Unheard Voices - GLSEN
I chose this "Tool" from the category of articles because I found it extremely interesting. The people who were telling there stories were really inspirational and not only that but dealt with hard situations. All these people that are sharing their story are sharing them to be examples for classroom talks, and lessons for everyone to understand and acknowledge what its like for a person who's going through this.
I looked into a couple of the stories that were there from all kinds of people. Two stories really caught my eye, one of them was about a father Jamison Green who was once a women that had a sex change. His interviewer was his daughter, and she was asking him questions. He spoke on how hard it was for him to be a female growing up, he never thought transitioning to a male would happen to him, but he took it into consideration once he had his daughter. He felt as though he could never be an honest person to his daughter if he was being someone that he wasn't. I feel that this is inspiring for many people, especially for his daughter who at the end of the interview says "And I think that I am probably a better person for it.", shes a better person because of her fathers honesty and up front-ness of his lifestyle.
Another story that caught my eye was Kendall Bailey's story. He was a US Marine for five years, and then was assigned to a recruiting office in Virginia, he wanted to make a career out of the marines. One of his commanding officers saw his text messages to his boyfriend and that changed his life in his office space. He then wrote a letter to his Sergeant about how he is gay, and they told him how his gayness was a phase and then he was discharged from the Marines. His discharge papers said that he could never return to the army. Which is completely ridiculous, the "Dont Ask Dont Tell" law is already removed, but even when it wasnt Kendall being gay was none of their business. I know that this situation must happen to a lot of gay, lesbian, transgender people who might happen to be in the Army. I know that no one in the army should discharge you for being gay, but it happens everyday. I feel as though discrimination towards gays, lesbians, transgenders, bisexuals still happens everywhere you go. Kendall Bailey's dreams of having a career in the marines was shattered only because he was gay, and that's sad.
All over the website there was a lot of good stories to read. If you go to the blog page there's a whole bunch of other people blogging to the website about there motivational and great stories.
Talking Point: Should LGBTQ be addressed in elementary school classrooms?
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
Reflection
Aria - Richard Rodriguez
While reading "Aria" I was reminded of Delpit. When Rodriguez referred to how the teachers quizzed the students: "The teacher quizzed: Boys and Girls, why do we use that word in this sentence? Could we think of a better word to use there? Would the sentence change its meaning if the words were different? And wasn't there a better way of saying much the same thing?" This reminds me of Delpit because of her examples telling us that teachers shouldn't speak to a class of students this way. If they spoke to them correctly, there would be less confusion between the students and teachers.
I didn't like that the nuns came to the families home and told the parents that they should speak English at home with the kids. Of course kids should practice speaking English, but to come to their home and ask their parents to switch up the dynamics in their home for a language is beyond me.
Coming from a hispanic family, I've been bilingual all my life. I didn't speak English till I was about four because my parents didn't speak any English. I learned English because of cartoons, my older siblings and when I started head start. I can't say that it was the most difficult thing to be between cultures, but it was in a sense hard. I had to learn a whole different life that I had at home. But after years of being in school that I had to speak and learn English.. it started becoming easier and I grew accustomed to it. I never did let go of my home culture though, I spoke Spanish still after learning English in school. I didn't have my parents helping me with homework, but I had older siblings who did and that made things easier.
Talking Point: Why should anyone drop their culture to fit into the public lifestyle?
While reading "Aria" I was reminded of Delpit. When Rodriguez referred to how the teachers quizzed the students: "The teacher quizzed: Boys and Girls, why do we use that word in this sentence? Could we think of a better word to use there? Would the sentence change its meaning if the words were different? And wasn't there a better way of saying much the same thing?" This reminds me of Delpit because of her examples telling us that teachers shouldn't speak to a class of students this way. If they spoke to them correctly, there would be less confusion between the students and teachers.
I didn't like that the nuns came to the families home and told the parents that they should speak English at home with the kids. Of course kids should practice speaking English, but to come to their home and ask their parents to switch up the dynamics in their home for a language is beyond me.
Coming from a hispanic family, I've been bilingual all my life. I didn't speak English till I was about four because my parents didn't speak any English. I learned English because of cartoons, my older siblings and when I started head start. I can't say that it was the most difficult thing to be between cultures, but it was in a sense hard. I had to learn a whole different life that I had at home. But after years of being in school that I had to speak and learn English.. it started becoming easier and I grew accustomed to it. I never did let go of my home culture though, I spoke Spanish still after learning English in school. I didn't have my parents helping me with homework, but I had older siblings who did and that made things easier.
