Talking Point 6

Talking Point 6: Tracking: Why Schools Need to Take Another Route by Jeannie Oakes

Premise:
• Ability of students
• Marginalizing students
• Grouping of children
• Accomplishment
• Uneven Opportunities
• Unfair Advantages
• Uncomfortable in class
• Average students left out
• Cognitive tests showing learning over time
• Tracking students in unnecessary
• Mastering of skills speedily
• Active learning
• Complications in Work
• ‘Real World’ Problem Solving
• Changes to the School Systems
• Test scores unreliable

Author’s Argument:
Oakes argues that by just judging students’ abilities based on test scores is an inefficient way of measuring a student’s learning ability and new methods need to be employed in the classroom to assure that all students are given equal learning opportunities by allowing for all students to be challenged.

Evidence:
1. “One fact about tracking is unequivocal: tracking leads to substantial differences in the day-to-day learning experiences students have at school.”
2. “For example, in average classes, many teachers expected relatively little of students. They established set routines of lecturing and doing worksheets, held time and workload demands (both in class and for homework) to a minimum, accepted and sometimes even encouraged distractions and rarely asked students to think deeply or critically.”
3. “Recent work of cognitive psychologists suggests, for example that academic ability is not unchangeable but developmental and grows throughout childhood.”

Questions/Comments/ Point to Share:
Oakes’ article brought forth an argument that many students are not all given the same opportunities to succeed in life. Some of the more precocious children are given the advantage over others when it comes to teachers and resources giving them a chance to be much more successful. The article, overall, was an easy read and made a direct point that something needs to be done in order to eliminate the unfair academic treatment taking place in many public schools throughout the country. It relates to other texts that we have read because it talks of a progressive movement for action and awareness regarding the unfair advantages that some students gain. It is something that Johnson would wholeheartedly agree with the problem needs to be brought out into the open and needs to be discussed.

Talking Point 5

Talking Point #5 In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

Premise:
• Community Service
• Improving society
• Lending a Hand
• Culture-bearers
• Stereotypes
• Politics
• Democracy
• Experiences
• Citizenship
• Homelessness
• Community Curricula
• Moral emphasis
• Giving Back to Society
• Intellectual transformation
• Empathy
• Bringing people together

Author’s Argument:
Kahne and Westheimer argue that service learning is great for the community as a whole seeing as it provides students with a chance to grow morally, become more active politically as democratic citizens, and become intellectually enlightened by erasing the stereotypes that are in place regarding many different social groups. This type of service will lead not only for improvements to individual students, but also the communities in which they live.

Evidence:
1. “Educators and legislators alike maintain that service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom, providing rich educational experiences for students at all levels of schooling.”
2. The example of the student who went to a senior home to serve them their Thanksgiving dinners and the experience was structured to promote giving rather than to provide the kind of understanding need for the development of caring relationships.
3. Citizenship in a democratic community requires more than kindness and decency; it requires engagement in complex social and institutional endeavors.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
This article views the idea of community service and service learning as salient to help provide a better atmosphere in the overall society. It teaches students to become active and better citizens by donating some of their time to a good cause. This article overall was a very easy read and had a clear message that service learning is a good way of showing altruism and becoming active in the surrounding community. It relates to other texts that we have read such as the Johnson article that notes action is necessary if we are to change stereotypes and to have a reshuffling of the ideals in society. I think that overall the reading is an empowering piece that needs to be implemented in order for society in general to be bettered.

Talking Point 4

Talking Point #4: Christensen “Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us”
Premise:
• False advertisement
• Rethinking the meaning of cartoons
• Misinformation/Propaganda
• Changing Views
• White supremacy
• Racism
• Sexism
• Students speaking out
• Raising Awareness
• Stereotypes
• Taking action
• Calling for more diversity
• Favoring groups over another
• Having some cartoons reworked
• Trying to stimulate change of society’s views

Authors Argument:
Christensen argues that by fighting images portraying hierarchy and inequality in cartoons and mass media, progress can be made by students and society in general that will allow for respect and equality to be gained by more groups of people.

Evidence:
1. There is a “secret education” that is contained in movies and mass media that tell people how they should act, treat people, dress and essentially run their lives
2. By trying to advocate for a “Black Cinderella” and creating a story based around Cinderella as a black woman would allow for another group of people to be idolized and thought of as the “princess of society.”
3. By having the students write essays of discontent concerning the images portrayed in cartoons and media as to what is important in life and looking for them to be published in newspapers or magazines is an activist approach to changing what is idyllic in society.

Questions/Comments/Point to Share:
This article by Christensen was aimed at trying to make a change in society by changing the way that media portrays perfection and happiness to people in America. Change needs to be made so that students and people do not get the wrong idea about what is important in life. The article was a smooth read and did not require too much effort on my part to look up words or anything of that nature. It did a good job of showing how society is negligent in favoring some groups of people and types of people over others. It relates to other texts that we have read in class because it is showing how the “culture of power” is truly at work here as Delpit would note. The ‘culture of power’ is at work in a sense that it is dictating how people should act, dress and organize their lifestyles based upon false images and propaganda. Also, I see a little bit of Johnson in this article because Christensen is calling for her students to take action and speak out against the cartoonists and other people in media who are the ones disseminating this false image of perfection to the public.