The Race Issue

Brown vs. the Board

In our discussion of Brown vs. Board in our small group had some interesting thoughts. We all agreed that Brown was well-intentioned. We also talked about how we had all been taught that Brown was an icon, but after reading Hess we also agreed that Hess's other ideas about what Brown actually represented had some validity to them as well. Segregation is a problem that shouldn't exist; Brown should have "fixed" all the schools. However, as we know this is not the case.

I guess the thing that stood out from our discussion of  Brown is that we all think segregation is wrong and harmful to the students. We all agree that something should be done, but what can we do to change this? We can teach our students about other cultures and teach respect of other cultures, but we can't create diversity within a school. I wish I had all the "power" Counts mentioned so that I could fix these problems.   

I finished chapter 4 today of Giroux. I don't know about everyone else in class, but I felt like ch. 4 was a bit of a repeat of what he said in ch. 3. I agreed with some of the things Giroux mentioned about racism in Disney films. It is a problem that needs to be addressed, but I feel like Giroux is just repeating himself and sometimes digging for things in order to show Disney's wrong doings.

 I really enjoyed reading "Moving Beyond Celebration". In high school, I was taught that Brown vs. the Board was the beginning of the civil rights movement. In college, Brown vs. the Board was talked about in many of my special education classes because it was considered the groundwork that lead to opening doors for people with disabilities. I think Brown vs. the Board is an important case that should be studied by students. However, I think it is important for the students to think critically about what the ruling declared and how it has been carried out. When I look around at schools today, I see the segregation of students based on ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Brown vs. the Board is important, but we as teachers need to teach our students to be aware of the segregation that is seen today and discuss how to make the rulings of Brown vs. the Board a reality.

Our discussion in class Thursday was interesting. I really felt like it started out well, but to be honest, I completely got lost in the discussion after we watched the video. Maybe it was just me, but I wasn't sure what the myth was or what narrative we were talking about.

I  enjoyed the thoughts that were shared about culture. After watching the melting pot video, I was amazed at the fact that the video was so misrepresentative of several populations that make up the United States. Where were the African Americans and Native Americans? Only the Europeans were really shown in the video with a brief appearance of some Asian and Middle Eastern people. Everyone in the video was the same color. It almost seemed as if everyone lost their specific identity as a certain ethnic group and became the same grey color as their other fellow Americans.

It was mentioned during the discussion by a classmate that America doesn't have its own culture. I disagree with that statement. I think that America is what it is because it is made up of so many different and unique cultures. We have a distinctive culture that is uniquely American.  

I apologize for my ramblings. I am afraid I did not do a very good job of articulating my thoughts.

Clash of Cultures

The article about Deaf culture was very interesting. I took two semesters of ASL in college, and my teacher was a member of the Deaf culture. A lot of what the article discussed was similar to what she taught us about what it is like to be a member of the Deaf culture. She like many within her culture strongly opposes cochlear implants. She considered her deafness a gift from God , and she did not see any reason why she would want to have surgery in order to hear. She was already a memeber of a culture that embraced her and her ideas.

The doctor mentioned in the article said he wanted to cure deafness. However, people who are a part of the Deaf culture do not want nor think that they need to be cured. They are not disabled. It is very hard to understand this viewpoint being a hearing person. Why would somone not want to try any medical treatments available in order to hear the world around them? Then I started thinking about it from their point of view. The dominant society (the hearing world) tells them that deaf children should get cochlear implants in order to be a part of the hearing world. Isn't that kind of like the idea that Disney is trying to impress on American culture? Everyone should fit into a certain mold - the white middle-class suburban ideal of American life. We may be well-intentioned in wanting to cure people of deafness, but who are we to say that they have to be like us. If we are not willing to change why should we require others to change.