What makes you American?

          Each week I start with a simple question I think about (but no simple answer) as I’m reading to title my blog. This week I’m thinking mostly about what it means to be American. What are the races of Americans? Who are Americans? The Native Americans who were here first? The White Europeans? The Black Africans? The people of Asia? The Latin Americans? Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander? Middle Eastern/North Africans? Why are some groups more “favorable” than others? If people of the world decide to come to America it’s in hopes to be welcomed and hopefully find an opportunity that wasn’t available in their homeland. To feel welcomed resonates the most in mind. Why are not all people welcome?

          In “I was born here, but my home is not here”: Educating for democratic citizenship in an Era of Transnational Migration and Global Conflict, author, Thea Renda Abu El-Haj discusses how the Arab-Americans deal with their current residency in the U.S and their connections to their homeland identity play a part in their sense of national belonging and struggles.

          “The school district does not record statistics on Arab students; they are classified, in accordance with the federal guidelines as White.” (El-Haj, 290). On the US census, people of the Middle East and North Africa check the “White” option as their race but many feel that is an inaccurate representation. “White” according to the US census quick facts page, White is a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. Noor Tagouri calls this “White without the privilege”. So often in media and the stories the students El-haj interviewed “tell of everyday encounters with the equation Arab =Terrorist range from the absurd to the frightening” (El-Haj, 286) Looking and even sounding foreign has been viewed in our society as negative. Why can’t we can let that to be a moment to thoughtfully listen and ask questions to be informed? A teacher at the school El-Haj observed: “told a girl wearing a hijab that she looked “like a disgrace in that thing,” While another teacher threatens a girl with a disciplinary sanction if she did not remove hers --- a threat was painful it was not carried out” (El-Haj, 286). Educators cannot be insensitive to the customs and beliefs of our students. We should not make any student feel alienated, like an outcast, or feel what they believe is not respected.

          Arab-Americans struggle to gain a sense of belonging in America, feeling they are “enemies within” because of the “everyday discourses and practices inside their schools and communities” (El-Haj, 287). They live in America, many are American citizens but have a better connection with their homeland. Arab youth, Zayd talked about his current thoughts of what makes someone American “being American, rather than indicating one’s citizenship status, reflects both everyday practices and ways of thinking that assert independence” (El-haj, 293) Meaning one doesn’t need to be a citizen to become Americanized. Acting American and being an American citizen is quite different. Is it ok to act American and not be a citizen vs the other way around?

          The Pledge of the Allegiance is an example of a tradition that American citizens do at sporting events, special ceremonies and in most if not all American classrooms. There have been cases where students either do not say the pledge or do not stand for the pledge. The students in the articles each had different views on the matter. Student Khalida says she refuses because ''there isn't always justice for all" (304) While student Leila argued "Standing as a sign of respect and as a mark of her connection to her US citizenship."(305) We all should respect and try to understand one's choice on whether or not to participate pledge, bringing negative attention could lead to more sense nonbelonging or automatic exclusion.

          Becoming a citizen should be a pleasant thing, being a part of a group, a member, being protected by that group. Many have no choice but to leave their homeland in search of a better life and they see it at as a privileged to gain citizenship. Many wish they can return one day but like many of Palestine, it is impossible because of the current condition. Their “privilege citizenship status in terms of responsibilities entailed to family members in Palestine”.(El-Haj, 296) Arab-Americans, I’m sure like many other families, are working hard to support their families overseas. Another Palestinian youth, Samira tells El-Hay that the main reason her family is in the U.S is to send money home to Palestine so that her family can buy food, clothes and pay bills because there are no jobs for them to maintain a living. The United States was created with the idea to do what one pleases and that includes helping the ones we care for.

          Through each week's reading more stories are being shared and different views are seen, all citizens of our society. We as educators can be a big part of how to educate our students about citizenship in our “human community”, to be understanding and show respect towards each other. “This is a critical time to reinvigorate public school commitment to citizenship education in ways that engage with diversity, conflict, and structural inequalities that know no national boundaries.” (El-Haj, 312).

Are you only as smart as your race?

Oh so often, in media Asian-Americans are stereotyped as the high achievers, being all the same or just foreign even though they could have been living in America for generations. “Asians comprise the racial minority group that has ”made it” in America through hard work and education."(456, Wing)




In, “Beyond Black and White: The model Minority Myth and the Invisibility of Asian American Students”, author, Jean Yonemura Wing tries to unravel this stereotype with data she collected of a sample of Asian-American student of different ethnicity at Berkeley High School. She discusses how often Asian-American student are considered “invisible” because they are assumed to “have few academic or behavioral problems” (461, Wing). With that idea of being invisible many students with actual struggles are not getting the help they need. “It is more urgent to understand the factors influencing low-achieving Asian student, because they are the ones most in need of educational intervention and support” (457, Wing). The overachieving stereotype may seem a positive one but if the student is actually struggling that stereotype camouflages their need of support.



