Trend #2

Decorah Middle School Cafeteria. Talking to middle school students as they are surrounded by their friends in their free time to socialize at lunch is quite a unique experience. Not only do you get to see the way sets up their lunch program with rules and regulations the students must follow, but also you get to see the social interactions. Here are a few things I found out. Only three students had cell phones (out of probably 30 I talked to ranging from grades five-eight). I think this is a positive. Many students responded that they didn't have one, but would be receiving on when they went to high school. With another question being "how do you communicate with your friends outside of school," most responded that they would either call on land lines or talk over msn or aol(mostly eighth graders). I think this is a positive. I don't believe any middle schooler needs a cell phone. Communication and interaction between parents and students should be quality enough that parents know where students are, what they are doing, and when they need a ride without having to have a cell phone. Second thing I observed and was told, was that students aren't allowed to switch seats after they first sit down. While I realize this was probably a tactic to save time with the limitations of the around 20 minute lunch 'hour,' I had to still laugh. The individual non-movable chairs instead of what I had, benches, in my middle school cafeteria made the choice seem more stressful, permanent, and exclusive to students. Only ten or twelve students could fit at each table. As anyone knows, all the 'clicks' have designated tables in middle school and sometimes high school. So you can see how this only ten spots per table could be quite a situation for the middle school social life. I watched as boys, all on the football team, and 'made up' girls sat down at a table together. I wondered when the girls and boys starting integrating tables, because in the seventh grade lunch this wasn't happening. I thought about the girls or boys who were then left with no seats at 'their' table when the girls or boys came together. Concluding, while the cafeteria seating may seem very minuet in the education of students, socially it can make a huge impact on their life and it is something to think about.

Judy Jeffery

As I walked into the CFL for the final of the three educational based topic lectures, I was feeling a little burnt out. It was as if we were at a teacher's conference but still had to go to class too. This was a lesson in itself. School work is not going to stop for us to have time to grow professionally, we have to make time. Making this time is what will put us up in the competitive teacher job market of the Midwest. While I may seem to be rambling on about an unconnected topic to what Judy Jeffery was speaking on, I'm not. Jeffery was lecture three. We heard the business side of education, we heard the far far educational side of education, and now we heard the government side of education. The way Jefferey tied in state programs and educational laws to the state of Iowa's economy and educational trends was a key point to see. Not much of what Jeffery said was new to me and most of the audience, but the combination of her and the other speakers last week made the impression. This two day series of lectures started so many conversations and thinking to happen here at Luther College, it is invaluable to us future educators. One speaker could never have the effects that the combination of these three had. It really showed me the importance of representation of all sides.

David Ferrero

David Ferrero, a chair person of the Gate's Foundation, came to Luther and addressed the audience with his speech Pluralism in Education. In a charismatic and lively way Ferrero took the educationalists and philanthropists views of education and goals of education and highlighted were 'good intention' beliefs of both parties clash with those of the opposite group. He also went over various beliefs of educational philosophy. By doing this he explained that all of the groups and all of these philosophies are trying to achieve the same goal, that goal is to create a better education system for the children. However, where it becomes complicated is in defining better and defining what is 'good' in education. Here is where he left us. There are no answers to these questions. Each one of us as future educators need to approach individual situations with our beliefs and the knowledge of other's beliefs. By doing this we can create a system that may better help students by picking practices and philosophies that show results with the students you have and create the person within the student.

Jonathon Kozol

Kozol spent an hour talking about the injustices in American public schools. Growing up a privileged child and now dedicating his life to be an advocate to the education of minorities, he speaks of the underfunded, under trained, and out right ridiculous conditions of urban schools. He does this by integrating facts and personal observation in with humor. His sense of humor though was unprofessional, he used name calling and referred to government or corporate heads as stupid. While he had a lot of good points, that could cause significant conversations to begin about these attention deserving topics, I don't believe he used his talent and resources in the best way he could. By simply "playing" the game a bit more, I believe, he could get much further in his goals and efforts.
While I looked around in the auditorium I saw many eager and excited faces soaking in every word that came out of this frail man’s mouth. I, however, was not so convinced that his “martyrism” and charm would work on me. I went to his question and answer session in the afternoon and perceived him as an angry and bitter man that dealt with the injustices he saw by complaining and not taking action. While I am not saying he doesn’t take action, because he is a man that has obviously made improvements through his individual efforts on the American educational system, I am saying he didn’t seem to me to put every last effort into this cause he carried as so dear to him. These problems I had was first his interaction with David Farrero, a chairman of that Gate’s Foundation, he talked as though the Gate’s Foundation was just another all business donator that would not even look at a cause that would have slow and minuet progress. The Gate’s Foundation right now is helping intercity children and the fact that when asked if he wrote grant request, Kozol responded, “They wouldn’t give him money and he is too old to ‘beg.” If no one asks, how can Kozol expect people to help? If money is not donated how will we pay for these improvements that it is apparent these schools absolutely need?
In conclusion, Kozol opened the floor for conversation and spent his lifetime investigating the problem. Now it is our responsibility as future educators is to start where he left off and create solutions to the endless problems Kozol found; for without action and solution the problem will continue to grow, the gap continue to widen, and public schools will be no more apparent in this country as government official’s children are in them.

Melba Beals

Starting the year off with a speaker who had first hand experience with the civil rights movement and school integration was a wonderful start for students and faculty to think about where schools are today with integration and what action we need to take to move in positive directions. In Beals programs she talked about her own experience being one of the first to be integrated into Little Rock Central High School in 1957. From there she expressed her life since then, becoming a journalist and doing public speaking. Beals talked about the importance of caring in schools and in the classrooom. By simply caring issues of such prejudice can be corrected and justice can become closer to reality.

Trand Analysis #1

My Sweet Sixteen. This show should be renamed "My Sixteenth Birthday Party that Cost More than a Wedding and Makes the Society I Live in and Myself Look Ridiculous." This show not only gives teenagers unrealistic ideas about what is appropriate parent to child relationships, but also shows peers being self-centered, spoiled, and down right cruel to those around them.
First the attitude of the birthday girl or boy on this show is a horrible example to any American youth. They it believe it is their own right to have the car, entertainment, guest list, venue, not mentioning outfit, decorations, or preparations like invitations at their one and only sweet sixteen party. I am sure this causes arguments around the country about other children wanting their parents to bend every possible way so they can have the birthday party of the century that will set their parents back ONLY tens of thousands of dollars. For those in this country whose socio-economical class makes a birthday party like this out of the question it creates even a larger gap between the rich and poor in this country by highlighting the extravagant spending habits of the rich when it may be hard for some to make ends meet each month. Speaking of spending habits, spending ridiculous amounts of money on unnecessary and defiantly unpractical things is only going to cause our country's habit of wasting resources to worsen. Globally we must be more aware of what we are valuing as a community and how we are setting up our society to live in future generations. While many I'm sure will argue, My Sweet Sixteen has nothing to do about the nation's economy, I beg to differ. It is teaching children that money can be blown on anything desire that pops into your head and that as a sixteen year old you deserve to have that. Finally the behaviors that happen at the actual birthday party are unacceptable. Dancing is grinding on one another and then the ranting of vulgar language at guest who were uninvited to a party of literally hundreds of adolescents. The whole idea of the show is outrageous, granted that is probably one of the main reasons they get so good of ratings, the show shows a lifestyle that is so bizarrely out of the ordinary American's that people are intrigued and adolescents are fascinated.