Talking Points # 5

"In Service of What"
Kahne and Westheimer

Kahne and Westheimer argue that service learning is important because students should be able to give back to the community and learn how to provide help help in their own community and do something good for once.

1) "Service learning makes students active participants in service projects that aim to respond to the needs of the community while furthering the academic goals of students."
This quote is suggesting that students should be able to go out in the public and show what they have been learning in school and learn more by helping other people in the community. By helping other people in the community the students are reaching out to people who can use the help everyday. Giving back to the community is a great thing to do.
2) "For example, a music director at a middle school we studies wanted her surburban, upper-middle class students to perform at a nearby elementary school in a poor neighborhood. Some of the middle school parents objects, saying they they were concerned for their children's safety. In a written evaluation, the students said that they had imagined 'horrifying children running around on a dirty campus.' "
This is redicolous because at an elementary school I do not think there is going to be any problems of middle school kids getting harassed from younger school kids who are not even smart enought to realize what they are doing. There is absolutey no reason for middle school parents to object having their kids go to an elementary school to perform at an elementary school to show the kids the art of music.
3) "We attempt to 'apprehend the reality of the other' and then to 'struggle [for progress] together.' In so doing we create opportunities for changing our understanding of the other and the context within which he or she lives."
Students should be able to tell what the problems are in their community so they know what to do to change that around to make the problems go away. Finding out in advance what is going on could help out the community a lot because people could be working from the begining and then all of a sudden other people could come in and help the community out in a different way.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, I believe this article could help out students in high school as well as in middle school because students need to be able to do something for their community because there a lot of probelms in communities today and people arent doing anything about it. Helping out the community could do a lot for someone who doesn't do much, students in high school and middle school can help themselves out by helping the community out by going to different places and seeing if they could help in anyway possible. High school students can learn a lot from this because if some of them want to become teachers they can go to other schools in their school district and help out teachers there for a period of time and learn from it as well as making a difference in someone elses day. This article states that students should learn about service learning projects because they could help out students become better people in lives.

Talking Points # 4

"Unlearning the Myths that blind us"
Linda Christensen

Christensen believes that teachers need to teach students to understand what are going on in movies, television, and music with the stereotypes of people today and the racism that is going on in the world. Teachers need to teach students that everyone should be equal.

1."We are not only taught certain styles of violence, the latest fashions, and sex roles by TV, movies, magazines, and comic strips; we are also taught how to succeed, how to love, how to buy, how to conquer, how to forget the past and suppress the future. We are taught, more than anything else, how not to rebel."
I agree with this quote because children today see how they are suppose to act by what they see on television, or listen in lyrics from their favorite artists on certain ways of how to make love or how guys should buy girls everything. "Baby you can have whatever you like I said you can have whatever you like." This is from T.I's new song. Whatever you like.
2. “Students have also said that what they now see in cartoons, they also see in advertising, on prime-time TV, on the news, in school. Turning off the cartoons doesn't stop the sexism and racism. They can't escape, and now that they've started analyzing cartoons, they can't stop analyzing the rest of the world. And sometimes they want to stop. Once a student asked me, "Don't you ever get tired of analyzing everything!"
When I was in high school for a school project for health class we had to analyze TV shows that we watched all the time. And I never realized that what I was watching was very sexists and degrading to women. Some parts of the shower I remember were talking about women how they should stay in the kitchen and get the house ready for the husband to come home from work so he could eat and the wife could serve him. Woman's roles from society were just to stay home, clean, cook, and take care of the children. Stereotypes of women have changed because now women are in the working world showing they could do man's job.
3."When we read children's books, we aren't just reading cute little stories, we are discovering the tools with which a young society is manipulated."
Children books are mostly focused on the pictures inside of them. Children when they are younger see these pictures and dream to be as beautiful as Cinderella. Children see these pictures and are so fascinated by them and see these characters as doing nothing and getting what they want. Once little kids see these they go right to their parents and tell them they want this and want that.

Conclusion:
I was very interested in this article because I never realized how manipulating media can be and what it can do to us as a society. Music is the most powerful way to manipulate someone to do something or to follow a certain crowd. Lyrics and music videos in my perspective can do a lot to a a young child's mind just by the words coming out from their favorite artists or even from the music videos and all the actions going on in it. Times have changed from 10 years ago to today. There are more and more people seeing African Americans in different ways, 10-15 years ago there were more gang violence and Africans are realizing that they don't have to do that, that they can go to college and succeed. When people say where are you from to an African and they say they are from Compton, the stereotype is that he is in a gang because of the area he is from. People need to understand that not everyone from certain are bad people.

Talking Points # 3

"Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community"
Dennis Carlson

I believe that Carlson is stating that gayness has to be taught in school in a way that it shows the negatives and positives. Teachers and students have to accept each others right to choose who they are and their sexual orientation.

1. "This implies at the very least that educators involve young people in a discussion of gay identity within the context of a discussion of human rights in a democratic community, and it may extend to a discussion of caring for others, including the gay Other, in community."
Teaching about homosexuals in a school and community environment because more and more males and females are becoming gay and lesbians. I learned from another course that its up to the person and it relates back to the persons sexual orientation of who she or he is going to like. Teaching this concept to students of homosexuals is important in a school environment so people get to see both sides of the spectrum. It should not make a difference if your gay or not, everyone should be accepted for who they are.

