Gayness and Schools

I have thought a lot about our discussion on Wednesday and I continued to be impressed by the dialogue we started. It was just a start, but I hope you left with as many questions as answers.

If you are seeking other resources to consider, check out these links.

GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educators Network)
GLBT Symbols and their meanings
GSANetwork (Gay Straight Alliance)
It's Elementary
Just Call Me Kade
Equity Action (RI project on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity)
Harvey Milk School for GLBT Students in NYC
Gay Themed Children's Books
Gay Marriage... gay divorce?
Gay Student Killed for Valentine

Silent Talking

Here is some of the work we did in class on Monday... such loud, silent voices!!

School Context Assignment

In order to make sense of all the data you collected about your school (both quantitatively and qualitatively), I want you to write an analysis of your school organized by the WHAT/HOW handout you used in class. The writing assignment should be posted to your blog by Thursday night at midnight. Please feel free to use a casual writing voice with lots of "I" references, but also make sure to proofread for basic writing conventions and flow.

Please include the following in your paper:

1) Introduction to your school/neighborhood (think of Kozol's introduction of coming into Mott Haven as a model)

2) A discussion of each of the four areas (Space, Curriculum, Pedagogy and Informal Interactions) with at least one example for each one.

3) Clear connection to how this school does or does not represent the demographics of the community (you can integrate this into the discussions above, or make a separate analysis section related to this issue)

4) At least one (but as many as possible) gestures to our course texts (this should be easy to do -- Johnson, Delpit, Kozol, Macintosh, Muwakkil, American Dream at Groton, Angry Eye).

Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

LB :)

Dispositions Paper

Your dispositions paper is due on Wednesday, June 11 in class. Remember to turn in the Dispositions Reference form (filled out by you) and the rubric handout with your paper.

For more information about the FSEHD Admissions requirement, programs and other details, check out the webpage here.

Relationship to the Culture of Power?

I see only a few of you have posted on your personal relationship to the culture of power. Please get that up ASAP. I want you to think about who you are in relation to all of this stuff we are reading. Make sue your blogs are completely caught up this weekend!!

Given that I have asked you to share some personal things about yourselves, I will share a few things about me, too. I grew up in an upper-middle class neighborhood where all of my friends had more material assets than I did. However, just being around the privilege of a community where people traveled to Europe on family vacations, or were given cars for their 16th birthdays gave me access to the system of power. (I drove a brown 1979 Datsun 210 and I carpooled younger kids to school each week to pay for my gas money!)

My family had more cultural capital than economic capital. But that really helped me know how to negotiate my schooling to the best of my advantage. My parents are both over-educated, and I even have a grandparent who went to college. My parents knew how to help me with homework and teach me how to type a research paper so that it looked "professional." Going to college was as much as assumption in my family as was brushing my teeth each morning. I started looking for what college I would go to when i was about 12 -- anywhere I ever visited my mom made sure we stopped at college campuses so I could look around. I hated it as a teenager, but it gave me a great advantage at 17 when I was applying to schools and knew what each one looked like. I ended up going to college 3000 miles away from home and feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to live in NYC and be independent at a very young age.

These are some of the ways I was given access to the rules and codes of power.

Individuals and Institutions

As you read Kozol for next week, think about our discussion about Delpit and the relationship between Individuals and Institutions. If the "game" is designed for the dominant group (SCWAAMP), then how do individual "marbles" make their way through the system? Remember that it is not any individual marble's FAULT... it is about how the game is designed. That means it is not about bad people. It is about an invisible system that we often forget to see.

Can we change the system, the institution, the game? How?

Intrinsic/Extrinsic Motivation

Just wanted to call your attention to the author I mentioned in class today when we were talking about the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

If you want to know more, check out Alfie Kohn for more research in this area.