Paulo Freire group post

 

 

 

Our task was to read(after reading "The Banking Concept of  Education") "Lessons to Be Learned From Paulo Freire as Education Is Being Taken Over by the Mega Rich" by Henry A. Giroux and discuss then write a summary about how the website (article) complicates, enriches and/or confuses our understanding of the reading.  We decided to each write a short summary and submit to our blogs as a group.

 

Jane Welton

Reading the articles, I found that it enriched my understanding of the readings.  The article our small group read expounded on the article assigned for the class.  In "The Banking Concept of Education" it is written, "In this way, the problem-posing educator constantly reforms his reflections in the reflection of the students.  The students--no longer docile listeners--are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher.  The teacher presents the material to the students for their consideration and re-considers his [or her] earlier considerations as the students express their own." I compare that to a statement from "Lessons to Be Learned from Paulo Freire as Education Is Being Taken Over by the Mega Rich" which states, "...students learn how to expand their own sense of agency, while recognizing that to be voiceless is to be powerless.  Central to such a pedagogy is shifting the emphasis from teachers to students, and making visible the relationships among knowledge, authority and power.  Giving the students the opportunity to be problem posers and engage in a culture of questioning in the classroom..."  The first article gives a great deal of information and the second digs deeper, giving more details and examples to the first.  It created more understanding of what Freire had to say about the state of the world of education.

 

Patty Riley

Paulo Freires writing was/is difficult at times to comprehend.  In rereading it a few more times as well as reading and rereading the website article I was able to more fully understand what Freire was writing about.   From "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" Freire writes "The educated man is the adapted man, because he is better "fit" for the world.  Translated into practice, this concept is well suited to the purposes of the oppressors, whose tranquility rests on how well  men fit the world the oppressors have created, and how little they question it."  Giroux backs this up with " Central to critical pedagogy is the recognition that the way we educate out youth is related to the future that we hope for and that such a future should offer students a life that leads to the deepening of freedom and social justice. "  The web article gave me a new understanding of what Freire was detailing but although not in much simpler terms at least in more understandable detail so yes, I would say that the web article definitely enriched Freires writing.  It neither complicated nor confused this reader any further.....

Enrique Acuna

My high school experience happens between 1983 and 1987. I was an average students got “C” average on occasion I would bet an A. Cooking, art, PE, and Shop automotive where the classes I excelled and I really didn’t have to try. About my sophomore & junior , I would met with my guidance counselor and he would go over my score exams and tell me that I was only capable to get a job in these field, automotive, secretarial, janitorial, and cooking. I was never expected to excel, I didn’t know how to. I was a sponge at the time and wanted to know more and learn. I would study astronomy and know the stars in the sky and the planets; I would read books and books about astronomy and black stars, super nova and other celestial objects. I also loved geology, I wanted to know about dinosaurs and evolution, I was very fascinated with Darwin, these are things I would read and teach myself. At the end of my senior year I asked why I never took biology, I always wanted to cut open a frog, and chemistry. I wanted to mix chemicals and learn the periodic table and all its elements. I was told It wasn’t in my profile. I just ignored it because I had been approved to join the navy and serve on a nuclear submarine.

So in gattos,  paper against school. I really feel that I was actually a product of Mr. Inglis school modem. The conformity function as it was called, I was the kid they were trying to make predictable so I can become a great use for this nation and its large labor force that was to become the 1990’s. I was being sorted and trained to a certain destination and told that’s it buddy you hit the glass ceiling of your career at 19. Congratulation tell him what he wins, Bob. You are now assistant manager of a local Del Taco restaurant here in sunny California. What made me not fall in that pitfall, I believed my parents had a huge influence on me to work hard and have pride at what you do, more my Dad than my mom. At a young age 14 I was working in a nursing home and assembly line for early apple iie computers. I had a car and I had liberty to come and go freely. I was responsible.  

 

