paper 3-MissRepresentation

Karla Fauver                                                                                                                Paper 3 

In response to film, MissRepresentation: Modern Women in Politics

As small children, both boys and girls learn to assume gender appropriate roles by watching our parents, grandparents, teachers and other care givers go through life’s daily activities, although as we get older, our focus tends to shift from immediate family and surroundings, to the media.  We as a society have created these stigmas by which our children live.  In the documentary film MissRepresentation, we heard from many prominent female role models that media sends a message to women of all ages that there is a physical standard to which they are held.  Women are expected to strive to be beautiful, thin, active and organized.  Achievements on an academic level are seen as secondary to being considered pretty by men.  As mothers, women have a special responsibility raise daughters and sons, to be strong examples of female independence and also to diminish the existing stereotype of the weak, needy female whose decisions are governed by hormonal changes.  It is important to be an example of gender equality to our young people in the upcoming generations.  This will require a basic reprogramming of our own thoughts, ideas, and cultural norms to date. 

 It is quite common to hear random comments on how beautiful a young girl is and how talented a young boy is, for example, people often say things like “my how pretty she looks in that dress, just like mommy” and “look how good he is at taking apart that lawn mower and putting it back together, he will be a mechanic like daddy”.  These types of comments are not consciously intended to insinuate that girls are not able to be mechanically inclined and that boys are not physically attractive.

 Instead, it shows young children that the first thing a person tends to notice are the physical attributes of a female and the abilities of a male. 

The career choices available to the female population today are limitless, and therefore it is absolutely imperative that young girls are made aware of that fact so they will feel confident to pursue levels of political discipline. “Women — particularly the accomplished and successful ones who would make the most appealing candidates — have been struck not by the opportunity but by the toll that politics can take”. (Tumulty)

It is disturbing to realize that women are viewed in a less serious political light as opposed to men.  Our leaders in government are supposed to symbolize and represent the population as a whole.  It stands to reason that women would hold at least half of the seats in Congress, but they do not.  In fact according to Marie Wilson, the director of  “The White House Project”, an organization geared toward the development of women in politics, they hold less than 17% of this most important part of our law-making and policy initiating department.  “There aren’t enough women who want to put themselves through the grinder of the political process,” said Brett O’Donnell, who was one of Bachmann’s top advisers. “We’ve got to stop everything about whether a candidate has cankles, and how she does her nails, and does she wear her hair up or down.” (Tumulty)

             The film brought to light many disturbing facts and statistics, such as the United States is the only developed civilization without a standard policy of paid family leave for employees.
A policy like this would enable growing families to spend the necessary time at home with small children and new babies without causing a serious financial burden.  Perhaps if the female voice was a bit stronger in our government the issue would be more likely to get legitimate consideration.  It is startling to hear that there are 67 other developing nations who have elected/appointed a female president or Prime Minister, excluding America.  There have only been 34 female governors in the US.  “..Maybe the reason we have so many problems in our country is because we have chosen our leaders from six percent of the population...” says Marie Wilson, founder of “The White House Project”.  She goes on to explain that women are harder to convince of the strength of female leadership than men are, as a whole.  According to the film, women have consistently been paid $.77 to every $1.00 as compared to men holding the same positions in the same companies.  Recently that policy has been modified, although it still brings pause to how it has been ignored for so long.  Judith Saidel, coeditor of the report, emphasized the significance of this study, saying that historically women have been able to obtain better wages and benefits when working for the government than in the private sector. (The Nation, by Lawrence Panin)

  Over the past few decades we have increased the female leadership voice substantially, yet we are still so very far behind.  The media consistently feeds into the notion that women are happy to be objectified, which increases the public view that women are not worthy of full human value. “While the topic of gender, women, and political leadership has been widely explored by

social scientists, little in depth research exists on how this generation of girls and young
women views political leadership and the forces that shape their beliefs and attitudes”. (Schoenberg).  It is considered normal and sadly even acceptable to most young women today to see a woman depicted in sexually objectifying ways on TV, in movies and even in our news programs. 

