Chapter 12: Religion

I was glad to start reading this text as I feel that it is the one that I associate with the most since I am of a different Religion than most of the US population. The text puts Judaism as the 10th most popular religion in the US and has about 2.8 million adherents. All together that equals 1.3% of the population. Further on, the text states that Judaism constitutes about 3% of the population, but only half identify it as their religion. The Jewish population continues to decline because many you Jewish people are marrying outside of the religion. I did my part by making my fiancee convert. He likes it though and enjoys the religion.
At the start of the formation of the US, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians, and Quakers were the most common making up 80% of American congregations. Catholics later moved up to the majority. About 60-905 of people report some type of religious affiliations while about half of the population attend church weekly. Females seem to be more religious as well as African Americans. 2/3rds of the population identified as the same religion of their parents.
The large issue mentioned in this chapter is the separation between church and state. In the end, students are allowed to participate in religious activities, as long as it doesn't disrupt the learning process. Other provisions are as follows:

• Students are allowed to pray and discuss religious views with their peers as long as it doesn't disrupt education
• Students may not just decide to pray as teachers call on them
• Cannot have a captive audience of students who might not want to listen
• Teachers may teach about religion but cannot teach religion
• Schools may teach creationism and evolution in comparative religion and social studies but can only teach evolution in science

The Equal Access Act allows student religious activities to be given the same access to facilities as other student secular activities. Schools can also teach virtue and moral code.
Muslims are making up a larger number of students. Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world and make up 1.4% of the US population The opening of a Muslim school in New York city caused a lot of controversy even though NYC already had 65 dual-language schools. Other schools and languages did not face this type of hostility so it's sad to think that these students felt unwelcome and unsupported by their community. I enjoyed learning about the Muslim faith in this text and about Somalia.

Chapter 11: Sexual Orientation

This is certainly a hot button issue in many schools. It is difficult to talk about and to try to enact a safe environment for these students. As stated in the text, "In 2006, the US government reported that about 14% of the hate crimes committed in the past year were motivated by sexual orientation." And that "less than 60% believe that homosexual relations between consenting homosexuals should be legal." (pg. 223).  According to the book, middle schools might be the worst place for sexual harassment, where more than 3/4ths of students report that other students have a negative view of homosexuality. This falls right into the median age of 13, which is where many people start to realize their sexual orientation. There is very little support at this level and at the high school level as well for these students. The result is often drop outs, absenteeism, homelessness, substance abuse, and risky sexual behavior. In 2004, about 7.8% of suicides were due to sexual orientation. Estimates but the numbers of GLBT students between 5 to 10% at each school. I found it shocking to hear that openly gay teachers can lose their jobs due to their sexual orientation. I had openly gay teachers in high school. In only 16 states, sexual orientation is protected from discrimination under the law. This book is dated from 2007 however, so I'm hoping that this number has changed since then. Also, GLBT people are never identified in textbooks and only is occasionally provided briefly in describing a noted person. The Harvey Milk School is a small alternative school that helps gay and lesbian students and provides a traditional curriculum, as well as social services and family counseling. It is great to hear that schools are changing to meet the needs of students today at least on rare occasions such as this one.

Chapter 10: Gender

According to the text, the gap between girls and boys has narrowed in math. Boys seem to do better in math and science, while girls do better in reading and writing. I like the assignment of "Draw a scientist." Maybe this is because I'm an art teacher, but I do think it is a great way to see how people view scientists. I myself would have drawn an older white man. I didn't even think to draw one of various ethnic diversities or a woman. I also didn't think to draw a person doing "everyday experiments" such as cooking and gardening. Also I learned that the marriage percentage is huge in math and science faculties. "43% of married female physicists are married to other physicists, while only 6% of male physicists have physicist spouses." (pg.196). I think this would be because there are many more male than female physicists, so a female in the field is rarer. Also work relationships are pretty common as well, and at that type of work, those people would seem to have a lot in common. In all computer science, math, agricultural science, environmental science, chemistry, geology, physics, and astronomy, women represent less than 15% of the workforce. Many have attributed the low numbers of women in math and science to teacher attitudes, peer influence, and parental involvement. Boys and girls have been socialized different ways from when they are younger and given different types of toys. Not only are there a small number of females in these careers, there are also a small number of African American and Hispanics.
What was interesting to learn was that "females tend to attribute success with effort, while males tend to attribute success with ability. On the other hand, males tend to attribute failure with effort, while females attribute it to ability." (pg. 198) I don't know how I feel about success and failure and if it's internal or external. But it is interesting to know that boys view it differently than girls.
When it comes to literacy, the difficulty becomes greater in boys as they move from elementary to middle school. They often use self-protective strategies such as avoidance and resistance. Also boys and girls tend to be drawn to different types of literature.

Chapter 9: Exceptionality

Exceptionality is defined as disabled or gifted students who are eligible for services. There is a disproportionate number of minority students in special education. "Black students are three times more likely to be identified as having mental retardation and over two times more likely to be classified as emotionally disturbed when compared to their peers." (p.170). The inclusion movement tries to reduce the amount of restrictions students with special needs receives. Differentiation has some concerns due to the degree of knowledge of general education teachers to the special needs of students, time for planning and collaboration, administrative support, and willingness. Our school has chosen to heavily enforce differentiation though this is hard to do for all lessons. I agree with the concerns toward differentiation. It is recommended for special needs students, especially because gifted learned spend a great part of their day in general education classrooms. Our school also uses RTI, which tries to identify students before they qualify for special services. It seemed that there were a lot more advanced students that were singled out for RTI instead of actual students that needed it. This seemed to be the complaint by many schools as well. The book also points out that minority students are. Underrepresented in gifted classes because they might have different behavior and language And the teacher might not consider them advanced. Family involvement is the greatest factor in academic success and I know a lot of teachers that share that sentiment. It was pointed out that the academic level of the parents has little effect on the academic success of the student, showing that it is more important to be involved than to be knowledgable. aDHD is the most commonly diagnosed childhood psychiatric disorder. 3-5% of the student population are thought to have ADHD. However the percentages are higher in certain parts of the country and in urban areas. Also two to four times the amount of boys are diagnosed with ADHD than girls. Yikes!

