Following your bliss

Because my educational theory essays are at home and I am at the campus currently, I cannot expand on what I have written so far on the cultural competency prompts. Therefore, I'll return to the question of the writer and the educator as well as the question of a possible undergraduate thesis in the coming future.

By far, my literary theory class has been my favorite class of the semester. I reserve that judgment for the end of the semester, based on a large set of criteria that I use to assess each of the classes I have taken. This semester I have four classes amounting to sixteen credit hours worth of work -- Schooling in a Democratic Society, Introduction to Literary Analysis II, Creative Writing, and Zen and the Literary Experience. Each of my classes have been good classes, thanks to some good luck on my part in choosing good professors.

I take nothing away from my education class. The professor is an excellent professor, shares the liberal view of teaching that I have and has presented me with fascinating material that has both challenged and inspired me. Nor do I take away from my Creative Writing or Zen class either, as both have also challenged and inspired me.

Let me diverge then, on to what makes my Literary Analysis II class slightly more enjoyable than the rest. Both professors of my education class and theory class present the material in a passionate manner. I enjoy theoretical essays and material, therefore, I enjoy the material equally in both classes. Both professors are excellent as well, and then I think the differences come down to the atmosphere of the class created by the students taking the class.

In my education class, I'm the black sheep of the room so to speak. Out of twenty-two students, I'm the only male in the class. In addition to this, I'm one of only three secondary education majors. Writing and Reading are my strong suits, and as I can tell, not everyone in the room shares that same passion. The enthusiasm is strong, yet not as strong as my theory class, where 100% of the students sitting in the room are English majors, a good portion of them are also Secondary Education majors, and many of them are intristically interested in the material being presented.

Difference is important in a classroom, but so are shared interests and passions. There isn't a focus on group work in my theory class and there doesn't need to be a focus on it, because during class discussions, everyone participates. My professor for that class often says that our discussions in class are like a collaborative classroom consciousness writing a paper.

I've learned much from all of my classes this semester. In fact, today I mentioned a connection in my theory class that I made between John Dewey and post-colonialism. Though my theory professor wasn't well read in John Dewey's work enough to validate the connection, I feel that my teachers and professors have groomed me to the point where I can validate that connection on my own two feet. Should I choose to work on an undergraduate thesis through the departmental honor's program here at the college, I'll have to make a tough choice on what to write it on and who to work under while I write it. Since my American Literature class for the Fall is already full, I'm also faced with the choice of either taking Shakespeare and the Tragedies, or burning my only elective to continue studying under my theory professor in his Film and Dystopian Literature theory class. After talking with him after class, his only advice was to search within myself, find my desire and pursue it. I think that is good advice, and drawing upon it further, I'd like to quote Joseph Campbell -- "Follow your bliss."

The price of late night working

So, I missed my lectures again today. In the past two weeks, I've missed two lectures in my education class and was an hour late to another one. Since I only get four lectures in that two week period, I'm practicing poor reliability at the price of getting my writing and reading done. Because the only time of the week that is enjoyable for me are my lectures, I've been absolutely miserable. Doing the work is pointless when you aren't in class to share it, being in class is pointless when you have no work to share. It is equally pointless when you have partial work to share, because it is unfinished.

Some say I'm a workaholic and an overachiever. Those statements are rightly justified in my words and actions in my life. Some also say I'm a hypocrite. I'm the first person to say that I wish we could throw grades out of the book, yet at this time of the year, I find myself attached to the outcome of my grades at the end of the semester. To respond to the latter, I do wish that there wasn't so much pressure on the outcome of grades and test scores, because I know what kind of torment I go through as a student trying to achieve something outside my grasp. It isn't so much hypocritical as it is practical experience in knowing that teachers need a way to assess students at the end of a semester, and that not just myself, but others are attached to that outcome. My belief is that culture has had an influence in shaping those feelings and sentiments.

I'll be back sometime soon (Within the next day or so) to continue on with prompt 3 and Lisa Delpit. It'll be soon, because with the semester compressing down on me, I don't have much time to get it done.

Before prompt 3

Before I expand on the third cultural competency prompt, I need to take the moment to respond to each of my peers blogs. My responses will only be 300 to 400 words each (And I'm holding to this. My apologies for the longer Dewey entry, but he is a very dense theorist), so I am expecting this to take a couple of hours. When I return from blog surfing, I will explore the third prompt in relation to Lisa Delpit's "The Silenced Dialogue."

