More than 'JUST' a Student

 Argument Statement: Renkley and Bertolini in “Shifting the Paradigm from Deficit Oriented Schools to Asset Based Models: Why Leaders Need to Promote an Asset Orientation in our Schools”, argue that students should structure their classrooms around student assets. By shifting our perspective from student deficit to student asset, educators are better equipped to support all learners. Instead of constant redirection or reprimanding classrooms work to support the strengths of all students. Rather than being reactive, educators are proactive. 

Talking Points: 

First and foremost I want to add that I think in order to create an asset based teaching environment, you truly need to know your students. Not only the assets that they have, but who they are as an individual. What do they do for fun? What are their hobbies? What interests them both in and out of school? What adjectives describe who they are as a person? By getting to know your students helps to identify assets and use that as a tool to better impact instruction. 

Something I found truly interesting that was stated in the article was the following,“… teachers’ expectations impact student success more than a student’s own motivation”(Renkley pg. 26). My first question to this was how does a teacher's perspective have that much of an impact on a student’s motivation? But then I dawned on how our education system is structured. From a young age, students are asked to answer questions and are rewarded when they answer correctly. Whether that be on an examination or in whole class discussions. The structure normally goes as follows; the teacher asks a question, students think about the question, students raise their hand if they know, a teacher calls on them, they get it right or wrong, if correct the teacher might say “yes, that is correct”, when wrong they may say “not quite” or “you are so close, someone help them out”. The flow may not be identical to this, but it feels somewhat similar in many environments. This was the cycle when I was a student for most of my education and I am sure it was similar for many others. From a young age students are taught that what the teacher says to their response is either a motivation driver or killer. If a student is constantly getting answers wrong, they will feel like what is the point? They might think, “I am just going to get it wrong and the teacher probably thinks I am not smart enough to answer the question”. Whether we realize it or not, this is what we are doing when we are teaching. I have definitely fallen into the trap many times, and what is that teaching students? As educators, we need to break the cycle and allow all students to feel like we value their voice and know that they can achieve high expectations. The question becomes how does one do that? I had a really interesting conversation with Claude AI about the shift in strategy. I asked it directly about my classroom environment and I think it is worth a read. The discussion is linked here. 

The authors state the following, “When the focus shifts to assets, community members can easily work together to build up and nurture positive attributes in youth” (Renkley, pg. 25). When looking at my school and community involvement, I feel like we are pretty lucky. The members of the community are extremely supportive of what happens within our school and are willing to do a lot for the school. But, I think we can do more and I think it starts in the classroom. The article talks about the 40 assets that Search Institute has identified that all students can identify within. I wondered what exactly they were and did a little research. The assets are broken into 2 subsets, internal and external as the article states, but from there, they are broken into 8 categories. The categories are as follows; Support and Relationships, Empowerment, Boundaries and Expectations, Constructive use of Time, Commitment to Learning, Positive Values, Social Competencies and Positive Identity. Each of these categories has 5 questions that the assessment taker would answer on a scale from 1 to 5. I had Claude create a student friendly print version that I plan to use in my classroom. The pdf can be found here. My push does not stop here, I also think the school could do more family involvement activities after school. This could be some sort of STEM night with families, a family book club, an art night or a game night. I think our families are very involved with our sports teams and theater/band, but I think there are other groups that students fall into where community involvement could be increased. I hope to get some other faculty members on board to make such events possible. This will help highlight the assets of all students both inside and outside of the classroom. 

Khan, more like Con Artist

 Argument Statement: Khan argues that it is time for a change in the routines of the education system. The education system as noted by him dates back to the Prussians in the 19th century where it was designed to stunt curiosity and create work force ready personnel who know how to follow routine and structured days. The problem is, that is not the same student or future employee that the world is looking for anymore.

 

Society watching as the education systems ‘flawed’ vision continues to burn…

Talking Points: 

1. Khan references the book A Brave New World to which I have read and thoroughly enjoyed and how the education system, like the creation of new human beings, is not creating much diversity. As quoted by Khan, “Students are “tracked”...completely ignores the wonderful variety and nuance that distinguish human intelligence, imagination, and talent” (Khan, pg.63-64). For those potentially unfamiliar, the book is a futuristic world where humans are genetically created and placed in a social hierarchy which closely aligns with their work. From birth students are pushed through a system and expected to play nice and do what they are told and work in the department they are assigned. When taking a broad lens, the current state of the education system is similar. Go to school, follow directions, learn what you are taught and hopefully it helps you get to a job you want (this is where it veers slightly from the book). To what degree are we empowering thinkers? Creators?Problem solvers? Students aren’t presented with many abstract tasks that allow for them to be creative thinkers. 