Women are the people often more guilty of perpetuating the nonsense, as they continuously portray themselves in a dehumanizing light, validating questions about their clothing choices and hair styles with an answer in a news interview.  Instead, it would be wise to ignore those types of questions, and respond with a focused and intelligent counter question that outlines their true contribution to the world.   The film discussed a city in which a male leader appointed a female fire chief and a female police chief and this gentleman explained that he had simply chosen the best qualified individuals to fit the positions, and he was surprised at the negative response by women specifically insofar as to voice a concern about the reliability of a woman in those positions of power.

President Barbie

 Gender bias goes both ways, as men are more than likely to be affected by the same cultural expectation to be masculine, as women are to be feminine.  These terms are best defined subjectively.  Men do not really have to be strong and overbearing toward women, as they are generally portrayed to be in the media. It just isn’t practical.

            We are inundated with media messages coming from every direction; billboards, so-called ‘reality’ TV show, movies, commercials internet and social websites, and video games. 




The genration we are bringing up today will not have been afforded any real sense of a sheltered life, like many people in the age range of 40-50 today.  It is nearly impossible to be at all aware of what our children are being exposed to by media.  This makes the job of parenting all that much more challenging, as it is still a parent’s responsibility to guide their child in their processing and understanding of the information they are being bombarded with on a daily basis.

“Investment in young women needs to happen early. One of the ways in which this investment can happen is by changing the cultural perceptions of girls as leaders and women as presidents”. (Pace University) If we change media messages, we can changes minds.

             It is not a war between the sexes that is being waged in our country, but rather an awakening to those who have been living with the preconceived notions as to what is proper, acceptable and even what is possible for a woman to accomplish. “…a Democratic candidate is three times more likely to be a woman than is a Republican candidate…it isn’t a gender gap; it’s a gender chasm.” said Gary Moncrief, a political science professor at Boise State University.(Tumulty)

paper 2-Sapelo Island

Karla Fauver, paper 2                                                                                                                p1

Land Rights on Sapelo Island

Change, transformation, metamorphosis, evolution; these concepts are not inherently negative or positive; it depends on one’s own, unique perspective.  According to Cornelia Walker-Bailey, who co-wrote a book called God, Dr. Buzzard and the Bolito man, the residents of the beautiful island of Sapelo, located off the coast of Georgia, are having some difficulties as the community has undergone, and continues to undergo a metamorphosis of sorts. It is becoming more of a place for government funded research groups and wealthy vacationers and less of a home to native families that have raised children and grown as a community there for generations.  This particular situation in Sapelo may not directly affect many individual lives on an everyday basis; however we as a society have a vested interest in the passing of laws which demand/allow a balance to be achieved in the fight for financial well-being and security, without infringing upon the civil rights of others.

 Land ownership as a civil rights issue is a concept that can be understood only in a culture which defines personal success in terms of material wealth of possession of land.  On the Island of Sapelo, examples of a material-wealth focused community, as well as a family-oriented, respectful of the earth type of culture can be found throughout history.  There were wealthy families that owned the land during slave times who continued to use that land as a means of financial gain even after slavery had ended.  In contrast, there were families of slave descendents who were so fortunate to own land on the island, and were systematically forced into one area of the island, Hog Hammock, over the course of many decades following the abolition of slavery.  Miss Bailey recounts much of her daily life in her book based on memories

she has treasured full of lessons about nature in her early years living on Belle Marsh, a somewhat secluded area on the island which her father had inherited and built his family home.  After her family was bullied by the local authority time and again, her father made the agonizing decision to uproot the family and move to Hog Hammock because he felt he had no other option.  This decision seemed to be the best choice on the surface, as the house they moved into was in much better structural shape than the one they had been living in on the Marsh; however there was a noticeable change in Cornelia’s father.  “When you move a man out of his home, he just isn’t right again”(Bailey).

  Cornelia Walker-Bailey tells us that Sapelo Island was populated in the early 1800s, with a community of slaves who were purchased like cattle and brought in to live and work the land.  The land they worked for generations as slaves, became home to their posterity, and eventually became a source of pride, fostering roots for those families whose true ancestry is traced back to West Africa.  These family-focused people lived with the land, mutually sustaining life and nature, in a balanced, non-invasive lifestyle.  Bailey reports there was a cultural respect for the land itself, “…the Creator created us from sand from the earth, so the earth was special, it had special healing properties.” (Bailey 204).  A culture who feels a strong bond with land in this way would certainly be traumatized at loosing that connection.

