An arts, humanities, and science summer immersion program for high school students; An award-winning student organization; A service-learning opportunity
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Something totally different (due before the end of the semester)
Something completely different/off the wall/off the beaten path Test your creativity. This entry does NOT have to be traditional in ANY way except that I have to be able to physically see/hear/experience it in some way and it has to relate to FOCUS.
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I belong to the race of people known as white. I am White. And, not completely unrelated, I am middleclass.
ReplyDeleteAbout three years ago I started spending time with people not of my class. They were impoverished children, who are, of course, black. They tell me how they want to be white. And as I think about them (as I so often do) while attending LSU, it has occurred to me that I, as well, would like to be white. Why do I wish to be white?
I would like to go to college so that I can be just another person in my family to attain a bachelor’s degree, and more importantly, go on to get my Master’s degree. I want to be white so my parents can send me to school. And while I am going to school I want to be white and enjoy my college years without having to work. Because I do not need to worry about school and making ends meet, too. I want to be white to make sure college is not unheard of fantasy but an unspoken fate. I want to be white and will go away to college, not go to just any ole college, like the community right up the road. I want to be a white who is a smart saver of my money, who invests in banking accounts, makes sure I have adequate funds for all of life amenities, takes vacations on planes, ships, ect. I want to be white and take care of myself for the future, a white who plans beyond the present moment, because, I cannot be concerned with the source of this month’s rent check. My white self must have money in the bank and not live pay-check-to-pay-check. It may mean I occasionally pick up work babysitting someone else’s children, getting paid double minimum wage without taxes. Needless to say, I am white and will be able to pay for life’s expenses even while I am in college, making my childhood dreams a reality.
I want to be a white who is inherently privileged, a white who receives respect habitually and solely because of my skin color, a white who receives freedoms that I did not earn. And, incidentally, I want to be a white who will demand reverence even when I do not deserve it. I want to be a white who undertakes the total prejudices of my whiteness, because I do not want to be judged on my own character or individual moral will, instead that I am judged according to my skin tone. I want to be a white who will remain easily revered in the public eye even when I cuss, wear my pajamas to Walgreens, and drive terribly. But I also want to be a white who has the freedom to attribute poor choices of individuals in other classes to the morals and illiteracy of that group of people. I have to, after all, be able to keep my class favored amongst society.
If, perhaps, I see another person of my skin tone act immorally, I want the freedom to not be individually judged by society because of this other person. In fact, I do not want to be attributed to specific traits and stereotypes because certain people of my race cannot seem to get their act together. Inherently, I will be oblivious to such victimization; my whiteness will not only elude me from racial oppression, but also stay completely unaware to the horrific idea that I am actually the oppressor. I want to be white and forget the fact that my power in the world and society comes from the unearned privileges of my race. I will turn the blind eye to my undeserved advantages and continue to live my white life.
My God, who doesn’t want to be white?
One of the five minute presentations really got me thinking: Not everything is quite an issue of black or white. The role of one's family and upbringing, while not at all unrelated to class or color, is one of the most influential forces in anyone's life.
ReplyDeleteOver spring break, I was hanging out with a close high school friend of mine. We are very similar in many ways as far as interests and personality. However, academically we achieve on completely different levels. I was always an honors/GT kid and graduated 9 out of 400. She lives in the same area and attends the same high school, but is struggling to pass enough classes to graduate. I was trying to help her with her Algebra II homework ( a class I took as a sophomore and she is taking as a senior). I know for a fact that this girl is intelligent. You can just tell when you talk to her. It's hard to understand why such a wonderful smart girl would struggle in school. The answer is most likely in her home life. With everything she has to think about and deal with daily, it's no wonder that school doesn't seem so important.
Like me, her parents are also divorced and she has little contact with her father also. However, they have been divorced since she was much younger and she grew up in a very different environment. Her mother is constantly gone and admits to using drugs. This girl often comes home to find the power or the water is shut off because her mom has forgotten to pay a bill. She has to go to Starbucks or the library to use the internet. She has no car and her mom is usually not there to give her a ride. Last year when her mother was injured in a car accident she was often late to school. We had a 2nd period class together which she almost failed because she could not get to school many days.
