The Blind Poet

David Steele:The Blind Poet

Dave Steele is a family man, a lover of music and in 2014 he found out he was going to go blind and there was nothing he could do about it. I cannot even begin to imagine what that is like, to go into the eye doctor in the prime of your life to see if you possibly needed glasses to finding out you were going to be to see for a year or two longer. Steele was diagnosed with a genetic condition called “Retinitis Pigmentosa” that caused his eyesight to rapidly deteriorate. 

His parents both carried the gene which meant it gave his siblings a one in two chance of going completely blind and unfortunately for Steele and his sister they did not beat the odds. This meant the same odds apply two Steele's own two children so upon finding out his own diagnosis came the guilt of knowing his own kids could be subjected to the same fate. 

Facing the inevitable loss of his job, piles of medical bills stacking ever higher , Steele found himself lost in the endless and sometimes inescapable sea of depression. Steele was still a musician , still had his craft, his wife, and all his children but he no longer felt the same burning passion for it.

That was until he was asked to perform for a support group for other blind people. He felt that his usual set of songs wasn't enough and that he would need to do something special to give back to his newly found community. Steele found himself up all night writing and editing the song “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King to better suit his own person's outlook on life and all the struggles he was forced to face head on. It was a hit and for the first time in forever Steele felt like he was understood and on the right path. 

Steele did not just stop there; he went on to change more songs and eventually made a facebook group entitled “Stand By Me R.P.” to post his work. People in the blind community made his work take flight and soon he wasn’t just covering songs but writing them, and even began posting poetry and personal pieces on a daily basis. 

He has released countless poems about his struggles, his hopes, his fears and I was moved to tears when I heard him in person.

He has multiple books and social media accounts so if you would like to read more id implore you to read the poem linked below, click the linked biography or watch something from his youtube channel.

David Steele's Biography

One of his 700 poems

Stand By Me RP
(I would recommend listening he has a lovely voice)

Empowering Education by Ira Shor

EMPOWERING EDUCATION BY IRA SHOR.

Ira Shor uses this book as an opportunity to speak about youth empowerment or to be more specifically Shor attempts to guide the reader through empowering children in a classroom environment. Making sure all the students in a class feel as though they belong in that space, are able to confidently follow along with the days lesson and most important that children feel as though they are capable of succeeding in the readers class.

Shor does speak necessarily about boosting children's confidence though that would be a positive side effect of this guide. the author makes it very clear that while they want children to speak up during the lesson and participate it is not a guide to making kids selfcented or cocky. while the reader may want to embolden their students it is important to not create over confident kids and even though the reader may wish to empower the children it is important that children don't so brash that they take over the class with there own thoughts or ideals.

As Shor puts it "Empowerment here does not mean students can do whatever they like in the classroom.Neither can the teacher do whatever she or he likes.The learning process is negotiated, requiring leadership by the teacher and mutual teacher-student authority.In edition, empowerment as I describe here is not individualistic."

Shor wants to have an empowered but not overbearing classroom and has a plan to get it. They have a "AGENDA OF VALUES" to instill in the children to empower them.

According to the author an empowered classroom should be....

1) Participatory

              "Participation the most important place to begin because student involvement in traditional classrooms because student involvement is low in  traditional classrooms and because action is essential to gain knowledge and develop intelligence. "

2) Affective

                 "The traditional learning process lacks a mutual dialogue

through which all sides can negotiate their positions. This bottling up

of bad feelings undermines the transfer of knowledge in the official syllabus.

The affective atmosphere of a participatory classroom also aims lor a

productive relationship between patience and impatience. "

3)Problem-posing

                 "Another means to engage students in critical  and mutual learning can be found in the third value on the agenda, problem-posing."  

"the teacher is often defined as a problem-poser who leads a critical dialogue in class, and problem-posing is a synonym for the pedagogy itself."

