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.

Essay 1.

Education Is Not Black and White

Throughout my twelve years of public education I really never came to realize what the system was, how it worked, what I was learning, why I was learning what. This ignorance stayed put up until I got to college, and really until I began English 101. I had always been aware that education had funneled students into this “perfect person” but I suppose I never really put it together. The thought was always in my mind and it really makes me question everything about public education. Why do they teach what they teach to students in public school systems? When did it become apparent to school systems that the arts weren’t as important as social sciences or mathematics? I took a college course Music class my senior year of high school that really described how, throughout the ages, music played an important role for the development of children. When did that change?

***The TED talk is something that really stood out to me the most in this course and it really brings me to this train of thought I have about education and the arts. What happened that turned such a sour note towards music, dance, drama? I’m really trying to figure out why we don’t have these programs more in our school and this talk really introduces more questions than answers for me about this subject. I’m curious as to why we haven’t been able to add a balance of these subjects since all of them have proved their importance in the health and development of children? In the TED talk he describes how children are born with different talents, skills, ways of learning and with this system of education, students are left out. In this public school system children who aren’t able to “play” the part of a good student are set up for failure. Freire said it himself describing how students were like receptacles and the best students were the ones who could take up the most information. Is this fair? In a system where “no child left behind” is such an important factor, why are we leaving children behind based on how well they do at a certain area? Why aren’t we focusing on the areas that support and help healthy brain and body development?

***In Gatto’s research paper he describes how schooling is really just making kids manageable and to some extent it’s true. (Not that it’s a bad thing to be taught how to be managed; we can’t all be in charge.) But we should be able to all have the ability to go above and beyond that. Is this system of education holding us back from our full potential? By not introducing the arts more into our school system our we hindering the future generations we need to rely on? I’m really questioning our school system too, because it is something we really should be constantly questioning. We can’t stay under one belief of school system never changing or questioning anything while the rest of the world goes and changes drastically on us. We all need change and it is bound to happen and it usually doesn’t ever mean something bad. What if we changed our school systems to support those born dancers or violinists? Would we be able to have a better more well rounded world?

People throughout history have questioned the system whether it was a system of government or in this case, our education system. We should always question to promote change and that’s exactly what Gatto, Freire and Sir Ken Robinson are doing here. Why not question? Education isn’t an issue that’s black and white. There are gray areas. There are those students who aren’t meant to be good at mathematics (myself included), but excel when it comes to the arts. Why should we measure intelligence by mandatory exams that are all the same? It bothers me that in order to get into a prestigious school you have to take a timed test that really is focusing on one side of the brain (not that I’m supporting the idea of having dancing required as part of the ACT). Why can we talk about racism and focus on equality when we’re incapable of being equal in the public school systems? Our futures shouldn’t depend on the way that we learn. It’s unfortunate and unfair to a minority group that is being overlooked. We talk about this country being based on equal rights yet we are so far from achieving equality. This not only comes with public education but race too. Both of these issues aren’t black and white. We’ve come a long way with education and what we teach and the technology we have to help teach the curriculum but we can’t stay focused on that because we’ve gotten “far enough”. There is so much farther that we can go in education and like Sir Ken Robinson talks about the arts is a critical part of school that we are leaving out.