A New York Times article, “Taxes Threaten an Island Culture in Georgia”, by Kim Severson, outlines a current situation where in the state of Georgia has moved in and exerted its authority over the land on Sapelo island with the expressed position that they are trying to preserve the amazing natural resources found on Sapelo, hoping to keep it alive and not let man destroy it through developing technology.  These efforts should be applauded, if they are in fact the true agenda.  The state is working to keep people physically away from the land on Belle marsh to avoid contaminating its purity.  Unfortunately, that included the native residents of the island who obviously posed no threat to its natural habitat abilities, as they have been living there for nine generations (Bailey 23).

Another agenda has presented itself as people have learned about the beauty, unique climate and foliage on the island of Sapelo.  According to Severson, the area has become a place of interest to certain people as a vacation spot.  In 2009, the tax updates were put on pause to give people a chance to catch up in the falling economy.  Some substantial sales were omitted from the tax records, as a result (Severson 3).  “We’re rural, we’re on the coast and we are desirable”, said a Mr. Cook, one of the officials involved in the tax review, who was quoted in Kim Severson’s article.

Given that people have a tendency to be self-serving, the people who want to preserve these natural habitats are not considering the feelings, or the rights of those whose families who have been living there since slave times.  The state is proposing an exorbitant tax increase for the residents of Hog Hammock, based entirely upon the increased interest from outsiders for land ownership of the island, and the lack of precise record keeping on Sapelo over the years, which was noted as ‘very, very sloppy’ by the board of tax assessors interviewed by Kim Severson.     The tax increase has not yet been extended completely to the author and storyteller of Sapelo Island, Cornelia Bailey, who still lives there today, but she has experienced enough of an increase to incite anger over the lack of services in exchange for those high taxes. She owns four properties located on the island, and three of these are subject to the tax increase at this time (Severson p3). She expressed her outrage to Ms. Severson as she explained that residents still have no municipal trash pick-up or paved roads, or any services that are funded in part by property taxes (Severson 3). The majority of these homeowners lack the financial resources to pay the enormous tax increase, and it seems reasonable to believe that the Georgia state authorities would be aware of that fact.

 this is a current example of an available peice of real estate on the island

 

 According to Kim Severson in her article in the New York Times, the “state lawmakers have discussed creating a trust that would protect land from development but allow residents who could not afford their taxes to stay”(n.d.). However, the people living in Hog Hammock believe that Georgia authority figures are expecting them to humbly abandon their homes due to the pressure from the infiltrating community.  There is no sign that these new-comers are taking into consideration the people who have been there and would like to continue to live and work the land.

The most direct connection between that situation and one that has the ability to affect families everywhere in America on a personal level is the application of a tax burden based on the purchase of land by investors who want to capitalize on its value.  If local officials succeed in increasing taxes for the native residents of Sapelo in an effort to force them to leave, opening up money-making opportunities for private wealthy people to come in and buy up the land, this would set a bad precedent for other landowners in America. We all want our own rights protected, therefore the precedent is important.  Once a policy is put into place, the likelihood that it will be removed is very small.  We would be wise to take the issue seriously and stand on the side of civil rights for these native people to retain their land and be forgiven any tax liability increases.  The new tax laws can apply to new ownership while the current residents can be “grandfathered”.  That can create somewhat of a win-win situation, at least in the perspective that there can be revenue generated with a tourist population, and human rights need not be trampled upon. 

Paper 1-Education

Karla Fauver

Education Reform: possibility/probability

Education reform is a campaign strategy.  Politicians boast that they will implement their ideas for change in America’s education system for the simple purpose of convincing as many registered voters as possible that he or she intends to pioneer some groundbreaking course of events that will strengthen our current system, however the problems that plague our education system are far too great for swift, noticeable results.  After browsing through the written promises and ideals touted over the past two decades by random political officials, it seems apparent to many that there has been little action taken toward true reformation of our system of education within the confines of our very own culture boundaries.  The article written by Paolo Freire, The Banking Concept of Education, describes in detail some ineffective, yet commonly used methods of teaching.  In the article Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, Jean Anyon outlines the unique differences found in the daily educational techniques used by teachers in schools of various financial standing.  These useful articles indicate that basis of the main problem our society in facing as far as education is concerned is that the goals and priorities of education are skewed based on financial status of the student body.

