Blog Post #7

My Reflection on Ableism in Schools

My awesome sister!!!

Disability advocacy in schools is something that I have always been aware of as I have a younger sister with autism. In fact, advocating for her and other people with disabilities is exactly what inspired me to want to become a teacher. There are plenty of parts to this article and video that I can discuss and relate to my sister's experiences in school. 

    My sister is fifteen years old now, but she has been diagnosed with autism since she was a preschooler. She has low-functioning autism, and to be blunt, she has had quite the rollercoaster experience in the school system. At the beginning of this article, I understand Penny's struggle to provide an appropriate education for her child. In fact, Hehir highlights how disappointing it is that many teachers do not have the training to accommodate to a child's disability. Every disability presents itself a little differently depending on the person, as Hehir explains. My sister's autism didn't look like any of the other students in her elementary school classes. I remember being in fifth grade and having to help calm my sister in kindergarten as she had a meltdown because her teacher couldn't understand what was wrong. I would hear my sister screaming throughout the school, would politely ask my teacher if I could go assist her, and luckily, my teacher was understanding about this situation. Obviously, I wanted to comfort my sister because that's my gut instinct, but my education should not have had to be interrupted because her kindergarten teacher did not know how to handle a child with a severe disability. This sounds harsh, but one of Hehir's idea to end ableism in schools is to ensure every teacher has these skills and is able to accommodate every child. 

    As my sister grew older and transitioned from middle to high school, there were a variety of times my family had to advocate for her. My sister qualified for a one-to-one aid, and the school district decided they were going to move this aid to a different school, despite working with my sister since she was in fifth grade. Then, COVID hit, and this problem was harder to discuss with the school district. On top of all of this, my sister was told that she was going to fail eighth grade for the year, since she wasn't completing assignments during the pandemic. Once again, my sister had a one-to-one in person, but not virtually. My sister had to navigate COVID schooling practically on her own, as everyone in my family was working full-time, and I was a senior in high school. The fighting that my family had to do in order to ensure my sister would move onto high school was insane. Abandoning my sister disproved Hehir's ideas that disabled students should be allowed to use skills that are most efficient for them and that they have their own specialized education. Rather than any of her teachers reaching out to my sister, they abandoned her at a time where she really needed the extra hand to guide her. 

    I could continue on for awhile, but luckily, my sister is in a wonderful life skills program now in high school. I wrote all of this to really prove Hehir's points in how to end ableism in schools. There needs to be clear standards for special educators to recognize that every child is different and will need a different approach to education. We need to listen to disabled students' needs if we want to let them know we do care about their success. Finally, I talked to my sister about how the person in the Examined Life video felt about going in public and feeling as if it's political. We related this to how sometimes autistic people feel as if they need to mask themselves and disguise their disability. I wish this world hasn't made people with disabilities feel this way, and I think both this video and Hehir's ideas prove that we need to talk about these feelings more to normalize them/bring awareness. 

Hyperlink: https://www.wested.org/wested-bulletin/news/ensuring-success-students-with-disabilities-pandemic/

Blog Post #6

Connections to Bilingualism in America

Rodriguez's writing and the 'Teaching Bilinguals...Even if You Are Not One' videos prove to me how ignorant it can be for Americans to discourage anybody from speaking other languages aside from English. I have a lot to say on this topic, despite being a white, monolingual American.

I think that there is plenty of contradicting values in American culture. We desperately want to become the greatest country in the world by having the most money, best military, and most educated people. We cannot even argue that Americans are the most educated, nor do we have the best education in the world. Students in other countries are learning another language, often multiple, by the time they are in elementary school. Americans have only considered teaching another language, particularly Spanish, to younger children in recent years. I couldn't imagine being an English language learner in this country that was told to 'only speak English', then suddenly hearing that we now value bilingualism. More jobs are requiring people to speak Spanish. In Rhode Island specifically, Providence schools are requiring an ESL certification as of the next school year. What took us so long to recognize that speaking multiple languages is a strong quality to have?

