Hello,
My name is Fred, which is not really important. I have already had two careers in my life, and my first real love was to teach History. Now is my time to finally follow my long lost dream and finally get to do what I wanted to do since I left High School. I have been all over the world and have seen what beauty the world has to offer. I have also seen ugliness, poverty, and cruelty and want to change that by proper education of our young people of this country. History is something that we must learn about, because if we do not learn of the mistakes of our past, we will be doomed to repeat them.
Further, we must learn by the good things that have happened through History and repeat them.
For instance, we have some good leaders in both the History of the USA and the World, and we have had some terrible leaders like Hitler and Stalin. By studying the speeches and actions of our leaders we can see the differences from say people who inspire us like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Malcom X, JFK, RFK, FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many more.
From studying the lessons of History and Political Science, we can appreciate the necessary changes that we need to make our country better, through the teaching of the next generations as they grow up. I am talking about teaching the TRUTH, not some varnished version that we were given as children. If nothing else we need to teach the other side to the current existing version of History, namely the flip side of our known History.
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ReplyDeleteI really liked the honesty of Peggy McIntosh's article. In it she not only talks about how White, Male, Privilege has put her at a disadvantage for placement, jobs, curriculum, but she does not stop there. She further says that she in being a White Female, that she has an advantage over Black Females. So she does not simply point her finger at White Male privilege, but agrees that she also causes disadvantages for her Black Female sisters.
ReplyDeleteI also got a kick out of her confronting White Males and while initially denying their is White Male privilege, she got them to state that they would aide her in overcoming her disadvantage that they inadvertently may have caused her. That is until the perception was that they would be unwilling to give up any of their White, Male Privilege power advantages.
I liked the way the author stated that most white male students in the US think that Racism does not affect them because they are not people of color, they do not see "whiteness" as a racial identity. In addition, since race and sex are not the only advantaging system at work, we need to look at "age advantage" or "ethnic advantage"
or "physical ability" or advantages related to nationality, sexual orientation, or religion.
Talking Points on Kozol's Fire in the Ashes;
ReplyDeleteBoth the audio and written versions of the article listed above, left this reader with a deep sense of despair. You can not but help to put yourself into the position of the people in the declining cycle of abject poverty, drug abuse, neglect, discrimination, and sexual abuse. An uncaring Governmental System which when notified publicly sought not to correct or fix the problems, but to move it out of sight and into an equal or worst environment. I come from a family where my Mom went as far as graduating from Junior High School, and being from an immigrant family of a total of eight people, had to quit school and go to work in the Garment Industry. My Dad also had to quit at the end of the 6th grade, as he was part of an immigrant family of 6 people. My Mom and Dad always worked two jobs each, so that we had our own home with a back yard and woods behind us where we could explore. Reading this article taught me how little many people had in other cities and towns.
I have posted two Talking Points articles which have disappeared? I am doing something wrong, but not sure what? Fred Issa
ReplyDeleteTalking Points AGAIN on Lisa Delpit's, The Silenced Dialogue: Power & Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children.
ReplyDeleteI have always known about discrimination against African Americans and many other minorities, even though I too could be considered one as being of Sicilian and Syrian descent. However, my skin is white and I have also seen the White Male Christian Heterosexual Privilege up close and personal, and have in some cases enjoyed and used it to my favor. However, after 911, I could NOT get a job for two years, due to the fact that my last name is the Arab equivalent in 28 countries of Smith is in the US. But I am getting off target. Lisa Delpits article opened my eyes to the fact that even after Minority Teachers get a job in a white controlled school system that they are expected to follow the accepted White Textbooks and manner of teaching. And not only African Americans, but any minority where the white establishment calls the shots on what is and what is NOT to be taught to their students. Wow. So we are NOT REALLY A FREE SOCIETY? This blew me away. Maybe I am getting into the Wrong Profession of Teaching if we can ONLY teach a single side of History? When I was in High School, they talked about General George Armstrong Custer, and how he civilized the West and how the Dakota Sioux Indians slaughtered his men. The accepted story was all that I was taught. Only much later did I learn how Custer and his men killed old men, women, and children at the Wounded Knee. I spent an entire summer reading and researching Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I guess that I was misguided when I thought once that you complete your degree program to teach and all of the testing and background tests that I would be free to teach True History as we come across New Data and New Evidence. For example we were taught about the largest of the dinosaurs that roamed the earth? This year New Evidence in the form on two new skeletons have been found, one was a new species of land mammal, and the other is a water based mammal. Is not History supposed to be the same way? If Lisa Delpit is correct, and I know these stories are true, that the White power structure may hide the truth as it is discovered? I have to think about future choices?
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