1.So I definitely learned that the 5 paragraph essay isn't going to work here in college, which kind of sucks because that's all I've been taught for the last 12 years of my life but oh well. Overall I've learned to be a better academic writer, as in I know how to support the ideas I have in a way that will actually be useful to both me and the reader. I’ve what the difference between a claim and evidence is, which I never even knew there was a difference.
2.I would love to learn more about theses, because my mind was BLOWN today. My prior thoughts about theses were kind of shattered, but then again I really haven’t had to do a lot of academic writing of the caliber expected of me here at Western. Also I’m kind of still having trouble with claims and how to pick them out of a sentence or paragraph. This might just because I was absent from class the day that claims were gone over.
3.I think my current problem with my writing is connecting my ideas with each other. I can do it in my head but when I try to write them they just don’t come out right.I would also like to learn how to wrap everything up at the end. In a 5 paragraph essay you just restate your thesis, but are professors expecting something a little different than that. Finally I would like to learn how to pick a quote, if there is a certain method to it or if you just go “oh this sounds smart so I’m going to use it”. Are some quotes better than others?
The fact that no one was safe made all of us involved in the course appreciate the importance of what we came to call “safe houses.” We used the term to refer to social and intellectual spaces where groups can constitute themselves as horizontal, homogeneous, sovereign communities with high degrees of trust, shared understandings, temporary protection from legacies of oppression. This is why, as we realized, multicultural curricula should not seek to replace ethnic or women’s studies, for example. Where there are legacies of subordination, groups need places for healing and mutual recognition, safe houses in which to construct shared understandings, knowledges, claims on the world that they can then bring into the contact zone.
Meanwhile, our job in the Americas course remains to figure out how to make that crossroads the best site for learning that it can be. We are looking for the pedagogical arts of the contact zone. These will include, we are sure, exercises in storytelling and in identifying with the ideas, interests, histories, and attitudes of others; experiments in transculturation and collaborative work and in the arts of critique, parody, and comparison (including unseemly comparisons between elite and vernacular cultural forms); the redemption of the oral; ways for people to engage with suppressed aspects of history (including their own histories), ways to move into and out of rhetorics of authenticity; ground rules for communication across lines of difference and hierarchy that go beyond politeness but maintain mutual respect; a systematic approach to the all-important concept of cultural mediation. These arts were in play in every room at the extraordinary Pittsburgh conference on literacy. I learned a lot about them there, and I am thankful.
(Claims are underlined)
Pratt articulates that learning is the best thing to do in the contact zone, and that learning is the ultimate goal in a contact zone. But I believe that in order for learning to happen, the two different groups within this contact zone must first understand each other, and come to appreciate the role that they each have within a society. For example, in a classroom the pupils must first understand the teacher and the role that the teacher plays within that environment. Likewise, the teacher has to understand the pupils and what role they have in relation to both the teacher and the classroom. In addition, understanding could potentially lead a contact zone to become a safe house, because when different groups come to understand each other there will be less need for clashing and the groups start to see each other on the same level as each other, thus eliminating the dominant-subordinate relationship found in each contact zone that we have seen throughout history.
As a side note, understanding could be incorporated as a way of learning. This meaning that in order to understand a culture or group different from your own you must first learn about that culture.
The outcomes of the contact zones around the world often create great learning opportunities for those that are uninvolved. Contact zones can teach people how to cooperate with each other and how much it can damage a society when groups clash.
So I feel like my problem statement doesn't really explain where I want to go with this essay, help would be much appreciated.
_________________________________________________ Victoria Dillard
January 18th, 2012
English 101, Ms. Lauren Feller
What are the Consequences of our Family Teachings?
Problem Statement
From the time we are old enough to walk, most of us are taught that education and school are the most important things in our lives. Our family and teachers all tell us that if we want to be successful in life, we have to be educated. We work hard in elementary school so that we can make it to middle school. We strive to succeed in middle school so that we can continue on to high school. Once there we struggle and take difficult classes so we can get into the college of our parents dreams. If we get into college we’re a success, if we don’t we’re doomed to a mediocre life as a fast food worker. Throughout this educational process we subjected to different standardized tests (ex. SAT, WASL) that test our abilities in subject areas that are needed for us to move on in the educational ladder. Macrorie states that “Naturally, the student thinks that the textbook is the model of the language that the teacher wants, so she give that language to him.”, but it is important to point out that not only is it the teacher that implies that engfish is the desired mode of writing, but that the parents and family of that student make it necessary for that student to use engfish on these standardized tests. For most students college is the only option presented by their parents.