4)Situated

      "The students are not drilled in grammar, lectured about job rules, or scolded about the work ethic. They are not blamed for workaday infractions. Language study does not refer dishonestly to a glamorized picture of work. The problems of inequality and undemocratic authority"

Shor also says the classroom should be..

5)Multicultural

6)Dialogue

7)desocializing

8)Democratic

9)Researching

10)Interdisciplinary

11)Activists

These principles are all crucial to the development of youth and Shoe does a great job explaining this in her article.

If you are interested in the article: Shor's Article.

Teaching after Brown vs The Board of Education

Teaching after Brown vs The Board of Education.

( Seen above Ruby Bridges Being escorted to school after Brown vs The Board)

In Toepcia, Kansas on May 17th 1955 is the date that the supreme court that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." One by one schools all across america were forced to suddenly integrate all white schools to accommodate young African Americans were chosen to be the first generation of equal opportunity students. 

Thinking of these people and their stories seems like such a distant memory , with movies being produced about little girls and boys like Ruby Bridges, who are known for kick starting this movement.  However Mrs Brides is only 65 years old, not ancient history and is still thriving in 2019. 

(Modern Picture of Ruby Bridges)

Just like the enigmatic Mrs. Bridges however segregation in schools is not old and long gone, it is unfortunately alive and thriving. It is not necessarily what we think of in terms  of segregation, it is not all Rosa Parks on the bus or separate water fountains. Segregation in 2019 looks more like a neighborhood in the ghettos that was one of the few places African Americans could live in in the 20th century  so entire family trees blossomed in that area of town and because of a lack of racially accepting and or black run businesses no one could really afford to move out. So schools popped around those neighborhoods to take care of those first generation of occupations children and nothing has changed since then. 

People take over jobs and even positions for their parents and buy their parents house so they can retire, and soon you have whole family's feeling locked into the same dead end jobs, in run down neighborhoods with children receiving education in school that are still taught the same way their grandparents were taught in the same un renovated buildings!

But there has been improvement as mentioned in “This American Life”,  “ In other words, on standardized reading tests in 1971, black 13 year olds' tested 39 points worse than white kids. That dropped to just 18 points by 1988 at the height of desegregation…...That's all black children in America. Halved in just 17 years. When I asked Nikole if that was fast, she was all like, "Well, black people first arrived on this continent as slaves in 1619. So it was 352 years to create the problem. So yeah, another 17 to cut that school achievement gap in half? Pretty fast." 

This is a great improvement from pre integration, however it still does not align with the scores of Caucasian children.

Because even as recently as 2017 schools like Normandy High School , a majority black school lost accreditation because of the “unequal” an disproportionately cared for school system that is still hurting america's youth today.

Link for Background Information:

https://www.biography.com/activist/ruby-bridges

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/562/the-problem-we-all-live-with-part-one

In the service of what? the politics of service learning by Joseph Kane and Westheimer

In the Service of what ?

Joseph Cain and Westheimer speak outwardly on the topic of Public Service in America, or rather peoples determination to avoid doing it as an opportunity. 

Ever since freshman year of high school people have been telling me but I need to do a certain amount of community work just to get a good grade. I had to do it for everything from a cheap Civics project, to a church fundraiser, to a piece of paper to get into senior year, and I even had to do a certain amount of hours to be allowed my diploma.

Now in my sophomore year of college if the time has come again where I have to attend a certain amount of hours service work in order to obtain a grade and further my efforts to get a a degree and a good career for the rest of my life.

I am required to attend a certain number of hours in kindergarten classroom in order to pass my FNED class and to be honest it never feels like volunteer work when i then get rewarded for doing it, it defeats the purpose.

