Talking points #5 on Oakes and Lipton

Premise:

• Ideologies
• Public schools
• power
• myths
• merit
• scientific efficiency
• competition
• progress
• Success
• privilege
• poor
• inequalities
• unequal schooling
• diversity
• segregation
• education
• teaching
• democracy

Argument:
Oakes and Lipton argues that for an ideology to work both the powerful and those without power must believe the distribution of power is possible. Also, the ideologies of merit, scientific efficiency, competition, and progress characterize American culture and schooling and prevent society and schools from realizing their Democratic possibilities.

Author's Argument:

1. "It was as if they were playing on a field tilted in their opponents' favor-they might kick or throw farther and run faster, but their efforts reaped fewer positive results because the work was all uphill." This characterizes American culture because sometimes good work alone is not enough.
2. "Schools today still separate students into classes by age, grade, and ability." This is one of the ways Americans efficiently run the schooling system.
3. "Amid reports of declining unemployment, many American workers are underemployed, have reduced hours, less job security, and fewer health benefits because of practices that business believe are necessary to be competitive. "Competition is part of American culture and usually the ones without power suffer.

Questions/Comments/Points to share:

This text was very informative, but was very tough to get through. Even though it was very boring, there were a few things that I found interesting. I did find it interesting how the authors related the way a school should run to an assembly line. To say a school runs like an assembly line makes school sound very routine and very predictable. I believe schools are run like assembly lines and even though it gives order to schools it has become a little monotonous. It is interesting because I never thought of a school running like an assembly line, but after reading this I can definitely see the similarities.

This article relates to "White Privilege" by Peggy McIntosh. In this article she speaks of how doors open for people that are privileged. In the article by Oakes and Lipton explain that sometimes you can do everything right, but still never overcome the disadvantages that they began with. I would like to think that merit means everything, but it does not. Privilege means more than merit. Just look at all of the presidents we had; white males. I would love to see a change in the next election, but will it happen?

talking points #4 on Christensen

Premise:

• Teaching
• Manipulation
• Children
• TV
• Books
• Movies
• Secret
• Self image
• Racism
• Sexism
• Stereotypes
• Ignorance
  Misinformation
• Superior
• Inferior
• Discrimination
• Society's culture

Author's Argument:

Christensen argues that movies, TV, and books manipulate children into believing that there is one dominant sex, one dominant race, and one dominant class. Also, TV, movies, and books poison kids minds and teaches them how to act and live.

Evidence:

1. The author says that in Popeye Ali Baba and the 40 thieves depicts all Arabs with same face and same features and they are all thieves swinging swords. This is a stereotype saying all thieves are Arabs.
2. The author says that in Daffy Duck there is a lack of female characters and when women do appear they look like Jessica Rabbit or Playboy centerfolds. This is going to show kids that females are only useful for their looks.
3. The last piece of evidence that the author mentions is that people of color are either servants to the whites or absent completely. This will give kids the wrong idea and teach them that people of color are inferior to whites.

Questions/Comments/Point to Share:

This article was very interesting and it is something that I never gave much thought to. As a white male I never gave much thought to this because white males are very common in movies and usually play lead roles. Though today, people of color are more frequently seen in movies and cartoons. I just want to talk a little about how magazines and TV shows tell young girls how to look. They show these pictures of these Super Models and all the girls want to look like that. I think that it is awful to secretly make these girls feel bad that they are a bit overweight or not as pretty as these girls. The way people look and act are influenced by hidden messages that the media sends out. For example, if curly hair is in many girls will get perms because the celebrities are doing it. TV, movies, and books influences many of our lives and it seems like people will do anything to fit in.

This article reminds me of the one that Carlson wrote. Carlson wrote about how gays are left out of school texts and Christensen talks about how there is no Cinderella that is a person of color. Both of these authors makes an argument that there should be more equality for people outside the norm. Both would say that kids are easily manipulated at a young age and they must be taught and shown that there are important people besides white upper class males. People that are not part of the norm are discriminated against even to this day and it is just as bad to leave them absent as it is to just come out and stereotype them.

