Finn: Assignment A

Talking Point #1: 

Finn was discussing his first teaching position.  As he reflected on this time in his career, he made the point that he was not teaching his (working class) students to take charge of their lives but rather to take orders.  "Control was utmost in his mind". As he further reflected, he noted that he was teaching is a system of roles and rules. Communication style, student success, and how the language was used to teach literacy were all impacted by the fact that Finn's class was made up of children from working class families.   (Note: Connection to TAL, Delpit)

Talking Point #2:

As quoted in the text by Finn, "...because we were mostly young, we taught in the poorest neighborhoods.  (Teachers moved to richer neighborhoods with seniority)." 

Here, I would like to connect this sentiment with the events from the Normandy School District and Francis Howell.  Normandy had been failing for 15 years.  The population was working class/poor.  I wonder how many less experienced teachers were in this district for those 15+ years and how many teachers with more seniority moved to 'richer' neighborhoods?  Connecting to TAL and the reaction from Michael Brown's mother when she asked the question: Do you know what it took to keep him in school?  Do you know how many black boys graduate?

I wonder if the outcome of this young man's life would have been different had he been educated in a 'richer' neighborhood?

Talking Point #3:

From Paolo Freire, "Literacy campaigns are bound to fail as long as the 'students' viewed literacy as part of a culture that was alien to them".  Taking from Delpit's Culture of Power tenets, this makes perfect sense.  Freire understood that for the poor in slums...literacy was seen as part of the identity of the 'other'...a hated other in a society where the gap between the rich and the poor is ever so much more obvious (as it is in the United States)". I assert that it IS alive and well in the Stares today.  'It' being the  gap between the rich and the poor.  It is evidenced in what resources are available to the people in power, those who attend schools abundant in experienced, well-qualified, teachers; it is evidenced in what subject matter is taught, and the population(s) that are served.  It is evidenced in the class of families in certain schools and the race of the children attending such schools.  The culture of power was clearly brought into focus with an image from a classmate's blog entry showing the divide between Moses Brown and Hope High School, both in Providence.

Argument Statement: 

This author, Finn, argues that class of students had a direct impact on how (literacy) is taught.  

As I read, "This American Life", I could not help but to relate it to the very district that I teach in versus the schools my own children attended.  I work in an urban district in Rhode Island.  There is a high population of children of color as well as a high attendance of children who's family of origin were not born here.  The population is working class and many families live below the poverty level.  Many of our students struggle with having their basic needs met, and often the only meals that they are sure to have on a regular basis, are provided by the school. 

By stark contrast, the schools that my children attended, were predominantly white; students were from middle to upper class, in tact, "traditional" families.  There were very few students, especially in early elementary to middle school, who were non-native speakers. Educators were highly qualified and were held accountable by a very involved school board as well as a body of very involved and vocal parents.  The school(s) in which my children attended had access to up-to-date curricula, technology, and resources that wholly enriched the educational experience.  The graduates of the high school, which both of my boys attended, had 100% acceptance rates to college.  

As I read about the issue of desegregation and  busing students of color to better performing schools, I began to question, why?  If this strategy works, why aren't we doing more?  What I mean by this is, if we know from research that desegregation and integration has positive effects on students of color, why is this strategy not employed more?

The answer is clearly brought to the forefront.  When the Normandy School District was declared unaccredited and children needed to be bused into the Francis Howell School District, a woman, not identified in the piece, made this statement:

"Not to be naive about the types of students they would be receiving"; she then goes on to make the statement, "Coming from Normandy to Francis Howell, I am hoping that their discipline records come with them, like their health records". 

There in lies the problem.  By this woman referring to the 'types' of students that would be attending her child's school and hoping that 'their' discipline records follow, clearly indicates to me her feelings of children of color being with her child(ren).  Assuming that this 'type' of student (of color) would have behaviors that would be discipline issues speaks volumes about her notion of children of color.  

When Delpit wrote, "The Silenced Dialogue: The Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children", she discussed the culture of power.  She listed five different tenets of her thoughts.  Here first tenet was, "Issues of power are enacted int he classroom". The woman quoted, from "This American Life", was exhibiting such power her children had in the classroom and, in my opinion, was solely concerned with making sure her children continued to hold that power.  As Delpit goes on to say, 'if schooling prepares for people for jobs, and the kind of job a person has determines her or his his economic status, and therefore, power, then schooling is intimately related to that power".  I wonder if the woman in TAL felt that her children's power, and therefore, opportunities, would be threatened by a student of color receiving the benefits of a quality education along side her own children.

Finally, a woman in TAL was quoted as saying that her concern had to do with test scores, class size, and related issues.  On the service, race did not seem to be the root of the concern.  Yet, Beth Cerami made a telling comment:..."in two or three years when we all move out of the district".  Nikole Hannah Jones makes the point that this is not a threat...'If you let those children in, we will leave, again".  

