Analysis Of Karen Lee 's ' Project Classroom Makeover ' Essay

Our individual characteristics and traits are what initiates change and drives society, yet in our society in which individuality doesn’t seem to exist these days. where is an individualist is something what we call an outcast or not normal. In two articles by Kenji Yoshino "Preface" and "The New Civil Rights Movement", Yoshino discusses how he believes that people “cover” or hide their real identity so they will fit into the so called “norms” of our society. Yoshino supports his argument by ethos, he also uses his own personal experiences, he also uses pathos, and he uses examples, facts and data to get his point across. It is this individuality that fuel society and is present in every aspect of it. Culture, a significant part of society,

Race and gender are two facets that inherently dominate individuals everyday lives. A person’s social environment, work environment, and educational environment is congruent to their race and gender. From birth, it has been set up that everyone is assigned to a label. A pink or blue blanket is swaddled around a newborn child and a box is checked signifying that child’s place in society. These two actions ultimately define how a child is to be viewed and treated. As children grow into young adults they either decide to stick with their original assignment, while others decide to deviate from it. These individuals deviation results in many of them being viewed harshly and looked down upon because they strayed from their social norms. This constant cycle of being classified and labeled from birth is the social institution of gender and race. These social institutions aid in the inequality that is present in society, and race and gender are shaped by this. However, if these social institutions were removed, race and gender could dissipate. This is due to the fact that race and gender are not real, but are socially constructed concepts used to organize the power, or dominance, within our society to one social group over the other groups.

In her investigation based on interviews with a parent of different social classes and preschool teachers, Kusserow had characterized three different styles of individualism: soft offensive, hard defensive and hard offensive individualism (216). This different style of individualism was the outcome of child’s self through observation and searching for the complexity and prevalence within the children from different social classes in New York communities: South Rockaway Carter Hill, and Beach Channel. The common aspect between the interviewee was the white race of the parents. Her field work led to the verdict that “parental conceptions of the child’s self did not reflect bipolar class constructs (a solely conforming working-class and a self-directed upper-middle class), nor was one generic brand of individualism sufficient to characterize them all” (214). Kusserow understood that the different atmospheres that they lived in cause the creation of these individualistic strands and the differences in a way that they choose to reach life goal. Surprisingly, she believes that the various distinction of individualism is unique to the world in which people grew at. Thus, it can’t be further applied even to

He lays awake at night clutching his bedsheets in guilt, because of his want, and to want anything at all is blasphemy. Because of his intellect, his teachers ridicule him constantly. He tries to dumb himself down and squash down his natural curiosity to fit in, but he is lashed nevertheless. “It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them.” (Rand 21) This quote reflects on the fact that is any man exhibits superior traits to that of their colleagues, they will experience a harsh degree of backlash. Because of the push for sameness, if one man is unintelligent, all others must be the

Standardization being the ultimate determinant of a student’s path is an injustice to the individual.

Despite students possessing a variety of needs and learning styles, the education system was designed for a “one-size-fits-all” in an attempt to meet every child’s needs and abilities. However, this is not the common perception by those who investigate further into the diverse environments of numerous, differing schools. Jean Anyon, in “Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work,”argues that the style of education students receive is decided by the social class of their community and is not uniform when concerning students of all types. Instead, working class, middle class, affluent professionals, and executive elites experience significantly dissimilar school environments. Not only are they treated differently, and taught differently, but they’re prepared for a certain future that corresponds with their social class. Anyon’s synthesis is validated by my own experience at the Windham schools in Willimantic, where the demographics of the school corresponded with the confining, restrictive, and strict teaching style described by Anyon as ‘working class’. My account depicts the harsh reality of how my disadvantaged community suffers through a school system that does not prepare them for a future beyond a life of blue-collar jobs. However, my experience also disproves Anyon’s model through several details in the style of learning, such as going out of a textbook, or also being graded on a right answer.

In chapter one's reading, there are many course concepts that caught my interest. The first concept that caught my eye was socialization. Difference Matters by Brenda J. Allen defines socialization as “how we are taught how to behave in the world” (Allen, 2011, p.12). We are taught socialization by our family members, teachers, peers, and the media. Children taught socialization will find their own personal social identity in society. When taught this they will think that it is real and natural for these actions to apply to them. Family members, teachers, peers, and media teach children to act a certain way in society. In doing this they will learn how to function as a respected and accepted member of their culture. For example, in my own personal life, my grandmother always told me to eat like a lady at the table. Eating like a lady included taking small bites, sitting straight up in your chair, chewing with your mouth shut, and never speaking with your mouth full. My grandmother was a southern lady she also taught me that ladies had a task to do around the home. Ladies made dinner, set the table, and cleaned up after the meal. I was always by her side absorbing everything she showed me. While the women cleaned up after dinner; my father, grandfather, and other men at the table would leave to talk or watch television. I never questioned my grandmother or the other women in my family why the men did not have to help clean up. My family was teaching me socialization and I did not even realize it. The next course concept that grabbed my attention was social identity theory. Allen describes this as “human tendency to label self and others based on individual and group identity” (Allen, 2011, p. 11). One could also describe this course concept as a group contently comparing their