        Almost every political leader, whether they claim to be republican, democrat, left wing, liberal, or otherwise, has attempted to introduce some level of commitment to an overhaul of the American education system.  Not one has offered any all-encompassing change.  The use of assessments and tests to determine the level of learning that is taking place in the classroom is, no doubt, the fruit of the tree that sprouted from what Freire describes as the “banking concept” of learning. This is the most commonly found teaching model in America.  As the students sit dutifully in a chair amongst other students, the teacher stands in front of a classroom spouting facts and dates and names, maybe he or she will put a slightly personal note here and there to lighten the mood or just to see who is actually listening, and subsequently tests are given accordingly to allow the students to regurgitate the memorized facts and figures onto paper for their teacher to analyze.  This is a typical description of the average American classroom.  How much learning can really be done? True learning is defined by psychologists as a ‘modification of behavior’ according to Pavlov during his quest to understand human behavior.  To understand something new causes a person to think differently, and therefore behave differently.  Absorbing information allows a person to make different choices based on a new perspective.  

Jean Anyon outlines a viewpoint of education and its relationship to social class.  She explains that schools in specific geographical areas tend to allow for only certain fields of study to be focused upon, depending on the earning capacity and social status of the community members.  After observing five different elementary schools over the course of a year, she concluded that “fifth- graders of different economic backgrounds are already being prepared to occupy particular rungs on the social ladder” (Anyon 5).  The areas with more economic flexibility tend to have better curriculum available to the student body.  Wealthier school districts are more apt to offer field trips, they can afford to pay teachers who have studied and adopted more broad–minded techniques and philosophy.   In the ‘Executive Elite’ school, teachers help the students develop leadership qualities and reasoning strategies.  Parents in these areas are generally more educated and therefore are expected to be more encouraging and involved in their children’s educational experience.  The idea here is that the students will need to be forward-thinkers and develop skills which are considered necessary for more affluent career choices and social settings. However, in the poorer school districts, she claims the teachers “rarely explain why the work is being assigned…connect to other assignments or what the idea is that lies behind the procedure…” (Anyon 3) and it seems textbooks are not readily available to each individual student.  The emphasis in these types of schools is placed on following steps to complete procedural tasks, rather than grasp concepts found in the material itself.  This teaching style is geared toward following directions, but seems to inhibit the individual growth of a child’s use of critical thinking.

             Our government has essentially assembled a caste system within the bounds of our society by using our education system as a placement process.  As Anyon points out, the schools located in areas of ‘blue collar’ industry where you find mostly factory workers’ children in grades k-12, are seriously underfunded and these children are left with a less than forward-thinking curriculum from which to learn, essentially crippling the learning possibilities for this sector; it teaches them to stay where they are in the scheme of things.  The same can be seen with the teaching techniques found in the affluent, professional schools.  Self expression is encouraged in this setting.  “The relatively few rules to be followed regarding [student] work are usually criteria for or limits on, individual activity.” (Anyon 6) it stands to reason that children who are taught that their ideas can be formed into structured ideas will grow to manipulate the world around them more readily than children who grow up learning to follow the directives set forth by someone else with little, if any input of their own.      

            Overall learning and improvement in education can indeed be achieved not only by testing regurgitated academic knowledge, but also by personal growth and maturity.  The teaching style differences outlined by Anyon are directly linked to the outcome of any given individual student’s learning experience. 

Freire’s banking concept is evident in the teaching technique I have encountered during my life experience as a student, but also as a teacher. In 1998 I was trained, certified and employed as Group supervisor/teacher assistant in a private kindergarten and pre-k program.  Our school was a small, private, tuition-based program which offered before and after school care as well as an excepted kindergarten curriculum.  The social status of the majority of our students ranged from fairly poor, to what is considered the middle class.  None of the parents were extremely wealthy or affluent.  Few, though not all, of my fellow co-workers were considered to be good teachers by the parents and the other staff members.  The best teacher in our school, the one who actually helped the small minds in our care to grow and expand was a very scatter-brained woman who had an actual 4 yr teaching degree.  The parents complained that she was sloppy, disorganized and flighty.  She was known to take the children outside in the mud to look for natural animal habitats, she would have the boys and girls put on plays for each other, and they would have to come up with their own lines.  After watching the difference between the way the children responded to this teacher and myself, I realized that what I was doing was babysitting.  What she was doing was teaching.  As Freire says,” Education must begin with the solution of teacher-student contradiction…so that both are simultaneously teachers and students. In an effort to help students learn about nature, colors, plants and animals we had animals in our classroom: two birds, a rabbit, three hamsters, and a turtle.  The children were assigned duties to care for the animals and they learned so much in regard to responsibility as well as natural habitats of other species.

