THis is just another one of those things for my education class that I wanted to keep saved. The book gives an interesting perspective on Education.
Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose.
It wasn't until I reached the middle of the book did I realize that Rose actually had some real life legitimacy in how it related to this class. I must admit that I wasn't very impressed with the fictional way it was written until it actually came to the point in his life where he had become a tutor, then teacher. Once he reached the point where he began describing the different types of problems he encountered with learning how to understand the problems of his students, recognizing from where these problems stemmed, and how he came to the conclusions on how to solve them was when this book turned great.
He hit upon every topic that we have discussed in this class: language barriers, misunderstanding and mislabeling certain kinds of learning problems which just further the learning gaps, the problems surrounding standardized testing, etc. What I found superior about his book, though, as opposed to some of the articles we have read, is that he doesn't just recognize the problems and print them up for others to marvel at. Instead, he has taken the time to investigate the possible reasons and conclusions that leads to these problems. Then, he goes a step further and pokes for the answers by listening to the questions of the students with the problems. He doesn't just assume that he knows the answer, instead he makes sure that he's perfectly understanding the break in the link of understanding between teacher and student. He delves into problems, and then finds solutions in how to translate the meaning into ways where the student can understand. He holds this refined sensitivity for the feelings of his students, probably because he understands what it feels like to come from that frame of mind.
The example of how he tutored Ruby for the SAT-esque test dealing with prefix definitions took the reader into a step-by-step process of how to recognize how your student's logic is working. Once he saw that she was simply searching for synonyms of the root, he was able to adjust his explanations into a way she could understand because he understood her. Once he showed her how the tests work, she succeeded in getting the rest correct.
Last Friday, I had a similar experience in the 9th grade classroom. The kids were in groups and they were making posters of the main characters in the book, Tangerine, that we have all read. Their assignment was to draw the character, then list 5 adjectives of the characters. I noticed one group was writing sentences of things the character does. For example, "he plays soccer" "he stands up for what he believes in" "he hates his brother". I knew that was not what Mrs. Munkelt was expecting even though in theory, they were giving her descriptions of the character. I noticed that they just didn't understand what the definition of an adjective was. I tried to explain what an adjective was, but i wasn't doing a good job of making my point clear. They didn't understand the difference between what i was trying to describe and what they were doing. So instead, I gave examples of adjectives. I told them that Mrs. Munkelt "spends her lunch time helping the seniors write their college essays". I said "that is what she does". I said, what she does shows that she is "caring". Caring is an adjective. I then said "Luis plays football, basketball, and baseball" that is what he does. "Luis is athletic." That is what he is. At first I wasn't sure if that was the best way to get the message across because it still may not have been the best way to define an adjective, however, I was pleased when I asked "So, Erik (the brother character in the book) sprayed spraypaint in his baby brother's eyes" That is what he did. So Erik is_______?" "Mean?", said one of the students. "Exactly, maybe even cruel?"I asked. "Yeah! Cruel! Ya Ya, write that." After that, they finished up the rest of of the adjectives with no problem.
I was pleasantly surprised when Rose began to discuss problems with curriculum, and the reason why its set-up is almost designed to fail. He quoted Dewey by recognizing "Only in education, never in the life of he farmer, sailor, merchant, physician, or laboratory experimenter, does knowledge mean primarily a store of information aloof from doing." (190) He made an excellent points in describing some of the poor planning in the structure of curriculum. He mentions that history is not taught in any linear way so that it becomes a story with noticeable cause and effect which relates it to modern day. Instead, it's broken up into time periods and random facts that are easily forgotten after the tests are taken and the papers written.
I found many of his ideas inspiring. For example, when he talks about the activity where he would play Beatles' songs and have the kids write creative essays on how the song should end, it seemed like something different that would provoke the kids' attention. It's very Deweyian in that, it incorporates the other senses such as listening to music as a way to expand the learning environment. This activity has given me an idea for an exercise i'd like to try with both the 9th and the 12 graders. I want to play the introduction to Missy Elliot's "Under Construction" album which talks about redefining your opinions once something huge happens. She talks about 911, about the East Coast/West Coast rapper wars, and the death of Aliyah. Her message is very positive, and she says it quite eloquently even if she's speaking in "ebonics". I want to play the 30 second clip for the kids, and have them write a journal entry on what message she is trying to get across and why they think it might be important, and how it can relate to their own lives. I also believe that this could be a good thing for them to think about since they have recently had a tragedy occur surrounding a former student of the school who many of the kids know and liked. This girl was shot to death at a San Leandro school which she just transferred to from Tennyson by her boyfriend who then shot himself.
I feel like the kids need to talked to about these issues in ways that they can understand, and hear it from people they may possibly admire, such as Missy Elliot. I feel that if they can make connections with positive spokepeople, then they can develop their own sense of positivity, even in a world environment that shows so much negativity. I hope that this project for Friday is okay with Mrs. Munkelt, since it was inspired by such an enlightened figure as Mike Rose. I really enjoyed his opinions and ideas about educating and motivating "America's educationally underprepared."
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