My high school experience compared to Gatto

I have to concede after reading Gattos essay that my high school experience was just that... boring.  I graduated in 1981from Issaquah Sr. High in Issaquah, Washington.  I don't have a lot of detailed recollections of school but I do still retain how I felt about school.
I can't say that I hated it but I certainly did not like it and I  did not enjoy too much of it.
Issaquah had an open campus.  At that school in particular, that meant that each classroom exited to the outdoors.  This was supposed to promote some sort of individuality I assume.  It failed in that regard.
My classes were all generic.  There was no challenge  for me except in one area.  I will explain that in a bit.  I did not do well in math so instead of finding a way to tutor me I was merely kept in a lower math that would fulfill graduation requirements.  I took a few different history courses - one I remember was WWII history in Europe, lots of old black and white documentaries there.  English - I remember the teacher but only because she did not like me and my friends.  Looking back I think she was just terribly bored.  Gym(PE) was fun but only because we were still allowed to play dodge ball.
I don't recall an actual teacher in PE.  Maybe we were left to our own devices after being given instructions and the teacher went off to do whatever they do.....
What I  did enjoy in high school and where I have most of my good memories was the NJROTC program at the school.  It was termed "Naval Science" for classroom purposes and that was fairly boring but the other activities involved with that class were challenging and I think were in a small part responsible for some of my later choices in life.  There was a rifle team which my brother excelled in, a drill team which I excelled in and the opportunity to learn leadership and teamsmanship, which we both excelled in.  The difference in teachers was very obvious as well.  All of my teachers were just that - teachers and unfortunately they fell into the trap that Gatto talks about.  My Naval Science instructors, on the other hand, were not just teachers, they were Navy.  There were two instructors, both retired navy officers.  We didn't even call them teachers, they were instructors. 
I wonder if I would have any positive recollections if the school had not offered NJROTC and there was nothing else to spark any interest for me.  Probably not. 

Gatto Discussion with Lucus

Question 2.  Why do you think  that Gatto continued to teach for 31 years?  What do you think he sees as his own role in public education?  Write out 5 sentences from his text that you can use to support your answers.

      We(Lucus and I) felt that Gatto continued to teach because he did recognize that boredom was a problem in the public school system and he felt maybe that he had a different perspective than most teachers in regards to the boredom that  students and teachers alike felt.  He had a different understanding of the school system. 

Our five sentences do not necessarily support what Gatto did to relieve the boredom but more it explains why and how our school system got that way.
     1. Speaking of his grandfather, "one afternoon when I was seven I  complained to him of boredom and he batted me hard on the head.  He told me I was never to use that term in his presence again, that if I was bored it was my own fault and no one else's." "That episode cured me of boredom forever, and here and there over the years I was able to pass on the lesson to some remarkable student."
     2.  "They(the kids) said the teachers didn't seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren't interested in learning more.  And the kids were right: their teachers were every bit as bored as they were"
     3. "When asked why they(the teachers), the teachers tend to blame the kids, as you might expect.  Who wouldn't get bored teaching students who are rude and interested only in grades?  If even that.  Of course, teachers are themselves products of the same twelve-year compulsory school programs that so  thoroughly bore their students, and as school personnel they are trapped inside structures even more rigid than those imposed upon the children."
     4 .  "I had more than enough reason to think of our schools - with their long-term, cell-block-style, forced  confinement of both students and teachers - as virtual factories of childishness."
    5.  "My own experience had revealed to me what many other teachers must learn along the way, too, yet keep to themselves for fear of reprisal: if we wanted to we could easily and inexpensively jettison the old, stupid structures and help kids take an education rather than merely receive a schooling ".
     

Compare and Contrast “Stand and Deliver” and “Mona Lisa Smile” Paper #2

                                                                                                                                                  Patricia Riley

 

After watching Mr. Escalante in “Stand and Deliver” and Ms. Watson in “Mona Lisa Smile” I was stuck not only by the similarities of the two teachers but also by their differences.   In Stand and Deliver Mr. Escalante consistently shows his absolute confidence in his student’s ability to learn higher math.  While they were both good teachers I think that Mr. Escalante greatly surpassed Ms. Watson with his dogged persistence in getting his students to the point where they could somewhat confidently take the Advanced Placement test for Calculus.  Ms. Watson goes to teach at Wellesley College in Eastern Massachusetts with the intention of not only sharing her love of art with the select group of privileged female students but also of perhaps bringing some enlightenment  to the women in regards to having more in their lives outside of marriage, children and a showcase home.   They both had a tenacious streak that would not allow them to give up on their students even though the students sometimes gave up on themselves.

At the beginning of the movie, Stand and Deliver, Mr. Escalante arrives at the school to find it in chaos.  He is told he will not be teaching computer science but will be teaching math.  Instead of turning around and quitting he goes to his class and starts to teach.  When he meets the all-Hispanic math class it firms his resolve to make a difference with the students.  He sees himself in those kids and wants them succeed in life and go beyond what society expected of them.    In the scene during the first full class session, Mr. Escalante is trying to spark an interest in the students for math.  “It was your ancestors that first contemplated the zero.  The absence of value. True story.  You burros have math in your blood!” 

At the point in the movie where the class is working on a particularly difficult question, Ana Delgado reveals that that day is her last as her dad needs her to work at the family restaurant full time.  She is obviously sad that she will not be able to finish high school and realize her dream of going to college.  Mr. Escalante does not say anything at that time but we find him later at the restaurant with his wife having dinner.  Ana introduces her father to Mr. Escalante.  After he sits down Mr. Escalante tells Ana’s father that she should be back in school.  He is determined that Mr. Delgado understands how important it is that Ana return to school.  “She should make her own choices.  She is Top Kid!”  He continues to try to get Mr. Delgado to see the advantages of Ana continuing her education to the point where he practically told to leave.  He does leave, probably thinking that he will never see Ana again but is obviously delighted to see her soon return to his class. 