Honors?

Before moving on to Lisa Delpit and my third prompt, I'd like to give my audience another glimpse into the internal writer/educator conflict brewing within me. At this point in my college career, I'm beginning to get comfortable at my new college, and with that comfort comes choices. I've been considering doing an honors program here at this college, since I completed three honors programs at my previous community college. However, I'd like to point out that this motivation for taking up honors is not driven by my open agenda of becoming a future educator. It has nothing to do with padding my resume with dozens of academic accolades; that has nothing to do, in my opinion, with practical experience gained in the field of pedagogy.

Rather, this intuitive motivation to take up an honors project here has to do with my hidden agenda at the college -- the agenda of becoming a published author at some point in my life. It is an agenda I keep well hidden from most of my peers in class, and I'm willing to share it here because everyone has a hidden agenda, including educators.

Why do I write? It is not only a valid question to ask, but a crucial one as well. Is there some dark part of my ego that can only be satisfied by the fleeting satisfaction that one has in the moments just prior to finishing a good piece of work? Maybe I have something to say, or maybe there is something to be said (Fitzgerald would agree with the latter over the former). What matters more to be as a future secondary educator, the content of what I teach, or the vehicle in which it will be delivered? I get the sense that many of my classmates in my education class do not have such a conflict, perhaps that is because many of them will be elementary education teachers. But it is a question that holds important truths for the secondary teacher, because they pick a subject to specialize in. The love of English and of pedagogy are both strong in me, and there are moments of great collaboration between the two, but there is no denying it -- they are both vying for a special place in my heart.

Prompt 2 - Theorist connection - John Dewey

Here, I will explore the seventh chapter of John Dewey's classic "Democracy in Education."

The chapter is titled "The democratic conception in education" and it is a very dense body of work. Therefore, I will cover only a few specific quotations from this piece of work thoroughly and weave them in with my experience I have had in the classroom. I encourage readers who are more interested in the work to check it out from a public library or purchase it online, because frankly, an entire course could be spent on this theorist and still only skim the surface of what this man has to say.

Let us begin from the very beginning of the chapter with the following passage: "To say that education is a social function, securing direction and development in the immature through their participation in the life of the group to which they belong, is to say in effect that education will vary with the quality of life which prevails in a group. Particularly is it true that a society which not only changes but-which has the ideal of such change as will improve it, will have different standards and methods of education from one which aims simply at the perpetuation of its own customs" (Dewey, 1).

Here, I will return to culture in a classroom. There are ethnic cultures in my classroom, yes this is true, but at some point, I will engender in the entry. First, I'd like to mention that there are both Latino-American and African-American students in my class. Both bring with them a different ethnic heritage, yet our society as lumped them into a labeled category, the category of "minority." Here, in this classroom, that label is turned upside down; white is the minority here. I think that both the Latino and African students have a unique opportunity to connect however, within the commonality of being apart of the same labeled group, with differing cultural heritages. Because my middle school is an inner city school, it also has a different budget than that of a suburban school. Economics is another shared culture within this space and because of that, I think every student in my classroom as the potential to realize "The American Dream." They have the capacity to become aware of their position, and when that happens, they can realize the ideals that Dewey is speaking of. The direction of their lives can change if they come to the realization that they see difference and want difference, rather than the perpetuation isolated poverty.

The second passage which I will examine from Dewey is "the terms society, community, are thus ambiguous. They have both a eulogistic or normative sense, and a descriptive sense; a meaning de jure and a meaning de facto" (Dewey, 2). Dewey I think is making a clear and important point here -- that the term society, community, and I would also add in culture, are ambiguous in nature. They are broad terms that do not really say anything but rather encompass deeper subjects. When I noticed one of the girls in my classroom I am working in fixing her hair, and putting makeup on during class rather than paying attention to instruction, I came to the realization that she is apart of more than one culture. She has an ethnic culture, but she also has a culture as a female. I also noticed how much pressure that the larger society of America has put on the culture of being a woman. The feminist culture has secure, in a large part, the de jure notion of a woman being equal to a man in law. For those unfamiliar with de jure, and de facto, I will define them. De jure is in concordance with the givens of law, while de facto is in concordance with the givens of the way things are. Though I know that women have fought hard and gained many rights equal to that of men, I would argue that the presence of the stereotype in the mass media of "pretty" women, that women are being objectified in a de facto sense. My feeling on this subject is that the presence of such pressure on young women in public school is distorting and stagnating their potential growth.

