Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school

I found it difficult to decide what kind of Cinderella I would be. I didn’t want to be
completely feminine because they see loads of very feminine fairy tale characters all the
time and yet they also seem to think that all lesbians look like men so I wanted to
challenge that in them too. So I decided to be definitely female but not pink and pretty. I
wore boots and a sparkly wig and a skirt and a leather jacket.
I thought this was interesting because she give her class a visual experience and not a stereotype of what a lesbian should be. I also found it interesting how the children were more accepting of the story king and king, but maybe because of the happy ending. I think it's a good idea to teach children of people of LGBT. So, they can be more accepting of others who are different and maybe it also would be easier for parents as well. Having educators who may have the knowledge or have done maybe work shops for this topic can express, educate, and maybe give the correct information to these children. I also think parents should help out as well. This is such a touchy subject because of beliefs, fears, and just trying to protect children. I believe all schools should have education on racism and on LGBT so we can have a future generation who are more accepting of others.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/2003/07/28/nyc-to-open-high-school-for-gays/

Unlearning The Myths that Blinds Us

I like she opened up this article by describing herself, to us know she no Disney princess herself. I think this is the article that tied everything together for me. I saw the connections before but this is so eye opening. It connects to the first article Johnson because they make you think of what you see everyday but never actually seen it for what it was. I never even noticed how I felt as a child how I felt of the fact there wasn't any female cartoon characters in shows like bugs bunny, until space jams came out and I was so excited because she was a female and not a male pretending to be one and that she could play basketball, than I could relate to her. I didn't look up to Disney princess like my cousins growing up because I wasn't girly. Where was my connection? I never believed in man should be my hero. I think there should more characters out in the media for all little girls to connect to. The only one I can think of now is the movie brave because she felt she should take her destiny in her own hands and not be married, she wanted independents. There are so many different little kids out there so they should have characters like them in books, cartoons, movies, etc. I teach my daughter that a woman can do whatever a man can do. and this is for little boys too. Growing up i used hate when the men in family use to say to my brother, "Man up" or "Act like a Man", like what is that suppose to mean? because he was a quite little boy. I used to defend him. Like what do they want from a six years old child? fight, be angry? I just didn't understand. Gender roles shouldn't be pressured on a child. Children are smart, they learn by seeing, hearing, an experiencing things for themselves. Let them be who they want to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VqsbvG40Ww

Hunger of Memory the education of Richard Rodriguez

I do disagree with the fact that the parents listened to nuns and let their children speak only English. I can relate with Richard because I'm a Latina who was born in America. And as time goes by without speaking Spanish to another person, the worst my Spanish get's. I think it's because mentally we start processing information in English. Which makes it harder to speak  Spanish because you have to say it backwards from English, it's spoken in opposite. 

When his uncle and other family members comes to visit and they get so angry with the children because they don't speak their native language. this is so true because our elders are proud of their culture. they get mad in this situation because language is apart of the culture your from and its in embarrassing when the younger generation is letting all that history die. They probably feel that if they let that die then whats next? the history? Us younger generation who struggles with speaking our culture language, most of the time it isn't that we want that its just harder for to practice it, so we forget. As for me I'm one of them but I wont let my culture or traditions die out. I'm very proud of my history. So I try to keep alive by learning, cooking, celebrating traditions.   

Why Can't She Remember That? by Meier

This article was very informative, I didn't how important reading habit's for young children. When I worked with preschooler and kindergartner before, they were easily distracted and would run off and play instead of listening to the story. And I like to read a story in a way to keep their attention by expressing the emotions and sound effects, I get deep into character but sometimes it wouldn't keep them interested or they would do what some the kids did in the texts would do, punch the monster in the book. I didn't realize that it could be that they don't have experience with books. I try to read books that have different color character's because I want them to relate to the story. I'm a Puerto Rican mom so I know how important it is to read a book that shows characters that's not white. One of my favorite books to read to my daughter is I like myself by Karen Beaumont. It's a brown little girl and she explains that she'll like herself no matter what. I read this to her because on TV all she see and look up to are girls who are white with blond hair and when my daughter was little she wanted blond hair to related to what she see's, so I books with different color children so she relate to them and see that everyone it beautiful just the way they are.

An Indian Father's Plea by Robert lake

If I was Wolf-Wind parent I would feel so emotional angry, I don't know if I could keep calm. Wolf-Wind is only five years old, how can he be slow? he is just entering the world of formal education. The teacher is suppose to teach him that's her job, that's what she getting paid for, and this is the career she choice to be in. I think his father is dealing with the is situation really well but I guess you have to, especially in this time and town that's run by white people. He has to keep calm because if he shows anger they may think he's a savage but in all reality, he's well educated, you know this by reading he's letter to the teacher.
I feel for Wolf-Wind because he's only five years old having to go through bullying, teased, and questioning what he knows from his own culture. He tries so hard to fit in. And because he's only five years old no one can expect him to make a stand or deal with this abuse. The teacher is a horrible person. this teacher should be protecting this child and talking to the children about Wolf-Wind background. Telling them that they can learn from each other, Embracing both cultures, showing that they can learn from other's and it's okay to be different.

Amazing Grace by Johnathan Kozol

Amazing Grace

 It's very interesting to see someone write about the Bronx, but I would have preferred to hear from someone who experienced what he write's about in a first person point of view. As I'm reading this article, it reminds me I'm grateful that I left New York. Korol asked question like how is it for children to grow up there? What do they think? Yes, its hard living in place like that but it really depends on how parents handle the situations. I think if your parents are very loving and try they best so that you can have a happy life no matters the circumstances. life is a little easier to handle or deal with. Don't get me wrong children still feel the struggle and pain but it helps when parents try to make things a little better. I can really relate to this article because I grow up in the South Bronx, I saw all of this growing up. I saw what drugs did to people I knew and loved. I  saw the effects of AIDS and the fear of it.
 Now, to the question about praying to God. I believe that's when as child you feel the pain of your life. When you're asking "Why God?", "Why I'm going through this?', or "please take this pain away?' and yes children actually ask these question, and yes it's heart breaking when you think about it, but it's life. We can't can't really do much about the surrounding as children.
This article brought so many emotions to me at least. I felt bias, I felt a little anger because someone from the outside was telling this story. I felt like he shouldn't because he didn't live these people lives.  he didn't know the struggles of being a child in the South Bronx. That it wasn't always bad especially when this is all you know. We don't compare our lives to what we see on TV or in books. We just know struggling is apart of life. What rights did he have to get famous over this. but as I continued to read I calmed down. He did give a voice to them, he made people aware of what was going on. at least I hope it did. I really connected to this article, it was so sad to read it because it brought back memories. Just reading about all the deaths, especially of children always breaks my heart. Remembering about the what drugs did to so many families and still to this day, is crazy and very sad. When comes to hospital's and AIDS, I always heard about the stories but never saw it first hand, at the hospital part. I saw what AIDS have done. I saw of this first hand because I have a big family and in the 80-90's I saw what drugs, AIDS, and being poor did to my family and friends.