Hour log

social justice event "The Hand that Feeds"

"The Hand that Feeds" was documentary about the struggles of unregistered immigrant workers who workers in New York.  Since the workers are undocumented, the employers can exploit them with the threat of deportation.  This gives them an excuse to pay them below minimum wage, violate workplace safety regulations, and prevent them from self-advocating in fear of being kicked out of the country.  These people were told that working hard was all they needed to succeed, but as Kristof pointed out it was not enough.  Since they are being refused the proper wages needed to get a better life, they are stuck in a cycle of abuse at the hand of their employer.  Like in SWAAMP; since they do not have a preferred trait of being registered, they are being exploited by their employers.  Johnson would have approved of us having a conversation about how these people have less privilege and advantage than we do.  Even to this day see undocumented workers being exploited as this conversation still goes on regarding Trumps hiring practices.  And these people this get exploited, even though it is illegal to do so.

• https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/08/politics/trump-national-golf-club-undocumented-workers/index.html
• http://time.com/4465744/donald-trump-undocumented-workers/
• https://www.workplacefairness.org/undocumented-workers

pecha kecha

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSTC1SUlhfJxsDbfg-Oa6TmwOyKNshkUpbe8LlRe95YJyeRgzhcL0Fd-2yk284bg_2OA6gGE0OYp4oZ/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=15000

Shor post

• "The difference between empowering and traditional pedagogy has to do with the positive or negative feelings students can develop for the learning process."
• In order to empower students to do well in school, we need to make it a positive experience for them.  That means making sure they are comfortable with how they are being taught.  If a student does not have a positive feeling about being educated, they may not value school and this can either harm or end their school experience.
• "People are naturally curious. They are born learners. Education can either develop or stifle their inclination to ask why and to learn...If the students' task is to memorize rule, and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter, their potential of critical thought and action will be restricted."
• Education needs to reflect people's natural curiosity, as that will only help us teach people.  If we teach both the what and the why; students will be more invested in their own education.
• “Students in empowering classes should be expected to develop skills and knowledge as well as high expectations for themselves. their education. and their futures”
• By giving students a feeling of having weight and value within a classroom, they will not only see value in themselves now, but also in their futures.  

Maps Post

• Garcia:  The teachers assistant speaks fluent Spanish and English.  She does mix Spanish and English from time.  In a school with a non-white majority this is valuable.
• Johnson:  Books like "Amazing Grace" and "The Name Jar" are examples of students being taught that being different is not wrong and to not treat others differently for being different and to not feel bad about being different.
• Kliewer: A student in the class has a mental disorder and the it has been normalized to the other students. Because of this students don't judge them or make fun of them for their disability.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vcym6mBZ_SlwTBY_2KVrDkB963jMeMQQy8hcB8K5ycE/edit?usp=sharing

kliewer/McDemont reading

• “Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community. Though many of us have a certain level of control over who we meet and interact with, none of us can come close to claiming complete control."
• This quote infers that separating kids based on disabilities is not in their best interest.  When we separate based on this, we create a space for prejudice.  If we are separated from these types of people at an early age it creates an idea that they need to be separated in order for things to proceed normally for both groups.  We also teach that relationships with disabled people are uncommon, odd, or even out of pity.
• "Common sense allows that persons unable to handle a difficult problem can be labeled "disabled." Social analysis shows that being labeled often invites a public response that multiplies the difficulties facing the seemingly unable. Cultural analysis shows that disability refers most precisely to inadequate performances only on tasks that are arbitrarily circumscribed from daily life. disabilities are less the property of persons than they are moments in a cultural focus. Everyone in any culture is subject to being labeled and disabled."
• The idea of a disability completely impairing a person's ability to learn doesn't truly make sense on paper and in practice.  It only changes the way people approach learning new things, instead of an inability to learn certain things.  And blaming a student's difficulty in learning something is a cheap cop out, as more likely than not the student but rather the schools unwillingness to teach the kid properly.
• "Shayne, however, did not see Isaac, or any of her students, as defective. In her classroom, which contained 6 students clinically identified as disabled (3 with Down syndrome, including Isaac) and 10 students considered non-disabled, Shayne and her associates worked to create a context that supported all children's full participation."
• It is not okay in any context whatsoever for a teacher to rank students against each other in regards to something out of their control be it sexuality, race, or disabilities.  Creating and environment where it is very clear which children have preferred traits can create room for biases to surface in adulthood.  A teacher's bias and behaviors will always reflect on the students in one form or another.

westheimer reading

• "He experienced the joys of service, but he had few opportunities for meaningful interactions through which caring relationships and understanding may develop"
• This represents the inherent problem with certain ways we teach kids charity.  In the fashion taught here, the kids only learns that homeless people need help but not necessarily how.  Never in this lesson is the kid taught to communicate with the homeless or humanize them; not to mention the removal of the homeless from the conversation about helping them.
• "In contrast, much of the current discussion regarding service learning emphasizes charity, not change."
• The way the conversation should go in regards to helping homeless people shouldn't solely be about helping them with gifts or food.  I am in no way saying charity does not have it's place, but we also need to consider that the situation needs to change.  We need to teach kids ways to advocate for the homeless instead of just charity alone.
• "One student wrote "Everyone at the school had good manners, and I think more highly of (the neighborhood) now"."
• By getting students to go out into these communities, we can create a more human picture of the homeless.  We right now characterize these people as unruly, uneducated, and lazy; but that is far from the truth.  We simply need to shine a greater light on the people who actually do live in this situation.

