Blog #9

Over the semester I have learned a great deal in the this course, even though I intend to pursue a non education major. One of the most important things that I have learned is about the different backgrounds that people come from and how that affects students in the public school system. I have seen my experiences in the education system in a new light, especially considering how my service learning has affected me. I feel that I have been able to grow personally from my experiences in service learning in a way that I could not have otherwise.

When I first entered the class I was a little daunted by the amount of work that this course required, especially the service learning requirement. While this class required the most amount of time spent doing homework, I was able to learn an incredible amount from this course. One of the things that I saw differently was inner city schooling. Before I came into this class I believed that the main cause of low performance in inner city schooling was due to students having a lower motivation to succeed, but over the semester I saw the problem differently. I saw a lack of funding, and a lack of access to good teachers. I also believe that there has been a separation of students by many white students moving to suburbs out of the inner city school districts.

A few of the bright spots that I see are the charter schools that are making it possible for low income students to have a shot at a great education. However I am very disappointed about the Milwaukee Public School system. It seems to me that the school district has a lack of urgency in addressing the problems that face the district and simply want vouchers as a way to have someone else fix their problem. Educating students isn’t easy, but who said it was? Charter schools are a great idea, but it continues to unequalize the education system. I believe that the tiers of schools in the Greater Milwaukee area go something like this

1.       Suburban schools

2.       Charter schools

3.       Milwaukee Public Schools

This is an inherently unequal situation. I believe that the one of the major civil rights issues of the 21^st century will be equal access to education.

Blog 7

This week I completed the twenty hours of my service learning requirement. Reflecting back on my experiences at Windlake Academy, I have found that I have really made a positive impact on the students there and on myself. I have had an amazing opportunity to contribute to their education and I hope to be able to continue to be there next year. I am even planning on getting a bunch of stuff from the admissions office and take it there when I get back from break.

                Finding out some of the backgrounds that these students face and the doors that this charter school is opening for them is truly amazing. Throughout the semester I have been working with three of the lowest performers in a sixth grade class in math. They were placed into a lower track but since they are still working on the concepts of math while the rest of class is still moving ahead, but they are still in the more advanced class. I have learned that one of them has never lived for more than two years in one place and another has family problems. I can now see how these students have had such a hard time achieving in school because they have so much other stuff going on in their lives. I was very proud of one of them when I was working with him on learning mixed numbers. I took a visual approach to teaching them about the subject by using tally marks. I became extremely excited when this particular student was able to understand the concept behind mixed numbers even while the other two students were not quite there.

                Service learning has increased my knowledge of the world and given me a new thankfulness for what I have. I had a mom who is an educator and I never really faced the same challenges that these students are facing and will face. I now really see why programs like AVID are so necessary to ensuring that America has a well educated society.

I have felt similar to Gregory Michie when he describes his experiences in Chicago Public Schools. I have had similar challenges when trying to connect with the students that I work with, but I believe that I was still able to make a positive impact. One of my friends works with some students there in an after school program and told me that there are a few boys that look up to me which really makes me feel good. I hope that I am able to influence them to continue to be passionate about learning and maybe someday go to Marquette or another really good school.

                I still plan to continue serving in some sort of capacity at Windlake Academy next semester, however in a somewhat reduced capacity as I will be taking 19 units. I feel a responsibility to the students to continue to help them achieve and help them build a passion for learning. I have learned a lot from these student about life and how to overcome challenges.

Blog #7

I am white. I am a male. I am German and Italian. I am a Californian. I go to Marquette University. I am an Olympic distance triathlete and half marathoner. I am a Lutheran. My favorite food is key lime pie. I am an identical twin.  

All of those phrases define who I am. Some I can change others I cannot. I am proud of who I am, of the uniqueness of my being. Some people I am similar to, and others I am not. I share experiences with some and differ with others. There are people I agree with and disagree with.  

My identity is about who I am, the things I like to do and what makes me unique. I am very proud to be unique just the way I am. One of the quotes that I heard a few weeks ago was that "God made you just the way you are, there is nothing to be ashamed of."  That quote really sums up what it identity is: the uniqueness of one self. In talking with some of my friends they have argued that race or ethnicity should not matter in our society. I think it does matter, we need to celebrate our differences, not look past or around differences. We are all human and mostly alike but we are very different at the same time. 

I am part of the STAR program here at Marquette where today (Monday Nov 15) we discussed bigotry and some of the experiences that we have faced. The woman sitting next to me was sharing how she sometimes felt left out and how if doesn’t wear a Marquette sweatshirt people around here may not think that she is a student here, simply because she is black.  I didn’t share those same experiences with race but still have had questions on whether I fit into the Marquette community because I am not a Catholic.  I have been questioning how Marquette's and my identity interact and support each other.  

While I was on the Journal Sentinel's website reading about the Marquette basketball game on Friday I was very disturbed about a comment I saw posted on the discussion board for the game. It is in its entirety as follows.  

I'll start watching Marquette men's basketball again when the racial makeup is more representative of the school's racial enrollment. 

The positive side of me wants to believe that the author of this post wants Marquette to diversify its racial makeup but, unfortunately that is not the case. This really shocked me that someone would factor in race into the equation of basketball. I really don’t care who's on the team, they are Marquette students who deserve to be cheered on. We should be excited that our team can play basketball well and go to school here  at the same time. Marquette is our identity and race, religion, sexual orientation and gender should not matter.

Blog #6

The United States was founded on the idea that everyone has equal opportunities, even though it took until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to finally requires that all people have the same rights. While the law requires that people are to be treated fairly under in all circumstances, this is not always the case. In the case of race people still discriminate, although not explicitly. This allows white people a huge advantage over people of other races and still complies with our laws.

Being a white male I have never experienced the negative side of the “white advantage”. I find it very hard to approach this subject because I was brought up to not to see differences in races but to celebrate them. All of my family friends were of different races and out of the five or so families that we are closest with only one family is white. I have heard of stories from some of the blatant discrimination that some of them have faced but

Unfortunately I don't think that this problem will ever go the way of blatant discrimination. It cant be legislated or ruled out of existence like school segregation. There are still marginalized portions of our population. The homosexual community, people of other races and differences in social classes all are part of how quiet discrimination takes place. One of my best friends in high school is African American and I have heard of many stories of when he has felt that he was not given all the opportunities as a person.

One of the times that I saw how this discrimination happened was when we were going to buy some supplies for a pep rally activity that we were putting on and he insisted that I stick with him in Party City. I said ok but I thought we were perfectly capable of splitting up so we could get everything bought faster. I asked him about it and he wanted me to stick with him because he didnt want to be seen possibly as stealing something. It had never occurred to me that people would even think about scrutinizing someone on the basis of race. I have learned to be more sensitive in situations where he might be affected by this prejudice.

I think that a lot of what happens is predicated on suburban views of inner city neighborhoods. The lack of funding coupled with with white flight makes it almost impossible to for minorities to succeed in our society. There are opportunities to fix these problems and we have many opportunities to make them right here at Marquette.

I think that the only way to eliminate these prejudices in our society is to celebrate our differences and make this very negative situation into a positive. We need to celebrate the different ethnic months and make sure that everyone is educated about differences and how to celebrate them. Part of the classroom education is teaching students about differences that we all have. None of us are the same, even my identical twin and I are very different people. Life would really be no fun if everyone was the same.