The forgiveness meditation was actually very useful for me currently. It’s such a coincidence that professor harmon had us do this today, because I’m actually seeking forgiveness for my actions. While that is a whole other topic that I would not like to indulge in, I definitely appreciated this meditation. By asking for forgiveness from others, forgiving myself, asking forgiving others, I can feel a little more at ease while I finish up this term and head back home.
Eve Ensler on Social Justice
Eve Ensler’s interpretation of social justice is different than all the others in that it focuses on a new topic for social justice, and that is feminism. Not even feminism like being a woman, but being a girl. She encourages people to embrace their inner emotional self, while the world has rejected it. She talks about how girls in third world countries are running away and trying to save themselves from female circumcision, and how houses are placed around these countries that house them, and encourage them to pursue education and freedom. Her speech shares a sense of equity with all of the other speakers. She talks about giving women the same rights as men in those countries (education, rights) and that can relate to every speaker on social justice. The stories that Eve uses truly depict girls at their finest, and her monologue of a girl that she retold at the end was very moving. Every other speaker talked about social inequalitites and battling them, and she did the same.
Research Process
So far, the research process for me is a little confusing. Not because of the content I am receiving and how I will interpret it into a report, but how we are supposed to gather the data. I know we can use online databases and library sources, but I’m not exactly sure if we are required to have a variety of sources, or if we can just have 10 library database sources. Also, the bibliographies are a little time consuming, so once that is done with, the assignment will be easier. However, I am grateful for the bibliographies, because they make me look at my sources carefully to write a worthwhile synopsis on them. Aside from that, the paper in itself shouldn’t be too hard to write as long as I have an effective thesis, and my research question is specific enough to form one.
Throughout high school, I’ve always been one to procrastinate, and I’ve been trying to break that habit in college. While it has been working for me, I feel that it is extremely important for me not to put anything in this assignment off. So in conclusion, the research process for me hasn’t been much trouble because I’ve been giving myself time to do the assigned work and hit all of the deadlines.
First 3 Annotations
Guilfoyle, Christy. “NCLB: Is There Life Beyond Testing?.” Educational Leadership 64.3
(2006): 8-13. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Oct. 2012.
In this article, Guilfoyle reports her findings on the flaws of the No Child Left Behind Act. She states that when described with one word, most educators would describe the Act as “accountability”. However, Guilfoyle states that after 2014, educators would describe the Act with “testing”. The No Child Left Behind Act is built off the foundation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which would provide funding to low-income districts. Guilfoyle states that the main problem with the Act is that the focus is put on Reading and Math, and all other subjects are forgotten. Also, testing by-laws are determined by the districts, and some districts are making their tests easier so their students get higher scores. Within the article, the U.S. Dept. of Education is quoted by Guilfoyle, saying that only 1 standardized test per year, which is required by the Act, to measure student growth is inadequate. I will be using this article to demonstrate the flaws of the No Child Left Behind Act in relation to student progress.
MALEYKO, GLENN, and MARYTZA A. GAWLIK. “No Child Left Behind: What We Know
And What We Need To Know.” Education 131.3 (2011): 600-624. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Oct. 2012.
In this entry, the authors look at arguments for every aspect of the No Child Left Behind act, and it looks at the consequences of the Act towards low-income districts. It starts by stating that states have the ability to manipulate their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). This directly results in a misconception that AYP is a reliable, consistent measure of student growth. They also state that the ideal benefit of the Act is that all children have the right to learn and be taught. Research in the article confirms that ethnically diverse and poor schools will be affected first. At statistic was gathered in Kentucky that schools with 25% or more black students are much more likely to fail to meet the AYP criteria. Also, largely Hispanic-populated schools are failing to meet AYP by 8%. The authors also state that Economically Disadvantaged (ED) schools are failing to meet AYP by 9%. The article also talks about students that are barely below the proficient level (aka “Bubble Kids”) and how they are receiving much more resources than high proficient and lower scoring students. While this article has a lot of information on the broad topic of No Child Left Behind, I will be using it for its section on ethnically diverse schools and their AYP statistics.
McNeil, Michele. “Key Elements Of Title I Program Broken, Researchers Say.” Education Week
30.26 (2011): 20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Oct. 2012.
McNeil argues in this article that the Title 1 program is now broken because of NCLB’s demands. She starts by stating that as of April 2011, there is $14.5 million in Title 1 federal aid.
