Parental engagement in schools is an interesting topic for me because I had never before put much thought into it. I had never considered the difficulties that might come with enrolling your child in a new school system particularly if you aren't fluent in that school sytems language.

The readings this week as well as the guest speakers highlighted many of the challenges faced by minority parents. We have spent so much time talking about students this semester I had not given much thought to the problems that parents face. While parents in low income communities are often forced to engage with their community out of a need for advocacy they often remain unengaged with their child's education. This is not out of apathy of course but a result of cultural barriers. Many parents simply don't know what is expected of them in the American school system. Others wish to be engaged but are limited by linguistic barriers or a lack of cooperation from the school system like we have heard about from the guest speakers and in Collignon's article.

These articles have given me much to think about how I will try to connect with parents when I become a teacher. While parents need to meet teachers half way, I believe it is our responsibility to reach out because many parents might not even know that we are available to talk.

I found Dennis Anderson's article on gay and lesbian development incredibly interesting. The idea that girls and boys come to terms with their homosexuality differently is something I had never considered. It makes complete sense upon further thought. Society views lesbians and gay differently and it would make complete sense that their experiences would differ in a general sense.

I was however, surprised to see that boys tend to identify their homosexuality at an earlier age. While gays and lesbians both experience prejudice I have always thought society is a little more harsh on gays. Perhaps I am way off but I would assume that in the face of more intense hostility gay boys would fight their feelings more and come to terms with it at a later age. The fact that this is not the case is surprising. Maybe I am completely off in thinking gay boys get bullied more than gay girls as well.  Perhaps I am putting too heavy an emphasis on social factors rather than biological ones.

I thought I had posted this a while ago but I must have just clicked save. Well, as they say "better late than never"!

Reading Carol Gilligan's book was much like Peggy McIntosh's "Invisible Backpack" in that it made me look inwards. It highlighted many things that I tend to take for granted as a white male.

The most insteresting part of Gilligans book was the emphasis on the effect that parental relationships affect gender dynamics. It also got me wondering how reversing those traditional parental roles might affect childhood development. Are boy's raised by a single mother traditionally able to empathize more with others? Does a girl raised by a single father tend to define herself in more individualistic terms?

Before reading Children of Immigration I had put a surprisingly small amount of time pondering immigration. In retrospect, this is unacceptable seeing as I am the son of an immigrant (for those of us that don't consider New Brunswick to be "Maine pt. 2"), I probably should have spent some time investigating the issues. Going into reading the book, my views towards immigrants were by no means negative. But the book gave me some more perspective on the matter.

I found the 2nd Chapter had the largest effect on my views. By analyzing immigration through a historical perspective, the book highlighted many of the similarities and differences between the immigrant’s experiences at different points in time. It is sad to read that while the immigrant experience has varied widely in terms of location and motivation, there has been little variance in terms of the reception they received.  The lack of growth in our collective attitude towards newly arrived immigrants is disheartening. I would hope that we would have experienced more growth over the generations.

It was also interesting to see the different types of immigrant experiences there are. People tend lump them in as one entity and while I didn’t do that prior to reading this book, I admittedly underestimating the wide array of pathways immigrants take to this country.

While the general attitudes and misconceptions towards immigrants was a downer, it was uplifting to read that many children enter this country with an enthusiasm towards education and optimism for what the future holds. I plan on adding to this blog after class discussion because its such an interesting topic and I would love to add more when I get other people’s perspectives.

McIntosh's article White Privilege opened my eyes to a different way of thinking about race and privilege in today's society. I am sad to say that until reading this article I had never really thought of myself as advantaged. Had you asked me whether or not racism, sexism, or other forms of prejudice created significant obstacles for minorities I would have said "sure, you betcha." But I had never thought of my whiteness as something that gives me an unfair advantage. The subtle difference between being treated "normally" and being given an unfair advantage had never occured to me. I had come to think of the treatment I received as fair and normal rather than advantaged.

McIntosh goes on to list the ways in which she feels advantaged in day to day life. While many of them are valid I was particularly interested in, Number 6 read :

When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

As a history major I think this has particular influence. I think it may have an effect on what I believe is a lack of diversity in the history field. Depsite often liberal viewpoints in the field I think that minorities are often turned off from the subject because many common viewpoints don't value non-white societies contributions. Even when minority cultures are covered in courses it is through a European or American lenses.

While the article truly opened my eyes in many ways I couldnt help but feel that it was building up to something that never occurs. It ends abruptly and I would love to know whether or not she expanded on her ideas in another article. I would love to know of any practical ways that the author has come to address this issue in day to day life.

Hi guys!

Thought I would give brief introduction. My name is Ben and this is my first semester at the Grad School of Ed. I received my undergrad from UMASS Lowell in history in 2011 and I am excited to be back in school after a year off.

In my spare time I teach and train Brazilian jiu jitsu. I also enjoy traveling and I am a huge hockey fan. Any questions feel free to ask and I look forward to getting to know you all this summer!