Hatred in men
I remember watching the movie Hotel Rwanda and was wondering how could a screen writer come up with such terrible imagery, I remember my heart was breaking for all of those people that were being slaughtered and both my husband and I were at home discussing what we just saw not knowing that this movie was based on actual events that occurred. The reason these events that took place in Africa was not known by everyone is simply because these events did not get much press here in the America, so a lot of people were not aware of the terrible deeds that were occurring over there, also the press themselves were too scared to go and cover these events, because these wars were not military style wars there were no rules at all this type of war was called guerrilla warfare it’s a anything goes type of war, you could not make out the combatants because some were young children not yet reached puberty carrying these killings. This war was triggered by the death of the president of Rwanda who was from the Hutu tribe, which the Tutsi blamed the rocket that shot the plane of the president was done by members of the Hutu tribe to provoke the civil war. During these one hundred days of war in 1994, the death toll was approximated to be between five hundred thousand to one million dead, this is about twenty percent of the total population. No one was spared on either side, women were raped and passed around once they were done with the woman they were then killed, children were killed because they did not want them grow up, even little babies were ripped from their mothers arms and murdered without any hesitation in cold blood, bodies were piled everywhere in the streets the ravines, members of the Hutu tribe place the dead bodies of the slain Tutsi into the ravine to float them back to Nigeria, because they were often compared to the Nigerian due to their physical structure, the Tutsi people were tall and slender and muscular, while the Hutu people were the opposite they resented the Tutsi for something they were not able to control and that’s your physical characteristics. This war in Rwanda reminded me of the civil war in America between the North and the South, where brothers were pinned against brothers because of their different point of views.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
American School System: The Beginning
American School System: The Beginning
The puritans were group of Protestants that escaped England and came to the new world to practice their religion without the fear of persecution from the throne. The puritans were not the only group that arrived to the new world; there were also the Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish, and German. The puritans were the dominant group out of all the other ethnic groups. The Europeans brought their formal education system, culture and philosophy.
The puritans purpose for establishing their educational system was to strive to save the souls of the villagers, their beliefs is that human beings are born morally corrupted because their sense of right and wrong therefore they need to be thought how to live righteously and the only way they can ever achieve this feat was to be thought the bible. They had to achieve their own school system which was mainly the same system that they brought from Europe, which was call, the Dane schools.
Dane schools were schools that was established by women and were commonly ran from the house of the person or teacher that was in charge of that particular house. The Dane Schools were not free, those that could afford to send their children to school, they were charged a modest fee, the type of education these students receive were the basics reading, writing and mathematics, attendance was not too important because on top of going to school the children still had to do their daily chores, farming, herding of animals basically anything to help their family out, so depending on the season that’s how attendance was determined, girls were educated as well but not to the extent as the boys were, girls were mainly thought how to do certain chores such as sewing, cooking and how to be a good hostess, once a young men has finished with their basic education, if necessary they were enrolled in college.
Colleges were mainly to teach the bible, which these students will be thought Latin and religion, being that religion was the central purpose of the schools the training was extremely rigorous and only the sons of the wealthy members of the society could afford to attend a secondary school. The first every secondary school was Harvard College which was established in 1636, in Boston Massachusetts the second college was established in 1693 which was called the College of William and Mary which was founded in Williamsburg, Virginia. These post-secondary schools were established for one reason and one reason alone and that reason is to save the souls of the puritans.
The puritans were group of Protestants that escaped England and came to the new world to practice their religion without the fear of persecution from the throne. The puritans were not the only group that arrived to the new world; there were also the Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish, and German. The puritans were the dominant group out of all the other ethnic groups. The Europeans brought their formal education system, culture and philosophy.
The puritans purpose for establishing their educational system was to strive to save the souls of the villagers, their beliefs is that human beings are born morally corrupted because their sense of right and wrong therefore they need to be thought how to live righteously and the only way they can ever achieve this feat was to be thought the bible. They had to achieve their own school system which was mainly the same system that they brought from Europe, which was call, the Dane schools.
Dane schools were schools that was established by women and were commonly ran from the house of the person or teacher that was in charge of that particular house. The Dane Schools were not free, those that could afford to send their children to school, they were charged a modest fee, the type of education these students receive were the basics reading, writing and mathematics, attendance was not too important because on top of going to school the children still had to do their daily chores, farming, herding of animals basically anything to help their family out, so depending on the season that’s how attendance was determined, girls were educated as well but not to the extent as the boys were, girls were mainly thought how to do certain chores such as sewing, cooking and how to be a good hostess, once a young men has finished with their basic education, if necessary they were enrolled in college.
Colleges were mainly to teach the bible, which these students will be thought Latin and religion, being that religion was the central purpose of the schools the training was extremely rigorous and only the sons of the wealthy members of the society could afford to attend a secondary school. The first every secondary school was Harvard College which was established in 1636, in Boston Massachusetts the second college was established in 1693 which was called the College of William and Mary which was founded in Williamsburg, Virginia. These post-secondary schools were established for one reason and one reason alone and that reason is to save the souls of the puritans.
Sexual Orientation
Homosexuality is when a person chooses to enter into a sexual or romantic relationship with a person of the same sex. We’ve learned that many tribes and even the Spartans of old have used behaviors that would be considered at our time as being homosexuality. The Spartans would take a young boy from his family’s home to train to become a soldier, usually the young men’s first lovers. Therefore homosexuality was mainstream in the ancient times, because women were not allowed to perform on stage all roles in stage plays were done by men this includes love scenes which were often between two men therefore this made homosexuality acceptable, no one really had a full fledge homosexual relationships it was more as a rite of passage than a relationship this was not an acceptable lifestyle, therefore it was kept in the preverbal closet. Even religious groups such as the crusaders were involved in this practice to say the least. Scientists and psychologists are saying homosexuality is in a person’s genes meaning they were born gay, I find that hard to believe even with the scientific findings it is still a matter of choice to me, I only say this because in today’s society we allow the homosexual lifestyle is so acceptable.
The most disturbing part to this lifestyle right now is that kids elementary school age children are experimenting with this as a fad, most school age kids are forming clicks known as rainbow clicks and these clicks are mainly made up of homosexual teens and or bi-sexual, this is because homosexuality is plastered all over mainstream entertainment, movies, music videos, music lyrics such as “I kissed a girl and I liked it” which makes it cool to be a homosexual. This will pose pressure on a child who is now learning about sexuality and if the only images that see as being cool are girls kissing girls and boys kissing boys, it becomes more confusing to them because they don’t really know about the right or wrong way only what is acceptable.
I don’t agree at all with the theory that people are born gay, there is the theory that some people are born bad and that theory was quickly dismissed because there were people that was born with the same extra chromosome and did not become violent, people make choices and it’s about time we in society understand and stop making excuses and guide our children from birth on how to conduct themselves and we should also listen to our children and answer their questions honestly and not sugarcoat the answers that they seek, it’s best we teach them instead of letting other confused children like themselves to talk to them.
Homosexuality is when a person chooses to enter into a sexual or romantic relationship with a person of the same sex. We’ve learned that many tribes and even the Spartans of old have used behaviors that would be considered at our time as being homosexuality. The Spartans would take a young boy from his family’s home to train to become a soldier, usually the young men’s first lovers. Therefore homosexuality was mainstream in the ancient times, because women were not allowed to perform on stage all roles in stage plays were done by men this includes love scenes which were often between two men therefore this made homosexuality acceptable, no one really had a full fledge homosexual relationships it was more as a rite of passage than a relationship this was not an acceptable lifestyle, therefore it was kept in the preverbal closet. Even religious groups such as the crusaders were involved in this practice to say the least. Scientists and psychologists are saying homosexuality is in a person’s genes meaning they were born gay, I find that hard to believe even with the scientific findings it is still a matter of choice to me, I only say this because in today’s society we allow the homosexual lifestyle is so acceptable.
The most disturbing part to this lifestyle right now is that kids elementary school age children are experimenting with this as a fad, most school age kids are forming clicks known as rainbow clicks and these clicks are mainly made up of homosexual teens and or bi-sexual, this is because homosexuality is plastered all over mainstream entertainment, movies, music videos, music lyrics such as “I kissed a girl and I liked it” which makes it cool to be a homosexual. This will pose pressure on a child who is now learning about sexuality and if the only images that see as being cool are girls kissing girls and boys kissing boys, it becomes more confusing to them because they don’t really know about the right or wrong way only what is acceptable.
I don’t agree at all with the theory that people are born gay, there is the theory that some people are born bad and that theory was quickly dismissed because there were people that was born with the same extra chromosome and did not become violent, people make choices and it’s about time we in society understand and stop making excuses and guide our children from birth on how to conduct themselves and we should also listen to our children and answer their questions honestly and not sugarcoat the answers that they seek, it’s best we teach them instead of letting other confused children like themselves to talk to them.
Friday, December 11, 2009
The acceptance of public high school
In today’s society, there are many social problems that plague our schools today. Students face many challenges like depression and suicide, homelessness, violence and abuse in the home, broken family structure, lack of structure and discipline, no boundaries set by parents, lack of parental supervision, and in some homes just overall lack of parenting. Our kids live in a world that is constantly changing where the adult community transmits mixed messages. The answer to “How do I deal with the child that appears in my classroom?” is twofold: one is inward the other outward. I must focus on my vocation of teaching and know myself while at the same time be open to pursue professional education and receive suggestions from peers and supervisors.
More than any other job, teaching requires that you have your self-esteem in check, that you are comfortable with your flaws and shortcomings, that you can stand being hated and laughed at, that you can bounce back, and that you are not friends with your students. From this will flow other good habits that you create for yourself in your classroom environment. From the last chapter, we learned that you must understand your preferred style of learning and what Multiple Intelligence(s) are strongest for you. This impacts how you teach and help someone who has problems. From this confidence flow many decisions you make in your day. The first starts the day you introduce yourself to your students. You must create boundaries in your classroom with clear rules and consequences. Show that you believe in fair play, that you base your teaching on a value system and explain that value system.You must also be a role model for them as this may be the only good one they may encounter. Repeat the importance of character building and state that you do not tolerate gossip or others to be put down or criticized. Speak in a low voice even if your classroom is loud and find a way that works for you to quite down a noisy group of students. I will set goals and high expectations for my students and base my curriculum on Christian values. The peace and confidence that you model will be your greatest ally. Arrive early so that you see which students are dropped off very early and which leave late. This might give you clues. Make your classroom a peaceful, beautiful safe haven for all. This implies that you should have nice décor, keep your area clean. It culminates in inspiring the students to take ownership of their area. Finally, if in your classroom violence erupts, you notice students that might be depressed or act unruly immediately ask for help from your school counselor and dean of students. There is nothing wrong with inviting the dean to sit in one of your more rowdy classes. The confidence and classroom control that you demonstrate will avert many potential problems. I drew from Dr. Wong’s books called “The first days of School” and “how to be an effective teacher” to arrive at some of my opinions.
In today’s world, change is the only constant. You should read study and learn. There is a great deal of free literature to help teachers become Master Teachers. Early on, when I was learning to teach at a High School, I always read all the flyers and books the head of school kept in her office. There were so many but could be read quickly during lunch. They gave me ideas on how to be effective in the classroom. The first basic tip I implemented was to get to know my students background as much as possible. The second was to make sure I made myself available to students who needed help and to help them showing concern, compassion and then reaching out in days that followed. While it is hard and draining at times, once you develop the reputation of being fair, firm, and compassionate and a good listener, you can be effective in your vocation. Helping students is about being interested in “their” lives and not needing any reward in return for your dedication. There is no way you can learn to deal with all of the social problems that exist because “you can never really understand” their situation. You aren’t in their lives so don’t pretend that you are. The new school where I currently teach strongly believes in professional education. We have five professional education days set aside each year to help us learn more about social and academic needs of our students. Additionally, in the summer, they invite us to be mentors for 10 days in the Network for community outreach programs. These experiences help us to grow and learn more about our students.
One example of what I would do is what I did when I taught from August to December at a Catholic High School. I taught New Testament for a semester while the permanent teacher went on maternity leave. Every day, I arrived before 7am and left around 4:30 Each day, I allowed one of the students to sit quietly in my classroom while I graded and until they were officially allowed to enter the classrooms. By mid semester, she mustered her courage to see me after school to confide in me about a personal situation. After helping her by merely listening and helping her solve her problem, others became permanent fixtures in my class after school, at lunch and right before homeroom. I even had the opportunity to help a girl who was severely depressed. While I did not “solve” her problem, I was the first step to her recognizing she needed help. I developed close relationships with the guidance counselors and by year end; they recommended I pursue studies and counseling.
In conclusion, we are called to be good role models. One way to accomplish this is by being people of courage and integrity, confident in our beliefs and who we are and always be open to learn and grow. The school where I teach says “We must educate towards a social awareness that impels others to act.” This means I must be aware of the needs of others and work towards understanding how to best teach the child that appears in our classroom.
In today’s society, there are many social problems that plague our schools today. Students face many challenges like depression and suicide, homelessness, violence and abuse in the home, broken family structure, lack of structure and discipline, no boundaries set by parents, lack of parental supervision, and in some homes just overall lack of parenting. Our kids live in a world that is constantly changing where the adult community transmits mixed messages. The answer to “How do I deal with the child that appears in my classroom?” is twofold: one is inward the other outward. I must focus on my vocation of teaching and know myself while at the same time be open to pursue professional education and receive suggestions from peers and supervisors.
More than any other job, teaching requires that you have your self-esteem in check, that you are comfortable with your flaws and shortcomings, that you can stand being hated and laughed at, that you can bounce back, and that you are not friends with your students. From this will flow other good habits that you create for yourself in your classroom environment. From the last chapter, we learned that you must understand your preferred style of learning and what Multiple Intelligence(s) are strongest for you. This impacts how you teach and help someone who has problems. From this confidence flow many decisions you make in your day. The first starts the day you introduce yourself to your students. You must create boundaries in your classroom with clear rules and consequences. Show that you believe in fair play, that you base your teaching on a value system and explain that value system.You must also be a role model for them as this may be the only good one they may encounter. Repeat the importance of character building and state that you do not tolerate gossip or others to be put down or criticized. Speak in a low voice even if your classroom is loud and find a way that works for you to quite down a noisy group of students. I will set goals and high expectations for my students and base my curriculum on Christian values. The peace and confidence that you model will be your greatest ally. Arrive early so that you see which students are dropped off very early and which leave late. This might give you clues. Make your classroom a peaceful, beautiful safe haven for all. This implies that you should have nice décor, keep your area clean. It culminates in inspiring the students to take ownership of their area. Finally, if in your classroom violence erupts, you notice students that might be depressed or act unruly immediately ask for help from your school counselor and dean of students. There is nothing wrong with inviting the dean to sit in one of your more rowdy classes. The confidence and classroom control that you demonstrate will avert many potential problems. I drew from Dr. Wong’s books called “The first days of School” and “how to be an effective teacher” to arrive at some of my opinions.
In today’s world, change is the only constant. You should read study and learn. There is a great deal of free literature to help teachers become Master Teachers. Early on, when I was learning to teach at a High School, I always read all the flyers and books the head of school kept in her office. There were so many but could be read quickly during lunch. They gave me ideas on how to be effective in the classroom. The first basic tip I implemented was to get to know my students background as much as possible. The second was to make sure I made myself available to students who needed help and to help them showing concern, compassion and then reaching out in days that followed. While it is hard and draining at times, once you develop the reputation of being fair, firm, and compassionate and a good listener, you can be effective in your vocation. Helping students is about being interested in “their” lives and not needing any reward in return for your dedication. There is no way you can learn to deal with all of the social problems that exist because “you can never really understand” their situation. You aren’t in their lives so don’t pretend that you are. The new school where I currently teach strongly believes in professional education. We have five professional education days set aside each year to help us learn more about social and academic needs of our students. Additionally, in the summer, they invite us to be mentors for 10 days in the Network for community outreach programs. These experiences help us to grow and learn more about our students.