She wants to be a nurse. She is trying to attend community college and transfer after two years. I know she has the capability to do this but I worry about her very much. She is about to graduate (although that may or may not happen) and move to Seattle to attend community college there so that she can live with some 26 year-old man she met on Facebook. Her mother sees no problem with this at all. It is such a shame to see such a beautiful, smart, and talented young woman is unable to see her full potential and is completely unguided in her life decisions. This girl desperately needs a parent in her life. She reminds me very much of myself in many ways. The main difference between us is how we were raised. The expectations of a good parent can make all the difference.
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ReplyDeleteWhen I was a junior in high school, I was a peer mentor in a program that worked mostly with younger students but also included a few troubled high school students. For one hour every Monday, I worked with a senior at my school named Gustavo. He is Hispanic, comes from a very low income neighborhood, and has a broken family life. At first he was really apprehensive about meeting with me. I’m white, from a middle class family, and I was doing really well in school. Why would the “poor ghetto Mexican” want to talk to the “rich white overachiever?” Comments like that came from his friends and they didn’t help the situation at all.
ReplyDeleteAfter a few months Gustavo and I developed a really strong relationship. He was taking sophomore, junior, and senior English at the same time because he failed the first two and needed to retake them to graduate. I’d taken those classes at the Honors/AP level. He acknowledged the fact that he was struggling in school and finally let me help him. Sometimes we’d spend the entire hour trying to finish up some of his homework assignments or have a cram session for an upcoming test. If I had the time, I would occasionally stay after school to give him some extra tutoring time. From day one, he had known what he wanted to do with his life, but he had no idea how to get there. He wanted to become a real estate agent. It upset me when he told me about this; he said no one would want to buy a house from him because of his grades and appearance. Unfortunately, Gustavo was right. Most people won’t want to buy a house from a Hispanic male with long hair, tattoos, and a “ghetto accent.”
Gustavo eventually opened up to me more about the derogatory comments he’s heard from other students and even some of his teachers. I learned that he only lived with his mother and the absence of his father had a hugely negative impact on his life. Since he came from a low income family, he had no idea how he was going to pay for classes to become a real estate agent. Many people from his neighborhood didn’t graduate from high school, but fortunately he did. Gustavo had a lot more personal issues that needed to be worked through before he could succeed in life.
I no longer keep in contact with Gustavo but from what I’ve seen/heard, he isn’t any closer to finding a career. After he graduated, he didn’t have any positive role models in his life or anyone to help him with schoolwork. He also didn’t have a way to pay for any education in real estate. I know I made a difference in his life while I was there, but there was no lasting impact. I hope the students in FOCUS will have a lasting impact or at least have more positive role models in the future. I know we’ll be making a difference in their lives, and I’m really hoping it’s a big difference. I want to be able to see these students succeed.
My service learning experiences have revolved around parents more than children. The parents of kids who were supposed to be there, parents of kids who dropped them off, and parents of kids who would always work with me, wanted to talk to me in depth, and in general embarrass their kid with their parental concerns.
ReplyDeleteThe results for these students were completely different.
Some students could never come, some students came and did the work, some students came and I could assign them practice and know it would happen.
It is not the parents fault they are too preoccupied keeping food on the table to bring their kids to a library.
While color, and perhaps even more so socioeconomic class, affects how the parents were raised and how they in turn raise their children. Its a scary cycle.
When I was five years old I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I never let it affect my childhood, as I played soccer, ran, and played outside almost every day. I have had my ups and downs, but it was not until recently that I had to start acknowledging that yes, I have a disease that may or may not go away. If you have seen me limping around for the past few weeks this is the reason why. It is certainly stressed induced and of course I am, as we are all, stressed. Anyways, the point of me telling you all this is because something strange happened to me just a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteI was hobbling from my car to my class as I usually do and this boy stopped to ask what was wrong with my leg. Recently, this has not been an unusual occurrence, I get these questions all the time. I told him my story, and that it would get better as the day went on. He asked if he could pray for me and I said yes, I'd really appreciate it, and continued walking. He stopped me and knelt to the ground, placed his hands over my ankle and started praying. While he was praying I felt so serene, I was still in awe that this was even going on. After, he told me to walk around, I was significantly better!