Talking Point: Why should anyone drop their culture to fit into the public lifestyle?
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Hyperlinks
Jonathan Kozol "Amazing Grace"
All of these issues that Kozol brings up while reading his article. I know these issues are still occurring because I was born and raised in the Bronx. Poverty is a very big issue there, and the living situations are very sad. People live through these sicknesses, these issues they have no control over. A lot of people fail to ignore this, and say that its the peoples fault for not choosing a different path to get out of poverty Like this professor from NYU, he said "If poor people behaved rationally, they would seldom be poor for long in the first place." I believe this is very ignorant of him, because a lot of these people are poor because of lack of jobs, and the issue of making ends meet, most of them live pay check to paycheck. I believe all of these issues are very important.
Talking Point: The unfairness of the lifes of people in the South Bronx.
- I think Kozol talks a lot about the problem of AIDS mainly in this part of South Bronx. Back in 1995 AIDS was still not talked about, or such a known disease as it is today. In these neighborhoods that Kozol was referring to had a lot of cases of AIDS. In one building alone there were about "In this building? Including the children, maybe 27 people. that's just this section. In the other building over, there's maybe 20 more. Then there's lots of other people have it but dont know, afraid to know and don't want to be tested."(Kozol 13) Here alone you see how bad the AIDS/HIV epidemic was back in those days and today this is still relevant to people in this part of the NY. In this article you see how about "The borough's death rate from AIDS is nearly 10 times the national average, which health officials attribute to the fact that about 25% of its residents only learn they are infected after the disease has progressed to full-blown AIDS." Those are true facts that people in the Bronx fail to realize and is a recurring issue through out Kozol's article.
- Poverty in the Bronx is a big issue, Kozol talks a lot of about the amount of kids who were below the poverty line. "In 1991 the median household income of the area, according to the New York Times was $7,600" (Kozol 3) To have kids and make that much money is having no money at all. "Almost no one here has jobs like that. Some are too sick. They live on SSI. Maybe five or six in 25, she says, have some legitimate employment. Another five or ten are selling drugs or doing prostitution." (Kozol 14). Poverty was so bad, that "only seven of 800 children do not qualify for free school lunches." (Kozol 3) that right there is unbelievable and is still true. That article states how about 75% of the Bronx's children still qualify for free lunch because they are under the poverty line. This other article shows how the Bronx still has the most children in poverty in all of NY.
- Throughout Kozol's article he refers to how the Bronx was back in the nineties, but I found this video from this year. The video states how the Bronx, especially South Bronx is still the same exact way Kozol was explaining it from back in 1995. In the video you see and hear what Kozol was trying to depict to you in words, with images and you hear the way things are today from actual people who live there now. In the video the guys who were talking about the neighborhood they live in, they refer to the incinerators that were spoken of a couple times throughout the article. This is an actual issue that people in the Bronx have to go through, the majority of the Bronx is a dumping site to the government. The South Bronx is still one of poorest in the U.S. Kozol goes back to the state of poverty a couple of times through out the article.
- The government using these neighborhoods as dumping sites, and having incinerators near them has caused most of the population to have asthma. Kozol stated "Asthma is the most common illness among children here. Many have struggle to take in a good deep breath. Some mothers keep oxygen tanks, which children describe as "breathing machines," next to their children's beds." (Kozol 4) Asthma to this day is still a big issue in the Bronx because of how many dumping sites and polluted air their is. This article I was reading spoke a lot about the rates and how high they are mostly in the Bronx. Kozol mentioned this a couple of times because he sees how much it affects children, especially when he was walking with the seven year old boy and half way through the walk, the boy had to use his inhaler.
All of these issues that Kozol brings up while reading his article. I know these issues are still occurring because I was born and raised in the Bronx. Poverty is a very big issue there, and the living situations are very sad. People live through these sicknesses, these issues they have no control over. A lot of people fail to ignore this, and say that its the peoples fault for not choosing a different path to get out of poverty Like this professor from NYU, he said "If poor people behaved rationally, they would seldom be poor for long in the first place." I believe this is very ignorant of him, because a lot of these people are poor because of lack of jobs, and the issue of making ends meet, most of them live pay check to paycheck. I believe all of these issues are very important.
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Talking Point: The unfairness of the lifes of people in the South Bronx.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
First Post.
When I'm out of class I spend time with my loved one, and my best friend. I love to read books, so when I'm not reading a text book I'm reading a good book.
J.Cole <3
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