Lastly, I'd like to cover one more passage from Dewey: "In order to have a large number of values in common, all the members of the group must have an equable opportunity to receive and to take from others. There must be a large variety of shared undertakings and experiences. Otherwise, the influences which educate some into masters, educate others into slaves" (Dewey, 3). On the wall of my teachers classroom are her four principles of pedagogy, which end with participation. Her focus on developing the voices of her students in commendable, because each of the students need to be comfortable with their own voice in order to engage in meaningful narratives with those who are different from themselves. Diversity in a classroom is one thing, and it is one challenge. However, there is yet another challenge beyond that, which is the challenge of getting student who are different from one another "to receive and take from" one another. Everyone deserves an equitable shot, and that shot is taken away if a student never speaks up or raises their hand in class. It is an easy, unconscious trap to fall into, but the stakes here are high. The students that don't speak need to learn to develop their voices, to consider their audiences, and to teach and learn from one another. What one student struggles with, another student may not. These opportunities are special chances that don't come along everyday, and when they arise, they should be taken advantage of. There is only the fear of uncertainty prevailing in the heart of humankind, the uncertainty of not knowing. When the greater degree of diversity is achieved in public schools, so will the degree of the fear of the unknown decrease.

Prompt 2 - Cultural Capital

Because I am working at an inner city middle school this semester, I have had the opportunity to work with students from many distinct and diverse sociocultural backgrounds. Rather than make assumptions based on my observations, I’d like to take this opportunity to use some statistics from a reputable information gathering website (For the privacy of my middle school, I will not post the exact web address. It is produced by the Center for School Improvement and Educational Policy in partnership with a state university).

Approximately 74% of the students at my school are eligible for free or reduced lunches, 48% are Hispanic, 22% are African-American, 21% are White, and 9% are Asian. From this data, I can shatter the first assumption that the public has about inner city schools: they aren’t always filled with students from African-American ethnicity. It might not be the ideal diversity mosaic with 48% being Hispanic, but it is a far cry from the middle school that I attended which has a student body made up of 98% White students.

What kind of cultural capital does one gain by providing a cultural mosaic for students to be a part of during the educational process? This is a loaded question in the field of pedagogy, with many interpretations and feelings surrounding it. First, I’d like to define by what I mean by the term “cultural capital.” By cultural capital, I’m referring to the metaphorical spending power that an ethnic heritage has within a society. But that definition in and of itself I feel is too narrow; let us not look just at the race and ethnicity of the students but also their social class, their gender, their sexual orientation, their religion and faith, their physical and mental abilities or disabilities. Cultural in contemporary society is a broad term, and therefore, should be handled with delicacy as to not fall into the trap that culture is something that can be immediately seen at the first glance of a person.

The first, and maybe most straightforward benefit (or disadvantage, depending on a persons view point) is the diverse linguistics that a cultural mosaic can provide. One war happening right now in the field of pedagogy is the debate over whether or not classrooms should be “English Only.” I happen to believe that if critical thinking has been developed in a student, then it does not matter what language the skill has been developed in – it can be transferred over to English. Notice that I don’t say that our cultural doesn’t need English (I’d be crazy to say that as an English major), but that other languages can be just as beautiful as English, and that language is a corner stone of a persons ethnic heritage.

Secondly, a diverse classroom setting allows students to see difference in a positive light. Students can either be fascinated by difference or live in an alienated fear of it and public school helps to shape these views. At no point should it be made invisible, nor should it be made to seem inferior either. Difference is the term where I turn culture up on to its head for some readers, so to be explicit, I mean difference in every possible sense of the word: students need to be made aware that there is difference is language, in skin color, in gender, in rich and poor and everything in between, difference in faiths, difference in politics, difference in the way that people think, and mostly importantly, that difference is an intimate relationship between systems of power in society and identification of the self. Therefore, no ones difference is a crime, rather it is a gift that everyone can learn from and should be valued as such.