This is why desegregation does not work: Because families of privilege do not want to give up their culture of power; they do not want their children competing with those 'type' of children (of color).  Color insight is lost on such a way of thinking. 
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/10/06/496411024/why-busing-didnt-end-school-segregation

Assignment #3: "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children" by Lisa Delpit

This article was a bit more difficult to read through and digest than the previous article on colorblindness and color insight as it relates to the classroom.

Following are the three talking points that I would like to bring to the forefront during our class discussion:

Talking point #1:
     "The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power"(p.25)  This is a powerful statement and one that seems to clearly play out in every life in society.  As an educator, initially my goal was to use the designated curriculum, to teach the grade level at hand. Until I began to take courses to obtain my ESL certification, and ultimately, my M.Ed with a concentration in TESOL, I was never fully aware just how biased our soon to be former (literacy) program is. The assessment tool is blatantly biased against the ELL/Newcomer; it is blatantly biased in favor of the white, middle-class, English speaker.  Those that designed the curriculum intent, how it was to be taught, and WHAT was to be taught, clearly did not have in mind children whose L1 was NOT English.  In addition, the intended population for this curriculum did not take into account that there would be students of color AND students and families who chose to come to the Untied States.   

Talking Point #2: 
     "The teacher can not be the only expert in the classroom.  To deny students their own expert knowledge IS to disempower them"(pgs. 32-33). Early in my teaching career, I WAS the expert in the classroom.  I had worked very hard to earn my BA in Sociology and certification in Early Childhood Education.  As with most things, being young and whet behind the ears, I really did think I was going to be able to bring the best of my education into the classroom. To some extent, I did.  I was the teacher and I was going to do my best to teach and positively affect the education of my students.  My students, by the way, were ALL white children, from middle to upper class, intact, "traditional" families, all of whom spoke English. I was truly the expert in the room.  Not so much today!

Talking Point #3: 
     "Children have a right to their own language, their own culture...children must be allowed to express themselves in their own language style. It is not that they, the children, who must change, but the schools. To push children to do anything else is repressive and reactionary"(p.37).  This has become an area of stress for me.  I hear everyday teachers demanding that their students speak and write in English.  I see every day, teachers recommending students for remedial help, or intervention or being referred to team for special education services because the students are not proficient in the rules of English, and thus are not producing acceptable samples of work.  

Argument Statement:

The author, Lisa Delpit argues that to educate other peoples children, we first must recognize that the influence of race is a factor in how information is delegated by the (white) educator and received by students of color (and other races).    

Assignment #2: Rethinking Colorblindness: All Lives Matter

Colorblindness is the New Racism by Armstrong and Wildman

Before I get into the main idea of this article, first the difference between colorblindness and color insight needs to be discussed.

As stated in the article on page 68, color insight requires practitioners to "observe, discuss, and analyze the operation of race and privilege in contemporary society".  In short, color insight asks me us to acknowledge my race and the race of others.  In doing do, I, as identified by society as a White person, bring to the table privilege just because I am white and at the same time, recognize that non-White, people of color are are denied certain things simply because they are non-White.  

Colorblindness is the stark opposite of color insight.  Colorblindness asks that race is not acknowledged or noticed.  

In class, I brought up an incident that occurred last year during an evacuation at my school.  I shared with the class that as we were evacuating students, a mother was trying to get into the building.  Protocol, as determined by my administration, is to not allow anyone in the building during an evacuation.  When I addressed this mother, I was immediately hit with resistance. She was going to do whatever she needed to do to get into the building to find her child.  I stood my ground and was immediately accused of being a racist.  Yes, I am White; this mother was a person of color.  During this event, my sole concern was to evacuate my students to safety and try to keep others safe from the situation.  The mother insisted had she been a White person, I would have let he into the building. From my perspective, I am positive I would not have.  As I write this, I am still upset by the accusation of being a racist.

As I recall the discussion in class, my professor made a eye-opening statement: to acknowledge the statement, "to let the person know, I hear what you are saying", goes a long way in the discussion of race and understanding.  For me, I was simply following protocol, attempting to keep her safe.  For her, being a person of color, everything has to do with race, her race.

As defined by Fiske and Newberg, 1990, color insight admits that "most of us see race and underlines the need to understand what that racial awareness might mean".  This is further explained that, "people form impressions of others through a variety of processes that "lie on a continuum reflecting the extent to which the perceiver utilizes a target's particular characteristics". 

As I understand this to be, while I did not "see'  this woman's race, every action of mine pointed, in her mind, to her race.  Until I sat in class this past Wednesday night, I never would have considered this point.  For me, my actions and my intent were clear; that is from my perspective. As the saying goes, communication lies with the receiver.  Clearly, what the person received was far removed from my intent.