Difficulties that the Asian-American students face but not limited to are limited English speaking/writing skills, gap in education due to escaping refugee issues, and the overwhelming pressure of living up to the stereotype.

One of quote of the article that shocked me the most from one of the students interviewed was “A lot of Vietnamese immigrant families change the age of their children when they register, so they could learn more...spend more time in lower grades, learn more English, and not start off so far behind.” (465, Wing) It’s as if the parents know their children will struggle with the language and this extra time will be the answer to fix their education gap problems. I wonder how this will affects the child socially. Do they mind being placed in a younger age group? Will this lead to a behavior problem?


Stereotypes weather negative or positive can have negative outcomes. Being pressure to be expected to always achieve can bring up anxiety in students leading them to do poorly on test and assessments. A female student says, “It’s nerves, I tense up and forget everything” (464, Wing) If fails she must feel she wouldn’t be a “good Asian” since she not excelling the way she is expected. Claude calls this “Stereotype threat” and did studies with African American students taking a test with high stakes where after the students felt threatened by stereotypes and feared what ever did they would confirm a negative stereotype.

We as educators need to let go these stereotypes and see our student for who they are, students who are here to learn and deserves support of that.

In “Against the Dark: Anti-Blackness in Education Policy and Discourse” Michael Dumas is also concern about another threat African-American students still face, the oppression they experience due to their skin color and our country’s history. Dumas starts but referring to The national Geographic article, “The changing faces of America” and how by 2060 the Census Bureau predicts that non-Hispanic whites will no longer be the majority of the U.S. population. This won’t be the end of racism unfortunately but I would like to see how society still views this. I feel like race categorizing will still exist but it won’t be just strictly black and white. Mix races will most likely be the majority. Below is the picture featured in that article.



Dumas continues to talk about how many Black families and youth struggles to understand the many types of Black suffering such as hate crimes and the tragic shootings. Dumas quotes Saidiya Hartman (2007) “Black lives are still imperiled and devalued by a racial calculus and a political arithmetic that were entrenched centuries ago.”(14, Dumas) Why is it that that today racism is becoming more and more of a an issue. Why is “blackness” posed as a threat of the well-being of others? This is the idea of “the afterlife of slavery”. “...the Black is not only misrecognized, but unrecognizable as human, and therefore is no social or political relationship to fostered or restored”(14, Dumas) We are a society that says say we are becoming more supported and embracing our diverse communities yet we have the black population still feeling that that their place in this classification hierarchy is at the bottom. What will happen if America becomes a nation of mix races, Will that still be a thought on people's minds?

What makes you smart? Whiteness?

The image above is one of the many ways society views white privilege; having money, obtaining better opportunities, and gaining  rewards simply for being white.

As I was reading the articles for this week  I thought about “The Only Valid Passport From Poverty” from Goldstein’s work. “Education is the way out” seems to be a common theme I keep seeing and referring back to. In “My Class Didn’t Trump My Race: Using Oppression to Face Privilege” by Robin DiAngelo, DiAngelo talks about her life and experiences with poverty and her whiteness. She felt that she had to struggle to survive figure out a way out of poverty and education was her ticket. “I could see no path out of poverty other than education” (53, DiAngelo). She was white, female and poor, and felt oppressed for her encominic status yet was using her struggles to be aware of her social given privilege “going up poor didn't’ protect me from learning my place in the social hierarchy.” (53, DiAngelo).

As she described her beginnings she talks about the pain she endured. she knew she was poor but other people knowing she was poor, left her feeling “exposed”. I feel this fueled her do show others that there wasn’t anything wrong with her.   “The shock came not just in the knowledge that we were poor, but that it was exposed. There was something wrong with us, indeed, and it was something that was obvious to others and that we couldn’t hide, something shameful that could be seen but should not be named. (53, DiAngelo).  Once she felt she was succeeding in academia she was also finding herself understanding the even though she grew up poor she was still white. “I came to understand that the oppression I experienced growing up poor didn’t protect me from learning my place in the racial hierarchy.”(53, DiAngelo). She lists and discusses patterns of internalized dominance and gives examples. One that stuck out to me the most was we live separate lives and what is seen in media or books. “Virtually all out teachers, history books, role models, movie, and book characters, are white like us” (54, DiAngelo) I think back to my own early schooling were some stories had some range of diversity but white characters were dominating the literature I was exposed to. I (a white female), have failed to notice the that at the time. I can think of so many examples of internalized dominance. Now I think about my colleagues who teach literature, what pieces are they using in class? Is it diverse like our classrooms? Or is it still a dominance of one race? What can be do to change that?  She argues that even though she didn’t experience the same white privilege as others in the white community she knows the reality of racism is real and still an issue. “I may never fully understand the workings of racism, as I have been trained my entire life to perpetuate racism while denying its reality.” (57, DiAngelo)

