the hopeless education world

After reading this CNN news, I really really appritiated for my gifted learning environment and made a commitment to myself to never ever become anything close to this.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/05/atlanta.public.schools.scandal/index.html

This news article is pretty much about a school having been found to cheat on standarize testing. Not only were the principle and teachers not ashamed becuase of what they have done to such a large group of children just for their own benefit, but they had played it so big and long where it almost became a tradition to the school district.

I really do not understand how can people do this. And by people, we are not dealing with some well known heartless business people but educators-teachers. To the base of my belief, techers have a great heart and desire to help children and even the society. It is a profession where someone has to have as much love as one can to become one. And this is because you are putting a lot of time and effort for little pay to work and help kids, to watch them grow. This world had been twisted so much that more than enough human beings are becoming the followers of the devils for doing things that humanity would never agreed with. Cheating on standarized tests for fundings and others is the worst thing a teacher can do as role models for students. Cheating almost can be determined as the best way to face challenges and solve problems to these students' acknowledgement. If this is really how we educate our children, why do we even need a education system with different subjects? Don't we just need training centers to teacher our younger generations how to play tricks for anything they valued as the only goal?

Personally, I think that the saddest part of today's world is that people's value on things are so twisted. Less and less people seem to work for their hearts but money, fame, pride, and success. I know this may sound very negative, but I'd rather the end of the world to come sooner than later to end this hopeless era of human beings. We were not created like this, and a lot of us truely ruin the beauty and meaing of life.

Reading to Dogs

I saw a short article on the Huffington Post today about reading programs where the students read to dogs. I guess it’s a growing trend that can be done with therapy dogs in programs like Paws to Read or just at home. Children said that they liked reading to dogs because they were less hesitant than in front of a human audience and read more confidently. Students acknowledged a fear of hearing laughter when they make reading mistakes. I think this is a good point to think about for people becoming teachers. Why do children feel so scared to read in class? Is it because we have proven laughter to be a possible reaction to their attempts or does the classroom not feel comfortable enough to them? I think as a teacher it is important to establish a level of comfort between you and the students and the students with each other.

When helping out in classrooms I have seen less confident students reading at a level lower than they should just so that they can race through the pages. This fear is holding some kids back from reading at a level that would be appropriately challenging for them, in order to improve. I think this shows that teachers really need to be conscious of book choices and maybe break students into smaller reading groups. Placing students in groups with kids at their same level sometimes falls into criticism because people will say they don’t have a chance to improve and aren’t being challenged but I think a group of similar readers can be challenged together. They can be pushed together at the same level to move to the next level and probably feel more comfortable if their peers are making similar reading errors.

Eliminating stereotypical literature = Eliminating Stereotypes?

In class we discussed and seemed to agree that often, books (and other media, for that matter) often perpetuate stereotypes and have the potential to send messages that may easily be interpreted in certain ways that may cause children to make generalizations or develop stereotypical understandings about the world.

However, as Sarah noted in her post, parents, teachers, siblings, and other role models can have a large impact and can ultimately affect how children view the world and develop their understandings of how society works.

As future teachers or parents, I feel that it is not our responsibility or even in our best interest to completely eliminate books such as Cinderella or the other stereotypical books we have discussed in class. These books seem to perpetuate the stereotypical roles of girls and boys, typically projecting females as nice, pretty, polite, well-mannered, etc.; while males were viewed as rough, masculine, heroes, etc. To me, rather than stripping children of these ideas and secluding these types of books from their literature, it would be more beneficial to introduce these books and integrate them with other books that confront and challenge these stereotypes. This would provide a true view of the world as the way it is and help the children understand that there are various types of roles for each gender.

For example, one could read the original Cinderella, then read the alternative book that we talked about in class where the opposite sort of event happens (the princess saves the prince and then rejects his offer for a date, etc). I think it's important to select literature that shows representations of both genders performing all types of roles and jobs. If children are introduced to a male playing a role such as a teacher, dancer, or nurse, or a female as a professional athlete, doctor, or CEO, and these are portrayed as normal, they will likely accept this with no problem.

I think that children growing up today actually will be better suited to reject stereotypes and accept individuals who may play different or rare roles because of the way society as a whole is becoming more accepting. For example, while it is still not the most common situation, it is becoming much more acceptable and "normal" for a dad to be a stay-at-home dad and a woman to be a CEO or manager of a business. If we can point these instances out to children, through books and in the real world, I think we can help dispel gender stereotypes and let children develop broad and accepting understandings of gender. As we have said, literature can have a huge impact on the way children understand themselves and their world. If we were to completely eliminate certain types of literature due to the fact that we believe they are perpetrating stereotypes, we would strip children of this important piece of knowledge. As long as parents, teachers, or other individuals can facilitate a discussion to help children understand that gender stereotypes are limiting and meaningless, I see no harm in exposing children to all types of literature (within good reason and judgment).