Time management

I think it would be a nice time to explore time management in the classroom, as my Spring semester begins to wind down and everything in college starts to become compressed. As stated before, I will have difficulty as a new teacher someday working on time management, because as we know, in college I have no sense of the word. To give my audience a brief overview of what is on my plate right now in college, I have 16 lecture hours per week, in addition to 2 hours at the middle school and 24 hours of work at the go-kart track Friday through Sunday. I have a diversity essay to write for my education class, one more ten page essay for my theory class, one more essay for my zen and the literary experience class, a short story and four more poems for my creative writing class, a writing journal for my creative writing class, two more novels to read for my theory class, three more books to read for my zen class, the Praxis I exam to take, a tech competency exam to take, this blog to finish up, a roundtable discussion to prepare for in my education class, and sometime after all of this is finished, I'm planning to write up a poetry lesson for my middle school class in May once college has let out. One wonders where the time for all of this comes from (And by the way, I didn't even bother to mention the critical essays I'm suppose to be reading for both my education and theory class). For me, the solution is simple -- stop eating, stop sleeping, and do your work. Such is the life of an academic scholar: a life of seclusion.

Back to the concept of time management in a classroom. There are inevitables I mentioned in my practice of pedagogy entry. For example, in my classroom I am working in, there is a phone that the office uses to call up to the classroom. The phone rang five times in the span of two hours, and each time the phone rang, my teacher had to drop the instruction she was giving to answer the phone. No wonder students are having difficulties learning, when the phone in the classroom won't stop ringing. In fact, at 8:49am, when the phone rang again, my teacher said "And you wonder why some kids don't learn. This is crazy." In addition to the phone, another teacher came up to the classroom to take one of the students away, which was another distraction that my teacher had no control over. When my teacher was going through testing material, she was rather quick and on the spot. I noticed that during their spelling test, for example, she spent about 30 seconds between giving each word. She also walked around the room and corrected the spelling tests while students worked on the next assignment, both providing immediate feedback and helping the pace of the lesson move along.

At 8:54am, when my teacher started the audio tape of a story for students to listen to, she said to me "I didn't do a very good job there of time management." I don't think it is necessarily her fault when distractions start making their way into the classroom. First of all, the place where she spent most of her time was on the creation of a position statement (I call it a thesis). It is the most crucial piece of a paper, if the thesis is weak, then the metaphorical cookie of your paper crumbles. When she noticed students were having difficulty with the position statement portion of the lesson, she spent more time on it.

Why would the curriculum spend so little time on the thesis and move on to the next lesson? For Gods sake, its the most important part of the paper. Once the introduction and thesis are written, you have only to follow the thread of the thesis to write the rest of the piece. In fact, once a solid thesis is established, the body of the paper practically writes itself. Lets look at the thesis statement from my critical essay I recently wrote and published on this blog: "There is a civil war being fought in the field of pedagogy with high risks at stake, between competing discourses and whichever discourse rises up out of this conflict victoriously will have the power to decide what is, and what is not a 'legitimate' education for the youth of this nation." Once I have that thesis written, I know my argument for the whole paper is going to surround around competing discourses in the field of pedagogy. I follow the thread of the thesis, first defining discourse for my audience and then moving forward, support the notion of politically driven discourses that are vying for the power to control the curriculum. I also make it clear in my paper that by "high risk causalities," I mean the students who are being left out while all of the conflicts continue on. I even split the term civil war in my conclusion, noting in my conclusion that "constructive conflict can be civil; it does not have to be a war."

All being said, I wonder sometimes if the writers of these lessons themselves have any sense of time management. Certainly, some concepts deserve more time than others.

The Civil War on Pedagogy and the High-Stake Casualities

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 signed into law by President George W. Bush is currently being revered by some politicians who believe that the only approach to educating the youth of a nation is through a curriculum with scientific merit, while some educators are assailing it, claiming that politicians have no qualifications for making such decisions. Those who suggest reform are being systematically silenced, as legislators attempt to perpetuate a status-quo that has not had time to produce any data that can prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that this act has actually improved the quality of education in the public school system. Yet, still within the midst of a growing conflict, multitudes of parents and students are struggling and vying for their voice to be heard, amidst confusion and chaos surrounding testing scores that are not living up to everyone’s expectations of proficiency in reading, writing, and math. Teachers are pointing fingers at politicians, politicians are pointing fingers are teachers, and administrators are caught in a catch-twenty two, trying to satisfy educators, legislators, students, and parents. There is a civil war being fought in the field of pedagogy with high risks at stake, between competing discourses and whichever discourse rises up out of this conflict victoriously will have the power to decide what is, and what is not a “legitimate” education for the youth of this nation.

