Blog #8

Okay, I am so completely exhausted right now… so I am going to take this paper on a different track I am not going to divide up one article into three pieces, because I want to comment on Anyon, Oakes and Tara’s blog regarding homosexuality so there’s 3 subsections right there. But anyway I mentioned that I was tired before to warn anyone reading this that it might get rambling or just not make sense at times lol.

First the Anyon piece, this article resonates with everything we have already been doing in class. Here Anyon talks about the “hidden curriculum”, which I think goes hand and hand with the Culture of Power. Kids from higher classes learn the skills that they will need in graduate school to become a doctor, or other positions of power. While working class kids learn how to be obedient and subservient. Which I don’t think anyone can completely deny, this is the reason why there are still stereotypes regarding poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer, so much of this class conflict still survives today. This isn’t just how much money and resources do these schools have but the fact that the curriculums are different, as Anyon points out working class schools lean toward the vocational education, while the wealthier kids learn critical analysis. This might seem to be the practical approach, however it is never practical to tell children they are not capable and deny them of even putting in the effort to become something more than your corner mechanic. Maybe this is why people end up hating their jobs. I know kids personally who became mechanics and hate it, these are really smart, driven people and if provided the opportunity could have “been all that they could be”. But not once did someone of authority ever tell them, you have a shot, you could get out, you could do that, because that’s not “practical”.

Now onto the Oakes piece. I have actually mentioned this idea in my journals as well how kids should be allowed to learn by ability and not simply age level. In my VIPs classroom I have noticed that the kids who “act out” do so because they finished their work and they understand the material and now they are bored waiting for the other kids to catch up. Now they are “problem kids”. I really glad that this article was assigned to us because this allows me to flip the coin over and have a good look. To be honest I never even considered the flip side of the argument, where students would be labeled less able. I mean that sounds incredible, I cant image what I child would feel like in that position. However in my high school, and I know that in most high schools, there is a certain amount of “tracking” going on. There were different levels of education being taught, outside of age group. Nobody cared though, I was in lower level math courses, but higher level history courses, and no body really even cared, I would joke and say I was in the “dumb math class” but it never really bothered me. But again I cant speak for the masses, I would image this would bother some people. I mean I didn’t even know my school offered college prep course until well after I had graduated and my friend told he was offered them, (he turned them down, dropped out and became a carpenter). Here Oakes mentions that kids in the lowering performing classes have no chance to move up because they are taught a different way, see now I did not realize this, these kids would be deemed: not headed to college, and so they would be taught the basics and pushed out the door. That sounds bad, but it sounds like an easy fix to me. But now that just melts right into the quality of the teachers. Oakes mentions, that teachers in low-ability classrooms spend more time on discipline, while high-ability classrooms spend more time on class work. This still seems like a teacher quality problem.

Now about Tara’s blog… Ellen Degenerous was on the Oprah Show and I watched because Ellen was going to appear with her wife and discuss what it is like to be an openly gay woman on television… so I had to watch. Now at first Ellen says that people were against her being on tv and having her own show because what do housewives at home at this time have in common with a lesbian? They didn’t think anyone would watch. Her show is now extremely popular, but to begin with the night show she had had been cancelled a year after she came out. Ellen knew that her career might be over she came out. But she came out because she wanted to be out and happy with it even though she knew there would be some opposition. The greatest success for her came when she came out, because once she was out she was totally happy and satisfied, because she was out she was free to be happy and work hard at what she wants. “I wanted everyone to like me.” Portia De Rossi the sister on Arrested Development (funniest show ever) is Ellen’s wife. Was it important to you to be married? Legal stamp of validity, that you have the right to do so. Anyone who is married knows that there is a comfort and a safety that feeling of “home”. (They showed some pictures from their wedding and these women are so beautiful and so special, and I know it sounds weird and none of my business really but I am so proud of them, they really obtained happiness through oppression). They are not going to like me, no matter how good of a person I am, if they find out my secret they wont accept me. A sense of peace. The love overcame the fear.