This brings me to the clip, All Lives Matter.  Prior to watching this video clip, I have to admit, I have used the argument, ALL LIVES MATTER when the conversation was on Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter.  I truly believed in that argument, that one life mattered no more than the next life. After viewing this clip, I have been humbled.  As a White person, I have never waked into a store and been assessed as to my intent.  As a White person, I suspect I will not be randomly stopped during traffic as being 'suspicious' or 'acting suspiciously'. I never considered that the argument that "All Lives Matter' was adding to the racial divide or that I was diminishing the real injustices faced by people of color.  

I have been in this class for just one week and it has already made an impact on my personal life.  As stated on page 67, "Learning about White privilege is not intuitive for Whites because social norms of the privileged become the generalized normative expectations of marginalized groups, providing group members the option of remaining ignorant and avoidant of awareness of both privilege and oppression".  Further stated in the article, "Whites must make a conscious effort to notice and learn about the operation of privilege and subordination". 

I do not believe I have ever felt a better  and conscious understanding as to what privilege is and how my life has been affected by it.  More importantly, how to I positively impact those lives of those I serve, teach, and live in this society.

Colorblindness vs Color insight in the classroom

Privilege, Power and Difference, Allan G. Johnson

Talking Point #1:

Looking at the diversity wheel, as developed by Marilyn Loden and Judy Rosener, the six main attributes are: age, race, ethnicity, gender, physical ability/quality and sexual orientation.  Here is where I fall on the diversity wheel:  I am female, well educated;  I am fifty-one years old and I am Italian-Lebanese American.  I am right-handed, 5'2" and average in weight.  The outer characteristics of the diversity wheel include religion, marital status, education level, occupation, and income.  For this, my personal attributes are as follows:  I am Roman Catholic, although I take significant issue with a number of stands by the hierarchy of the church.  I am well educated and will complete my M.Ed in December 2018.  Having worked with children in various capacities for well over thirty years, I am most proud of my ten years teaching.  I am married with two adult children' they are my greatest legacy. In terms of income, I am on the high end of middle class, at least on paper!

Question #1:

How does my perspective as to where I am on the diversity wheel affect my teaching, especially my other than Caucasian students from middle class, traditional family units? 

Talking Point #2:

Within the first three paragraphs of the reading, Johnson makes the statement, "We are all a part of the problem" in reference to the issues and obstacles in our society with regards to 'gender and race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and social class. He goes on to also state that since we are all a part of the problem, Johnson goes on to state that we could also be a part of the solution.  

Question #2:

As a white, middle-class, well educated professional, how can I truly put myself in the position of KNOWING what it is like to be a part of a group, within our society, that marginalized at best and oppressed and suppressed, at worst?  What steps do I need to take to be a part of the solution?

Talking Point #3:

As defined by Peggy McIntosh, privilege "exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of something they have done or failed to do". She goes on to discuss two types  of privilege: "unearned entitlements".  These 'entitlements are what ALL people should have.  Some examples of such entitlements are feeling safe in a working or public space.  The other type of privilege, defined by McIntosh, is 'conferred dominance' which means to give one group POWER over another (group).

Question #3:

How do I begin to affect the attitude that, while I was born in to the race, I do not share the prevalent mind set that I am "better"? How do we begin the conversation that being Caucasian opens doors that are closed to others because they are not?  I will never know what it is like to be Black or a member of a marginalized group so how does my perspective help raise others up?

Argument Statement:

This author, Allan G. Johnson, argues that until and if we talk about and acknowledge real life troubles, using sensitive and often ugly words, then we will continue to be a part of the problem that permeates our society.  Until we are willing to admit that we are part of the problem, then the problems will continue to be.  

About me...

Hi Leslie,

My name is Maria Raspallo.  My proudest accomplishment is that I raised two beautiful boys to be fine young men.

In my professional life, I am a kindergarten teacher for the Pawtucket School Department.  This is my tenth year teaching but only third in Pawtucket.  I left teaching after the birth of my first son and had my second son 11 months later!  I have never regretted leaving the professional world and was very grateful that I was able to stay at home and be with my children. My son Matt is a sophomore at URI; Jacob, graduated from LaSalle Academy on June 7th and will be pursuing a Liberal Arts degree at CCRI while in training to be a firefighter. 

When I was hired in Pawtucket, it was with the caveat that I secure full ESL certification within the first three years of teaching.  I successfully completed the course work for certification this past December (2017).  I am finishing the M.Ed in TESOL course work on July 20, 2018.  In the Fall of 2018, I will complete the Assessment piece. If all goes as planned, I will secure my M.Ed in December 2018.

In my spare time, I love to scrapbook, create picture collages, or head to the beach...any time of year.  In addition, I am an avid supporter of The Tomorrow Fund as well a Relay Team Member (Baldwin Believers) for the American Cancer Society.