Time and time again, Americans want to isolate non-white, non-English speaking people from the rest of society. Although it may not be as blatant anymore, Rodriguez's story of losing his Spanish because he was forced to only speak in English at school is a perfect example of wrongful assimilation in our country. Rodriguez didn't understand why he couldn't speak both languages at school, and he eventually started to lose his Spanish as soon as he couldn't practice it in his own home. Spanish is the most spoken language in the world, and Rodriguez as a child was made to feel small because he couldn't grasp English right away. Instead of trying to understand his feelings about having to practically neglect his native language, his teachers forced him to speak English 100% of the time to learn.

The 'Teaching Bilinguals...Even if You Are Not One' series is something that I wish Rodriguez's teachers could've watched to better understand him and other students. The teachers in the video series realize that bilingualism benefits every child's education. These teachers have been able to connect more with families, analyze word choices between languages, and diversify their curriculum based on having bilingual students. When a teacher actively engages a child in terms of their own culture, they will be more interested in learning and attending school in general. These children will want to form a relationship with their teacher and feel comfortable confiding in them. The American education system has too often allowed bilingual students to fall through the cracks. The more that teachers advocate for their bilingual students, the better our education as a whole will become. If we want students to enjoy school, we have to include every single one. 

Hyperlink: https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/10-benefits-bilingualism/

Video Analysis Assignments

 Teach Us All notes

file:///Users/vanessathomson/Downloads/Copy%20of%20Teach%20Us%20All%20handout.pdf

Classroom Tour notes

file:///Users/vanessathomson/Downloads/Video%20Analysis%20for%20Classroom%20Tour.pdf

Precious Knowledge notes

file:///Users/vanessathomson/Downloads/Copy%20of%20Video%20Analysis%20Template%20(F22).pdf

Post #5

 Quotes from Literacy with an Attitude

Finn's study on the differences between students and schools economically is a strong analysis of why some things are a certain way. Finn is definitely a strong writer, and I think there are almost an endless amount of quotes that emphasize his overall point that American children are taught a particular way in schools based on their socio-economic status.

"Compared to the more affluent schools in this study there were less discussion of controversial topics such as labor disputes, civil rights, and women's rights and less attention to the history of these issues" (11).

    I find this fact interesting. Why are the people impacted by these problems ignoring them? I think analyzation could lead to plenty of answers to this question. I wouldn't have suspected this at all, I thought that the richer schools were unlikely to discuss these issues because they aren't affected by them. This is definitely something to discuss as a class because I am truly stumped by this quote.

"In the working-class schools the dominant theme was resistance. Students vandalized school property and resisted the teachers' efforts to teach...They refused to answer questions and were apparently pleased when the teacher became upset. There was less resistance to easy work, and so assignments were rarely demanding" (12). 

    I can compare this quote to my service learning placement. As Finn describes, the teachers in these schools believed that 'students were getting dumber every year' and didn't use manners with the children. The students in my current placement definitely will not show respect to somebody if respect is not shown to them. They understand authority and generally listen to their teacher, but when a teacher says something that they don't particularly agree with, things go downhill. For example, I went to their art class with my students, and a lot of them talked over the art teacher. Many students told me before we went to the class that their art teacher has told them to shut up and has called them names when they aren't listening. This is exactly what makes students unmotivated and disliking school. These children told me they don't like going to art, although many of them are talented drawers. These students in my placement are intelligent, and I think that my host teacher is doing a great job at keeping her students busy. She understands what they are capable of and knows that if they treat her with respect, then that will be reciprocated. 

"Children were required to plan lessons and teach them to the class. Among other things, they were evaluated on how well they kept control of the class" (19).

    This is practically college-level work for these children. In most of my classes, we have to do something similar to this. I personally find myself learning better at times from fellow students, and I am sure these children feel similarly. These affluent children are given freedom and trust that these other schools are not getting at all. Teachers don't feel the need to control their students. There is a healthy level of communication between teachers and students, and this likely shapes their well-rounded education. This whole section of the chapter honestly reminds me of Barrington Middle School as well. I toured it last semester for FNED 101, and the opportunities these students are given are severely unequal to the rest of the students in Rhode Island.

"When students begin school in such different systems, the odds are set for them" (25).

    This is a great way for Finn to end the second chapter. There needs to be more awareness brought to the differences in schools based on how wealthy a child's family is. When we begin to trust students, respect them, and challenge them, the playing field will then be equal. 

Link: 

https://www.kba-architects.com/projects/education/barrington-middle-school/