Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Why can't we all get along?

In class on Monday, we talked about the Human Relations approach to education, which is attempting to generate a positive atmosphere with the students by decreasing stereotypes and advocating a sense of togetherness in a nation of diverse individuals. Personally, my reaction to the article was that educators are trying to make all students feel more comfortable within the classroom. Even though one of their main goals are "to improve relationships between majority and minority students by eliminating prejudice and discrimination," their practice of this approach is not effective. Teachers are supposed to ask themselves "what can I do" or "what should I do" prior to incidents that upset the peace within the schools; not after. Sleeter and Grant state that "student diversity became an object of concern only when it threatened harmony within the school." Principals and teachers shouldn't wait until problems arise with students. Bullying is a big problem in schools and it makes sense that students who are getting bullied or teased don't do well in schools. Who is going to pay attention in class if you don't feel comfortable being there? Effective strategies should be put into action before there are problems involving students. I agree with Sleeter and Grant that "ignorance supports prejudice; accurate information can help reduce prejudice." People are always saying "knowledge is power" and if students grow up learning accurate information regarding race, culture, etc., it will hopefully help reduce prejudice and discrimination against people. Once again, this is another reason why schools need a multicultural based education system.

After looking at the answers for the Equity and Diversity Awareness Quiz, I am embarrassed to report that I only got one question right out of fifteen. The only on I got correct was #13, the annual earnings of the average full-time US worker is roughly equal to the daily earnings of the average CEO in the US. I noticed that my answers were mostly naive. For example, I was nowhere near the correct answers for #s 2, and 12. I can't believe that African American women are four times as likely to die during child birth due to lack of access to prenatal care, compare to white women. This is absurd to me. The US needs to get their priorities straight because according to this quiz, the military budget for the US is seven times higher than China's and roughly 2,600,000 US citizens are millionaires. Spread the wealth. Additionally, 84.5% of teachers never or rarely respond to homophobic remarks made by other students. This is ridiculous because how do you expect to change these behaviors if you don't acknowledge them. This ties back into the Human Relations approach because actions have to be taken in order to prevent bullying and cruel remarks from occurring. Knowledge is power. Here is the quiz, see how well you do.

http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/quiz/quizNEW.pdf

6 comments:

  1. I totally agree with that teachers need to make an effort to talk about issues regarding race and eliminating prejudice thoughts. I like the example you brought up about bullying. Ever since we are little our teachers and parents talk about the importance of being nice to each other (and not to bully or tease anyone). But, rarely, do teachers talk about issues of race at a young age. I think this is because many like to think that racism is not longer an issue, however that is far from being true. I believe that teachers need to realize that racism and prejudices still do exist in our youth. When we talk about it openly (and early on!) we begin to lessen the problem, all in hopes that it someday will not be an issue.

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  2. I think it is extremely important for teachers to bring up the race issue. I think that they are aware that it still exists today, but I don't think they know how to go about discussing it because it is such a sensitve topic. Ignoring it is not going to make the issue go away. If anything it will just make it worse.
    I did just as poorly on the quiz. I did not reveal my results in my blog, but I only got two right. I was really disgusted with number 12. I guessed that it would be c, but it was still hoping that I was wrong and the actual answer was lower. I agree with the fact that this relates to the Human Relations Approach, but how can it effectively be implemented to students if teachers aren't doing their part?

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  3. I completely agree with your thought on spreading the wealth. In America alone, as well as rich Americans compared to the rest of the world those with the money is such a small amount of people. It really is crazy to think about.

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  4. Where can I locate the answer key so that I can further contribute to this thought-provoking discussion?

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  5. Do you know how hard it is to post a comment on this blog? I had to undergo multiple security checks via AIM to do it. That's what great friends do for their buddies.

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  6. I agree that teachers need to be more aware of prejudice and bullying in the classroom. What the teacher's personal views may be should not effect how he or she reacts to these issues. All students need to feel safe to learn.

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