Idea Chunk #1
Gatto says in his article “Against Schools” that “We have been taught (that is, schooled) in this country to think that ‘success’ as synonymous with, or at least dependent upon, ‘schooling’”. While school is important to a child as they grow up, a child’s number one role model is their parents. Children strive to grow up to be like their parents in every way possible. Most of these children’s parents have a college education themselves, so naturally students grow up wanting and expecting to have a college education. In addition, parents teach their children that education is the only way to be successful, so for most students, their parents only ever let them consider college as a valid option.
It is the parents of these students that make it necessary for them to use engfish. Students know that the only way to get into the college that their parents want them to get into is to score high enough on the SAT or ACT to get in. In order to pass these tests, one has to make it sound like they are intelligent and have a higher capacity for learning than they do in reality.
Idea Chunk #2
Our grandparents went to school, our parents went to school and now we are expected to go to school. The idea that college is the only way to get a “real” job has transcended from generation to generation. And maybe when our parents were growing up, college was the only way to get a decent job. However, the times have changed and now a college degree doesn’t guarantee a job anymore. Sometimes people end up being more successful without going to college, it certainly makes sense, because they don’t have those nasty student loans to deal with at the end of their education. Unfortunately this teaching that the only way to be successful is to be educated will continue because our children will be taught the same thing by us, by the generation before us and by their school teachers.
Idea Chunk #3
It takes a certain degree of creativity to think “outside the box”, in fact it takes amazing powers of imagination for people to think that anything other than the norm is possible. In today’s society, college is the norm, people go to school so they can get to college, and that’s the simple fact of things. Freire points out in her article “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education,“The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the students’ creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the opressors, who care not to have to world revealed nor to see it transformed.”The public education system in the United States is causing students to loss their sense of creativity, so that by the time the students become the age to start college that is the only thing they know. Whether this is a master plot to keep citizens from rebelling against the government or other oppressors, or whether this is a tragic side effect is unknown. However, we do know that students are suffering, and one of the ways that this can be prevented is for the parents of these students to demonstrate that there are other options available to the students besides college. But, parents are unlikely to do that because they themselves have gone through the public education school system and have been taught that college is the only option.
Idea Chunk #4
Freire suggests a solution to this problem of students not having the creativity to think outside of college. Freire suggests that “Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the –students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with student-teachers.” When a teacher learns from her students and the students teach their teacher something new, creativity can then be harnessed and those individuals in turn become better people. Through this process people grow so that they might one day become important members to society through various ways, either with or without that college degree. Albert Einstein is quoted to have said “Most teachers waste their time by asking questions which are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning has for its purpose to discover what the pupil knows or is capable of knowing.” Even one of the most intelligent people that ever lived knew that in order to education to be successful, the students and teacher must both ask questions of each other.
Idea Chunk #5
We must take into account those students that don’t decide to go to college. Have they beaten the man by refusing to go to college, or can they just not afford it? Unfortunately, the latter is often the answer, but there are still those that can see through the lie that college is the only way you will make any money or be happy in your life. Some of the most famous people we know never went to college, or dropped out soon after starting. Bill Gates, one of the richest men alive and the creator of Microsoft dropped out of Harvard after 2 years. Bill Gates was only 10 points away from a perfect score on his SAT. This goes to show you that education definitely isn’t the only way to be successful in life. Other people that join the ranks of successful people without college degrees include Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors, Steven Spielberg, a world famous director and producer, and Mark Zuckerburg, founder of Facebook and a billionaire. Obviously college is not going to guarantee success, and not attending college isn’t going to guarantee failure. There is an unknown factor that contributes to a person’s success that has nothing to do with school at all. Maybe this is drive, or maybe it’s a matter of intelligence, but one thing we do know is that the notion the school is all important is wrong.
1. Select 3 "flashpoints" from the essay.
Flashpoint #1- "For apart form inquiry, apart from praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world"
This stood out because it defines how to learn and become knowledgable. People learn by asking questions of the world around them. People can only learn if they want to learn, not because they are being forced to learn something by a teacher or school.
Flashpoint #2- "The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the students' creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the opressors, who care neither to have the world revealed nor to see it transformed."
This flashpoint reminded me of the TED talk that we watched earlier in the quarter. It's basically saying that the way schools are being taught stifles children's creativity, making them less independent and therefore more submissive to those in power (teachers).
Flashpoint #3- "Education as the practice of freedom-as opposed to education as the practice of domination-denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from people."
I chose this as a flashpoint because it explains that education is a tool which people should use to explain the world around them as the world is changing. The author is saying that education shouldn't be a stagnant thing, but something that should adapt to the student and the world around them.
2. Identify the ideas/issues Freire is responding to.
Freire is responding to the obvious lack of proper education that people are getting. She also eludes that people aren't learning what is neccessary for them to function in the world. Students are being forced to learn things because other people think that they need to. There needs to be a collabiration in education where both student and teacher learn and teach each other, instead of them being 2 seperate entities.
