Talk Point # 3: Carlson

1.“…gay people have for the most part been made absent, invisible, and silent within this community and at the same time represented at the deviant and pathological ‘Other.’” (223).
Unfortunately in today’s society gay people are made absent, invisible, and silent, because they feel as though they can not be true about who they are. Since other people are not accepting of this and discriminate against them, it forces gay people to be quiet. It is not easy to come out and tell the truth. Society also makes it seem wrong and that particular people are wrong for being gay. They are viewed as being “others” because they are not like everyone else in society. It is sad that someone cannot come out and talk about who they truly are, because they fear others.

2.“The official policy in most school districts is in fact identical to that of the U.S. military, namely: “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Interestingly, while this policy is being challenged by gays in the military, it has not been forcefully challenged by gay teachers in public schools yet…”
This quote stuck out to me, because not to long ago I had a conversation about gay people in the military. A new law was passed that overrode the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law and now men in the military can be openly gay and they not be discriminated against in a sense. Teachers in public schools should be allowed to say they are gay if they choose to do so without any repercussions. If it is not allowed for a teacher to come out, this may give students the idea that they should not come out either and that is sending the wrong message. People should be allowed to be who they really are without having to worry about losing their job or being discriminated against by the other members of the school board.

3.“Among other things, it involves the constitution of a whole network of support services and organizations designed to help individuals “come out” in a supportive environment and participate in the gay community, including gay counseling services, drop-in centers, support groups, athletic leagues, choruses, and political organizations.”
This quote stuck out to me, because it describes all the different types of counseling gay people can receive when they choose to “come out” in different types of situations. As a straight person, I do not have to think twice about revealing my sexual orientation no matter what type of situation I am in. Someone who is homosexual has to worry about who they reveal it to and may even have to receive some sort of counseling after they come out. They have to think twice about telling people in their community and hope it goes well where as I can say it to whomever I want without anything negative happening to me.

This article describes the different effects “coming out” has on people and the different types of situations people can be in. It is frowned upon in society by many people to be gay which forces gay people to have to keep silent about their sexual orientation. If they do “come out” they have to worry about what may happen to them or if they will lose their job over it. It also goes into great detail about the school systems opinion on the entire situation and how for a while it was similar to that or the military with the “don’t ask, don’t tell”. They were not saying you could not be gay, they were saying you cannot tell anyone you are which is not right.

First Visit

On Friday I went for my first visit at the elementary school I was assigned to. My best friend and I were assigned to the same school, so she picked me up at 9:00, because we had to be there for 9:30. We arrived a few minutes early and new exactly where to go, because her mom is a teacher there and we had both been there many times before. We went to the front doors and we were buzzed into the school. We went to the front office to drop off our VIPs sign in sheets and then met the director of the program for reading at that particular school.
The school that I was assigned to is located in the Smith Hill section of Providence. This area is not the best of areas, because there is a lot of known violence that occurs in this section, but we had no problems when we went. As of September, 2009 the elementary school had 540 students enrolled. Of those students, 47.8 were female and 52.2 were male.
The director met with my friend, myself, and one other girl from a different college. She explained that this week she would put us in our classrooms, but we would not be working with any specific children. Since February vacation was the following week she would take the time then to go through our assigned classrooms students and see who the “target” students were. These students are ones who performed low on test scores and needed extra help in the classroom. When we return after February vacation we will be assigned students to work with on a weekly basis.
I was assigned to a first grade classroom with a female teacher. I walked in the classroom and she greeted me warmly. She was reading to her “homeroom” and in a few minutes the kids would be switching classrooms. I sat down at a cluster of desks and watched her read a Curious George book to the students. I took the time to observe the classroom. There were shelves and tables full of books that the students could read when they had spare time. On the front chalkboard was a weekly helper chart with students names and their chores for that particular week. There was also a calendar that the students put together each month. There was a number and letters chart at the top of the chalk board as well. The other walls were filled with art work done by the students and some of their class work as well. There were two computers in the back of the room that the students were allowed to use. There was also a bubbler in the corner. The classroom’s desks were set up in clusters of four and in the back of the room was a larger table that could fit approximately six or seven students. There was also a table with a tape recorder that the students used when they had to do listening assignments.
After the bell rang the new group of students came in. The teacher immediately called group one to come sit on the rug. She explained to me that I was going to be working with group two. They were going to be coloring in a book then putting it together. Group one consisted of approximately 15 students and group two consisted of six. I sat with group two at a cluster of desks and they worked on coloring. There were two girls in this group and four boys. Two of those boys were extremely quiet and just sat there and colored. There were exceptionally good at coloring for their age and took their time with the assignment. The other four students were constantly talking and trying to avoid doing the assignment. One young girl in the group was giving me a very hard time about doing her work. First she was coloring with markers and the teacher told her she was not allowed to. When I tried to take the markers to put them on the teacher’s desk she yelled at me and would not give me one of the markers and continued to color anyways. After a few minutes I finally got the marker from her. She then stopped coloring and just sat there and would not listen to anyone. One boy at the table kept taking things off the teacher’s desk that he was not supposed to. He was trying to take a stapler that was not even working and he too would not listen when I told him he was not supposed to be doing that. After they finished coloring I had a worksheet for them to work on. Only a few of them made it to the worksheet.
After about 45 minutes the teacher called group two to come sit on the rug and I was now working with group one. There were many more students now and they were spread out amongst the classroom as opposed to all sitting together. They had to work on two workbook sheets and then they could do the coloring assignment. One girl immediately attached herself to me. No matter where I went she would follow me. She finished her workbook pages and was now coloring and kept begging me to color with her. I was helping other students who were struggling to finish their workbook pages and told her I would come color with her as soon as I finished, but she would not leave my side. One boy had a huge personality. He wrote on all his papers “Young Money” ,who is a professional rapper, as his name. It was also his birthday and he was very excited. He was having a lot of trouble with the workbook pages so I helped him with that.
The school is made up of many students of different ethnicities. The majority of the students in the school are Hispanic. They make up 56.1 percent of the students that attend the school. The second largest group is African American who make up 25.7 percent of the students. The minorities in the school are whites who make up 9.3 percent, Asians who make up 8.5 percent, and Native Americans who only make up 0.4 percent. The classroom I was in reflected these statistics. The majority of the class was African American and Hispanic students. There was one white student in the class and he sat at a table by himself while doing his work. I eventually saw him playing with another Hispanic boy, but for the most part he kept to himself. I think some of the other students may have isolated him, because at point when he was sitting on the rub he was pinched by another student and started to cry hysterically. When I tried to help him with his workbook pages he was very shy and quiet and would not let me help him.
The demographics of the school definitely influence the classroom and how the students learn. A lot of the students were ESL students and were still in the process of learning some English. Because of this, they were not at the grade level they should have been in. Having to learn English may have been a setback for them. There was also a lot of diversity in the classroom. There was not just one race in particular, but there were students of many races. I overheard students refeering to thigs about their particular culture, but I am not sure they even noticed this. For example, one girl was talking to another student about how they celebrated her older sisters Quince Anos over the weekend. She had to explain what it was because the other student had never heard of it before. That is a tradition that most Hispanics take part in, but I am not sure she even realized that. It just showed that many people come from many different backgrounds and she was sharing a part of her culture with another student.
I enjoyed visiting the elementary school and working with the students. I am more excited to be working one on one with a few students, because I found it difficult working with 15 students at once when I wasn’t given much direction of what to do with them. I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks.

