Self Assessment #1

1. Respond in a paragraph to your peer review:

The peer review really gave me some great points of view and helped me find a way to narrow down my question, and really focus on really one main thing. I know my ideas have been scattered and with this advice, especially in F, helped give me creative ideas to really add into my essay and create a stronger better essay. I found that through another persons perspective I was able to see my strong points in an essay and pinpoint the mistakes that I made in this essay. I think that Nate really helped me find a way to revise and really evolve my essay.

2. What are you going to focus on in your rewrite?

For my rewrite I'm planning on delving deeper and really finding the one question I want to focus on. I'm going to really focus more and try and keep my thoughts more on that question. Why are ethnic studies the cause of so much fear and what are the dangers of not sharing ethnic studies classes? I really want to be able to stay on track with this paper and I plan on really staying straight forward for this paper.

Plan of Action:

1. Why are ethnic studies classes the cause of so much fear? What are the dangers of preventing ethnic studies and banning them in schools?

2. When Arizona banned ethnic studies classes, from the outside it seems as though the ban was completely pointless. When you delve deeper though, into the situation and what caused the ban, you really begin to understand the importance and power that ethnic studies classes hold. Ethnic studies classes, particularly Mexican Ethnic studies classes have been almost labeled as "anti-American" due to the fact that they promote cultural difference. In my essay I'm going to be using Chimamanda Adichie's TED talk, "Danger of a Single Story", Earl Shorris' writing, "On the Uses of Liberal Education; as a weapon in the hands of the restless poor", and Tim Wise's talk on "White Privilege." I'm going to be using these three as tools to help me decipher the Ethnic Studies ban in Arizona.

3. I am going to be connecting Chimamanda Adichie's TED talk to my essay by really discussing the key concerns she brings up in how dangerous it really is to only teach one version of something. The fact that we only teach one ethnic studies class mainly in schools, the white ethnic studies class, is something we really need to look at in all seriousness.

I am also going to be using Earl Shorris' essay to really talk about the key to helping students learn, and the key that he brings up numerous times in his essay, is the importance of how you must relate to a student. In a talk my dad did a few days ago he described the principles of learning and one of those principles he talked about was Prior knowledge and connections as developmental pathways that really lead to equity and social literacy. Shorris' gives examples to this as he relates to his students by creating a curriculum that is based on something that the students can make connections with.

Lastly, the clip on White Privilege by Tim Wise really brings up the issues that white privilege is so prevalent, and the issues with Arizona are really another slap in the face of how completely prevalent it is. I'm going to be using his argument to support my thesis and talk about how by having white privilege we are really forced to learn this one history, this single story, the one ethnic studies class, and through that we are left with really nothing but white privilege.

4. I believe that with the course texts and talks that I'm going to use I'm really going to have the capacity to really go deeper into the subject and talk really more on the underlying issues of why this is happening and why it is to be of concern.

5. I am really completely passionate about social justice, and I'm honestly so very curious as to why we are allowing what is going on in Arizona to continue. It is an ongoing issue that is really huge right now in the United States and I am really interested to ask the important questions and really try and make a difference through the knowledge that I'm gaining.

Journal Entry #5.

1. Coming to terms with Peggy McIntosh's paper, White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies, it really makes me step back and take a look at who I am and where I come from. I wouldn't consider myself white, yet in McIntosh's essay, I receive all the benefits one would under "white privilege". She really describes and paints you a picture of really all that white privilege entails from not getting followed in the store to not having to worry that I won't get a job because of my skin color. Now, it makes me really sad and I find it eye opening to think that although racism may seem to be gone, it's really just covered up and less prevalent in our society. This raises the point that really in our culture and being white, we are raised up to be blissfully ignorant of important issues going on around us. With her talking about white privilege and brining up key concepts I really look at myself and see the completely unnoticed benefits that I am able to have that are due to my skin tone, and until really reading this essay and reflecting on my own life, I was completely unaware. Peggy McIntosh also goes into detail about men's privilege and really I believe that in order to look and criticize men's privilege and to minimize sexism, we need to largely look at ourselves and make an effort to reduce the racism that white privilege brings. No one should be judged on the color of their skin and it's really disappointing that after the Civil Rights Movement in the 60's I'm able to say racism still exists and is an every day part of our society. I think that it's important to take a look at our own lives and really reflect and think critically about what McIntosh is saying here and try to make a point to be aware and educate others.

