Christine E. Sleeter: The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies

 Reflection: 

    The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies by Christine E. Sleeter was a very informative reading in which she highlights the research on the social and academic value of ethnic studies curricula and programs. One portion of the reading that I found very interesting was how she highlights that history books depict racism as something that happened in the past, separate from today. 

    I thought this was really interesting because looking back on my education, I did feel as though racism wasn't really a thing that happened today, until I got older. I grew up in a predominantly non-diverse town with only a handful of colored kids in my school. One of my best friends and neighbors growing up was a mixed girl. I remember being young and learning about slavery and racism in school and everyone in the class slowly looked over to her. As a kid, this must have been such a weird feeling for her, to be stared at by everyone in the class. I'm not sure if she got any mean or negative comments, if she did, she never mentioned them to me. After that lesson, I never thought anything of it again. I just figured that racism wasn't a thing that was still happening today and moved on with my life. 

    Growing up and going to college was about when I started to realize that racism does still exist today. I had some prior knowledge of it from high school but being that I wasn't in a diverse community and I didn't watch the news, I didn't really see it happening. Like Sleeter said, it was also really hard for me to connect that slavery and segregation, especially, didn't happen that long ago. I remember in first grade, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s daughter came in to speak to us. I was so blown away that she was alive, since the teachings in the history books made it seem like racism was so disconnected from today's world. 

    Looking at what's happening in the world today, I can say with certainty that racism is a thing that still exists. ICE aggressively stops people just based on the color of their skin or the language they speak. No matter if they're a citizen. Racial profiling has been going on for years and I wonder if there will be a time in which it will no longer exist. 

    The sad reality is that white people have been whitewashing people of color for years, going all the way back to when they settled here and forced the Native Americans to give up their land and give into Christian culture. Now, like in the video and the reading, when people try to embrace their culture and learn in a way that is engaging to them, they are called out for being "anti-American," when in reality, "anti-American" is not supporting and embracing different cultures. This country is a melting pot of ethnicities, cultures, and languages. To say there is only the path (of white, Christian, English-speaking cultures and teachings) is what is "anti-American." As stated in an interesting article I found about America as a melting  pot, linked here, "...an American would be anyone who calls this country home." They also explain in this article that people in the United States expect cultures to mix together, which ends up making people sacrifice their original compositions, which is more an example of assimilation rather than a melting pot. 

    In class I would like to focus on how we think we could make America a more inclusive and safe space for minority groups. I think the Chicano studies were a
good start, but how do we show that these studies aren't "anti-American" and are actually a good thing for communities? 

Shannon Renkly & Katherine Bertolini's "Shifting the Paradigm from Deficit Oriented Schools to Asset Based Models..."

 Quotes: 

    While reading Renkly & Bertolini's "Shifting the Paradigm...," I couldn't help but highlight entire sections that jumped out to me as important. Though it was a short reading, there was so much important content that I chose to highlight it through quotes from the reading. The quotes that I chose and why are as follows: 

1) "The asset model 'promotes the success of every student by sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning through collaboration, trust, and a personalized learning environment with high expectations for students'...When the asset model is utilized through teacher evaluation, it also helps in 'developing and supervising the instructional and leadership capacity of school staff'... Additionally, when an entire community supports an asset model, there are numerous possibilities for community-parent-school partnerships...," (pg. 24). 

I chose this quote because it really highlights how an asset model transforms every level of the educational ecosystem -- from individual student instruction to school leadership and community engagements. This is important to the reading because Renkly & Bertolini were trying to prove that shifting schools away from a deficit model to an asset model is the right move. This quote shows that the asset model has research behind it, and it works. 

2) "...resilience can be fostered in our youth when families, communities, and schools work together to provide opportunities for kids to be involved in the community and build relationships with positive adults in their lives." (pg. 25)

I chose this quote because it reminds me of another reading that I did that talked about grit. That reading explained that grit (or resilience) can be fostered in students. Here, the authors are saying that by implementing an asset based system, we can grow resilience in children by involving them in their communities and building positive relationships with adults. These authors have shown that adults have an impact on children and it's this impact that drives them to succeed. Here is a link to an interesting article on grit. 

3) "...helpful strategies teachers can use in their classroom to highlight student strengths...include having high expectations for your students, convincing them that these expectations are attainable, helping them remove their fear of failure by encouraging them to fail forward, setting small and attainable goals, and celebrating successes when those goals are met before moving forward further." (pg. 26)

I chose this quote because it's a good example of how to have an effective classroom for students to be their best. It's important to keep these strategies in mind when teaching so that students feel motivated, uplifted, and unafraid to falter. These strategies help students move away from the fear and stress that is associated with school, and pushes them toward wanting to reach their goals, no matter how small, before moving forward. 