I have done plenty of good things that weren't asked of my and gotten Absolutely nothing out of it, not even a free grade. I worked at soup kitchens, baby sat , worked churches, for a dance troupe, in my church's youth organization, and even became the president of my church! And I donated countless hours and even more money and supplies making sure that everyone else was taken care of 

I complete disagree with what this article stating about people and their willingness to help the community, do I understand the fact the we have communities struggling ? Yes, but do understand forcing a bunch of college students to come in a couple days a week against there free will. A group a of set volunteers helping at the school all day for the year would help but a bunch of students that now have a good reason to bail out on these young children once they get there grade, drop the class or the semester ends leaving these kindergartners with nothing.

The article speaks of "promoting an ethic of community service" however it talks about volunteering like it has never been done before Former President Kennedy signed off on the program.

Forcing people to "volunteer" for something is not volunteering it simply working for a grade instead of a wage. It defeats the purpose in its entirety. Volunteers are good , service learning workers paid with a B+ average are not.

As best said all the way back in the year 5BC by the roman statesmen Lucius Annaeus Seneca,

"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness."

here is the link to the article :In service of what?

11 and gender fluid by Erin Zelle and Safe Spaces by Annemarie Vaccaro

LGBTQ + YOUTH IN AMERICA

"11 and Genderfluid" by Erin Zelle and "Safe Spaces" by Annemarie Vaccaro represent two different approaches to supporting LBGTQ+ youth in american and how to take care of any issues in a large classroom sized environment to a small household basis.

Vaccaro speaks from a rather political point of view and strives to show the reader ways to integrate LBGTQ+ education and support openly into the curriculum. It goes into detail about how to approach homophobic and trans-phobic slurs being used like adjectives in public school classrooms which is most certainly major issue. I talks about teachers duties to the children of their classrooms to create a positive and safe environment to learn in and their job to raise awareness about any hateful issues that should arise. This article takes about including LGBTQ+ articles, historical figures or writers into lesson interchangeably with Cis-Het authors to make it feel commonplace and normal for these people to be openly represented in society.

(A sign free to use in classrooms)

Zelle takes a more personal approach and talks about his more personal experiences with the LBGTQ + community.  He talks about his experiences as the father of a non binary child and how he learned to adapt to what that means. He even states “My 11-year-old daughter Sullivan’s style is defined as gender fluid, which translates as a “fluid” shift between masculine and feminine, depending on how one feels. The first time Sullivan mentioned it, I’m embarrassed to admit, I had to Google it.” Zelle states that while he had to learn to adapt he has learned to embrace his child's gender identity and even took his child shopping to suit themselves better. He uses his experience as an ally parent to set an example or lose guidelines other parents to follow. Now they are even able to bound over his daughter sharing similar tastes in suits.

(The Nonbinary Flags)

Here are the links to the two articles:

11 and Gender Fluid

Safe Spaces

"Unlearning the myths that binds us" by Lisa Christensen

Christensen makes writing easy, she gives us a solid thesis question to be answered in the post I am making and even a few examples of how people have choose to answer it in the past. In "Unlearning the myths that binds us" by Lisa Christensen , she asks "Do you agree with Dorfman's position that children receive"a secret education" in the media."

As a 2000s baby I have always had technology and therefore always had an adult or person older than myself telling me that it has ruined me. Technology has corrupted previous generations past the point of no return and can still ruin my generation if used improperly however this is the first time technology is entirely in the individuals hands both literally and metaphorically.

We have constant access to technology like the phone in my hands that I am using to type this but because we are no longer relying on the family t.v or dad's computer for access to the outside world my generation all had at least an ipod as early as some of us can remember. But because the technology has always been personal to use and often a private space we have the ability to pick and choose which aspects of society we like and don't like , and the ability to know why others do or don't like something.

