Reaction to "Literacy and Empowerment/Literary and Resistance" Reading

When reading Freire article about education as "Banking" vs "Education as the practice of freedom" it made me really reflect and think about a lot of the practices at the University we go to.  A lot of my classes are all tied into the banking theory where the teacher stands there and puts things into your head and there is a right or wrong answer and you can not explore you imagination as a student. But the Education as the practice of freedom is more of what we do in this class and other education courses I took at UC Berkeley where we dont have to just listen to the teacher talk and we can incorporate our own ideas and thoughts.  

Personally I believe that there has to be a mixture of both practices at the university level and high school level.  In some classes it has to be more of the banking theory where the teachers have to show you how to do the work like mathematics and science courses.  And then in humanities and social science classes there can be more of a education as a practice of freedom.  A believe a school should try to mix both of these methods into there curriculum so students can excel academically while expanding there horizons as students and people.   

Out of all my classes at UC Berkeley, the one that I liked the most and enjoyed was my Educ 190 course.  I liked this class because this class really let me get away from the conventional teaching styles of where a teacher pounds information and we have to memorize it but instead we were able to talk about it and expand our imagination by doing creative things and debating about issues at hand.  

Reaction to "Politics of Race and Identity" Readings

My favorite article of all these readings for this section was the Lee "Beyond the Model-Minority Stereotype."  I believe that this article really addresses a lot of the pressure and problems that we put on the Asian Americans as being the Model Minority.  

I remember in an article I read a while ago it shows that Asian American girls have the highest rate of suicide and they have the pressures of being a Women and a Model Minority.  I dont think we should put this pressure on them because its not fair and right to them.  Like this article states there are a lot of people who are under achievers who are Asian.

I think that its okay to say that there is a high rate of success academically within the Asian Community, however its not right to expect all of them to be great in academia.  Or to look up to all of them expecting them to be great in Math or go to the top school.  This article address a lot of the stereotypes that go on about Asians in the  UC Berkeley community.  We expect all of them to be great at school but the truth is all of them are not and we should not have that stereotype on them because it hurts the underachievers.  

And not only with the Asian American community do we stereo-type but I feel like we stereotype about all kinds of people.  And have certain exceptions of them like in the Bragg "Exerts from all over but the shouting" article put pressure on white people expecting all of them  to come from a rich family. But its not true as stated in the article of Bragg because he came from a poor family in Alabama.  

Response to: Connecting race, Identity and schooling Readings

When reading these articles it really struck me and i felt a sense of empowerment from the  African-American people and there lifes and how they learned to read and write.  One of the articles that struck was the Gates "Race as the trope of the world."  I was astonished at how accomplished Gates was as a person.  He received his bachelors from Yale and went to continue school in Cambridge for a masters.  And now teaches Humanities in Harvard.

And I also was struck at the circumstances in which fredrick Douglas got to learn to read and write as a Slave.  In Gates article its goal is to show that Black people can read and write just like any other race or identity.  And I believe that is true and I am in full support of his article, however I believe its not the incapability of reading and writing for the black community or the white people putting them down.  I believe its more of the work ethic of the people and the challenges they face as a community.  

These articles show different circumstances of different people and the circumstances in which people try to learn to read and write.  And the importance of literacy in there life, I believe that literacy is really important for everyone and every person.  literary is an important part of these peoples life and I believe it should be an important part of ours.  

Reflection on "Gutierrez, Brumer, Pearson" Reading

These readings cover a lot of controversial and up to date topics that are an area of concern for a lot of people at this day and age.  In Gutierriez article "English for the Children" it spoke mostly about the negative Long Term Effects that proposition 227 can have on english learners. The long term effects are what can hurt us not the short term effects.   This is an ongoing concern and a major change in our educational system of teaching English learners.   

I agreed with Brumer article and I believe that when it comes to the english language. It must be read and written correctly.  Because  a lot of students and people from the inner city have trouble adapting when they leave and go to school because they are so use to speaking and reading in a way they grew up.  I believe the educational system needs to push the correct way of reading and writing and speaking in a correct english manner.  

I know a lot of people from the inner city that can not read or speak when it comes to correct english or in a professional manner.  That is why the school system is very important and needs to be pushed on speaking and reading correctly.  I like this article a lot and i think it pertains to a lot of people and can be applied in our educational system.  

Reflection on Weekend Reading of "Anzaldua, Rodriguez and Tan" Articles

We did three readings over the weekend 1)  How to tame a Wild Tongue  2) Hunger of Memory 3) Mother tongue.  I found these reading really insightful and I loved reading them because I got to hear the struggles of different people educational experience and there struggles with english.  All three of these people had different experiences that people could relate to all over the states.

In Anzaldua article "How to tame a Wild tongue" she covers and speaks about all sorts of controversial topics of literacy and the effects it has on certain groups or individuals.  She speaks about her struggles growing up being bilingual, the how Chicanos  language has mostly a male discourse.  She speaks about the different struggles of growing up and literacy and language.  In Richard Rodriguez article "Hunger of Memory" he speaks about his educational passion growing up in his family and how his family members did not support it passion for education but instead ridiculed him because he read to much.  And how when he got into Stanford they were against him leaving so far and brought up the money situation instead of being happy for him.  Amy Tan essay "Mother Tongue" talked about her passion for language and the influence her mother had on her.  

These articles gave a deep insight on the struggles that come with language and different persecutive of different people.  I enjoyed the Rodriguez essay the most out of all of them because it really showed the growth of Richard Rodiguez despite the support of his family on his education but it was his strong will that influenced him.  I know a lot of people whos family dont support them with there education and it was there will that got them to where they needed to get.  and that it is why i feel the power of this this article.   

Prompt Response: How Was your LIteracy experience?

Prompt Question:  How was your Literacy experience? 

2)   My literacy experience has been a long journey.  I migrated to the US when I was 7 years old and worked really hard in school to learn to read and write.  I was put in ESL (English as Second Language) classes growing up and eventually got better at english and had to stop talking those courses.  English was tough at first for me and it took a lot of practice to get better at reading.  Reading was difficult for me when growing up and I pushed myself to learn to read but it was still tough.  

My reading skills started to really develop and get better when I was in the third grade.  I started to read books that were real long and  and was motivated to become a good reader.  I feel like I had to push myself harder then other students in my class room because I was a immigrant and was steps behind everybody else.  

In high school I started to take English AP classes and wanted to excel in reading and writing.  I feel that immigrants have to work harder at classes like English because it does not come naturally to them at first and because at home there family speaks another language.  Not only do Immigrants like myself have to learn to be good at english but also try to maintain there proficiency in there home language which tends to be a challenge.  

Reflection on "I just wanna Be Average" by Mike Rose reading

This reading really opened up my eyes to the inequalities in education.  I realized that there are a lot of inequalities throughout education and that people who come from poor backgrounds and families are at a disadvantage, compared to those who come from rich families who go to good schools.

Mike Rose talked all about his families history and how they moved around and ended up in different states.  And he also talked about the financial problems his mother and father had to endure because of the closing of the Spaghetti House that they opened.  And He also talked about the bad living conditions of his house.   What this all came down to about his background and being poor was how it affected his education negatively.  He got rejected from UCLA and USC while others around him were getting into good colleges.  

I think that this story about his background and being poor is not just his story.  But a fact that a lot of people share in the USA and around the world.  Its sad to see that because of someone's family financial problems there education get affected in a bad way.  This shows the inequalities that people have to face in the educational system and that we are not all on the same page because some face challenges more and some have more access to resources.