Blog Post #10 Healing Centered Engagement

 

                                                Blog Post #10 Healing Centered Engagement 

Argument  - The author, Shawn Ginwright argues that the way of going about making a more "resilient" youth, has been done wrong. More specifically he brings up the term, "trauma -informed care" and how it has been s step in the right direction as it focuses on treating the whole person that has experienced trauma, rather than treating specific symptoms. However, he argues that this method has limitations, and puts people under this blanket that they are merely a victim. It can make people feel that they are a product of their trauma, and nothing more, rather than trying to life them out of that trauma and showing them what they are outside of what happened to them. He offers a new approach called HCE or healing centered engagement. this takes a new perspective on how to look at trauma, as it raises a new question from "what's wrong with you?", to "what is good about you?". This approach focuses less on the negative aspect of the trauma rather, it focuses on the positives of the specific person, and how this trauma changed them in a better way. 

The problem with the Trauma-Informed care approach is highlighted further when Ginwright talks about his time leading a healing circle for a group of young African American men. Here he tried to take a trauma-informed approach and when the men talked about their struggles and things they went through, Ginwright told them about how this trauma will affect them, and how to deal with the stress these things will bring. That is when one of the members of the circle tole him that he was more then his trauma. He did not need pity or to be told that this trauma was going to hold him down. This highlights the main problem with this approach. What the trauma-informed care approach does is label these people who have gone through an emotional experience. It tells them they they cant help the fact that they will have problems going forward, and how to move on from these problems. It is clear that this approach is not helpful because it pins them down of a victim of their situation, rather then a person of their own. 

Comments - The part I found most interesting is his correlation to the Aids Epidemic. Similar to Trauma-Informed care, the Aids epidemic found a large group of people being stigmatized and generalized. It dehumanized gay men, as they were blamed for the cause and spread of the disease. terms like “gay-related immune deficiency” were created, and these people were put under an umbrella that defined them. You can see this with the trauma-informed approach because it almost does the same thing. In an effort to help people that have dealt with a traumatic experience, they are labeled and put under an umbrella against their own will. they are dehumanized, and made a victim weather they want to be labeled as that or not. In both cases, these groups of people are not being seen for the people they are themselves, rather they are seen as a consequence of actions that were not their fault in the first place. 

HyperLinks - https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/problems-disorders/coping-after-a-traumatic-event

Blog post #9

 

                            

                                                                            Blog Post #9

1. Woke Read Alouds: They, She, He Easy as ABC - I found this video very important and one that will stick out to me past this class. I think it gives people a chance to educate themselves on a rapidly evolving topic in a way that can be easily understood. I also think it speaks on a deeper message in giving people who may be struggling with their personal identities a safe space and show that there are other people that may be going through the same thing as them. 

2. Rodriguez, “Aria” - This article was extremely important especially to read as I went into my service learning program. The story Rodriguez shared and his struggles with having to leave his culture behind and try to conform to a new culture I could see at times with the students I worked with. Thankfully, I saw a difference from Rodriquez's story as I saw the teacher work with his students with different backgrounds, like giving tests or assignments in Spanish to help his non English language first students complete their work.

3.  Delpit, “The Silenced Dialogue” - This was probably the most important reading we had all year. Delpit will stick with me throughout my teaching experience, as her codes and rules of power were something I never thought of before and making sure students know these rules and codes of power is something I find important. Her reading made me question what I thought I knew about how to be a teacher and I'm glad I was able to read this before I really got my teaching career started.

Blog Post #8 RI Laws and Policies + Video

 

                                           Blog Post #8 RI Laws and Policies + Video

Argument - Both the reading and the video have similar arguments in that they both aim to create safe and free environments for all children, bypassing any type of discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, or race. Both the reading and the video take different approaches in that the reading focuses mainly on the legal aspect, as in creating specific laws making it illegal to discriminate against students based on these factors. These laws include, Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination against anyone based on these factors, or Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in any educational program that receives federal funding. The video takes a different approach, instead of telling us discrimination is wrong upfront and making it illegal, the video focuses on teaching WHY discrimination wrong. It takes a teacher forward approach, using a tone that would be used for children, to make sure that people of all ages can understand the point they are trying to get across. This cannot be said for the reading due to its complex nature.

I Think both of these pieces are important and work hand in hand with one another. One one hand, it is important for us, especially as inspiring teachers and youth development workers, to understand the laws and history of laws against discrimination. It is important to look at the progress made, especially for those who are in the LGBTIA+ community who have made recent strides in laws protecting their rights. However, the video is almost as important as the reading because when having these conversations, especially about gender identity, it doesn't need to be all about government. It is important to humanize these conversations, and not make people in the community feel any different than people who are not. At the end of the day, gender identity is not just a government issue. It is a human issue, and it centers around how people treat one another. The video highlights this facts, and attempts to teach people how to better understand this issue by using a soft and teaching tone, which I think it very important. 

