Being White

"Fordham presents an analysis of the tension felt by some students between group identity and academic success...doing well in school is equated with "selling out" or becoming non-black" (259)
In chapter 17, Janie Ward talks about the difficulty that African Americans have in succeeding in school. I see this every day in my placement, students are conditioned to be "white" by basically saying that their tendencies (i.e. the way they talk, the way they dress, the music they listen to, etc) are wrong. This I think is the reason why they think that being smart or succeeding academically is "selling out". Teachers at my school are constantly telling students that the things that they say, Ebonics or slang, are wrong, but they aren't told why. If you don't explain to them that it isn't wrong, it just isn't appropriate for some situations then they are led to believe that society thinks that their way of life is wrong. It would be so easy in English classes especially to show students that their language isn't wrong, it is just a different way of speaking then what is necessary for school or jobs. You could do tons of different things to show the difference between informal and formal English. I think that by just correcting them constantly and telling them what they are saying is wrong is not the right approach. If you were to trying to teach ELL kids or someone trying to learn English for the first time you wouldn't tell them that everything that they say in their native language is wrong. So why do we do it with the kids that speak Ebonics? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Movie from Presentation

Just wanted to let you guys know if you are interested, the movie that we used in our presentation is called Chalk. It is basically a spoof documentary of high school teachers and administrators. It is a really funny movie and I recommend checking it out if you have a chance.

Transistion age

"These changes that occur during the period of transition from childhood to adolescence should be reflected, we believe, in a transitional school program." (p.165)
This transitional school that Alexander talks about does not exist in the MPS school district, while at least not at the school that I am currently at. They treat these kids as though they are still children and then wonder why they do not act like adults. The kids in my school are not allowed to be in the hallways in between classes without supervision. They actually are walked to their next class in a line by my cooperating teacher. They are given 20 minutes for lunch in which they are required to sit at their table and not allowed to get up until the teacher tells them that they can dump their trays and then line up in order to be escorted back to class again. I think it is funny when I hear the teachers talk about how the kids want to be treated like adults, but they don't act like adults. Of course they are not going to start acting like adults when you are constantly treating them like children and not giving them the opportunity to actually become adults. I mean even in the classroom they are constantly yelled at for every little thing. I taught a vocab lesson the other day that was supposed to be fun and active, but my cooperating teacher started to yell at them because they were being too loud and were not in their assigned seats. I don't know if the rest of the schools are like this, but I feel that my school is grooming these kids to be kids for the rest of their lives and not giving them the tools that they need to become a functioning part of an adult society.