2. "To the extent that gayness is recognized in the curriculum, it is likely to be in the health curriculum, where it is associated with disease. For example, one of the most popular health texts on the high school market is Health: A Guide to Wellness, which mentions homosexuals or homosexuality once in acknowledging that 'the first group in the United States diagnosed with AIDS were male homosexuals'."
I have heard of this before because I am an health/pe major. I have read about that before, but i also have noticed that more recent text books have sections on peoples sexuality which is focusing on straight, gay and lesbian. People think that gay people are the people that give or recieve AIDS which is false information.
3. "A third discourse on community to emerge over the past decade or so in America is associated with the notion of a community of difference and diversity- what I will call a demorcratic mluticultural community."
This qoute is stating that people who are diverse and are homosexual should join their own community and have a public culture for people to kno who they are.

Conclusion.
I thought this was a good article to read because I have a best friend who is a homosexual and is open with his sexual orienation and is not afraid to show it around his friends, but around other people he is alittle shy. When I first met his boyfriend I was a little hesitant because of all the myths about gay people but in the end he was a very nice guy and was fun to be around. And learning about homosexuals and lesbians in my health class I know now how and why people become who they are and how it makes them feel inside when they get accepted from people from the same group as them. People have to learn about homosexuals becasue its a growing gend in this country and will keep growing.

Talking Points # 2

Aria
by Richard Rodriquez

Rodriquez argues that someones race can be altered by society when learning to become part of society into days world by the language they are speaking.

1. "In an instant, they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family's closeness."
People have to change the way they speak just to be accepted in society and to have to power in today's world. Changing your everyday language to something that your not used to is very difficult I can imagine and i am very grateful that I do not have to change my language to be accepted with power in society.

2. "At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had been technically true since my birth: I was an American citizen."
This quote meant a lot when I read it because I know some friends of mine that were born in this country but did not realize that they were a citizen when they were born and were living in the old life of their country and their language and not reaching out to see what else is out their and the opportunities.

3. "Whenever I'd speak to my parents, I would try to get their attention with eye contact alone."
I thought this was very interesting because in their household Rodriquez does not acknowledge the parents as mom or dad but by looking at them straight into the eye. I know in my house i acknowledge my parents as mom and dad and when i am having a conversation in public i say my parents or mom and dad. People from different cultures are used to different things but giving someone eye contact is very weird to me to get their intention instead of saying mom or dad.

I enjoyed reading this article and noticing how a family could be close in the beginning and then end up separate just because the use of language has diminished. People who learn a different language and start to use it from their traditional language separate the culture from their parents because they are learning new things and people realize who are born in America are citizens and should learn to speak American and just not their native language.

other post

i found this article on USA Today. i thought it was interesting about the superintendents in urban schools.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-09-28-superintendent_N.htm

Talking Points

Article 1
Salim Muwakkil
Data show racial bias persists in America

Muwakkil believes that racism is still alive and is still happening in America today.

1. "White -sounding names were 50 percent more likely to get called for an initial interview than applicants with black-sounding names."
I feel that people should have equal opportunities for their careers, it shouldn't matter what their first name is and if it sounds white or black.
2. "When white and black job seekers has the appropriate qualifications and experiences for the postion, whites were more likely to be called back than blacks."
It shouldn't matter if the person is black and white. Black educated people are just as qualified as white people are. Blacks are just as hardworking and dedicated their jobs as whites are and should be called back for the job.
3. "White and black men with and without prison records to job interviews."
Even white people that had prison records still got jobs and black people did not get jobs just because they are black. It shouldn't matter what color your skin is.
This article I liked a lot because I never realized this in depth how racism is affective in corporate America. People don't realize how mayn factors could lead up to racism in today's world. People everyday are being out of jobs because the job interviews they are going to are being racist for many different reasons.

Article 2
Peggy McIntosh
White Privilege

1."I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege."
This quote means that white people go on everyday and see new things everyday as other males go on each day and realize that their are much more out in the world and some of the opportunities out there are privileges.
2. There was one main piece of cultural turf; it was my own turn, and I was among those who could control the turf."
A person has to figure out what his motive was and what he wanted to do . I believe that is what McIntosh says by "turf." A person has to find their inner side and see what he can do and what privileges come out from it.
3. "If these things are true, this is not such a free country; ones' life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own."
People who are born white have more opportunity will more likely to succeed in life rather than those who come from a black family have to work extremely hard to succeed in their future.
I have learned from this article that people just can't always get what they want that people have to work hard for it, especially if you come from a black family and don't have as many privileges as someone from a white family. People from a white family are usually born into a world that you can do whatever you want and succeed at it with support from family and friends. On the other hand people from a black family have to show their friends and family that they can do what they can do with out being made fun of from someone else or getting racists comments thrown at them.

Me

My Name is Jordan Epstein. I am currently a sophomore at Rhode Island College. I am majoring in health and physical education. I am the youngest in my family, I have an older brother who is married, he is 29. We are 10 years apart.
Last year I was on the RIC Basketball team but was not able to play due to a injury my senior year in high school in the spring. I decided this year not to play but to concentrate on my studies because I knew it was going to be more intense this year.
I am from New Jersey, I know people always ask me why and I end up saying because I was recruited to come here to play basketball. And I am going to clear it up now that NJ is not 4 hours away its 3 hours and 15 minutes around that time.

That is it for now