In Smartness as Property: A Critical Exploration of Intersections Between Whiteness and Disability Studies By Zeus Leonardo and Alicia A. Broderick they talk about the views of “smartness” and “whiteness”.  They discussed that “smartness and whiteness only exist as a tool of oppression”. I think its makes people of color or people with a disability to feel belittled for not match that description. Only a specific group is smart but has nothing to do with intellect or competence.    The idea of its better to be “like white” and being called an “honorary White” was thought of as a positive thing “as a way of disciplining other non-Whites to stay in line” (2210, Leonardo & Broderick) I think back to the Lemon Grove Incident Professor Goss showed in class. At minute 50, the judge comes back with the ruling for the Mexican children that they should get the same education of the their white peers and be put back in the "regular school" because they “pass” as white, white privilege for being “like white”. We must unravel both whiteness and smartness and just focus on competence to learned there can be a leveled playing field.We as educators we should be giving our students the belief they can succeed regardless of race because they can. If we fail to do that we fall back into the categories of the hierarchy society creates to oppress the ones who don’t fit a predetermined norm (white, male, economically stable, straight). Even if a student is classified as one of those classifications, they may be above someone else on this hierarchy and that needs to change. We need to allow our students the same chance to learn aside from the classifications that society label of students. “If one cannot imagine capacity in a child, one is unlikely endeavor to educate that child." (2223, Leonardo & Broderick) in Once we let go the these "meaningless constructs" perhaps the “race of life” could one step closer to being fair. Leonardo and Broderick hope the unpacking of these ideologies will make a change in the cultural practices in schooling.

I found this short Ted talk “Check Your Perspective, Not Your Privilege” and would be interested to hear thoughts about it. Junior, Rachel West, talks about going to school with a predominantly white population and talks about instead of telling her white classmate to check their privilege she wanted to check her own perspective. She left the audience with this quote, “Privilege does not harm people. People who are privileged do not kill people. People who have Hatred in their hearts kill people.” I think about the “The unequally opportunity race" that Katie posts in her blog videos as an example of privilege hurting or making it extremely difficult for people. The white male runner glades effortlessly on the escalator with no enough and ease while the black female runner with all for effort falling, pushing herself through these obstacles that maybe a few runners encounter but not all.

She states that everyone narrative is important part in our society and that we need to come together and push forward for something greater. I do agree with Miss West about everyone's narrative being an important part to making our society better. We need the stories of the past to create a better future. You know your story share it hear someone else story learn from it.

What is the Hidden Curriculum?

In Journal “Social Class and the hidden curriculum of work” by Jean Anyon the idea of depending on the economic status of that community affected the type of education or the “hidden curriculum” you will received and ultimately would lead to a job held by people of that status. The journal illustrates the daily interactions of five elementary schools of different economic statuses. While reading I noticed how different these schools operated from each other even though it was all fifth grade.

“it tells them exactly what to do, or they couldn't do it.” (Anyon, 75.)

At this young age students are being train for this type of work, like, a factory worker (like most of the parents of the observed children) or a very direction driven occupation. The teachers of the first two schools were not allowing their students to think, question, or come up with their own explanations. The teacher assumes the students in front of them can't do anything beyond their abilities. The teachers were enabling the students the opportunity to learn proper decision-making without explain the bias for the decisions” (Anyon, 76.)The working class teachers are teaching the skills if they never get a say in their learning. “.. made decisions without consulting the students and students to always obey directions, their only goal is to follow directions, which aligns very much to a future in a job that entails just that.