The point of me telling you all this story is that you can't just pass people through life. Everyone has something to offer, although it does not seem that way there is always good in everyone. You can't judge a book by its cover. They may be the strangest, most outrageous person you have ever seen, but they may be the ones that teach you the most important lessons you learn in life.
Sometimes when the class discusses focus or Louisiana public schools, I get the vibes from some people that they think that they are going to be Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds or Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan in the Help. Essentially, I'm talking about that white savior mentality that's perpetuated in the media today. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of people advocating for equality that do great things and happen to be white, i.e. Kati Haycock, but stories about people like her from the media perpetuate this image of the white savior. If you look at movies like Dangerous Minds, or its later twin Freedom Writers, you will see that while the casts are diverse, the heroine is a white woman with all the idealistic eagerness you can bare to watch. These kids are at failing schools and since the faculty and the principal do not seem to care (these characters are usually of color) it is the white heroine's job to mentor these kids.
ReplyDeleteThese white feel good stories go beyond movies about teachers to even movies about civil rights, and it raises an interesting question for me. How are young people of color supposed to believe that they can make a difference if the only images they see in movies of people doing extraordinary things for the greater good off all races involve a nice little white lady? In Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers, the students would not have overcome without the one white teacher in the school. The Help is a portrayal of civil rights through white eyes (Skeeter's) and do not even get me started on the Blind Side.
I thought that the backlash after the Help came out was important. I bring up the Help because it was the most recent movie to bring up the discussion of Hollywood portraying white people as being a crucial factor in black liberation. These movies perpetuate the idea that racism is over, that we solved it! That is not the case. I think it is important for young black and Hispanic children to see movies involving people that look like them, that they can relate to, doing extraordinary things without anybody else’s help. I think that imagery like this would translate into everyday life and make a big impact. To sum up my feelings on this, I have included a quote from Wesley Morris at the Boston Globe about the Help that I think can apply to all similar movies.
“The movie is too pious for farce and too eager to please to comment persuasively on the racial horrors of the Deep South at that time. … The death of the civil rights activist Medgar Evers is reported on television, so white supremacy is in the air, but the movie would have us believe that the racism of the time was the stuff of bridge clubs. Indeed, the meanest male in the movie is the abusive, mostly unseen black husband who, in a poorly made sequence, comes after Minny. … “The Help’’ comes out on the losing end of the movies’ social history. The best film roles three black women will have all year require one of them to clean Ron Howard’s daughter’s house. It’s self-reinforcing movie imagery. White boys have always been Captain America. Black women, in one way or another, have always been someone’s maid. These are strong figures, as that restaurant owner might sincerely say, but couldn’t they be strong doing something else?”
After FOCUS class one day, I was at the UREC weightlifting room and was getting started on the bench press. As I finished my first set, a Facilities Services employee and his son were standing nearby, looking at the station I was using. "Do you want to jump in," I asked. The employee and his son, a student at McKinley Middle, were surprised that I welcomed them to join in.
ReplyDeleteAsserting that it was no problem, the employee told his son to max out. I helped out and after his lift, I spoke with the employee about how his son could workout at UREC. He continued about how his son was on the football team but couldn't stay after school to workout because of the man's work schedule.
This interaction was interesting to me mainly because of their reaction to my welcoming them to join my workout. I found that because I was open to them and speaking to them as equals, ideas and concerns were better communicated. This interaction, however brief, reinforced my knowledge and cultural capital of how to approach underresourced individuals and interact with them effectively.
At the Gas Station
ReplyDeleteIn amongst the sects of doomsday
believers; the cashier, four girls
eating Little Debbie cakes, an
ice machine tumbling out new cold.
On the Gulf of Mexico, men draw oil
from earth, refine and pipe it underground
hundreds of miles to this street corner, Greenville,
South Carolina, 2010. Sandwiched between
a Waffle House and the funeral home, delinquents
smoke their Pall Malls and wish they could be North
and more East coast where everyone understands.
One more year, they chant in their sleep. They will
find a new place, and too soon
reel themselves back to this Exxon.
