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Evidence: Sample Idea Book Entries (Journal) Text Based Learner: September 8, 2003---Response to the "Quack Doctor" and Performing in Class "I had fun in class today. I think I might well be catching the so-called "acting bug!" Having so little time and so few resources to create an entertaining performance proved to be challenging, but I also found the process to be quite enjoyable. Of course, the best part was hearing the laughter of our classmates as _____, _____, and I brought life to our characters. I'm starting to wish I had done more of this in high school. As for the play itself, I think it is absolutely hilarious. The dialogue was cleverly written, and the dialect added to the comedic effect. I assume that this was written by whites who intended to mock black people, but I enjoy it on a different level. I find the concept of a "doctor" who cures everything by removing the affecting body part quite amusing. I think our generation appreciates the often racist humor of predecessors as expressions of their ignorance, not because we agree with their views. Regardless the reason, "The Quack Doctor" made the entire class laugh (or at least I hope it did)." October 29, 2003---Response to Charles Krauthammer's "The Multicultural Trap" "After reading sooooo many articles on Murry and Hernstein's The Bell Curve, I truly thought I couldn't take another. I told myself, 'It's only a couple of pages; it won't be that bad. Besides, then you can go to BED (read : "Heaven").' As it turned out, this was my favorite of all of the articles I've read the past few days. So what's so good/different about this one? Personally, I like Krauthammer's emphasis on the individual as opposed to entire ethnic groups. He longs to see a world in which people are not rewarded positions based on the color of their skin, but on merit alone. Don't get me wrong---I feel Affirmative Action was merely a misguided approach to correct a valid problem. Workplaces should hire a mumber of minorities that is rougly porportional to the total number of people of color living in their area. However, they should not have to do so because of government regulations. America should focus its attention improving educational and motivational situations for disadvantaged youths instead of creating unearned job positions for their parents. As these factors equal out, so will the job market. Call me a dreamer but I think it's possible."
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Personal Challenges: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning This project was birthed out of fear. I truly believed that the majority of my students were not learning because they were not "regurgitating" the information. I had been "trained" to identify or recognize learning as synthesized information that frequently "reappears"in course assignments and course discussions. When the majority of my students resisted this behavior because they wanted to explore their emotional response to the material, I dismissed their reaction as irrevelant because I didn't think that learning was being produced. How could I grade tears, anger, stories about racism, and anguish over attending a predominantly White institution? After several semesters, I realized that the need to explore the personal and the emotional within the classroom was a unique dynamic that was being created organically every semester. I began reading books written by educators who were desparately trying to get their students to interact with the course materials on an emotional level and I was trying to "destroy" it. Through observation and study of this phenomenon, I have learned that experiential learners in my classroom process information from the self-reflexive voice. Written Samples: "To ask that, is it not possible to be successful without some of these things if even on a lower level. To me, success is relative. If you have set goals for yourself and you exceed those goals that ought to make you a successful person." "Beulah reminds me of the I love Lucy Show. I wasn't very offended by it. Should I have been? If I saw the show on Nick at Nite I wouldn't think anything of it. But I don't see it on television anymore because of the NAACP and other organizations had it banned it." "Pigmeat's routine had me going from the start. I didn't think that they were thumping like that! He had a rap going and everything! I've even heard an imitation of that kind of humor on Hampton radio. The Reverend Brother Bishop Pastor Deacon Doctor Doug, is what he was called. I would listen to that every morning on my radio while I waited for the school bus. What a trip he was." "Wow. I don't think I will ever be able to look at either of my grandmothers the same again. That was a story for your tale wasn't it? That is a Trickster's Tale and a half! In the beginning I believed Mrs. Love to be a caring old woman and even had a her pegged for the sympathethic "Tom" that she appeared to be but then! oh ho ho! She turns out to be this old voodoo woman with a venegeful heart and a deep lust for redemption. What puts me on edge though, is that she LIKED doing it. She got up and laughed at the doctor, not that I can blame her, but that is a very unchristian-like way of handling one's own affairs. The theory of double consciousness doesn't even begin to describe this thing. This is a serial; very cool and very composed."
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Future Goals for this Study: Learning is an evolutionary process. I am the Griot and it is my job to lead each class (including myself) on an educational continuum that moves separately and conjointly throughout the semester. My role as the Griot is to be continuously aware of the audiences needs and desires. With each new seminar I must learn how to read the moments of silence and the uncomfortable bursts of laughter when we (the class) are interrogating issues of race, gender, class, and identity. I must be able to identify and enable each participant to communicate in the seminar while understanding that participation is not predicated on verbal communication in the "identity seminar." It is my goal to publish a manual of discussion exercises and activities for educators who are interested in helping their students produce a more intentional learning experience in culturally-specific seminars.
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Selected Bibliography Arthur, John, Shapiro, Amy, eds. Campus Wars: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Difference. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995. Crocco, Margaret Smith, et. al. Pedagogies of Resistance: Women Educator Activists, 1880-1960. New Yor: Teacher's College Press, 1999. Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of Freedom. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publisher, Inc., 1998. hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress. New York: Routledge, 2003. Howard, G. We cannot Teach what we don't know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools, Multicultural Education Series. New York: Teachers College Press, 1999. Kanpol, barry, McLaren, Peter, eds. Critical Multiculturalism: Uncommon Voices in a Common Struggle. London: Bergin&Garvey, 1995. McLaren, Peter. Revolutionary Multiculturalism. Boulder: Westview Press, 1997. ---- Critical Pedagogy and Predatory Culture. New York: Routledge, 1995. Todd, Sharon, ed. Learning Desire: Perspectives on Pedagogy, Culture, and the Unsaid. New York: Routledge, 1997. Rodriguez, Nelson M., Villaverde, Leila E., eds. Dismantling White Privilege. New York: Peter Lang, 2000. Tatum, Beverly. Why are all of the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And other Conversations about Race: A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity. New York: Basic Books, 2003. Torres, Carlos Alberto. Education, Power, and Personal Biography. New York: Routledge, 1998. Trifonas, Peter Pencles, ed. Revolutionary Pedagogies: Cultural Politics, Instituting Education and the Discourse of Theory. New York: Routledge, 2000.
