Blog 11: Reflection

 1. Precious Knowledge: 

- Working with this documentary was quite interesting for me. I had never explored those ideas until that point, so it was cool to see what a high school could look like given the resources to explore ideas and history that isn't mainstream curriculum.

2. Asperger's Syndrome: 

- Towards the beginning of the semester, we explored topics surrounding oppression and mental disability. In one of the readings, I found out that Asperger's Syndrome has not been recognized as a mental illness since 2013. This is ridiculous to me, because now it has been conjoined with the rest of the Autism Spectrum Disorders. I have a close friend who has Asperger's, but now he can't get any help if needed because it's not longer recognized. 

3. Education Paradigms and The System Wasn't Designed this Way:

- These topics were especially important considering the decrease in quality in the current education system. The decrease is not subjective either, it's from kindergarten up to college from what I've seen and experienced. The modern education system is creating drones, not creative, interesting people who can go into the world and bring their skills to the table. Our standards are falling, to include math, literacy, and science rates being some of the worst in the world. For reference, we are ranked 31 out of 203 soverign states for our education rates. That sounds good upfront, but when the USA is a global superpower, we SHOULD be in the top 5, though we're not. It comes down to what we're willing to do, and right now, the USA is in a really bad place, and it's going to be up to us to fix it. 

Link to education statistics: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/education-rankings-by-country

In Class Reflection 4/16

While I don't necessarily agree with transgender ideology, I can say that some individuals do need support to grow into the best person that they can be. After watching the video, I see that the speaker, whose name is Reed, has fully transitioned and is seemingly much happier for it. She was confident in her history, and wanted to tell her story to those around her to spread awareness of the encompassing issue. The other speaker, who is a mother of two boys, had dealt with the other side of transgender ideology with one of her sons. Her oldest had always been infatuated with more feminine things, such as clothes and American Girl Dolls. With this, she had to navigate the potentially difficult path of her son's journey. Her son grew up as a gay male, but that shows the hardship of this territory. 

Blog Post #10: Woke Read Aloud and RI Schools Trangenderism Guidance.

I’ve been hearing a lot about kids' books that focus on feelings, identity, and being yourself. In the woke read aloud, the book "It feels Good to Be Me" is read and discussed in detail. It’s meant to help kids feel good about who they are, no matter what they look like or how they feel inside. Some people call these kinds of books “woke,” because they talk about topics like gender, race, and acceptance.

"It Feels Good to Be Me" is about kids being proud of themselves. It says it’s okay to be different and that everyone should feel happy being who they are. Teachers sometimes read books like this out loud to help kids understand each other better.

Rhode Island schools have rules to protect transgender and gender non-conforming students. The state says schools have to:

• Call students by the name and pronouns they choose

• Let students use the bathroom and locker room that match their gender

• Keep a student’s gender identity private if the student wants that

• Let students dress how they feel comfortable

• Allow students to join sports and activities as the gender they identify with

These rules are meant to make sure every student feels safe and respected at school. Some schools, like in Westerly, didn’t follow all the state’s guidelines. They thought some of the rules went too far, especially when it comes to bathrooms or what parents should be told. So, not every district in RI is doing the same thing.

Books like It Feels Good to Be Me and these school rules are about making kids feel accepted. The goal is to help students feel good about themselves and treat others with respect. Some people support it, others have concerns—but the conversation is happening in more schools now.

Blog #9: Hehir and Butler

This week's video/article talked about ableism in education and the world. 

The video showed two women, one in a wheel chair, and the other walking beside her. Their discussion centered around the idea that just because someone is disabled, does not necessarily mean that they are incapable of doing regular things in their day to day lives. For instance, the woman in the wheel chair says that she can get coffee on her own by using her mouth to pick it up. However, she then stated that society has deemed this "irregular", which granted it is, and so she isn't able to do that. 

I can see how people would find that action to be weird or even make some people uncomfortable. That said, it doesn't make sense to not allow something to due societal standards. There are no rules in place for that specific instance, just the comfortability of the other people around her. She had to bend to their comfort in order to complete her task, even though she could have done it on her own.

In the reading, the idea of the video is explored in greater detail. 

Towards the middle in "The Education of the Deaf", Butler points out that while there has been education for the deaf for the last 150 years, it took a great hit in the 1880s which set it back quite a bit. Ironically enough, the man that our building is named after, Horace Mann, was a large proponent in this set back. He was an advocate of oral teachings and methodology, as well as lip reading and speaking. He believed that sign language was a hinderance and took too much time. 

True as that may be, we have come to learn that it is the best and most accurate way for the deaf to communicate with us. Additionally, Alexander Graham Bell was a huge supporter of oral teachings. He even went as far as saying that sign language education should be banned from being taught to the deaf. He also was a advocate of "the enactment of qugenics laws to forbid the intermarriage of deaf mutes", an ideaology that would have stopped those from marrying who they wanted based soley on a disability. 

I do believe that we should work more to better accomodate those with disabilities. They didn't ask to be born that way, and it should be our duty to help those less fortunate than us when they ask for it.