Ignorantly oppressed or oppressing ignorantly?

Would we still have the same stuggles if every citizen/person in the United States received "empowering education and powerful literacy"? As a country, I believe that the quality of the education is what draws many from around the world to come to the USA. But, then the education they sacrificed much to receive is also just enough to domesticate them.

 "The status quo is the status quo because people who have the power to make changes are comfortable with the way things are." The people who live feeling comfortable are, as Patrick Finn makes a point in Literacy with an Attitude (1999), the people who received an empowering education, and don't have to change anything because they are the "haves." Those who do not live comfortably are "the working class [who] do not get powerful literacy...helpful for the struggle." Finn realized that how he was preparing his teachers was just to remain in the status quo, and not to get ahead any further in life.

 What the status quo is today is that if you're a young minority, you are most likely to live in dense populations of housing for people in poverty, and attend subpar schools where you receive "free education" to learn "domesticated education," to not be another statstic of the school to prison pipeline. In the second chapter of Finn's article, the advances shared show levels of status gained by education received. The poor (without means to elite education or practices) end up in hourly paying jobs. Those who received education of empowerment drew more empowering literacy to build their own, I think this is comparable to the ones who built valley start-ups in the 2000s, our influencers through the 2010s to the present, and they are AI business leaders today. Again, most gaining access to empowering literacy, and the "tutoring" to develop that knowledge into healthy salaries are more whites than people of color because of how long racism has separated and disparaged people who were kept from becoming properly educated in this country. The scales aren't clise to even now that education is a "free and proper right."  

Ideologies of one race being smarter than another have ran for centuries. Teaching to change those negative or competitive as much as they are derogatory ideologies about skin color and physical features continue to separate and stereotype peoplenonsensically when we should just celebrate the differences among the Human Race as Jane Elliot has preached for five decades. Elliot has inspired teachers and has great answers to questions such as is posed in the Queering Our Schools article. How to create classrooms and schools where each child, parent and staff member's unique beautiful self is appreciated and nurtured? Elliot shares her notions in her interview.

Raised by parents who migrated because of the educational and financial opportunities offered in this country made it difficult to associate with friendly classmates when we came to live in South Providence, RI in the middle 80s when many Caucasians: Portuguese, Italian and French, lived in the neighborhood.  It was Us and Them, made clear as our Italian neighbors on Burnett Street moved away and the Portuguese sisters I knew from school were transferred. Definitely left negative impressions in my mind, though I didn’t dwell on them. The familial bias was especially transparent when I announced my crush on Keith, a name most at home couldn’t pronounce, and when he stepped close to the house door, he wasn’t welcomed to come in because despite being my similar complexion, Keith was going to “dañar la raza.”  That took me a decade to process.  Building my own prejudices as to whom to trust and not trust came to bring me to de-categorize the family’s opinion. White teachers were caring and just as well as smart. They shared their own struggles which made me understand that their realities was not TV Land.  Each helped me believe in my potential, and to not fear the English language but rather to accept it as a challenge to be able to become exceptionally proficient (before high school I was somewhat aware of my conscious decision though I had not learned the language to express my choices until a few years after the start of my professional career) as I saw them. Due to this recognition of these biases and negative views of others at home, as well as the belief that “We’re not smart enough,” often spoken by my mother, I have a clear understanding of what Paulo Freire meant in Pedagogy of the Oppressed when he stated that “the oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors, or “sub-oppressors”” (Freire 2011).  I believe that my family (maternal specifically) felt oppressed and overcame some level of the oppression to in turn feel superior than others (if not inferior and therefore feared being oppressed by them) and to some extent want to oppress them to not acquaint with groups outside of their own. An irrational safeguard which, by the way, backfired when each of the four children interacted and procreated with cultures non-Latino/X.