One example of what I would do is what I did when I taught from August to December at a Catholic High School. I taught New Testament for a semester while the permanent teacher went on maternity leave. Every day, I arrived before 7am and left around 4:30 Each day, I allowed one of the students to sit quietly in my classroom while I graded and until they were officially allowed to enter the classrooms. By mid semester, she mustered her courage to see me after school to confide in me about a personal situation. After helping her by merely listening and helping her solve her problem, others became permanent fixtures in my class after school, at lunch and right before homeroom. I even had the opportunity to help a girl who was severely depressed. While I did not “solve” her problem, I was the first step to her recognizing she needed help. I developed close relationships with the guidance counselors and by year end; they recommended I pursue studies and counseling.
In conclusion, we are called to be good role models. One way to accomplish this is by being people of courage and integrity, confident in our beliefs and who we are and always be open to learn and grow. The school where I teach says “We must educate towards a social awareness that impels others to act.” This means I must be aware of the needs of others and work towards understanding how to best teach the child that appears in our classroom.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Teaching through inclusion
Teaching through inclusion
Teaching through inclusion means involving the child into their education, meaning taking the child’s opinion serious like they matter, it means a whole lot to a child to feel that their voices are being heard and taking seriously will elevate a child self worth. One way we can achieve togetherness and understanding in a classroom is to encourage kids to learn each other’s names and interact with kids that are different from themselves from different races, ethnic backgrounds, and social and economic background this exercise will help these children to learn to accept each other as friends and remove any type of stereotypes they might have had about a certain ethnic group those stereotypes would be removed through the interaction of the children.
I know we’ve been there on the first day of school when everyone stood up and tells the classroom a little bit about themselves to the classroom, as a teacher we must not stop getting to know the child after the first day of school, as an educator we wear many different hats one such hat is we have to be a counselor better yet a friend to your students, when students feel comfortable talking to you as a teacher that child will be more open and speaking out whenever they need someone to listen to them at the end of the day all anyone of us really want is to be heard and taking seriously.
The best way to continue this way of teaching is to allow a child to volunteer whenever a question is asked, when a child is forced to take part in a discussion prior to them being ready to participate in that discussion, this act of forcing a child to take part of a discussion can be seen as singling the child out or picking on them if that child perceive that to being the case they would seclude themselves and would shy away or get angry if they are called upon at anytime. Let’s help our children by taking them seriously and make them feel welcome.
Teaching through inclusion means involving the child into their education, meaning taking the child’s opinion serious like they matter, it means a whole lot to a child to feel that their voices are being heard and taking seriously will elevate a child self worth. One way we can achieve togetherness and understanding in a classroom is to encourage kids to learn each other’s names and interact with kids that are different from themselves from different races, ethnic backgrounds, and social and economic background this exercise will help these children to learn to accept each other as friends and remove any type of stereotypes they might have had about a certain ethnic group those stereotypes would be removed through the interaction of the children.
I know we’ve been there on the first day of school when everyone stood up and tells the classroom a little bit about themselves to the classroom, as a teacher we must not stop getting to know the child after the first day of school, as an educator we wear many different hats one such hat is we have to be a counselor better yet a friend to your students, when students feel comfortable talking to you as a teacher that child will be more open and speaking out whenever they need someone to listen to them at the end of the day all anyone of us really want is to be heard and taking seriously.
The best way to continue this way of teaching is to allow a child to volunteer whenever a question is asked, when a child is forced to take part in a discussion prior to them being ready to participate in that discussion, this act of forcing a child to take part of a discussion can be seen as singling the child out or picking on them if that child perceive that to being the case they would seclude themselves and would shy away or get angry if they are called upon at anytime. Let’s help our children by taking them seriously and make them feel welcome.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
My opinion on Race and Racism
A person’s race is determined by an individual’s skin, color, and country of origin. Normally it is very easy to determine a person’s race just by their outward appearance, a person of African descent can be dark skinned. There are many different shades of black , from the darkest lightest almost white looking, eye color can also vary from hazel, dark, green, and blue. There are many different characteristics to determine a person’s race. People are generally proud of their race no matter what because your race makes you who you are. It is also necessary for us to comingle together in order to better understand each other’s cultures when there are so many diverse cultures and subcultures in one area the chances of having turmoil becomes great. The worst is racism, because people are making judgment calls on an individual or a group simply by the color of their skin, or their country of origin. I was not aware of racism until I moved to the United Stated even during the time when I used to traveled to Canada maybe I was too young to understand what racism was, but I really didn’t know that is was that serious.
I grew up in a country that was predominately black even though I was aware of the different colors because of my mother’s side of the family where their skin were yellow and also due to the fact I started traveling at a young age; therefore I aware of the differences skin types.
When I was living in Haiti, the only difference was a person’s class in the society because Haiti is a class society where the highest class does not mingle together. The U.S. turned this around and make this about race and the inferior race was the African Americans who were denied any form of formal education because they were thought of a s less than Human and they were no more valuable than livestock, their lives were no more important , and they were being killed and persecuted for being black. It is a shame to see racism is a major concern in today’s society. From what I understood, in some part of this country black people are still not permitted. Till this day I still don’t get what is the big deal about our skin color because we all are god creatures and we do look alike.
A person’s race is determined by an individual’s skin, color, and country of origin. Normally it is very easy to determine a person’s race just by their outward appearance, a person of African descent can be dark skinned. There are many different shades of black , from the darkest lightest almost white looking, eye color can also vary from hazel, dark, green, and blue. There are many different characteristics to determine a person’s race. People are generally proud of their race no matter what because your race makes you who you are. It is also necessary for us to comingle together in order to better understand each other’s cultures when there are so many diverse cultures and subcultures in one area the chances of having turmoil becomes great. The worst is racism, because people are making judgment calls on an individual or a group simply by the color of their skin, or their country of origin. I was not aware of racism until I moved to the United Stated even during the time when I used to traveled to Canada maybe I was too young to understand what racism was, but I really didn’t know that is was that serious.
I grew up in a country that was predominately black even though I was aware of the different colors because of my mother’s side of the family where their skin were yellow and also due to the fact I started traveling at a young age; therefore I aware of the differences skin types.
When I was living in Haiti, the only difference was a person’s class in the society because Haiti is a class society where the highest class does not mingle together. The U.S. turned this around and make this about race and the inferior race was the African Americans who were denied any form of formal education because they were thought of a s less than Human and they were no more valuable than livestock, their lives were no more important , and they were being killed and persecuted for being black. It is a shame to see racism is a major concern in today’s society. From what I understood, in some part of this country black people are still not permitted. Till this day I still don’t get what is the big deal about our skin color because we all are god creatures and we do look alike.
Double Standards
Double standards
I could not help my contempt for the way America treats Haitian refugees, these people are coming to the U.S to escape the same type of hardships that the Cubans are facing under Castro’s regime. Growing up in the U.S. especially in Miami I’ve noticed the bias against the Haitians, it’s clear to me that Haitians are like the unwanted people in Miami. I say this not only how they are treated by other people but also by the immigration system especially the wet foot dry foot rule, we have read or seen how majority if not all Cubans that enter the U.S. shores are given asylum and rarely do they get detained by the INS, more often than not they are released to their relatives and does not have to worry about anymore interference from the INS ever. The part this I don’t understand and still struggling with is if Cuba is under an embargo by the U.S, how come then they are given free entrance to the America? This question is one that I can never receive an answer to by anyone. Cuba is a communistic country which will not change their ways for several years, they don’t have any trade agreement with the United States therefore America has really no interest in Cuba.
Haitians are not really welcome here for the most part, I feel like even if a Haitian refugee is caught on dry land and a Cuban were caught together and were facing the same persecution back in their own homelands I truly believe they would still deport the Haitian refugee and give asylum to the Cuban , this is not fair at all, I believe both countries are going through some of the same financial strains it’s well documented that Haiti is one of the poorest if not the poorest country in the world. In Haiti it is so bad that you will find more uneducated people than educated ones, it is the total opposite in Cuba, Cubans have it better than the Haitians if there were ever any country that would be worthy of given a free pass to enter the U.S it would have to be the Haitians. Financially Haiti is the poorest country in the civilized world and yet they are still not permitted entry to the U.S. I’m not sure why that is the only reason I can think of is because they happen to be a black country who happens to have defeated Napoleon’s powerful army back in May 18, 1804 and since then the country and the people is paying for that freedom, and this defeat was almost like a slap in the face to America who was one of Napoleon’s Allies. After the war was over and the country became liberated from its oppressors the French, America placed a sanction on Haiti to pay restoration for every slave that died because of the revolution against Napoleon. Even to present day this debt has yet to be not paid in full nor will this un-sanction and criminal debt will ever be paid, because of this debt Haiti will never recover from its financial ruin and it not in favor with the U.S.
Cuba on the other hand is a communist country, where they are not in such financial strains as Haiti, but yet gain entry easily into the U.S... I may be bias in my opinion but the facts are anyone can check the comparison between the two countries and I am sure they would arrive to the same conclusion I’ve come up with and if not one hundred percent agreement but I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of the high ninety percentile. The only thing I want to see is everyone given fair chance and not being judged for where an individual is from but for their situation on an individual basis.
I could not help my contempt for the way America treats Haitian refugees, these people are coming to the U.S to escape the same type of hardships that the Cubans are facing under Castro’s regime. Growing up in the U.S. especially in Miami I’ve noticed the bias against the Haitians, it’s clear to me that Haitians are like the unwanted people in Miami. I say this not only how they are treated by other people but also by the immigration system especially the wet foot dry foot rule, we have read or seen how majority if not all Cubans that enter the U.S. shores are given asylum and rarely do they get detained by the INS, more often than not they are released to their relatives and does not have to worry about anymore interference from the INS ever. The part this I don’t understand and still struggling with is if Cuba is under an embargo by the U.S, how come then they are given free entrance to the America? This question is one that I can never receive an answer to by anyone. Cuba is a communistic country which will not change their ways for several years, they don’t have any trade agreement with the United States therefore America has really no interest in Cuba.
Haitians are not really welcome here for the most part, I feel like even if a Haitian refugee is caught on dry land and a Cuban were caught together and were facing the same persecution back in their own homelands I truly believe they would still deport the Haitian refugee and give asylum to the Cuban , this is not fair at all, I believe both countries are going through some of the same financial strains it’s well documented that Haiti is one of the poorest if not the poorest country in the world. In Haiti it is so bad that you will find more uneducated people than educated ones, it is the total opposite in Cuba, Cubans have it better than the Haitians if there were ever any country that would be worthy of given a free pass to enter the U.S it would have to be the Haitians. Financially Haiti is the poorest country in the civilized world and yet they are still not permitted entry to the U.S. I’m not sure why that is the only reason I can think of is because they happen to be a black country who happens to have defeated Napoleon’s powerful army back in May 18, 1804 and since then the country and the people is paying for that freedom, and this defeat was almost like a slap in the face to America who was one of Napoleon’s Allies. After the war was over and the country became liberated from its oppressors the French, America placed a sanction on Haiti to pay restoration for every slave that died because of the revolution against Napoleon. Even to present day this debt has yet to be not paid in full nor will this un-sanction and criminal debt will ever be paid, because of this debt Haiti will never recover from its financial ruin and it not in favor with the U.S.
Cuba on the other hand is a communist country, where they are not in such financial strains as Haiti, but yet gain entry easily into the U.S... I may be bias in my opinion but the facts are anyone can check the comparison between the two countries and I am sure they would arrive to the same conclusion I’ve come up with and if not one hundred percent agreement but I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of the high ninety percentile. The only thing I want to see is everyone given fair chance and not being judged for where an individual is from but for their situation on an individual basis.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
How do you prepare yourself to teach?
How do you prepare yourself to teach?
This Chapter discusses the many social problems that plague our schools today. Students face many challenges like depression and suicide, homelessness, violence and abuse in the home, broken family structure, lack of structure and discipline, no boundaries set by parents, lack of parental supervision, and in some homes just overall lack of parenting. Our kids live in a world that is constantly changing where the adult community transmits mixed messages. I must focus on my vocation of teaching and know myself while at the same time be open to pursue professional education and receive suggestions from peers and supervisors.
More than any other job, teaching requires that you have your self-esteem in check, that you are comfortable with your flaws and shortcomings, that you can stand being hated and laughed at, that you can bounce back, and that you are not friends with your students. From this will flow other good habits that you create for yourself in your classroom environment. From the last chapter, we learned that you must understand your preferred style of learning and what Multiple Intelligence(s) are strongest for you. This impacts how you teach and help someone who has problems. From this confidence flow many decisions you make in your day. The first starts the day you introduce yourself to your students. You must create boundaries in your classroom with clear rules and consequences. Show that you believe in fair play, that you base your teaching on a value system and explain that value system. You must also be a role model for them as this may be the only good one they may encounter. Repeat the importance of character building and state that you do not tolerate gossip or others to be put down or criticized. Speak in a low voice even if your classroom is loud and find a way that works for you to quite down a noisy group of students. I will set goals and high expectations for my students and base my curriculum on Christian values. The peace and confidence that you model will be your greatest ally. Arrive early so that you see which students are dropped off very early and which leave late. This might give you clues. Make your classroom a peaceful, beautiful safe haven for all. This implies that you should have nice décor, keep your area clean. It culminates in inspiring the students to take ownership of their area. Finally, if in your classroom violence erupts, you notice students that might be depressed or act unruly immediately ask for help from your school counselor and dean of students. There is nothing wrong with inviting the dean to sit in one of your more rowdy classes. The confidence and classroom control that you demonstrate will avert many potential problems. I drew from Dr. Wong’s books called “The first days of School” and “how to be an effective teacher” to arrive at some of my opinions.
In today’s world, change is the only constant. You should read study and learn. There is a great deal of free literature to help teachers become Master Teachers. Early on, when I was learning to teach at a High School, I always read all the flyers and books the head of school kept in her office. There were so many but could be read quickly during lunch. They gave me ideas on how to be effective in the classroom. The first basic tip I implemented was to get to know my students background as much as possible. The second was to make sure I made myself available to students who needed help and to help them showing concern, compassion and then reaching out in days that followed. While it is hard and draining at times, once you develop the reputation of being fair, firm, and compassionate and a good listener, you can be effective in your vocation. Helping students is about being interested in “their” lives and not needing any reward in return for your dedication. There is no way you can learn to deal with all of the social problems that exist because “you can never really understand” their situation. You aren’t in their lives so don’t pretend that you are. The new school where I currently teach strongly believes in professional education. We have five professional education days set aside each year to help us learn more about social and academic needs of our students. Additionally, in the summer, they invite us to be mentors for 10 days in the Network for community outreach programs. These experiences help us to grow and learn more about our students.
This Chapter discusses the many social problems that plague our schools today. Students face many challenges like depression and suicide, homelessness, violence and abuse in the home, broken family structure, lack of structure and discipline, no boundaries set by parents, lack of parental supervision, and in some homes just overall lack of parenting. Our kids live in a world that is constantly changing where the adult community transmits mixed messages. I must focus on my vocation of teaching and know myself while at the same time be open to pursue professional education and receive suggestions from peers and supervisors.
More than any other job, teaching requires that you have your self-esteem in check, that you are comfortable with your flaws and shortcomings, that you can stand being hated and laughed at, that you can bounce back, and that you are not friends with your students. From this will flow other good habits that you create for yourself in your classroom environment. From the last chapter, we learned that you must understand your preferred style of learning and what Multiple Intelligence(s) are strongest for you. This impacts how you teach and help someone who has problems. From this confidence flow many decisions you make in your day. The first starts the day you introduce yourself to your students. You must create boundaries in your classroom with clear rules and consequences. Show that you believe in fair play, that you base your teaching on a value system and explain that value system. You must also be a role model for them as this may be the only good one they may encounter. Repeat the importance of character building and state that you do not tolerate gossip or others to be put down or criticized. Speak in a low voice even if your classroom is loud and find a way that works for you to quite down a noisy group of students. I will set goals and high expectations for my students and base my curriculum on Christian values. The peace and confidence that you model will be your greatest ally. Arrive early so that you see which students are dropped off very early and which leave late. This might give you clues. Make your classroom a peaceful, beautiful safe haven for all. This implies that you should have nice décor, keep your area clean. It culminates in inspiring the students to take ownership of their area. Finally, if in your classroom violence erupts, you notice students that might be depressed or act unruly immediately ask for help from your school counselor and dean of students. There is nothing wrong with inviting the dean to sit in one of your more rowdy classes. The confidence and classroom control that you demonstrate will avert many potential problems. I drew from Dr. Wong’s books called “The first days of School” and “how to be an effective teacher” to arrive at some of my opinions.
