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.

Middle School Learner 1st Blog

1. Are middle school learners different than they were 15 years ago?
YES, what isn't different? The only things that aren't different are those we refuse to believe need changing due to our own stubbornness. Children today are introduced to technology before they are out of diapers, this change creates a global student that is able to multi task and employ technology for them in ways we can't even imagine.

2. Basic skills taught still needed?
I believe a lot that is taught in the elementary level is still needed for good foundation in education. While calculators can produce an answer to any mathematical problem it is given, if a student doesn't learn the operations that the calculator is performing they become reliant on that machine and lose the problem solving skills mathematics assist children in learning.

3. Society changing faster than schools?
Yes, society will always be changing and trends will come and go, while schools have to prepare students for their futures, some say that the jobs they may be doing are not even thought of yet. Therefore, there is value in teaching students the basic well, which then they can build off that information later in life to better fit their career choice. We must also remember that education is not only about fitting one to a career, yet educating our youth to be well rounded, enlightened individuals.

Barack

I went to see Barack Obama speak in Dubuque, IA. I listened as several questions were brought up about education and if he was elected what changes would we might see as the general public. This is one quote I found very relevant to ed psych: "Our public education system is the key to opportunity for millions of children and families. It needs to be the best in the world. Of particular concern is the growing achievement gap between middle and low-income students, which has continued to expand despite some overall national achievement gains." Throughout the semester we have discussed this growing gap in our nation and by not addressing it on a national level we are greatly hurting our nation. While the Busch administration has tried to answer this with No Child Left Behind. I found Obama to have more realistic answers that start on small scales and work towards the larger goal to continue to be the best, while Busch has everything happening right now. I am a supporter of Obama and with an change in office, changes will take place. I conclude with hope that Obama will be successful in his attempts to become president and then more successful in his attempts to clean up our education system for our future generations.

Gustar

I attended the April 10 Gustar concert. This was a soft-rock group that attacked hundreds of Luther students, friends, and roadies. I thought how this event might connect to school. First, it creates a culture of students who follow bands, driving hours on school night and not meeting their beds until the morning hours. Thus, creating an even tired student body. Next, I thought about the time and money some parents put into these concerts. Yes, parents were standing in the crowd dancing right along with 14 and 15 year old, attempting to be the "cool" mom or dad. Would it be possible that students would be more excited about school if parents took off work to be at academic events? Or get just as excited about their child's good grades? Our society needs to re-exam family structures and ask ourselves if pushing education to the back burner for a chance to jump around intoxicated college students and then drive home staying up until possibly three am and then being tired the rest of the school week, if the parents even makes the student go to school the next day.

Ethnic Arts Festival

The Ethnic Arts Festival had a variety of booths with "experts" at each, explain about the country. This was a useful experience because it not only educated me about unfamiliar countries, but it also gave me the awareness of all the diversity in our world and made me think how I could possibly bring that to a school. Listening to foreign exchange students, or Luther students who have studied abroad to these countries, I realized this first hand experience it truly creates a sense of appreciation of the respected cultures. These students eyes lit up when talking about their experience or home. While I will try my best to bring my own passion and excitement for different cultures into my classroom, I will always look for those who have more experience then I do, so my students can hopefully get a taste of how, when, and where others live.