How do we embolden Mentalities? On paper we have all of the rules we need to respect each other mutually and increase our academic practices fairly, peacefully, equitably according to state and federal rules such as those of Rhode Island's Education Department Guidance But, as Finn delineates through John Anyon's descriptions, the "hard-bitten...practical and down to earth" (p.9) teachers are probably right. Finn having taught middle school 30 years prior to instructing adult professionals has lost touch with what's going on in class practices. However, that Finn's adult scholars scoff and "are not amused" when he says that "poor students" are "not well educated" is proving another cycle of resistant ideology. As Finn explains about Anyon's research through classroom visits at both poor and affluent neighborhood schools in Chicago, not much has changed through decades of traditional education because "knowledge [has been] presented as fragmented facts isolated from wider bodies of...lives and experiences of the students" (p. 10). The teachers' mentality of their way is the best way and that students have less abilities/creativity to do work as when they skipped math book sections, is another exemplar of the oppressed ignorantly oppressing the youth who "have not." Then the teachers in affluent schools skip teaching correct history although they presented more opportunities for creativity and critical thinking through activities "having relevance to life's problems" (p. 13). Not knowing any better, because how would students know they are in the dark until they are taught "to see, the students are engaged satisfactorily because "good grades lead to college and a good job" (p. 14).

I do believe that the quick sharing technology we have now has brought us as a human race to learn more about each other across large distances than we could otherwise have learned or taught. It is a testament of spiritual resiliency and the ability to self-empower. Many are advancing intellectually well without being academically institutionalized to learn what has taken many others of formal education and attaining a certificate to do. They believed in their dreams more than in the traditional path story which reminds me of what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares in her TED Talk, The Danger of a Single Story (YouTube 2009)

It would be lovely, and it's many people's dream to end poverty and hunger, 'if we could raise the levels of literacy so that we would have no poor, just rich, richer, richest" (Finn, Preface). But as individuals, we must embrace how different we each are from one another and build confidence in who or from where we are to not believe that an educational system is the best way (or only way) to empower ourselves and live as a Human race.

Instead of Ladies & Gentlemen

 In the Queering Our Schools article, by the time I got to read what "they" commented after the horrible bus ride experience that could have ended Sasha's life statement that concluded " "I'm going to keep wearing a skirt. It's a big part of who I am." I honestly had to re-read the sentence to figure out who "they" are because it escaped me that Sasha refers to self in plural/third person.

I am respectful of others and don't care that there are all of these labels - LGBTQ+.  But, then again, I struggle to address by pronouns, and don't see why I can't address an audience as "ladies and gentlemen."

I remember the first time I had a student who wanted to identify as the other gender when I had known this child as the other sex for a year prior as my daughter's friend of a certain name. Now the name and gender was for me to learn as if I had just met this person. In a way, that's how I handled honoring this person's life change, Curiosity got the better of me and I had to learn all about this person, to make sure I didn't bruise the teen's mental fragility as well as deny the teen's self-identification requests. The teen took the role of the opposite gender (as it was in my mind)for my daughter's Quince, as elegant as if had possibly taken the court part of the opposite gender.

When I had a City Year assistant need a placement, I invited them to my class. They helped my class become better acquainted with the use of the plural pronoun, and what the terms non-binary, non-conforming and queer meant. I appreciated the lessons because I knew none of this vocabulary, and was ignorant of the vast sexual orientation spectrum.

A question to myself is am I as ignorant of my sexual orientation privileges as people who call themselves color-blind are about racism?

As an educator, I too want nothing more than to "create classrooms where each child, parent, and staff member...is appreciated and nurtured." And, only through education am I going to be able to help my school do that. I have read many works by some of the literary greats named in the article, not knowing (or caring) about their sexual orientation. Only in the past few years have I read literature about sexual orientation matters. My 15 y.o. daughter gave me the YA novel Love Simon, suggesting that it would help me to "get a clue." Then she prepared a list that I should read about teens expressing developmental frustrations regarding sexual orientation. 

As in the essay, I do believe that by "emphasizing empathy" we (educators) can talk about controversial and other sensitive issues with youth. "Community is built by working through differences" in any relationship and societies and schools are just networked relationships.  To empathize comes easily because, as pointed out in the text, we need to invite youth to voice their needs for social changes. Some of the examples given, "don't line bys separate from girls," "include books written by LGBTQ+ (about LGBTQ+)," refer to "parents instead of mother and father," and bring in guest speakers who are well educated on the topic, and or can share personal experiences about the topic. In doing so, schools can also bring their own staff to "come out," or have parents visit without hiding same-sex partners or their queerness to concur with the main idea that "A school that's a protective community for LGBTQ adults is a school that's going to be safe for [all] kids."

