Social Justice Event: Shirley Wilcher

Social Justice Event: Shirley Wilcher

"Race knows no economic bonds"

I learned so much at the social justice event. Shirley Wilcher was a great speaker! She talked about civil rights, affirmative action in government contracting, affirmative action in employment, affirmative action in higher education, diversity and inclusion and why affirmative action is necessary. This is what I learned. 

Major Events in Civil Rights

1949: desegregation of US Armed Forces

1955: Montgomery bus boycott

1963: Betty Friedan feminist movement begins

1964: President signed civil rights act

1966: EEOC fill reports about racial and ethical and women working in companies

1969: Stonewall riots gay rights movement

1973: Nixon signs rehabilitation act affirmative action plan

1990: Bush disabilities act

1991: Bush civil rights act

What is Affirmative Action?

Overt discrimination in the sense that an employer actually refuses to hire solely because of race, religion, color, or national origin is not as prevalent as is generally believed. To a greater degree, the indifference of employers to establishing a positive policy of nondiscrimination hinders qualified applicants and employees from being hired and promoted on the basis of equality. 

Johnson's Speech on Affirmative Action 
"But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please. You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates. This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result." (Johnson). 

Affirmative Action in Employment
Executive Order 11246 and its regulations refer to a process that requires a government contractor to examine and evaluate the total scope of its personnel practices for the purpose of identifying and correcting any barriers to equal employment opportunity. Where problems were identified, the contractor is required to develop a program that is precisely tailored to correct the deficiencies. Where appropriate, the contractor is required to establish reasonable goals to measure success toward achieving that result.
Here is an article about the laws that try to prevent discriminating job applicants.

Here is a video of Shirley Wilcher speaking. Everyone who didn't go to this event should really watch this video!

Reflection and Connections to life and Readings

I found this presentation so interesting and informative! A lot of what she had talked about I really didn't anything of and didn't realize that is was actually occurring still today. I thought that this presentation went a long really well with the reading White Privilege by McIntosh and Privilege, Power and Difference by Johnson. White people don't realize that they have the privilege of getting jobs over other races. They feel as though they are qualified for the job and that is the only reason why they were employed, but the truth is that other applicants of different races may have more experience and are more qualified then the white applicant but the white applicant was chosen over them due to their skin color. White people are privileged for not knowing that this actually occurs.

This week as I was working, one of the workers who had the shift before me was working on some applications for jobs in the medical field so she could have some experience before she graduates. She is African American and she had asked me whether or not she should put her race down on the application. She said that she shouldn't because people will probably look at that first and disregard all of her qualifications. I just looked at her with a shocked expression. I didn't even think that that would have been a problem. This presentation, her job applications and the readings have really opened my eyes to the idea that white people really are privileged and don't realize it. 

She had also discussed how the LGBTQ community has really grown in getting better jobs, however there is still the issue of people looking down on them and discriminating against them. This goes along with the reading Speaking the Unspeakable in Forbidden Places by Allan. If we start off teaching children in our classrooms about the LGBTQ community it could help their group in the future with getting jobs. People will be able to understand them better and realize they are the same as us. They will be able to get jobs more easily.
Here is a video and article about how the LBGTQ community have a more difficult time getting called back for jobs.

Education is Politics

Education is Politics

By: Ira Shor

         In this article Education is Politics by Ira Shor, there were three quotes that really stuck out to me and I believe summarize the article well. "To socialize students, education tries to teach them the shape of knowledge and current society, the meaning of past events, the possibilities for the future, and their place in the world they live in," (Shor 14). I thought that this was very important because it talks about how education basically shapes them as a person. In the same paragraph it asks a bunch of questions about how people decide what we learn, how we learn it, and in who's view point we learn it from. I thought that this was a very interesting idea, thinking back to high school when we learned different events in history, we were learning it from the view point of the United States. I took a class in my senior year that was a film class, and it showed other countries views on the many big events that occurred in our history and surprisingly it was very different from the way we learned things. I thought that this was important to know with the idea that the government and politics basically control what we learn and shape our futures with that knowledge. 

