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.