Week 4 - Kozol Chapter 5, Spring Chapter 5, and Folder 4

"5. Those with power are frequently least aware of - or least willing to acknowledge - its existence.  Those with less power are often most aware of its existence." (Delpit, 24)
Wow.  This quote is so true.  We've seen it in our own classroom and in "The Color of Fear".  Our classmates have listened to personal accounts from people of color, but are convinced that white privilege doesn't exist, even when it does.  The Silenced Dialogue is interrelated to the concept of white privilege.  As a white American, I was very hesitant about accepting the concept of white privilege and never had the opportunity to acknowledge the existence of it until now.  After watching "The Color of Fear",  John (I'm not too sure if that was his name) was not listening to the other people in the room speaking about their personal experiences with racism.  John was the least willing to acknowledge that racism existed, and did not realize that he wasn't listening to his peers.  During the "Color of Fear" John didn't realize the importance of listening to the other people in the room in order for his reality of the world to change.  As Sharai said in class last week, "People need to wake up and smell the coffee".  In order for this realization to occur in a classroom, Delpit drove home the importance of teachers listening to adults that share the students' culture.  By listening to adults that share the culture of your students they will have a better learning experience.

"In a summer session for students who had failed a previous exam, little was "left to chance," noted a journalist from Education Week.  Teachers were "given binders spelling out precisely what they should be doing every day..."  To guarantee that they compiled, "three dozen monitors" dropped in on a class periodically." (Kozol, pg. 111)
I legitimately wrote ummm... in my book when I read this quote.  Honestly?  What the hell.  I don't understand 1) why people came up with this garbage, 2) why people allow this in a school, 3)  how this benefits anyone.  You might as well have a robot in the class.  Why is it that our society requires us to have higher levels of education when this is what they do?  What purpose does a scripted curriculum serve?  Isn't that what it is?  Also, I apologize for my rant but honestly I don't understand how people allowed this to happen to our school system.  How on earth do we get rid of this?

"Other children in the district, said The Times, cried and wet their pants out of frustration." (Kozol, pg. 114)
When I was in the 5th grade, (I remember this event for it scared me for life.  Not really but whatever)  I was in Mrs. Levy's class and I was required to take the CMT.  I am not the strongest reader, and most certainly do not have a large vocabulary.  I was taking the Reading Comprehension part of my test and I blanked out.  I looked at the page, read the story, and could not answer the multiple choice questions to save my life.  I got very frustrated and could not continue.  I stared at the page for what felt like hours and couldn't answer the questions; I had absolutely no idea where to start.  I was that kid, sitting at her desk crying and having a panic attack at my desk.  My teacher couldn't help me, and I was stuck.  I hated the CMTs ever since and hated the Reading Comprehension section for the rest of my middle school career until I could stop taking them.  And then came CAPT...  Anyway, when I read this quote I thought of myself and knew what those kids experienced.  Imagine if that's what school was like everyday, I probably would have dropped out of school.  If that's what those kids at Stanford 9 did I wouldn't blame them.  I hate standardized testing.