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Evidence: Sample Idea Book Entries (Journal) Experiential Learner: October 1---response to Minstrelsy Performance "I really had fun in class on Monday; acting and smiling. Still, I had to wonder what it was about that scene that made it so entertainint to watch. There were so many things to laugh at: ____'s pickanniny hair style and walk; _____'s acrobatic performance; ____'s rendition of Frank Sinatra singing about "all you niggers." I know that if it had been done outside of the classroom by a few Caucasian Irishmen in the Kimball Theatre, I would be extremely offended, but for some reason because they are black entertainers, it is alright. I thought I was a funny person before I came to William and Mary. My friends were predominantly white female because they made up a mjority of the classes that I was in; they all thought I was funny. Then I come here, and I find that none of my jokes work on black people. Not a one. At first, I blamed it on the humidity (another failed attempt at a smile), saying that it affected my funny bone), but I am starting to feel like my ability to make people laugh with me is only affective on the white population. So, I stop to think: Why do only the white people think I am funny? Are the jokes coming off as corny to the black people I like to hang out with? Why does my sense of humor appear labored to some but charming to others?" October 17---The Lil Rascals "After watching the Lil Rascals episode I am left feeling sad for the children in my parent's generation. The children's shows like Popeye and Spiderman that I considered to be classics were void of such racial profiles. I see now why my Dad doesn't care for the blow out hair style [afro]. I would probably dislike it too if it was worn by someone who had such a negative reflection on my race. He'd rather I didn't have my hair long at all (by long I mean anything more than a close cut). The rationale is that no matter what I may say or do, the afro will automatically make people judge me differently.
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Evidence: The Interrogation--- Who Shot Raymond Thomas? (an excerpt of a final performance) A monologue performance. Setting: The stage is set with four chairs front and center. They are suppose to stay empty so that the audience can imprint their own ideas of what the perpertrators look like. [The Interrogator walks in wearing the stereotypical 1920's detective outfit complete with trench coat and cigar.] . . .I'm curious, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, how could you let him go through the first 15 years of his life without telling him that much of the world would be against him if he were to pursue any endeavors beyond a two-year education? He is a six foot tall, 220 lbs. "colored boy" with too much hair on his face from books and not enough hair on his chest from experience. [Takes a puff from his cigar.] You may have meant well, but you did him no service by acting as you did. You knew you couldn't keep him in a bubble forever, but instead of telling him outright that he would face harsh adversity; you led him to believe that everyone was on a level playing field then put him in a high school where he is the only person of color in his classes. Students walk around with "Southern Pride" hats," "Dixie Outfitter" shirts, and confederate flag bumper stickers. You, you students there, don't cut eyes at them, because truth be told you are worse than they are. His parents were at least trying to shield him from the truth but you ARE the truth. And you know what? Now, he knows that he was the Token Black Guy. Your ever-loving friend who was your isthmus into the African-American culture. I'm curious though, would you have taken the time to get to know him on the first day of school, if he hadn't approached you? What if he stopped doing whatever it was that made him seem to. . .uh. . . How did he put it? [Flips through a few pages of the book to a page marked with a tissue. Stops at a page and reads definitively:] "Act so white"? Do you want to know what it is he said about you? Listen: You may have thought that you had gotten away with it, but I heard you, that time in the cafeteria when you said that he isn't like those "other ones." From reading this book of his, I'd say that the emotional conflict he had was with the black students---its hard on a person who doesn't fit in you know. It seems as though they didn't really like our friend Raymond, that's not say to that they disliked him per se, but they didn't yearn for his company either. Acted too white for them I guess? Do you want to know what he did to try to "fit in?" [The interrogator hums as he flips through page after page of text that refer to Raymond's interaction with Black students.] Let's see now, he joined the football team, although it seems that a good part of that was for his own enjoyment, he says that he offered rides home after school, tutored, mediated. . . Honestly, you could have at least been social to the guy purely out of respect for his kindness. So he didn't make a habit of listening to rap music---big freakin' deal. Is that any reason to brand him as an "Uncle Tom" and a sellout? The playwright's comments about his work: I got the one man narration idea from Richard Pryor's story about the Wino and Whoopi Goldberg's impression of a little black girl who wanted blonde hair. The story reflects the personal experiences that I had from my first day at high school to the end of my first semester in college because it was during that point in my life that I realized/discovered the gravity that race had on human perspectives. Before then I had lived in a military setting. Since cultures were so diverse in this climate, and everyone had respect for these cultures, there was no way of knowing the animosity that occurred between races. The feelings discussed in this soliloquy are all immensely exaggerated but not without valid support. This class had taught me a great deal about the historical aspect of African-Americans in comedic roles. There was a time when I really sought to make people laugh. I would even go out of my way to entertain because it made me hapy to know that others were happy, but after hearing a girl earlier this year chatise me for wanting to go to a BSO [Black Student Organization] party instead of staying and being her 'jester' I see that everything comes full circle. She later apologized and said that she meant nothing by it, but even still, after learning the intricacies of blackface and how it led to the comedians we know today, I wonder about myself. What I really want people to see in me is an intelligent, nice, and caring person who doesn't have to buy friendship with folly.
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