Reaction to Imagine If...

In English class, we discussed if we could do a certain thing like wear the color blue because of the size of my shoes. The question was what would you do? Our teacher, asked us to write about it. I wrote about if I couldn't wear the color blue because of my shoe size it would be a restriction of my right to freedom of speech and expression. I would fight for this right because what else would they restrict if they restricted the colors I wear.
At the end of the lesson she said if you changed that you couldn't wear the color blue because of your shoe size to you couldn't go to school because of the color of your skin. It kind of hit harder with that because I feel that education is a right that everyone should have a not a privilege. I would do everything in my power to change that law just like the Little Rock 9 did.

Passage Journal #3

"A woman stood toe-to-toe with me, not moving. "Nigger!" she shouted in my face again and again. She appeared to be a little older than my mother. Her face was distorted with rage. "Nigger bitch. Why don't you go home?" she lashed out at me. "Next thing, you'll want to marry one of our children."" - page 111
I picked this passage to write about because I find it kind of disturbing. The fact that they had to face torment every single day from their peers is already disturbing in general. A lot of children get tormented by peers so I think it would be easier to ignore if I was Melba and I was getting tormented by people my age. In this passage though, she actually gets tormented by a mother and I think it would be harder to ignore if a grown woman who has children of her own was tormenting me. Especially if she continued to call me those vile things. The thing that disturbs me the most is if I was a girl growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas in this time period would I be one of the people harassing these 9 children. I wonder if my views would differ in any way. I obviously hope not but it is hard to tell how I would think if everyone around me were really big segreationists.

Passage Journal #2

"Shortly after Mr. Claxton left, the church ladies arrived with baskets of food. "So's the white people won't catch you'all shopping and chop your heads off," Mrs. Floyd said with an acidic smile as she brushed past me. She was grandma's very good friend, but she wasn't at all in favor of integration. "We have our place, and we do best when we stay in it," she said. Her words made me tense up, but i knew she meant well. She had no way of knowing about last night's shooting and how much the things she said hurt my feelings."- Page 69-70

I thought this passage was very interesting because it shows several aspects of Melba's life and integration. First, I  think it is interesting that everyone feels it is okay to tell her their opinion on integration. Whether it is good or bad. It is a lot of pressure to put on a 16 year old. In the passage she states that what she said hurt her feelings. When people give her their opinion and its negative I don't think they realize what kind of pressure they put on her. There is no way I could be able to handle the pressure of integration at my age. I also think that Melba couldn't have done what she did if her grandmother and her family didn't support her like they did.

Passage Journal #1

We recently started reading a book called Warriors Don't Cry and it is a great memoir about the Little Rock 9. Here is a passage from the beginning of the book. This passage is from the introduction on page xxii.

"Where is Governor Faubus, I wonder. Where is the man who dispatched armed soldiers to keep nine children out of school, who bet his life and his career that he would halt integration?
"Faubus is quoted on the news wires today saying if he had it to do it over again, he'd do the same thing. What do you think about that?" a reporter asks."


This passage from the book really stood out to me because it is so shocking to me. There are several things that disturb me. First, is that Faubus actually sent armed soldiers to a high school to keep CHILDREN from getting an education. I don't understand how he didn't lose his job as Governor. Especially, since he was ordered by the supreme court that separate but equal is unconstitutional. The second thing that is extremely disturbing is the fact that after 30 years he still has no remorse. Also that he would do it again if he was in that situation! I don't understand how someone could do that. I think that if Faubus didn't send in troops it wouldn't have been as severe and Eisenhower wouldn't have sent in the 101st airborne. It could have gone one of two ways if the 101st airborne didn't come in. It either wouldn't have been that bad and people would have been as severe when children were making fun of the little rock nine. Or one of the children would have been lynched. It could have affected education today if one of those did happen.

