2.2.08

Mary Cowley is an amazingly powerful messenger of truth and insight. For the last few weeks, my reading has been emersed in the illustration and depiction of the multicultural teacher and the pedagogy and philosophy of their multicultural/ bilteracy classroom. The atmosphere seems to be so accepting and natural. In the second chapter, where she explains the perception of a student living in poverty and how the process of teaching students to be socially conscious can be misleading- the pizza party for example- made a lasting impression on me. You never will know the whole story of a child walking into your classroom, so be sympathetic, especially now with all the layoffs that will begin as we hit a recessionary cycle. Also, we must teach tolerance and sympathy through experience and text, not solely text. The students have to make the connections in a realistic manner for it to stick. There has to be that struggle and discomfort for there to be true growth. -Jon

2-10-08--JEN

I agree that Mary Cowley is a great writer and a very powerful one as well.  In her prologue I was enjoying the story of the black ants and the students' different perceptions of the purpose of a black ant.  The title of the book really intrigued me and was part of the reason why I chose this book.  The prologue introduced the meaning of the title and the multiculturalism in the classroom.  In the buddhist religion it is not right to kill a living thing and black ants clean up the mess.  The boys and girls discussed the problem and thoughts of killing the ant and why they should or should not kill the ant.  This was an example of critical teaching and learning in the classroom.

Another point about the book that was interesting are her connections with Paulo Friere.  Without my past readings I never would have realized all of these connections between different authors and their connections to critical pedagogy.

Finally I found some interest in her discussion about canned food drives.  There are times we have canned food drives at our school for other charities.  When we do these food drives I wonder if at times there are students in my class that could actually use these canned foods-I actually know there are students that can use the canned foods.  Then by adding a pizza party reward for bringing in the most cans seems to be oversimplifying the problem as well as further stigmatizing low-income children in our school.  This chapter did raise my interest in exploring a community service project with my kids to empower them as well as take on more reponsibility in the community and to even teach a better understanding of poverty.  I am excited about looking into this type of project and I am excited to continue reading our book!