Happy Summer!

Hello FNED folks,

Just a thank you for a great semester. I appreciate all of the hard work you did and the strong sense of community you built this semester. As of right now, I have read all of your blogs and will be posting your grades by Wednesday. Check your email... I have requested some missing work from a few of you. Write me back.

Have a great summer and come visit me when you are in HBS!

LB :)

Papers and such...

Hi all,

Hope that you have a good class today with Tiffany as your fearless leader!

I wanted to tell you that I left your signed, sealed Disposition forms outside my office on the bookshelf. I did not leave you your papers because I decided at the last minute that it might make some people uncomfortable to have their papers out in public like that for all to see. These were personal papers and I didn't feel right about that.

So I will have papers for you on Tuesday.

Good luck with your projects and enjoy the spring sunshine.

LB :)

Other Gender Issues to Consider...

I stumbled upon this article over the weekend and thought it, too, was relevant to our of gender issues in schools for this week. Check it out.

Testing Horace Mann

When students created Facebook pages that viciously attacked a teacher, and when their wealthy parents on the school’s board defended them, Horace Mann was forced to confront a series of questions: Is a Facebook page private, like a diary? Is big money distorting private-school education? And what values is a school supposed to teach?...

Readings for this week

In class on Thursday, we divided up the readings for this week. Half of you chose Peggy Orenstein's chapter from Schoolgirls. As you read about Judy Logan's classroom, think about what tools and strategies she uses to create what she calls a "gender-fair classroom."


The rest of you chose Bernard Lefkowitz's Our Guys. Read the first chapter carefully, and then skim the other sections that follow. Think about Kozol when you read this... Kozol looks at how the culture of power sustains the community of Mott Haven as a space of poverty and oppression. How does the culture of power sustain the community of Glen Ridge as well?

"Those who cannot remember the past...

... are doomed to repeat it."

— George Santayana, philosopher and poet
(1863–1952)

Little Rock, Arkansas






After much protest by those who opposed the integration of schools, the Federal Court finally bans picketing outside of school buildings.





Norman Rockwell,
"The Problem We All Live With" (1964)

Bloggity Blog Blog

I just finished catching up on all of your blogs and leaving you some comments. If you are behind on your blogs, get caught up!!! I still want to hear from you. You can post about the article and our class discussion if you are posting late -- but do put up some thoughts. If the link on my page doesn't go right to your blog for any reason, please leave me a comment right here or email me (lbogad@ric.edu) so I can get it fixed.

I want to draw your attention to a few things you have posted:

• Kelsey uses a great framework for explaining evidence. She is clear and detailed in explaining each point she writes. A good model.
  
• Erin posted a great YouTube video on March 10 dealing with issues of education today. Fun and provocative!
• Kasey from March 4 on Disney and the "real" Pocahontas. She did our homework for us!
• Sarah has a cool link to an article on heterogenous grouping.
  

See you in class on Tuesday.

LB :)

Johnson says, We Must Say The Words!

In class on Tuesday we gestured to the speech Barack Obama was scheduled to make about his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, in the context race/culture in America.

Regardless of who you might be supporting in the 2008 election, I hope you will take the time to watch or read Obama's speech. It is being lauded as one of the most direct and explicit acknowledgments of race this country has ever seen. It is deeply connected to the issues we have talked about in class. I know you will find it provacative and relevant, even if you have no connection to Obama as a candidate. I welcome and invite your comments!!

And I think Johnson would be pleased.

The Video

The Text