In the service of what?

"As is commonly the case with new policy initiatives, however, more attention is being focused on moving forward than on asking where we are headed"

I believe that this quote sums up the whole article. People in today's world are looking for a "quick fix" weather it is getting fast food, driving faster to get to a place, or putting a "band aide" on things like the homeless. It's great that people want to help the poor and less fortunate but the question they need to ask themselves is "What I did to help, will it help them a year from now?" We need to look for solutions to help these people in the long run rather then what we can do right now. We need to teach them how to survive and make it on their own rather then giving them a "quick fix" to their problems.

"They call for a curriculum that emphasizes critical reflection about social policies and conditions, the acquisition of skills of political participation, and the formation of social bonds"

To me this quote means that people need to look at the critical reflection, that with all the money that is in the world their are people that go days without eating. We need to have a plan that can get these people what they need whether it is to make more shelters to help them and get them back on their feet. Is the government helping at all? Do they even acknowledge that their is a problem, I don't think so. We need to form a social bond that helps everyone.

"...which he then distributed to the homeless in San Francisco, determined the kits contents without ever talking with the homeless individuals or with those what had knowledge on the subject"

If you don't know what someone needs then how can you make their lives better? You should be informed about something before you start to take action, it is important to help but know the best ways that you can.

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us.

Christensen has so many great things to say and a lot of things that I have never thought about until reading her point of view and what she says.

• “Kenneth noticed that people of color and poor people are either absent or servants to the rich, white, pretty people.”

The youtube video that I posted (if you click on the word servants) is from the movie Fantasia. The character's name is Sunflower. Sunflowers features are all distorted and made bigger. This is just not right, and it doesn't teach anything to kids other then cruilaty. If you have ever seen the movie they also have characters that are blue and pink as well as other colors but when they are "falling in love" it is always with the same color and not any of the other ones.

• "Happiness means getting a man and transformation from wretched conditions can be achieved through consumption--in [Cinderella's] case, through new clothes and a new hairstyle."

It shows girls that if they aren't spitting image of beautiful then they will not have a great life. Until Cinderella was visited by her fairy godmother she was leading an ordinary life. As soon as she was "transformed" she got a Prince and everything should could have dreamed of. I think that this teaches kids that it doesn't matter what is on the inside but the out. I don't think that it could send a worse message, you need to not judge a book by its cover and what is inside of a person makes them who they are not what they look like.

• "Women who aren't white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess."

If you just take a look at this picture you can see what this quote says. Although Princess Jasmine is not white, you can see that her skin is just a few shades darker then the other princesses which wouldn't be the real case if she were Indian or whatever her background is. All the princess characters always look so beautiful; perfect hair, make-up, skin, clothes. It shows a false sense of what the world is like when little kids are young. I mean don't get me wrong I think that "fairytale" like these stories are important, I would have been the first one to dress up like Cinderella when I was little. Although, are we putting too many false hopes into our kids lives. This also makes me think about the show Ugly Betty. If you have ever seen it Betty is this ordinary, plain looking Mexican girl. She has braces and not a great sense of fashion and she works for a fashion magazine. Every other person except for one main lady, are white. They are all very beautiful and done up. You can see what some of this things that Christensen talks about are not just in the shows our kids watch but everywhere.

Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community.

It took me a while to write what I thought about Carlson's piece. It made me think long and hard about what if I was in a situation of having the opportunity to teach about gays and lesbians in my classroom and what would I do. I think it is important to include everything about this, even in a classroom of second graders which is what I want to teach. The more that kids learn at a younger age and the different views that they see can sometimes keep them from being "bias" and only having the opinion that their parents were raised on or what the TV and news has shown them.

• "... gay people have for the most part been made absent, invisible, and silent within this community..."

Carlson is talking about the community of the classroom and how they are so over looked. He even goes on to say that some teachers have been fired because they are gay and have some how brought it into the classroom which is just not right. Every person no matter what they believe in or who they choose to love should ever be punished. Yes, it is said that a "normal" relationship is a man and women but who says that a women and women or man and man can't be normal? What makes man and women relationships so special, some may argue that is it against religion or that god wouldn't approve. Love is love, there is no reason to deny someone that right. If you brought this subject up more in the classroom then maybe we could change the problem that is arising against LGBT's and what people think about this specific group.