August reading

• "Many parents would not want their children exposed to the life-styles portrayed in this episode."
• This single quote sums up the whole issue as to why kids are not adjusted to the idea of same-sex couples; it isn't normal to them.  If a child is exposed to same-sex couples early on in a way that presents it as normal, the child would pick up on that such arrangements are normal instead of exotic or foreign.  The "Sugartime" episode s a good example of this as the idea of a same-sex couple is not dug into more than "hey this kid has two moms" and that's it.
• Maria's lived reality as a young lesbian was erased by a teacher's red pen.
• The other consequence of erasing same-sex relationships from popular media.  Assuming that boys like girls and visa-versa can be damaging and hurtful, especially if the individual in question is "out of the closet".  Being an "out" lesbian like Maria should have been enough for those around her to pick up on things as simple as "she is into girls, not boys".
• Children hold assumptions not only about what exists, but about what is good and safe.
• If a child is exposed to something and given the opportunity to understand it, they will seek to understand it.  Kids are both insatiably curious and unafraid of new things.  This changes when they become adults, as they have already developed their world view.  And adult exposed to a new thing is more likely to be afraid and dispute it than a child would.

• "But I would have delayed-for how long postponed?-having to learn the language of public society. I would have evaded and for how long could I have afforded to delay?-learning the great lesson of school, that I had a public identity"
• This quote by Richard  reflects the fact that his ability to use the English language can reflect on his public identity.  Not having proficiency in English can lead to public ridicule.  The effort to force the language onto his family brought that feeling of ridicule to his house, a place where should have felt safe to speak the language he wanted to.

• " One night his children and even his wife helplessly giggled at his garbled English pronunciation of the Catholic Grace before Meals."
• This is the idea of ridiculing people who cannot speak good English being brought to Richard's home.  The father feels like less of a person because he cannot speak English well.  This even shakes up to dynamic at home, with the wife now taking charge of financial decisions and even saying grace at home.  This has now isolated the father, who now only has real confidants in other fluent Spanish speakers.

• "Sentences needed to be spoken slowly when a child addressed their father or mother."
• With the kid's primary language now being English, this made it more difficult to communicate with the parents.  Since the parents were not as fluent as the kids but still tried to speak purely in Spanish, the kids would not bother talking to the parents because they would run the risk of the parent not being able to understand them.

Kozol/ ALM

Amazing Grace

• "There are children in the poorest, most abandoned places who, despite the miseries and poisons that the world has pumped into there lives, seem, when you first meet them, to be cheerful anyway"
• Most people would think that children brought up in an area like this would be rotten, rude, and maybe even cruel. But the boy who served as Kozol's guide showed that despite all the death and violence in the area, the kid behaves no differently than any of ours would have.  The situation has done nothing damper the innocence of the children there, at least on the outside.
• "Every time my doctor says I have to go back to the hospital, I cry"
• This quote was made in reference to terrible conditions at a nearby hospital.  A majority of the area is composed of people who have contracted AIDS/HIV.  This quote represents the lack of trust in those who claim to help these people.  The hospital cannot be trusted to keep itself clean and sanitary, while the law cannot be trusted to protect these people from criminals.  This only reinforces the idea that these people can only rely on themselves.
• "I believe that what the rich have done to the poor people in this city is something that a preacher would call evil"
• This is a comment on the idea that people have that working hard will change the situation.  But people in these poorer neighborhoods can't elevate themselves because they lack the resourced to get a better life.  Working hard simply isn't enough and the constant talking down to that the poorer people feel is happening will only cause this animosity to grow.

ALM article:

GeekAesthete argues that saying all lives matter takes away from the point of the statement black lives matter.  Instead of looking at the problem being brought forward (the problem being the disproportionate cases of police brutality involving non-white ethnicities), you are shouting them down saying "of course black lives matter, because all lives do matter".  Instead of the conversation bringing about change, it only made it seem as though the person saying "black lives matter" was trying to get special treatment that would place them above others in regards to the law.

U.S.A., Land of Limitations?

This article by Nicholas Christof takes a hard look at the promise America makes as the "land of opportunity" and whether it actually holds water.  We constantly hear that America is a country where economic mobility is accessible to all of its citizens.  In a few cases it is true that some people can rise from the rable join the upper class, but these cases are few and far between.  Not mention that hard work isn't the whole story, the environment and upbringing is also a factor.  If one does not have a stable home life then their chance of succeeding is diminished as seen with the author's example Rick Goff; his mom died when he was young and his father was no parent of the year.  Without proper parents he dropped out of school early on due to teachers giving up on him and as well as he giving up on school.  Christof also mentions the whole idea that people who are less well off then others are less likely to take risks.  People who are wealthier do not process risk or consequences of failure the same way everyone else does.

intro to me

My name is Robert and I am a history teacher in the making and a bit of a history nerd, especially when it comes to old military planes.


Over the summer I spent most of the time working at my local Ace Hardware but my family and I spent a week in Ocean City Maryland.  We did enjoy each other's company but really it was just us waiting to get a crack at the the famous Maryland crabs.

Outside of work I spend time playing games as well as participating in G.A.M.E.R., a club a RIC that gets together simply to have fun playing games we enjoy.