Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Prompt for week of Feb. 1st. . .
The frame for this week's reading is provided by the discussion between Myles Horton (founder of the Highlander Folk School, that educated Rosa Parks and many others in civic engagement, non-violent protest etc.) and Paolo Freire (Brazilian educator/philosopher/activist, a major proponent of popular and critical education). There are many themes present in their discussion that are supported/illustrated by Paul Loeb's writing about "Radical Dignity" and the other pieces that I have included from his book. What are some of the threads that you see running between these pieces, such as the relationship between theory and practice, leadership, education, universal rights and responsibilities and individual moral calling? You don't need to pull in every reading. Write about what struck you and use quotes from the pieces your refer to.
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ReplyDeleteWhile I read "Ideas" I was moved by several things. The first quote I loved was "instead of saying I am with the dominant, I say that I'm neutral." (Paulo) This made me think about myself and the way I think. When I decide not to take a stand on something, I am letting the dominant party win. If, for example, at work I don't stand up for a coworker about an argument they are having with the management, by being neutral I let the manager (the dominant party) win. Also, if I don't vote for president because I'm neutral about who wins, I am REALLY voting for the dominant party. That really stood out for me.
Another quote that really hit me was "To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never to allow despair to have the last word." This, to me, means that we cannot ignore the woes of the world, but we can't let them bring us down. Life has its ups and downs, and when we are in a "down" we need to acknowledge that and find the roots of why things are the way they are and how we can work to make them better.
When reading "The Real Rosa Parks" I felt that the message expressed was "Park's initial step of getting involved was just as courageous and critical as the stand on the bus..." This shows people that every little thing you do helps and builds toward something greater. Until now I actually thought that Rosa Parks was just a plain old African American housewife who one day decided not to take it anymore on a bus when actually she had been working toward this moment for over a decade.
Well, that was just me throwing a few things out there. Please feel free to respond!
In this reading, it included a chapter that talked about ideas. And one of the ideas that stood out to me was, “Without practice there’s no knowledge” (98). This idea had me reflecting about all the people in the world, particularly children and students. Many of us go to school and have a teacher and teach us by verbally speaking to us. However, this is sometimes the problem in our schools and universities. Many of us don’t fully learn the material just by listening. Practice has to take place in order for actual learning and memorization to take place in our minds. Not only do teachers and educators have to do their part, but also we as students have to do our part as well. And as apart of our duty as students we must practice education in every way for learning to actually take place. For example we can practice by reading taking notes in class and actually speaking your own opinion. Reading especially is important. I remember that most of my high school teachers use to me to read as much as I could because I will learn so much more. I found this to be true, because no only was I learning about the subject I would read about but I was learning how to write better. We cant always blame our teachers for not receiving the proper education because most of the time its because we are to lazy to do our part as students.
ReplyDeleteAnother subject they talked about and truly captured my attention was about neutrality. In this chapter they had defined neutrality as, “just following the crowd”. In my opinion sometimes it is a good thing to follow the crowd but only in some situations. However, when it comes to the classroom, being neutral is a no. If everyone were neutral in class there would be less actual learning going on. Every person has different ideas if no one ever shared ideas and opinions we would all just be giving up our beliefs and ideas only to conform to one idea. When neutral is present in the classroom no actual learning takes place. Why? Because we learn not just from a professor but also from each other, or the students. Neutrality is no longer present when we start to listen to one another opinions and reflect on their opinions and actually reflect on the issue being discuss. Getting rid of neutrality in the classroom is every important because that can lead to bigger in things in our lives.
Having had experience in getting rid of neutrality can be a very positive thing in our life. For example our government. Our country has many problems and debts. If everyone was just conform in ignoring our countries problems and debts we would have chaos. But since having practiced in the classroom in getting rid of neutrality we are able to stand up for what we believe and take action. Only to result in people speaking up and proposing solutions to our country’s problems and debt or just by simply voting for better candidates.
Practicing and not being neutral I believe are key elements that are necessary in students and all humans. If there is ever to see change in our lives and our surroundings we must try to apply in our lives beginning in the classrooms.
“…lose your hope and you lose your soul” (Loeb 276). This statement is a powerful one but also a very compelling statement for the time these two pieces were written. Both excerpts are about deciding, taking one side or the other which parallels to the movements they speak about; essentially, African Americans fighting for the same rights as white people. Hope was all these people had at first. The piece The Impossible Will Take a Little While talks of the major figures in the civil rights movement; people that held onto their hope and did what they knew was right. This hope spread to many African Americans in the same situation and thus the civil rights movement began. However, these heroes did not just spring up over night. They went to schools and study under others who taught them how to protest effectively but peacefully. The big heroes such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. brought about a change that has inspired generations to come. Jonathan Kozol is one such person who continues the work of these trail blazers when he and others attempt to make the school and society these children live in a better place, and stop the rapes and shootings. This underlying theme of hope in both pieces is finished off with the story of the tissue paper art that a student once gifted to the author; although it can either be taken as the sun setting or rising, the author states that “[He] likes to think it’s rising” (Loeb 36). This idea of the sun rising once again brings hope to the area the author, and people like him, live in and inspires people to look optimistically towards the future and the sunrise of a changing and promising future.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Loeb's writing I found several particle quotes that grabbed my attention. the first being "the arc of moral universe is long but bends toward justice" (Loeb, 278) This quote made me reread it several times. I loved how they described the moral universe as being long with a bend towards justice. It make you think about how everything in todays society is based on whether it would be moral or not. I feel like this quote makes the whole morality subject more clear. Yes it has a slight bend towards justice but that may not be enough. In the Letter of birmingham Jail chapter the line at the bottom of page 281 really grabbed my attention: "when you see the vast majority of your 20 million negro brothers smotheirng in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society." I really like how the words "your" and "you see" it makes it feel like it pertains to the reader. I think that it is a powerful quote with particular words like poverty, brothers, society. This makes it think about would you want your family, your people smothering in poverty. and your people being 20 million. I dont know how anyone could want 20 million people in poverty but that is how our society was back then. Loeb makes very strong points all throughout his piece. I am planning on rereading it to see what else i can gather!
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