Kozol vs Ravitch

I recently read two books about education; they were called Savage Inequalities and Shame of the Nation. I read one chapter out of each of them. Shame of the nation i read about how much on average a school district spends per student in an inner city school and a rich suburb school. The answer was disturbing. In inner city schools it was roughly $8000 per 3rd grade class and in a 3rd grade class in the wealthiest suburb they averaged about $12000 per class. To me I don't think that is fair because all of those kids already start out at a disadvantage. A study in 2002 showed that a teacher in the Bronx was payed roughly $53000, in Manhasset a teacher was payed $87000, and in Scarsdale a teacher was payed $95000. Both of those effect a child's learning and studies show that a child needs preschool to be able to keep up with school. Most kids in the Bronx don't go to preschool. George W. Bush was once quoted saying "Giving money to a poor school is like pumping gas into an already flooded engine." He was basically saying those schools have too much money anyway. I cant express how much I disagree with this statement. It is probably the exact opposite from the truth. Deborah Meier said, "I will believe money doesn't count the day the rich stop spending so much money on their own children." It is so true. There is a high school in the South Bronx that when it rains the water runs freely down the stairs like a waterfall. You cant say that that doesn't effect learning. The next book that I read basically talks about how all children should be managers for their life and that's what they have to learn in school. They have to be able to be confident enough in themselves so every child needs to be in a manager-like position so they don't feel like the underdog.

Annotated Bibliography

Underwood, Julie, and Julie F. Mead. "A Smart ALEC Threatens Public Education." Phi Delta Kappan. PDK International, 20 Feb. 2012. Web. 8 Mar. 2012. <http://www.kappanmagazine.org/content/93/6/51.full>.

This article talks about Alec and the affects it had on education, state legislators, money, free markets, and many more. It is a liberal leaning article so it doesn’t shed ALEC in a very good light. It also talks about ALEC in different states including Tennessee Arizona, Indiana, Georgia, Louisiana, and Wisconsin. It goes very in depth about education including collective bargaining and privatization of schools in the US. They want to privatize education through vouchers, charter schools, and tax incentives. Another effect they will have on education is they want to have more student testing and student competition. They are big supporters of the No Child Left Behind Act. They also want to lessen the influence of school boards and school districts through several different acts. It also goes on to talk about ALECs influence in states and how strong it is.

"ALECWATCH." ALECWATCH. Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

            Web. 08 Mar. 2012. <http://alecwatch.org/index.html>.

            This is online book called ALEC watch. There are not very many books on ALEC and this one is one of the few. This book is more liberal leaning in opinion so it is against ALEC and it shows the bad sides of ALEC. This article talks about the history, finances, and activities of the American Legislative Exchange Council. They say that ALEC is just front so corporations can funnel money through it to get what they want from legislators. It talks about all of the laws that were made in their think tanks and are now cropping up around all of these conservative ran states. Some of the laws include Collective bargaining and Voter ID and both of these have shown up in Wisconsin.

"History." ALEC. American Legislative Exchange Council. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.

<http://www.alec.org/about-alec/history/>.

            This article talks about the history of ALEC and what ALEC stands for when it comes to views.  Their “slogan” for their council is Limited Government, Free Markets, Federalism. They describe themselves as a nonpartisan membership association for conservative state lawmakers who shared a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty. This article is straight from ALECs website and so it is more conservative leaning in opinion. Then they go on to talk about the birth of their task forces. They were created in 1981. They also talk about their clearinghouses to think tanks. The last part of the article talks about ALEC’s formula for success. 

Alec Watch: Non Fiction Book Review

http://alecwatch.org/index.html

For my non fiction book I read bits and pieces of an online book called ALEC watch. Since their are not many books about alec I thought this one would suffice. It is Liberal bias because I couldnt find many sources that were for ALEC except for ALECs website. This article talks about the history, finances, and activities of the American Legislative Exchange Council. They say that ALEC is just front so corporations can funnel money through it to get what they want from legislators.

The History of ALEC: Article Response

http://www.alec.org/about-alec/history/

This article that I read is about the history of the American Legislative Exchange Council. It has a conservative bias to it because it was straight from ALECs website. I want to have both sides in my blog. ALEC defines itself as a "nonpartisan membership association for conservative state lawmakers who shared a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty". The organization was founded in 1973 and has been helping out conservative law makers make their laws for 30 years. Then I read the about how they created the think tanks and their task forces.

Article response: A smart ALEC threatens public education

http://www.kappanmagazine.org/content/93/6/51.full

This article talks about how the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is affecting public education. This article is bias towards the liberal views about ALEC. In the first couple of paragraphs it talks about how much ALEC has affected the midwest over the last year. It brings up how taking away collective bargaining rights showed up in three states last year including wisconsin. Then it goes on to talk about what ALEC strives for in education including changing teaching, privatizing education, increasing student testing, and elimate the use of school boards and districts. In this article, they think that all of these can be hazardous to the economy and education.