Assumptions snoitpmussA

Throughout my life I have seen and heard many stereotypes about urban schools and students on television, radio, and discussions. Sadly, they have been more negative than positive. The only positive element that came out from these mediums was the notion that these students can be turned into successful students with a little bit of help from an outsider. In Robert C. Bulman’s piece, Teachers in the Hood: Hollywood’s Middle-Class Fantasy, describes the classroom as being “filled with socially troubled and low-achieving students” (p. 254). The only way their lives can be improved is “by the singular efforts of a new teacher or principal” (p.254).
Over and over again this particular film genre has helped snow-balled these generalizations into factual beliefs about the urban school. It is this medium that has piloted discussions and assumptions about these students. The discussions I have had with other teachers have only affirmed these negative qualities about these schools. At first I didn’t want to buy into the hype that these students are seen as “beasts” of the concrete jungle, but at some point I found myself believing what I was seeing and hearing (p.259).
What I bought into was at an unconscious level. Meaning that I never really thought why I didn’t want to teach inner-city students. I just felt that it was something that I didn’t want to do or see myself doing. I rather just teacher suburban kids… they would be easier. If the situation would come across where I had to teach in an urban area I was mentally prepared to whip these kids into shape. After all, I have been preparing for this situation my whole life with the help of the unbiased portrayals of the urban youth on the silver screen. I am only able to express these feelings because I have become more aware of why I was thinking the way I was. My actions have been affected by the negative depiction of these inner-city schools from the movies I have watched… and of course this was at a subconscious level. What this means is that many teachers today will also be biased at some level. Not all, but some will.
The conscious awaking I have been experiencing for the urban youth has made me really question the inner-city schools and the beliefs that many people have about them. The reality is that many of these schools have larger issues besides the common misconceptions about their character as an ideal student. One of these issues is the work environment. Most of these schools have a lack of resources which would make fostering the student’s education an arduous task to achieve. I feel that this would definitely change my teaching and learning styles. I would have to become more resourceful and think of alternative ways to do best with what I have or am lacking within the classroom.
Most people might see this as a step backwards, but I would have to argue with that belief. Imagine yourself in a school where you have the utopia of all classroom environments. How would this benefit your pedagogy? The ideal view might be counterintuitive for someone who wants to become a professional teacher. There will never be any room for growth. Yes, you will be able to become more creative with your assignments in an ideal classroom by using all the various technology and tools at your disposal, but that doesn’t mean that you will become a better teacher intrinsically. I would have to say in an urban school it would help me as a future teacher become more creative with the little that I would have in a classroom because I would really have to become creative with myself as a teacher because I would not have the luxury to be creative by using technology.
What I hope to become is a teacher that is constantly improving my teaching and knowledge about my students. I think that is the central quality that a professional teacher should live by. To remain constant shows no growth or change. A teacher should go through various developments of the self and learn to learn from the students and not so much believe that you are only the giver of knowledge in the classroom. Still, the only question I have left about the inner-city common belief is… is there any truth in what we see on television? I know these are all stark generalization about this particular youth. Still, I have always believed that there are always truths in lies. They might not necessarily be whole truths, but definitely there has to be some truth to that we see. If that is the case, how can we change are already formed schema about these children and focus at the bigger picture… to actually teach and not worry so much about instilling our beliefs of what a ideal student should act, think, and say. After all, in certain schools deviant behavior is fostered into what people call creative or expressionism. In inner-city schools the same deviant behavior is just deviant and needs to be regulated and changed. How can we change this ideology that most people have?

Critique of... Perceptions of Violence: The Views of Teachers Who Left Urban School

