Go Out (or Stay in) and Make Some Art...

Lunar Eclipse/Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice. 12.21.10

My husband and I got up in the middle of the night in order to see the lunar eclipse.  The sky was so extraordinary with Orion and a lunar eclipse equally visible. I cannot recall seeing anything quite so beautiful. Fierce wind.

A few images:

Eclipse. 12.21.10

Lunar Eclipse 3:10 a.m. 12.21.10

Lunar Night 12.21.10

Starry Night

Lunar Night II

The Issue of Representation in Schools: Be the Revolution

The issue of representation is the deciding issue in education in this century.

As the division between "economic haves and have nots" increases at accelerated rates and the clarity between actual and fictive is rendered less clear through personal, institutional, and national educational practices and beliefs—how we position and are positioned matters. Such action often sets a trajectory that for some children is nothing less than fatal, while for others affords them the kingdom.

Allow me to be specific. Across the last 30 years, in the K-12 public schools, I have heard teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and even students utter these statements.  Additionally,  I have uttered some as well:

• He's a shop kid.
• She tries, but she's special ed.
• I just got two bilinguals in my general ed class. Now what am I suppose to do? 
• Mrs. X, your son is just not honors material.
• You should see what my honors kids are doing...
• My special ed kids need me to take it slower. They are incapable of doing x. 
• Let's face it: bilingual students just learn differently.
• My honors-child cannot and will not be in class with non-honors children. They will slow him down.
• What are we going to do with all the level 1s? They are bringing down our school profile. 
• Place all the bilingual students in course x. No exceptions.
• Give me the band kids, they're fabulous in math. 
• These partially proficient kids need to be placed in... 

I want to suggest that as these phrases become accepted discourse at a school, the language and the meanings carried shape expectation by turning opinion into "the" truth.   Further, the language also homogenizes people who may share some similarities (perceived and real) by limiting their definition to a single group identification so that terms such as: bilingual, special education, honors, shop, band and so on carry specific meaning. In these scenarios, the child is no longer multifaceted. She is bilingual. She is special ed. Such categorization locates actual performance beyond the realm of possible by lodging it within an epic construct that becomes institutionalized and across time is often thought of a defining tradition: At School X, this is what we know to be true. As new faculty and students join existing faculty and classmates, they learn these truths and in doing so, essentially render a dynamic place of learning into an epic world where the "past is locked into itself and walled off from all subsequent times by an impenetrable boundary..." (Bakhtin).

As our beliefs about children solidify--it becomes more difficult to engage in new thinking; to consider other possibilities. Odd traditions find permanence in places where epic stances are the norm.  Again Mikhail Bakhtin states, "tradition isolates the world of the epic from the personal experience, from any new insights, from any personal initiative in understanding and interpreting, from new points of view and evaluations. The epic past is an utterly finished thing, not only as an authentic event of a distant past but also on it's own terms and by it's own standards; it is impossible to change, to re-think, to re-evaluate anything in it."

I think about all of the rhetoric regarding "reform" of schools and the too-easy placement of public schools as places of chronic failure.  I can't help but think while those who are often far removed from actual schools banter questions about reform and reform models from lofty places--those of us who actually work in schools could exercise a profound and lasting revolution by taking a single action.

If we consciously took a stance to resist categorizing children and instead dwell in possibility, the revolution would be upon us.  Rather than limit ourselves to definitions of children via fixed categories, imagine what might happen if we practiced seeing possibility in other and uncertainty in ourselves.  Imagine how different the learning trajectory for both child and self might be.

Profound change has always rested in our hands.  Now is the time to accept responsibility and shape the outcomes that are so possible.

Guest Blog: Children of Color and the Poor Left Way Behind in the National Governors Association and State Education Chiefs Common Core State Standards Initiative: “Text Exemplars” for Kindergarten through 5th Grade

Jane M. Gangi

 This week's guest blog is authored by a friend, colleague and coauthor of Deepening Literacy Learning, Jane M. Gangi.  In this post, Jane analyzes the K-5 text exemplars recommended in the Common Core State Standards in order to see the racial representation of the texts. It always disappoints me and angers me that limited representation of African American, Asian, Latino/a, and Native American people in the texts offered as exemplars is so often done. Jane's article, "The Unbearable Whiteness of Literacy Instruction: Realizing the Implications of the Proficient Reader Research"(MC Review, 2008) referenced in this blog post offers an important critique of racial representation in the literacy textbooks for teachers and teacher candidates.