Ohanian begins with the statement that encompasses her outlook on the curriculum and standards teachers are expected to teach which states "Teachers and curriculum being flexible enough to meet the needs of each students, not shoving every kid through some distant committee's phantasmic pipe dream of a necessary curriculum for tomorrow's workforce" (Ohanian, 1999, p.2). In this quote Ohanian says what school should be about and stresses the need for "oddball plans for oddball students". Throughout the book this point is supported with personal recounts and stories of interactions with students and the outcomes. The most key point of this book is that standards are unfair to children who do not learn the traditional way. Curriculums and standards are created by individuals who are not even in a classroom day to day whom Ohanian refers to as "standardistos". Therefore the importance of a nurturing, personal relationship suffers

The public schooling system in America edifies the paramount of individualism. However, we do conform to a certain degree with rigid school timetables (as visually perceived in Source B) and compulsory classes. Although, America makes it indispensable for students to take compulsory classes as a way of conformity it still sanctions the students to express their individualism with our dressing, our cull of electives and extra Co-curricular activities. Students express their individualism with the habiliments they wear and the classes and the extra Co

As society advances and the boundary between people becomes seemingly less apparent, many individuals attempt to promote various plans based on the concept of equality. Anyhow, many so-called egalitarian plans would inevitably result in failure because their proponents blindly believe in the efficiency of equality. They neglect how people are motivated to improve and to test their limits by their instinct to compete. In her writing “Project Classroom Makeover”, Cathy Davidson proposes egalitarian plans consist of a “democratization of knowledge” (54) which depends on crowdsourcing and “working together collectively” (51). In Davidson’s perspective, problems will be solved by allowing everyone the equal opportunity to express themselves. However, Karen Ho’s research directly shows the impracticality of her plans by explicitly revealing the existence of hierarchy in her writing, “Biographies of Hegemony”. As shown by Ho’s research, no matter how alluring Davidson’s plans seem, they will not come about. Because Davidson’s idealistic plans disregard human beings’ instinct to strive and fight for what they valued. Such egalitarian plans will not be executed with hierarchy deeply rooted in our society, results precisely from human’s desire to compete with each other.

Our education system is perhaps one of the most complex institutions in the United States. Students are taught to be their most authentic selves but yet are told to think a certain way. In reality, students really don’t have the freedom to be their genuine identity. Our society tells us that a typical student speaks the language, excels in all areas of study, and loves to read. Children who do not fit this mold are often at a disadvantage and do not attain the same acceptance. In the essay, “Achievement of Desire” Richard Rodriguez was a first generation immigrant from Mexico. His parents spoke little English, and had no education. Automatically, his family is an outcast. Throughout Rodriguez’s schooling career he learned to fit the perfect mold of the “typical” American student. He finds himself to be in an internal struggle between social versus family isolation, authenticity and finding his place in the American society.

Individuals go through many experiences in life, and through their experiences they learn about the world, and how to react to the way it treats them within a society. A society has many expectations that mold people 's attitudes and moods. Throughout life, people are constantly changing themselves to fit into the society and once people fulfill its requirement to meet its expectations they can fit into the world, because the world is built on society’s expectations. The society can make people distant from themselves, when they are busy, and are always being pressured to complete a certain task on time. The society can impact people 's decisions by alternating their ways of treating them. They can be strict, and force people to put their ego aside, while in other situations they want the the people to only think about themselves, and what they want, and how they should value themselves more often, Especially children, who at a young age are trying to find their place in society. In “An army of one” by Jean Twenge, many children are surrounded by coloring books, and other activities that support their self-esteem, hoping to build a concrete understanding of the importance of self. In “Project Classroom Makeover” by Cathy Davidson, students are surrounded by rules, and regulation, that always lead to standardization, and a way for students to forget about themselves, but Davidson wants to change that with technology and restore the students’ self-esteems. The ability for an

Identity is a socially and historically constructed concept. An individual learns about their own identity through interactions with family, peers, organizations, media, and educational institutions. Education and identity are two closely related topics. On average, most Americans will spend a fourth of their life in educational institutions. During this time period students are growing and maturing, but most importantly they are discovering themselves. Students realize their qualities, determine their morals, and establish their beliefs during this time of instruction. Undoubtedly, education forms and challenges a person’s identity throughout the years.

The Brave New World “community” is divided into five castes ranging from the Alphas, who are the most intellectually superior, and ending with the Epsilons who are the most intellectually inferior. “Identity” is portrayed in the “Conditioning Center,” where babies are not born but made then separated into

The basic principles of rationalization come into play when making the education system homogenous; the elements of efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control play essential roles in the means of standardizing education. Each of the aforementioned ideals ultimately contribute to a method that can increase the overall success of an education system, sometimes with little regards to the education that students receive. By teaching children to think in a way that is identical among every individual, creative measures in regards to problem-solving are being stripped away and replaced with common and