Social Class and Hidden Curriculum

I loved this reading, I thought it was fascinating the way the author constructed an unbiassed investigation of social classes in the educational system. In the first school selection, The children were taught on a very 'home-made' structure based on what the teachers found significant. What i thought was interesting, was how the teachers addressed the students more or less like pests. The work didn't sound at all like something that helped kids learn and remember information. With blue collar parents and children in lower class schools they seem to think the kids will end up exactly like their parents. Therefore, teachers felt like they didn't need to take time to make sure they understood information. But in the Middle class school, it was focused on making the perfect set of steps, it was not even the outcome that was incredibly important. In middle class sorts of jobs it is more about being able to take orders and execute them exactly as they are told, with no short-cuts. There is not a whole lot of creative problem solving, therefore why would kids of middle class parenting need to learn that? It seems odd to me when I looked at it and slowly realized my own experience was so very similar. I couldn’t believe some of the comparisons Anyon was making between the middle class school and my own childhood in public school. Never had I gone in depth with what I was learning or, had an experience in a different financial setting, so I figured that every district was the same.

I think this sort of conditioning has to be happening subconsciously from our prejudices and the way people and their lifestyles effect

the growth of their kids. I believe that Anyon is trying to show us, that in our educational system we are stuck in this rut of predetermining peoples potential. Then, limiting the expectations that kids can achieve more, and expand their knowledge.

Memoir Recap

I absolutely loved the memoir mixed media project! I was totally able to bring exactly what i wanted to the class, i think in pictures and visuals so being able to tell a story with pictures and with words was exactly what i felt most comfortable doing. Im excited because i feel like i accurately portrayed the memory how i remember it. I can't wait to send a copy to my boyfriend, i really want to be able to do more projects like this one. I know that its practically impossible to have every assignment be this way. But this is the way my mind functions so its nice to be able to fluidly transition my thoughts into paper.

I Just Want to be Average

A] Rose's learned in a selective way, so his intelligence is really only coming from what interested him enough to learn about. Though learning from literature is the most educational in my opinion, after I started reading i was able to learn so much easier because i had a larger vocabulary and could better picture situations. Rose in particular came out more of a anti-hero for kids who don't conform to the American Educational system. It poses the fact that you don't always have to learn in the class room you are always able to read books and do your own research in things that interest you. This goes without saying you need to first learn the basics in school before you can go off on your own. However, Rose was able to show that its never to late to start building knowledge and understanding the world around you.

B] We have social 'cues' that help us fit in to a certain group in high school otherwise we would really never survive the hostile environment, but as far as learning goes the cues are all about learning for a grade. Only learn so much that you can pass the exam and go about your life without further investigating the subject so that full understanding is reached. As far as self-percption goes, we feel like we can only judge people's intelligence in school by the grades they receive and not by their intellectual knowledge. People are often judged as 'dumb' when they receive low grades but are really just not being challenged by the information that school is teaching. When kid's like that are told over and over again that they wont be useful in a career, or get into college it become part of their own perception of their ability to learn.

A Boy's Life

When Simms started talking about gender as a disorder, we often relate trans-genderism and homosexuals together even though they are completely different. However calling both of them disorders is a stretch of the imagination. When the gender in your head doesn't match the one you own, how can you call that a disorder? There is nothing mentally hadi-capped with this. They aren't crazy or delusional in any way, these are kids and they can't be anything but blunt about there feelings at such an age where society is less likely to shelter their true feelings and preferences.

B) I believe Simms decision literally could have gone either way. Because she is beginning to let her son live as a girl (which he could just as easily gone through life with male genitals and found love and prospered dressed as a female/and or living like a female.) In my personal opinion i believe she is doing the right thing. You know that this wasn't a phase of Brandon's life but a feeling he cant control or deny. Brandon had technically been living like a girl his entire life anyways so would changing his gender really make much of a difference. Also, the rebel part of me thinks getting a sex change is that person conforming to the normal traits of: this boy is particularly feminine therefor: they should live as a woman, in-sted of a cross-dressing man. Society will give them a job blah blah blah. Im not saying that trans-genderism is wrong in any scenes. Its helped a lot of people truly be themselves, but how much of a difference would it be to have the genitals of the opposite sex you live as? Is society really making such an impact on whole gender schemas that someone who feels like they are a woman inside needs to put that on the out? Rosin's decision however i think was fueled less by her beliefs and more by her daughters happiness. She knows very well that her son is in the wrong body and really feels that she was alone for a long time. After visiting a gathering of transgender kids, she realized that this wasn't something wrong or a disease.

Gender and Society

After reading that article about gender roles I had a really fast reaction to my childhood. I was always that kid that needed attention and would go about every way to get it. Most of my younger childhood years were spend pretending i was a boy and pulling it off the best i could. ( eventually causing my mother a lot of sexual confusion about me.) I wasn't doing it because i felt like being the opposite gender than my own but it was more about putting on a performance in everyday life. Creating a character that i could have fun playing. Knowing that the author's name was Holly too, sort of helped me get through the article. I already identified a lot of the information simply as: 'general research'. But even though i feel very confident with my gender, i felt extremely uncomfortable reading it.  Maybe it was because I was knocking down all the things i did wrong while trying to be 'feminine'. Or perhaps it was just the fact that someone who went through a tans-gender surgery, the author, was so ridged and unmoved about gender roles in society. The writing felt like a very constructed prejudice. Why do people have to confide in a gender-sorted box? Does anyone really do that? Maybe I was missing the message in the article, but I was very distracted by the creation of such a stereotype. All I could think about while reading, all the qualifications for masculinity, Was that the guy in skinny jeans really didn’t fit that word at all even though he was holding hands with a very feminine looking girl.  Something about the article simply sickened me, I think it was a dumb thing to research, who cares who has the proper gender roles in society anyway?

My Body

In relation to my personality, I have to say my physicality fits me pretty well. The first thing someone would notice about my body is that I'm fairly tall for a girl. Im a good 5'7" with a rotten posture that my mother constantly on edge about. I have a very pessimistic view on life so the hunch works out well. As for the height I think it adds to a good deal of my intimidation factor. Not to mention it makes my presence a bigger one. I have large feet and hands, which I use a lot for gestures and visual explanation. I believe my hands give me one of the few very feminine features about me. It fits mostly because I'm not a very 'girly' girl in any way (exceptions do occur.) Im gifted with my long arms and legs, because it correlates with my high expectations, I always expect people to be better then me so, a lot of the time I end up being a jerk when I exceed them somehow (yeah, I know its mean.) My teeth are one of my most prominent features, they're long, and very sharp. And all of my teeth oddly look like everyone else's front teeth. I honestly think they relate to what a smart-ass I can be. I'm pretty witty and I feel like a mouth can give off exactly my snarky criticism. I have a pretty lanky build where you can see my bones alot through my skin, though I'm not very thin. I think this extenuates my nerve to get right to the point I'm very honest and don't like sugar coated explanations. I don't need to put pretty skin over truth. For me personally I wouldn't change a thing about my body because it predicts me so well. I have to say before I did this I wasn't so sure but now, I could see more comparisons then I even imagined.