In today’s world, change is the only constant. You should read study and learn. There is a great deal of free literature to help teachers become Master Teachers. Early on, when I was learning to teach at a High School, I always read all the flyers and books the head of school kept in her office. There were so many but could be read quickly during lunch. They gave me ideas on how to be effective in the classroom. The first basic tip I implemented was to get to know my students background as much as possible. The second was to make sure I made myself available to students who needed help and to help them showing concern, compassion and then reaching out in days that followed. While it is hard and draining at times, once you develop the reputation of being fair, firm, and compassionate and a good listener, you can be effective in your vocation. Helping students is about being interested in “their” lives and not needing any reward in return for your dedication. There is no way you can learn to deal with all of the social problems that exist because “you can never really understand” their situation. You aren’t in their lives so don’t pretend that you are. The new school where I currently teach strongly believes in professional education. We have five professional education days set aside each year to help us learn more about social and academic needs of our students. Additionally, in the summer, they invite us to be mentors for 10 days in the Network for community outreach programs. These experiences help us to grow and learn more about our students.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Diversity in the classroom
Diversity in today’s educational system
Diversity is very important because one needs to know their status in life. Diversity in today’s society plays a major role in one’s life because many individuals are still trying to found out where they belong. For example, many people are still worry about their own race, whereas other individuals usually put full effort on trying to put one down just because of how ones look.
Can today’s society still cope with diversity? Diversity often played the central role in an individuals’ life, especially in school. However, diversity is the intentional or unintentional use of power to isolate, separate and exploit others as defined in our population today. Today, understanding diversity is very important. For example, People generally respond to others differently based on what they know, which may include superficial characteristics often associated with race. In today’s society, diversity has become very important because most of the times, society has to label one group inferior in order to make the other feel more superior.
A diverse school may be full with different races and cultures. For example, in a diverse school, individuals will encounter all types of people who come from all around the globe and one who were born in a different background. Yes there is a need because this country cannot help it but to focus on how well one is living, when others are not doing too well, especially in our universities, it’s the money that plays a role in an individual future because it makes the one who has the privilege feel more special about themselves.
Yes there is still a need in our society because students should be taught a well rounded curriculum to excel regardless of ethnicity. Many of the classes taken in college are centered on individual thought and expression. To ensure race and ethnicity, individuals goal is to welcome or embrace diversity while attending colleges, this should be our focus and goal for the college because ones horizons to look beyond the visual that one see and focus on the person as a whole without any reference to race, gender, or nationality. There might be other types of diversity that need to be ensured, but I can’t really think of any right now. Change not will happen overnight; it must start at home and then travel abroad. If we take the following steps within the individualized, then, it will be ok for diversity to be part of schools around the globe.
There are many ways to ensure we as educators treat each and every students that walks in our classroom with the utmost respect to their race and heritage without prejudices and racial and ethnic bigotry, first step is to first recognize any biases you have learned; there are some questions you can ask yourself to find out if you are indeed bias, do I interact equally with all the students? Do I discourage women from taking on an abundance of work and leadership role? Do you assume every minority student that is enrolled in your educational institution is there under special admissions program? (E.g. Affirmative action). Treat each student as an individual, and respect each student with respect for he or she is. Do you do your best to be sensitive to terminology? Words can be a very powerful tool as we all know, the tongue is a very powerful weapon, and it can build a person or destroy them, as educators we must know exactly how to treat our students and use positive language to help build their self esteem and this will lead to improving their self worth.
According to Levine and associates, ever since the civil rights movement America has been struggling to figure out how to best educate and graduate their new students, these new students were African Americans, Chicanos and Latinos and Native Americans. Once they are on campus, though, many of these students feel that they are treated as unwelcome outsiders, and they describe having encountered subtle forms of bias (Cones, Noonan, and Janha, 1983; Fleming, 1988; Green, 1989; Hall and Sandler, 1982; Pemberton, 1988; Sadker and Sadker, 1992; Simpson, 1987; Woolbright, 1989). We’ve all seen and read the stories of the way the minorities were being treated during those times, and the treatment was everything but equal. During the 1907, Mississippi spent about $5.02 per white student and only spent $1.10 per black student, which is a very big difference in the different level of education, afforded to the white students, therefore the black students often or if ever receive any new text books or school supplies. In 1954 the Supreme Court heard a case that would go down in educational history, which was Brown vs. Board of education of Topeka, which this decision whites schools would have no choice but to allow black students to enroll and attend their schools, this decision would not received with open arms by the whites, they would boycott in front of the schools every day, it was so bad that the national guards had to be dispatched to keep the black students safe from being harmed. This Supreme Court ruling was to fix the 1896 Plessey vs. Ferguson ruling which made segregation legal and the so called American way of life.
It really pains me to see how today’s minority students are not taking advantage of the education they have inheritated from the blood sweat and lives of the African American men and women fought for and won. In today’s society, schools and everywhere else you turn contain many different type of people, the goal of the educator today is not only to teach the material but to do it in such a way that everyone in the classroom understands, due to the fact most students that are In the classroom are more often than likely bi-lingual, some students speak one language at school (English) and speak in their parents native tongue at home. This quotes by an esteem African American educator by the name of W.E.B. Dubois “Probably never in the world have so many oppressed people tried in every way to educate them.”
Diversity is very important because one needs to know their status in life. Diversity in today’s society plays a major role in one’s life because many individuals are still trying to found out where they belong. For example, many people are still worry about their own race, whereas other individuals usually put full effort on trying to put one down just because of how ones look.
Can today’s society still cope with diversity? Diversity often played the central role in an individuals’ life, especially in school. However, diversity is the intentional or unintentional use of power to isolate, separate and exploit others as defined in our population today. Today, understanding diversity is very important. For example, People generally respond to others differently based on what they know, which may include superficial characteristics often associated with race. In today’s society, diversity has become very important because most of the times, society has to label one group inferior in order to make the other feel more superior.
A diverse school may be full with different races and cultures. For example, in a diverse school, individuals will encounter all types of people who come from all around the globe and one who were born in a different background. Yes there is a need because this country cannot help it but to focus on how well one is living, when others are not doing too well, especially in our universities, it’s the money that plays a role in an individual future because it makes the one who has the privilege feel more special about themselves.
Yes there is still a need in our society because students should be taught a well rounded curriculum to excel regardless of ethnicity. Many of the classes taken in college are centered on individual thought and expression. To ensure race and ethnicity, individuals goal is to welcome or embrace diversity while attending colleges, this should be our focus and goal for the college because ones horizons to look beyond the visual that one see and focus on the person as a whole without any reference to race, gender, or nationality. There might be other types of diversity that need to be ensured, but I can’t really think of any right now. Change not will happen overnight; it must start at home and then travel abroad. If we take the following steps within the individualized, then, it will be ok for diversity to be part of schools around the globe.
There are many ways to ensure we as educators treat each and every students that walks in our classroom with the utmost respect to their race and heritage without prejudices and racial and ethnic bigotry, first step is to first recognize any biases you have learned; there are some questions you can ask yourself to find out if you are indeed bias, do I interact equally with all the students? Do I discourage women from taking on an abundance of work and leadership role? Do you assume every minority student that is enrolled in your educational institution is there under special admissions program? (E.g. Affirmative action). Treat each student as an individual, and respect each student with respect for he or she is. Do you do your best to be sensitive to terminology? Words can be a very powerful tool as we all know, the tongue is a very powerful weapon, and it can build a person or destroy them, as educators we must know exactly how to treat our students and use positive language to help build their self esteem and this will lead to improving their self worth.
According to Levine and associates, ever since the civil rights movement America has been struggling to figure out how to best educate and graduate their new students, these new students were African Americans, Chicanos and Latinos and Native Americans. Once they are on campus, though, many of these students feel that they are treated as unwelcome outsiders, and they describe having encountered subtle forms of bias (Cones, Noonan, and Janha, 1983; Fleming, 1988; Green, 1989; Hall and Sandler, 1982; Pemberton, 1988; Sadker and Sadker, 1992; Simpson, 1987; Woolbright, 1989). We’ve all seen and read the stories of the way the minorities were being treated during those times, and the treatment was everything but equal. During the 1907, Mississippi spent about $5.02 per white student and only spent $1.10 per black student, which is a very big difference in the different level of education, afforded to the white students, therefore the black students often or if ever receive any new text books or school supplies. In 1954 the Supreme Court heard a case that would go down in educational history, which was Brown vs. Board of education of Topeka, which this decision whites schools would have no choice but to allow black students to enroll and attend their schools, this decision would not received with open arms by the whites, they would boycott in front of the schools every day, it was so bad that the national guards had to be dispatched to keep the black students safe from being harmed. This Supreme Court ruling was to fix the 1896 Plessey vs. Ferguson ruling which made segregation legal and the so called American way of life.
It really pains me to see how today’s minority students are not taking advantage of the education they have inheritated from the blood sweat and lives of the African American men and women fought for and won. In today’s society, schools and everywhere else you turn contain many different type of people, the goal of the educator today is not only to teach the material but to do it in such a way that everyone in the classroom understands, due to the fact most students that are In the classroom are more often than likely bi-lingual, some students speak one language at school (English) and speak in their parents native tongue at home. This quotes by an esteem African American educator by the name of W.E.B. Dubois “Probably never in the world have so many oppressed people tried in every way to educate them.”
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Building a smarter world
Building a smarter world
We’ve all heard and these words in the schools, televisions and magazines and many different advertising avenues, urging us to stay in school. These are some examples of these sorts of ads “don’t be fools stay in school’ this ad was to appeal to the young people’s ego, by letting them know without an education they would be fools. This country is governed by education, this is the only country in the world that has state of the art public schools, where not only the buildings are up to date, but the teachers are highly trained educators. I’m shocked at times when I read the statistics of how many students drop out of school, people are risking their lives, leaving everything they own and know to come to the United States to give their children a chance of a good education, these naturally born Americans ought to be ashamed of themselves not to take full advantage of these academic opportunities. In most countries only, there is no such thing as a free education, if you are unable to pay for your child’s education they would not be able to go to school therefore there are high illiterates and uneducated people, many of these countries’ economy are not as well developed as countries that emphasized education. The countries that referred to as “third world countries”, this is because these countries are not as advanced as the countries, this is because these countries are not part of the trading circle therefore they are not looked at as been important countries.
One thing that really turns my stomach about African Americans, is the fact that they don’t seem to take education too serious, not to say all of them the ones from the inner city are mostly interested in their child’s extracurricular activities, rather than their scholastics developments this lead the child to believe the only way they can make it to being a successful adult is through sports rather than academics. From doing my own research with kids from the some inner city youths I found out most males are aspired to pursue two avenues for success, first is sports and the second is entertainment, there are a few children that want to be doctors, lawyers, females are mostly aspire to becoming nurses or to be a beautician, all of these are mainly quick and does not require a college degree and they can go a job quickly. We need to start teaching our young black youths that they are worth it and are smart enough to achieve the highest level of education and are able to be anything they want to be as long as they are willing to put in the time and effort necessary to achieve their goals.
We’ve all heard and these words in the schools, televisions and magazines and many different advertising avenues, urging us to stay in school. These are some examples of these sorts of ads “don’t be fools stay in school’ this ad was to appeal to the young people’s ego, by letting them know without an education they would be fools. This country is governed by education, this is the only country in the world that has state of the art public schools, where not only the buildings are up to date, but the teachers are highly trained educators. I’m shocked at times when I read the statistics of how many students drop out of school, people are risking their lives, leaving everything they own and know to come to the United States to give their children a chance of a good education, these naturally born Americans ought to be ashamed of themselves not to take full advantage of these academic opportunities. In most countries only, there is no such thing as a free education, if you are unable to pay for your child’s education they would not be able to go to school therefore there are high illiterates and uneducated people, many of these countries’ economy are not as well developed as countries that emphasized education. The countries that referred to as “third world countries”, this is because these countries are not as advanced as the countries, this is because these countries are not part of the trading circle therefore they are not looked at as been important countries.
One thing that really turns my stomach about African Americans, is the fact that they don’t seem to take education too serious, not to say all of them the ones from the inner city are mostly interested in their child’s extracurricular activities, rather than their scholastics developments this lead the child to believe the only way they can make it to being a successful adult is through sports rather than academics. From doing my own research with kids from the some inner city youths I found out most males are aspired to pursue two avenues for success, first is sports and the second is entertainment, there are a few children that want to be doctors, lawyers, females are mostly aspire to becoming nurses or to be a beautician, all of these are mainly quick and does not require a college degree and they can go a job quickly. We need to start teaching our young black youths that they are worth it and are smart enough to achieve the highest level of education and are able to be anything they want to be as long as they are willing to put in the time and effort necessary to achieve their goals.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Early American Education
Early American Education
Early American education was based on the premise of teaching its citizens how to read so that they will be able to read their bibles. To understand why their whole system was based on religion, we have to trace the puritans back to their lineage in England. The puritans were being persecuted in England for their religious practices, they believe that the English church was becoming too politically involved and was not looking out for the moral and religious purity, because of that they flee England to avoid any further persecutions.
They believed the bible was truly the word and laws of god himself and they had to follow these laws to the letter. They were as we may consider extremist in today’s meaning they refer to the bible for every decision and how to raise their children and how to live their everyday lives. So it came as no surprise their main educational goals were to teach others how to read the bible in order to save their souls. Their schools were called Latin grammar schools, because majority of the texts were written in that language. In the Latin grammar school students were thought how to read and write in Latin as well as English, their focus were to prepare their youths to go to college where they would use the Latin they’ve learned during their times in grammar school. The sole purpose of their educational system was to prepare the students to become pastors; this career was the most honorable choice in a town that was so very religious.
Teachers during the puritans’ era were not as professional as the teachers of today, which is because most teachers were not trained in the field, most of them were servants and the rest of them were drunkards, the ones that were the least qualified were the interns to professional teachers. Today we are more advance mathematically, scientifically and socially, today’s teachers has to undergo rigorous training to sustain the educational values of this society. Teachers has to know how to deal with not only diverse personalities of the students, but also their different economic and geographical backgrounds as well as religious affiliations as to not offend other students, which is why religion was taken away from modern educational system. This stops students from being discriminated against because of their religious beliefs, by taken religion out of the schools we made it a safer place, where the main focus is to learn and not theological segregation.
Early American education was based on the premise of teaching its citizens how to read so that they will be able to read their bibles. To understand why their whole system was based on religion, we have to trace the puritans back to their lineage in England. The puritans were being persecuted in England for their religious practices, they believe that the English church was becoming too politically involved and was not looking out for the moral and religious purity, because of that they flee England to avoid any further persecutions.
They believed the bible was truly the word and laws of god himself and they had to follow these laws to the letter. They were as we may consider extremist in today’s meaning they refer to the bible for every decision and how to raise their children and how to live their everyday lives. So it came as no surprise their main educational goals were to teach others how to read the bible in order to save their souls. Their schools were called Latin grammar schools, because majority of the texts were written in that language. In the Latin grammar school students were thought how to read and write in Latin as well as English, their focus were to prepare their youths to go to college where they would use the Latin they’ve learned during their times in grammar school. The sole purpose of their educational system was to prepare the students to become pastors; this career was the most honorable choice in a town that was so very religious.
Teachers during the puritans’ era were not as professional as the teachers of today, which is because most teachers were not trained in the field, most of them were servants and the rest of them were drunkards, the ones that were the least qualified were the interns to professional teachers. Today we are more advance mathematically, scientifically and socially, today’s teachers has to undergo rigorous training to sustain the educational values of this society. Teachers has to know how to deal with not only diverse personalities of the students, but also their different economic and geographical backgrounds as well as religious affiliations as to not offend other students, which is why religion was taken away from modern educational system. This stops students from being discriminated against because of their religious beliefs, by taken religion out of the schools we made it a safer place, where the main focus is to learn and not theological segregation.