When the class finally takes the Advanced Placement test for Calculus after months of studying and even giving up their summer for additional tutoring they all pass with exceptional scores.  After being told that they have achieved their goal it is viciously taken from them when suspicion arises that there was cheating involved.  This proved to be yet another example of Mr. Escalante’s firm belief in his student’s ability, and honesty for that matter.  He defends them even to the point of calling out one of the investigators.  Mr. Escalante has confronted the two investigators, Mr. Ramirez and Mr. Pearson.  After a rather intense verbal altercation, Mr. Ramirez says that “this is not between you and me”.  “Maybe not,” responds Mr. Escalante, “but if I catch you on the street I am gonna kick the shit out of you.”

Ms. Watson displays her own type of tenaciousness in “Mona Lisa Smile” when dealing with the superior behavior of her students the first time she meets them.  When she begins her slide show of well-known works of art and hopes to amaze them with her knowledge, she is somewhat put out when the students recite all the details about each piece of artwork.  She is in fact, a bit humiliated, but instead of tucking her tail between her legs and fleeing in embarrassment she compiles a new set of slides.  This set of slides, shown during the following class, are of then modern day advertisements showing women doing what society decided should be their role in the life – housework, and a quite vulgar painting by Soutine titled “The Carcass”   The students don’t know anything about the Soutine painting  but instead of gloating, Ms. Watson proceeds to teach the women how to look at art from a different perspective, perhaps from the angle of the artist and why he/she painted it instead of the surface appreciation one feels when looking at works of  art.  She continues in this way and it pays off for her when the students begin to engage in more meaningful dialogue.  “Is it any good?” challenges Ms. Watson “Come on ladies.  There is no textbook to tell you what to think!”  This generates quite a stimulating discussion that signals the beginning of a new perspective of not only art but the roles that women have been cast into. 

 

Another example of how tenacious Ms. Watson could be is not necessarily an admirable one.  She asks Joan Brandwyn what her intentions were regarding furthering her education after graduation.  When Joan says that she has thought about law school, Ms. Watson takes matters into her own hands and obtains an application for Yale Law School and gives it to Joan on the sly.  After she found out that Joan was getting married to a young man who was attending college in Philadelphia she researched law schools in that area and even brought the college catalogs and applications to Joan’s parents’ home.  On that occasion she discovered that Joan and her fiancé had eloped the night before and that she (Joan) did not want to be a lawyer.  She wanted to be a wife and mother. “You tell us to look beyond the image but you don’t.” Joan ardently defended herself.  “To you a housewife is someone who sold her soul for a center-hall Colonial.  She has no depth, no intellect, no interests. You are the one who said I could be anything I wanted.  This is what I want.”   Initially Ms. Watson found that hard to understand, that Joan or any woman for that matter, would actually want to be a homemaker and not have a career of her own but she soon realized that Joan was firm in her convictions and she graciously congratulated her.

At the end of the school year, Ms. Watson is invited back for the next academic year but with several unreasonable preconditions.  She declines and takes that opportunity to do something she has only dreamed of – traveling to Italy to see the works of the great artists that she teaches about.  As she is being driven away from the school in a taxi, the women whom she had taught for the past year follow on their bicycles, openly showing their love and admiration for her and for all the windows and doors she had opened for them.  Betty Warren’s final column conveys the depth of respect that she finally feels for Ms. Watson.  “I have heard her called a quitter for leaving. An aimless wanderer.  But not all that wander are aimless.  Especially not those who seek the truth beyond tradition, beyond definition, beyond image.  We will never forget you”

Mr. Escalante and Ms. Watson were both very tenacious teachers and I suspect that that tenacity went beyond their professional lives and contributed to a fulfilling life in so many ways.   They both wanted the best for their students, for their students to realize their own abilities and push beyond that.  They taught their respective subjects from the heart, knowing that they had the opportunity to make a positive difference in even just one life.   Their differences lay perhaps in their motivation for teaching.  Mr. Escalante has a genuine love of math and an understanding of where his students are from.  He knows how to talk to them because he is from the same background.   He also gives his students the respect they are due as human beings.  That respect is not apparent from the rest of the staff.   Ms. Watson on the other hand is not from the same background as her students and I don’t think she truly understands that although some of the women are merely following the path that their families have laid out for them, some of them actually want to go down that particular road.  She is a bit more progressive than they are used to at Wellesley but she does, in the end, accomplish what she had set out to do, what  she told her students early in the movie, “Look beyond the paint.” 

Rough Draft - incomplete but you get the idea!!

