Sociological / Psycholinguistic   Bases of Bilingual Education

Notebook: 

Hard New Lessons:  03, Hard New Lessons All in the Family

Big young kid hits small lippy kid, big kid gets suspended.

 It seems like everyone is perplexed and concerned about violence in education. Kids killing kids, kids killing teachers. We seem to think that because our babies are leaving class in body bags, the educational system has failed. That we as a society have failed. Education and society have been failing for a long time, in fact they were set up not to inspire and motivate individual thought and mutual respect but rather to produce loyal dependant group orientated subjects.

 There are great teachers, kids, parents and yes even a few administrators. Children learn, teachers stimulate greatness, parents inspire diligence, and administrators empower. This happens in spite of our Prussian style of education. It is a wonder there is not more rebellion and violence in American schools across the country.

 The middle school, which draws from the elementary school where I teach, has experienced a fatality on campus 2 of the past 3 years. The latest incident ending with a screwdriver pierced through the head of a student. Our students are acting out in a way that society has determined will get you attention. Hispanic gangs, no different than other gangs, use violence to gain notoriety and respect.

 The article tells of parents who have given up on their ability to raise their son. At 15 they have decided that he needs to figure things out on his own. I think that it is dangerous to demonstrate feelings of powerlessness, children need structure, no not suffocating Gestapo like tactics, but the knowledge that there exists in the world a person who cares enough about them to get angry when they fail to conform to agreed upon boundaries. The opposite of love is definitely not hate, but rather indifference and apathy.

 When children are confronted with apathy at home and function in a school indifferent to their interests, something will manifest.

Course Components:

1. Cognitive Theories Paper 
2. Legal Cases Analytical Paper  
3. Presentation  
4. Notebook  
5. Paper  
6. Professional Development