Typical directions of the observed middle class schools ask students to do “some figuring, some choice, and some decision making”(Anyon, 77).  Students have choice and some decision-making chances but still the classroom is heavily relied on following directions and getting the right answer. “work tasks do not usually requests creativity” again students aren't really thinking for themselves even with choice presented.They are obeying what the teacher is saying and requesting. When explains to the observer what they do in school is “store facts in your head like cold storage-- until you creativity is involved it's usually for “fun” and no other meaning.  A child from the middle class school need it later for a test, or your job”. (Anyon, 79). I’m sure students today think this. “Thus, doing well is important because there are thought to be other likely rewards: a good job or college” (Anyon, 79)

In the affluent professional school, work is creative and completed independently. More resources were available. Teachers are giving their students feedback. Similarly, in another high economic community, the executive elite school “School work helps one achieve, to excel, to prepare for life” (Anylon, 83.)  The teacher at this school are asking students more decision driven questions and questions promoting independent thinking. Language arts was seen as a “complex system” and mechanics in their writing and speech, a topic barely if at all mentioned in the low economic schools student were expected to have a firm understanding grammar, sentence structure and proper observed. In comparison of the other schools, the elite school was expected so much more than other schools.

In this Def Jam Poetry clip, the African American poet, Lamont Carey, tells the audience about his inability to read and how athletics was his key out of his social class. But when his athletics are taken away, what are his options? What did his school prepare him to be?

Schools that give very few options for our younger learners makes the student believe they truly do have those options. This seems like the case for communities of families with low economic status. How can we let students believe they have limited options? What can we do to change that? In “The Only Valid Passport From Poverty”, Dana Goldstein mention the importance of educators influencing their students. After the passing of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965 more funding was available for schools but at the cost of closing them and losing highly qualified teachers, most being black teachers. “Black schools were disproportionately closed and black teachers were disproportionately dismissed or demoted, regardless of their seniority, qualifications or success in the classroom.” (Goldstein, 118). Students should be able to learn from teachers of all races but the content means more to the student when they can relate to it. “Black teachers introduced black children to heroic figures from African American history”to build racial pride” (Goldstein, 122).  If only the Def Jam poet, Carey was able to have a teacher that introduced him those heroic figures sooner, build that pride, he could have found an interest and have more options. His passport could have been “valid”.

Are you still obsessed with education?

In Grace Boggs’ article, “Education: The Great Obsession”, she argues the need for change in the public school system. The present education system is roughly two generations old, it's almost as if our society is afraid to change it because it “feels” like that has always been the way.  Originally, education was needed for worker children to gain basic skills to obtain a job, at the time, during the industrial revolution. Now, the idea of education or the way education is presented should change to avoid an unwanted possibility that schools are becoming “... babysitting institutions in which their children had been socially promoted year after year”. Generations later in the current education system, are our students being challenged? Are students being an active part of their own learning?

As educators, we should allow students to learn from their own experiences and as well as the experiences of others. Boggs states, “The experience of performance is necessary to learning. Only through doing things and evaluating what they have done can human beings learn the intrinsic relation between cause and effect,” I choose this quote because as human beings, no matter what race, age, or gender, we can learn through and from past experiences. I feel this should be a huge part of education. Hearing different stories. Everyone learns differently, so we share our learning.  Just as everyone experiences life differently, so why not share those experiences? It’s a skill our young learners should be able to express. Which reminded me of a quote from Adrienne Goss article, “A Simple, Revolutionary Idea”, “children need to know and understand their history and how it informs the work that they need to do in the future.”(62) Our students our the citizens of the future.

Essentially, we are teaching our students to be citizens of the world, citizens of our community and it starts in the classroom. In “Imagining futures: the public school and possibility” by Maxine Greene, “the creation of communities in classrooms may be one of the most difficult and yet the most essential undertakings in the schools of the future.” (273) We need to create communities of the current time, not communities of the past. Our past should be a part of creating those communities. Today, school can be seen as something you have to do. The obsession of knowledge is still present but how much of it is fueled by pure motivation? I think back to the new question Adrienne Goss would ask if she reworte her undergraduate social foundations position paper “What will make my students come alive?” I want my student to feel they have control in what they are learning. They may not know at first but I would like to be there and guide them to where they would succeed best. Discover what their passions will be, I want them to come alive.

After reading these articles I started thinking about the “American Dream” and how education is usually something that has to been done to succeed coming overseas or borders. As a product of immigrant parents, education is something I had to do because it was an opportunity given to me by my parents. I continued my education as a thank you to my parents but it was also something I wanted to continue to pursue. I was in control of my learning.
Here is Matt Beaudreau and his TedTalk “It's About to Get Uncomfortable: Education in America”. He talks about the “uncomfortable” ideas in the American education system and the idea of change and challenge. He says “...when you start to challenge tradition in education…people get upset.” One of the first pictures Beaudreau shows is a picture of students sitting in rows;  waiting for instructions, waiting to be told what to do and what to learn. He goes on to talk about students leading the way to what their learning looks like and on their schedule.