Pat Guild - The Culture/Learning Style Connection

In a course, Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap, that my colleagues, Elli Stern/Jennifer Wolfrum, and I teach, we ask participants (teachers, counselors, administrators, tutors, nurses, etc.) to get into a group and "become the expert" on an article that we have assigned for homework.  To this end, we then ask the group to construct a graphic organizer, mnemonic, or other visual aid to help "teach" the other groups about the article.  

Willis D. Hawley - Another Inconvenient Truth, Race and Ethnicity Matter

In a course, Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap, that my colleagues, Elli Stern/Jennifer Wolfrum, and I teach, we ask participants (teachers, counselors, administrators, tutors, nurses, etc.) to get into a group and "become the expert" on an article that we have assigned for homework.  To this end, we then ask the group to construct a graphic organizer, mnemonic, or other visual aid to help "teach" the other groups about the article.  

“…teachers need to respect and build on differences to foster student learning.”

“The following practices illustrate the interdependence of good instructional practice and of caring and trustful relationships among students and teachers:
     * Building on students’ prior knowledge, values, and experiences.”
     * Respecting and being interested in students’ experiences and culturalbBackgrounds…….”

             
“…the problem of student underachievement [lay] not in students’ identities or in family culture or poverty, but rather in uncaring school-based relationships…”

One Tweet Destroys the Stanford Rapist’s Dad’s Disgusting Defense of His Son

Rape Culture and Violence Against Women

https://mic.com/articles/145425/one-tweet-destroys-the-stanford-rapist-s-dad-s-disgusting-defense-of-his-son#.n1XSlU0Jx

Do you ever watch a movie and think, "Hey, that person looks just me"? Unfortunately, that rarely happens for this woman.

http://www.upworthy.com/after-being-frustrated-by-hollywoods-portrayal-of-asians-one-woman-took-action?c=ufb1

For as long as she can remember, Villemaire has wanted to be a television personality.  But for most of her life, she figured she didn't have a shot because there was hardly anyone on the big (or small) screen that resembled her.

Throughout history, and even today, many Asian characters are played by nonAsians. Villemaire calls it yellowface, and she doesn't mince words when it comes to how she feels about it.

Check out four stunning examples of Villemaire depicting Asian characters. She appears on the right in all of the photo sets:
1. Luise Rainer playing the Chinese wife of a Chinese farmer in the 1937 movie "The Good Earth."
2. Myrna Loy as the Chinese daughter of Fu Manchu in the 1932 movie "The Mask of Fu Manchu."
3. Katharine Hepburn playing (you guessed it) a Chinese woman in the 1944 movie "Dragon Seed." 4. Yep, it happens in present day movies, too. Emma Stone played a half-Asian woman in the 2015 movie "Aloha."

Brown Eyes Blue Eyes

Here is a great summary of Jane Elliot's work over four decades, from her 4th grade classroom, to Oprah, to England.  All in one place with accompanying videos.

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/01/if-you-know-you-arent-racist-watch-this-blue-eyed-brown-eyed-test/

11 of the Most Culturally Appropriated South Asian Accessories – And What They Really Mean

These are only "headlines."  If you are interested in details, please link to the whole article.
http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/01/south-asian-accessories-mean/

While it looked cool to my friends when they sported a bindi, I could not help but feel strange about it, like an invasion of space.

When is it acceptable to wear a Bindi?

• If you are getting married to a South Asian
• If you attend an Indian festival/ritual and have a vermillion dot placed on you as a sign of welcoming one’s guest

Which was why I was defiant in school when I was told to remove my nose ring after piercing my nose at fifteen. I did it to commemorate my very first trip to the homeland.

When is it acceptable to wear a Nath?

• When it is not a bridal nose ring being worn as a fashion accessory (the other styles are just fine)
• If it is a part of your own culture

These hefty accessories are meant to accentuate the rhythm of dance and to appreciate the complex footwork for the forms of Indian dance.

When is it acceptable to wear a Paayal?

• If your culture wears them as an accessory like us
• If you are an Indian dancer or a South Asian bride

When is it acceptable to wear Chudiyaan?

