"Why cant she remember that?"

Terry Meier
"Why cant she remember that?"

Meier did a great job with explaining all the connections in the research that she done and found with the children in the multicultural and multilingual schools. When Meier mentioned Lindsey and Lem for instance and there back rounds and how they were perceiving the books and reading in school it really hit home. Lindsey was constantly read to when she was a child and picked up on the skills and abilities quicker then the students like Lem which either his family couldn't afford books or his family just lost their cultural beliefs. I can connect with the students because in elementary school I was deficient in reading. I could read just like everyone but I couldn't understand what I read, but when i was younger my parents read to me and we would talk about the things in the books I just had a reading problem.

When Meier said, "Despite their diverse backgrounds, all children bring to school rich Linguistic abilities acquired through social interaction in theirs homes and communities." After I read this part in the reading I instantly thought of "An Indian Fathers Plea". Why couldn't the people in the schools and the communities realize this. This makes me so angry how in the last reading people can be so cruel and powerful and in this reading everyone has there differences and it is okay but we are all equal. I enjoy reading this much more.

Another point I connected with was the whole section of the reading "Make the books come alive".That is all what I am about different ways to have fun. How the teacher made the books come alive with cheep props so students could understand and connect with the reading in a more visual way was applaud-able. At the end of the reading when Meier mentioned that a little girl pointed out a "white girl" in the book they were reading and all the students started discussing this topic. Groups talked about skin color, friendship, and incidents that have happened to them involving these issues. Just pointing something out like that in a book that started up a hole class room discussion was a great tool to talk about equality and differences and things people deal with in everyday life.

An Indian Fathers Plea Reflection

An Indian Fathers Plea
Robert Lake

                That is a typical stereotype for the teacher to already call Wind Wolf a slow learner. Children maybe learn in different ways and in a school setting sitting down it may be hard for Wind Wolf because traveling he saw a lot of things and learned from seeing his surroundings by touch, sight, smell, and his spiritual surroundings. His father really stuck it to the man! The education in the school systems are totally different from the way Wind Wolf learned how to count, he can speak other languages, tell you 40 different kinds of birds. Wind Wolf has the knowledge that his tribe and culture may teach their children and he just has to go in the school system by law and they are not giving him enough credit and attention that he needs.

                I think that the teachers at the school should have at least talked with the parents first because no one knows what goes on at home, you don’t live with the child. So Wind Wolf definitely is learning in a different way know. His family was teaching him how to count sticks, fish, beads, etc and in school they are learning different methods so if he is struggling with different activities in school the teachers should at least have the courtesy  to call home and see if there is something that the school can do to help with the transition to the new school with new people rather than just calling him a slow learner.

                This is also the teachers job to make the school or the classroom a better learning environment for all of the children. If this child is getting harassed and bullied it needs to be stop. Coming home 3 times in 2 weeks crying because people are making fun of him is not okay something should have been done the first time and nothing has happened. Now the child is ashamed of his heritage and his culture and doesn't want to go to school any more.

                I think that Wind Wolfs father did an exemplary job telling the teacher off but also telling them that he can help if they are not that well educated in different heritages. That was a well needed well written letter that needed to be wrote. I can only imagine the pain of the family knowing that the child is starting not to like his culture and doesn’t want to participate in their religious rituals. That alone is partly the teachers fault for not working with the child and making him feel more involved with the class and his fellow students. A lot of children around the world must be going through the same problem so that is an essential topic to be educated on if you are going into a teaching profession. You will need to be educated on different cultures and make the children feel more welcomed than more different. 

White Privilege Reflection

White Privilege 

Peggy McIntosh

                The beginning of this article started by talking about "white privilege". I honestly have never thought that whites were much more privileged that African Americans. The color of your skin shouldn't  show how privileged you are in the community or where ever you are. McIntosh stated, " I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are over privileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged." This statement is really funny because I don’t think we are over privileged at all, men are more wanted in the business world, for jobs, and for lots of other things. But while people are looking for men, woman don’t get the full credit that they deserve. Woman are just as hard working and half the time more knowledgeable then some men. Well I am a white male and I have not yet to get my invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, cloths, tools, and blanks checks. I must have missed something?

                I agree when McIntosh and her colleague Elizabeth talked about how the schooling system kind of preached and lectured us on how we won't really make it big, we will live "morally normal, neutral, normative, and average " lives and it isn't fair. Why would we want to work our whole lives to make the wealthy happy? What about our happiness?

                McIntosh states 26 racial and privileged statements and conditions on which she views and sees people of the world look and act towards others of a different race, gender, class, religion, etc. I find that some of these conditions are extremely romanticized. Some of these sound like they are coming from someone with a chip on their shoulder. "I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to 'the person in charge,' I will be facing a person of my race." I do not think this is correct at all you will be faced with the person in charge not someone that is white, come on now. Some of these things that she mentioned are kind of nonsense. Although the one where she mentions that he neighbors will be pleasant, they will be for a while I agree. A lot of these that she mentioned can be debated for sure.

                

                I believe that we all really need to check ourselves and take a look in the mirror no one on this planet is perfect and no one will ever be. Just because our skin is a different color and whatever happened hundreds of years ago with slavery and history should be dropped. Today is a new day and we are in a new year. I don’t think anybody is more privileged than another person and you are only racist if you make yourself racist. Everyone needs to start with checking themselves, forgetting the past, looking forward to a better and brighter future where everyone on this earth is equal.