After watching Mr. Escalante in “Stand and Deliver” and Ms. Watson in “Mona Lisa Smile” I was stuck not only by the similarities of the two teachers but also by their differences.  They both had a tenacious streak that would not allow them to give up on their students even though the students sometimes gave up on themselves.  In Stand and Deliver Mr. Escalante consistently shows his absolute confidence in his student’s ability to learn higher math.  While they were both good teachers I think that Mr. Escalante greatly surpassed Ms. Watson with his dogged persistence in getting his students to the point where they could somewhat confidently take the Advanced Placement test for Calculus.  Ms. Watson goes to Wellesley College in Eastern Massachusetts with the intention of not only sharing her love of art with the select group of privileged female students but also of perhaps bringing some enlightenment  to the women in regards to having more in their lives outside of marriage, children and a showcase home. 

At the beginning of the movie, Mr. Escalante arrives at the school to find it in chaos.  He is told he will not be teaching computers but will instead be teaching math.  Instead of turning around and quitting he goes to his class and starts to teach.  When he meets the all Hispanic math class it firms his resolve to make a difference with the students.  He sees himself in those kids and wants to see them succeed in life and go beyond what society expected of them.    ADD EXAMPLE  

At the point in the movie where the class is working on a particularly difficult question, Anita reveals that that day is her last as her dad needs her to work at the family restaurant full time.  She is obviously very sad at the prospect of not completing her high school studies or going on the college.  Mr. Escalante does not say anything at that time but we find him later at the restaurant with his wife having dinner.  Anita introduces her father to Mr. Escalante.  ADD EXAMPLE

 

When the class finally takes the Advanced Placement test for Calculus after months of studying and even giving up their summer for additional tutoring they all pass with exceptional scores.  After being told that they have achieved their goal it is viciously taken from them when suspicion arises that there was cheating involved.  This proved to be yet another example of Mr. Escalante’s firm belief in his student’s ability, and honesty for that matter.  He defends them even to the point of calling out one of the investigators. ADD EXAMPLE

 

Ms. Watson displays her own type of tenaciousness when dealing with the superior behavior of her students the first time she meets them.  When she begins her slide show of well-known works of art and hopes to amaze them with her knowledge, she is somewhat put out when the students recite the facts about each piece of artwork.  She is in fact, a bit humiliated, but instead of tucking her tail between her legs and fleeing in embarrassment she compiles a new set of slides.  This set of slides, shown during the following class, are of little known and slightly vulgar paintings.  The students don’t know anything about them but instead of gloating, Ms. Watson proceeds to teach the women how to look at art from a different perspective, perhaps from the angle of the painter and why he/she painted it instead of the surface appreciation one feels when looking at works of  art.  She continues in this way and it pays off for her when the students begin to engage in more meaningful dialogue.  ADD EXAMPLE

Significance of drafting exercises

The paper drafting exercises  we did in class were extremely helpful in trying to decide which direction to take in writing my second paper. 
I think for me, at this time, the block format will be the most direct way for me to write my paper.  It allows me to focus on one teacher at a time instead of trying to contrast and compare in the same paragraph.  I can discuss Mr. Escalante for three paragraphs and then go on to discuss Ms. Watson for the same length of time and then use the conclusion to delve into their differences a bit. 
The point by point format would be a great format for me to use if my subjects were really different but in my view Mr. Escalante and Ms. Watson have several similarities. 
The third organizational format is an interesting one.  I think it  would  easy to do this one and I may have in fact followed that route with my paper.  I am not really  sure just yet but my paper is starting to take on the characteristics of this format.  It allows for more comparisons in the introductory paragraph and then the writer goes on the use on of the other formats. 

Really rough ideas for my second paper!

As I may have mentioned before I do not have a good enough recollection of two teachers from my own schooling to write a paper on so I will be writing about two fictional characters.
While I enjoyed Robin Williams' portrayal of Mr. Keating in "Dead Poets Society" I think I may end up writing about Ms. Watson from "Mona Lisa Smile".  Mr. Escalante will of course be one of the teachers - there is so much to draw from in that movie. 
Ms. Watson is a young and unmarried art teacher who arrives at Wellesley College in Maine with the hope of teaching a group of privileged college women to love art.  I think she expected them to be a bit more progressive than they turned out to be.  The college women were only there to earn a degree until they got married and built their lives around their husbands and children.  As the movie was set in the  1950's that was what was expected from a lot of women of the time.  Ms. Watson moved to Maine from California where women were not so tied to a mans success and they felt they were perfectly capable of making a different type of contribution to society than by marrying and having children.  Just guessing here....
So there it is - my paper will  be on Mr. Escalante from "Stand and Deliver" and Ms. Watson from "Mona Lisa Smile"   I reserve my right to change my mind.

My thesis statement is ..........to be revealed in an upcoming post.