Katie’s FNED Blog

  A reflection on Richard Rodriguez's 'Aria' Rodriguez in “Aria” talks about that one's identity as well as their  assimilation is often associated with the languages they use: Spanish, a "private language," being used inside the home for comfort whereas the outside world requires English as a "public language." This was however the turning point for him, as public confidence when speaking Spanish to English, but the result was that his home quarters were left distant. In his home, Rodriguez's parents insisted they speak English but were encouraged by the teachers and nuns. It turned upside down what initially seemed a very well-intentioned bit of effort. "Father," that figure, who spoke Spanish, once the man to whom silence was unsafe, now didn't speak English. Rodriguez has stopped his affectionate Spanish words toward his parents simply because he couldn't find equally meaningful English equivalents. The warmth of his languag...

 Literacy With an Attitude  Patrick J. Finn, claims that the United States educational system fosters social inequality through the dispersal of several kinds of literacy among different classes—enabling literacy to those who are powerful and domesticating literacy to working-class people. Finn specifies that although literacy has always been thought of as a democratizing force and access, in practice it has historically been used to perpetuate social hierarchies. He differentiates "empowering education ," which allows individuals access to sites of power and influence, from "domesticating education ," which renders individuals competent to work on their own effectively without challenging existing power relations. The education system, he argues, reinforces such stereotypes by constructing learning environments and students that empower or domesticate the students based on class. Working-class students learn an education of compliance and work day utility, not one ...

 Trouble Maker  I do not have a “trouble maker” in my classroom. All of my students are extremely respectable and behave very well. They all respond well to direction very well.  There is one child in the class that is very active and has trouble focusing but does not cause trouble. Mrs. Greenberg is very stern with her but not overly strict. She allows her to express her energy but makes sure she completes her work. I have worked with her one on one and while she was very active she listens well and will do her work when told to. 

 This system author, Carla Shalaby, argues that school discipline of children-those labeled as "troublemakers" reflects broader social injustices and reinforces systemic inequalities at large. So, she feels that the view of a misbehavior should not be that it is a problem to be eradicated; it is the signifier that a school structure needs closer inspection. Shalaby challenges the popular assumption that schools are neutral space of learning: rather she characterises it as an institution of control over children to enforce obedience, which comes at a cost of losing autonomy and freedom. Students who resist this control, often disproportionately children of color, find themselves labeled almost immediately as "problems" and subjected to exclusionary disciplinary practices that pave the way to academic failure and even incarceration. In speaking with real-life portraits of children, Shalaby invites educators to consider the purpose of school rules, whether they serve t...