(I'm kind of apprehensive about putting this up here, so I just want to clarify that this does relate to our path of study in FOCUS in my head, what with thinking about diversity of places. I hope that comes across.)
The White Christie
ReplyDeleteFresh full face,
figure they can’t figure
out the figure didn’t
change? Potato chip
realities strike through
rainbow worlds of tulips
and wildflowers, with
mockingbirds and cars
with the windows down,
and plastic love, which
is really just a plastic man,
but, aren’t they all? (No.)
I don’t look like her, or
really I do, but she doesn’t
want me to so I don’t.
I think that’s real love.
Fake fresh full,
don’t I know it.
Refer to: http://abagond.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/the-clark-doll-experiment/
I don't think that people compete because anyone has an intrinsic desire to win. I think that is a fake, made up mindset that middle-class americans are supposed to have because somehow winning and having an income get lumped into the same category. The real motive behind why people compete is because people want to cooperate because prosocial behavior is fun. And there's no need for anything to exist beyond having fun, because that is a justifiable reason for anything. Reflecting back on the days of my peak physical fitness (hahaha), when I was "playing" basketball in high school, the more I think about it, the less I think I really cared about winning. Playing was worth doing because it built relationships and because it was fun as crap. I still see guys who I played against in high school on campus and I have very fond memories of "competing" against them. No one cares about race when you're trying to win a basketball game. Because trying to win a basketball game is so much fun that it doesn't matter how racist you are. And I think it's really easy to throw FOCUS into the fun basket. Sure, it's very respectable to be charitable and "serve" and "give back" to the "community" and a whole slew of other buzzwordy things. But really, if you aren't doing it because you think it'll be really fun, then I seriously think you might be wasting your time. Just my two cents.
ReplyDeleteOne topic that we’ve covered this semester that interested me most is the accountability movement. The accountability movement set up standards like Adequate Yearly Progress, which mandated that schools meet certain criteria in several areas. There were a couple problems, one of the main one being that states set their own standards to be tested. Obviously, this resulted in no real curriculum standards and the political backlash for “teaching the test”. But also, this meant that students were learning a narrowed curriculum that benefited them on standardized tests but disadvantaged them for the work force and higher education.
ReplyDeleteNo Child Left Behind sealed the deal for the accountability movement by setting ridiculous goals for the nation’s public schools. Their goal was for 100% of the nation’s schoolchildren to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. At the time of its implementation, less than one third of the nation’s students scored proficient in either subject. Furthermore, proficient is defined as “above average”, compared to one’s peers. This is a surprising mathematical irony, since it is mathematically impossible for 100% to be above average. Still, in a time span of less than thirteen years, every school across the nation was expected to account for children with learning disabilities, children without any sort of social capital (resources, parental involvement, natural talent), students whose first language is not English, and all of the other setbacks that cause public schools to still struggle.
This accountability would have been harmless, except that No Child Left Behind specified sanctions for underperforming schools. Mostly, the sanctions punished underperforming schools by taking away resources and redirecting them to the private sector, or forced the schools to restructure or close. Unfortunately, most of the schools targeted were already underperforming because of the area they were located in or because of a lack of funds. No Child Left Behind perpetuated this inequality by rewarding more privileged schools and punished the less advantaged.
In the summer of my junior year of high school, I did a service project in the small town of Fries, Virginia. The story of Fries (pronounced “freeze” not “fries”) is a sad, sweet one. The tiny, beautiful town lies on a hillside. From the top of the hill, you can look down and see all the quaint, beautiful houses, the tall, green trees, and the powerful waterfall at the bottom that flows into a picturesque stream. The town’s main source of income used to be the water plant, but the water plant was shut down many years ago. Most of the residents are very elderly because the younger generation moved away because there were no jobs around Fries. I can see why the older generation didn’t want to move away from their pleasant town that looks like it belongs on a post card. However, most of them have no help and are unable to perform daily chores such as cutting the grass or cleaning the house. Along with around twelve of my classmates and three chaperones, I got the honor of having the opportunity to help these people.