2. Questions:

In order to really try and minimize the "white privilege" that is so prevalent still in our society in this day and age, what can we do besides educate others and raise awareness?

I'm concerned that people with white privilege or even men won't be prepared to listen and reflect at their lives, what can we do to help them see our point of view while not being offensive and instead offering insight to the views of some of the minority groups? (i.e. Women and minority races in this case)

McIntosh brings up 46 points that she really sees white privilege in her daily life, what could be some steps to allowing everyone to feel the same "privileges" that white people or men do?

Journal Entry #4.

1. Conscious, willed refusal of schooling for political or cultural reasons is not acknowledged as an appropriate response to oppressive education. (Kohn 5).

I thought a lot about the two quotes that I picked. They are similarly linked and it really gets me thinking about the way our education system is set up. We really have an education system that is focused on a certain race of people, whites. Now it’s important to get a well-rounded education focusing on all different groups and really, students are being exposed to a very closed mind education system and really by refusing to learn it’s trying to turn the tides and really force the school system to look at the root of the problem.

2. However, not learning is a healthy though frequently dysfunctional response to racism, sexism, and other forms of bias. In times of social movements for justice, such refusal is often turned to more positive mass protest and demonstration, and the development of alternative learning situations. (Kohn 5).

This really brings up what is going on in Arizona right now. Students are being forced to learn a certain criteria and really in order to try and get a more culturally rounded education system students protest by ways of not learning. They are rebelling against the teachers and really the criteria and this has happened a lot and is a way to peacefully protest.

I really am thinking about this concept a lot and what is going on in Arizona right now and both of these quotes have relevance to it in the sense that it’s really a way of silent, peaceful student protests against, like the quote stated, “racism, sexism, and other forms of bias.”(Kohn 5). A lot of these students whose Ethnic Studies classes are being taken away don’t really have ways of protesting and I think this way is something that they could do, to prevent racism, or if not prevent it but to open the eyes of teachers and leaders to see what is going on. Many of the students used this as a method before the Ethnic studies classes were brought in to show that really, the education they were receiving was very closed minded, directed for mainly “white” students in a sense that the education and criteria that was being taught was specifically for white students and didn’t quite share the history of other cultures and minority groups. Through the bringing in of the ethnic studies classes the graduation rate of Latinos/as has increased and students had found that passion of learning once again and let go of the “not-learning” state of mind. Once again their education is being threatened again I won’t be surprised if these students go back to protesting in the way they started hopefully opening the eyes of bystanders to really gain the support of others.

Essay #2.

Diversifying Education

In this essay I will be looking at the importance creativity and the importance of switching up methods of teaching in the public education system. I will be using Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk along with Gatto’s essay Against School. I’m going to be taking concepts from both of these works. Gatto describes in his essay how “…public education cripples our kids…” (Gatto 1) and why the teaching methods we have currently in our education system our hindering students. Sir Ken Robinson’s talk explains how important creativity is in our school system and how lacking it actually is. I’m going to using key points from both of these works to really support my theory of the importance that the arts and different teaching methods pose.

In our current education system our methods of teaching really have remained the same although I’m sure efforts have been made to diversify the methods. Students are able to learn more through different methods of teaching. Not all students are able to learn from a professor standing at the front of the class for fifty minutes in fact in a study it was said that students only have a twenty-minute attention span. In order to have the most effective teaching methods, we need to diversify the methods our teachers use and one way we could do this is by adding more arts into the system. Sir Ken Robinson really touches base with this in his TED talk and explains the following:

We now three things about intelligence. One, it’s diverse. We think about the world in all the ways that we experience it. We think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically, we think in abstract terms, we think in movement. Secondly, intelligence is dynamic. If you look at the interactions of a human brain, as we heard yesterday from a number of presentations, intelligence is wonderfully interactive. The brain isn’t divided into compartments. In fact, creativity – which I define as the process of having original ideas that have value – more often than not comes about though interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things. (Robinson).