• "Early in this century, the dismissal of gay teachers was legitimates as a way of keeping young people from being exposed to improper role models, lechery, and child molestation."

So now all of the sudden because a teacher is gay they are going to hit on their students and molest them? No. If this is an argument that someone is trying to make then it is not logical. It could be said for a female teacher and male students, it doesn't have to be because you are gay. There is no way that if this is what people are trying to say that it should be legitimate because then the same thing could be said about every teacher in the school systems.

• "selective tradition"

People don't want to include the subject of gays and lesbians because it is not the "normal culture" that they are used to. A lot of older people don't like change and it is hard to sway them from anything other then what they grew up with.

Teaching Multilingual Children

I read the story teaching multilingual children by Virginia Collier. I really loved what she had to say about teaching kids and how to deal with the difficulties of teaching them English without eliminating their own culture and language. There are three statements that really stood out to me in the list of seven:

• statement 3: Don't teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language.

This stood out to me because I couldn't agree more with it. For kids that come to America or that are here and have parents and family that speak in another language at home have a hard time adjusting and it is also a part of who they are. Children will feel most comfortable with the language they speak at home so I believe that the teacher also has a role in understanding the children's language and structure, as well as how it relates to the language they are being taught.

• statement 5: Do not forbid young students from code-switching in the classroom. Understand the functions that code-switching serve.
  

I believe that when children are in the classroom they shouldn't have to change who they are and what they speak at home completely. If a child doesn't know how to get something out in English I believe they should feel comfortable talking in another language and being able to figure it out. Code-switching shows how sometimes things can be borrowed from English and incorporated into their own language. The example that Collier uses is: Los muchachos estan punchando la troca. In the example a normal person speaking Spanish would have used the words empujar and comionela for push and truck. The words that they would use are borrowed and sound more familiar with the English words.

• statement 7: Provide a balanced and integrated approach to the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

It is important for everyone in the classroom feels comfortable with the listening, speaking, reading and writing. The more you listen and speak at language the more comfortable you can get with it. You just need to make sure the students are saying and writing things the right way so that they are not being taught wrong. All of these statements make me think about my classroom at Young's Elementary school. I have a classroom that is ESL which means that English is the second language speaking at home. The teacher that is in my classroom with me allows the children to speak the other languages that they know. When she is teaching, they all talk in English, but when they are at groups on their own they communicate in other languages. In the classroom that I am in, I heard Spanish, Chinese, and French being spoken. Although they all know how to speak another language they do their best to talk in English. Some kids are better then others at it but it really is nice getting to help them get a sentence out.

White Privilege

Statement 3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

- I believe that this statement is true, but for both African Americans and whites. Most people, regardless of race are able to live in the neighborhoods that they want to without having someone discriminate against them. We used to have problems with African Americans and whites living with each other and being able to stay calm, as time progresses this seems to get better.

Statement 18. I can be sure that if I ask to talk to "the person in charge" I will be facing a person of my race.

- I would have to disagree with this statement if the way she is stating it is that only whites will usually be in a place of management. Now a days if you look around their are people of all different races in positions of power. For instance you just have to look at the president, things and times are changing and I just have to disagree with this.

Statement 19. If a traffic cop pulls me over, or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.

- I agree that whites do have this privilege even if it isn't intentional. Some police officers see a person of a specific race and think that they could have stolen the nice car that they were in. As well as if they did get pulled over for something minor there always seems to be another suspicion of something else wrong going on.

A lot of the things that McIntosh states I would have to agree with. These problems have been around for awhile and will continue to stay the same unless we as a community and society starts to see things differently. I like when McIntosh talks about how she never realized how real all of these privileges actually were before she wrote them all down. I think this couldn't be more true, a lot of times people don't see what is happening in front of them because they are so used to something.
If everyone took the time to stop and think about the privileges that are still unfair and start the change of the world with themselves then we would be able to get somewhere. Before you can talk to other people about what needs to be changed you have to believe in what you are "fighting" for. I think we can relate this back to Johnson and the way that he looks at the world and what he believes we need to do to change it.

Introduction

My name is Jessica Muraski, I just transferred to RIC this fall. I went to Southern Connecticut last year but my twin sister goes to JWU and I thought it would be nice to be closer to her. We got a house on Pembroke and it has been great so far. I love all of my classes this semester, all the teachers seem to be really wonderful so far. I'm really looking forward to the FNED class and what it has to offer us.