Points
For extra credit, students will write a blog (title: Extra Credit) on the Chomsky video we partially watched in class. For every 100 words, you write, you will be awarded ONE point extra credit on your quiz grade, up to five points. For every 100 words you write beyond 500 words, you will be awarded extra credit on your midterm exam, up to five points.
Task
First, summarize what you believe to be the most important three points of Chomsky's interview; these can be the points you found most interesting. React to each point by reflecting on what you find valuable, challenging, or interesting about it. You could agree, disagree, or both.
Then, reflect on how your own educational experiences compared to Chomsky's: what was most memorable about your own education? What teachers influenced you, and why?
Finally, Chomsky makes connections between his pedagogical philosophy and the larger importance of education to American culture and democracy. After defining yours, can you connect your pedagogical philosophy to these larger dimensions of life? What is this all for? What should we be doing and why?
Monday, July 29, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
School to Prison Pipeline
We are blogging a little bit today about the school to prison pipeline. I wanted to offer a few links to the wider issue of the drug war and incarceration.
The Drug War - some facts.
The New Jim Crow.
Drugs and New Jim Crow.
On Mass Incarceration.
My own thoughts on the subject tend to tie back to two things: money and race. First, targetting low-income kids of color makes sense for the criminal justice 'industry;' that is, all the jobs and salaries that depend on increasing amounts of criminals. Ever-expanding police and prison forces need new bodies to fill their cells - and coffers. Getting students into the system early is like tobacco companies marketing cigarettes to children: the young are your best customers. Eerily enough, students are the young "customers" for the criminal justice industry.
So why do they target low-income communities of color? Well, here race and class co-exist in a self-perpetuating cycle. Low-income communities of color have been historically disadvantaged - decades, if not centuries, of disinvestment by mostly white politicians and leaders have left many communities without many options, particularly for education. The lack of resources means that these young "customers" make for inviting targets. They can't afford lawyers, bail, and court costs like higher-income neighbors and citizens, whether those neighbors are white or not. So even if the individual cops making arrests aren't overtly racist themselves (just "following the law"), they are operating in a system where the consequences and effects of their actions are explicitly racialized: this is called institutional racism. It's how we get a racist criminal justice system even though no one administering the system believes they themselves are racist.
On the subject of black on black crime, which is a favorite mark of newspapers like the The Wall Street Journal, I have a few quick thoughts. Like Police Commissioner Kelly or Mayor Bloomberg with Stop and Frisk, these folks like to argue that low-income neighborhoods of color get targeted because that's "where the crime happens." I have to arguments: one, this is where class comes in. People without opportunities and choices tend to make decisions that only make short-term sense in the larger scope of their lives. Why invest years in a bad education in a bad school system when you can provide for yourself faster by making different choices, such as dealing drugs for quick cash? If people had better choices to make, they might make them. Two, if you look for crime in certain places, you'll find it, because "crime" exists everywhere. If you start to police other neighborhoods, perhaps you'll find more illegal behavior - that is, if you start Stopping and Frisking NYU students, you're bound to find drugs on their person. Then crime rates will go up and - wallah - that, too, will be "where the crime is." In part, their tactics rely on a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Drug War - some facts.
The New Jim Crow.
Drugs and New Jim Crow.
On Mass Incarceration.
My own thoughts on the subject tend to tie back to two things: money and race. First, targetting low-income kids of color makes sense for the criminal justice 'industry;' that is, all the jobs and salaries that depend on increasing amounts of criminals. Ever-expanding police and prison forces need new bodies to fill their cells - and coffers. Getting students into the system early is like tobacco companies marketing cigarettes to children: the young are your best customers. Eerily enough, students are the young "customers" for the criminal justice industry.
So why do they target low-income communities of color? Well, here race and class co-exist in a self-perpetuating cycle. Low-income communities of color have been historically disadvantaged - decades, if not centuries, of disinvestment by mostly white politicians and leaders have left many communities without many options, particularly for education. The lack of resources means that these young "customers" make for inviting targets. They can't afford lawyers, bail, and court costs like higher-income neighbors and citizens, whether those neighbors are white or not. So even if the individual cops making arrests aren't overtly racist themselves (just "following the law"), they are operating in a system where the consequences and effects of their actions are explicitly racialized: this is called institutional racism. It's how we get a racist criminal justice system even though no one administering the system believes they themselves are racist.