Stuart Hall in “Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices” defines “discourse” as a relationship between knowledge and power, noting that “in a culture, meaning often depends on larger units of analysis – narratives, statements, groups of images, whole discourses which operate across a variety of texts, areas of knowledge about a subject which have acquired widespread authority” (Hall, 42). A concrete example of discourse that is easily grasped for western readers would be the image of the cross in Christianity. In the discourse of that religion, the image of the cross has the symbolic meaning of Christ’s sacrifice and suffering. However, the meaning or truth of such an object is relative only to the Christian discourse in which it exists. This is where the relationship between power and knowledge is formed – as Hall states “Discourse is about the production of knowledge through language. But ... since all social practices entail meaning, and meanings shape and influence what we do – our conduct – all practices have a discursive aspect” (Hall, 44). Thus, whoever then holds the power to manipulate the discursive narratives of pedagogy holds the power to control how teachers act, and most cruelly, how they think.

Therefore, it can be established that there is a discourse of pedagogy, with multiple discourses that break off as fragments beneath the field of pedagogy itself. Clearly, such discourses are in disagreement when headlines in the Providence Journal read “Tempers may flare as worse-performing schools are named.” A civil war is either already being enacted, or it is not far off in the horizon, and the casualties of such a war would span the whole scope of our society: the students who feel that they are being neglected, teachers who feel as if though they are silenced, and legislators for whom the parents have lost faith in. But can such a war really be avoided? Are not the institutions of public education intimately entwined to the local and federal governments that fund them? And if they are, at what point do politicians hand power over to the teachers who practice pedagogy daily, and therefore should be far more qualified to make educational decisions themselves.

Ira Shor in “Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change” claims that not only is “No curriculum neutral” but that also “Education can socialize students into critical thought or into dependence on authority” (Shor, 12-13). Material on the curriculum is bias towards the discourse that authorizes it. In addition to the curriculum, the methods in which the material is delivered is biased towards the discourse of the instructors own methods and beliefs. Liberal and conservative dispositions permeate their way into education and students can either feel empowered or disempowered by the process. Take for example a student from a well to-do, prominent family with strong conservative values and beliefs. Would they feel alienated in a class instructed by a liberal teacher or professor? Such alienation would be felt not only by the student, but by the parents as well, who would feel that their child is receiving a “poor education.” Eventually, the political round robin of words turns into actions between the competing sides and numerical data becomes truth. Everyone acknowledges a proficiency problem, but no one is willing to admit fault not only because the stakes are so high, but because in their minds, they have committed no crime.

In a recently published article in the Providence Journal, “Tempers may flare as worst-performing schools are named,” Julia Steiny acknowledges that “all schools have some truly terrific teachers who are getting caught in the crossfire.” Such is the price of a civil war. In the case of Central Falls High, when the superintendent decided to fire the entire staff, it was like the gunshot heard around the nation. More gunshots are likely to be heard when up to “5,000 blowups” may occur when secretary of education’s Arne Ducan asks each state to identify their worst of the worst: either the worst five schools in their state, or the worst five percent, whichever number is higher. No one is denying that something has to be done – statistics are showing that there are a large, significant number of students in high schools around the country that are not proficient in basic reading, writing, and math skills. However, the manner in which action is being taken is publicly aggressive, when statements such as “Teachers are ruining kid’s lives” are making it into newspaper articles. This only promotes finger pointing which deepens the stem of the conflict.

When those who participate in the process of education are at war, everyone suffers. No war, bloodless or not, can be justified when it can be avoided. One can hope, that in time, politicians, teachers, administrators, and parents could put their differences aside to achieve a common goal: so that every student sitting in an American classroom will have an equal opportunity to succeed in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. Though it is, after all, a lofty aspiration of unity, it is a goal that educators should strive to achieve. As competing discourses in pedagogy continue to war, what example is being set for the students in the crossfire? Constructive conflict can be civil; it does not have to be a war. Such civil disagreement can bolster our nation, inspire our youth to thinking critically, and encourage their opinions rather than marginalize them. Knowledge and power are not in contained closed vacuums; they shift ceaseless with the tide of the currents, constantly changing hands and setting new trends. Educators and students alike need to be aware to this so that they can acquire as much power as they can, not to misuse it, but so that they may handle it delicately in a world where the risks and stakes are getting higher each and every day.

