Entry 4

After reading the articles a “Brief history of lawns” and “Teaching what really happen” the question of why we teach history came up. It’s a question that should have been answered, when they first taught us about history. Being able to know the purpose of why we are taught history, would have been helpful, in better understanding how we could use what we have learned and use it for the present. When I was in middle school, even in high school, there were moments in which I thought why we are learning about this? What is the purpose of learning something that happen a long time ago? Some people might say, “so that we can learn from our mistakes”, which is something that we always hear in middle school and especially in elementary. Which of course knowing what not to do is good for students to know, but it ends up being more than that. Its being able to learn about history so that students cannot just learn from our mistakes, but also make them better citizens, critical thinkers, and less ethnocentric. History is more than just learning about the past, is being able to know what we can do with what we have learn and use it in the present and in the future.

Entry 3

When I read the article about “A Brief History of Lawn”, I was surprise to find out that having a lawn meant a person had money and power. I never tough that a lawn, could mean so much more than just a piece of land cover in grass. Which for some people its more than that, their lawn ends up being for them a thing that they take care of them like if it was a baby or a pet. Which is something that my old neighbor used to do, he would fertilized his lawn, clean his lawn every day, he would cut his lawn almost every week, even till a point that he will use a scissor to make sure that his the grass was cut the same size. Which might seem over exaggerated to take so much care of a lawn, but I think it’s something that some people are passion it about. For my family when it comes to a lawn, what we look for is that the backyard is big, for the purpose of hosting parties, or just having space enough to put thing on the back yard, we don’t care so much of how it looks ,or on fertilizing it. Its weird how an everyday thing that we see, was consider before as a symbol of someone having wealth and power, which makes me think of how many other things that we have now, meant that a person had wealth and power before. I think this are some of the things we take for granted, being able to know the history of things helps us with how see things in the present and how things can change in the future.

Entry 2

When reading “Teaching What really Happened” by James A. Banks he mentions how his students  from college had a different understanding of a part of history that happen, which is a misconception they got from the history books, that they were provided to read in their schools. A book that was made not teach accurate information, but with the purpose of making money from it. This is something that I found surprising to read and its something that made me start to question things about what I have learned. Like how accurate are the things I learned in school? Have I been reading about false information without even knowing? These were some of the questions that started to pop in my head, while I was reading the introduction. It made me start to question a lot of things not just from school, but about society, how as children we are taught many things that are not entirely true, and we grow up with those misconceptions through our life. Like believing that Rosa Parks was the first to refuse to give up her seat, but it was Claudette Colvin who was the first to do it. These was something that I never knew before until we talked about it in class, since I in the textbooks I would always read about how Rosa Parks the first African American to refuse to give up her seat. I think this is something that teacher should watch in school, when giving students textbooks we should ensure that what they are reading is true. We don’t want students finding out in college that what they have read and know their entire life is actually not true.

Entry 1

One thing that got my attention on the Black Ants and Buddhists chapter one, was the way the author, Mary Cowhey call the class, survivor English. Which is interesting because learning English is what ended up meaning up for them, a surviving thing in this country. Which is understandable since in this country the main language spoken is English, and not speaking English can become hard in this country since you can’t communicate or understand them. This is something I know, since I also didn't know English when I first came to this country. I understand the feeling of not being able to communicate and defend for myself. Which is why the phrase " we want to learn English, so we can defend ourselves " is something that really stuck with me. Another thing that the author mentions in this chapter is that he " chooses to teach critically because he believes children are capable of amazing things, far more than is usually expected of them”. Her teaching philosophy is something that I really like, because he doesn't think as teaching as a way in which teacher teach for the standardized tests. He teaches so children can learn to use what they have learn to become an active citizen in the community. Which is something that I find interesting, because usually when we think of children, we don’t see them as citizens, which is weird because that's what they are and will be. They are the future and the way we teach them is what they go and take to the world.