"We need our teachers marching in the streets..." (Kozol, pg. 215)
Ummm... Hell yeah to that! I personally feel (which I think I've made pretty clear in my blogs and in class) that education needs to change; period. Education is to service our youth and provide them with tools to succeed in life. As educators, or counselors, it is our job to teach students about life, not train them for corporate America. Children are children, they are human beings just like you and I and should be given the chance to find what they really enjoy in life. Do they not? As the semester has progressed, I feel like the American style of education is training children to behave like robots to service the corporate world. Through education, society, advertisements, and the media we have really lost the meaning of life and the definition of happiness. Today, life is all about making money, all about having the best material things, and all about the individual. Together we need to march in the streets to restore justice and equality in school systems. Together as Americans we need to take back what we believe to be the right way of life. Children should not be trained to serve the corporate world where many slip through the cracks and struggle to make ends meet. Demand what we need and who knows we might just get it back.
"Then there is this wonderful discovery that people make: Children whom they thought to be so different from their own kids aren't so different after all..." (Kozol, pg. 223)
Honestly, I love the quotes that Kozol incorporates into this book. Again, coming from Canton I was barely ever exposed to diversity through public schooling. I never had the opportunity to play with a person of color and therefore never understood or discovered how similar children of all races can be. Reading the number of statistics and personal accounts incorporated into chapter 9 why aren't we integrating our schools? On page 229-230 a young black girl went to an integrated high school, graduated from Brown University, got a job at Procter & Gamble, and went to grad school to be a reading specialist. Author Rothstein says, "None of that would have been possible... if she had not gone to integrated schools." So my question is, why are we still living off the stereotypes that the founders of our nation have created? I would have loved to have gone to a school with diversity, that allowed me to make this wonderful discovery that Kozol talks about on my own versus in a book.
"...education is itself a fundamental personal right because it is essential to the exercise of First Amendment freedoms and to intelligent use of the right to vote. [They argued also] that the right to speak is meaningless unless the speaker is capable of articulating his thoughts intelligently and persuasively... [A] similar line of reasoning is pursued with respect to the right to vote." (Kozol, pg. 242)
I never thought of education in this way and this point is undeniably true. Education is a tool to teach children how to reason, how to persuade, and how to think intelligently. The First Amendment does require people to be educated so they can have a voice. Without the ability to speak, reason, and persuade, your voice means virtually nothing. In order to make an educated opinion or in this case to justly vote you need some type of background on the topics being addressed by each candidate.
I so agree with the statement you made that children are children and they should be allowed to grow and mature and not be forced by society to do so. I also really liked the second quote you posted from Kozol. When I read that quote in the book I had to double check and make sure I read it correctly because it is so true yet society seems to feel differently. I also want to say to that quote so what? If a child is different from yours is that so wrong? Do you want everyone to be the same? I believe that Kozol raises a lot of important questions in his book that really make you stop, think, and question things.
ReplyDeleteSociety definitely gives us some mixed messages and it's unfortunate that it helps reinforce negative stereotypes, racism, sexism, and a number of other things that families and teachers are trying to help eliminate. In response to the important questions you raised, I feel like parents want to restrict who influences their child(ren) and are scared and unsure of how people different (physically, financially, various parenting styles, etc.) from themselves may effect the development of their child. For example, I babysat 2 boys over the summer, (ages 6 and 12) the parents are very well off [they have three different tenants on their property (each with their own home), their kids go to private school a 1/2 hour away from their house, they have a tennis court, an indoor squash court, and so on and so forth. I think you get the idea.] and have a well structured household. The parents allow the boys to do a number of things and are very flexible but have clear and defined rules the boys follow. One of the neighbor's kids Ty is 8 and plays with Alec (the 6 year old) from time to time. Ty's parents own a farm and Ty is left home alone with his older sister (age 14) and brother (age 19) quite often. He spends a lot of his time in the house while Alec and his brother Andrew are encouraged to be outside as much as possible. Over the summer, I encouraged Alec to invite Ty over so he had things to do during the day so he wasn't at home by himself all day. I sensed that Alec's parents were a little uncomfortable, but enjoyed that Alec and Ty were playing together. My point is, Ty comes from a different type of family structure than Alec which I feel made Alec's parents a little uncomfortable. With time I felt like Alec's parents became more comfortable and they enjoyed Ty's company more and more. I hope that example made sense to you and it reinforced my point of parents being scared of how people different than themselves may effect their child.
ReplyDeleteI thought the example you gave was a great one. I definitely agree with what you said that by parents being scared of people who are different from themselves can negatively effect their child. By doing so parents are shaping their children's views on people and are starting to condition them that people who are different are bad. The problem I guess I am really having with all of this is why as a society who is considered so powerful are we so stupid, judgmental, and scared of what is different. I don't understand how we can't let go of our prejudices and accept others. I think that is probably the thing that I am having the most difficulty this semester in not only this class but my multicultural counseling class.
ReplyDeleteI feel you on that one. The process takes time and it's a bumpy road. Thinking critically about these issues can only make you stronger. Yes, the issues we talk about in class can be frustrating but just think, we are going to be active participants in influencing societal changes from the inside. Eventually, (we hope) future generations may not be as stupid, judgmental, or as scared about who/what is different. Stay on the positive side and we're going to do just fine.
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