Praxis of Pedagogy Day 26

Today the journal prompt was "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent," by Eleanor Roosevelt. What does the quote mean? Do you agree with it? Why or why not? 1 pg.

In all my classes I talked about the language and culture of power and how in school we are trying to learn the culture and language of power. I said that slang amongst friends was acceptable and just as good, but in academic and professional settings we had to use the culture and language of power. They can speak in slang all the time, but in school they need to practice the language of power so that they can have more options in life.

Then I asked people to give me thoughts and comments on the break-in at various schools in our district including ours. The reason was that the more I thought about it the madder I got. I really don't like the idea that people are feeding on the people at the bottom. It goes against everything that I am trying to do as a teacher and what the schools are all about. Schools are trying to uplift people but these people are trying to pull the students down. Then I got angry at my casual indifference to the break-in. My first thoughts towards not having school was that I was going to see "Revenge of the Sith." I mean the break in was a violation and wrong. Many students believed that it was done by the government or people hating on us because of the recent protests. Whatever the case may be we all agreed that hitting the people on the bottom made sense because the cops weren't going to do anything for us and probably weren't going to catch the criminals. It's wasn't cool but it was "smart."

In my first and second period class I talked about how to do research, only changing what I did in 3rd period by saying that they needed to write the paper in the steps between 6 and 7.

After that with the remaining time in 1st period, I had them summarize the perpetual foreigner syndrome. On Thursday I'll bring a summary for them to compare and we'll talk about it. I didn't realize that they would have so much trouble doing this. I really have to go slower and break things down more and teach them skills. This is what they lack. Skills not intelligence.
I have to admit though I was pissed at this class cause they were being rude and talking too much. I assigned 6s for people that hadn't done their blogs yet and they left unhappy. It did make me feel better though that they were unhappy, cause I was unhappy with them for not doing their work and talking too much.

In my second period class, we had a great discussion about the break in and absolute/relative truths. I wanted to ask hard question to make them think. If they are going to have views are they going to be consistent views. If everything is relative does that make everything acceptable. We saying that we didn't know why these people were breaking in and stealing. They could have been stealing to get by. But we could come up with reasons for everything but did that make it right? These are important questions in history. Can we place values and judgements on history. Was slavery always wrong? Is murder always wrong? Is rape always wrong? After this was done I read to them the real version of the "Template for US war in Iraq." This was a good project and I had fun with it. Class ended on this.

In my 3rd period class, we listened to Cornel West's "Street Knowledge" about the N-Word and about the B-word. I know that the students would have trouble understanding what they were saying but I thought it important to introduce them to these eloquent and erudite intellectuals. I wanted them to hear an intellectual debate between two people that disagree but were able to argue academically. Some of them did seem to get it and they did seem to enjoy listening to it. One student said that they were hella intellectual and stuff. Through listening to this and with my buddy sauce's comments and just thinking about things in general I have come to a slightly different viewpoint on the use of the word. Before I didn't even want anyone to use the word and I thought it wasn't a good thing to use the word. Like jesus said, "It's not what goes into us that defiles us, it's what come out." Not that I completely agree with what jesus said, cause I do think it's important what goes into you. But in a free society, I have to give people the right to use language that I don't like. But if I am to respect their right to use language as they want then they also need to respect my right to not have to hear that word. I can't force them to not use the language. But I also want them to be knowledgable and intelligent in the usage of the word. To not just use it cause the rappers are and their friends are. So we agreed that after our exploration of the word that if they continue to use the word then I would accept it. But they would also have to make sure they didn't use it around me. They agreed to that and thought it fair. Classs ended on explanation and discussion of the two tracks on "Street Knowledge." My principal wasn't able to come in and talk to the class today cause of work, so I'll have to try and get her in on Thursday.