    One thing I want to reflect on in class is, in conjuncture with these strategies on how to highlight student strengths, how else do you think we could highlight student strengths in the classroom to make them feel encouraged to learn? 

Anyon: What "Counts" As Educational Policy? Notes Toward a New Paradigm

Reflection:

    This reading by Anyon was very interesting and thought-provoking throughout. One thing the mention is how children who grow up in poverty and live in impoverished areas are more likely to drop out of school, less likely to be motivated to learn, and ultimately, more likely to stay in poverty. 

    Anyon speaks about minimum wage, explaining that the first minimum wage was set at $3.05 and 67 years later in 2005, it only raised $2.10 more. Anyon explained that while people were against raising the minimum wage, studies showed that it would have no negative impact. So why are people so against raising the minimum wage? 

    This reminded me of when I started working as a lifeguard at 15 years old. I was getting paid minimum wage, which was $9.50 an hour. When I got my first paycheck, I remember wondering how it was such a small amount. The next year, minimum wage went up to $10.50 an hour. It felt good to make an extra dollar an hour, but it still wasn't enough. I remember doing the math in my third summer working there -- I had to pay to get certified as a lifeguard (twice because it's only valid for two years), I had to pay for gas because I lived 45 minutes away, I had to pay for lunch and breakfast when I was there because we weren't allowed to use the fridge and we didn't get a discount. All these expenses basically nullified my paycheck. 

    Anyon says that some of the reasons people oppose raising the minimum wage is because they believe it will force employers to fire employees or hire fewer workers. He explained that this belief held no truth which leads me to believe it's upper-class greed. I saw this first-hand when I went to my boss to ask for a raise. As an 18 year old, I was nervous. I walked into his office and calmly explained my reasons and then asked for a raise. He didn't look up from his desk until I finished. He glanced up and said "$1.00 more," dismissing me. $11.50 an hour. People working at other private swim clubs were making $15-$20 at this time. I also knew he was paying the boys who were on his football team more than he was paying others, despite the fact that they did less work than anyone else. 

    This part of the reading really made me think of the greed that CEOs have, reminding me of this article that I read that basically explains how CEOs gain wealth and purposefully keep workers in a lower class. 

    Has anyone else struggled with understanding why the minimum wage is so low when everything else is so expensive? Even now, I make a paycheck and immediately spend it on rent, groceries, or loans. 

The Broken Model

    

Argument:

    In "The Broken Model," Salman Khan argues that the current systems we have in place for schooling, largely based on the Prussian model of schooling, is outdated and ineffective at promoting true mastery of subjects. Instead of fostering deep understanding, school often encourage students to memorize information simply to perform well on tests. Khan explains that the Prussian model was originally created to produce obedient members of society and factory workers, rather than independent, critical thinkers. While this approach may have been appropriate for its historical context, Khan argues that today's world requires creativity, adaptability, and critical thinking -- skills that the current system often fails to cultivate.

  The Prussian model, Khan explains, was not meant to produce independent thinkers, but rather to create disciplined, compliant citizens who would submit to authority figures such as parents, teachers, religious leaders, and political rulers. When this model was adopted in the U.S., it wasn't meant as form of oppression; in fact, it was revolutionary for its time and helped expand access to education, lifting millions into the middle class and making the U.S. one of the most literate countries. However, Khan argues that despite these benefits, the structure of the system naturally discourages deeper inquiry, curiosity, and independent thought.  

  

    He also critiques the heavy reliance on testing, arguing that tests are poor indicators of a student's understanding, potential, or long-term learning. Tests capture only what a student knows at a single moment and cannot distinguish between genuine comprehension and short-term memorization. Because tests are often predictable, teachers prepare students for what is going to be on the exams rather than focusing on meaningful learning, or as Khan puts it, they teach to the exam.  

    Khan also explains that creativity in general is egregiously under appreciated and often intentionally suppressed in schools. Many educators fail to see math, science, and engineering as creative fields. While math and science have a lot of formulas that require some kind of memorization, they are also the process of creating something from scratch. 

    This reading connects closely to discussions of growth versus fixed mindsets that we just talked about in my CEP 552 class (article linked here). Labeling kids and squeezing them into categories based on test performance limits their future opportunities and reinforces a fixed mindset, leading student to believe their intelligence is static. Khan notes this when he notes that tests often determine who gains access to prestigious careers and who is relegated to lower-status work. Khan argues that just because someone tested poorly once, doesn't mean they can't be taught and perform better in the future, which shows a growth mindset. 

    In class, I would like to focus on what everyone thinks of testing. I know that I have always said that tests are all about temporary memorization. I would study for tests, just to allow myself to forget the information after. Of course, some things still stuck with me, like the classic Pythagorean Theorem and the definition of "pseudonym" but I forgot almost all dates from history tests. Is that common for everyone else?