Monday, October 26, 2009
The World Around Us
After reading this passage suddenly I remembered In 2004 I travelled to Haiti. After being absent for 15 years I thought it was time to take a trip to my native country. When I arrived at the airport after all these years it was just like I've never been there before because everything were different, the people were begging for money, and they tried to take the stuff that I was carried from me because most of them don't have any other way to get money or food. I felt like I was a foreigner in my own country because I never experience anything like that before due to the fact I left Haiti since I was a little girl and it was a terrible experience to see the country in such condition. To me I think sometimes it doesn't matter where one travel to, one can feel unwelcome no matter what; because sometimes it can be the differential of cultures or it can be just because these people wish they were you instead.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Rhetoric and Education
Rhetoric and Education
Rhetoric is one of the oldest forms of educational methods in the ancient world; the practitioners of this form of education are called sophist or orators. Sophists were paid to teach people the oratory or speech, a sophist did not carry texts or teach how to write their whole educational system was done orally, it’s the same as teaching a person how to be a better public speaker to win elections or higher seats in the council by dazzling the audiences with their slick talking and word play. Sophist were brutally criticized by other scholars such as Plato who states that a sophist is more concern with appearance rather than substance in his play called Gorgias, another scholar who did not refer to himself as a scholar stated that a sophist spend their time trying to make a bad idea seem like a good idea, usually to suit their needs. Speech and words are very powerful weapons to a sophist, matter of fact one of secretes’ accuser a man by the name of Lycon who himself was an orator; Socrates used his methods of truth seeking to make a mockery of him. Aristotle was the sophist who discover the topic or its Greek name topoi, topics were use to make better arguments and to give a starting point to a discussion.
The greatest orator was a man by the name of Marcus tullius Cicero, he was the one responsible for what is regarded as the greatest tool to a rhetorician which was called the canon, this consist of invention; which is basically coming up with the idea to be discussed, arrangement; setting the idea in a way it flows well, which will eliminate confusion from the audience, style; how you present the product, it could be hard, sad and even happy, memory; not having to look at the written text every time, you must keep eye contact with the audience, and delivery; speaking the words and making them make sense to the audience to keep their attention.
After Rome fail and the Christians took over, rhetoric underwent many different changes one change was the most significant, traditional rhetoricians did not use text but under the new regime they were not using text books to write down their arguments, St. Augustine was the person who actually saved the rhetoric’s tradition from being erased, he acknowledge the rhetorician could use their style of persuasion to teach the Christian bible to the people.
Rhetoric is one of the oldest forms of educational methods in the ancient world; the practitioners of this form of education are called sophist or orators. Sophists were paid to teach people the oratory or speech, a sophist did not carry texts or teach how to write their whole educational system was done orally, it’s the same as teaching a person how to be a better public speaker to win elections or higher seats in the council by dazzling the audiences with their slick talking and word play. Sophist were brutally criticized by other scholars such as Plato who states that a sophist is more concern with appearance rather than substance in his play called Gorgias, another scholar who did not refer to himself as a scholar stated that a sophist spend their time trying to make a bad idea seem like a good idea, usually to suit their needs. Speech and words are very powerful weapons to a sophist, matter of fact one of secretes’ accuser a man by the name of Lycon who himself was an orator; Socrates used his methods of truth seeking to make a mockery of him. Aristotle was the sophist who discover the topic or its Greek name topoi, topics were use to make better arguments and to give a starting point to a discussion.
The greatest orator was a man by the name of Marcus tullius Cicero, he was the one responsible for what is regarded as the greatest tool to a rhetorician which was called the canon, this consist of invention; which is basically coming up with the idea to be discussed, arrangement; setting the idea in a way it flows well, which will eliminate confusion from the audience, style; how you present the product, it could be hard, sad and even happy, memory; not having to look at the written text every time, you must keep eye contact with the audience, and delivery; speaking the words and making them make sense to the audience to keep their attention.
After Rome fail and the Christians took over, rhetoric underwent many different changes one change was the most significant, traditional rhetoricians did not use text but under the new regime they were not using text books to write down their arguments, St. Augustine was the person who actually saved the rhetoric’s tradition from being erased, he acknowledge the rhetorician could use their style of persuasion to teach the Christian bible to the people.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Embracing our differences
Embracing our differences
I’ve never really encounter nor knew such thing as prejudice existed prior to residing in the United States of America, prior to then I was in Haiti, in Haiti I guess you can say there maybe prejudice but it was not as upfront as it is in America, Haiti is a class society much like the old days of Rome and Greece, where whatever occupation your family were into will also be your profession no matter what, there was no choice, if your father was a shoe shine person, a farmer or even a yardman that is eventually what you will take over doing, majority of the time for the same family he worked for, to me it was a form of slavery.
I grew up in Haiti with maids to do the cooking and cleaning of the house and yardman to take care of the gardening and tend to the animals and farm, I could be wrong in this but I don’t think they were paid for their services, I believe the payment was room and board and food. These people were looked upon as less than human, we were not permitted to speak to them or really interact with them beyond telling them to do something for us, they were not educated and only knew their jobs, I often felt sorry for them, because a lot of them are kind people, they just needed to feed their loved ones, so they take on whatever jobs were available and the humiliation that came with it, that’s just the way it is and they only knew one way of surviving.
The type of prejudice that exist in America is one of the most violent I’ve ever seen in my life, this type is because a person is another color, something that an individual is unable to neither control nor change. There have been so many people killed in the U.S because of racism and anti Semitism that the government had to step in and create the hate crime law, which makes any person killed by another because of their race, religion and sexual preference will be prosecuted and receive full term sentences, these sentences can range from life to the death penalty. Even with these harsh sentences and laws clearly in place, people are still not deterred from committing crimes against a person because of their race, religion and sexual preferences. I believe the one thing we can do is to try to talk it out versus slugging it out.
I’ve never really encounter nor knew such thing as prejudice existed prior to residing in the United States of America, prior to then I was in Haiti, in Haiti I guess you can say there maybe prejudice but it was not as upfront as it is in America, Haiti is a class society much like the old days of Rome and Greece, where whatever occupation your family were into will also be your profession no matter what, there was no choice, if your father was a shoe shine person, a farmer or even a yardman that is eventually what you will take over doing, majority of the time for the same family he worked for, to me it was a form of slavery.
I grew up in Haiti with maids to do the cooking and cleaning of the house and yardman to take care of the gardening and tend to the animals and farm, I could be wrong in this but I don’t think they were paid for their services, I believe the payment was room and board and food. These people were looked upon as less than human, we were not permitted to speak to them or really interact with them beyond telling them to do something for us, they were not educated and only knew their jobs, I often felt sorry for them, because a lot of them are kind people, they just needed to feed their loved ones, so they take on whatever jobs were available and the humiliation that came with it, that’s just the way it is and they only knew one way of surviving.
The type of prejudice that exist in America is one of the most violent I’ve ever seen in my life, this type is because a person is another color, something that an individual is unable to neither control nor change. There have been so many people killed in the U.S because of racism and anti Semitism that the government had to step in and create the hate crime law, which makes any person killed by another because of their race, religion and sexual preference will be prosecuted and receive full term sentences, these sentences can range from life to the death penalty. Even with these harsh sentences and laws clearly in place, people are still not deterred from committing crimes against a person because of their race, religion and sexual preferences. I believe the one thing we can do is to try to talk it out versus slugging it out.
Who Am I?
Who am I?
Even as a young girl I’ve always had a great sense of who I am and what it is I in life I wanted, from the type of guy I wanted to marry, I never let anyone tell me anything negative or positive about Michelle, my self esteem and self worth had always been high. I grew up in a loving two parent home and my siblings and I have always been happy, even though we lived in Haiti my parents were well off, we traveled back and forth from Haiti to Canada on missionary work, I’ve always pride myself in the good works of my parents and I. even though my self-esteem was high, I never had to put anyone down to feel good about myself, rather the opposite I would help lift their spirits because if I were to put someone down then I would feel bad about it and just the fact of looking at them hurt because of something I said would be devastating to me, no matter what negative propaganda was said about me for some reason never effect me in anyway, that is because I always believe that people will always talk about you and call you names but it’s what you believe about yourself and what you answer to that matters.
I watch a lot of infomercials about diet fads and exercise craze, these images of those perfectly toned models portrays a negative body image on the young people watching them, these teenagers that already trying to find themselves often are misled by these media images. The models are basically telling the teen especially teen girls, that you are not pretty enough or skinny enough until you purchase my product, this is when anorexia and bulimia and other types of eating disorders starts to develop in young people. As of two years ago the modeling agencies had to implement a minimum weight requirement for their models, because a lot of them were too skinny and un-healthy looking, and if the models were to go under the minimum weight requirement they would be suspended and not allowed to work until they went back to the desired legal weight limit. This was to prevent teen girls from developing eating disorders and negative body image, usually this result in death, suicide and self mutilation.
A positive attitude for the soon to be adult starts when they are young and some maybe as early as toddlers, this is the time where the child is developing their self, the self is a very important factor in determining the type of person that child will grow up to be, the happier the childhood the better person will be the end result, positive words of encouragements even when the child fails will give them a good attitude and positive self actualization.
Even as a young girl I’ve always had a great sense of who I am and what it is I in life I wanted, from the type of guy I wanted to marry, I never let anyone tell me anything negative or positive about Michelle, my self esteem and self worth had always been high. I grew up in a loving two parent home and my siblings and I have always been happy, even though we lived in Haiti my parents were well off, we traveled back and forth from Haiti to Canada on missionary work, I’ve always pride myself in the good works of my parents and I. even though my self-esteem was high, I never had to put anyone down to feel good about myself, rather the opposite I would help lift their spirits because if I were to put someone down then I would feel bad about it and just the fact of looking at them hurt because of something I said would be devastating to me, no matter what negative propaganda was said about me for some reason never effect me in anyway, that is because I always believe that people will always talk about you and call you names but it’s what you believe about yourself and what you answer to that matters.
I watch a lot of infomercials about diet fads and exercise craze, these images of those perfectly toned models portrays a negative body image on the young people watching them, these teenagers that already trying to find themselves often are misled by these media images. The models are basically telling the teen especially teen girls, that you are not pretty enough or skinny enough until you purchase my product, this is when anorexia and bulimia and other types of eating disorders starts to develop in young people. As of two years ago the modeling agencies had to implement a minimum weight requirement for their models, because a lot of them were too skinny and un-healthy looking, and if the models were to go under the minimum weight requirement they would be suspended and not allowed to work until they went back to the desired legal weight limit. This was to prevent teen girls from developing eating disorders and negative body image, usually this result in death, suicide and self mutilation.
A positive attitude for the soon to be adult starts when they are young and some maybe as early as toddlers, this is the time where the child is developing their self, the self is a very important factor in determining the type of person that child will grow up to be, the happier the childhood the better person will be the end result, positive words of encouragements even when the child fails will give them a good attitude and positive self actualization.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Freud's contributino to psychiotry
Freud’s Contribution to Psychology
Freud’s contribution to psychology was the most important step to understand how the human psyche woks. His explanation of drives was very clear to me, where according to Freud drive as an inside motivation to realize all your needs and desires and take away all negative energies that can impact the realization of your goals.
Freud’s conception of human psyche, is also known as the iceberg, in this metaphor is like an iceberg floating in the water and the iceberg is divided into three different sections, the top section is the conscious, the middle part is called the pre-conscious and the bottom of the iceberg is the un-conscious part.
The conscious part of the human psyche is responsible for fulfilling the person’s needs and wants and has no place to consider repercussion, as long as the needs of the individual are met. Example to this is a person that is selfish and only care for themselves and not caring is their actions hurt anyone else, and if they do see the affects their actions have they chose not to care at all. The conscious is also connected to the Ego, the ego is reality thinking
The preconscious is the just beneath the conscious mind and is somewhat unaware of what is going on, people often refer to it as that voice in the back of my mind.
The unconscious is beneath and unaware of what’s going on with the conscious, the unconscious is very important in shaping the personality of the person and how they react to certain situations. The unconscious is also close to the ID, the ID is responsible for pleasure principle and wish fulfillment. The unconscious is very influenced by the individual’s past childhood and other early childhood experiences. If a person had a happy childhood they would often grow up to being very outgoing and are thought of to being a people person and a person with an unhappy childhood would be very reclusive and a loner because they grew to not have any trust for other people.
Freud was a very good psychiatrist in his time, he is known as a the father of psychiatrist this a deserving title for the man that helped us understand how people’s minds work.
Freud’s contribution to psychology was the most important step to understand how the human psyche woks. His explanation of drives was very clear to me, where according to Freud drive as an inside motivation to realize all your needs and desires and take away all negative energies that can impact the realization of your goals.
Freud’s conception of human psyche, is also known as the iceberg, in this metaphor is like an iceberg floating in the water and the iceberg is divided into three different sections, the top section is the conscious, the middle part is called the pre-conscious and the bottom of the iceberg is the un-conscious part.
The conscious part of the human psyche is responsible for fulfilling the person’s needs and wants and has no place to consider repercussion, as long as the needs of the individual are met. Example to this is a person that is selfish and only care for themselves and not caring is their actions hurt anyone else, and if they do see the affects their actions have they chose not to care at all. The conscious is also connected to the Ego, the ego is reality thinking
The preconscious is the just beneath the conscious mind and is somewhat unaware of what is going on, people often refer to it as that voice in the back of my mind.
The unconscious is beneath and unaware of what’s going on with the conscious, the unconscious is very important in shaping the personality of the person and how they react to certain situations. The unconscious is also close to the ID, the ID is responsible for pleasure principle and wish fulfillment. The unconscious is very influenced by the individual’s past childhood and other early childhood experiences. If a person had a happy childhood they would often grow up to being very outgoing and are thought of to being a people person and a person with an unhappy childhood would be very reclusive and a loner because they grew to not have any trust for other people.
Freud was a very good psychiatrist in his time, he is known as a the father of psychiatrist this a deserving title for the man that helped us understand how people’s minds work.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Importance of Values
Importance of values
Values are very important to a student, because values are mostly societal this means a person’s values are based on where and the type of society they were raised in. Values are defined as the specific beliefs of what is desirable and undesirable of thoughts and conditions of being. Values are placed in two categories instrumental and terminal values, values and belief are similar because they both are both end process of evaluating our feelings and new ideas to determine rather we are going to accept them or not.
Instrumental values are when a person uses their beliefs to achieve their goals, in order to achieve those goals they had to make sure that they maintain their ethical and honorable standards, those standards are determine by society standards, many Americans even those that are from different social and economical class all have several similar values in common, this is because of America has a general or universal values which were thought to us from school, such values are to go to school, get good grades and attend college, get married and live happily ever after. These values are constantly being told to us by all the media outlets such as television, radio and print, if you don’t go to school and get good grades you will not be a success. This used to be a popular slogan back in the 1990s “don’t be a fool, stay in school”. Terminal values are use to determine how we will solve problems, some people are able to talk out there problems and then there are those who are more action prone and act instead of thinking and mapping out ways of reaching the solution. Choice can arrive from many different avenues, we can choose to use our minds to make choices or we can choose to use emotions to solve problems
Values are very important to a student, because values are mostly societal this means a person’s values are based on where and the type of society they were raised in. Values are defined as the specific beliefs of what is desirable and undesirable of thoughts and conditions of being. Values are placed in two categories instrumental and terminal values, values and belief are similar because they both are both end process of evaluating our feelings and new ideas to determine rather we are going to accept them or not.
Instrumental values are when a person uses their beliefs to achieve their goals, in order to achieve those goals they had to make sure that they maintain their ethical and honorable standards, those standards are determine by society standards, many Americans even those that are from different social and economical class all have several similar values in common, this is because of America has a general or universal values which were thought to us from school, such values are to go to school, get good grades and attend college, get married and live happily ever after. These values are constantly being told to us by all the media outlets such as television, radio and print, if you don’t go to school and get good grades you will not be a success. This used to be a popular slogan back in the 1990s “don’t be a fool, stay in school”. Terminal values are use to determine how we will solve problems, some people are able to talk out there problems and then there are those who are more action prone and act instead of thinking and mapping out ways of reaching the solution. Choice can arrive from many different avenues, we can choose to use our minds to make choices or we can choose to use emotions to solve problems
view on god
View on God
Aristotle’s great chain of being is a very controversial view on god; his thought could be seen as an atheistic view. In this particular idea he believed that god is all of us, achieving the ultimate knowledge are what a god is. A person who is self actualized and a self thinker is god. This idea of course back in the time of his existence was thought of as blasphemy, because the Greeks of that time were very god guided people, they believed that everything was because of the will of the gods. You have to understand that Greeks believed there was a god for everything. A god for nature, air, sun, moon, heaven and even hell, for a person to come and say that a human being is god; well that was just absolute garbage. He went further and added we should not be praying to anyone because we are the ones that are making things happen for ourselves not someone that is sitting in the clouds and overlooking over the earth and the universe and pulling strings and making us do things. I can definitely understand where he was coming from, although I do believe in a higher power greater than myself, but I have to see that also I too have power over my life and I have the power of reasoning and with that reasoning skills I can make my own choices, which makes us god.
