Talking Points #3

Dennis Carlson: Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Commnuity

1.) "Merely by representing gayness and making it part of everyday discourse,TV talk shows and other forms of commercialized popular culture challenge the worst form of oppression associated with silencing and invisibility and make it more difficult for public schools to continue their own silencing practices"

- This quote is pretty self explanatory. Simply making gays more represented in mainstream culture is a huge step and one that would change the practices of public schools who usually look the other way on homosexuality.

2.) "These abuses get tolerated because gay teachers and students operate in an environment where they feel afraid to stand up for themselves, and because any discussion of gay people continues to be absent in the curriculum so that homophobia is not interrogated"

- Oppression of gay students and teachers continue to be accepted because the society allows it, and the homosexuals are not willing to stand up for themselves because they know they will not be taken seriously by society. A problem in the public schools is that this oppression towards these people(homophobia) is disregarded and not examined.

3.) "We cannot and should not attempt to impose "politically correct" beliefs on students; but we have a responsibility as public educators in a democratic society to engage them in a dialogue in which all voices get heard or represented and in which gay students and teachers feel free to "come out" and find their own voices."

- I really liked this quote because it reminded me a lot of Delpit's piece, "The silenced dialogue". The voices of homosexuals, much like other minority groups, are being silenced in public schools. What we need to do is let all voices be heard and represented, and let people find their "voices".

Thoughts: All in all, I thought this was sort of a boring read and kind of difficult, probably because of its lengthiness. However, I followed along with most of Carlson's points and ultimately agreed with them. Gayness is highly unrepresented in public schools and often times becomes "silenced". I liked at the end how he stated that, as educators, we have the responsibility to have all voices heard in the classroom, black, white, heterosexual, homosexual. This really tied together, to me, with Delpit and her "silenced dialogue. He says, like Delpit, that all voices should be heard in the classroom and in all education.

talking Points #2

Aria: Richard Rodriguez

1.) "So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality."

- This is Rodriguez summing up his main point of the article and is a rebuttal to bilingual educators. He says that even though it may make people lose some uniqueness, assimilation is essential to becoming successfully part of the public society.

2.) "I would have been happier about my public success had I not sometimes recalled what it had been like earlier, when my family had conveyed its intimacy through a set of conveniently private sounds."

- This is Rodriguez looking at his private individuality. He misses the uniqueness and individuality his family had when they spoke only their native language at home. His public individuality comes at the expense of his private individuality.

3.) "Of course my parents complied. What would they not do for their children's well being?"

- This is a response to the nuns coming to ask the parents of Richard to have more English spoken around the house. Rodriguez states that obviously the parents would agree to do this, because this was in the best interest of their children; in the best interest for them to achieve a "public individuality".

I thought that Aria by Richard Rodriguez was a relatively easy read. I thought it wasn't a very powerful piece however, especially a week after reading Amazing Grace by Kozol. I also wasn't quite aware of his main thesis of the article while I was going through it. However, once I got to the end my confusions were cleared up and I realized his main point. Rodriguez realizes how important assimilation and learning English is in becoming part of society. Even though he misses his families uniqueness and Spanish culture at home, he knows losing some of that is essential in forming his public identity. All in all, this narrative was an easy read and was very logical.

Talking Points #1

Jonathan Kozol: Amazing Grace

1."It's a different world from where you live. What can I say?"- Mrs. Washington

- Mrs. Robinson is summing up to the author that the environment he lives in is almost like living on a different planet than her. She says "what can I say". Almost like, what can I do about it?

2. "Alice Washington was born in 1944 in New York City. She grew up in Harlem and the Bronx and went to segregated public schools, not something of her choosing, nor that of her mother and her father."

- This is a rebuttal to a quote from a NYU professor who basically said, if poor people acted appropriately, they wouldn't be poor for too long. Kozol, saying the quote above, is showing that sometimes, a lot of the time, it is not the fault of people who are put in impossible positions to live, it is something they have been given and have to deal with.

3. "Although there are flashes of impatience and sarcasm as she speaks. her comments on these matters, for the most part, are subdued, not openly indignant, and there is a quietness about her words as if she is already looking back upon her life and on New York itself from a considerable distance."

- It seems as if Mrs. Washington has conceded to the way things are in her life and the neighborhood around her. Her looking back at her life from a "considerable distance" makes it seem like she feels she is already dead and hopeless for things to change.

I really thought the reading on Kozol was the best read so far in this class. I liked how the author was more informative and had better real life examples in contrast to Delpit, for example. Instead of telling the reader what to think and how to feel, I think the author intended to give details, but he also wanted the reader to think for him/herself. This strategy was much more effective for me than the Johnson piece, for example. I felt extremely bad for Mrs. Washington and the circumstances she and the surrounding community have to deal with. Kozol made me feel "worlds away" from that environment, and almost made me feel sick that human beings live in such a suffering way.

1st post

Hi, I'm Kyle Allaire. I'm a Sophomore at RIC going for Secondary Education in Math. I also play baseball at RIC, so this semester should be very hectic and go by extremely quick. I'm looking forward to applying to the Education program and becoming closer to becoming a teacher!