Rage and Sadness - Assignment Example

Mairs Ladson If rage and sadness are left unacknowledged and unaccepted they transmuted readily into depression, to which I have always been susceptible. Better I have learned to open oneself to them, and then wider still, to permit them to sweep on through. They come in ceaseless waves, but each trough between them provides a tranquil moment in which to figure out how to act. My serious shortcomings in “taking care” in all sense of the phrase – exercising caution, accepting the ministrations of others or offering aid consolation – do not absolve me of responsibilities. I have to work out right behaviors with whatever skills are left to me. Sadness and rage may at time strike in and at that point we are susceptible to depression but one doesn’t have to yield to these emotions to take control. One should take full charge and seek means to stay in peace rather going through moments of depression. It is one’s responsibility to engage in behaviors that do not encourage unhappiness. One should not be open to these emotions which makes him/her miserable. Happiness starts from within. Linda Christensen –Unlearning Myths. Mairs I was nourished on the milk of American culture: I cleaned the dwarfs’ house and waited for prince charming to bring me life; I swooned in Rhett Butler’s arms – my waist as narrow and my bosom every bit as heaving as scarlet’s; I thrilled to the adventures of Swiss Family Robinson, whose tormentors were as worthy hoard of Asian and Africans. Being under the hands of superiors, one is subject to them and is always at their service while hoping someone can help them out of the situation. However, desires can’t be achieved unless one takes a step out of the situation that is causing problems. Hayman R.L. - Smart People. Biklen I am not sure when I found out that some kids had high IQs. When I did find out, I’m not sure I much cared. When we were kids, learned our own ideas about “smart”, and they had very little to do with IQs. The third grade boys, for example had developed their own distinct intellectual hierarchy: It consisted in small part of baseball trivia, in small part of the aptitude for petty crime, and in very substantial part of the skills – cognitive and otherwise – needed for insulting our peers (and of course, their families). The girls, meanwhile, probably had their own hierarchy, but in the third grade, that was a mystery we boys had no interest in solving. The children may have high IQs as well as being smart in what they do but they need guidance from parents and teachers to improve their performance and that’s why they should be involved in IQ tests and other exams to determine the abilities. Children’s cognitive abilities unless well directed may lead to bad characters like insulting their peers and family members and also may get involved in petty crimes. Biklen Hayman R.L. Obviously, parents do not impose intelligence tests or other exams to establish the eligibility of children to participate in family life; it would be bizarre if they did. Rather, the Galatis and many other families promote their children, looking for ways for them to participate in mainstream activities. The question for schools, as for families, is this; should they fashion themselves as gatekeepers, engaged in a careful if somewhat arbitrary sorting process, “putting children in their place?” or is it the role of schools could use the crucible of everyday events as the proper context for assessing how to include and educate students; this would be an alternative to the common practice of assessing-to-place. The latter tends to the catalogue students’ deficits or disabilities. The former focuses only on issues of teaching and learning. Parents and teachers do not necessarily determine their children’s intelligence since children have their own way of learning as they interact with their peers. Kids need to nurture their own interests rather than depending purely on the interests of parents and teachers. Ladson-Billings Dyer Last year, in my American Educational Research Association presidential address in San Francisco, I challenged my colleagues in education research to conceptualize this notion of the achievement gap and to begin to think about the incredible debt that we as a nation have accumulated. So rather than focusing on telling people to catch up, we have to think about how we, all of us, will begin to pay down this mountain of debt that we have amassed at the expense of entire groups of people and their subsequent generations. These debts are created by these people who embezzle funds. They let the mess they have created to be solved by others whose hands are clean. Those who are responsible for it should take charge and pay the debt. Dyer Linda Christensen Racial imagery is central to the organization of the modern world. At what cost regions and countries export their goods, whose voices are listened to at international gatherings, who bombs and who is bombed, who gets jobs, housing, access to health care and education, what cultural activities are subsidized and sold, in what terms they are validated - these are all largely inextricable from racial imagery. The myriad minute decisions that constitute the practices of the world are at every point informed by judgments about people's capacities and worth, judgments based on what they look like, where they come, how they speak, even what they eat, that is, racial judgments. Race is not the only factor governing these things and people of goodwill everywhere struggle to overcome the prejudices and barriers of race, but it is never a factor in play. And since race in itself - insofar as it is anything in itself - refers to some intrinsically insignificant geographical/physical differences between people, it is imagery of race that is in play. Racial segregation is a major factor in the achievement of an individual. There is torment that comes along as a result of race, odd jobs to those who are not of their origin, the skin color, where they come from. Everywhere racism is involved, in the market, health care, and even in judging people’s capacities. Work Cited Hayman, R.L. Smart Culture: Society, Intelligence, and Law. NYU Press, 1998. Print. Read More