The four causes are the four key questions we must ask in order to gain the best possible answers to our inquiries. Causes one and two are part of the classificatory causes, which are formal and material causes; an example of formal cause is asking, what is this object? And for material cause is, what is it made of? Causes three and four are dynamic and final efficient cause; these are the examples of each, a dynamic question would be how does this work and the answer would be the final and efficient cause, each causes work as a perfect unit, each compliment the other.
The effect would be that it gives the student something like a blue print on how to ask questions and not foolish ones but questions that are legitimate. We are all curious to know how everything works, but most of us don’t know exactly the type of questions to ask. As a humanist Aristotle gave human the power to not just be puppets for the so called gods, with that human being started to take control over their lives without the fear of upsetting the gods, priests and kings often uses god as a weapon of intimidation against their subjects, this practice kept the human mind locked and ignorant.
Aristotle’s great chain of being is a very controversial view on god; his thought could be seen as an atheistic view. In this particular idea he believed that god is all of us, achieving the ultimate knowledge are what a god is. A person who is self actualized and a self thinker is god. This idea of course back in the time of his existence was thought of as blasphemy, because the Greeks of that time were very god guided people, they believed that everything was because of the will of the gods. You have to understand that Greeks believed there was a god for everything. A god for nature, air, sun, moon, heaven and even hell, for a person to come and say that a human being is god; well that was just absolute garbage. He went further and added we should not be praying to anyone because we are the ones that are making things happen for ourselves not someone that is sitting in the clouds and overlooking over the earth and the universe and pulling strings and making us do things. I can definitely understand where he was coming from, although I do believe in a higher power greater than myself, but I have to see that also I too have power over my life and I have the power of reasoning and with that reasoning skills I can make my own choices, which makes us god.
The four causes are the four key questions we must ask in order to gain the best possible answers to our inquiries. Causes one and two are part of the classificatory causes, which are formal and material causes; an example of formal cause is asking, what is this object? And for material cause is, what is it made of? Causes three and four are dynamic and final efficient cause; these are the examples of each, a dynamic question would be how does this work and the answer would be the final and efficient cause, each causes work as a perfect unit, each compliment the other.
The effect would be that it gives the student something like a blue print on how to ask questions and not foolish ones but questions that are legitimate. We are all curious to know how everything works, but most of us don’t know exactly the type of questions to ask. As a humanist Aristotle gave human the power to not just be puppets for the so called gods, with that human being started to take control over their lives without the fear of upsetting the gods, priests and kings often uses god as a weapon of intimidation against their subjects, this practice kept the human mind locked and ignorant.
Idealisms of the times
Idealisms of the time
During the times of Socrates and Plato, people were not knowledgeable enough to form their own ideas much less were they able to question the ideas that were place in their heads by the much more powerful members of society. Then came an old man by the name of Socrates and he was the first to start to open the minds of the youths of Greece, Socrates has a student by the name of Plato, Plato was the person who wrote about the ideas of Socrates and after the death of Socrates Plato continued and added his own ideas to his teacher’s ideas. He had some idealisms of his own and these are some of his most important ideas; such idea is one that I totally agree with this idea is that reality is based on undeniable truth, which means that truth can be challenged but at the end you will arrive to that same conclusion, another of his ideas is that human beings are born ignorant and we will spend the rest of our lives trying to obtain the knowledge we lost coming out of the womb, he believed that when were in the womb god provided us with all the knowledge of the world and as we were being born we lost all of that we once knew, he also believed that knowledge was not made but discovered, which means that knowledge was not put on this earth but people had to go out of this world and find it, through human curiosity to know how things of this world works we accidently discover knowledge, even in modern times most of the world’s most beneficial inventions were discovered by accident, case in point the invention of controlling electricity by Thomas Jefferson, he was flying a kite in the middle of the storm and all of the sudden here we are today, none of us can imagine this world without our electricity.
This impacted modern education tremendously by allowing our students to explore different parts of education and the sky is the limit is what comes to mind when I read the idealism of Plato, because it teaches us to not make the ideas of our children but rather allow them to explore the world because there are so much knowledge in the world we can’t suppressed their minds to only certain levels of knowledge. New discoveries and ideas and inventions are still being discovered every day, if these creative minds were not set free to gain and understand what they have gained, we would still be in the dark ages.
During the times of Socrates and Plato, people were not knowledgeable enough to form their own ideas much less were they able to question the ideas that were place in their heads by the much more powerful members of society. Then came an old man by the name of Socrates and he was the first to start to open the minds of the youths of Greece, Socrates has a student by the name of Plato, Plato was the person who wrote about the ideas of Socrates and after the death of Socrates Plato continued and added his own ideas to his teacher’s ideas. He had some idealisms of his own and these are some of his most important ideas; such idea is one that I totally agree with this idea is that reality is based on undeniable truth, which means that truth can be challenged but at the end you will arrive to that same conclusion, another of his ideas is that human beings are born ignorant and we will spend the rest of our lives trying to obtain the knowledge we lost coming out of the womb, he believed that when were in the womb god provided us with all the knowledge of the world and as we were being born we lost all of that we once knew, he also believed that knowledge was not made but discovered, which means that knowledge was not put on this earth but people had to go out of this world and find it, through human curiosity to know how things of this world works we accidently discover knowledge, even in modern times most of the world’s most beneficial inventions were discovered by accident, case in point the invention of controlling electricity by Thomas Jefferson, he was flying a kite in the middle of the storm and all of the sudden here we are today, none of us can imagine this world without our electricity.
This impacted modern education tremendously by allowing our students to explore different parts of education and the sky is the limit is what comes to mind when I read the idealism of Plato, because it teaches us to not make the ideas of our children but rather allow them to explore the world because there are so much knowledge in the world we can’t suppressed their minds to only certain levels of knowledge. New discoveries and ideas and inventions are still being discovered every day, if these creative minds were not set free to gain and understand what they have gained, we would still be in the dark ages.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Knowing Yourself
Knowing Yourself
Awareness is knowing who we are and being able to make conscious decisions about life and shape our belief systems. Some people grow up in some environments that portray women and other minorities as less than human and are properties. These people are thought of to not being able to make their own decisions and choices, which we have to protect them by making the choices and decisions for them. Other such societies are so very religious and believe everything that happens in their lives from the weather, life and death are out of their hands and god has all the power over their lives. People that follow or done any studies on the occults can surmise that the leader of the cults take complete control over the lives of their followers. Once you take over person awareness you take away their ability to make their own decisions therefore they become mindless zombies. Some people, who believe in such religion as voodoo, will actually have physically reactions to such things as curses and this may also result in deaths because they believe in that person actually have the power to control life and death and to make things happen for them.
Consciousness is about making choice, not allowing someone to shape our views of what we should do or the outcome we can expect, this is when we take complete control over our lives and decision making process. Not only is this very important, it is detrimental to the development of our children, the only way teachers can help students to learn and to be motivated. Teaching is not to make a student learn but to give the student the information and allow them to process that information on their own to come up with their own meaning of what they’ve learned. That’s why reasoning is very important; consciousness is what we do purposely. We allow people to make decisions that will impact their lives and the lives of people that are in that society.
Awareness is knowing who we are and being able to make conscious decisions about life and shape our belief systems. Some people grow up in some environments that portray women and other minorities as less than human and are properties. These people are thought of to not being able to make their own decisions and choices, which we have to protect them by making the choices and decisions for them. Other such societies are so very religious and believe everything that happens in their lives from the weather, life and death are out of their hands and god has all the power over their lives. People that follow or done any studies on the occults can surmise that the leader of the cults take complete control over the lives of their followers. Once you take over person awareness you take away their ability to make their own decisions therefore they become mindless zombies. Some people, who believe in such religion as voodoo, will actually have physically reactions to such things as curses and this may also result in deaths because they believe in that person actually have the power to control life and death and to make things happen for them.
Consciousness is about making choice, not allowing someone to shape our views of what we should do or the outcome we can expect, this is when we take complete control over our lives and decision making process. Not only is this very important, it is detrimental to the development of our children, the only way teachers can help students to learn and to be motivated. Teaching is not to make a student learn but to give the student the information and allow them to process that information on their own to come up with their own meaning of what they’ve learned. That’s why reasoning is very important; consciousness is what we do purposely. We allow people to make decisions that will impact their lives and the lives of people that are in that society.
We are in Trouble
We are in trouble
As we know the American school system has always had their own problems in today’s society, well unfortunately this not a new problem, this problem existed during the cold war as well. Russia became the first country to launch a satellite into space, which did not sit well with a country like the United States. America did not have to look far to find out why they were not first and the answer was their educational system. It was a good scapegoat unfortunately it was a necessary one, the educational system in the United States is a more relaxed system then those around the world. That is because Americans are very spoiled and take their educational freedom for granted. Some countries such as Russia and many other European and Caribbean countries, education is not free at all. Students take their education very serious; because they know they are fortunate to get the opportunity to attend school, they also know that their parents are the ones making the sacrifice to be able to send them to school. When they are in the classroom they are attentive and very excited to learn, because they know the importance of an education. On the flipside the Americans take this same education for granted, one thing I’ve noticed going to school in America and comparing it to my school experience in my home country of Haiti is this, Americans are more distracted by trivial things such as the sneakers and clothes the other students are wearing, another thing I’ve noticed is that they are more interested in being cool instead of doing good in their studies.
This is one of the reasons American students have the lowest scores in international tests, when compared to other countries around the world, even those countries that are so called third world countries. This is the reason then and now American schools administration had to look at this and the only thing that they were able to come up with is the standardized testing. This was to improve their student’s knowledge by teaching only the subjects needed to pass the test. Unfortunately subjects such as economics, geography and history have taken a backseat and in some cases not being thought at all in some high schools. This has to change or we will have a bunch of students that enter higher education and not be able to function correctly because majority of the subjects that they need to be successful in college were never thought to them in the high school and elementary level.
As we know the American school system has always had their own problems in today’s society, well unfortunately this not a new problem, this problem existed during the cold war as well. Russia became the first country to launch a satellite into space, which did not sit well with a country like the United States. America did not have to look far to find out why they were not first and the answer was their educational system. It was a good scapegoat unfortunately it was a necessary one, the educational system in the United States is a more relaxed system then those around the world. That is because Americans are very spoiled and take their educational freedom for granted. Some countries such as Russia and many other European and Caribbean countries, education is not free at all. Students take their education very serious; because they know they are fortunate to get the opportunity to attend school, they also know that their parents are the ones making the sacrifice to be able to send them to school. When they are in the classroom they are attentive and very excited to learn, because they know the importance of an education. On the flipside the Americans take this same education for granted, one thing I’ve noticed going to school in America and comparing it to my school experience in my home country of Haiti is this, Americans are more distracted by trivial things such as the sneakers and clothes the other students are wearing, another thing I’ve noticed is that they are more interested in being cool instead of doing good in their studies.
This is one of the reasons American students have the lowest scores in international tests, when compared to other countries around the world, even those countries that are so called third world countries. This is the reason then and now American schools administration had to look at this and the only thing that they were able to come up with is the standardized testing. This was to improve their student’s knowledge by teaching only the subjects needed to pass the test. Unfortunately subjects such as economics, geography and history have taken a backseat and in some cases not being thought at all in some high schools. This has to change or we will have a bunch of students that enter higher education and not be able to function correctly because majority of the subjects that they need to be successful in college were never thought to them in the high school and elementary level.
The Creator of Free Thinking
The Creator of Free thinking
The philosopher Socrates was definitely the first person to try to unlock the minds of the citizens of his city, and for that he was accused of poisoning the minds of the youths of Athens. As the priests and the influential members of the city accused Socrates of introducing new gods into the youths, Socrates merely was merely trying to unlock their minds, by allowing the young men of Athens to ask questions to find the answers and not just accepting what was told to them by the priests and teachers. The only way for the monarch and higher ups to be able to control the citizens you can’t allow them to be free thinkers and that is the reason that they could not allow the people to start questioning their rules and norms that was set in place for them. Once people start to question things, the only answers they would receive are that it is the will of the gods and that would stop the people from questioning the laws.
Socrates never was an official teacher of any kind he himself was a student of someone else and he just wanted to pass on what he learned to the youths and at the same time try to unlock their minds. After awhile he started to go into the homes of the so-called wise men of Athens and would engaged in debates or simple conversations with them and at the end of his little experiment he actually realized that they did not know anything at all, they could not come up with any answers on their own, he concluded he was actually the smartest person in the city of Athens. Socrates also believes that learning was an ever changing thing. We cannot strive to learn and improve on the previous beliefs and methodologies, people who refuse change will never improve their lives because their minds are closed.
Socrates was a major impact on today’s education system, because he made it possible for students as well as professors and teachers to challenge and interpret beliefs, if it weren’t for his sacrifice we would probably still be studying the same ideologies as the ancient Greeks.
The philosopher Socrates was definitely the first person to try to unlock the minds of the citizens of his city, and for that he was accused of poisoning the minds of the youths of Athens. As the priests and the influential members of the city accused Socrates of introducing new gods into the youths, Socrates merely was merely trying to unlock their minds, by allowing the young men of Athens to ask questions to find the answers and not just accepting what was told to them by the priests and teachers. The only way for the monarch and higher ups to be able to control the citizens you can’t allow them to be free thinkers and that is the reason that they could not allow the people to start questioning their rules and norms that was set in place for them. Once people start to question things, the only answers they would receive are that it is the will of the gods and that would stop the people from questioning the laws.
Socrates never was an official teacher of any kind he himself was a student of someone else and he just wanted to pass on what he learned to the youths and at the same time try to unlock their minds. After awhile he started to go into the homes of the so-called wise men of Athens and would engaged in debates or simple conversations with them and at the end of his little experiment he actually realized that they did not know anything at all, they could not come up with any answers on their own, he concluded he was actually the smartest person in the city of Athens. Socrates also believes that learning was an ever changing thing. We cannot strive to learn and improve on the previous beliefs and methodologies, people who refuse change will never improve their lives because their minds are closed.
Socrates was a major impact on today’s education system, because he made it possible for students as well as professors and teachers to challenge and interpret beliefs, if it weren’t for his sacrifice we would probably still be studying the same ideologies as the ancient Greeks.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Loving Who I Am
Loving who I am
The media has always portrayed the Haitians as leapers social and economical outcasts, I am not sure why but if they only knew the rich history my country possesses they would not even dare to do so. Haiti was the first freed Black Country ever and even to this day we are paying the price for overthrowing napoleon army, at the time napoleon was a conqueror of many countries and he was defeated by a bunch of slaves. Being thought this growing up as a child my heart was filled with pride, to know how we have contributed to the black society. I always been proud of my heritage and my culture, I never once been ashamed of whom I was, even when it was not so cool to be Haitian and some places even dangerous, I never denied my people. I never believed the media’s portrayal of my country, a lot of people would ask questions about my culture, people who asks me questions I’m more incline to answer their questions, because it shows that they have a legitimate and genuine interest in learning about my culture.
Being a woman in the Haitian society I was brought up with the teaching that I need to find a husband that was wealthy and have a high standing in society. Because Haiti has a class society, that we have to marry to a person that is in the same class as you or higher never lower, if that was to happen you would bring shame to your family and that husband will never be welcome. As a woman in a Haitian society it is expected to only cook, take care of the home, the children, pretty much we have to keep a low profile and not be involved in anything intellectual and cater to your husband from head to toe.
Growing up in a religious family sex was pretty much a taboo subject. I was thought we were to wait till marriage, I totally believed that and I waited till I got married to engage in sexual experiences, the first and only sexual partner I’ve ever had is my husband, my husband and I both shared this experience together, we were each other’s first and only sexual partners. Now days young people are starting to have sex so early, it’s a very serious situation this is the reason why there’s a lot of young parents under the age of 16 which is very scary situation.