Chapter 8: Poverty and Socioeconomic Class

Diverse children, with the exception of Asian children, consist of the majority of children in poverty and lowered academic success. Poverty is defined (in 2007) as a family of four who makes under $43,000 per year, and one person who makes under $20,650. I made that type of money working part time. The box 8.1 Child Poverty Nationwide by Race (2005) stated the following about the percentage of children that live in poverty: 35% of Black children live in poverty (20% in New Jersey and 43% in Ohio) 28% of Latino children live in poverty 29% of American Indian children live in poverty 11% of Asians live in poverty 10% of White children live in poverty 18% of all children are considered poor and can range between states from (7% in New Hampshire to 27% in Mississippi More children lived in poverty (18%) than 18-64 year olds who had 11% in poverty. People 65 and over had 10% living in poverty. 30.3% live below the poverty level for at least two months but just 5.3 percent of them stayed in poverty for over two years. The average amount for time spent in poverty was 4 and a half months. In 1997 parents who obtained a degree and had children under the age of six had only 3% of families below the poverty line. Programs that are available to these families include Head Start, food stamps, the school lunch program, the Low-Income Home Energy Asstance Program, and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Mental resources are needed. Other noted groups include veterans (30%), crug or alcohol-dependant person (40%), and persons with mental dissabilities, (25-30%). Many of these pele belong to more than one subgroup and thus the percentages dont add up to 100%. Another point that I noted was that one in seven single-parent families are headed by a father. High levels of absenteeism and tardiness are common for homeless children. Physical issues include "inadequate nutrition, substance abuse, maternal depression, exposure to environmental toxins, trauma and abuse, and quality of daycare" (p.154) that all effect brain development. The statistic that a $10,000 increase to a family income increases high school graduation chances by 600%. The research on twins mentioned showed that intelligence had a lot less to do with genetics and more to do with environment. Schools with dental help have seen an improvement in school achievement. Our school started assisting wi dental health and I think that it is a great idea. The graphs showed in the PowerPoint were powerful and I wish I can show them to my students who are having children before they graduate high school.

Chapter 7: Culture and Language

Culture is characterized as values that is learned and shared from families and groups. "Because cultures change over time, based on complex circumstances, it is difficult if not harmful to determine a fixed view of culture." (p.119). The culture of the US has historically been one from Western Europe. Our political systems and language are from Great Britain, which makes sense since our first settlers were from there. Ethnocentrism is when someone believes that their culture is the best and won't view other cultures as equal. Table 7.1 Components of Cultureon page 119 is a great reference to see what makes up a culture. There are subcultures and micro cultures as well which share traits with the macroculture while developing traits of their own. Language can be verbal or non verbal. Literacy can also include reading, writing, and listening. In major cities of the US, over 100 different languages are spoken. I found it interesting that reading and writing are not learned naturally and must be taught, I would have thought otherwise. Knowledge of other languages helps to learn additional languages. There are three major orientations whose first language is not English. Difference orientation focuses on what is lacking, which is often found with at-risk, disadvantaged, and culturally deprived students. Difference orientation views linguistic diversity as a positive and builds on the knowledge that already exists. Social reconstruction orientation believes that the problem don't just come from the school, but society as a whole. ELL students are taught in many different forms but the ELL students that are in L1 seem to be in a though way.approximately 70% of all ELL students speak Spanish. 31% of ELL students fail to complete high school. From the PowerPoint, I liked the quote from Cesar Chavez that says, "Preservation of ones own culture does not require contempt or disrespect For other cultures." The political cartoon that shows two people walking and one says to the other, "Really? You don't look like an Indian." sums up what we have read about in this chapter and in the case study. I feel it should be more prominent and have a slide of its own. I also noticed that you found a lot of the same points interstitial from the chapter as I did.

Chapter 6: Race and Ethnicity

Race was first used at the beginning of the twentieth century to refer to any "geographical, religious, class-based, or color-based grouping." (Taylor & Whitaker, p.99.) In the words of Mukhopadhay and Henze (2003), "The concept of race is a cultural invention, a culturally and historically specific way of thinking about, categorizing, and treating human beings." (p.673). This makes the identity of culture on of choice and can change. Language, religion, styles of clothing, and foods can all be used to identify a persons ethnic group. The book points out that an actual blood relationship does not determine an ethnicity, but instead as a part of a group that entertains a certain belief, physical type, or customs, or many things combined. I loved the part of the chapter that dealt with children's perception of cultures, and that they might associate skin color with various daily activities because they don't fully understand culture. The book recommends to respond to the child's question instead of ignoring it. The issue of racial identy starts to become more predominate during adolescence when they start to question who they are. The book also recommends that teachers should provide students with "positive affirming experiences." (p.102). This should also occur with White children. it was stated in the text that "while Blacks have often been labeled disadvantaged, Whites are rarely labeled advantaged." (p.103). I disagreed with the section that brought up the health problems of Black people versus White. Taylor and Whitaker stated that Black people have a higher risk of dying from heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and hypertension. It attributed this to the linkage between blood pressures and encounters with bigotry. However it failed to mention that African Americans have the highest rate of obesity which would have a greater chance of accounting for this. Lastly I liked the quote in the text from the mother that said, "'If you're a nobody... It doesn't matter what color you are" (p.104) as a response to a child's questions of who he is.