As far as the social class and demographic influence on our personal learning environment, it was indeed noticeable to an extent, as we had parents who could not afford to allow their children to participate in certain events as well as children from more financially endowed families who had regular exposure to the world, but not nearly as much as it is for the public school system.  The government-funded public school system is at the mercy of the area and the funds available to offer a broader, more interesting curriculum.  The more affluent schools have more tax money available to them, and therefore they can offer a broader teaching canvas, for example the use of computers in the classroom.  Technology is expensive and it is a huge part of American society therefore it needs to be included in public school training.

  It is unfortunate, however that due to the priorities of our culture by design, there does not seem to be a fool-proof method to apply to the overall education system that will address the problems entirely, without causing more problems to erupt in its wake.  For instance, if we insist on more funding for depressed areas, who is going to pay for it?  If we employ new policies to encourage the use of what has been considered unorthodox or alternative teaching strategy until this point, where will draw the line?  Will parents become more involved? And if they do, who gets the final say as to what will need to take place in the allotted time for a school day?  The debate concerning education reform will remain at an impasse until clear terms can be established in our country.  Instead of politicians using the words ‘education reform’ to generate voter support, we should force them to specify the method they intend to use and the steps they plan to take to bring valid ideas to fruition.

Reflection on WRI 100

Although this semester has been challenging, it has also been wuite fun.  I don't suppose that's odd for most people if we are too be honest.  When we are challenged, we learn, when we learn something new, we feel good.  At least I do.  I love reading, writing, learning, sharing, meeting new people and hearing ideas from others.  This class combined all of those things in a perfect balance.  Meeting once each week worked out really well, although I know there were a few glitches here and there, with holidays, sickness and my personal schedule conflicts.  I truly enjoyed our class time together.  I have never used a blogging program before and I like it.  I plan to keep it, maybe even use it in the future. Maybe I can even involve my family members that live far away who may be interesed in an outlet for communication other than facebook. 

Prezi is a new thing for me, and while I have not mastered this in any way, I am sure it will come in handy when my children ask me for help with their school projects, maybe even for presentaions in my nursing classes. 


The reading material and chosen films were for the most part very interesting.  Friere was the hardest to follow, for me. I think it's just his writing style, I wasn't drawn in and I found I had to re-read several passages (thank you for underlining), until class time discussion took place, I didn't have a full understanding as to his point. The movie "Waiting for Superman" was very cool and I learned a great deal about the weak points in our education system.  It also created a great personal dialog between me and a friend of mine who has been teaching for about 10 years and last year was assigned to teach children in Florida to speak English. Reading about Sapelo Island was absolutley my favorite.  I love the story, the style with which it was written and I enjoyed writing about it.   MissRepresentation was not news to me.  It was a bit infuriating and writing a response to that was hard only because I have a tendancy to be tangential, and since issues concerning female media portrayals get me fired up, I go all over the place.



I hope to continue to progress in my writing skills.  Thank you for the usefull feedback on my papers.  I like the way you put specific comments right in the paper, letting me know exactly how to improve.  My serious weakness is in properly citing my sources.  I look forward to working with you during my Nursing concepts class. 

Miss Representation

As a person with a feministic point of view, I tend to easily see the injustice and also the irony in the media portrayal of women.  Women allow themselves to be treated as sex objects because so many of us are brainwashed to believe we are being valued in some way.
The fact that women have autonomy in the area of reproductive rights, also leaves us with the majority of the responsibility, and it seems that is why women are consistently paid less-because they are expected to be less reliable employees due to either the existing responsibilities of motherhood, or the implied ones.  I can understand that there would be a consideration for the possibility that I may need extra available sick time, but it does not mean I do not deserve to be paid the equal wages and afforded equal benefits as my male counterparts.  Equal doesn't mean the same.  For example, it would be completely acceptable for a company to offer a single mother with small children a larger paid time off package in lieu of higher hourly wage, instead of exploiting her financial position and using it to pay her less, offering less benefit coverage knowing she needs her job to support her family, and will stay despite the inequity.