The media has always portrayed the Haitians as leapers social and economical outcasts, I am not sure why but if they only knew the rich history my country possesses they would not even dare to do so. Haiti was the first freed Black Country ever and even to this day we are paying the price for overthrowing napoleon army, at the time napoleon was a conqueror of many countries and he was defeated by a bunch of slaves. Being thought this growing up as a child my heart was filled with pride, to know how we have contributed to the black society. I always been proud of my heritage and my culture, I never once been ashamed of whom I was, even when it was not so cool to be Haitian and some places even dangerous, I never denied my people. I never believed the media’s portrayal of my country, a lot of people would ask questions about my culture, people who asks me questions I’m more incline to answer their questions, because it shows that they have a legitimate and genuine interest in learning about my culture.
Being a woman in the Haitian society I was brought up with the teaching that I need to find a husband that was wealthy and have a high standing in society. Because Haiti has a class society, that we have to marry to a person that is in the same class as you or higher never lower, if that was to happen you would bring shame to your family and that husband will never be welcome. As a woman in a Haitian society it is expected to only cook, take care of the home, the children, pretty much we have to keep a low profile and not be involved in anything intellectual and cater to your husband from head to toe.
Growing up in a religious family sex was pretty much a taboo subject. I was thought we were to wait till marriage, I totally believed that and I waited till I got married to engage in sexual experiences, the first and only sexual partner I’ve ever had is my husband, my husband and I both shared this experience together, we were each other’s first and only sexual partners. Now days young people are starting to have sex so early, it’s a very serious situation this is the reason why there’s a lot of young parents under the age of 16 which is very scary situation.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Entering the Gate
The statement “The teacher is the gatekeeper”, means that the teachers are the ones that has the key to unlock the human mind, and that key is knowledge. In order for you to enter the gate you need to be gain knowledge and understanding. The teacher have the key and the gate is the human mind, we are all born with a closed mind, meaning we are susceptible to accepting and believing anything that you are told while you are growing up. Parents are the child’s first teacher; parents are the one who thought us how to speak, walk, potty training and also how to groom ourselves; such as brushing our teeth, combing our hair. Behavior is also thought by our parents, because knowing how to act in the society that we are being brought up into is very important for us to know the acceptable and un-acceptable behaviors. After learning what all that we are able to learn from our parents the next stage which is school.
When we enter school our minds our introduced to a whole new learning experience, now we have to shift from learning how to behave to learning a whole new items. To begin we start by learning the alphabet once we’ve mastered the alphabet we are now ready to start to learn how to write the alphabets, next we learn numbers usually starts with the first ten numbers in the numeric system and as we proceed further in our scholastic learning we start to be thought more and more numbers, then we start to learn spelling, where we use the letters we just learned and put them together to form words, once we’ve learned the words we can then find the definition, knowing the meaning of these words we can now know how to properly use them.
Once our minds have been unlocked we now gain what is known as personalities, without having our minds unlocked us would never be able to develop into our own. We owe everything to the teachers because they have the power to shape their students and lead them into the right direction; teachers have a very big responsibility in developing and shaping their students minds. Teaching is a very tiring and thankless job, teachers did not get into the profession to be praised, and as long as they produce productive members of society they are happy.
The statement “The teacher is the gatekeeper”, means that the teachers are the ones that has the key to unlock the human mind, and that key is knowledge. In order for you to enter the gate you need to be gain knowledge and understanding. The teacher have the key and the gate is the human mind, we are all born with a closed mind, meaning we are susceptible to accepting and believing anything that you are told while you are growing up. Parents are the child’s first teacher; parents are the one who thought us how to speak, walk, potty training and also how to groom ourselves; such as brushing our teeth, combing our hair. Behavior is also thought by our parents, because knowing how to act in the society that we are being brought up into is very important for us to know the acceptable and un-acceptable behaviors. After learning what all that we are able to learn from our parents the next stage which is school.
When we enter school our minds our introduced to a whole new learning experience, now we have to shift from learning how to behave to learning a whole new items. To begin we start by learning the alphabet once we’ve mastered the alphabet we are now ready to start to learn how to write the alphabets, next we learn numbers usually starts with the first ten numbers in the numeric system and as we proceed further in our scholastic learning we start to be thought more and more numbers, then we start to learn spelling, where we use the letters we just learned and put them together to form words, once we’ve learned the words we can then find the definition, knowing the meaning of these words we can now know how to properly use them.
Once our minds have been unlocked we now gain what is known as personalities, without having our minds unlocked us would never be able to develop into our own. We owe everything to the teachers because they have the power to shape their students and lead them into the right direction; teachers have a very big responsibility in developing and shaping their students minds. Teaching is a very tiring and thankless job, teachers did not get into the profession to be praised, and as long as they produce productive members of society they are happy.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
New School System
New School System
After reading the two articles on the different school systems of the ancient societies I came to the conclusion that the Sumerians system was the more advanced for of system out of the two. The Egyptians was more geared towards servitude to the crown and not towards educating the general public. They were more into preparing the scribes to be able to serve the king and other members of the royal parties, such as government officials, army generals and other prominent members of the Egyptian society.
Egyptians scribal school, were ran by the priests, who were directly under the control of the crown. Their school curriculums were solely based on the principle of writing and reading, just the basic skills necessary to do their duties efficiently. The priests were only there to teach specific lessons, nothing more than the basic reading and writing were allowed to be thought to the students. The schools were closed enrolment only, only certain people were allowed to receive an education.
The Mesopotamian system was a more advance system of education because their school even though it was still under the control of the king, the subject were far more than the basic reading and writing, they ventured to such subjects as math, science and astrology. Each of these subjects was geared toward better understanding the world around them.
Then Sumerian systems, which are similar to the form of education system we are currently using today, this system consist of a sort of chain of command. This chain consists of a school father, a big brother of the school, teachers and school sons. The school father is the principle, the person who’s in charge of enrollment, paying the teachers and putting together the school’s activities. The vice principle is the school’s big brother and he is in charge of making sure the teachers had their lessons and also to be there when the students recite their lessons.
After reading the two articles on the different school systems of the ancient societies I came to the conclusion that the Sumerians system was the more advanced for of system out of the two. The Egyptians was more geared towards servitude to the crown and not towards educating the general public. They were more into preparing the scribes to be able to serve the king and other members of the royal parties, such as government officials, army generals and other prominent members of the Egyptian society.
Egyptians scribal school, were ran by the priests, who were directly under the control of the crown. Their school curriculums were solely based on the principle of writing and reading, just the basic skills necessary to do their duties efficiently. The priests were only there to teach specific lessons, nothing more than the basic reading and writing were allowed to be thought to the students. The schools were closed enrolment only, only certain people were allowed to receive an education.
The Mesopotamian system was a more advance system of education because their school even though it was still under the control of the king, the subject were far more than the basic reading and writing, they ventured to such subjects as math, science and astrology. Each of these subjects was geared toward better understanding the world around them.
Then Sumerian systems, which are similar to the form of education system we are currently using today, this system consist of a sort of chain of command. This chain consists of a school father, a big brother of the school, teachers and school sons. The school father is the principle, the person who’s in charge of enrollment, paying the teachers and putting together the school’s activities. The vice principle is the school’s big brother and he is in charge of making sure the teachers had their lessons and also to be there when the students recite their lessons.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
RITES OF PASSAGE
RITES OF PASSAGE
Rites of passage are very detrimental to some societies in order to pass and tradition to new upcoming generation. There are several different types of rites of passage, due to the fact that there are many cultures that practice this form of education. The only groups that practices rites of passage are non-literate cultures. This is one way of ensuring the preservation of their culture for years to come. The child learns by watching their fathers and elders by imitate their actions until they are able to be thought properly how to behave and work. Once they learned and complete their tasks they would have shed their childish skin and would now become adults.Facing Mt. Kenya was a very descriptive account on how a Kenyan tribe’s rites of passage. The rite of passage is the circumcision of a girl.
This is a very un-orthodox tradition; this is the removal of the girl’s clitoris. The removal of this vital sexual part would bring this girl into womanhood, this to us would be inhumane treatment and would also be considered child abuse, this make the girl only good enough to produce children, she would not be able to enjoy any sexual pleasure.The story of sitting quietly is a story about a set of K’pelle Eight year old twins that to set on the path of manhood.
The task was to begin with the young men having to carve their own spears to fight and slay the forest thing that was an evil monster that along with his wife would eat the children. The kids were place in a dark hut for several days and each night there command to do different tasks, some were comical, but not to or scared the child, the kids would be challenged one by one to go into the forest and fight the monster. The brave one would have passed the test, not every child would pass because they were so frightened some would die of fear, which is because they were weak, and this was a way of weeding the weak child.The Zambians are the first tribe to ever use homosexuality as a form of rites of passage. The young man would leave with an older warrior and would have to perform regular falatio. This was though it would transfer strength and fertility through semen from the older male.Formal education teachers a variety of intellectual problems, such as history, law, science and many other useful tools to maintain civilized in society. Where as a non-literate society uses rites of passage because they don’t have writing and reading to teach.
Rites of passage are very detrimental to some societies in order to pass and tradition to new upcoming generation. There are several different types of rites of passage, due to the fact that there are many cultures that practice this form of education. The only groups that practices rites of passage are non-literate cultures. This is one way of ensuring the preservation of their culture for years to come. The child learns by watching their fathers and elders by imitate their actions until they are able to be thought properly how to behave and work. Once they learned and complete their tasks they would have shed their childish skin and would now become adults.Facing Mt. Kenya was a very descriptive account on how a Kenyan tribe’s rites of passage. The rite of passage is the circumcision of a girl.
This is a very un-orthodox tradition; this is the removal of the girl’s clitoris. The removal of this vital sexual part would bring this girl into womanhood, this to us would be inhumane treatment and would also be considered child abuse, this make the girl only good enough to produce children, she would not be able to enjoy any sexual pleasure.The story of sitting quietly is a story about a set of K’pelle Eight year old twins that to set on the path of manhood.
The task was to begin with the young men having to carve their own spears to fight and slay the forest thing that was an evil monster that along with his wife would eat the children. The kids were place in a dark hut for several days and each night there command to do different tasks, some were comical, but not to or scared the child, the kids would be challenged one by one to go into the forest and fight the monster. The brave one would have passed the test, not every child would pass because they were so frightened some would die of fear, which is because they were weak, and this was a way of weeding the weak child.The Zambians are the first tribe to ever use homosexuality as a form of rites of passage. The young man would leave with an older warrior and would have to perform regular falatio. This was though it would transfer strength and fertility through semen from the older male.Formal education teachers a variety of intellectual problems, such as history, law, science and many other useful tools to maintain civilized in society. Where as a non-literate society uses rites of passage because they don’t have writing and reading to teach.
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
The American School system
In 1982, the American school system was on the verge of a major facelift, the reason behind this transformation was due to the fact that most high school graduates were unable to read or do basic reading of mathematical problems. The workforce as well as the arm force were complaining to the school board asking them to better teach their students, some of the graduates there were producing were not properly thought. The American students were ranked last amongst students around the world. The statistics along with the complaints of employers and arm forces forced the senators of each state to look at this growing problem and look for different ways to rectify this situation. Some states raised their graduation requirements; others were starting to implement certain test in order to graduate or to move up to the next grade. Most states increased teacher’s qualification and pay, the most genius plan was to increase the school year. All of these school reform ideas were the beginning of the three waves of reform.
The first wave was started in 1982; this was to raise the educational standards in the schools. This was to also weed out weak performing teachers as well as students and schools to bring qualified teachers and administrations to raise standards. The second wave was to restructure the school system; this gives teachers better salary, and power to teachers, give principals power over their perspective school and keep politics out of the school. The third wave was comprehensive services, which gives certain transportations, nutrition, counseling and other necessary social and economic needs to make learning easy.
The reason why we continue to use these systems is because we see the results we’ve been looking for, graduates are now entering the workforce or college with advance generation knowledge of reading, math and English.
In 1982, the American school system was on the verge of a major facelift, the reason behind this transformation was due to the fact that most high school graduates were unable to read or do basic reading of mathematical problems. The workforce as well as the arm force were complaining to the school board asking them to better teach their students, some of the graduates there were producing were not properly thought. The American students were ranked last amongst students around the world. The statistics along with the complaints of employers and arm forces forced the senators of each state to look at this growing problem and look for different ways to rectify this situation. Some states raised their graduation requirements; others were starting to implement certain test in order to graduate or to move up to the next grade. Most states increased teacher’s qualification and pay, the most genius plan was to increase the school year. All of these school reform ideas were the beginning of the three waves of reform.
The first wave was started in 1982; this was to raise the educational standards in the schools. This was to also weed out weak performing teachers as well as students and schools to bring qualified teachers and administrations to raise standards. The second wave was to restructure the school system; this gives teachers better salary, and power to teachers, give principals power over their perspective school and keep politics out of the school. The third wave was comprehensive services, which gives certain transportations, nutrition, counseling and other necessary social and economic needs to make learning easy.
The reason why we continue to use these systems is because we see the results we’ve been looking for, graduates are now entering the workforce or college with advance generation knowledge of reading, math and English.
ANCIENT EGYPT EDUCATION
EGYPT ANCIENT EDUCATION
Try and imagine a society where education was only offered to a certain few. This was the reality of early Egypt, where only the sons of nobles and high class were offered the chance of an education, what were the choice of the middle class and peasants? They had to create a way of passing on their knowledge and experience to their children; they started home schooling their children.
Home school was more like apprenticeship, where the child at an early age starts to model their parent’s behaviors and learned different parts of their parent’s habits. As the child gets older the father passes small amounts of responsibilities and the older the child become the more responsibilities they are given. The purpose behind home schooling was very clear because a father passing on his knowledge to his son, since they were not able to afforded the chance to obtain a formal education. If your father for instance was a farmer, he would teach farming techniques such as the proper ways of planting certain vegetation, knowing the season for each type of plants, good and bad soil. If your father was a fisherman you were thought effective fishing techniques such as the types of baits to utilize, where and how far into the sea to go and find certain fish and also swimming and boating skills. These types of skill were never written down, but were passed down from generation to generation with slight modifications made because of the evaluation and advancements of tools and human knowledge.
The Mesopotamian educational structure was by far the more advanced system, because it went beyond reading and writing, also included such subjects a s law, science, astronomy, medicine and ethics. These subjects were vital to the preservation and survival of their culture. These students were suppose to read, remember and stand before the priest and repeat verbatim what he wrote without any mistakes, and mistakes were not allowed in the school.
We somehow adopted the Mesopotamian’s system of formal education, without having to stand and recite what we studied; we have substituted the reciting with paper exams which test our ability to retain the written texts.
Try and imagine a society where education was only offered to a certain few. This was the reality of early Egypt, where only the sons of nobles and high class were offered the chance of an education, what were the choice of the middle class and peasants? They had to create a way of passing on their knowledge and experience to their children; they started home schooling their children.
Home school was more like apprenticeship, where the child at an early age starts to model their parent’s behaviors and learned different parts of their parent’s habits. As the child gets older the father passes small amounts of responsibilities and the older the child become the more responsibilities they are given. The purpose behind home schooling was very clear because a father passing on his knowledge to his son, since they were not able to afforded the chance to obtain a formal education. If your father for instance was a farmer, he would teach farming techniques such as the proper ways of planting certain vegetation, knowing the season for each type of plants, good and bad soil. If your father was a fisherman you were thought effective fishing techniques such as the types of baits to utilize, where and how far into the sea to go and find certain fish and also swimming and boating skills. These types of skill were never written down, but were passed down from generation to generation with slight modifications made because of the evaluation and advancements of tools and human knowledge.
The Mesopotamian educational structure was by far the more advanced system, because it went beyond reading and writing, also included such subjects a s law, science, astronomy, medicine and ethics. These subjects were vital to the preservation and survival of their culture. These students were suppose to read, remember and stand before the priest and repeat verbatim what he wrote without any mistakes, and mistakes were not allowed in the school.