On the subject of black on black crime, which is a favorite mark of newspapers like the The Wall Street Journal, I have a few quick thoughts. Like Police Commissioner Kelly or Mayor Bloomberg with Stop and Frisk, these folks like to argue that low-income neighborhoods of color get targeted because that's "where the crime happens." I have to arguments: one, this is where class comes in. People without opportunities and choices tend to make decisions that only make short-term sense in the larger scope of their lives. Why invest years in a bad education in a bad school system when you can provide for yourself faster by making different choices, such as dealing drugs for quick cash? If people had better choices to make, they might make them. Two, if you look for crime in certain places, you'll find it, because "crime" exists everywhere. If you start to police other neighborhoods, perhaps you'll find more illegal behavior - that is, if you start Stopping and Frisking NYU students, you're bound to find drugs on their person. Then crime rates will go up and - wallah - that, too, will be "where the crime is." In part, their tactics rely on a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Class Agenda 7.25
1. Problem Posing Exercise Presentation
2. Films:
The US Schools to Prisons Pipeline
School to Prison
Chomsky on the Purpose of Education
3. Quick in-class blog reaction
4. Video teams: screenplays
2. Films:
The US Schools to Prisons Pipeline
School to Prison
Chomsky on the Purpose of Education
3. Quick in-class blog reaction
4. Video teams: screenplays
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Letter to Bert
Assignment: Letter to Bert Eisenstadt Evaluating Tutoring at
the Writing Center
Peer Review: Wed 7.31
Due: TH 8.1
Peer Review: Wed 7.31
Due: TH 8.1
For this assignment, you will turn the problem-posing assignment shared in your groups and present it as a letter to the Manager of the Writing Center. The Manager, Mr. Bert Eisenstadt, knows about this assignment and is looking forward to reading what you have to say.
The letter should be 2 single-spaced pages, and should address the 3 steps from the problem-posing exercise you worked with to produce your group
presentation. While what you presented in groups was excerpts from the
observations of particular individuals in your group, the primary evidence in your
letter should be based on your own personal observations. As you did in your
problem-posing exercise, name strategies, cite sources for strategies named, and
describe observations in detail. It is especially important that whenever you
identify a strategy or diagnose a problem, you provide support for your ideas
by quoting from the course reading materials, citing all sources, and providing
a works cited page at the end of the letter. You will want to take certain moments and link them your overall teaching philosophy.
Mr. Eisenstadt will be much more likely to follow your advice if you seem like you’re basing your assessments on up-to-date tutoring theory. He may also want to read for himself certain sections of a text to which you refer.
Mr. Eisenstadt will be much more likely to follow your advice if you seem like you’re basing your assessments on up-to-date tutoring theory. He may also want to read for himself certain sections of a text to which you refer.
In establishing the voice you will use in this letter, try
to use the tutoring skills you have learned this semester. Remember that while
it is often important and useful to be critical, it is also important that you
be constructive. Remember that tutors can have bad days just like anyone else;
don’t make your criticisms personal, but instead try phrasing things as
problems that may need for the overall improvement of the center. Think of the Writing Center, like an essay draft, as a work
in progress. Imagine your audience, Mr. Eisenstadt, as someone who will
continue with his practice of managing the center long after you give him this
feedback. There is a future for the Writing
Center, and by writing
this letter you can become a part of it.
Class Agenda 7.24
1. Tutoring! We are heading to E-229 at 9.23 on the dot. Please come there if you arrive late.
2. Return to class: write up your notes on the experience.
3. break
4. quiz
5. Problem-posing exercise.
6. Video teams
7. Video: Difficult Situations
2. Return to class: write up your notes on the experience.
3. break
4. quiz
5. Problem-posing exercise.
6. Video teams
7. Video: Difficult Situations
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