ReplyDeleteSome days we had tiring jobs, such as painting houses or cutting grass. While helping the people with these chores was rewarding, it was the less stressful, more personal jobs that I will remember forever. One day, an elderly lady needed help cleaning up around her house. I was lucky enough to get assigned this job. The cleaning did not take very long, but by the grateful look in her eyes, you would think that we had just bought her a new house. She was so thankful, and me and a couple other people got the opportunity to talk with her. She told us touching stories about how her son had moved away, and how a phone call from him brightens her day. This woman was so grateful just to have us over as company. For me, that will be an experience I remember for the rest of my life. It just showed me how rewarding of an experience talking to someone can be. This summer, I hope to get to know as many of the students as possible because even seemingly meaningless experiences can become rewarding if given the chance.
One time I was driving across the river in New Orleans with my mom, and we got out our usual dollar to pay the toll. When my mom handed the dollar to the woman, she said that the person in front of us already paid for us. My mom and I were a little shocked because after driving across that bridge countless times, that had never happened. My mom then said that we would like to pay for the person behind us as well. That day I decided I wanted to do that all the time. It was just a dollar, so I am sure some people might think no big deal. But it was such an awesome feeling to know that good deeds like that are still happening. It really brightens your day. I always feel happy when I pay for someone’s toll because I hope it makes him or her have a better day. It’s random acts of kindness like that that can really make big differences in the world. You never know what another person is going through in their life, so something so small as a dollar can actually a big deal. I always try to keep this in mind!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dby03Oczjps&feature=related
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOLwDBcgSjs&feature=related
A major topic we covered in class this semester is the issue of accountability. At the top, I inserted two links to YouTube videos which are clips of “The Simpsons” cartoons. Both of the clips are making fun of standardized testing in America. The first clip displays the principal giving a speech about standardized tests. The clip calls the program “No Child Left Alone” referring to NCLB. Another man interrupts and claims the truth is that the test scores determine how much money the school receives, therefore they will be drilling for it every day.
It is odd to me how blatantly obvious it is to America how ineffective this testing is, yet Americans believe this is funny. It is America’s children who are missing out on a beneficial educational experience because of educators’ efforts to obtain funds for their schools. I chose this topic because most of us have learned how to take standardized tests and perform well on them. I am hoping that each of us remembers during FOCUS, and while we are planning our curriculums, that the FOCUS students need REAL experiences. Learning is not about how well one can perform on a multiple choice test. During my seminar, I will encourage the students to think of more than one answer, to inquire about an activity, to be creative, and to think of new ways to learn and do. I hope the students are exposed to new interests which they may not have had before.
The second clip is making fun of standardized career tests. They use a ridiculous array of questions to come up with careers for each student. This reminded me of the career test on the ACT. After you take the ACT your answers are matched to a field that would “fit you.” I remember taking the ACT and being very disappointed in the career path it chose for me. I felt as if it were the path I had to take. Thank goodness it’s not!
Well I'll begin this post by apologizing for my complete and utter lack of understanding when it comes to technology. I honestly have no idea how to share a picture on here. That being said:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/lindsey.lafleur.1
So, if you've clicked the link you'll see that my profile picture is food (which, believe me, will be interesting to explain to my friends). But nearly all the food on that plate was grown at the BRYC garden! (The exception being the Salisbury steak. That I bought frozen. Don't judge me.)
The potatoes in the back were grown there - we even picked them the day I cooked them! The same goes for the tot soy (I think that's what it's called) in the back - it cooks down like spinach and it's actually a LOT better than it looks. The salad in the front was made using lettuce from the BRYC garden. There's also arugula in the salad which, in case you've never tried it, don't.
So I realize I'm slightly bragging on my supper and I'm sorry. I just think it's so cool that throughout the year we were planting these things (some of them started out as seeds) and by the end of the semester we each took home enough to make a whole meal (my share made enough for me and my roommates).
I'm reminded so often how easy it is to become completely isolated in one's own culture. We see the entire world through the lens of our personal set of experiences; and do this with such confidence that we know our analysis of the world is correct. As far as I'm concerned each culture occupies its own "planet", except for the fact that these planets routinely collide into one another, I couldn’t think of a better analogy.
ReplyDelete