For instance there is currently a live action Mulan in the works. And lots of controversy has arrived along with the news about the movie. Half the people half the people who care about the topic are boycotting the movie. They are upset that their one of their favorite movies from their childhood is being altered and changed. There will be no talking dragons, Mulan will not fall in love with a general and get married in front of all of China and supposedly she will not even pretend to be a man. And to those people this is entirely unacceptable, they're changing one of the few women of color in the Disney Cinematic Universe and to those people that is entirely unacceptable. On the other hand are people that entirely support these changes, it may be completely different from their childhood however these changes are supposedly being made to more accurately represent the original Chinese Legend, and to accurately portray Chinese culture. So it all depends on your point of view you can choose to boycott a movie in 2019 and not let any events influences impact you, which depending on the movie is very good. But you can also spend years messaging in writing petitions for Disney to properly display Asian culture and choose to support the new version even if it gets something's wrong.

So even that we have to know live with technology being stuck in our face 24/7 we now have the opportunity to speak out and have our voices heard to make sure the media we are being presented with is being presented in a way that is not harmful to us. We have been educated, but it is no longer a secret and we are finally old enough to be some of the educators.

Here is the new poster.

vs the original

and here is the links to both the original and new trailers.

New Mulan and Old Mulan

Which do you prefer.

Teaching Multilingual children and The Child's Struggle Against Silencing

     I only speak one language. I am not an immigrant. However I am living in a nation of them, and most of my family has emigrated from one place to another. They took the time and effort to come to this country and spent years learning how to speak English, get an education, a job and eventually a family an entirely new land.

                I want to be a teacher and I have no idea where my students will have come from, what their lives have been like up to that point, or what the best way to teach each individual student will be.

                 Reading "Teaching Multilingual Children " by Virginia Collier and " The Child's Struggle Against Silencing" by Richard Rodriguez really put me out of my comfort zone. I do not have my teaching degree yet so I have not experienced a wide variety of students, sure I've worked with children my whole life but by the time they've come to know me they've always had at least an okay grasp on the English language. There's been quite a few who speak Spanish or Portuguese, I do live in Rhode Island after all however they all spoke it as fluently as they spoke English.

                  I don't have a vast knowledge on the subject and I honestly struggled to relate in any way shape or form to the first piece. I had to read it a second time because I fell asleep the first. I had a hard time taking it's seriously because I have never known the struggle of a language barrier nor have I spent years trying to teach my way through the Gap in understanding. Also I will not be teaching for quite a few years and none of the classes I ever had in my experience in public schools had people speaking multiple languages, so all in all reading the peace felt more like choking it down.

                 However on the complete opposite hand I also read Rodriguez's piece and then I felt incredibly guilty. The part that really got to me was when he said "i determined to learn classroom English. Weeks after it happend: One day in school I raised my hand to volunteer an answer. I spoke out loud voice. And I did not think it remarkable that when the entire class understood." I was proud the Rodriguez achieved his goal, good for him! The next line really stood out in a different way entirely, "that day, I moved very far from the disadvantaged child I had been only days earlier"


                 I never really thought of being fluent in multiple languages as a disadvantage,  after all  it can get you a pretty nice scholarship .  I always thought of as something  that all smart people can do. Not something that would make people feel disadvantaged and even left out or the way that a classroom is viewed when you have to spend half your time in class translating what is being said.


                 The whole point of the first piece was for me to better understand and adapt to what my future children were going through and I was so preoccupied with my thoughts on the subject instead of thinking about them. The second piece was powerful because it reminded me of the impact I will have on my students and my ability to shape their lives for the worse for the better.


                  So I reread the first piece, again and this time I took what it said to heart. I reread certain sections didn't make sense and tried to place myself in Rodriguez's shoes so I could understand why these lessons that Collier was teaching would be helpful. It made me analyze how I normally act in a classroom situation and all in all both pieces give me a great introspection into my life in a classroom up until now. I also had a glimpse into my future and I hope I will be able to teach students struggling with the English language, who speak multiple languages including English fluently or just children struggling to grasp a concept in a way that is clear and concise so everyone has a better opportunity to learn.


Here is link to both pieces if you would like to read them.

I recommend you them in this order so that you can better understand Collier's piece.

Rodriguez's Piece

Collier's Piece