Talking Point #3 - Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community by Dennis Carlson

1. "At the level of state educational policy, it is noteworthy that no state currently recognizes gays and lesbians as legitimate minority or cultural groups to be considered in textbook adoption or to be included in multicultural education; and a number of states explicitly prohibit teaching about homosexuality."

- This quote is important because although these statistics are from 1997, it is for the most part still true. And as I think back to the books and literature that was assigned for me to read in high school and middle school, not one book dealt with homosexuality. And only occasionally did we touch upon it when it appeared in subjects such as history and Shakespeare. It was just something that we would brush over and try not to talk about.

2. "Among other things, it involves the constitution of a whole network of support services and organizations designed to help individuals "come out" in a supportive environment and participate in the gay community, including gay counseling services, drop-in centers, support groups, athletic leagues, choruses, and political organizations."

- I totally disagree with this statement. I think that creating this "network" would make matters worse. Yes, it would help gay individuals come out and realize their true identity, but I personally think that these gay community programs would just segregate them even more.

3. "Given the realities of being "out" in high school, this strategic closeting of one's gay identity unfortunately continues to be a safe response, even if it comes at the cost of lying about one's life."

- This quote screams Johnson at me because he said that we can't deal with a problem if we don't name it. And I think that we can't help kids be themselves (especially in high school) if they don't want to be themselves in front of everyone else. On a second glance, I also think of Rodriguez's article in this quote. I think of little Richard, secluded form the rest of his classmates, never expressing himself, and never being himself; all because he wasn't comfortable his own skin. Although who can blame them, among other statistics, 45% of gay males, and 20% of lesbians reported to have been harassed in high school because of their sexual orientation.

Overall I think this article was one of the more difficult to read. Out of all of the subjects we have talked about this article has made me feel the most uncomfortable. There were definitely many areas where I thought of Johnson, and Delpit as well as Rodriguez. These three were the most prominent in the article. There was a whole section where Carlson talked about "silent spaces" in the classroom. Which at the same time obviously speaks of Johnson who said that the more we didn't talk about a subject the harder it became to deal with.

Talking Points #2 - Aria by Richard Rodriguez

1. "I would have felt much less afraid. I would have trusted them and responding with ease."

- This quote is refering to when the author first walked into the classroom and how his teachers owuld always greet him in English, not Spanish his native language. First of all this shocked me, becuase something as simple as learning a Spanish greeting would have helped him feel more comfortable. It's so important for a student to feel comfortable in his or her own classroom, especially at a young age. This we help the child open up more and become more apt to learning. I know from experience, that if I'm in a class that I'm comfortable in, I'm more likely to raise my hand in class and thus gain more knowledge from the professor.

2. "Fortunately, my teachers were unsentimental about their responsibility. What they understood was that I needed to speak a public language."

- This quote really stood out to me because it really astounded me that his teachers went to his home adn told his parents that they needed to start speaking English. First of all that really shocked me that teachers would do that. I think it definitely would have benifited both the English and Spanish student to be imersed in one anothers languages. In fact, my entire senior project proved that it would be beneficial. They both would have eaasily picked up a good amount of the other language, which would have benifited them in the classroom and in life in gengeral.

3. "The family's quiet was partly due to the fact that, as we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents. Sentences needed to be spoken slowly when a child addressed his mother or father....The young voice, frustrated, would end up saying, "Never mind"--the subject was closed. Dinners would be noisy with the clinking of knives and forks against dishes."

- I picked this quote because, as sad as it is, this is what pretty much happens in American society. When children are younger, they are learning the English language. So they talk and they talk and they talk. I dont think anybody is more chatty than a five or six year old. But as they get older, they learn the language and turn into pre-teens and teens and don't share anything with their parents anymore. Family dinners, if even existent, turn into nothing more than the noises of forks scratching the plates.


Overall I like this reading mostly because it was short. Also because as stated above it kind of circulated around the ideas of my senior project which made it pretty easy to read. It really shocked me that the nuns went to the boys house though, and told his parents to start speaking English around the house. Not only is that an invasion of privacy, but I think its wrong to tell a parent how to teach their kids. Now, Delpit says that teachers shouldn't assume that a child is learning something at home, but ehse two teachers take matters into their own hands and completely change this boy's lifestyle. As I said before, if the teachers had learned even a little bit of Spanish, the boy would have felt more comfortable and would have been able to open up more and learn more. Also, changing their home language to English, changed his entire way of life. He didn't know what to call his parents anymore, and worst of all, "the special feeling of closeness at home was diminshed." And for this reason, it made this reading a little sad for me.

Talking Points #1--Amazing Grace, by Jonathan Kozol

1. "'They're burning bodies there,; he says.
'What kind of bodies?'
'The bodies of people!' he says in a spooky voice, as if he enjoys the opportunity to terrify a grown-up." pg 7

- I picked this quote out of a few to id of show the life that Cliffie and his neighbors live. We later find out that Cliffie is actually referring to the incinerator that burns waste of local hospitals. I picked it because it shows that the authorities don't care what the people of this neighborhood think as they placed the incinerator here over the objections of neighborhood parents. I also picked it because I could remember telling my friends that the stone protruding from the ground at the beach was God's arm. And I loved seeing the looks on their faces, just as Cliffie did.

2. "She knew that the police would not arrest this man. She told me, 'I ain't waitin' for the law.' In less than 48 hours he was dead." pg 14

- This quote is referring to the grandmother avenging her daughters death and her granddaughter's rape. First of all this is really sad, because its so true. The legal system is so messed up that people can get off because of technicalities and loopholes in the system. It also reminds me of the book I'm reading where a mother/prosecutor shoots her child's rapist and uses every trick she's had used against her to get off, because she knew that the legal system would fail her and her son.

3. "'Somebody has power. Pretending that they don't so they don't need to use it to help people--that is my idea of evil.'" pg 23

- This quote really struck me because it relates to Delpit's idea that white people are the power of culture and we are unwilling to acknowledge that we have this power. It was also really sad because David goes on to talk about the addicts and prostitutes and how they are all colored in some way and that he fears what will become of his race. David also talks of how these people hate him because he is not in their condition, which is just so upsetting because it means that he really has no where to fit in.



Overall, I think this was the easiest read we had so far. I liked it best as well. I felt that a lot of the times I could relate in some small way, which for me, makes a reading sooo much easier (like the examples above). If i can see where they are coming from at least in some way, I can understand their situation a lot better. I also feel like the author wasn't yelling at me or telling me what to think so much as both Johnson and Delpit tended to do. Definitely there were a lot of pieces that fit into the other two reading that we have done so far. A lot of the time I thought of Delpit and her theory of the power of culture. But at the same time i also think Johnson and how we have to fix these problems. This reading was really sad in many ways, I found myself getting really torn up about the different people and just wanting to reach out to them. It's really terrible to think that people live this way everyday, in the South Bronx, and other meighborhoods and communities. And more and more people are being brought up this way and dying because of their lifestyle and lack of good opportunities. It's really opened my eyes (along with the other readings) about how privileged I really am. And how things I may think are the worst possible thing, really isn't that bad.