In this passage Sir Ken Robinson explains the importance of a. switching up the criteria because we all think differently, not one specific way. By switching this up, students get a more well rounded education while at the same time allowing students who would normally be left out due to their different way of learning, will now be more included. The second key point he brings up is b. students who are creative really are more interactive just because they are more in tune with the different styles of learning.

For example I was in my high school orchestra and played all throughout school and this helped me focus more throughout the day. First off, I had orchestra in the morning and it was a great way to get me to start focusing on something that I loved to do, and also I was able to do something that involved movement and really allowed hands on learning. This helped me all through high school, middle school and elementary school. I wouldn’t change the fact that I was in orchestra at all. Not only did it help me in school, I was also able to release feelings through music. I also had a great group of friends who were interested in a lot of the same things I was in. Not that I’m trying to say all students should be in orchestra, I think through my personal experience music was something, a great creative outlet, that guided me and helped me through high school. I think there could be many great other opportunities and options for students to involve their body and minds in a positive way. Sir Ken Robinson also agrees with me and sees public education as a great way to enforce the arts and he’s quite baffled by the fact that it’s not in schools, “Truthfully, what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side.” (Robinson).

The public education system is really funneling students to only use part of their brain, and students are taught that the performing arts really is something you wouldn’t want to do as a “real” job. I feel as though we are teaching children that going to school and doing a certain thing is the only way that anyone will be successful. Gatto adds to this in his paper stating, “…a considerable number of well-known Americans never went through the twelve-year wringer our kids currently go through, and they turned out all right.” (Gatto 2). He goes on to list names of famous people that everyone knows such as George Washington and Abe Lincoln. He uses this as an example as to why education in public schools, the “…twelve-year wringer…” (Gatto 2) is so important, when clearly students have turned out all right doing other things that don’t involve the “normal” ways of how to become successful. The arts have been really demoted in the education system and in life in general. You don’t see students flocking to the university to become a musician. Sir Ken Robinson really describes how arts in schools have been downgraded levels in importance when in reality, they are just as important as any social science or mathematics. He talks about how “Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools than drama a and dance. There isn’t an education system in the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics.” (Robinson) yet all of these subjects are thrown at the bottom of the food chain. This is sad, yet it is true in almost all school systems as Robinson goes on later to talk about, “Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one. Doesn’t matter where you go. You’d think it would be otherwise, but it isn’t. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts.” (Robinson).

The arts in the education system are so important and key yet we ignore it and treat it as somewhat of a hobby. I know that when I was in orchestra, I knew I wasn’t going to go into music. In fact, the majority of people in the Orchestra weren’t going to even continue practicing their musical talent except for the few exceptions who got full rides to colleges based on their musical abilities. Students, such as myself, have been funneled to believe that if I were to become a major in music, I would be unsuccessful, I wouldn’t make any money, and it would be a waste of money to go to college for such a poor choice of major. No, students need to do something worthy with their lives such as being a doctor, or professor.

Why is it that we enforce jobs that are so limited? Not everyone wants to be a teacher or professor. Many students most likely can’t achieve that ideal success either due to the fact it is limited. It is limited in the way of your brain. I know I’m a kinesthetic learner, and so far in the majority of my classes high school and college, a professor has stood at the front of the room and talked. This works every once in a while, but everyday? Teachers should switch up their ways of teaching and take this as an opportunity to get to know their students along with showing them different styles of learning. If we did this, along with putting arts in public education, the amount of successful students popping out of college and high school would be unbelievable. Everyone has that potential, we just limit success by limiting education. I’m going to finish off my paper with some food for thought, a quote by Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” (Einstein).

Self Assessment #1

1. 1. I’m doing really well in the class so far. It’s a lot of work, but I’ve been learning a lot about how to analyze and critical think about education and the school system. I’ve been learning on how to find claims, I’m still not at the point where I know exactly what I’m doing but I feel more confident when it comes to analyzing work from different writers.