Because of this budget, various audits can occur within districts that may overspend. This creates a snowball effect, and most schools are afraid to offer new programs due to their budgets, so they stick to the same programs every year, even if they are ineffective. Also, McNeil claims a loophole in the “comparability” requirement. This requirement states that Title 1 programs receive the same services that non-Title 1 programs receive. However, districts do not need to indicate teacher’s salaries, so many districts do not have to indicate where high-salary teachers are being place, and where lower-salary teachers are placed. She then talks about how in a Florida school there was a 10% increase in student poverty. This only resulted in a $56 increase in per-pupil spending. McNeil argues that this number should be much larger. She concludes by acknowledging that is students fail to bring their Average Yearly Progress above the required level for three consecutive years, these schools would need to employ contract tutors. She then debates that these tutors are statistically ineffective. I will be using this article to show how the Title 1 program has been affected by the NCLB act.
library presentation
From our presentation at the library, I learned that there are many facets of our library that I did not see before. There are several useful database that house features such as concept maps and combining keywords for searching. Also, I found out the there is a chat system that the library implements for students that aren’t currently in the library, but they still need questions answered.
I will take away the knowledge of certain database features. Along with concept maps, Academic Search Complete can be cited from the website, which eliminates the trouble of having to cite the article ENTIRELY. Also, I will use the library itself to check out certain books that are either required, or peak my interest. Our library is much more useful than I thought it was, and Dr. Moniz’s presentation showed me features of the library that I did not know existed before. Along with the chat system, I saw that you can reserve study rooms for you and friends online so you can partake in group studies without outside distraction, which could have been useful before, considering that I already participated in a group study.
Library Presentation
From our presentation at the library, I learned that there are many facets of our library that I did not see before. There are several useful database that house features such as concept maps and combining keywords for searching. Also, I found out the there is a chat system that the library implements for students that aren’t currently in the library, but they still need questions answered.
I will take away the knowledge of certain database features. Along with concept maps, Academic Search Complete can be cited from the website, which eliminates the trouble of having to cite the article ENTIRELY. Also, I will use the library itself to check out certain books that are either required, or peak my interest. Our library is much more useful than I thought it was, and Dr. Moniz’s presentation showed me features of the library that I did not know existed before. Along with the chat system, I saw that you can reserve study rooms for you and friends online so you can partake in group studies without outside distraction, which could have been useful before, considering that I already participated in a group study.
Aaron Huey: Social Justice
Aaron Huey sets in front of us the conflict that we’ve shared with native americans throughout american history. The speech that he produced centered around pictures that he took while at an indian reservations (lagoma?). He then talked about the injustices that America dealt to Indians in the form of a timeline. He started in the 1800s and progressed to the present, where the reservation is in shambles. In the beginning, the U.S signed a treaty with the tribe that potentially would have made their colony larger than the state of Idaho, and over time, America rejected the treaty until the reservation was only about 100 square miles which is considerably smaller than what it was originally. America not only turned its back of the native american nation, but also massacred it almost entirely. The population of Indians now is around 250,000, while the population around the 1500s was around an estimated 6 million!
In current time, the nation faces severe social issues because of the american government abandoning it. Alcoholism rates are skyrocketing, poverty rules over the nation, and the average male life expectancy is only about 47 years old! Clearly the government has not taken watch over this nation.
Aaron Huey finishes by describing how the tribe views the white man. Being white himself, he had to exert plenty of effort in befriending the tribe because they despise the white man. They consider the white man greedy, and he relates it to “taking the best cut of meat for themselves”. When talking more about the tribes struggle, he begins to tear up onstage, and there is an apparent pain in what he is talking about that I’ve yet to see on Ted Talks.
Social justice to Huey would be the reform of Native American tribes. He would want to give the native americans the land that they originally had, and to give them all of the benefits that americans have. All Huey wants is equality, and for America to uphold the treaty that we’ve manipulated and destroyed a long time ago.
“We Need to Talk About an Injustice”
Stevenson describes social justice/injustice within the black community. He begins by talking about prisons and uses statistics about the amount of black men in prison (I think it was 3 of every 4). He then goes on to talk about the death penalty, and how statistics show that it is more prevalent in the black community than the white community. The main focus of the speech seems to be about black men in the prison system, but he also tells a few stories throughout. He tells a tale about how he never consumed any alcohol his entire life, and connects that to his current success. Also, he mentions how he encounters Rosa Parks at one of her activist speeches, and how he tells her about his plans to not only shed light on injustice, but how he was going to try and stop it.
