Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Today it rained the whole day. And it poured to the point of white-outs most of the way through Ohio. But interspersed throughout the day were moments of dominant beauty - watching clouds billow along the Indiana skyline, snippets of sun-streaked clouds between downpours, wearing my sunglasses for over six hours, despite the rain.
What the universe reminded me today: Two things - 1. Always be grateful for what you have. Don’t complain about being parked on the freeway. At least parked there you are not one of the five vehicles involved in the accident further up the roadway. - 2. All things in moderation. Taste the salad before you dump on three extra scoops of dressing, or add the extra one scoop at a time.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Last night I dreamed I was staying in/moving into an apartment habited by the strangest assortment of friends and acquaintances from high school and college. Then I woke fully and realized there were six people running around the apartment, yelling, talking and completely ignoring the fact I was sleeping on the couch (not to mention three other roommates were fast asleep in their not soundproof rooms). The fourth roommate had finally appeared with her family and fiancee for final preparations before attending master’s graduation this morning. While disorienting, it did explain why one past acquaintance had appeared in my dream - he kind of looks and sounds like the fiancee. Doppelgangers - Story of my stay at OSU. I’ve encountered at least three. I’m sure if you see them side-by-side they are not actually doppelgangers, but right now - separated - they’re decent matches.
I spent much of this tired and dreary day working on TFA prep. At this point in my pre-reading I have moved on from the importance of setting big goals to following through on big goals; from recognizing the role(s) of diversity in the work I will soon be doing to concrete ways to counteract negative messages and stereotypes my students will be inundated with daily. I’m still nervous about having conversations about race with my students, but I feel that I have more tools in my arsenal to utilize when having these conversations. I also further recognize the unique opportunity I have as a social studies/history teacher to help students develop a positive racial identity. In my discipline, more than (or at least to the same extent as) any other discipline, have racial minorities been left out. So much of the role played by African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and others has been left out of history curriculums. Study of ancient North American societies does not occur. Study of current Native societies doesn’t occur, for that matter. Not only were Africans enslaved during the colonial era, they are still enslaved by modern history curriculums - in the sense that we hardly ever teach students about the ways these men and women found ways to retake, regain and retain their agency. We only teach about how they were demeaned, not how they were strong. I have an exciting opportunity to teach my students - who will mostly be students of color - about the ways these minorities are strong and worked intelligently against their oppression all throughout U.S. history; about the movements within the dominant white community to respect and enfranchise minorities. Rather than only having George Washington and John Hancock and Benjamin Franklin be the only heros of the American Revolution, I have an opportunity to show my students that the heros of the Revolution, or the Civil War, the Abolitionist Movement, of westward expansion also looked like them. Wow.
I need books. Lots of them. I know nothing about most of the things I will need to teach, and I’m sure not gonna find them in the textbook. I’m looking for the George Washington Carvers, Cesar Chavezes, Alice Pauls, (Insert Chief or LC guide here)s, Sojourner Truths, (Asian??) of every time period. I will learn about my students and not only will I tailor to their interests, but I will fine-tune to their heritage as well. They will see themselves in American History, or the U.S. Government. It’s gonna happen.
While not reading, I hung out with J and her friends here. I really like some of them and wish I could stay here with them, rather than move on to more new people. J’s friend across the hall, A., and her boyfriend, B., threw J. and another friend, also J., a going away party since they leave tomorrow for a trip to Botswana. Cook-out = awesome. People should grill more often in my life.
I also spent a fair amount of time with one of J.’s roommates, S., from Jamaica. S. is studying chemical engineering and tests next week to gain acceptance to the Ph.D. program here. We studied and watched CNN together. Being from Jamaica, S. didn’t really understand all the hoopla surrounding Obama’s healthcare plan, which was the big topic on CNN over the lunch hour. She had me explain public vs. private healthcare and insurance, and described her hellish day trying to get medical attention at the clinic on campus - “So much paperwork! Jesus! I’m vomiting, just let me see the doctor!” - as an example of what is wrong with healthcare in the U.S. When I asked her to reciprocate and tell me about healthcare in Jamaica she said it wasn’t much better, but you can at least see the doctor without filling out hours of paperwork when you need to.
What I hope to replicate: J. managed to find a (somewhat) affordable apartment that came fully furnished, and with a workout room, patio, grill, pool, and lounge. It’s a pretty sweet deal.
What I never want to hear myself say: B. (the boyfriend) and a few of the other grad students mentioned that they are BSing their way through grad school. I would be so thrilled to never hear that phrase come out of my mouth ever again.
1 comment:
On the subject of Native Americans:
1) Find out what the preferred term is locally.
2) Fun tidbits from Wikipedia: "The Iroquois nations' political confederacy and democratic government have been credited as influences on the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution.[34][35] Historians debate how much the colonists borrowed from existing Native American forms. Several founding fathers had contact with Native American leaders and had learned about their style of government. Prominent figures such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were more involved with their stronger and larger native neighbor—the Iroquois."
3) Learn about native residential schools programs. This is still a very sensitive topic in many places, and depending on the local situation may have an impact on the level of trust in white educators. Also, in addition to widespread abuse another lasting effect from these is on native languages, which were usually prohibited while at the school. Because of this, there is a huge gap in people fluent in there own language, with speakers generally being in their sixties or older or young children, who have just recently started to learn it again through widespread efforts before the remaining speakers die off. Language is commonly seen as THE integral piece of remaining traditional community identity, and its resurgence highly respected and seen as critical to tribes' continued existence.
4) Locally, the primary tribal group will be Cherokee. This is the second-largest tribe in the US, and the same group slaughtered by Jackson via death march to Oklahoma. There is only one reservation in the state, near the western border.
5) Due to a combination of mass mistreatment and complete destruction of their traditional means of living, Native American communities suffer from extremely high rates of alcoholism and suicide, both of which can easily create issues in the classroom that may be hard to deal with especially if you're not aware of it.
6) In terms of history and local heroes, your best bet is to listen rather than read. Try to find some elder storytellers (you may need to make a trip to the reservation) and just ask them to tell you whatever they're comfortable telling. Due to traditional practice, even many of the tribes that have adapted more to modern/European things in other ways have been slow to adopt book writing at all, and even less so Internet usage, so it may be hard to find nearly as much information as actually exists within the communities themselves, although the Cherokee have more of a history with writing than many others.
7) Some areas that Native Americans have been particularly influential in include environmentalism and pharmacology.
8) Many Native groups have interesting gender roles compared to ours. For instance, in Cherokee culture women were the landowners.
That should get you started - surely you'll come across other things that interest you as you start delving into things.
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