Critical essay following

At this point, I'm planning to publish my midterm abstract essay from my education class for all to read and enjoy. For those concerned merely with the cultural competency prompts and responses (directed mostly towards Dr. August, who has already read the essay), then I would point you towards the blog archive on the right hand side of the page. All the prompt responses and theorist connections are specified in the entry title. For the sake of convenience, I will hold off on posting the works cited page of the essay, since all the works cited will also be included in the annotated that will be posted here at the end of the spring.

The Practice of Pedagogy

About three weeks ago, I was given a very rewarding and eye opening experience by the teach I'm working with this semester. When I walked into her homeroom that morning, she asked me if I'd like to give teaching from the curriculum a shot. She then gave me a meaning map worksheet to run off some copies of and I found my first road block as a future teacher, for I was completely clueless as to how to operate the copier. Eventually, the secretary in the front office helped me copy the worksheet.

Upon returning to the class with a full stack of meaning maps, I was given a chance to get my feet wet in the practice of pedagogy. One point that I'd like to emphasize here was the incredible discipline that the students had while I was instructing the lesson. This, in my opinion, is a testament to the development of a routine that my teacher my teacher had instilled in each of her students from the first day of the school year.

Everyone has a different style of teaching, as I learned. During the lesson, I attempted to be as liberal as I could with students views and opinions while sticking to the script. That isn't to say I was without flaw; in fact, I received very useful criticism from my teacher on participation and time management on this particular day. These are the kind of unconscious tendencies that teachers need to make themselves consciously aware of during their time in class. It can be easy to fall into the trap of picking on the same hands that always have the right answers without even thinking about it. It can also be easy to fall into the trap of using too many visuals, thus spending too much time on a subject without moving on to the next. A possible solution to the time management and visual issue that has recently occurred in my mind while writing this is to perhaps use premade PowerPoint presentations for the lessons that a teacher may feel need visual representations. But there are inevitable distractions that will occur throughout public school instruction that teacher's will have to cope with on the spot, which I will explore more in-depth in my time management post.

To finish off my entry on the practice of pedagogy post, I want to propose the concept of presence in a class. It is a strong opinion and belief of mine that every teacher has a presence while delivering instruction in a class, similar to the presence that an actor might have on stage. A teacher can either have a strong presence or a weak presence, the former with the capacity to keep their audience engaged, the latter without such a capacity, and without the respect of the students. The weak presence is a fatal poison to education -- if a teacher has a weak presence, students will walk all over them like a doormat. That isn't to say that a strong presence must be in the form of a strictly authoritarian classroom, but I noticed a couple time during my instruction that it was necessary to explicitly ask some of my students in a direct manner to kill off their personal conversations and give their attention to what another student had to say. Because my summer job has me working as a go-kart track attendant, and because there are rules that I have to enforce, I have had the practice of finding the sweet spot between drill sergeant and doormat. The old proverb holds very true at times: sometimes you can get more with sugar than vinegar, but I'm certainly not afraid to use the vinegar when it is absolutely necessary.

The writer and the teacher

Although it is a deeply rooted conflict in what I want to pursue in my future, I must poke fun at it every now and then.

The Writer

The Teacher

Sometimes simple is better

Today during my visit at my middle school classroom, the students were working on an exercise in identifying antonyms, and degrees of meaning. By degrees of meaning, my teacher explained to the students, one would say that the antonym for hot would be cold, not cool, as cool isn't the extreme polar of hot. She gave a few other examples, and then had the students complete the page exercises and at the end reviewed each of the answers after correcting their work to clarify any confusion some of the students may had. On this particular assignment, I must commend my teacher I'm working with for giving some of the best instruction I've ever witnessed in a middle school, as I believe it was her instruction of the lesson that made it work rather than the curriculum itself, and this is why: the answers to some of the antonym questions asked were sketchy at best. For example, one of the questions asked for the antonym for "disapprove." The answer provided by the workbook in the word bank was "recommend." My teacher said to the students that although recommend was the best answer available as an antonym to disapprove, that the word disapprove holds a judgmental connotation to it. Well, maybe she didn't use the exact word connotation, but that was the general overall meaning of what she explained to the students. After the class, I made a point to mention that I agree with that it wasn't the best antonym and I proposed that a better, and perhaps the best antonym to disapprove is to drop the prefix dis, and just leave the word approve. I don't know who writes the curriculum up, but someone should explain to them that sometimes the simplest answer is the better answer. As a writer, whom thoroughly enjoys Ernest Hemingway's works, I realize even in writing, that sometimes less is more.

