Psycho Academic Holocaust

     In September I went to a seminar that talked about the continuing  misdiagnose of  African Americans and Latino students in public schools. It was hosted by Umar Johnson  who is a School Psychologist and advocate  for African American and Latino students and their parents who are often negatively targeted in school systems. It was held at Dr. Jorge Alarez   High School in Providence. Before Dr.Johnson spoke, there were a few people who told poems, sang songs, and spoke about issues in the African and Latino communities. When Dr. Johnson spoke; he discussed how African American and Latinos  students are disproportionately put in special education because of cultural differences between the students and the teachers. He said most teachers who are middle age white women who give cultural bias standardize testings set the students up to be put in restricted environments and are given mediocre education. Poor standardize testing is blame on students inability to pay attention which causes the poor testing.  the school system make parents believe that their children need to be on dangerous medications that they don't really need to treat ADHD or other disorders. He said that teachers who have students that they find difficult  including African American boys who are stereotyped to act out in class more than others, are  funneled unnecessarily into special education because schools take in more federal money for each special ed student  that they identify.  in addition to that the money should go to their budget but Unfortunately at times the money is not used to provide the student with the resources he/she needs to perform. He discuss how he is a school psychologist for many  schools in Philadelphia and  attends other schools across the countries and sees this practiced more and more.
   
     Dr. Johnson gave advise to parents about how to protect their children from unnecessary being put in specials educations and given dangerous  medication by school psychologist  that could affect a student's educations and life.   He recommended reading every piece of paper in school meetings and parents knowing their  children's educational rights. He said if something is unclear, have someone else look over papers before signing papers about providing special educations service. This is especially true before parents sign to have their children  medicated. He talked about having a support hotline and a committee for African American and Latino parents to have advocates in cities across the country to make sure the proper legal process is being done.  He is also opening up a school that he is trying to raise money for.

     This event  relates to what we discuss about single stories. I believe that so many teachers and people in the school system have presumptions of what African Americans and  Latinos are like before getting to know them which leads to them  giving up on them easily. If some teachers were able to see pass some of the preconceived notions about students of colors and recognize that there is more to them, then maybe there wouldn't be so many students in special ed.  There is a system of injustice  for students of  color and the single stories that perpetuates images of students of color as worthless. The ones  who suffer the long term affect of being on meds that they really don't need and miseducation are the African American students and Latinos/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4WTkw-EGt4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxfKDKxU0Y0&index=2&list=RDZ4WTkw-EGt4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ779V1JEjQ

Resilent Children

      This video seem to be right down my alley of what i want to do when working with youth.  I lost interest in teaching  partly because i felt bored teaching a redundant curriculum that helps with their academic but don't look at other factors that can help kids.  There is not enough focus in schools dealing with conflict solving and in other areas of life skills . I started to see that somehow  i would have to teach students who struggle in and outside of class  how to read and write while their skills to work through problems may not never flourish. I decided that i wanted to focus in this area as i became a child care worker working in residential treatments. Just like the principle in the video I wanted to teach young people  how to be resilient and work cope with stress. I believe having at least some type of thinking of how to go about dealing with daily conflict is an important skill that should be intertwined in the daily curriculum. Since it's not, i felt if I was a teacher I would probably have daily disruptions in my  classroom which sets everyone back in the learning environment. If the students are not where they need to be academically,  I would look bad as a teacher which i don't find fare  

       I watched both videos and looked at their website interested in the method used to lower youth stress. The first video labeled "what i think of resilient " talked about teaching conflict solution and how lowering stress helped make one school in Providence lower their  use of discipline actions  in schools. I only wish that the guy in the video elaborated more  on what is needed to create an environment where the children can be successful in managing their  emotions. I would love to learn this and apply it to the youth at my job who are in residential care. Just like in the classrooms in the video,  I would like to have the kids at my job focus in on solving conflict  skills and appropriately dealing with stress.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

single stories

    I have heard of single stories of certain people growing up. As i grew into a career of being a teacher  i was told of stories of students who were in urban areas around the country. I heard stories of violence and disrespect in the inner city schools and how much more dangerous it is to work there. All this was coming from one of  my professor from CCRI. She seem to speak from experience and i soaked it all in but at the same time I was conflicted due to have been in inner city schools and feeling like it wasn't all that bad  the schools I was in.  By mid semester i was second guessing my own experience like "that fight between  Bo and Andrew was pretty bad.. maybe I been in a violent environment and been immune  to how bad it was  the whole time."  This teacher's perception of what inner city students had me think different about my own environment and had me want to teach in other types of schools.  This perception changed when I snapped out of my trance and said "these are my people who grew up similar to me and  I owe it to them to give back." I had a chance to do my classroom observation in Warwick or in Providence  when i came to RIC one semester later.  I chose Providence to prove to others and tell the story that working with the youths in the inner city would not be as bad as some professors in college classes made them seem. Let me tell you i had a blast working in the schools!! it was the best experience i ever had. I worked in the preschool and kindergarten class at John Hope. I easily related and found that the "violent inner city youth were no more than age appropriate tantrums that a student in a school in the suburbans would have. I chose my path from that moment on. I didn't hear the other side of the story i lived it.

here a pic for your