Comments - I think the video is very interesting because it can be taken in many different ways. On one hand, it can be taken as a video just for kids, where someone is trying to read them a book with a nice meeting. It is easy to brush this video off as just another children's book reading. However, I think it is more complex than that. I think this video is equally important for adults to listen to. The world is rapidly changing, and because of that, I give some slack to the older generation for not fully understanding things like gender identity and certain people using different pronouns, etc. However, this does not exclude them from having to educate themselves. People can argue that it is too difficult to keep up with the times, but that is why videos like this are so important. It shows that complex ideas can be taught in a simple manner that everyone can understand. I do not feel like this video should just be limited to the children demographic and can be very helpful for the older generation that may be struggling to understand new terms and ideologies. 

HyperLinks - https://www.waterford.org/education/equity-vs-equality-in-education/

Blog Post #7 Hehir and Examined Life video

 

                                                       Hehir and Examined Life video

Argument - The main argument of both the reading by Thomas Hehir, and the video, examined life, is to show and explain the difficulties that people with disabilities can face, whether that is in the classroom or daily life. The reading focuses mainly on the classroom aspect, sharing stories from different people, showing multiple instances of ableism and how it affects people with disabilities in schools. While the video focuses on one person Sunaura Taylor, who has disabilities herself, sharing her stories and how people treat her affects her daily life. Both point that it is the people around them, and the thoughts and assumptions people have of people with disabilities that are the root to these problems and are what needs to be changed in order to solve this issue.

The reading by Thomas Hehir shares stories from different people to drive home his point on the struggles of people with disabilities in the classroom. One in particular was found in the section called, The Education of the Deaf, where Hehir explains the process and struggles that deaf and blind people went through to get their education. It is explained that when education for this group started, ASL was used in the classroom which educators would use sign language to communicate with their students. This worked for students and showed the educators were willing to learn in order to help their students. However, later in the 19th century, Hehir explains that oralism set back this movement, and students started to learn by lip-reading. This can be seen as an example of Delpit's culture of power in which able bodied people are more accepted than those who have disabilities. This is an instance of educators trying to mold their students into learning how to be more able bodied, rather than the educators learning how to teach them correctly. This is a theme echoed throughout Hehir's reading in which this idea of trying to "cure" or help these disabilities is the wrong way to go about it, rather celebrating these differences and finding ways to unite able bodied people with those who have disabilities.

Comments - While watching the video, there was one moment that stuck out to me the most. That was when Sunaura talked about her struggle of learning how to ask for help. I never thought about this problem, but for some people with disabilities, it can feel like they are being a burden when asking for help. It is a stigma in our society that anyone asking for help, including people who are homeless or those with disabilities, are somehow lower than us. She talked about how she started to understand that asking for help is not something that should be looked down upon. This is something that I agree with. We all have moments that we cannot handle all on our own. There are going to be times where we need extra supports. Asking for help should not only be not looked down upon, rather celebrated and accepted that you were able to analyze your situation, and have the courage to understand this is not something that can be done alone.

HyperLinks - https://blog.planbook.com/classroom-ableism/

Blog post #6 Rodriguez and Teaching Bilinguals videos

 

                                                Rodriguez and Teaching Bilinguals videos 

Argument - Both Rodriguez and the videos share a similar argument in which they argue that having multiple languages in a classroom will not only help your students that speak multiple languages, but will enrich their learning experience when they see their teacher making an effort in including their culture into the lessons as well. They challenge the idea that English should be the only languages in the classroom. Both, but more specifically the videos understand the difficulty that comes with teaching children in multiple languages when you only speak one. However they offer ideas and methods on how to break down this barrier that educators can have with their children and try to connect them in the classroom. 

This idea of English should be the "main "language in American classrooms is highlighted in the Rodriguez reading when he explains his time in school as a child. He shares a story in which he has trouble answering questions in school, since his main language was Spanish. He explains that he was discriminated against and sometimes punished for the use of his own language. This transpired into him having this idea of a "public" and "private" languages, in which he believed that English was the public one and should be the only one used in classrooms. That is what makes the videos so important. It shows a shift in the way of thinking in the classroom. Not only is Multilanguage students accepted, they are celebrated. Their understanding of two languages is seen as a gift not as a burden on the educators. It shows that the pressure is not on the students, but rather the educator to try to include these student's culture into the lessons, rather than excluding them. 