There is a problem that both students and teachers face each day in Urban Schools. The dilemma that always surfaces is the threat of violence. The article interviews many of the teachers that worked in Urban Schools to better understand why the teachers left in the first place. The consensus was that they left because they were scared of the violence that existed in the school. Also, in some instances the reason why the left was because there was a lack of supplies that were needed to help facilitate the learning process.
The conclusion that can be drawn from this article is that these teachers have a preconceived notion about how inner schools and students act and think. They are more or less prone to violence. It is because of these perceptions that teachers automatically look for and expect that sort of reaction from the students and their environment. It seems that because of the media many of the students feel obligated to achieve this self prescribed prophecy and the teachers are looking for it.
I don’t like to believe that the media has that much of a hold on our thoughts and perceptions of a particular group of community. To a certain extent I do believe that we are all greatly influenced by the media, but I want to give people the benefit of the doubt that they are more independently driven instead of media influenced. If we do believe that people are influenced by the media than that expectation is all that we look for. Therefore, our pedagogy will be greatly damaged… especially in an Urban School where our perceptions are all negative.
In one of our previous articles, we discussed that most of the media’s depiction of urban students are all negative and in order for social order and obedience to take place a lone teacher must whip these students into shape. Like I said earlier, I don’t want to believe that we are influenced by media. What I can say is that the media works in some strange ways and the ideologies that it projects are imbedded in our subconscious. So, we might not even notice that he have negative perceptions about a particular group, but because of that our pedagogy and interactions will be greatly influenced.

Research Material...

Ellsasser Ward, Christopher. “Teaching Educational Philosophy: A Response to the
of First-Year Urban Teacher.” Education and Urban Society Volume 40
Number 4: May 2008 476-493.

The article discusses the problem that urban schools face with first year teachers. That is to say that many of the teachers are in the urban setting momentarily. What this means is… the teachers tend to go to the “better schools for better students.” This reinforces the idea that these students are not ideal students to teach. What most teachers do is transfer to other schools that are viewed as ideal and less problematic.

Godley, Amanda & Minnici, Angela. “Critical Language Pedagogy in an Urban High
School English Class.” Urban Education Volume 43 Number 3: May 2008
319-346.

The article explores the notion that the urban student has a different vernacular than other school settings. Both Amanda Godley and Angela Minnici have conducted a study that examines African American 10th grade English class through class discussion, interviews, and pre and post questionnaires. The study yielded a better understanding of what they call “code switching” through their urban vernacular and dominant ideologies with a deep metacognitive understanding.

Alberg, Marty; McDonald, Aaron; McSparrin-Gallagher, Brenda; Ross, Steven.
“Achievement and Climate Outcomes for the Knowledge is Power Program in an
Inner-City Middle School.” Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk.
Volume 12 Number 2: 2007 137-165

The writers of this article focused their efforts on the idea that Knowledge is Power and created a program around this belief. Based on this idea, they created a new curriculum that would raise academic achievement in an inner-city school. Some of the main changes were that they extended the school day and year, create more access to teachers and materials after school, and increase family and school connections. The surveys and examination are trying to prove that a better environment will yield better students.

Lal, Dhyan & Li, Xin. “An inner-city school mentor: a narrative inquiry of the life
Experiences of ‘Daddy’.” Mentoring & Tutoring. Volume 14 Number 3:
August 2006 317-335.

Dhyan and Xin conducted a two-year ethnographic observation of an inner-city high school in Los Angeles where their main focus was on the principal of the school. Most of the study and research was conducted through interviews. Their conclusion was that the principal played an important role in the lives of the at-risk students. The principal was so passionate about his students that he embodied a ‘Daddy’ figure in and out of the school. This of course helped the students’ achievement expectations.

Memorial Day... What is it and what has it become?

Today, we are supposed to celebrate Memorial Day. What does this mean? It means that we should take some time out to acknowledge the fallen soldiers past and present. The only thing is… we don’t. We have turned this national holiday into another beer fest and an excuse to drink and go down the shore. I must admit that I have fallen victim to this commercialized holiday. I didn’t go to the shore, but I did end up at some pubs for a drink or two.
I have to be honest. I didn’t really take time out to think about the fallen soldiers until now. Writing this blog is making me think about what Memorial Day is and should be. I do feel bad for all the soldiers, but at the same time I question why do we have to go to war in the first place. I just think it’s weird that we must go to war in order for peace to happen. Still, I strongly feel that we should think about the soldiers past and present and really question why they died. These questions should also be a part of a class discussion because I feel that students as well as many Americans forgot what this holiday was all about. We need to revive, rethink, and discuss this commercialized holiday along with many of the other holidays throughout the year.

Capitalism... or a great way to predict your future?