        Another quote I thought was important stated, "Participation is the most important place to begin because student involvement is low in traditional classrooms and because action is essential to gain knowledge and develop intelligence.," (Shor 17). I believe that this is so important in the classroom. Participation gives students the knowledge and ability to grow as a person in life skills. Only active learning could students develop scientific method and democratic habits rather than becoming passive pupils waiting to be told what things mean and what to do... Politically for Dewey, participation is democratic when students construct purposes and meanings. This is essential behavior for citizens in a free society," (Shor 18). This goes along with the second quote. Participation gives students the ability to feel important and want to participate in the society as well when they grow up. 

         The third quote states, "The teacher plays a key role in the critical classroom. Student participation and positive emotion are influenced by the teacher's commitment to both," (Shor 26).  think that this concept is very important. Without a teacher who is fully committed to the students and to the subject in which they are teaching. The students get bored and realize that the teacher could care less. Teachers need to understand that in order to get good positive participation from students they need to give good and well thought class discussions.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/student-participation-strategy

This link has a great video of how to improve participation with specific strategies! I find it very interesting and everyone should try to watch it if they can.

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome (reflection)

By: Christopher Kliewer

       

            These reading made me thing a lot about my high school and their special ed program. In my high school we have a group of students who are special needs, and they are always together doing everything together. Every class they have together, every lunch and every activity. They don't have options to take other classes with all the other students in the school. I believe that they should be given the opportunity to try other classes because not all of them are the same level and many of them could take the classes they want to take and do well! But they have a specific schedule given to them because they are treated all the same as if they all have the same level of special needs but that is just not the case. They all are different and many can function on their own. 

            Our school however does a good job of giving them options to interact with other students through activities. They have this program called Peer Partner, which allows the special ed students to join a gym class and get a partner to work with. All the special ed kids are in the same gym class together but they had other students who help them through all the activities which is really nice. We also have a program called Best Buddies where some students plan activities for the special ed students to attend to after school. It gives them a space to interact with other people outside of their normal group and home. We also have a unified basketball team which I believe is a great program. One special ed student on that team was a great basketball player and during the varsity basketball senior night he was able to play on the team and compete at the varsity level for he was a senior to. He graduated in my class and he now goes to college and competes at a college level in basketball! He is an inspiration for everyone.

This video is so powerful and I think everyone should watch it. It shows a girl with Down Syndrome asking to not be limited  because she is the same and has the same needs as everyone else in the schools. 

Literacy with an Attitude

Literacy with an Attitude

By: Patrick Finn

           In the reading Literacy with an Attitude by Patrick Finn, Chapter 2 I thought was the most important part. It talked about a study they did on different schools that had different wealth classes. The schools were mostly made up of white students. Jean Anyon studied fifth grade classes in five public elementary schools in rich neighborhoods and not-so-rich neighborhoods in northern New Jersey. These are the five schools in which they studied all of them having different wealth classes. 

      In one school, designated executive elite, family breadwinners were top corporate executives in multinational corporations or Wall Street financial firms. Their incomes were in the top 1 percent in the United States. The teachers were women married to high-status professionals and business executives. The knowledge in the  school was academic, intellectual and rigorous. More was taught and more difficult concepts. Reasoning and problem solving were important. The dominant theme in the executive elite school was excellence--preparation for being the best, for top-quality performance. "In the executive elite school the children were developing a relationship to economy, authority, and work that is different from all the other schools. They learned grammatical, mathematical, and other vocabularies by which systems were described. They were taught to use these vocabularies to analyze and control situations. The point of school work was to achieve, to excel, to prepare for life at the top,"(Finn 20). 

     In a second school, designated affluent professional, family breadwinners were doctors, TV and advertising executives, and other highly paid professionals. Incomes were in the top 10 percent for the nation. Teachers came from everywhere in the state, usually in the middle and upper class. Creativity and personal development were important goals for students. Teachers wanted students to think for themselves and make sense of their own experience. Knowledge in the affluent professional school was viewed as being open to discovery. "In the affluent professional school the dominant them was individualism with a minor theme of humanitarianism. "Children in this school were developing a relationship to the economy, authority, and work that is appropriate for artists, intellectuals, legal and scientific experts and other professionals whose work is creative, intrinsically satisfying for most people, and rewarded with social power and high salaries," (Finn 18).

