Eliminating Ableism in Education

Overview/Reflection: The basic definition of ableism is the discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. The Albeist assumption is that people with a disability should be fixed, and that the disability defines the person who has it. The foundation of American culture is normality. As an example it could be common for people to look at someone with a disability when they walk into a certain place. In the end, this just makes the person with the impairment feel worse about themselves. Most people are curious as to how this has happened to them and feel awful for them. One of the worst examples of how disabled people are treated in our nation is the way they are treated in American school systems. One of the most convincing arguments was about deaf students. Teaching ASL to these students makes the most sense because it is a language designed to help the deaf and hard of hearing communicate with others. Sadly, this is untrue. In today's school systems, deaf children are instructed to communicate to others and lip read what they say. For many, it can be discouraging since they are more self-conscious because they can't even hear what they are saying. Studies have shown that deaf children obtain less education just because their language is not used, which is their version of the language. There is loads of room for growth in the education of students with disabilities. To begin with, getting a student to try and learn the same way a disabled student learns won't cut it. They don't learn the same way so why would they be taught the same exact way. With deeper diving, and educators who are specialized in different disability teaching, disabled students would be able to get taught the same way as everyone else, which is something they for sure deserve.

https://www.linkedin.com/advice/1/what-effective-ways-eliminate-ableism-your-curriculum-40czc

Bilingual Education - Richard Rodrigues

 Overview: 

In this short text, we understand the main concern for many Hispanics. Learning a new language to adapt to a different society is something very difficult for someone to learn, and especially pick up on quickly. Demanding Hispanics to speak the language we know in order for them to even hold a conversation is completely wrong and we shouldn't have to force them to do so. Bilingualism isn't something that can be easily picked up on, it takes loads of time and even years to learn. We can infer the struggles that Rodrigues faced based on his interactions, he says "It would please me to hear my teachers address me when walking into the classroom." They would ask him questions throughout the day that he couldn't comprehend so he would sit there and mumble back. From mumbling he would daze off in complete silence waiting for the bell to ring. It was to the point where he wouldn't even be able to communicate with his parents or teachers and classmates. "I grew careless about listening to the sounds family members made when they spoke." 

Connections: 

In my inquiring minds classroom, I work with a student named Bryan who speaks nothing but Spanish. With the rest of the class speaking mainly English, the teacher especially makes sure not to call on him for anything. I personally think that is an awful way to go about it. This poor kid was trying to explain a story the other day about one of the kids punching him at lunch and couldn't get his point across so they ended up just brushing it off and sitting on the rug. My teacher honestly does the least amount of work to get by, I feel as though she doesn't really care about her interactions with her students or how she makes them feel overall. As long as her break is almost up or it's almost time to go home she is happy with whatever happens. It just goes to show how poorly our education system is getting. Bryan also tries speaking to the other kid in class but he can't get any point across because everyone kind of just looks at him and laughs. Then he smiles it off because he is too young to realize what is right and what is wrong. He is only 6 so I don't think his main concern at the moment is to learn English. I think he is more worried about fitting in and having fun. The teacher needs to be a bit more understanding when it comes to him and maybe have a Spanish speaking teacher in the classroom with her so she can translate the messages. Seeing Bryans reactions makes me feel as though he is in somewhat the same position as Rodrigues. The teacher looks at them both and they don't know how to react or answer her. The second I started reading this story I thought exactly of that student. 

https://www.carnegielearning.com/blog/why-supporting-spanish-speaking-students-is-critical-2022-report/

Literacy with an Attitude

 Overview: Throughout this text, I have gotten this sense of routine and how students these days are being taught in similar ways their parents or educators have been taught. It's almost like this sense of routine that just keeps on passing down. We have grown to follow our parents lead and look up to them in just about everything they do. What we don't seem to realize is there are kids out there that are being taught the wrong way by their parents and educators. Children are normally very creative, very active, and always themselves at a point in their life. With the educating system that occurs they are loosing this special knowledge point in their lives. 

Reflection/Connections: 

Like we have talked about in class, we mentioned the fact that students have this one way to learn and it's the way they are being taught. They have no other outlook in their lives. If this method they are learning is not successful or helpful to them it is doing absolutely nothing in their favor. Finn mentions "John Carter," one of his professors when he was young. Now we learned that John Carter was a very smart man and always stuck to the curriculum but John rarely ever created relationships with his students. His students always thought to themselves like Finn, "how would this work in my classroom?" which meant that anything to aesthetic was out. They never really thought that anything John Carter said would help them in their classrooms. That was because of the way they were taught individually, they have always had one method of teaching and John Carters method wasn't apart of it. 

Students these days don't need a wider variation of learning because their careers have already been guided to them throughout what's been around them their whole lives. Kids are just forming jobs and other things needed in life based on what they have grown up on. We come to realize how important the society and environment you grow up in is. It's basically a preview of your own life because rarely kids go the opposite of what they have grown up to love. Overall, in this text we are taught that students are expected to learn in one way, and if they fail to do so they will have loads of problems in the upcoming future. 

https://career.sites.clemson.edu/parents/parent-guide-to-career-development.pdf

Video Analysis

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