 As a child, I can remember being told and shown through example that there are specifically different expectations of men and women in society.  My chores were dishes, laundry and vacuuming.  My brothers had to mow the lawn, take out the trash and clean the garage.  My work was not less important or easier.  I would receive the same punishment if it wasn't done.  The double standard was very clear in my household.  My immediate and daily role models were TV moms like June Clever, my grandmothers who were polar opposites, and my friends moms as well as my own, who left when I was 6 yrs old.  I was never made to believe one gender was more capable than the other, just different.  I learned to accept and embrace these differences in as much as I have experienced them in the realities of life. 

I remember Amelia Erhardt, Mary Lou Retton, Sally K. Ride...and what made them stick out at the time was not only their accomplishments.  It was the fact that they are women.  There is irony in the fact that it is wonderful and necessary to honor them for their achievements so that young women could have strong female role models in their areas, but it was only news because they were women! So that being said, when you have 150 men and one woman doing a specific job equally well, how many girls really think they can follow in her footsteps? Many of us looked at those specific situations as strange and odd, although it may have been subconscious, it doesn't feel like a real possibility.  

My grandmother used to say that I would be the first woman president.  She didn't day I could be she said I was going to be.  She said that to me and to others in front of me so many times from my infancy into my formative years.  Sounds supportive and feministic, doesn't it?  That was her intention, I realize...Now, I was born in 1974; you have to be 45 years old to run for presidential office.  And if she thought it would be likely and amazing for ME to be the first....what does that say about her expectations of women in general?




you can actually search for Hillary Clinton's hairstyles....i wonder if there are images depicting all the different hairstyles of Ronad Regan...or any other male business owner or politician. 

Land rights

The people of Sapelo have a difficult situation which seems to have grown far past a workable level.  If they are to secure an upper hand in this fight, they may need to enlist some professional help.  I came across a website for a large, organized group called the ALRA.  They claim to have 90% success rate for winning legal arguments for private land owners who are facing just this sort of problem.  I am wondering if maybe the people of Sapelo, since they would like to retain their land rights, have contacted this organization.  Is it just too late to win? I mean I guess it is possible that the residents were so used to being treated with disrespect and they are so uneducated in general that the slow overtaking included a lot of paper signing that they were tricked into and that sort of thing. 

In regard to my own family and ancestral land, yes there is some, it is not in America.  It is in Jamaica,WI and I have no clear details about the legalities of land ownership except to say that it is still owned and operated by my family. I do not expect to ever own this land, but I know I could visit at any time.  My father's uncle owned a very large dairy farm until he died and it continues to be operated by his children and nephews.  Another of my father's uncles owns several vacation resorts. It's my understanding that he has a very lucrative business which is dependent on Jamaica's tourism.  I would be upset to hear that the government was trying to force them to relocate, causing displacement issues and financial stress.     

I hope to own my own home on a small plot of land in the relatively near future, and I would like to make sound decisions when it comes to choosing politicians to elect that will help to enforce laws that protect the rights of property owners with families, while still acknowledging the need to preserve our natural resources.  This may mean that developers need to be kept out of areas like Sapelo in an effort to preserve the delicate ecosystem that we all rely upon to sustain healthy life. 

Sapelo

Reading the article about Sapelo made me kind of sad.  Places like that just don't exist in our main stream society.  I can't help but wonder if it will continue to flourish in its natural form, or will bureaucracy and greed take hold there, as well?  I pray the descendants of the original slave families will prevail in there quest to keep their precious traditions alive. I tried to picture green gold cord grass...


 How beautiful!!