***One of the things that really popped out to me was what Freire was talking about with critical thinking. In one of my other classes, Education and Equity, we talk about how key critical thinking is and how we really should focus on bringing up really conscious thinkers in our school systems. This is yet another one aspect of public education that puzzles me, why not teach this too? We have so much potential when we put a bunch of students in a school. They are open to new ideas and ready to work through problems all the way setting themselves up for success in the future. Why aren’t we helping them achieve this? Why are we holding out on teaching some of the most important subjects? Shouldn’t it be our responsibility to help these students achieve their potential? Why is it that we hold them back and if they don’t “fit” the systems ideal student, we set them up for failure? With these kids and their parents they really expect the most from this education system, why is it we aren’t focusing time and energy on creating a public school system that is capable of handling everyone’s needs? Why are we leaving children behind with no children left behind? Its important for us to look at the surrounding facts on public education, we see the evidence that Gatto gives us about people throughout history. People who haven’t gone to school or have taken different paths of achieving knowledge and succeeded in becoming some of the greatest leaders and inventors our time has had. Why don’t we look at this evidence as proof that our education system is clearly faulty? Could we be filtering out these future geniuses due to the fact they don’t fit the criteria of what a perfect, ideal student should be? This reminds me of how when I was in high school, my math teacher always went through the chapters extremely fast paced and it became a stress to me because I wasn’t learning as quickly as she was teaching, and yet when I talked to her she made it seem like it was my problem for not being quick enough. Is that what we should be teaching our students? I don’t think it’s just me personally because I know that everyone has his or her own pace of learning. There shouldn’t be a time limit on how we measure intelligence. The standardized testing that we force upon students is yet another stresses that forces student’s who once again aren’t fitting the “ideal student” profile. We are put into a room, timed, and then forced to show our intelligence through a bubble sheet of answers with subjects ranging with math, science, English and reading. Not that these subjects aren’t key, but it seems to me we’re missing something. And we’re missing some of the most important subjects that should be up there with math, science, English and reading. We need to look at our public school system and see the imperfections before and we should take it upon ourselves to change it, it’s our responsibility to make it the best it can be. Only then should we be able to really measure intelligence and knowledge.

Journal Entry #2.

1) Quotes:

1. “His task is to “fill” the students with the contents of his narration—contents which are detached from reality, disconnected from the totality that engendered them and could give them significance.” (Page 1)

This reminds me of a lot of my classes I have taken in high school, a lot of the things my teachers would teach would be so completely irrelevant and completely disconnected from anything the students could relate to, it was really specifically for what the teacher wanted to teach. And it wasn’t even that they wanted to teach, it was more of a job to them and it’s sad to me that public school has become something like that.

2.“Worse yet, it turns them into “containers,” into “receptacles” to be “filled” by the teachers. 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 the students they are.” (Page 1)

This really reminds me of that situation in school again. The teachers would basically just teach you whatever and expect you to be empty. He describes how the better the teacher is really depends on how well they can fill the “receptacles” and how the students really are graded on how well they can, “…permit themselves to be filled….” It’s sad in this day and age we are relying on that to measure how bright a student is, instead of their actual talents. Intelligence is really based on how well you can play the games of public education.

3. “It follows logically from the banking notion of consciousness that the educator’s role is to regulate the way the world “enters into” the students.” (Page 4)

This reminds me of Gatto’s piece and how education is really mainly there to manage people and teaches people to be managed. This quote really adds to that and talks about how education is something that almost creates droids, zombies that are really brought up through the school system to act a certain way.

2) Identify:

I think that Freire really is second-guessing the school system we have now. He doesn’t believe in memorizing facts and forcing information down upon students because the teachers choose it, like he said, being fed information like receptacles of information. Not only that he is challenging why we don’t teach critical thinking. He believes this is key in order to really creating a generation of well-educated people. He believes that creativity and less of a “structured” system of education would be more helpful.

3) Questions:

1. How does Freire expect to achieve this education system and the level of critical thinking necessary for a generation of well-educated students?

I believe that Freire thinks that we can achieve this education system through critical thinking and teachers who will really focus less on the “structured” education system and more on the other ways students learn.

2. What does critical thinking consist of in the public education?

This question really got me thinking. I really was curious as to what “critical thinking” really is. I think that critical thinking would be something that could challenge the students and allowing them to explore through their own thinking process as a way of learning. I believe that critical thinking is something that should be done in school systems because it really is a good way for students to explore their interests of learning as well as expand their knowledge.

3. How would the new education system benefit the students in the future?

I think that Freire believes and expects that the education system he wants, if possible to achieve, will help create less “zombies” and open recepticles of knowledge. Students would have more “applied” knowledge where as now, the knowledge in a school system is just the memorization of facts and information. The critical thinking would pose as a helpful guide in the future for students who would normally have less critical thinking skills.

Informal Writing Assignment 1.

It Isn’t Just Black and White

The start to our English 101 class was really watching a video describing the issues that schools have with filtering out creativity. This has helped me re-think my views on Public Education. At first I was really under this impression that Education really is something black and white. School just came naturally to me and I never really thought of the issues that some people face with learning.