2.   My second point looks at Khan’s statements regarding tests. Tests, or what I would call checkpoints on a long journey that do not show much. Khan is very blunt about how he perceives tests, he says “Tests say nothing about how long learning will be retained” (Khan, pg.91). I could not agree more with his statement. Tests only identify what a student knows in the here and now. What about the topics they learned at the beginning of the year? Would they still score an A on the test if they took it now? Did they own their learning and add a new skill to their toolbox, or did they memorize it like a robot to regurgitate it on a test to get a ‘good' grade? If we want thinkers and problem solvers, tests are not supplying that. My school district has shifted our method of instruction for math this year. We are using what is called Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) which is something of an instructional model. When teaching students we present them with a task. The task can be short or long depending on what the end goal is. Students use their prior knowledge to identify common patterns, solve problems and create working definitions of the arithmetic they are using. As the educator, I become the facilitator and I take the students ideas and work and refocus it towards the specific area of math that we are learning. The students now become their own thinkers and I just tweak what they put forth in practice. It all sounds great, and when it works it is amazing what students come up with. The downfall is that many students do not know how to properly engage with the model. They have been trained through the education system, to sit, listen, memorize, practice, test and move on. What I like to call robots, but robots who care a great deal on their success on tests, but not actually on their learning. 

3.  My last talking point is more about who Sal Khan is. Sal Khan is the designer of Khan Academy, the education program that helps students learn new skills or practice new skills that they are struggling with. You or someone you know has probably used Khan Academy at some point in their life. It has been globalized and is a great resource for students. But, I find that it contradicts Khan’s true belief of reforming the education system. Couldn’t I stick a kid in front of a computer with a Khan Academy lesson and the student should learn the skill? Isn’t this routine skill learning and not enabling adaptive thinkers like Khan suggests? Khan has made millions in revenue off of his online resource, but preaches something completely different in his article. Reaping the benefits of a system he doesn’t support is quite interesting. If he truly believed in what he preaches, then maybe he should have helped design a curriculum centered around empowering students to be thinkers. Instead, he created a system that just continues to add fuel to the fire that is already burning. 

Sal Khan’s Khanmingo 60 minute video:   Khanmingo

Be Color Brave

Argument: In both the video and the article by Margalynne Armstrong the idea of colorblindness is accurately defined as being a negative connotation. Through the lens of colorblindness, we as a society are hiding from the truths around us just like Anderson posed about privilege. Instead we should shift our mindset to the idea of being color brave or color insightful (Modified from color insight). Where race becomes the talking point rather than the elephant in the room. 

Talking Points:

“Colorblindness is the New Racism”

Armstrong names a quote at the beginning of her chapter that states, “A key aspect of this unacknowledged privilege is to avoid thinking of oneself as having a race is that whiteness operates as the normative foundation and reference for most discussions about race, race discrimination and denial of equality” (Armstrong, pg. 63). This quote is the foundation of a lot of what Armstrong argues. The idea of race in America is around being white. White is the reference point for conversations of race. What does this look like in other cultures? How does it differ? Is the conversation still about White Americans? How can society shift beyond this view? The act of being colorblind is continuing to turn the gears like Dr. Bogad said last week. Until society accepts the idea of color insight where we name the racial differences, and have uncomfortable conversations, the gears will just keep turning. 

A major portion of Armstrong’s article references colorblindness in education. When looking at the school that I work in and its demographics, it is a predominantly white urban school where every teacher is white and when I say every, I mean every. What perception to the community does that portray? 

There is a quote from the article that says, “If students do not grapple with issues of privilege while still in school, they may never acquire the insight or ability to recognize and combat racism and other subordination” (Armstrong, pg. 66). Upon reading this I thought how can I help students recognize and combat racism. Initially, I didn’t know the answer until I read on. The examples that Armstrong discusses including the 24 hour observation truly lends itself to recognizing racism. I wonder what my students might say? Is it best for students to explore this outside of school? What would happen if it was only observed during school hours rather than 24 hours? What would my colleagues say? What is their lens on color insight rather than colorblindness?

The article names many activities where students analyze their race in society and how they applied color insight to make meaning of what they see in their lives. I wondered what other ideas may be out. I asked ChatGPT what are some ideas for middle school students to apply color insight to their daily lives. My conversation is linked here. I found the 4th idea very interesting where students looked at the media they regularly view. I wonder how it would vary from student to student. Do they recognize anything about the race and representation of different individuals in the media? 

