching because it is motivation. It's exciting to read about something new; it's fun to write a paper about something from a point of view that is different from the norm. The quote above points out that people long to experience new things in life. We can easily get bored with things we know and see everyday. But when we are faced with something we've never seen before, we will happily take the time to learn about it. Infants will stare longer at something that is an anomaly to them than they will at something they are used to. It is innate for people to want to know about new things.

Before I started classes this year, I was having lunch with my mom. She said, "When you go back to school, I want you to try something. I want you to try and remember the excitement you felt the very first time you walked on sand. Try and apply that sense of curiosity, excitement, and pure pleasure to your classes." We really can learn a lot from little kids. Imagine living in a world where you know hardly anything about the details that go into what is all around you. Where everything is an anomaly. Take the little kid who walks on sand for the first time, for example. At first he or she may not move at all, completely surprised by this completely new ground they are standing on. Next they begin to wiggle their toes; feeling the sand move slightly underneath their feet, then fall between their toes. They giggle in surprise when they step and the ground sinks slightly underneath them. Soon enough the beach is filled with little kids running through the sand, digging to China, experimenting in the waves to learn about how the water effects the sand. There are kids throwing sand, eating it, exploring all the aspects of this new element.

When we grow up, we may not remember exactly what it felt like to play in sand for the first time, but we can still experience the joys of learning. Talking is one way we can do this. Hearing another person's story is an excellent way to use our imaginations to view our world in a completely different light. Nafisi says, "No amount of moral preaching or political correctness can replace what the imagination gives us when it places us in other people's experiences, opening our eyes to vistas and views we never knew existed" (1). We need to stop looking around and just seeing what we have to see. In order to get more out of life we need to open our minds to the experiences we've never had. This doesn't mean that we'll never be able to appreciate them. Who knows, we may have to live some of these unknown experiences later on in life. But we can also learn about them by listening to what other people have to say. We can easily begin to enrich our lives if we expand the number of things we are curious about, and listen to what others have to say.

BE CURIOUS!! and COMMUNICATE!!!

Inspire the Imaginer and Create a Republic of the Imagination

Zehara Eckert

Azar Nafisi said it best, imagining “a world that runs parallel to the real one” (Nafisi). This quote captures Nafisi’s challenge to her readers to be open minded, daring, exploring the unknown and always being in the state of searching. It reminds me that curiosity is a crucial component of imagination. My imagination has allowed me to begin to understand other people’s experience by giving me a view I never knew existed or by allowing me to place myself in another person’s experience or shoes. Our imagination allows us to see people from different lenses as we discussed in class. Being able to distinguish and understand pre-established notions from the real thing in front of us is made possible through our imagination. Holding on to my own identity as I regard others and the world gives me a way to compare my experiences with others in a cultural and historical context. It also helped me to work better with the MCCS students. I can try to imagine how they might see me or others in my class through their different lenses.

I found the quote “Not making home feel like home” (Nafisi) just fascinating, yet complex to digest. I had difficulty trying to apply this quote to my life; but I understand what the author is trying to say. Nafisi is warning us to not feel too comfortable in a certain culture of identity because you could easily lose connection to these “homes”. For example, Nafisi couldn’t identify with her own culture (Persian) because the way she looked, the way she acted, her beliefs and desires as a woman, writer and a teacher were alien to Persians. Others told her she did not belong to the culture and she was merely a creation of western imperialists’ imaginations. During bloody crusades against western imperialists and their support for the rights of women, minorities, and individual freedom, she lost connection to her home “America”.

“How is it that under the worst political and social conditions, during war and revolution, in jail, and in concentration camps, most victims turn towards works of imagination” (Nafisi). I believe that bad situations force us to imagine better things. It’s our human way to keep our hopes alive, because without imagination we would not be able to envision the future and what we want to live for. Fictional stories don’t save us from torture, the brutality of dictators nor the cruelties of life itself, but they do allow us to imagine the highest achievements of mankind, including beauty, memory, and harmony. Imagining these accomplishments fuels us to survive.

Just like New Urban Arts School, community art programs with the MCCS students allow us to connect the lived experience with the practice of art making. It prepares the youth and the colloquium student mentors to be learners, teachers and community participants in problem solving. Practice is an essential component of critical human development and social change because it allows us to explore others and situations through different lenses. “School is a place where youth are told that they can pass or fail but New Urban Arts provides a space in which the most valuable learning might emerge from failure” (Hocking, 52). If educators truly care about students’ development and self-determination, they should encourage us to work in teams and to do practical projects. In contrast to traditional school this colloquium course allows us to learn in real-life situations and by doing important things for real. I look forward to an educational system where the majority of the curriculum is done through practical projects.

Prompt-Text/Service Reflection:"Republic of the Imagination" and "New Urban Arts"

I always try to remember the great critic Theodor Adorno's claim that the "highest form of morality is to not feel at home in one's own home." That, of course, is what great works of imagination do for us: They make us a little restless, destabilize us, question our preconceived notions and formulas. (Azar Nafisi, "The Republic of the Imagination", 2)

Quite plainly, no matter if we come from financial poverty or the spiritual poverty sometimes rampant in affluent communities, we only reproduce the life we know unless we are able to imagine a different way of living and a different role for art. (Peter Hocking, "I Wish I Had a Place Like This When I Was Growing Up: New Urban Arts and the Cultivation of Creative Practice", 51)

Both these authors speak to the ways in which art, be it visual or works of literature, challenges us to think and see differently. Hocking describes a "community of practice . . a space in which participants are known, feel safe, and understand that their voice, affinities, and questions are respected and heard" (50). When he speaks of the importance of dialogue, respect, reciprocity, and acknowledgment of the "complexity of experience" (52), you hopefully also hear echos of Paolo Freire and Howard Zinn:

For much of human history it has been the making of such sites— physically, intellectually, relationally, personally, and situationally—in response to human needs and questions that enables the kind of social change that acknowledges and enables the sanctity and dignity of us all. (56)

Nafisi starts her piece with a powerful plea for the curiosity that drives our imagination. For Nafisi our capacity to imagine is a also a source of empathy (to imagine the experience of others) and a challenge to broaden our world, to see from new perspectives:

It is this process of dehabitualization, of discovering the magic in what another person might consider mundane, that presents the world anew, washed and clear, evoking that sense of ecstasy that only a great work of the imagination can provide. (1)

If we are to create the type of social change that these and all our authors this semester urge, we need to be able to see what is difficult as well as what is joyful. If we can't see what is hard or painful, how can we change it? Both these authors speak to the way in which art is a crucial vehicle for reminding us of our shared humanity, our interconnectedness while it also presents a challenge to act.

You can use these quotes but also find other places in both pieces that resonate with you and can also illustrate through our experience thus far in this colloquium with art, each other, the MCCS students--are we creating a community of practice? Also, use this as an opportunity to start to think about the Speak Out project that we start next Friday. What do you want to say about education, about the current state of democracy, about??????????

Note: although I am not an artist, both these pieces describe what philosophy is for me--thinking and ways of seeing that allow us to wake-up, to question, to reflect--- in order to act in more just ways on a larger collective level or as an individual who doesn't shy from the complexities, contradictions, ambiguities of what it means to be human. We can always strive to be more humane, to challenge the forces that work against our shared humanity and interconnectivity.