Talk Point # 2

Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez Jenna Petrucci
1.“Id rarely leave home all alone or without reluctance. Walking down the sidewalk, under the canopy of tall trees, I’d warily notice the –suddenly- silent neighborhood kids who stood warily watching me.” This quote shows how isolated the author felt when he was a child trying to learn a new language. He felt that he could not even leave the house, because people would stare at him as if something was wrong with him. Learning a new language is hard enough as it is and when others make a person feel bad about themselves it can make it that much harder. It also makes a person feel unmotivated to learn.
2.“Without question, it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid. I would have trusted them and responded with ease.” His home language gave him a sense of comfort and when he was not able to speak it, he felt uneasy. If he was able to go to school and speak in Spanish and not have to speak in English, it would have been much easier for him. Kids are supposed to been at ease when they are in school. They are not supposed to feel afraid and they are supposed to be able to trust their teachers. He was very young and it is sad that he was afraid to go to school. It is such a big part of a child’s life and they should be comfortable with attending school and he was not able to do that.
3.“With great tact the visitors continued, “Is it possible for you and your husband to encourage your children to practice their English when they are home?’ Of course, my parents complied.” The nuns visited the authors home and asked them to speak English to their children at home. For some reason this kind of shocked me. I would not have expected a teacher to visit a student’s parents at home and ask them to change their whole way of living. The parents only spoke Spanish and now they have to change their lifestyle and only speak English to their children. It would definitely be beneficial to the children since they spend a lot of time at home.
This article was an easy read and interesting. I thought it was sad that a young boy had to go through that growing up. He felt secluded and uneasy doing something as simple as going to school. I don’t think twice about going to class and he spent so much time worrying about it. Many people have to go through that and it is something I don’t even have to think about.

Talk Point # 1

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh Jenna Petrucci

1.) “I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are over privileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged.” I think that this quote is important, because it relates to all the other factors mentioned in the article. I also think it is true to an extent. There are a lot of men who will not admit that they are over privileged. Some are willing to say that women are at the disadvantage in the sense that women are viewed as being weaker. For example, it is safer for men to walk down the street alone at night then it is for women. Men realize this and will admit that, but they will not note that they are at the advantage.

2.) “As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege which puts me at an advantage.” This quote is something I can relate to. In school I always learned about racism and why it is such a bad thing and all the negative effects it can have on people. No one ever explained white privilege and the advantage that it put me at. It is almost as if people just assume that it is there and that everyone realizes the concept of white privilege. It is less talked about that racism.

3.) “In addition, since race and sex are not the only advantaging systems at work, we need similarly to examine the daily experience of having age advantage, or ethnic advantage, or physical ability, or advantage related to nationality, religion or sexual orientation” There are other of aspects of life besides race and sex that give people advantages. It is not something people think about, it is something that is just taken for granted. For example, I never think of my youth as an advantage. There are things I can do easier than an older person can, but I never think twice about it. Same for my religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and my physical ability.

I thought this article was interesting and easy to read. It relates to other articles we have read, because this discussed white privilege and it did the exact same thing other articles have done when it made a list of things people can do without having to worry. I find the points made interesting, because most of the things on that list I am able to do without having to worry and people of different races have to worry about doing some of the simplest things.

All about me

My name is Jenna. I am a sophomore and just transferred to RIC this semester from Suffolk. I am a secondary ed. English major. I live on campus and like living back in Rhode Island. So far my semester is going well and my schedule is pretty easy. When I am not in class or busy with school I love hanging out with my friends :)