Diversity in Education-July 29th

Banks & Banks-Multicultural Education
Part III discusses gender inquality and bias. I always balk at my lack of experience with this. I wonder if because of my nature, I'm just blind to it, or if I've actually been luck enough to be a part of classes that fought the bias, and pointed it out. I was flabbergast to read some of the research and statistics in chapter 6, specifically some of the facts about the boys. The things about girls, I'd always heard before, girls make less money, graduate less from high school or college, perform less well in math in science. But to hear that in some areas a black male is more likely to be killed then a US soldier in Vietname totally shocked me. I was also surprised to read that there is a documentable increase in anxiey in boys that conform to the male sterotype.

For once (so often the strategies outlined in our text books are empty recommendations without any true directions for implementation) I think the strategies at the end of the book our sound. Mixing boys and girls in your seating chart and acknowledging gender sterotypes when you come across them in books is key. More difficult is censoring ourselves as teachers to remove gender bias (as much as possible) from our own language, or to acknowledge it when we do use it. It is so ingrained in us, so deep rooted that we can't see it, despite the fact that in my opinion it is one of the most widly recognized and generally accepted (as wrong) biases that exist.

Diversity in Education-July 30th

How have we (as teachers) and our schools failed boys and girls?

In my experience, the gender gap and sterotypes that we talked about have not been the case. In my high school the top of the class (all classes) were mostly girls. We had a couple of guys that were up there too, but they were the minority. The all stars in math and science, and especially language arts and social studies, were female. We had one valedictorian and 6 (I think) salutatorians and all but one of them were female.

In my student teaching experiences (in math and social studies) boys and girls have done equally well, and often my female students do better, and this is no surprise.

I do recognize however that that may not be the norm everywhere, though that type of discrimination does seem to be improving.

The place that I see that we really fail students are far as gender discrimination is concerned is with out language. In Chet Bower's sustainable curriculum class we talked extensively about the root metaphors that our society is based on, not the least of which was the analog of patriarchy.

The obvious aspects of this in our language are things like 'don't be such a girl'. Or 'be a man' and those types of things. But throught our language's superlatives and perjoratives the gender bias of man=good and powerful woman = bad and week is pervasive.

I find that this is perhaps less the case in math class then in others, but the place that I have seen it most pervasive is in Physical Education classes. The PE teacher will often build relationships with his or her students by goading and teasing them as is culturally appropriate in our highly competative world, but saying someone throws like a girl, or telling a girl she did something as well as a man subtly reinforces the gender roles, and also contributes to the fact that many girls who exemplefy male qualities are seen as manly and called lesbians or dykes.

Just as its important for teachers to carefully choose their language to avoid being racially, ethnically, religiously offensive or judgemental, we have to pay extra special attention to our language having to do with gender as it is one of the deepest rooted and most taken for granted biases or prejudices in our culture (and most cultures of the world!)

In review: victim of discrimination?

After taking some time from my altercation with the librarian, I feel like I should reflect on the experience.

I did make mistakes. I shouldn't have waited until the last minute to look into getting a camera. I shouldn't have assumed, based on Marna's info, that the librarian was ok with lending me a camera. I should have accepted the changes to the expectations for me without questioning them and/or reminding her of her previous agreements.

However, in the long run, I wasn't in the wrong. I think that this person was projecting their personal concerns or difficulties with getting things done on time, or keeping commitments onto me without cause. I can't put a finger on it, but the experiences that I have indicate to me that perhaps the librarian has trouble with time management and being organized. Her behavior towards me indicates that she expected me to have the same problems, to the point where she felt it necessary to have two entire class periods of cushion time from when I returned the camera, until it was needed, in order to maker herself feel comfortable that it would be back in time. She seemed like she so overwhelmed and absorbed by her other duties, that it was more then she could handle to offer verbal advice or directions to me. It also showed arrogance that her needs were more important then treating me respectfully. There was clear bias towards me because I am a student teacher, rather then a certified teacher. I don't know if this librarian is a classified or certified employee, although the fact that she teaches a class indicates to me that she is probably certified, but I doubt that she would have given me so much trouble if I had been a first year teacher who needed to video tape her lesson, or if, like Marna, I was a veteran expert teacher who needed to tape themselves for an award they were receiving. It's possible that age played into it as well. I felt ridiculed for my youth, as if she was equating me with some stereotypical co-ed, partying it up every night and barely passing my classes.

It was an unfortunate experience, but one that I am glad to have. I will probably continue to run into people who will judge me or treat me differently based on my age, experience and gender. People will be rude, cruel, unfair and I will have to deal with it with professionalism and grace. I think that I did that fairly well this time, all things considered, and was still able to solve my problem by calling on other resources.