Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Television Schooling- Sesame Street, Barney, Disney, Thomas The Tank Engine, Mary Poppins

 Chapter 2: The First Day of School- Montessori School

Chapter 3: The Big Move to China- Crying in Chinese Local School

Chapter 4: The School Next to the Zoo- Rainbow Bridge International School

Chapter 4: The Carefree Elementary Years- Yew Chung International School

Chapter 5: The Bittersweet Years - Shanghai American School

            A Place Unlike My Own

Chapter 6: Untititled - Bryn Mawr College

A Place Unlike My Own

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Chpt1……. A Single Mother’s Push

Chpt2…….Open Your Eyes

Chpt3…….The Bridge

Chpt4…….Impact of high school & PUPP: Challenge Yourself

Chpt5…….College

Chpt6…….The Shift (from the top to the bottom)

Chpt7…….Adjustment

Chpt8…….Keep Moving Forward

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Chapter 3

Impact of High School & PUPP: Challenge yourself

    When I read "History and Culture: Wrestling with the Traditions of American Education", one paragraph really stuck out to me. It read:

“Education is viewed as the equalizing agent in our society, and meritocracy is viewed as the path to achieve that end. According to this belief, anyone who works hard will fare well. However, the ideology of meritocracy has an underlying flaw. It does not take into account the prevalent inequalities in our society (35).”

As many others in the course, I have previously read and studied Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I find that this book tends to be an ultimate foundation for our education department (clearly evident by the name of the Praxis Program). As I have talked so much about this book as a whole, I chose for this (more than likely) final reading of Freire to focus on intimate details of the reading. 

Deborah Centeio

Table Of Contents

Chapter 1: Monkey See, Monkey Do

Chapter 2: No Child Left Outside

Chapter 3: That School Is For Bad Kids

Chapter 4: Diversity or Not?

Chapter 5: What Happened To All My Friends?

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Chapter 2: No Child Left Outside

As a child I spent my entire early education at the O’Hearn Elementary School. The O’Hearn was a rather small school located in my own neighborhood, and about an 8 min walk from my urban home. I attended this school from Pre-K until the 5th grade and my happiest moments were spent there.

The building was a small one-floor structure in the shape of a complete circle, with a courtyard in the center, in which every classroom faced. There was absolutely no getting lost there! The classrooms were very simply numbered from 1-10, approximately 25 children in each grade, with at least two teachers assigned to each class. Occasionally, one was placed in a mixed classroom with two grades sharing a room. This can seem rather complex and hectic but it worked out pretty smoothly. The class did most activities and lessons together but then spilt up when grade specific learning occurred. For example, math classes were held with students of your grade level.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Barney
    How Barney and other such cartoons taught me all I knew of social interaction.

Chapter 2: Grammar
    Nouns? What are nous? What is this grammar I need to learn?

Chapter 3: Multiplication Tables and Elementary Math
    Practice makes perfect was firmly enforced when it came to math.

Chapter 4: Chores
    How I sometimes did more chores than homework.

Chapter 5: Books
    How reading changed my life.

Chapter 6: Languages
    How languages have played a part in my education.

Chapter 7: Freshman Year
    The issues I faced, and the things I learned

Chapter 8: Sophomore Year
    How I picked my major, and how I did something that made me wonder if I wasted more than 5 years of my life.

Chapter 9: The Present
    Oh dear. I’m a junior. Now what?


Chapter 3: Multiplication Tables and Elementary Math

Table of Contents

1. Plastic Inner Tubes and Overly Concerned Grandparents: Learning to Swim
2. Losing a Battle with a Picnic Table: My First Broken Bone
3. Becoming a Big Sister (Twice)
4. Double the Morning Announcements: My Experiences in a Third Grade Bilingual Homeroom
5. Recorder Karate: The Beginnings of My Musical Endeavors
6. Becoming an Astronaut for a Day: Sixth Grade Science Class
7. Marlborough and Akiruno: Hosting a Japanese Foreign Exchange Student
8. C.I.T.Y. Kids and D.E.L.V.E.: More Than Just Acronyms
9. Preschoolers and Lit Chalices: Teaching Sunday School
10. Dealing with Cats, Dogs, and Clients: Working as a Veterinary Technician
11. On-roads and Gruesome Videos: The Perils of Driver’s Ed
12. The Day I Anticipated Until It Actually Arrived: Graduation

Chapter 6: Becoming an Astronaut for a Day: Sixth Grade Science Class

I file in with the rest of my classmates, an uncharacteristically quiet hush falling over us as we survey the rows of computers before us.   Many weeks had been spent in Mr. McCook’s science class preparing and training for this moment, our voyage to Mars.  We quickly find our assigned seats.  Overhead, the beginning of a countdown is heard.  “Ten…nine…eight…”

I've read Freire before in other education classes, though usually in smaller sections at a time.  I generally like theory based readings, but found myself having to relate to the real world to stay focused and really understand what Freire was saying.  I thought about how relevant his discussion of the fear of freedom (page 46), which creates the binary of oppressor and oppressed, is visible in many American movements, which makes his work all the more powerful to me because he wasn't intending to write about America specifically.  This leads me to believe his theories are applicable even outside the US, which is impressive.  On page 44 he writes, "In order for this struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their humanity (which is a way to create it), become in turn oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of humanity in both.  This reminds me of the feminist movement.  I think some people fear that women are trying to conquer men, but the reality is that the feminist movement "restores humanity to both" men and women by allowing women to no longer be oppressed (for example, equal pay) and also so that men are no longer forced to be oppressors (for example, men would be allowed to express feelings and emotions more freely).  He also discussed, on page 45, that "in the initial stage of struggle" the oppressed tend to become oppressors, rather than striving for liberation altogether.

 Educational Autobiography

Table of Contents

1.Leaving the Bagel on the Dashboard, or a first lesson in self-sufficiency (Pre-School)

2. Calling my 2nd Grade Teacher Torica, or adventures in progressive elementary school (Pre-K–2)

3.The Oregon Trail, or exploring and loving public school (3-5)

4. Volleying, or let’s just not talk about it (6-7)

5. Losing Letters, or how to memorize a sonnet (8)

6. Stay Cool, Soda Pop, or how to stop crying over physics tests (9-12)

7. The Best Years of Your Life, or coming home to Bryn Mawr (Present)

Chapter 1

It started with a series of presents a wooden carving of an Icelandic horse, a fleece-lined sleeping bag, and a plain cloth book.  I used the pony to model for an updated photograph of myself as a ballet dancer waiting for the annual recital to begin.  I tested the sleeping bag in my car, in 16oF weather, in a strange rest stop.  But the book was a problem.  What to do with a book I can’t read?  After accepting the help of Google Translate, I found out the title, Ritsafn, and author, Olof Sigurdardottir, of my book.  I looked for a translation, none exists; there isn’t a lot of Icelandic literature translated into English, I learned.  Her book, it looks is out of print in Icelandic alas.  Interestingly, my book is a collection of poetry and fairy tales, the third and final published work of a woman farmer writer.  That her husband was a carpenter formed the basis for my poem comparing the author to myself.  My carpenter (the presenter) seemed satisfied.  I was still curious.  This is the story of how I decided to start a series of homophonic translations of my book.