“Colorblind or Color Brave”

Mellody Hobson shares a similar take on the destructive nature of colorblindness and how it is truly perpetuating the circumstances rather than altering the outcomes. She pushes for a way of perception but through what she calls color brave. Like Armstrong she is arguing that we need to have difficult conversations about race. As she says in the video, “...make the uncomfortable, comfortable”. If we continue to be ‘blind’ to the realities then we will never become comfortable with what was once uncomfortable. It’s like something you try the first time. Your first attempt probably won’t be great, but that does not mean you stop there. The only way it gets better is if you keep putting effort into it and expanding your knowledge. The same can be applied to being color brave. The first conversation may not be perfect, but you took a step towards change. The more the matter gets pressed the more it continues to grow. I will reference Dr. Bogad’s idea that the glass has been tapped, but it needs to be being tapped until it cracks and others can see the truth to what the realities of the world are. 

While watching the TED talk video presented by Mellody Hobson, I had my tabs open and did research. I was curious to know what company Hobson works after she said that she was one of two black females running one of the thousand largest companies for which is Ariel Investment (she later names in the video). I have linked  here a video of their recent contributions to Women’s Sports. I was curious when watching, why wasn’t Mellody the one being interviewed? It seemed like it was her campaign. 

Analysis of Privilege, Power and Difference

 Argument Statement: The author, Allan Johnson argues that privilege exists in the world in many different facets. As a society, hiding behind the privileges and not accepting their truth is only damaging the situation. As a result, it is continuing its perpetuation for future generations. 

Talking Points:

1. In the context of the article, my argument statement is best supported by one of the following quotes, “We are not prisoners to some natural order that pits us hopelessly and endlessly against one another. We are prisoners to something, but it's closer to our own making than we realize” (Johnson, pg.4). I believe that in this quote Johnson is trying to describe privilege not as something that is slated as law or has direct orders to be followed. As a society we create division by hiding the fact that privilege exists in the world. By thinking that privilege “doesn’t apply to us” or saying “I don’t have privileges” is persisting the problem that exists rather than looking for a solution. By recognizing that there are privileges, it then allows us to unpack or own social constructs and better bridge the gaps that exist between race, gender, culture and class. 

2. In the middle of the article Johnson brings forth the following idea, “Ignoring privilege keeps us in a state of unreality, by promoting the illusion that difference by itself is the problem”(Johnson, pg.15). When analyzing privilege many people want to point the finger that it is because there are visual differences,and that is why privilege exists. Johnson is saying that although differences exist, being different is not the problem. Every individual is different in their own way. The truth behind the problem is that we as a society do not want to name that there is a divide amongst people. We want to continue on our normal way rather than drive change. We want to create a false sense of reality that we are not ‘using’ our privilege to gain advantages when in reality that is the truth.

3. I found the following quote rather eye opening, “Any category that lowers our status relative to others can be used to mark ‘us’; to be privileged is to go through life with the relative ease of being unmarked.” (Johnson, pg.34). I really thought about what Johnson was saying here and I wondered if I had ever been marked? Was I a person who was ‘unmarked’? When I answer the questions inside the elements of the diversity wheel; white, male, mid 20’s, able, heterosexual, educated. Based on my responses to these questions and the structures of privilege it leads me to believe I fall into the unmarked category. This floods my brain with a multitude of questions including have I ever used my privilege unknowingly to benefit myself? To which I could probably answer yes (not proudly). I also asked myself what am I doing to bridge the gap with those who are marked? Am I tackling the bigger problem? Or am I hiding without even being cognizant of my actions? Am I someone who is continuing to perpetuate the problem rather than creating the solution?

Building Connections:

A day or two after reading Johnson’s article “Privilege, Power and Difference”, I was watching TikTok when a video came up on my feed. In the video, a black woman was running at night with no head lamp or light source. She came across a white male who was running but he did have a headlamp and light. She stopped him and said that she felt scared while running in the dark because there were quite a few other people running as well. She asked the man if she could run with him since he had a form of light. The initial thing she says is, “I know this might sound stupid but, I don’t feel safe”. Initially this made me think back to the article, first off it was brave of her to put herself in a vulnerable position based on the societal power differences. Secondly, it is clear that privilege has perpetuated itself. Based on the understanding of privilege, but also making assumptions, the white male may have never thought of being unsafe while running at night. On the contrary, I would be making an assumption that up to that point all the black woman could think about was feeling unsafe. At this moment, she invited the dominant group of the situation to be part of the solution. I wonder would the man ever think to ask if she would want to run with him because she didn’t have a light? Did the man really create equal ground, or was the woman the driving factor where she had to put herself in an uncomfortable position? 

Ted Talk Videos:

Understanding My Privilege | Sue Borrego | TEDxPasadenaWomen

Recognizing Privilege: Power to all people

Conversation with ChatGPT:        Hiding Behind Privilege

I asked ChatGPT what society would look like if we stopped hiding behind the privileges that exist in the world. It was quite interesting what its response was.