Praxis of Pedagogy? Day 21

I'm experimenting with the title of my work/school journal entry. Before I was saying Pedagogy and Praxis. Now I'm gonna try out Praxis of Pedagogy. I see pedagogy as the art or science of teaching, though I'm leaning more towards favoring the art view of it. Refining and such. Daily decrease instead of daily increase. Then I use Freire's definition of Praxis as knowledge, action, and reflection. So I'm combining the ideas of knowledge of subjects, teaching that knowledge as action, and reflecting through this blog on the art of teaching. So the knowledge, action, and reflection of the art of teaching. Maybe Praxis in Pedagogy... I don't know I'll play with it a little and see what I like best. If anyone out in blogworld wants to give me help with that please do.

So I didn't give out vocab to the kids because I'm working like a frickin dog and don't have time for that. But I think after STAR testing they don't mind so much.

In my Asian-American studies class, we continued on with Perpetual foreigner syndrome. I explained to them the term coolie and its roots in the Chinese term ku li meaning bitter pain/strength. As in working to the point of bitter pain. I also explained naturalization because we were reading about the cases of Takao Ozawa and Bhagat Singh Thind before the Supreme Court. Crazy shit that is said about Asian people by the US government. Still blows me away to read it. We also read a little about the racism of novelist Jack London. This really blew the kids minds. They didn't know that Jack London was such a hater.

In my US history class, we read more of the people's history and I made analogies between US imperialism in Iraq and US imperialism during the early 1900s. I mean this is fun stuff. The same exact arguments being made, you just got to pay attention. The products may have changed from timber and sugar to oil, but the propaganda is still the same. I explained to them what inflation is and I talked a little supply and demand with them. The way that has always worked for me to help me understand the market has been drugs. Use drugs as the commodity and then think of supply and demand. If the demand is high then the cost goes up. If the supply is great then the cost goes down. We also talked about a sentence in Zinn about Cuba saying that after the military occupation then came the commercial occupation... then I strained and strained my my brain to think of possible analogies. ;) Then we talked about Prez McKinley praying to God to get answers as to what to do about the Philippines and McKinley's "revelations" that were part of a white supremacist ideology. We also talked about the Platt amendment that gave the US the right to intervene in Cuba for basically whatever reason. Fun stuff. At one point I said to the kids that all the propaganda that the US was saying was a load of shit. I never swear in class and since I did swear I did 25 pushups to make up for it. But I did this for a reason. My first reason was to emphasize the point about US policy that would grab the students attention. Secondly, by doing the pushups I show that I am accountable for the choices that I make and that I will pay the consequences for them also. So if they swear then I can hold them to doing pushups or getting points taken off their contracts without as much bitchin. Plus I got to get ready for the Carnaval parade and doing the pushups helps get me in shape.

In my multicultural studies class, we finished the reading by Randall Kennedy. Then I talked a little about power in language. Then I gave an example of power through language and concepts. I asked the students to tell me some racist jokes about black people. They told me some. Then I asked for a racist joke about white people. Nothing. OK there was one joke about a lady who asks for a bowl of soup and two crackers and she's brought a bowl of soup and two white men... but that wasn't that harmful or even funny. Then I briefly brought up the ideas of anti-black caricatures. Caricatures like the Picaninny, the Coon, and the Jezebel. It is a powerful thing that there are stereotypes (concepts that are created) to represent various ways to dehumanize black people. I asked for some white caricatures. None of the caricatures they said were immutably white. Because in a racist world, whites are allowed to exhibit the wide range of human actions and emotions. People of color especially blacks are given stereotypes that tell them and others how they are. We stopped class while we were making a list of pro and con arguments for the use of the word nigger. I also hooked up our principal to come in to speak to the class. I've made her a secret guest speaker and I want her to come as a speaker and not as the principal. I just want her to explain her role and life in the civil rights struggle and her encounters and views with usages of the word nigger. She is a woman that all the students respect and I would like them to hear her view on the word. I have to find out good questions to ask her.

My friend Sauce suggested that I won't be able to change their minds about the usage of the word right away but at least I can give them the tools to make an informed choice. I think that would be the most realistic goal to accomplish. If I try to reprimand and preach to them not to use the word then all the more reason they'll want to. I can only hope that through our examination and inquiry into the word that they will at least stop and think about what they are saying.

My blog homework to the students is for them to post the funniest story that they have written or the funniest thing that has happened to them. They posted some serious stuff on the last post, now I want to laugh.