3. Write and explain 3 questions in response to the essay.
Why haven't more people noticed the falling standards in education and why haven't more people done something to change it?
The way to fix a problem is to figure out why it's happening. Only then can the problem truly be solved. So many people are concerned about their children's education, yet none of them have done anything to actually see that edfforts are being made to make things better.
Why aren't students striving to get a better education naturally?
People have a naturally curiousity, so one would think that they would naturally ask questions of the teacher and of the world around them. Though maybe it's not that the students aren't asking questions, maybe it's the teachers who aren't answering the questions to the neccessary extent.
What can we do to help create a better education system in America and to ensure that students get the help they need?
I don't think that there will ever be a clear answer for this. Even if there is there would be no way to ensure that every single person gets the right kind of education for them. There are just too many people in the world and too many indiviualized needs for everyone's needs to be met.
Here's a good video about schools killing creativity, it's by the same guy from the TED talk (Sir Ken Robinson)
So my assignment is kind of on several of the articles we read, I thought they all spoke to each other in a really good way. Hope it's good
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From the time we are old enough to walk, most of us are taught that education and school are the most important things in our lives. Our family and teachers all tell us that if we want to be successful in life, we have to be educated. We work hard in elementary school so that we can make it to middle school. We strive to succeed in middle school so that we can continue on to high school. Once there we struggle and take difficult classes so we can get into the college of our parents dreams. If we get into college we’re a success, if we don’t we’re doomed to a mediocre life. Throughout this educational process we subjected to different standardized tests (ex. SAT, WASL) that test our abilities in subject areas that are needed for us to move on in the educational ladder. It’s during this standardized testing the engfish is prominent. Students attempt to embellish their work with fancy words that they might not understand in order to seem smarter than they actually are. Ken Macrorie says “Naturally the student thinks the textbook is a model of the language the teacher wants, so she give that language to him.” However, the student doesn’t just think that engfish is what the teacher wants. The student knows that engfish is what is necessary in order to continue in their education. Engfish is taught to students by their family and teachers who tell them that education is the only way to be successful. To the student, engfish makes them seem smart, and they know that you have to be smart to get into college. For most students, college is the only option that their family gives them, so in turn engfish is the only option they have.
1. In this article Gatto is literally saying that the public education system is making children grow up to become children. This means that children grow up to be mindless robots who live to consume that which the society provides. People are taught that the only way they can be successful if they go through at least 12 years of schooling.
2. I believe that Gatto is saying this because he's seen this first hand through his experience as an elementary school teacher. He completely believes that the point of schools is to create consumers for the future that don't think about their actions. He presents his argument through stories of his own, and by citing other scholar that have made similar conclusions.
3. I don't agree with Gatto's ideas of schooling creating mindless consumers. Yes, the purpose of school is to help people create better jobs for themselves in the future, especially at and above the secondary education level. However there is more to school than people just learning how to have a job. Students learn how to interact in a social environment and become educated in the things that are important to today's society, such as current events and world history. This essay reminds me of a teacher I had for English class during high school. He was one of the most engaging teachers that I ever had and I was never bored in his class. It's teachers like him that make me disagree with this article the most, he was not doing his job just to pump out more people to consume mindlessly. He was doing his job because he thoroughly enjoyed it.
4. Gatto is appealing to the reader by personalizing the essay. He adds in his own experiences as a teacher, appealing to the readers ethos because it gives Gatto more credibility than an average Joe off the street would have. There is also a bit of pathos involved because parents worry about the way their children are educated.
Hi everyone! My name is Victoria Dillard and like most of the rest of you I am a freshman here at Western. My area of interest in sociology and elementary education. I currently stay off campus with my parents in Burlington, Washington, which is about 25 miles away from campus. I have 2 younger siblings, one brother and one sister, who are in 1st and 6th grade.I'm an extremely fun and bubbly person. I love hugs and cute things. My favorite food is tacos, I would eat them everyday if I could. I took 2 years of german in high school and hope that one day I can travel there so I can be surrounded by germans. I've moved 6 times and lived in 4 different states, including California, Idaho, Virginia and Washington.
I am a bit of a theater geek, I absolutely adore musicals. My favorites are Phantom of the Opera and Grease. One of my biggest aspirations is to go to Broadway and see something one of these shows (or really any show would be cool).
I have a facebook, if anyone would like to be my friend. You can look up my name or this is the URL www.facebook.com/vldillard
My favorite song in the whole wide world would have to be by my favorite band in the whole wide world, Maroon 5. It's called "She Will be Loved" and I love it because it is one of those songs that you can just scream out in the car and people will give you funny looks. Also because it just touches me somewhere on the inside. Here's a link--> http://youtu.be/nIjVuRTm-dc