North Penn Senior High




 Souderton Area HS


I finally figured out how to get pics on this blogger!  These are the high schools that I bounced between for the majority of my high school career.  My family moved between these districts quite a few times so I had a fairly equal amount of time at both of them.  I tarted at North Penn in 7th grade and continued through until February of my10th grade year, when I made the first transition to Souderton Area.  I finished my sophomore year and my entire junior year at Souderton and then moved back to North Penn for the beginning of my Senior year, only to move back again in  February of that year.  Sounds crazy? It was. Only I didn't know it at the time.  My school experience was quite different at each of these institutions on a social level, yet the type of education was basically the same.  It is neatly described by Freire in his outline of the "banking concept" of education.  I had an opportunity to experience an honors level class  during my first year of community college.  I was surprised to find out that these classes are more inclined to be cleverly laid out and allow for student- idea-based learning.  In this class we sat around in a circle (like our current WRI 100 at CCC) and answered daily journal questions which culminated in a book of our own design, complete with a table of contents, at the end of the semester.  We wrote two 10-13 page papers every week.  The assignments in class were somewhat open-ended and left to the individual.  We were given such a wide birth for our learning needs.  Our class actually had a visit from some educators from Finland and Scotland.  We were encouraged to ask questions in reference to the culture in those areas.  I didn't realize it at the time, but the plain truth is that I am not an honor student.  I never was.  I received a B- for that class.  But I remember the things we did in that class more vividly than any class I have ever taken since or before.  If the education system could just allow for more flexible learning styles in our public schools, I am certain more children would have positive learning experiences, instead of just getting through it.

Pictures

Waiting for superman

                               

The education system in this country leaves much to be desired. The movie Waiting for Superman is a documentary-based glimpse of the Swiss cheese-like system of formal education that has been created and re-created since the 1970s.  The 'no child left behind' mission statement was, as many of these types of public assurances are, just a great political platform topic, and not in and of itself a fool-proof remedy for lack of abilities and understanding that can be found during a conversation with the average American high school graduate.  Watching this film certainly helped to solidify my opinion of the way in which education is perceived by children in our country.  I often wonder if it wouldn't help to make school a privilege given only to those students whose parents are willing to support properly, and only to those who are willing to apply themselves appropriately.  Of course, like any other 'solution' or idea to bring about change, that would also carry with it a new spectrum of problems and the need for new solutions.  Teachers are definitely under appreciated in America and I'm certain that the reason for this has more to do with the fact that it only takes one worm to soil a batch of beautiful apples. Those teachers who are unworthy of their position and see it as a paycheck instead of a huge  responsibility to our collective future are the ones who make it difficult for the teachers who struggle to do amazing things with children.  Its my understanding that the situation happening in Chicago is largely due to the unfortunate system in place that places the judgment of a teachers value on the scores of his/her students.  The rubric used to evaluate the ability of a teacher to successfully reach his/her students needs to be more inclusive and also more publicized.  I don't think-no I KNOW the majority of parents are not aware that teachers are judged based on their child's performance. Those who are aware of it may not fully accept their own participation responsibility.  Its difficult for many reasons on both sides, however those difficulties could be significantly reduced with more effective communication.

Night number 2 of writing class

Interviewing a classmate...
 

People really are worth knowing, it's not easy to know how to ask the right questions, though.  Let's get personal, but not cross that line. Whenever I spend time talking to someone new, I feel as though I made good use of my time, regardless of the nature of our discussion.  It was great learning about Lisa Lin.  She is from the town in which I currently live.  She is smart, funny and has a very kind disposition.

Lisa Lin is an 18 yr old girl who recently graduated from Panther Valley Area HS.  Her favorite subject is math, lucky for her, since skills in that area will be quite an important part of her training to become a nurse.

Interview

Lisa Lin is a classmate of mine whom I had the pleasure of interviewing during class last week.  I learned that she is 18 years old and a recent Panther Valley High School graduate.  Born in Lansford, Pa in July of 1994 makes her a pleasant Cancer in the realm of Zodiac.  Miss Lin spends her spare time reading and watching MTV.  She has a 7 yr old brother and a 17 yr old sister, with whom she is very close.  Her father is the proprietor of a restaurant specializing in Asian cuisine in her home town and is currently married to her mother.  Lisa likes animals and, in fact, has pet lobsters, thanks to her brother who found them while on an outdoor excursion.  She is a nursing major, and when asked why she chose this field of study, she astutely replied that this career choice will allow her to begin a traditional family while she is still young.  She hopes to have kids in the future, even though she is admittedly, not a good cook!

first night

I don't know anything about blogging--I guess this is time to learn!

 Its my first night back to school at CCC for the second half of my sophomore year...my class is larger than I thought it would be and the people seem intelligent, which makes for a better classroom expereince.  The teacher is fun and easy-going and I am looking forward to learning a lot.