Ashley's Blog

      After reading "The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies A Research Review" By Christine Sleeter, I choose three quotes that stood out to me.  Quote #1 : "Whites continue to receive the most attention and appear in the widest variety of roles, dominating story lines and lists of accomplishments"(Sleeter, 2).      I chose this quote because I recall from my own expereince in school that my classes didn't really teach about other ethnicities and the focus was primarily on the history of white people. For example, I remember only taking one history class that focoused on world history and instead of learning about all of the great things other countries accomplished, we learned mostly about the bad things that happened. I also notice this being the case in the film industry, characters in films often have steriotypical roles such as the white character being the lead and the good guy while the African American character tends to be seen a...

       I was assigned a Webster Elementary School fourth grade classroom to work with for my placement. I have only been twice so far. My first day there I was informed of which students had ILPs, were MLL learners and how many were behind in the curriculum. One student I observed during both of my sessions was a young caucasian boy. He is the only white student in a class that's mostly hispanic. The time of day I come in is during their math block, my teacher assigned me four students to work with and I practice math skills with them aswell as reading. While my teacher was teaching the class a lesson on fractions, I noticed one student in particular that frequently spoke out of turn and called things out often. This was frustrating for my teacher and she had to keep stopping to reprimend him. He was in my group of assigned students and during our first meeting together I could tell he was very advanced for his age compared to some of the other students in his class....

       Kimberlé Crenshaw stresses that intersectionality is an essesntial concept that society needs to understand and accept. It refers to how different parts of a person’s identity, such as race, gender, and sexual orientation overlap and interact with each other. When we focus on only one aspect of a person’s identity, we miss the bigger picture of their lived experience. To explain this, Crenshaw uses the example of a traffic intersection where multiple roads meet. Each road represents a different part of a person’s identity, and where they all come together shows the full complexity of who they are. For example, one road could symbolize gender, while another represents race. These identities do not exist separately, but rather they are intertwined and influence one another.      Crenshaw also highlights how the law often fails to recognize these overlapping identities, which can result in injustice.  She shares the story of Emma DeGraffenreid...

       In the preface and introduction of  Troublemakers , it talks about how schools often prioritize control rather than giving students freedom. Instead of valuing every individual, students are taught that some lives matter more than others. What we really need is to teach respect for all lives. Children shouldn't be punished or silenced for expressing themselves, as is often the case when they are reprimanded for not following the rules. Students miss out on valueable learning time when they are sent out of the classroom.      Troublemakers  is about four students who are labeled as “troublemakers” by their teachers, Instead of punishing these students, the Shalaby argues that we should listen to them, as they have valuable lessons to share. Teachers are trained to silence disruptive students. During my younger years of school, I was a very hyper and talkative child who was often reprimanded by my teachers for being disruptive. I also st...