        In a third school, designated middle class, breadwinners were a mixture of highly skilled, well-paid blue- and white collar workers and those with traditional middle-class occupations such as teachers, social workers, accountants, and middle managers. Incomes were better than average for the United States but below the top 10 percent. Teachers grew up in the neighborhood of the school, and they believed their job was to teach knowledge found in the textbooks. Knowledge in the middle-class was a matter of gaining information and understanding from socially approved sources. It was all about getting the right answer. The dominant theme in the middle-class school was possibility, meaning that if you had the knowledge and worked hard you could get good grades, good education and good jobs. "Children were developing a relationship to the economy, authority and work that is appropriate for white-collar working-class and middle-class jobs:paper work, technical work, sales and social services in the private and public sectors.... They were rewarded for knowing the answers, for knowing where to find answers, for knowing which form, regulation, technique, or procedure is correct," (Finn 15).

     In a fourth and fifth school designated working class, about one-third of the breadwinners were skilled blue-collar workers; about half were unskilled or semiskilled blue-collar workers, and about 15 percent of the heads of households were unemployed. Most of the teachers were born in the same city as the school but lived in better sections, most of them were young. Knowledge was presented as fragmented facts. Work was following steps in a procedure. The things they learned were more about lessons on how to behave. There wasn't much learning of anything besides behavior. If they learned how to add and subtract that was a bonus. The dominant theme was resistance. "These children were developing a relationship to the economy, authority, and work that is appropriate preparation for wage labor-labor that is mechanical and routine," (Finn 12). 

        All of these schools teach differently and prepare the students for different areas of work. I think that this is very interesting on how they all differ so much! I can easily compare the tutoring to the working-class schools. All the teachers worry about is if the students behave well that day. The teachers even struggle with just keeping them well behaved never mind actually teaching!

http://socialistworker.org/2009/08/05/getting-your-class-organized

Becoming Something Different

Becoming Something Different(quotes)

By: Fairbanks, Crooks and Ariail

            Becoming Something Different by Fairbanks, Crooks and Ariail really connects to Rodriguez's article Aria and Indian Fathers Plea by Lake. One quote that goes a long with Lakes article is  "These researchers argue that perceptions of Latina/o students as lacking English proficiency, adequate motivation, and parental support, combined with the school’s devaluing of cultural practices different from the mainstream, too often position Latina/o students as deficient." In Indian Fathers Plea the boy is viewed as slow because of being a different culture from the culture of power. This also goes a long with the idea of Silenced Dialogue and how there is a culture of power. Unless you are in that culture you lack opportunities and are viewed as less privileged than the culture of power.

          Another quote that I really liked and thought was important was,  "Esmé and her teachers positioned her as needing help with academic tasks. In the sixth grade, she was not sure about her status as student. I do listen to the teacher, but sometimes I don’t know the questions so I ask, I just, the questions and stuff, but I don’t really know if I’m good. She indicated her efforts to understand but also her uncertainty about questions as a means of completing assignments successfully. Similarly, when she asked questions, the teacher’s response sometimes eluded her. She described asking her teacher for help in writing a persuasive essay, specifically on developing reasons for her argument. The teacher’s response was to provide reasons for her. She was all talking to me like if I understand. Esmé’s lack of understanding and her teacher’s assumption that the explanation was clear frustrated her. Such frustrating experiences pointed out to Esmé where she had academic difficulties and contributed to her positioning of some teachers as not helpful." This quote I can really relate to some of my tutoring experiences and my teachers. I'm in two ESL classrooms and the teachers teach as if all the students were the same as their best student. They teach as if they all understand and are on the same level. I don't think its their fault, but I do believe that they just weren't prepared for the difficult task of explaining to the class in different ways to make all the students understand. They just assume that they are explaining it well enough for the students to pick up but that isn't necessarily the case. A lot of the kids just sit in the class room staring at their papers with blank expressions and when the teacher goes to help and to explain, they say what they think is helpful and then walk away. The student though is still staring at the paper with a frustrated and confused look. 

