I’ll get to the title of this post soon enough (it’s an inside…truth), but I am simply writing so that I get myself back into the swing on getting posts posted! Life has been great, challenging, full, and a mess. I am looking forward to more energy towards getting my thoughts into posts though.
Life has been a serious trip for me as of late. The things that Ihave able to write about don’t appear, to me at least, to be things that most people would find interesting. I’m in grad school, student teaching, and unable to write about the injustices or the justices that I often see. I have been trapped or strapped by a lack of time to express this experience. My time of reflecting has been scrambling trying to write this worksample. The worksample is one the necessary components of grad school and getting a license to teach. It’s detailed and often hundreds of pages. I will be able to post some of the writing I do for this sample as I will mos def express the discomfort I experience while teaching children that have such a lack of experience with people of color in leadership positions.
Speaking of discomfort I also can’t wait to get the oppression and lack of equity that children of color and lower economic status experience daily…even at a school that touts itself on being inclusive and “progressive”. During this next break, I guess that will be spring break, I’m looking forward to getting some of this out in unique ways. What are you, my folks out in cyberspace, up to? I have had a few quality conversations on my facebbok account, but that’s not the most favorable context to go into deep thought…I don’t know. I guess my point is that I will be back doing my thing on this site shortly!?! I’m also not going to proofread this few paragraphs so there.
Posted in My Life, new teacher | 3 Comments »
This post came as a result of an article that I read online; I had to make a comment on it, though it was short, I did. Here’s the link if you desire to read what I thought was a slippery piece of information:
This is an extremely delicate issue. I do have a few questions I would pose to those that are against race-based affirmative action (AA). First, have you who oppose this type of AA done any substantive research on its purpose? Are you under the assumption that the “playing field” today is equal? If the field is equal today, can you point out either the event that caused this or at least a period of time that created this equality?
I’m convinced that often people forget that for approximately 246 years European Americans were as a group able to become educated, fill prominent leadership roles, acquire economic wealth, and spend their families all throughout the US. During this time, Blacks in particular, were enslaved and it was illegal to learn, illegal to buy property, illegal to run for any office—let alone actually fulfill leadership roles. Of course the list goes on. My point is that European Americans have had a substantial “head start” as it were—246 years! Have the last 40 years of lackluster AA reversed that?
By no means is AA a perfect remedy—it has faults—people that shouldn’t receive it do at times. When implemented correctly it fulfills what it was designed to do—make life more equitable! I doubt that there is a perfect remedy for such a horrific institution (slavery), but AA is the best thing that we have for the time being.
I’m taken back by those that with a straight face can say that life is equal as far as opportunities are concerned. I honestly don’t know what to say to you. But if we were to hypothetically say that things were equal (I’m certainly not conceding to that), would that necessitate doing away with race-based AA? Simply because we hypothetically have equal opportunities doesn’t mean that things are equitable (the point of AA along with diversifying various roles and positions). If you and I take off running around a track at the same time, we have an equal opportunity to finish at the same time; however, if you get a 246 yard head start, it isn’t equitable nor is it realistic for me to catch up with no assistance.
Lastly, one comment said something analogous to Whites being minorities in 2030, and what would those (who are White) that propose AA think then. Again, let’s say that in 2030 Whites are demographically minorities…this won’t carry over to positions of power…nor will it carry over into ownership…nor will it carry over into economic status. Those that are actually running the country (and everything else for that matter) will still look like you—don’t worry your little head.
If you are truly interested in continuing a respectable conversation on this topic, post a comment on my blog:
matthewross35.wordpress.com
Posted in Racism, Whiteness, and White Privilege, Uncategorized | Tagged Affirmative Action, education, slavery | 3 Comments »
Mathography
Something that I have recently realized is that I remember very little of my school educational experience before middle school. For instance, I don’t remember when I learned to read, write, or do math. I remember being “good” at doing these activities or exercises, but I have an extremely vague memory of when I learned them. Perhaps this is partly due to elementary school settings where “subjects” are not separated out like they often are later in school; in addition, I imagine this is also partly due to the fact that my parents were not afforded the most favorable education and subsequently I was not provided with a strong foundation. I don’t recall being read to at home as a child. I assume that math games and the like were not likely a part of my experience either. I have never had to recall much of this thus it is difficult for me to stop writing about it. At any rate, I remember from middle school on.
