"Safe Spaces"

Extended Comments

For my extended comments blog piece I found Jens blog the most engaging for this reading. Jens blogs are always interesting to read and are filled with pictures! Her Blog this week was really interesting! The reading “Safe Spaces” made me a little sad while I was reading it. It’s crazy to believe that students are being bullied all because of their LGBT background. It’s even crazier to think this is happening and schools.  In Jen’s blog she brought up about the campaigned called “It gets better.” This campaign started in 2010 and started with a video of a gay couple. Jen posted the video on her page and allowed us all to see it! The video basically told viewers that it does get better being gay or lesbian. One of the guy’s names in the video is Terry. Terry told us his experience in high school. He explains it to be a really tough time in his life and he couldn’t wait to get out. He was bullied so much because he was “obviously gay,” like how he said. His parents went into talk to administration one day because the bullying was just getting worse and worse. At the Catholic school Terry attended, administration responded to his parents and said, “if you look that way, talk that way, and dress that way there is nothing we can do.”

After hearing how administration treated a bullied kid, it makes me think about how every school treats their students. Do they all ignore when a student is being bullied? We can only hope that young kids get through their high school experience happy and there is something done soon about bullying. Kids who are gay or lesbian should all realize, just like Terry and his spouse did, that is does get better!

P.S. Good post Jen!!!

"Aria"

Argument

“This author Rodriguez argues that students like himself gained a lot by having to speak a public language.” In his article titled Aria, Rodriguez reminisces to his elementary school years. He came from a family who spoke a language named “los gringos.” Rodriguez did not want to learn a public language. He felt that he should be greeted in his own language when he entered the classroom, instead of the public language. He sat in class and didn’t say a word for a year and a half. His older siblings did the same. By this time the nuns came to his house to talk to his parents about why Richard Rodriguez seemed so shy in class. The nuns talked his parents into speaking English at home instead of their own language. Since this day their whole lives changed.

Speaking a new language in a house has to be a lot of work. Imagine having to change your language in your home right now? For Richard Rodriguez his family changed their ways of living. When he came home from school his house was wither filled with neighborhood kids or it was emptied because of his parents beginning to have a social life outside of work.  They started communicating in English with the Americans. But, at dinnertime it was silent. They didn’t communicate to each other in English. They just ate and sat in silence. Why? Rodriguez says “as we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer words with our parents.” His father grew more and more silent at home, but his mother argued it was due to his upbringing and the troubles in his childhood, not because of his new language.

Today growing up kids who are bilingual get special treatment. The more languages you can speak the better is how I look at it. I wish I could speak another language. Especially when I am in the nail salon and the workers are going back and forth speaking a different language that their customers don’t understand.

-This picture shows how you can say "welcome" in many different languages.

"Other People's Children"

(Connection) 

“They think they know it all, what’s best for everybody, for everybody’s children. They wont listen; white folks are going to do what they want to do anyway.” That quote made me think… wow, is this really what colored people think of us? After reading the article by Lisa Delpit, this article made me reflect back to my highschool history classes. My teachers use to refer back to times in history when blacks were mistreated. I really wasn’t fond of this article because I didn’t like the comments the blacks were making about white people. For example, in the first paragraph when the black special education teacher talked about what is an appropriate education for black children, he says “I’m tired of arguing with those white people, because they won’t listen.” They article helped me reflect back to when I was a student hearing these topics. In middle school and high school when these topics came up in my history class, I felt bad about the black kids because this is about their history. It must have felt discomforting for them to discuss these topics. My teachers never felt hesistate with covering this topic in class but I always felt uncomfortable with the thought that there were colored students in my class. When the discussion would take place, everyone voiced their opinion and shared how they felt against the mistreat of colored men. Especially since you never really hear about negative things being discussed about white peoples history during history class.

White Privilege Article

(Quotes) 

“Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow “them” to be more like “us.”” This quote came from Peggy McIntosh’s article titled “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” That quote was the first quote that stood out to me when I started reading. Growing up in a public school system, learning the history of our country, it stands out to me that us whites are who started the land of the free and us whites who made history, history. When I read this I thought of our SCWAAMP activity in class. “W” which stands for “whiteness”

we wrote under it “face of leaders.” If you look back on our presidents, they are all white. Most of our leaders of the government are white. You nearly ever see a black leader in our government. This is why whites are looked at to having more privileges. Are we trained to think we are average and live the ideal lifestyle?  As I read more into this article I found it really interesting how the author mentioned many of the white privileges we do have. I never thought I had so many more privileges than a colored individual. When I read the comment “ I can chose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color that more or less matches my skin.” Being a young girl who buys make up, this never crossed my mind. I can always find a color that matches my skin without any problems. But a young color girl cannot do the same? “Many, perhaps most, of our white students in the United States think that racism doesn’t affect them because they are not people of color; they do not see “whiteness” as a racial identity.” This quote I can connect to the previous quote I mentioned because many white young students don’t realize how bad racism is. It’s as bad a finding a tint of color in make up to getting followed in a store.

At the end of this article I thought to myself…. It’s not fair that I am white and have these privileges. How do we make racism go away? We have to realize that we live in a different society now and racism should not be this bad anymore. We should accept people for who they are not for the color of their skin. So the question that stays in my head is... Will it ever go away or will we continue living our lives judging people on their color?

-When I seen this picture I thought to myself, kids at a young age don't realize their pairs are different colors. I work in a daycare where half of the kids are of color. The children still play together and get along and color isn't an issue with them. But are their parents the same way? How are they being brought up? Do the white parents care if their child is playing with a black child? These are questions that I wonder... It all comes back to what the child is being raised to believe. 

INTRODUCTION

Hello my fellow FNED classmates! I am trying to get the hang of this whole blog thing but its just taking time!! I am 18 years old and I live in North Providence. I am a Freshman at RIC (obviously).  My major right now is Early Child Hood. My biggest goal is to, hopefully, open up my own daycare!! I love babies and kids! Which is why I currently work at a daycare! I also work at Costantinos Restaurant. My family is a huge part of my life! I come from an Italian Lebanese background. I am the youngest of four. I have two older brothers and a sister. Besides my family, I have four close bestfriends! I am a shopaholic, I must say!!! I love shopping and buying new things! I think thats enough about myself! I can't wait to get to know all of you!