1) Preschool Adventures

2) Catholic School

3) Transition to Public School & the Stolen Gameboy

4) 4th and 5th Grade

5) AWKWARD YEARS

6) High School Fun

7) The 'Ford (in progress)

Chapter 2

I spent kindergarten, first grade, and second grade at Saint Catherine's, a Catholic school five minutes away from my house. In terms of the experiences that Dewey speaks of (whether helpful or miseducative), my time in Catholic school was full of them. In particular, St. Catherine's affected how I viewed myself academically relative to my peers and relative to how I was viewed as a student by people around me, which shaped how I viewed my studies and approached learning in general up until high school.

“Money is the measure of all things, and profit the primary goal. For the oppressors, what is worthwhile is to have more – always more – even at the cost of the oppressed having less or having nothing. For them,  to be is to have and to be the class of the “haves”.

When reading through Freire, I couldn’t help but agree with so many of the ideas he was presenting. I found myself underlining like mad and sharing some awesome quotes with my roommate as soon as I would come across them. He’s got a lot of amazing ideas with many possibilities within them but these possibilities are something I want to attempt to unpack some more, whether it be as a class or on an individual basis. When it comes to these types of readings (so much going on at the same time with so much possibility), I feel like I lose myself in the ideas rather than finding anything concrete.  With Freire,  unpacking brings up more interpretations and possibilities. For this reason, I find Freire so helpful and insightful in so many areas which also leads to my sense of confusion.  

Table of Contents

1)    The Black Apple

2)    Reading Quietly vs. Reading in Your Head

3)    Stay in Your Section: Missing Out on the Wonder of Children’s Literature

4)    Moving to Washington Jackson Elementary

5)    After School Mania: Homework, Snacks, and Oregon Trail

6)    Up into Space: The Space Shuttle Mission of Class 6-1

7)    A Love Story Between a Girl and Her Soccer Ball

8)   The Middle School Chronicles

9)    A Good Paper Doesn’t Equal Plagiarism

0)  And Then There Came High School

11)  AP’s, SAT’s, ASP, and other Acronyms for Success

12)  Accepting Change

13)  Tales From a Target Employee

14)  Truths from a High School Senior: College Apps, Football Games, Gidget Friday’s, and Watching Over my Freshman Sister.

15)  Everything You Learned was Wrong: College

16)  I Have to Become a Real Person!! Preparing for Life.

A Good Paper Doesn’t Equal Plagiarism

"Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world." 

I feel this quote holds true to the idea of eradicating the banking system. I feel that the banking system is only a positive thing for certain subjects and certain learning methods- ONLY if this is followed by students using their critical thinking skills to ensure their full understanding of the material taught. Not so much for younger students, but for older students I think it's really important that teachers don't always see themselves as the authoritative figure who "knows it all". Classes are much more successful, efficient, and worthwhile when the teachers see the students as equals, when they understand that though students may be younger they still have thoughts and ideas that are relevant and intelligent.

"The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly responsiblle for a process in which all grow."

Reading Pedagogy of The Oppressed is making me question my own status: am I oppressed or oppressor? Could I be neither? Being an American, I think, sets me up as a colonizer/oppressor/privileged person… so I thought, perhaps I might be an ally, joining in solidarity with the oppressed. But that role is questionable too. It could easily (unintentionally) posit the oppressed as "victims" and myself as a kind of "savior." I see this all the time with nonprofit organizations, youth groups, missions projects, etc. What entitles westerners to conceive of themselves as capable of changing the world, one person at a time? I think Friere would tell them that individuals can only change themselves: "Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects with must be saved from a burning building" (47). Further, "it is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors" (38). So maybe there's more to be explored in the the "with, not for" (30) concept: the savior/victim mentality is just as oppressive as the oppressed- or oppressor- status. 

This makes me question the notion of "empowerment": What is the act of empowerment? Who can empower? By empowering someone else, are you actually treating them as less than human? 

Table of contents

1. First grade: Special Education class- separated but equal
2. Second to fourth grade: You’re on your own
3. Fifth to eighth grade: I think I get it
4. High school: Graduate and go to college- that’s what I have to do, thanks for telling me

Chapter 4

High School Freshman English class: Uncontrollable

We were “that class” to her: the class that was loud, annoying, a pain, uneducated, ill mannered, and overwhelmingly tiring. And she was “that teacher” to us. She was angry, annoyed, and exhausted. Most importantly she didn’t like us. She looked like she hated her life, her job, and us. She was my 9th grade English teacher and although I was quiet, reserved, and studious to her I was part of “that class.” I was ignored because she had to control the bad students. Which weren’t bad students at all. They were just tired of being enclosed in a building for so many hours of the day, they were tired of being yelled at, they were tired of having teachers that didn’t believe they were smart or capable of doing anything, and they were tired of not getting what they deserved our of the Lynn public school system.

Chapter 1: S.A Elementary School

Chapter 2: U.B Middle School

Chapter 3: E.B High School 

Excerpt: 

I graduated with the largest graduating class from this school. It was a wonderful experience because I, along with many others, seized every opportunity I had. In the school we had a senior café, oriented to provide all of the seniors with all they needed to apply for college or work upon graduation. We had a PIC counselor whose office had an entrance to the café and the TERI (college preparatory) and Access (Financial Aid) counselors whose offices were located inside the café. Down the hall we had the Gear up office, which helped with college access and applications. With the help of these offices I toured many schools and was able to successfully apply to higher education. 

Chapter 1 – Backyard Shenanigans

Chapter 2 – Finding my Voice Through a Trumpet

Chapter 3 – Ms. Sepulveda and Story Telling Contests

Chapter 4 – Finding God and Learning to Question my Beliefs

Chapter 5 – On Breaking a Brick

Chapter 6 – Math Tutoring and High School Culture

Chapter 7 – AP Chemistry and Other Levels of Hell

Chapter 8 – Why are all of My Friends Speaking in Cantonese?

Chapter 9 – For the Love of Math

Chapter 10 – On Embracing a New Culture

Chapter 6 – Math Tutoring and High School Culture

 All you have to do is find the integral of u and the derivative of v and then plug it into the formula. And the integral of u, ex, is just ex, so it's a fairly simple example. Do you see it?  Her eyebrows were furrowed, and the end of her pen was almost completely defaced. She had a nervous habit of gnawing on it. Yeah, I see it. she responded hesitantly.   Excellent! I exclaimed, slapping my thighs with the palms of my hands. In celebration of her understanding, I left the table to pick up our coffees.