The Praxis of Pedagogy Day 34

The journal prompt for today was "It must be the aim of education to teach the citizen that he must first of all rule himself." The quote was made by Winthrop A. Aldrich. I asked them to explain what the quote means, do they agree with it, why or why not. If they didn't agree with it then what should be the aim of education. At first I talked about the inherent sexism in the quote and how citizenship is related to being male and freedom has been related to being a free male. Then I brought in a critique that I read by bell hooks that stated that the loss of freedom or the destruction of land and territory is often related to the emasculation of men or negative actions against females. So the loss of freedom is a castration and the destruction of land is a raping. But I wanted them to really think about why they are getting educated. Is it just so they can spit back facts to me?

In my Asian American studies class, we finished up the critique of the use of the word Oriental. The word Oriental is like the word Negro. The word is an anachronism from colonial times. In a more "enlightened" post colonial world we try to stop using such out dated words, because words and language matters. I really talked up the part though on the "Orient being seen as the farthest point from civilization and thus a region of barbarism, exotic custom, and strange delight." One of Edward Said's arguments is about the objectification and penetration of the Orient by the West and he puts it in very sexual terms. There is a sexuality... an eroticism associated with the idea of exotic. Exotic women or exotic lands. This tied in with bell hooks critique. The West was the male and the Orient was the female that was to be possessed, to be owned, to be ravaged. After that I introduced the Yellow Power movement during the 60s as a movement and struggle against discrimination and racism. We started reading the first issue of "Getting Together" from the 1970s. Class stopped on this.

My US history class was fun. I started off with the question on how people would act after being through a big crazy war that killed a lot of people. People would go buck wild. The Roaring 20s! Things were changing rapidly during the 20s. Since my time is limited I was trying to do a brief overview of the interwar period. I talked about the Prohibition and how illegal alcohol helped contribute to the growth of organized crime. Then I related this to the drug war going on right now. Gangs are being funded and are growing because of the illegal drug trade. Sell drugs to buy more weapons to make the gang stronger to take over more territory to have more power and money to buy more drugs. It's like the movie "City of God". Then I talked about the clash between religion and science. Darwin, evolution, and the whole Scopes trial turned the religious community on its head. Then on top of this was the changing role of women. I talked about gender roles and how women entering the job world and making their own money disrupted the "traditional family values." Dogmatic religious folks must have been flipping out. Women in short skirts and hair, making their own money, and acting like "men." Then I touched on the great migration of African Americans out of the South and into the north from 1910-1920. I talked briefly about the things that pushed blacks out of the south and the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. This was another thing that must have flipped out white folks. Speakeasies, Darwinism, empowered women, Black people all around. Intolerant white folks must have been thinking it was the end of civilization itself. Finally we ended on the causes of the Great Depression.

In my multicultural class I had to throw a student out cause he was unable to control himself. Student were generally off the wall today. But I listened to them talk about their homework and various solutions to the increasing segregation among students of different racial backgrounds. There were a lot of calls for more coordinated activities that forced people to interact. The boys also wanted a men's circle. The girls in the school have a women's circle where they discuss issues and the boys were calling for their own. Another student brought up that self esteem issues really need to be addressed. After this we made a list of for and against the use of the word nigger to finally bring an end to the unit. This actually worked out well and I was happy to hear that some students have decided to give up the use of the word after they learned about everything associated with it.

After school I had a short conversation with the student that I kicked out. He's a big guy that is pretty smart and I forget sometimes that he's only a kid. The guy's only 14. I thought about it and realized that I may have been interacting with him in the wrong way. So I decided to take a different route. Instead of busting his balls I decided to ask him what was wrong and is he ok. After a bit of probing he admitted that something was going on at home. I talked with him a bit about not letting his anger control him cause it would take him down a bad path. The dark side of the force it is. Ok I didn't say that. But damn... I was thinking it. He probably would have thought it was funny though cause he likes Star Wars. I also told him that he needed to control himself better. I should find some Star Wars quotes and throw it at him, see what he says.