We somehow adopted the Mesopotamian’s system of formal education, without having to stand and recite what we studied; we have substituted the reciting with paper exams which test our ability to retain the written texts.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Equal Education
Equal education
Education has always been a major part of the American culture; some Americans were given more opportunities to receive the best education than others. Caucasians has always been given the best opportunities than minorities. I could not imagine going to school accompanied by an armed guard every day, would be a very distracting and would be very disturbing. I would not be able to concentrate on the lecture the teacher is given because I would be too concern with my safety instead of concentrating on my education. Being involved in a system where you are not welcome, could be very devastating and emotionally draining. Although it may seem like the worst that could’ve happened to a person, but imagine the alternative of going back to a Negros school where the building is a shack not fit to teach in or the basement of a church, reading from outdated books and teachers who were not properly trained, even though I am not welcome to this school this is my one chance of a decent education.
The racism was so hard that teachers who have been teaching at the school for decades just quit because they did not want to teach black children. It is a shame that people can be so hateful as to be hated not because of anything in particular but for something that a person cannot help and that is the race they were born into. An education is the most important credential a person can have; an education can equal wealth and status in society. Whites have figured out that there is only one way to keep a race down and that is to deny them education and opportunities. It breaks my heart to see just how black kids are taking education for granted. Previous generations fought hard and gave their lives for the rights that some of us now don’t appreciates. And we have read throughout history how difficult it was for a black person to have an education, since the previous generations have open the door for us, we all should take that opportunity the take full advantage of a good education which will benefit us in the long run.
Education has always been a major part of the American culture; some Americans were given more opportunities to receive the best education than others. Caucasians has always been given the best opportunities than minorities. I could not imagine going to school accompanied by an armed guard every day, would be a very distracting and would be very disturbing. I would not be able to concentrate on the lecture the teacher is given because I would be too concern with my safety instead of concentrating on my education. Being involved in a system where you are not welcome, could be very devastating and emotionally draining. Although it may seem like the worst that could’ve happened to a person, but imagine the alternative of going back to a Negros school where the building is a shack not fit to teach in or the basement of a church, reading from outdated books and teachers who were not properly trained, even though I am not welcome to this school this is my one chance of a decent education.
The racism was so hard that teachers who have been teaching at the school for decades just quit because they did not want to teach black children. It is a shame that people can be so hateful as to be hated not because of anything in particular but for something that a person cannot help and that is the race they were born into. An education is the most important credential a person can have; an education can equal wealth and status in society. Whites have figured out that there is only one way to keep a race down and that is to deny them education and opportunities. It breaks my heart to see just how black kids are taking education for granted. Previous generations fought hard and gave their lives for the rights that some of us now don’t appreciates. And we have read throughout history how difficult it was for a black person to have an education, since the previous generations have open the door for us, we all should take that opportunity the take full advantage of a good education which will benefit us in the long run.
One World
Understand Each other
Culture has several meanings but mostly it’s a belief system and way of life, language. Culture can also be defined as a group of people with the same belief and acceptance. Everyone in a certain culture has the same beliefs rather from religious practices and ways of living and rising of children and diet. To better understand a new culture we first have to remove any prejudice we may have and keep an open mind and know that we are not there to judge but to gain an understanding of that culture. The only way we can get along is by understanding and respecting every aspect of each other’s lives. The most controversial parts of culture that seems to always raise people’s temper are religious beliefs.
Religion and politics are the two subjects people don’t seem to ever agree on, and to my understand it is because when it comes to religion we are close minded no matter if you are open minded to everything else that may be affecting your life but the one subject that usually gets people anger. That is because these ideology were feed to us from before we were able to speak or even understand the world around us, we already being exposed to these ideologies, that makes them part of our own belief. I remember walking to the mall from my car and a young man approached me and started speaking to me about religion and asked me several probing question such as, do I accept Jesus Christ as the son of god? Of course I replied “yes”, he proceeded to preach to me and some of the stuff he was saying sounds pretty good and as we were talking my husband walked to us and he asked him the same questions and my husband being Muslim, answered Jesus Christ was a prophet and not the son of god, he stopped talking to me and focused in on my husband, my husband grew up a pastor’s son and nephew studied both bibles and knows a lot and when the young men noticed that he was out matched theologically, he said something till this day still haunts me and that is “all Africans, Asians, Muslim were all doomed to go to hell, and there is nothing they can do to change that”, my husband laughed and we walked away, it was then I saw just how close minded some people can be.
I’ve always respected people’s way of life, because I’m a foreigner in a foreign land which means I had to learn their rules and laws in order to live and prosper amongst them. If someone is curious and want to ask me any question about my culture I would be more than happy to share my world with them, because the more they know about my culture the easier it would be for all of us to get along. I believe if everyone takes the time to ask someone questions about his or her culture instead of creating rumors and assumptions this world would be a more peaceful world.
Culture has several meanings but mostly it’s a belief system and way of life, language. Culture can also be defined as a group of people with the same belief and acceptance. Everyone in a certain culture has the same beliefs rather from religious practices and ways of living and rising of children and diet. To better understand a new culture we first have to remove any prejudice we may have and keep an open mind and know that we are not there to judge but to gain an understanding of that culture. The only way we can get along is by understanding and respecting every aspect of each other’s lives. The most controversial parts of culture that seems to always raise people’s temper are religious beliefs.
Religion and politics are the two subjects people don’t seem to ever agree on, and to my understand it is because when it comes to religion we are close minded no matter if you are open minded to everything else that may be affecting your life but the one subject that usually gets people anger. That is because these ideology were feed to us from before we were able to speak or even understand the world around us, we already being exposed to these ideologies, that makes them part of our own belief. I remember walking to the mall from my car and a young man approached me and started speaking to me about religion and asked me several probing question such as, do I accept Jesus Christ as the son of god? Of course I replied “yes”, he proceeded to preach to me and some of the stuff he was saying sounds pretty good and as we were talking my husband walked to us and he asked him the same questions and my husband being Muslim, answered Jesus Christ was a prophet and not the son of god, he stopped talking to me and focused in on my husband, my husband grew up a pastor’s son and nephew studied both bibles and knows a lot and when the young men noticed that he was out matched theologically, he said something till this day still haunts me and that is “all Africans, Asians, Muslim were all doomed to go to hell, and there is nothing they can do to change that”, my husband laughed and we walked away, it was then I saw just how close minded some people can be.
I’ve always respected people’s way of life, because I’m a foreigner in a foreign land which means I had to learn their rules and laws in order to live and prosper amongst them. If someone is curious and want to ask me any question about my culture I would be more than happy to share my world with them, because the more they know about my culture the easier it would be for all of us to get along. I believe if everyone takes the time to ask someone questions about his or her culture instead of creating rumors and assumptions this world would be a more peaceful world.
Recording History
Recording history
Writing is one of the most important creations to date. Archeologist dated writing as far back as forty-thousand years ago. The first style of writing was called pictograph, this style can best be described as kids drawings, these drawings were found mostly in caves, and these cave drawing were there to tell a story and also to warn others of dangers. As early men evolved from roaming creatures to into a community base existence this is when writing started to serve a new purpose. Because men now were farmers and hunters and now live in communities they had to find a way to keep track of their cattle, grains and other properties. With the invention of the wheel and the discovery of fire men were now able to travel distances and now with writing able to document how far they’ve traveled.
Writing was not granted to anyone even those that could’ve afford to pay to learn, only the kings and pharoahs were given the right to learn this art. The priests were the only scribers around and the few apprentices they took under their wings to teach them. The scribe school was the harshest school because these people were being prep to serve the pharaoh or the king and other government figures in the land. They were not allowed to make any errors even while in the school, to make a mistake at this level could be punished severely; some were beating within inches of their lives. Once a scribe has completed his training he will now be assigned a post, the highest honor would be to serve the king, they would be on call twenty four hours a day, they are responsible to keep records of the kings treasures and you definitely do not want to make any mistakes there and to write down the kings rulings and make laws anything the king tells them to, at time the scribe can be one of the most powerful person besides the king, because through the pen he writes history. The Egyptian also improved the old writing style of
hieroglyphics and established a new style of writing which was called arcograph, this form of writing is what gave birth to what westerners call the alphabet system, instead of a picture meaning a great deal of things, now a simple picture stands for a letter and each letter can be combined with others to created a sound or word. The arcograph and hieroglyphic still shared similar characteristics. Without writing our history would be lost and human evolution would have never been recorded.
Writing is one of the most important creations to date. Archeologist dated writing as far back as forty-thousand years ago. The first style of writing was called pictograph, this style can best be described as kids drawings, these drawings were found mostly in caves, and these cave drawing were there to tell a story and also to warn others of dangers. As early men evolved from roaming creatures to into a community base existence this is when writing started to serve a new purpose. Because men now were farmers and hunters and now live in communities they had to find a way to keep track of their cattle, grains and other properties. With the invention of the wheel and the discovery of fire men were now able to travel distances and now with writing able to document how far they’ve traveled.
Writing was not granted to anyone even those that could’ve afford to pay to learn, only the kings and pharoahs were given the right to learn this art. The priests were the only scribers around and the few apprentices they took under their wings to teach them. The scribe school was the harshest school because these people were being prep to serve the pharaoh or the king and other government figures in the land. They were not allowed to make any errors even while in the school, to make a mistake at this level could be punished severely; some were beating within inches of their lives. Once a scribe has completed his training he will now be assigned a post, the highest honor would be to serve the king, they would be on call twenty four hours a day, they are responsible to keep records of the kings treasures and you definitely do not want to make any mistakes there and to write down the kings rulings and make laws anything the king tells them to, at time the scribe can be one of the most powerful person besides the king, because through the pen he writes history. The Egyptian also improved the old writing style of
hieroglyphics and established a new style of writing which was called arcograph, this form of writing is what gave birth to what westerners call the alphabet system, instead of a picture meaning a great deal of things, now a simple picture stands for a letter and each letter can be combined with others to created a sound or word. The arcograph and hieroglyphic still shared similar characteristics. Without writing our history would be lost and human evolution would have never been recorded.
From Boys to Men
From Boys to Men
From as far back as time the concept of rites of passage has always been part of ancient and modern societies. Each society or culture has their own trial, these tries are usually based on the type of tribe or culture the individual belongs to. A farming tribe for example may have a trial dealing with the production and cultivation of crops, where as a warrior tribe may have the individual go on a quest or fight to earn their respect and status amongst their respective communities, some culture uses mutilation of the boy or girl’s genitalia, these cultures not only the boys is circumcised but the girl as well, as inhumane we may find these actions but when a person is brought up in this types. For many of these cultures honor and respect within their tribe means everything, to earn that respect they even give up their own life to achieve such a distinguish honor not only for themselves but for their families as well.
Teaching is another way of passing along traditions and history of the culture to the new generations, teaching is instructing giving guidance rather than cohesions. The instructors would show the students and making sure they understand why they are going through the events they are about to go through and why it is necessary for them to do so. Understanding why something is taking place and the history behind it builds a greater understanding and excitement rather than fear, these pupils will be better prepared, we often fear the unknown but through teaching and learning the unknown is no more.
Teaching is the most valuable method, because only through teaching we can better preserve our society and pass on to the next generation to preservation of culture, ethic and belief is a way of ensuring the culture would be preserved accurately. Previous generations pass on their achievements, failures and battles, these stories are then passed along with accuracy throughout the years and decades without any misrepresantations or mistakes. The new generation also have their own stories to tell and improvements that they’ve made for their lives, these are also becoming part of the history of the tribes and will become part of the culture, it may seem that each generation are trying to do better than the previous one, but this is the only way of ensuring evolution and not repeating the mistakes of previous generations, only through teaching is this possible.
From as far back as time the concept of rites of passage has always been part of ancient and modern societies. Each society or culture has their own trial, these tries are usually based on the type of tribe or culture the individual belongs to. A farming tribe for example may have a trial dealing with the production and cultivation of crops, where as a warrior tribe may have the individual go on a quest or fight to earn their respect and status amongst their respective communities, some culture uses mutilation of the boy or girl’s genitalia, these cultures not only the boys is circumcised but the girl as well, as inhumane we may find these actions but when a person is brought up in this types. For many of these cultures honor and respect within their tribe means everything, to earn that respect they even give up their own life to achieve such a distinguish honor not only for themselves but for their families as well.
Teaching is another way of passing along traditions and history of the culture to the new generations, teaching is instructing giving guidance rather than cohesions. The instructors would show the students and making sure they understand why they are going through the events they are about to go through and why it is necessary for them to do so. Understanding why something is taking place and the history behind it builds a greater understanding and excitement rather than fear, these pupils will be better prepared, we often fear the unknown but through teaching and learning the unknown is no more.
Teaching is the most valuable method, because only through teaching we can better preserve our society and pass on to the next generation to preservation of culture, ethic and belief is a way of ensuring the culture would be preserved accurately. Previous generations pass on their achievements, failures and battles, these stories are then passed along with accuracy throughout the years and decades without any misrepresantations or mistakes. The new generation also have their own stories to tell and improvements that they’ve made for their lives, these are also becoming part of the history of the tribes and will become part of the culture, it may seem that each generation are trying to do better than the previous one, but this is the only way of ensuring evolution and not repeating the mistakes of previous generations, only through teaching is this possible.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Human Psyche
Human psyche
Paradigm is powerful mental models, a way people interpret their realities. These are usually a strong set of assumptions these individuals have, these assumption are of certain procedures, process of sets of beliefs, they can also be political and organization. These individual’s are so caught up in their beliefs are so ingrained into their minds well better yet their souls. It is because for years growing up watching their parents, they began modeling themselves after their parents; typically parents are a child’s first teachers. Once a parent or any influential person place an idea into an impressionable child’s mind that idea becomes the only truth and that child will grow up with that idea and that same idea becomes their core beliefs, they would never question that belief.
Paradigm shift is when we question certain beliefs or ideas, no matter how big or small it may be. The only way to ever truly be an individual, once we start to question ideas gives us a better understanding of the world around us, it is impossible to just accept anything someone tells us to be true. Humans are naturally curious, rather it’s just trying to figure out how different things work, or challenging age old beliefs such as religions. We are all trying to find answers to our inter-most questions, the only way to truly grow and advance in life as well in society is to try to figure out how the world works. We have notice the significant changes in life when men refuses to conform to old ideas, as the world changes we must change with it. Technology came from, men’s never ending need to find new ways to improve life. As we evolved from cavemen, to Benjamin Franklin’s discovering electricity, to Alexander Graham Bell’s discovery of the telephone and so forth and so on. As generation comes, each generation afterwards made significant improvements to those inventions already made from before. We never stopped trying to bring about the highest levels of understanding, no longer is the sky the limit, we have gone above and beyond the skies.
Teachers need to practice paradigm changes, because there are diverse students going to the classrooms. These students all have different levels and styles of learning, therefore today’s educators can no longer generalize education, they have to learn and identify each student’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to educating the students. Without that knowledge of how to identify and the willingness to change how we teach, the educator would have a hard time in the classroom.
Paradigm is powerful mental models, a way people interpret their realities. These are usually a strong set of assumptions these individuals have, these assumption are of certain procedures, process of sets of beliefs, they can also be political and organization. These individual’s are so caught up in their beliefs are so ingrained into their minds well better yet their souls. It is because for years growing up watching their parents, they began modeling themselves after their parents; typically parents are a child’s first teachers. Once a parent or any influential person place an idea into an impressionable child’s mind that idea becomes the only truth and that child will grow up with that idea and that same idea becomes their core beliefs, they would never question that belief.
Paradigm shift is when we question certain beliefs or ideas, no matter how big or small it may be. The only way to ever truly be an individual, once we start to question ideas gives us a better understanding of the world around us, it is impossible to just accept anything someone tells us to be true. Humans are naturally curious, rather it’s just trying to figure out how different things work, or challenging age old beliefs such as religions. We are all trying to find answers to our inter-most questions, the only way to truly grow and advance in life as well in society is to try to figure out how the world works. We have notice the significant changes in life when men refuses to conform to old ideas, as the world changes we must change with it. Technology came from, men’s never ending need to find new ways to improve life. As we evolved from cavemen, to Benjamin Franklin’s discovering electricity, to Alexander Graham Bell’s discovery of the telephone and so forth and so on. As generation comes, each generation afterwards made significant improvements to those inventions already made from before. We never stopped trying to bring about the highest levels of understanding, no longer is the sky the limit, we have gone above and beyond the skies.