• If you are in attendance of a Hindu friend’s matrimonial functions and the dress code is Indian ethnic – but be sure to check with your host first

South Asian women across the world and from all walks of life wear them at home, during an occasion, while in attendance of prayer, or at the workplace.

When is it acceptable to wear a saree?

• If you are in attendance of an Indian function that stipulates Indian ethnic attire. It would be advisable to get a hand with how to wear one properly since it takes some effort.
• Please do not wear this for Halloween.

When is it acceptable to wear a Bichiya toe ring?

• If you are married to a South Asian.

The Aum is used everywhere now – and not as it should be.

When is it acceptable to wear the Aum?

• If you sport one as a pendant, bangle, bracelet, or a tattoo (be mindful of its placement) and are a practicing Hindu

When is it acceptable to get a tattoo of a Hindu God?

• While I am deeply appreciative of tattoo culture, it would be advisable to get these tattoos only if they hold a deep significance to you
• Please mind where you place them on your body. The legs are considered the dirtiest part of one’s body, and getting one on your back is frowned upon.

Henna
The issue here is not the use of the plant; it is the convenient fashioning that inadvertently erases the cultural significance of this ritual that is a bother.
So if you are not a person of color, I would caution you against wearing this for an “Indianized” look – I don’t even know what that term is supposed to mean. It is offensive, but I have read it one too many times. Here’s looking at you, Madonna.








 

Mixed with White Isn't White

http://hyphenmagazine.com/blog/2014/7/22/why-mixed-white-isnt-white?utm_content=buffer4f33a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
In the 1990s, psychologist and mixed-race scholar Maria P.P. Root wrote the famous Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage, stirred by her examination of mixed-race identity, interviews with hundreds of multiracial folk across the U.S., and the struggles multiracial people face in forming and claiming a positive sense of self. “I have the right not to justify my existence to the world,” it reads. “To identify myself differently than strangers expect me to identify. To create a vocabulary about being multiracial or multiethnic.”Almost two decades later, these proclamations still ring so true. Some people are completely unwilling to honor my family’s choice to identify as mixed-race and Asian because it doesn’t align with their own ideas about how we should identify. The right of a mixed-race person to self-construct and self-define, even today, endures continual policing from people with their own agendas.

Telling my child he’s white also won’t help him understand why children who were less than one-quarter Japanese were interned during World War II; why a stranger would look at him and say there are no “pure races” anymore; why a leading theatre company in our city unabashedly staged a yellowface production of an operetta; why kids on the playground pull back their eyes in a slant and spit out one of those ridiculous anti-Asian chants that just won’t go away. When I tell my son that he is Asian, mixed-race, multiracial, and a person of color, I’m not denying him parts of his ancestral-ethnic heritage. I'm teaching him about the race politics that intrude upon our lives whether we want them to or not. I’m preparing him to exist in a world that obstinately persists in being racially divided. And I’m trying to let him know something about the ways he has and will continue to be judged throughout his life, not because he’s white -- but because he’s mixed with color.

Why I'm Tired of the Civil Rights Conversation

This article has a rhetorical title. 

 

Everyone should be concerned with civil rights. Those who have them think everyone else does, and that's just not true. As the article states, we can't talk opening about race now and it still exists in today's United States, not just in the past.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/21/living/movement-dull/

10 Ways Well-Meaning White Teachers Bring Racism Into Our Schools

 (click link for details and “What to do instead” )

http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/10-ways-well-meaning-white-teachers-bring-racism-into-our-schools/

1. Lowering or Raising Achievement Expectations Based on Race/Ethnicity

2.  Being ‘Race Neutral’ Rather than Culturally Responsive

3. Using Racially Coded Language

4. Intentionally or Unintentionally Mispronouncing Names

5. Enforcing Harsh Discipline Practices That Disproportionately Impact Students of Color

6. (Inadvertently) Valuing Whiteness

7. Tokenizing Students’ Cultures to Connect with Them

8. Culturally Appropriate in an Effort to Connect with Students

9. Devaluing What Non-Teachers Contribute to the School Community

10. Doing Little or Nothing to Advocate for More Teachers and Staff of Color

History of Holidays

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/christmas-holiday_5668555de4b009377b232f75?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063