2. 2. I really want to learn how to do claims better and learn how to write a good claim. I’m pretty good at finding claims but I still struggle a bit with that and I wish we could go over it a bit more and hopefully that would help me in picking out claims and writing them more in my own work. I haven’t figured out yet how to combine them in my own work and how to really write something solid and something that other people will be able to identify as a good solid claim to support the rest of my paper.

3. 3. I’m hoping to be able to get better at writing thesis statements. I’ve been doing this for a really long time, or I should say teachers have been trying to teach me how to write a real solid thesis statement, but I haven’t really been confident or successful enough to feel good about when I’m writing a critical thinking paper. I am hoping that by the end of this class I’ll be able to really write a good solid thesis, a strong one that would help me further in creating a good solid paper with good claims.

IWA #2.

To grasp the import of Guaman Poma’s project, one needs to keep in mind that the Incas had no system of writing. Their huge empire is said to be the only known instance of a full-blown bureaucratic state society built and administered without writing. Guaman Poma constructs his text by appropriating and adapting pieces of the representational repertoire of the invaders. He does not simply imitate or reproduce it; he selects and adapts it along Andean lines to express (bilingually, mind you) Andean interests and aspirations. Ethnographers have used the term transculturation to describe processes whereby members of subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from materials transmitted by a dominant or metropolitan culture. The term, originally coined by Cuban sociologist Fernando Ortiz in the 1940s, aimed to replace overly reductive concepts of acculturation and assimilation used to characterize culture under conquest. While subordinate peoples do not usually control what emanates from the dominant culture, they do determine to varying extents what gets absorbed into their own and what it gets used for. Transculturation, like autoethnography, is a phenomenon of the contact zone.

As scholars have realized only relatively recently, the transcultural character of Guaman Poma’s text is intricately apparent in its visual as well as its written component. The genre of the four hundred line drawings is European--there seems to have been no tradition of representational drawing among the Incas--but in their execution they deploy specifically Andean systems of spatial symbolism that express Andean values and aspirations. (Pages 2, 3).

In these two paragraphs Pratt is really using Poma’s paper as evidence and proof to support her claim of the Contact Zone. She’s making a claim about how in Poma’s writing is really a huge example of the contact zone because it brings this idea that the culture that we had assumed to know, was actually wrong thus bringing two cultures together clashing. “Their huge empire is said to be the only known instance of a full-blown bureaucratic state society built and administered without writing.” (Mary Louise Pratt 2). She is describing how by having this written piece of evidence, Poma introduces a new idea into the culture really showing that writing was something that was used. Pratt talks really about how key this piece of evidence was because it changed the perspectives people had on this culture and how much influence other cultures actually had on this culture and it is something that once again ties back into her theme of the “contact zone”.

Journal Entry #3.

1. In Pratt's article, "The Arts of Contact Zone", she really describes what she calls the "contact zone" which is referring to how cultures come together and really influence each others stand points and views. She gives two huge examples that she continually refers back to. The first example she gives is when talking about her son and his obsession with his baseball cards. She describes how throughout his preadolescence, her son continually fawned over these baseball cards and they really gave him a well-rounded perspective on other things like talking to adults. He was able to make connections, and his baseball culture connected and came together with other relatable issues in his life. The second example she uses is a letter addressed to King Philip III of Spain written by an Andean man named Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala in 17th century. This letter was written in both Spanish and Quechua and really discusses Christianity from a Peruvian perspective really defining the contact zone.

2. The first flash point that I found in this essay was really when she was talking about her son and his obsession with the baseball cards. It brings to life the reality that our life experiences shape the person we become later in life. I related this flashpoint in the essay to the essay we read by Pollit and how books really can shape our lives which is why it's important to make the books relatable because they have such an effect on who we become.

The second flashpoint I found in this essay is this:

"However, though Guaman Poma’s text did not reach its

destination, the transcultural currents of expression it exemplifies

continued to evolve in the Andes, as they still do, less in writing

than in storytelling, ritual, song, dance-drama, painting and

sculpture, dress, textile art, forms of governance, religious belief,

and many other vernacular art forms. All express the effects of

long-term contact and intractable, unequal conflict."(Pg 4)

It talks about the power of words and once again I was able to relate it back to Pollit's essay and how the canon is something we shouldn't take lightly because literature is important and has an impact on our lives.