Teachers need to practice paradigm changes, because there are diverse students going to the classrooms. These students all have different levels and styles of learning, therefore today’s educators can no longer generalize education, they have to learn and identify each student’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to educating the students. Without that knowledge of how to identify and the willingness to change how we teach, the educator would have a hard time in the classroom.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
New Breed of Humans
New breed of humans
Growing up I never knew there were so many types of homos. Even while in school we were never exposed to the studies of early men, this type of subject was often taboo. Churches were very influential in keeping the study of evolution out of schools. The reason human evolution was not thought in schools was because the two oppositions were science versus religion. The scientific aspect of evolution is that humans evolved from apes, which it was very evident to me from looking at the apes and us there are a lot of similarities. After reading this passage on early humans, it really opened my eyes to facts instead of speculations. Religion refused to believe in the theory of evolution, because it would depict that, since god created humans in his image, that god would be an ape. No one in religion has ever been able to disprove the scientific theory of evolution. The one thing that I found to be different from what I used to believe is the fact that, early humans named Neanderthals, the women gave birth to litters instead of single births, which are really intriguing and puzzling at the same time. After the evolution into Homo erectus, this is when men stood on two feet, which is when single births were starting to be common and litters were not so common anymore. This new evolution allowed the mother to spend more time with the new born and nurture their newborns.
The story of Lucy the female skeletal remains that were found in Africa, her species of homo were called Australopiticus afrensis. This discovery of these skeletal remains was the closest to us physically. The part of the story that surprised me the most was the size of the skeletal remains, the remains was approximately three feet six inches tall, which shows these species were not relatively big in size, compare to current humans. These humans also lived in small communities and developed ways of cultivating grains and the herding of animals, which was essential to their survival.
Reading these articles and seeing these facts only strengthened my earlier beliefs of the theory of evolution. Before I only had speculations and personal opinions now I was able to see actual scientific facts which back up my beliefs. The one thing I wish is for schools to start teaching this subject in the classroom, it is essential for us to teach everyone how life begun, to understand the future we must know our past.
Growing up I never knew there were so many types of homos. Even while in school we were never exposed to the studies of early men, this type of subject was often taboo. Churches were very influential in keeping the study of evolution out of schools. The reason human evolution was not thought in schools was because the two oppositions were science versus religion. The scientific aspect of evolution is that humans evolved from apes, which it was very evident to me from looking at the apes and us there are a lot of similarities. After reading this passage on early humans, it really opened my eyes to facts instead of speculations. Religion refused to believe in the theory of evolution, because it would depict that, since god created humans in his image, that god would be an ape. No one in religion has ever been able to disprove the scientific theory of evolution. The one thing that I found to be different from what I used to believe is the fact that, early humans named Neanderthals, the women gave birth to litters instead of single births, which are really intriguing and puzzling at the same time. After the evolution into Homo erectus, this is when men stood on two feet, which is when single births were starting to be common and litters were not so common anymore. This new evolution allowed the mother to spend more time with the new born and nurture their newborns.
The story of Lucy the female skeletal remains that were found in Africa, her species of homo were called Australopiticus afrensis. This discovery of these skeletal remains was the closest to us physically. The part of the story that surprised me the most was the size of the skeletal remains, the remains was approximately three feet six inches tall, which shows these species were not relatively big in size, compare to current humans. These humans also lived in small communities and developed ways of cultivating grains and the herding of animals, which was essential to their survival.
Reading these articles and seeing these facts only strengthened my earlier beliefs of the theory of evolution. Before I only had speculations and personal opinions now I was able to see actual scientific facts which back up my beliefs. The one thing I wish is for schools to start teaching this subject in the classroom, it is essential for us to teach everyone how life begun, to understand the future we must know our past.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Culture Clash
My school was very multicultural. I attended Coral Gables. Coral Gables is a very good school, it is a mostly made up of Hispanics and African-Americans. Soon after arriving to that school, I was immediately made an outcast. This was because we (Haitians) were the minority in that school. The only difference with that school and the school I previously attended in Orlando these students the Hispanics were very respectful and courteous to us, more so than the blacks.
I gravitated towards the Hispanic students because they are more accepting and curious to know about other cultures. One of my very first friends I made in that school was a girl by the name of Patty, we talk to each other because she was willing to help me when I was in need even before knowing much about me. I had an accent when I got there and while the African-Americans would make fun of me she was one of the first people that helped me with my pronunciation of words.
I would say it is because she knows what I was going through being of another country as she was, the black kids could not relate to me because they were judge mental just because I was from another country. The social action approach, applied to my experience at my elementary school because I came into a whole new social environment where I was the outsider trying to fit in and trying to better understand their cultures and norms. Majority of the students were eager to help me understand and show me the ropes sort of speak. I did end up making some lifelong friends from the school which I still speak to now; all in all we learned about each other and respect each other’s differences.
If I could go back in time again and do it all again, I would like for the teachers to teach the transformation approach. This approach helps everyone to Tolerate, Accept and shows Compassion to others and places all desires to pre-judge anyone aside and learn to respect each other and live more harmonious.
I gravitated towards the Hispanic students because they are more accepting and curious to know about other cultures. One of my very first friends I made in that school was a girl by the name of Patty, we talk to each other because she was willing to help me when I was in need even before knowing much about me. I had an accent when I got there and while the African-Americans would make fun of me she was one of the first people that helped me with my pronunciation of words.
I would say it is because she knows what I was going through being of another country as she was, the black kids could not relate to me because they were judge mental just because I was from another country. The social action approach, applied to my experience at my elementary school because I came into a whole new social environment where I was the outsider trying to fit in and trying to better understand their cultures and norms. Majority of the students were eager to help me understand and show me the ropes sort of speak. I did end up making some lifelong friends from the school which I still speak to now; all in all we learned about each other and respect each other’s differences.
If I could go back in time again and do it all again, I would like for the teachers to teach the transformation approach. This approach helps everyone to Tolerate, Accept and shows Compassion to others and places all desires to pre-judge anyone aside and learn to respect each other and live more harmonious.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Transformation
To be honest transformation is the hardest part of living, when a person is so used to being in a certain environment it is hard for that person to adjust their attitudes and way of living. The hardest part to change is a person’s way of thinking; we seem to be so set in our way, almost stubborn at times. The hardest people to change are older men; women on the other hand are more open to accepting and trying new things and new ways of thinking and doing things, while men are more set in their ways and refuse to change their views or ways of doing things. When a person does not welcome new ideologies they limit their own personal growth.
Let’s be honest if it weren’t for peoples’ ability to accept changes, African-Americans would still be slaves, not a good thing at all right. Before we close our eyes to change have that little thought in mind. We all have the ability to make the best choices. At the same time there are a lot of negative ideas going on in the world as well. The best thing we can do is to respect other cultures and accept changes, the problem we have now days is learn about each other’s cultures and differences. Differences are what make us unique.
We all are aware how difficult it is to see someone of another culture or religion as equals, it is not impossible at all if a person is actually willing to make those changes. It’s very easy to do, all it takes is to have an open mind, most importantly just go to the person and just have a simple conversation with someone of another culture, and you will see that we may not be all that different at all. Prejudice and fear are the main problems we are having when it comes to personal growth, we tend to stick to our own kind and become very hesitant on transforming into a better person.
This quote is from the late great Michael Jackson “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change”. Changes start within; let’s give each other a chance.
Let’s be honest if it weren’t for peoples’ ability to accept changes, African-Americans would still be slaves, not a good thing at all right. Before we close our eyes to change have that little thought in mind. We all have the ability to make the best choices. At the same time there are a lot of negative ideas going on in the world as well. The best thing we can do is to respect other cultures and accept changes, the problem we have now days is learn about each other’s cultures and differences. Differences are what make us unique.
We all are aware how difficult it is to see someone of another culture or religion as equals, it is not impossible at all if a person is actually willing to make those changes. It’s very easy to do, all it takes is to have an open mind, most importantly just go to the person and just have a simple conversation with someone of another culture, and you will see that we may not be all that different at all. Prejudice and fear are the main problems we are having when it comes to personal growth, we tend to stick to our own kind and become very hesitant on transforming into a better person.
This quote is from the late great Michael Jackson “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change”. Changes start within; let’s give each other a chance.
Fire Power
There are several invention over the long period of the world, the two most useful inventions has to be the wheel and fire. Early men’s did not invent fire but rather stumbled up on it by mistake, I am not sure how that happened. Fire was very important for the survival of early man; early men would use fire to cook their game. Which was mainly now red meat, which made a major difference from Homo habilis, which were not as smart as Homo erectus?
Fire was responsible to different cultures and ethnicities, I know what you are saying how could such a meaningless invention could be responsible for such a huge movement. Well it is simple, with the invention of fire men were able to leave Africa and migrate to different parts of the world, where their bodies over the years have changed to adapt to their new environments. Early mean were able to use fire to inhabit even colder parts of the worlds and survive, by keeping them warm in cold places, fire was also use as protection, animals would stay away from the camps that were lit by fires and they used fire to cook their game.
The other important invention that reshaped the world was the creation of the wheel, as we know the wheel as many diverse uses in time. The Egyptians used pulley system to move big rocks and heavy boulders, Vikings uses wheel to navigate their massive ships, cowboys use wheels to pull their stage coaches to move long distances. Present day we use wheels on our vehicles to move back and forth on our daily commutes.
Early writing was hieroglyphics, which are symbols and pictures used to communicate with others, early men use that type of writing to warn others of dangers and ownership of living areas. We still see a more modernize version of such writings. Japan, China and Egypt to name a few that are still using this system of writing.
It’s important as a person learning the art of teaching to learn all of these inventions, because it shows how human beings are constantly evolving and creating new and better things to enhance their way of life. Shows evolution of how things come about. Also shows how each generation before makes life easier for the next one.
Fire was responsible to different cultures and ethnicities, I know what you are saying how could such a meaningless invention could be responsible for such a huge movement. Well it is simple, with the invention of fire men were able to leave Africa and migrate to different parts of the world, where their bodies over the years have changed to adapt to their new environments. Early mean were able to use fire to inhabit even colder parts of the worlds and survive, by keeping them warm in cold places, fire was also use as protection, animals would stay away from the camps that were lit by fires and they used fire to cook their game.
The other important invention that reshaped the world was the creation of the wheel, as we know the wheel as many diverse uses in time. The Egyptians used pulley system to move big rocks and heavy boulders, Vikings uses wheel to navigate their massive ships, cowboys use wheels to pull their stage coaches to move long distances. Present day we use wheels on our vehicles to move back and forth on our daily commutes.
Early writing was hieroglyphics, which are symbols and pictures used to communicate with others, early men use that type of writing to warn others of dangers and ownership of living areas. We still see a more modernize version of such writings. Japan, China and Egypt to name a few that are still using this system of writing.
It’s important as a person learning the art of teaching to learn all of these inventions, because it shows how human beings are constantly evolving and creating new and better things to enhance their way of life. Shows evolution of how things come about. Also shows how each generation before makes life easier for the next one.
Understanding Human Behaviors
A paradigism to me is another way to say conformity. It is when a group of people seems to have the same beliefs. Such groups are easily manipulated into doing whatever a certain self proclaiming leaders tells them to do, even if the population seems to not want to do perform the act. These groups such as religious groups, I’ve noticed that if a pastor or a preacher wants their followers to act a certain way, all they have to do is say is “it’s what god expect of them”, which a lot of times these commands are not found in the bible. People are made to fear god instead of loving god, pastors use the word “sin” in order to keep followers fearful and in line, as to not to ever question their words. Cults are another form of paradigism, the cult leader appoints himself as god and the followers view him as a living and breathing god. If you were to ever sit and have a conversation with a person that is ultra religious, and ask for their opinion on any subject, rather political or mathematical, those people would never have a personal opinion most you will get from them is “the bible says”, “god wrote” and “Pasteur preached”. These individuals lose their individualism that is what makes them who they are.
We’ve all have some type of technology in our homes and vehicles, rather it’s a computer or car radio and as everyone in America and around the world is a cellular phones. Now days teens and adults cannot go a minute without texting or talking on the phone. Well texting has replaced voice calls. People don’t speak to eachother anymore, this is the only bad part technologically I can say is wrong with technology and that is the human interfacing aspect.
When a person or group of people take it upon themselves to question society’s laws, that is known as paradigism shift. Student’s on any level of education are primary the ones that question rules, I am sure if you are a parent or have younger siblings I’m sure you heard this “why” after everything you tell them to do, not that they are being bad, it’s the way people learn is by questioning and understanding why they have to do what was asked of them.
We’ve all have some type of technology in our homes and vehicles, rather it’s a computer or car radio and as everyone in America and around the world is a cellular phones. Now days teens and adults cannot go a minute without texting or talking on the phone. Well texting has replaced voice calls. People don’t speak to eachother anymore, this is the only bad part technologically I can say is wrong with technology and that is the human interfacing aspect.
When a person or group of people take it upon themselves to question society’s laws, that is known as paradigism shift. Student’s on any level of education are primary the ones that question rules, I am sure if you are a parent or have younger siblings I’m sure you heard this “why” after everything you tell them to do, not that they are being bad, it’s the way people learn is by questioning and understanding why they have to do what was asked of them.
Teaching Then and Now
After reading the story on teachers, it helped me to have a better understanding of just how far the teaching profession has come over the years. From the colonial times, to the present day. I was very surprised to read about how in colonial times, teachers were no more than indigent servants. These people were either apprentices to master teachers and were teaching to hitch a ride to America on ships or they were working off debts to the wealthy by teaching their kids. They really had no formal training to speak off. To add insult to injury teaching was thought of as a woman’s job. I saw the contract these women had to sign prior to getting the job, it was very intrusive into their personal life as well, and it’s like signing over your freedom to the school. They weren’t allowed to date, get married, ride In a wagon next to a man, stay out past seven, seems a lot to give up for a measly $75.00 a month. If a teacher were to break any of those rules it was cause for immediate dismissal.
For many years since the colonial times, there was no real significant effort made to improve the way teachers were viewed and treated by the society they served. Some teachers did not have any more than a third grade education and others were drunks and thieves. Which were not the types of people now days anyone would want to teach their children? In 1823, Rev. Samuel Hall; established the Normal School in America. The Normal school was a method used by the French to better train their future educators.
During the 1980’s, was when real improvements were being made in the education field. Two influential educational groups in America, the Carnegie Forum, were very influential in establishing the NBPTS. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Their goal was to recognize professional teachers and to get them board certified, thus making the teaching field a more professional filed, like a doctor or lawyer that has to pass a board prior to getting their license to practice their craft, teachers were now held to those same standards. The program further its efforts into forcing colleges and universities that offer education as a field of study to make it a four year program rather than the usual two year regular academic studies. Now they were offering four year and even a five year master’s program.
The TFA or Teach For America. This program takes people who want to teach and without any formal training place them in a real classroom to teach. This reminds me of the way teaching was during the colonial times. This program is taking teaching backwards to those dark times when teachers were not respected at all. Now teaching is a profession we should stick to the way it is and not move back. Teachers should get their degrees and also become board certified before being hired to teach on any level of education. There should be no shortcuts.
For many years since the colonial times, there was no real significant effort made to improve the way teachers were viewed and treated by the society they served. Some teachers did not have any more than a third grade education and others were drunks and thieves. Which were not the types of people now days anyone would want to teach their children? In 1823, Rev. Samuel Hall; established the Normal School in America. The Normal school was a method used by the French to better train their future educators.
During the 1980’s, was when real improvements were being made in the education field. Two influential educational groups in America, the Carnegie Forum, were very influential in establishing the NBPTS. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Their goal was to recognize professional teachers and to get them board certified, thus making the teaching field a more professional filed, like a doctor or lawyer that has to pass a board prior to getting their license to practice their craft, teachers were now held to those same standards. The program further its efforts into forcing colleges and universities that offer education as a field of study to make it a four year program rather than the usual two year regular academic studies. Now they were offering four year and even a five year master’s program.
The TFA or Teach For America. This program takes people who want to teach and without any formal training place them in a real classroom to teach. This reminds me of the way teaching was during the colonial times. This program is taking teaching backwards to those dark times when teachers were not respected at all. Now teaching is a profession we should stick to the way it is and not move back. Teachers should get their degrees and also become board certified before being hired to teach on any level of education. There should be no shortcuts.
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