Comments - The part that I found most interesting was the videos. I found that the tips and methods they showed in the videos were more helpful than I first thought they would be. One in particular was in Episode two in which the teacher tried to integrate Spanish into her lesson. When giving directions, she asked the students who would be comfortable in doing those directions in Spanish, like when finding a quote, who could write that quote in Spanish. There was another example in which students were given a body and were asked to color which body parts they could say in English, and which ones they could say in Spanish. Both of these examples are very important because they are two instances in which the teacher included Multilanguage students. It would be much easier for the teacher to just give these students two separate worksheets, one in English and one in Spanish. However, she made an effort to unify the students, and rather than isolating certain students, she made each student work on the same assignment, which I believe is very important.   

HyperLinks - https://online.tamiu.edu/articles/education/why-bilingual-education-is-important.aspx

Blog Post #5 Literacy With Attitude Finn

 

                                                     Literacy With Attitude: Patrick Finn

Argument - The author Patrick Finn argues that teaching the concept of justice, more specifically social justice should be taught in schools through the form of literacy. Throughout the story, he alludes to the concept of dangerous literacy, which to my understanding is literacy that challenges the status quo, and says things that most people will not want to hear. He argues that these types of literary works are important to be brought into the classroom to try to break the ice in getting comfortable talking about these difficult concepts that need to be brought up.  

This is highlighted when Finn talks about his time as a professor to graduate students. he explained that these students were older than your typical students. This meant they had their own political opinions, so when he introduced this "Dangerous Literacy", there was pushback from students on both ends of the political spectrum. However, I think this is important because it sparks conversation. Even if you do not agree with these literary works, bringing them up will spark some type of conversation, and having these uncomfortable conversations in a safe space like a classroom, can help break the barriers to such an uncomfortable topic that many people do not want to talk about. Having a diverse group of ideas in an educated environment can help people to understand perspectives, which is why the idea of bringing up these dangerous works are so important in the classroom. 

Comments - The part that stood out to me the most is when he talked about what he learned most from his teachers. He explained that his teachers taught him to not feel superior in any given situation. Do not question people's intelligence and motives so much that you do not listen to their stories. This stuck out to me because it is something that I agree with. there can be tines where you think that you know everything about a topic. However in most cases, you don't know what you don't know. The only way you gain knowledge is by listening to others, especially when they are talking about personal experiences. No matter how educated you are, you are never more educated than someone with first hand experience. It is important to give those people the spotlight in certain cases, and to try to learn from them. Shutting off people who are trying to share their story is not only doing a disservice to them, but to yourself as well. 

HyperLinks - https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/dangerous-reading

Blog Post #4 Defining Racism Tatum

 

                                                  Defining Racism Can We Talk: Daniel Tatum

Argument - The author, Daniel Tatum argues that there is a major importance of teaching racism in schools, especially at a younger age. He explains that young students need to be made aware of this concept because it plays such a  role in our society today. Between bitter political debates, and news coverage of police brutality and shootings against African Americans, it it likely these students will be exposed to this concept on their own. It is important to give them an educated view on this topic, in a safe environment where this complex and uncomfortable concept can be learned. 

Daniel Tatum explains the main issue of racism and that is stereotypes. This is highlighted when he explains that in their daily lives, students can have assumptions due to cultural differences that can go unchallenged until they are adults. This highlights the main issue we have not teaching students about racism. When they form these assumptions, they carry these with them almost their entire lives. Changing a belief someone has had their whole life, rather than changing it right away is Daniel Tatum's main point. Tatum argues that it is just as important to teach students about cultural differences as well as acceptance. Tatum argues that these assumptions are what lead to prejudice, which is preconformed opinions on a group of people with limited information. These prejudices are the root of racism in our society because they force us to stay away from one another based on our conceptions of one another. Breaking these prejudices down, and teaching young students why these preconceptions are wrong, will not fully solve the problem of racism in our society, but will be a step in the right direction.

Comments  -  The main point that stuck out to me the most is his example of Cleopatra. He used her as a symbol of why teaching cultural diversity and acceptance is so important. The example follows two white students talking to each other when one tells the other that they had just found out Cleopatra is actually black. The other white students cannot believe it, because throughout her whole life she thought she was white. Many students, some black students too, probably think Cleopatra is white too. This extends into Hollywood and advertisements, where most models that are used are white women. They are this preconception that to be beautiful you have to look like them, and a main characteristic of that is whiteness. Imagine having a young Black student find out that this imagine of beauty, who was seen as white all her life, was actually just like her. This highlights why cultural diversity and teaching the correct information about history is so important in schools.

Hyperlinks  -  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LrhaF34dA0HaJDADXJi7WTvfcjedoVDmjiI6W_VvNUc/edit