The reason why I decided to post this video in my blog is because I feel it is important to question why we take standardized tests in the first place. I remember feeling the fear that the teachers and other students placed on me and on these tests. You have to do well. If you don’t, well you won’t get into a good college. If you don’t get into a good college then you can get a job. If you don’t get a good job, then you can’t make money. If you don’t make money, you won’t meet a girl. Basically, your whole life is determined by this one test. To be quite honest, it was nerve wracking.
Still, I’m trying to find why these tests? I feel that companies are making so much money off the study aides that they provide for the students. Just like in the video, there are even podcasts that you can listen to on your Ipod. The tests have snowballed into a multimillion dollar money making company that has become the standard for everyone. Not only do I hate the idea of people paying more money into Education, but I don’t like the idea that they already have this cookie cutter form that we must all try to fit in order to become so-called successful. Education to me has become conformity.
The same can be said about what kids do outside and inside of classroom sphere. Take graffiti for example. The students enjoy tagging stalls and walls all over town. Just like in the video the institutions see this as an opportunity to take what the students enjoy and put it in an institutional setting… let the students decorate the walls of the school with their graffiti or let’s use podcasts to sell our learning materials. It this education or a way of making money and forcing kids to conform to some norm?

Capitalistic Life imitating Art?

Robert Bulman argues that Hollywood presents a preconceived notion that urban students are wild animals. In order for these students to become active members of society they must adopt middle class ideologies in order to become successful. In other words, the urban student must accept and follow the so-called Middle Class notion of the American dream… the true hegemonic belief that our society believes in.
The preservation of the dominant ideals can be justified by what Chomsky calls belief formation. Here each culture… in this case the white middle class dominant culture tries to justify their actions as a way of preserving and satisfying the given ideals. Belief formation is usually if not always used in a fear tactic against the subculture’s ideals and way of living. They try to instill the notion of fear by saying that if you do not conform to these ideals or way of life… then you will not become successful. Because one of the hegemonic beliefs is that happiness is rooted in money and the idea that we must buy the biggest and fastest car. If we have money then we will be happy. After all… this is the American dream. What it really is… is a capitalistic ideal that benefit the fat cats of our society and the middle class has also bought into this belief.

Systemic Beliefs...

Conformity is the foundation of many schools today. The way the school functions is that the school creates a binary sphere. In this right and wrong environment conformity towards the right way of doing things is the only possibility for the student’s progress. This is what Joel Springer calls, “prostitute of powers.” “The ultimate power, [Illich] believes, is the school’s effect on one’s self-concept; that is, education teaches individuals about their own personal abilities and character traits. People learn to think of themselves as stupid or bright, as being worthy or as being failures” (29). That is to say, students do not have a choice to venture in the grey area of a black and white sphere. In my opinion, they become products of the system which forces them to conform into a functioning society.
The prostitute of powers all seems a terrible outcome of the schooling system. When I looked back at my past experiences through the school system, I recall one particular incident where I got in trouble. We were all coloring in a coloring book and I kept going out of the lines. The teacher kept yelling at me about it…saying that that isn’t the right way of doing things. Looking back on it…do all artist color in the lines? Why can they have artistic freedom and I must conform to the school ideology and demands of right and wrong? Why could I not have that power to color the way I thought was fit? I still don’t understand the answer to this.

A.E.I.O.U. and sometimes Why?

I felt that the Annenberg article presents some vital changes that our current curriculum needs to address. The way our current school system is structured is by creating beings that passively engage within the school's material. What students are accustomed to do is perform for the teacher just so that they can make the grade. The article stresses the importance of democracy and agency for all students.
What first comes to mind when reading this article is Paulo Freire's work on the Banking concept. He describes the relationship between the teacher and student as the following:

"A careful analysis of the teacher-student relationship at any level inside or outside the school, reveals its fundamentally narrative character This relationship involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students). The contents, whether values or empirical dimensions of reality, tend in the process of being narrated to become lifeless and petrified. Education is suffering from narration sickness" (Chapter 2).

In other words, our current pedagogy is set up so that students become docile individuals without any notion of agency to create change for themselves or community. The way the current school system is set up is that passivity and obedience is always being rewarded. Our students are becoming gears in the machine.
The relationship that is being between the student and teacher is one of power. The teachers are the givers of knowledge and the students can be seen as receptacles of that given information:

"Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated content. Worse yet, it turns them into “containers,” into “receptacles” to be “filled” by the teacher. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are" (Chapter 2).

First try

WORDS GO HERE...