Throughout the speech, Stevenson really does a lot to motivate his crowd. Through interesting stories and stunning statistics, he gets his point across to the crowd effectively. He also states that he is very grateful for the Ted Talks entity, because it symbolizes a group willing to open their minds to various topics, including his. He relates this to the crowd by telling them that the government tries to hide our past in the eye of the public instead of acknowledging it. He relates this how the Germans don’t utilize the death penalty. Their reasoning is that because of their past, it would be inappropriate to sentence death orders to people. This topic alone brings up another injustice. How can Germany acknowledge and understand that they started the world’s most catastrophic modern genocide, but America tries to hide its injustice towards the black community? Slavery, unfair trial, lynching, persecution and other crimes against African Americans are almost forgotten by the government instead of being brought up and discussed.
Bluest Eye: Climax Analysis
The conflict of Morrison’s “the Bluest Eye” was resolved in an interesting way. The protagonist Pecola sought out the help of a former reverend whom was given the name “Soaphead Church”. She went to Soaphead and asked for blue eyes. Soaphead initially said that he could not help her, but then decided to trick her. He said that she would gain blue eyes if she gave a piece of meat to the dog outside. If the dog acted strange afterwards, she would have blue eyes. She did as he asked, and the begin to act very strange, and then succumb. She left, thinking that she had blue eyes. What Pecola didn’t know is that Soaphead poisoned the meat, and was planning on killing the dog himself. He saw opportunity in Pecola, and had her kill the dog. I also believe that this is the conflict of the story because all of Pecola’s conflicts amount to this resolution, and she changed the way that she perceives herself permanently.
Pecola changed her own self-image, but not to other people. She convinced herself that she had the bluest eyes in the world, and would spend her summer days talking to her conscience about her blue eyes. I suppose that one discovery that can be drawn from this is that you shouldn’t worry about how other people perceive you, but I think that Pecola discovered that she was finally beautiful to herself. She tricked herself into thinking that she actually had blue eyes, and nothing else mattered to her. I thought that this was a very interesting turn in the story. I would have never expected for Cholly to not only rape her, but also impregnate her too. Morrison did a tremendous job of showing how Pecola simply went insane in the last segment of the book. Her use of dialogue spoke volumes about Pecola’s newfound attitude and personality while only committing about 4 pages to the new Pecola. I envisioned a young, pregnant girl walking the streets talking to herself, almost like a feral homeless man who walks the city of Charlotte. Also, my jaw was literally dropped as Morrison described not only that Cholly raped her, but she also began to describe how Cholly felt about doing it. It sickened me as much as it made me respect Morrison for writing details that could make her feel so vulnerable to criticism. I also enjoyed the very last segment, in which Frieda and Claudia describe their reaction to the new Pecola. It brought closure to the story, and overall, the book was an excellent read.
“The Bluest Eye” conflict analysis
The conflict of Pecola in “The Bluest Eye” is that she wants to be beautiful in a world that subjects beauty to outer features, namely blonde hair and blue eyes. She also shares a conflict with society, which causes her desire for “beauty”. Society sees her as a dirty, poor, ugly African American child, and they also treat her that way. Between boys teasing her in the schoolyard, being abused sexually and emotionally by her parents, and being thrown out of houses for reasons out of her control, she also shares conflicts with other people directly. Her three conflicts never get resumed, but she does find a personal cure for them.
My favorite scene in the book is when Pecola encounters bullies in the schoolyard, and Freida and Claudia arrive in time to begin defending Pecola. Their attempts fail, but the boys notice that a pretty girl in the school named Maureen jumps in and makes the boys leave. They stroll through the city and get ice cream, when Maureen begins asking Pecola about how she saw her father naked. When Pecola breaks down from Maureen’s undertones of mockery, Freida and Claudia step in and chase her away, yelling names at her. This is, to me, is a strong spot of unity in the story. That while Freida and Claudia feel bad for Pecola, they still stick up for her and make her feel wanted and welcome.
This scene ties in with the main conflict because as Maureen is being chased away, she is screaming about how Pecola is “ugly” repeatedly, which is Pecola’s main conflict. This is one of many instances that cause Pecola to “resolve” her resolution by visiting a former pastor given the name “Soaphead Church”. The pastor solves emotional conflicts within people such as mediating marriages, curing anxiety and so on. Pecola goes to him and wants blue eyes, so he, with the power of God, grants her blue eyes. He then goes on the write a letter to God saying how only she can see the blue eyes, and touches on the point that he has created a narcissistic god-complex for himself. She is pictured in the final chapter as mentally unstable, asking her conscience if she has the prettiest blue eyes of anyone in the world, convinced that she has blue eyes. This conscience could also be her unborn baby, but the voice remains ambigouous.
lmm466 