Talking points #3 on Carlson

Premise:

• Invisible
• Silent
• Teaching
• Community
• Public Schools
• Sexual identity
• Privilege
• Marginalized
• Gay
• Lesbian
• Homosexuality
• Homophobic
• Discrimination
• Criticism

Author's argument:

Carlson argues that gay people have been held back in the school community for too long and that "gayness" has been made absent in the school curriculum.

Evidence:

1. Carlson says that "normalizing texts exclude and neglect the culture of those outside the norm for the purpose of ratifying or legitimating the dominant culture as the only significant culture worth studying." So Carlson believes that texts only include the dominant culture and avoid any mention of gays.
2. Carlson says that "no state currently recognizes gays and lesbians as legitimate minority to be considered in textbook adoption or to be included in multicultural education."Teachers like to avoid discussion about gays.
3. Carlson tells a story of how a male substitute teacher was greeted by one of the students as she shouted across the room, "that man's a faggot, right?"This is one of the ways how gays have been held back in the school community. Gays stay away from the school system because they feel afraid to stand up for themselves because they are a minority.

Questions/Comments/Points to share:

Reading this article I felt sad because gays are discriminated against all the time and this article shows how. In school we never really talked about "gayness" except in health. In health they made it sound like the reason there are Aids are because of gays. In this article Carlson touches on this too. The article says that homosexuals were the first group in the U.S. diagnosed with Aids. An interesting thing that Carlson mentioned is how major textbook publishers avoid gayness. In textbooks they talk about other minorities, but never homosexuals. On page 239 where the teacher was discriminated against reminds me of high school. It reminds me of how gay teachers and students were insulted and discriminated against because they were gay. Kids can be very cruel and this is why many people try to hide their sexuality. Kids in my school would be beat up because they were gay and would be scared to come to school. There are very few gay teachers because teachers are also afraid to stand up for themselves. It seems like everyone is against gay teachers including other teachers in the school. I understand that gays are considered a minority, but they should be allowed to do whatever they want without being discriminated against. This makes me wonder if people will ever change their homophobic ways. Personally, I am not homophobic, but many people are and I am not really sure why people are so against gays. Maybe they are so against gays because they are different from them and they are disgusted by the thought of two men together. I do not care because whatever they want to do is up to them and nobody else. If they want to gay they can be gay. So what I am trying to say is that people should learn to accept gays because gays are going to continue to be gay no matter what is said to them.

Continuation of Kozol

In my first post I left out Delpit's fifth aspect of the culture of power which is how people with little power are more aware of its existence than people with a lot of power. The people in Mott Haven are well aware that they do not have much power. In Mott Haven they built an incinerator that was suppose to be built on the East side of Manhattan, but since the people in Manhattan have more power than the people in Mott Haven they were able to say no we do not want it. The parents in Mott Haven were very against this because it is harmful to the kids, but they put it there anyway. Cliffie's mother says that they put a lot of things in the neighborhood that nobody wanted and she realizes that they have no power to protest against these things. Also, people that do not live in Mott Haven dump there junk on the streets and nobody does anything about it. Towards the end of the article Cliffie says "that an evil exists and what the rich had done to the poor people in this city is something that a preacher could call evil." Cliffie a young kid even understands that the rich have all the power and that they do not do anything to help the people in Mott Haven. After class discussion I seen more similarities between Kozol's and Delpit's writings.

The last thing I want to talk about is the quote that Lawrence Mead mentioned in this article. Lawrence Mead a professor said that "if poor people behaved rationally they would seldom be poor in the first place." I totally disagree with this statement and this article gives a great example of how this statement is incorrect. Mrs. Washington acted rationally and she could not catch a break. She tried very hard to renew her welfare, but they gave her a such hassle and eventually she gave up. She was on SSI because she had cancer, but they said she was not sick enough. This does not make any sense to me and I believe that sometimes you can do everything right and still not be rewarded for it. I believe that a lot of people in Mott Haven act rationally, but can not catch a break like poor Mrs. Washington. The class discussion on "Amazing Grace" helped me greatly and I know understand much more that I did before our discussion.