            The last quote that I picked really related to Rodriguez. It stated, "Esmé’s parents were Spanish dominant, and although her mother had taken some basic English courses through community education, Spanish was the language of their home. Her parents helped her with homework as much as they could, even though her father had little formal education himself." In Aria by Rodriguez the Spanish children had to learn English and was expect to speak with their parents at home in order to improve, and it ended up being difficult because of the lack of English their parents had. The same with Esme's parents, they were mostly Spanish dominant and had difficulty with English. Both sets of parents however knew that it was important for their children to learn English so they will have more opportunities in life and do well in school.

Between Barack and a Hard Place

Between Barack and a Hard Place: Challenging Racism, Privilege and Denial in the Age of Obama (quotes/idea)

By Tim Wise

            There were three main ideas that I thought were really important and interesting in this video. One was the idea that 142 million white people believe that they have 4 or more black friends which is 3/4 of the white people of America. However there is only 35 million African Americans in the US and half of them said they have a white friend. He said that it was absolutely impossible that all of them were telling the truth! They weren't necessarily lying but they might not be as close as they think. I thought that this was very interesting. In my high school there weren't many African Americans, and the ones that were there were mostly in lower level classes so I never really interacted with them. There were two though that were very bright throughout high school and ended up being some of my close friends that I did see and have over my house. Going back to the video though, he talks about how most schools do put African American kids in lower leveled classes because they believed they were low leveled learners due to their race. This idea connects with An Indian Fathers Plea by Lake. In this reading the same thing occurs. The child is Indian and is seen as a slow learner basically due to his race. It is still a problem in our society today but most people don't see it. 

         Another idea that I thought was very important that was said by Wise, "Job applicants with white sounding names, they just think you are white. They don't know you yet, if they think you might be based on your name you have a 50 percent chance for getting called back for an interview than with black sounding names even when all the qualifications are the same. Same years of experience, same education, same everything except the difference in the name. In other words merely being suspected of blackness gives you a leg down and being suspected of whiteness gives you a leg up." Basically what he is saying if that if your are black you are going to have less opportunities then people who are white. This is called white privilege. The article called White Privilege by McIntosh describes all of this and she talks about how white people have more opportunities in getting jobs, in education and many more. 

            Finally the last idea I thought was important was the study done on 625 college students over 6 weeks. The students wrote down every time they saw a racist act happening. All together they came up with 7500 racist acts in just 6 weeks! I thought that this was so crazy! I didn't realize that it happens this often and it really opened my eyes to how much of a problem it still is today. 

Here is a video about what people on the street think about White Privilege:

          

In the Service of What?

In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning(reflection)

By Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

 

                                               Joseph Kahne                              Joel Westheimer

           I think that service learning is a great way for students to understand problems going on in society and the world. Understanding that some people have it harder than others. Some people are homeless and understand why they are homeless is very important, because there are so many different ways in which people can become homeless. The most common assumption made is drug addiction but understanding that people could have lost their job or something tragic happened causing them to loose everything is important. The service learning helps student realize that some people need help with simple tasks that they wouldn't think anyone would need help with, such as going to the bathroom on their own. Many elders need help with this in nursing homes. I believe that all students should have to go through service learning in some form of their school careers.

 

           I did service learning for my church while I was in catholic school. I used to pass out meals to people who couldn't afford their own meals. It really showed me how many people struggle through life. We would walk into peoples homes and see how much of a mess their houses were and how little they had was so upsetting but it was something that I really needed to learn. It really showed me that not everyone has everything they needed and it helped me to become more aware of everything. 

         Service learning is something everyone should have to do. It helps teach lessons with hands on activities. The service learning gives a more memorable experience instead of just sitting in classrooms and talking about the issues. 

 

Please watch this video!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OWDpPSQRfE