Both my elementary and middle schools had students whose parents were overwhelmingly working-class. Seldom do I remember having classmates whose parents owned anything besides their homes and they typically worked jobs similar to my parents. Considering the teaching styles I encountered, I vividly remember coming to class and having many things written on the board so that my classmates and I could copy them in a journal. I was typically taught mechanical, rote memorization type of skills. It would be hard to say that we were being trained to be creative, express our thoughts on life, or lead the country through decision making. We were being trained to follow rules. In the 7th grade much of this began to change.
Though the name of my 7th grade math teacher eludes me, I do remember that I made substantial progress in her class. She was encouraging and called on me often in class. This was the first time I recall being made to feel that I was a part of a mathematics class. In this and my 8th grade class I remember doing lots of work using deductive reasoning. We worked on lots of word problems that were logic problems. I saw that many of my classmates had trouble with these problems because they had trouble decoding what the problem was asking. I excelled at this decoding/translating exercise and began to look forward to math class so that I could contribute. One type of problem that she would give involved a story problem that gave clues as to who in the story did certain things. The point was to enhance students’ deductive reasoning; I thoroughly enjoyed those and still do.
In the 8th grade I encountered Ken Wanderer. He became my math teacher and seeing my potential met with my parents to discuss ways to supplement my shaky background. [To digress for a moment, I often think about where I could have been were the education system equitable. This sobering thought motivates me to be the best, most well-rounded and equitable, mathematics teacher possible.] I began to play chess, I often took extra work home for homework, and I eventually entered a program in high school that had an emphasis on conceptually understanding and learning of mathematics. I made huge improvements during this period of my life; unfortunately, most of the improvements came through worksheets that focused on following rules and doing certain procedures.
My high school experience began with my entering the Institute for Science and Mathematics (ISM) program. A good friend of Ken Wanderer, Fred Rectanus, was the director of this program and I happened to go to the high school that offered this trial program. The focus of this program was on cooperative conceptual discovery, in “real-world” contexts. It took me a while to warm up to this program because I had become accustomed to math being learning skills only. In this program the focus was more on process and deeper understanding. Once I understood (so I thought) the idea I began to enjoy the set up and progressed. Algebra became my strongest strand and perhaps geometry my weakest; this is likely due to my many experiences with various aspects of algebra and the amount of time we typically spent on algebra versus geometry.[I wonder do most schools and math departments spend more time on certain strands and why?] By the end of my sophomore year the school lost funding for the program and my last two years of school I went back into a traditional classroom setting. This did a lot of damage to my growth. I had the transition period to go back through and did not enjoy the teaching style of my teacher.
As a freshman I joined both the symphonic and marching bands. Contrary to what I thought at the time, I used a great deal of math and mathematical thinking in band. Rhythm takes an abundance of mathematical thinking to maintain. I have always been musically inclined and as a freshman I was first-chair percussionist. Reading music involves counting, visualizing, and physically acting in a manner in accordance to a beat. This is not the easiest act to master. What is even more difficult and that takes more mathematical thinking is improvising. While I enjoyed reading music and coming in at the prescribed time, the art of improvising was always much more complicated.
I also played in the jazz band during this time where I played the drum set. There is written music to playing the drum set but I never used it. I became adept at playing the correct beats at the correct time during a desired point in the piece. I’m not sure I can explain the complexities involved in doing this; I’ve not met or heard of anyone who can teach this art. This is something that people just learn or don’t. I think of improvising as mental geometry. People don’t often think of music and math having such a connection but for me, culturally speaking, there was always a major connection. When I look back through my life I can see so many instances where I have always been involved in things that progressed my mathematical thinking.
My last high school teacher, who I recently found out retired, gave me some very discouraging news one day as I went to him for help after school. I vividly remember making a meeting with him to get help; went to meet him; and left feeling like I never wanted to return to his class. After attempting to “tell” me how to do the math I was inquiring about two or three times, he put his hand on my shoulder and told me that math just was not for me. I was too young to know how to respond to this adult/leader dismissing my ability so I just took it. I internalized it. I eventually dropped out of school, but this would not be the end of me.
In retrospect, this discouraging “educator” would have done well to show me how to do the math I was inquiring about. If it was me, I would have shown the student any number of ways of doing and understanding the problem. When I read the literature that multiple representations are necessary, I have a unique perspective as to why this is so necessary. Telling students in the same manner when they are not grasping a concept does little besides frustrate and discourage. Show how to do mathematics and show various ways of doing and illustrating.
Posted in My Life | Tagged education, internalized oppression, mathematics | 5 Comments »