Prompt 1 - Theorist Connection: Ira Shor

I'd like to begin this prompt by raising the question "Is any curriculum neutral?" Ira Shor proclaims in "Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change" that "No curriculum is neutral" (Shor, 13). In the logic of bias, we find a strange paradox. For a person to proclaim that they are unbiased, they are subsequently biased towards being unbiased. It is like the pitfall of denial, for as soon as you reject the thought that you are in denial, you are in denial of being in denial. Furthermore, the concept of an unbiased curriculum is a phantasmal fantasy that completely ignores the unconscious prejudices that every person has. For further examination of what I mean by an "unconscious prejudice," I will direct my audience to Harvard's Project Implicit's Implicit Association Test, located at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/.

So, is any curriculum neutral? I stand by Ira Shor on the issue and will be mindful of my own tendencies and prejudices as a future teacher, because there isn't a way to eliminate bias from the human mind. Everyone has an opinion that is situated: to borrow the words of my professor, Dr. August, "No one comes from everywhere and no one comes from nowhere." Instinctively, when on the subject of opinions and biases, we are drawn to the center of politics. Shor makes several statements of the role of politics in education -- first that "all forms of education are political because they can enable or inhibit the questioning habits of students, thus developing or disabling their critical relation to knowledge, schooling, and society" and secondly, that "school funding is another political dimension of education, because more money has always been in the education of upper-class children" (Shor, 12-15).

The first quote by Shor is an examination of the subtle influences that might not be noticed as much by a general population. I wholeheartedly agree with Shor in developing critical thought, however my only criticism of problem-posing thinking (and I am a big supporter of critical thinking myself) is that it has a tendency sometimes for raising disquieting questions that logical reasoning doesn't always have a clear answer for. Therefore, my only concern with promoting critical thought early in public schooling is the disillusioning quality that can sometimes come along with it. By no means am I supporter of dependence on authority, and neither is the teacher I work with either, as she frequently tells her students the importance of developing their voice and being heard.

The second, and last quote I will examine from Shor has to do with the politics of school budgeting, which I feel many more people are probably familiar with. Much of the school budgeting comes from property tax. I'll explore more of this issue in connection to Johnathan Kozol, but the point is this: the wealthier the land around the school, the more spending power that school has. Legislation also plays a role here too: a recently proposed legislation in my state will redistribute the state funding for public schools where I live, with the consequence of inner city schools receiving more money, and the district that I once attended school in will receive less. I'm on the fence as to whether or not to agree with the decision -- on one hand, I'd love to see the middle school I'm volunteering at to have a better budget. On the other hand, however, I know that my district that I went to school with regionalized, combining two towns into one district, and when the two towns agreed to the proposal, they were promised X amount of money by the state, and ended up receiving Y amount, which does not add up to X.

A brief forthcoming of what is left to say

My apologies to my audience, whom I've left on the back burner for some time. For easier reading, from here on out I'll be formatting the posts into paragraph style, which should make the text easier on the eyes. In addition, I'll be covering the following later tonight: a brief connection to the education theorist Ira Shor on politics and education, an entry on the practice of pedagogy and my experiences in teaching my class from the curriculum, and an entry on time management in the classroom, which ironically enough, I seem to have a complete lack of in my own college schedule this Spring. After that, I plan to dive head first into the second and third of my cultural competency prompts, then retrace my steps and make separate theorist connections to each. In addition to these posts, I have a critical midterm essay I'd like to share with my audience before moving on to prompts four through six, ending this semester with an annotated bibliography of the sources I have cited for convenience of my readers. Hopefully, I can shed some light on the journey of both a writer and a future educator, of two future aspirations of mine that are both connected yet somehow at odds with one another.