Week of 4/26/10

Well class this week was exciting, and it seemed to me only appropriate that as we near the end of the semester many of us are trying to establish ourselves in the world, based upon what has been read, discussed and analyzed this semester. It is easy to read something just to read it, but when you read something and you challenge it or analyze it and figure out where you fit, or "trouble" what you believe/think, how you act, and compare it to what is being read that is where you will really learn and grow.

Something we did not touch upon very much in class was the Sleeter and Grant reading. This reading examined another theoretical approach to teaching multicultural education: multicultural social justice education which is the approach that is the most politically and socially involved. It is constantly critiquing modern culture and the inherent unbalance that exists. By critiquing, multicultural social justice education attempts to promote social structural equality including all differences that there may be between people; race, social class, gender, sexuality, disability, language, and related forms of oppression. I believe it is truly an ideal way to go about promoting change in society, but as an approach to teaching I think it would be best used in upper level education because young schoolchildren would not be able to truly grasp the far reaching political and social connections that this approach uses. An issue with this approach is that society is the way it is because those in power subjugate others, for those in power and the structures of power to accept and utilize this new approach it would be highly unrealistic. I just think it would be such a difficult and daunting task to completely question and try and change everything that is. I do believe that there are things that must be questioned and changed but I just don't know how feasible it all is.

An article I found online discussed 'unintentional racism' a young woman experienced while in high school. http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/racism-in-schools-unintentional-3821/ The article sheds light on negative treatment of Latinos in a California school district, and then discusses ways to change them by using an example of a teacher who is making strides in the classroom. What really struck me about this article was the comment by a reader, who blamed this young woman's 'lack of success' in the classroom on her not the school or administrators who have failed her. The reader's ignorance is blatant but it also strikes me as just one example of the many people who will fight against changes and equality and differences and it is a scary thing.