In the TED talk, it really describes how we begin our schooling focusing on almost everything. I remember during my years in kindergarten and first grade, up until 5^th grade really, Physical Education was required, along with some kind of fine arts such as orchestra, band or choir. After that middle school didn’t require fine arts anymore and we really started focusing on subjects like science or math. High school was the worst, with only one year of physical education required, no fine arts required or languages, students really were forced to pick a path that focused on one half of our brain.

Gatto talks about the problems that we have with Education and the public school systems that we have and he is right on target with the fact that there is an issue. Our school systems do promote a certain kind of learning. Until we are educated about this matter though, and we are capable of educating others about this there will be no change. We can’t rely on others to change the school systems while we sit on the sidelines. It’s important to take issues like this seriously, the problems of not focusing on fine arts, the fact that we’re not taking into consideration the fact that some students learn differently. There have been numerous studies that show that students all learn differently whether it’s kinesthetic, auditory or visual. We shouldn’t ignore what Gatto or Sir Ken Robinson say. We should build on that and educate ourselves so we can educate others and promote the change we want to see in our schools.

"Against School" Journal Entry #1

1. What is Gatto literally saying here?

Gatto literally is saying that our school system is based on teaching kids how to be managed. We make kids grow up in a school system where they cannot manage themselves and in order to be a successful person you have to go through this entire process and way of learning. He describes how that way of schooling is faulty. He goes on to explain how many of the most successful well known people in history had really no education yet they were some of the smartest people in history such as, "...George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, [and] Abraham Lincoln...." With this school system, they push kids in a certain direction really based on a country that no longer exists. This school system is creating students who can't help themselves and really, they need to be told what to do now due to this education system.

2. Why is Gatto saying this? How is he saying it? What does it mean that he says this and not that?

I believe Gatto wrote this because he wants to educate people on how the schooling system is really funneling us into this way of needing to take orders from people in a higher command. He goes on to give us an example in the way of technology. We buy TV's, and that leads to buying more materialistic items. When we buy computers, we see items on the computer that we need to buy. We always are being pushed into directions because we are taught in our scholastic upbringing that we need to be told what to do/buy.

I don't quite understand the last question so I'm going to just leave my response by answering the first two parts of the questions.

3. What do I think about what he's saying? What does it remind me of?

I think he has some valid points, yet I don't know if everything he is saying is quite that drastic. I believe that most people, at least in my experience of school, have minds of their own. In the TED talk video we had watched, it talks about how it is really trying to create people who are really focused on the mind, and one side of the brain, yet we all still have a say of what we do, and can manage ourselves. So I agree and disagree. At that degree yes, public education is doing this to us, pushing us in a direction that will make us have certain jobs and once again do certain things. Yet, we still have choices we can make, we aren't robots.

4. What rhetorical strategies is Gatto using here? What forms of "appeal" is he using?

Gatto uses ethos in the beginning describing his experience in the school system as a teacher as a testament to his argument. He doesn't really ever use pathos in this piece. He mainly focuses on logos and facts that are backing up his argument. He uses facts to keep his argument solid for example the facts about the lack of schooling for George Washington, ect., were there to back up his story. Logos was the key rhetorical strategy he used.

Blitzen Trapper - Furr

Introduction

My name is Natalia Rios and I grew up in Laramie, Wyoming. After I graduated I moved to Bellingham with my family. I have an older brother who means the world to me, and he lives just a few hours away in Portland. I'm really close with my family and love spending time with them! I love the outdoors, hiking, backpacking, camping and fishing are a few of the many awesome activities that I enjoy! I'm also on the Western Crew team which is awesome! Another big thing I love to do is traveling, I've lived all over the world from Australia to Mexico! I love experiencing other cultures, it fascinates me and I believe gives people a more well rounded look on life. I'm excited to be in college and I could go on for days about the many things I love to do! As I get more into this blog I'll probably explain more of my interests but for now I'll try and keep it short and sweet!

Favorite song? Definitely Furr by Blitzen Trapper or Take Care by Drake.