The article Being There for Nonbinary Youth Sometimes the "T" in LGBTQ  gets overlooked expresses what has seemed to be most difficult to have a conversation about, transgenedered people. I learned a lot of my ignorance in my own reflection of this piece. What does Eli mean that he's "cisgender?" And, Eli assuming one thing about another person because of the person's physical characteristics and demeanor, as Eli thinking that his "big red truck with a gun rack on it" driving principal would be least empathic about Eli's sexual status, would be something I'd think of a person described this way.

The most important point made by the piece is that there needs to be a reflection of oneself for one to know that the future holds a place for one to feel welcomed and understood.  "When kids like me grow up, ther's an adult version of me doing what everybody else does....there for me to see and know that there's a place for me to walk when I get older...Not letting kids see that can give them a subliminal sense that there is dead end to their identity..."  It's no different than a Black or Colored student wanting to read about his/her cultural experiences by people who share the same culture. "With every sex class we have that's not inclusive, and every English class where there's no inclusive literature, there's another trans kid that feels alone."

I will soon be watching the documentary It's Elementary to see about learning more about how to address the issue of inclusivity and the LGBTQ community in my school. 

 Mean time, his was helpful and it's something I'll play to invite students to talk about sex orientation.

I have a lot to learn about preferences of pronounce as much as of sexual orientation being half a century old, and not knowing of many bold people as I see and meet regularly today. However, I am open to learn, and I believe that People are People  so I make room for them at my office, classroom and as guests at my home. "Making this effort validates young people's core identity and solidifies their safety."

 

Talking About it

What I have in mind for this project. 

 The activity in mind is a student and educators conversation about Equity, Race & Privilege. Among the articles, I want to use Johnson’s Power & Privilege; The Four I’s & Delpit’s Other People’s Children. What most resonated with me is Delpit’s cynical work because it is about much of the struggles we faceas educators, wanting to change what’s unjust but, going with the flow or “status quo” instead because we don’t know how to effectively change what's unjust. Lisa Delpit's great stance is that "if we are truly to effect societal change, we cannot do it from the bottom up [administration or educational systems to teachers of children and students themselves], but we must push and agitate from the top down" (p. 40). Delpit's strong argument for thus change is to focus more consideration of other's cultural assets to then consider how to teach effectively. "I suggest that the differing perspectives on the debate over "skills" versus "process" approaches can lead to an understanding of the alienation and miscommunication, and there to an understanding of the "silenced dialogue" (p.24). Not considering the other's culture is a main "Issue of power in the classrooms" one of the five aspects that Delpit refers to in what she calls "the culture of power." 

 Thus is whom I want to interest 

I have been in discussion groups with other educators from the Providence Schools District; and gave volunteered to be the Equity Ambassador at my school to meet with other Equity Leadership/Ambassadors to grow conversations about Equitable Education in Providence (and beyond) by bringing PDs to staff. I plan to discuss with a group of students (SBG) and regulars at Book Club to bring up good texts to build better conversations that will include the students’ thoughts and concerns about Equity. 

 Format I think will work. 

 I will be working with a class of about 20-25 students to discuss Equity. From my own readings of texts, from this course, Mark Anthony Gooden’s Five Practices for Equity-Focused School Leadership; and Gholdy Muhammad's literature on the 5 Pursuits of teaching which is just a guide to teaching to students' strengths as people with backgrounds and community understanding so that they can express their natural intelligences while sharpening academic skills.

 I will produce a slide deck to distribute to a Google Classroom where I will post excerpts for this student body to read and answer the essential question, What is Equity in Education? And other guiding questions about each piece. The passages won’t be long (considering Ss’ attention spans) but they will be a few (@ 10).

 From our conversations about the texts, we will draw a slide deck (my thoughts will be the Ss’ guide for them to add/edit) and add small group activities using Human race (to do some kinesthetic visual with S.C.W.A.A.M.P.) & Jamboard to discuss excerpts from the research authors’ texts. I liked the way Lesley collaged the excerpts on a slide last week; so I may borrow that instead of just the Jamboard frames per group, or do both. 

To start, the Take A Stand activity is great. I also really like the idea of doing a Start & finish line to separate Ss (then they’ll do it with the teachers, compare finish line ) each acronym of S.C.W.A.A.M.P. The participants move to a new line if they relate to the term. ex, Move up one line if you are American" and have “What does it mean in Education & life in America?” conversations. 

How I want to end, is by having the students listen to each groups’ takeaways from the readings & activities to post on a shared document for the school body.

 After the PD, I’ll have to celebrate the students’ with a dinner party.