Jane M. Gangi, Ph.D.

December 11, 2010

Despite comprising 40% of the population in the United States (and 70% of the world’s), in the K-5 Text Exemplars in the National Governors Association and State Education Chiefs Common Core State Standards Initiative, children of color are represented in just 21% of the selections. Decades of research have taught us that, to become proficient readers, children must be able to make text-to-self connections; they must be able to activate their prior knowledge. When the books we offer children represent mostly European American and middle-class children, European American middle-class children are hugely advantaged.

I analyzed the 88 books in the categories of K-1 stories, poetry, read-aloud stories, and read-aloud poetry; Grades 2-3 stories, poetry, read-aloud stories, and read-aloud poetry; and Grades 4-5 stories, poetry, read-aloud stories, and read-aloud poetry. Of the authors represented 69 were European American; 10 were African American; 3 were Asian American; 5 were Latino; and 1 was American Indian (see Table 1). Of the 88 books, 6 focused on poor and working class children: 7%, at a time when 21% of America’s children live in poverty—about 13 million children. Yet, in many of the stories and poems they find in school, the world is portrayed as white, middle-to-upper-class, and happy. (The informational texts recommended also looked mostly white.)

This pattern continues patterns documented elsewhere—patterns that, taken as an aggregate—persistently marginalize children of color and the poor. For a summary of the  treatment of children of color and the poor in classroom collections, book fairs and book order forms, awards, book lists, children’s literature and literacy text and professional books (the books that teach teachers how to teach), see Hughes-Hassell, Barkley, & Koehler (2010) at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/slmrcontents/volume12/hughes_hassell.cfm ,and my article (Gangi, 2008), “The Unbearable Whiteness of Literacy Instruction,” at http://www.mcreview.com/members_login/2008/Spring/whitenessofliteracy_article2.pdf .

The Grade 6 and up “Text Exemplars” seem more multicultural than those for Kindergarten through 5^th grade—but there are six long years before grade 6 when children can learn they don’t belong, don’t count, don’t have a voice, and that they are “deficient” or “substandard.” When we wonder why so many children of color and the poor drop out of high school, perhaps we should look at our classrooms for the ways we invite children in—or not. And perhaps we should listen to Stephen Krashen and David Berliner who repeatedly illuminate the international comparisons in which the U. S. takes a trouncing: When American students who live in districts with less than 10% poverty are compared internationally, the United States does just as well as Finland, which has a 3% poverty rate, compared to our 21% poverty rate. The National Governors Association and State Education Chiefs Common Core State Standards Initiative Text Exemplars ensures that the status quo will remain the status quo.

The good news is that there are many wonderful multicultural books and authors. Please visit my website for multiple resources at: http://www.wcsu.edu/sps/fbiojgangi.asp. Or email me at gangij@wcsu.edu.

TABLE 1

K-5 “Text Exemplars” Authors and Poets

	European American (EA)	African American (Af A)	Asian American (As A)	Latino (L)	American Indian (A I)	Total	%
K-1 Stories	8	0	0	0	0	8	100% EA 0% Af A 0% As A 0% L 0% AI
K-1 Poetry	7	4	0	1	0	13*	54% EA 31% Af A 0% As A 8% L 0% A O
K-1 Read-Aloud Stories	7	0	1	2	0	10	70% EA 0% Af A 10% As A 20% L 0% A I
K-1 Read-Aloud Poetry	3	1	0	0	0	5*	60% EA 20% Af A 0% As A 0% L 0% AI
2-3 Stories	13	0	0	0	0	13	100% EA 0% Af A 0% As I 0% L 0% A I
2-3 Poetry	7	2	0	1	0	10	70% EA 20% Af A 0% As A 10% L 0% A I
2-3 Read-Aloud Stories	5	1	1	0	0	7	71% EA 14%% Af A 14% % As A 0% L 0% A I
2-3 Read-Aloud Poetry	5	0	0	0	0	5	100% EA 0% Af A 0% As A 0 % L 0% A I
Grades 4-5 Stories	6	2	1	0	1	10	60% EA 20% Af A 10% As A 10% A I
Grades 4-5 Poetry	8	0	0	1	0	9	89% EA 0% Af A 0% As A 11% L 0% A I
Total	69	10	3	5	1	88	78% EA 11% Af A 3% As A 6% L 1% A I

*1 author was anonymous