"Pasadena: Revised Images of Excellence(1996)" By: Mike Rose

                             Mike Rose is an accomplished writer and teacher, in this piece he examines the diverse examples of educational excellence. He talkes about how Pasadena' s population through tourism, the decline in tourism durring the great depression and the rise after WW2.
                            I had read some things about Pasadena but i was surprised to read that it was an extremely segregated community. Everything from the housing, schools and medical facilities were segregated. This was mostly due to the fact that It was filled with a more priviledged type of person while now it is mostly recognized as a middle- class community. The white population became a minority while the Latino and Asian populations increased, Armenian's also began to migrate from there point of entry in east hollywood and glendale.
                          After Pasadena high was reformed to accomidate the boom in population, desegregation laws and busing were mandated. The ethnic percentage grew even larger after the demographic changes, bus changes and the white students flight to private schools. This explains a lot about what happened to most inner city and lower class schools. It is easy to forget that at one point those schools were filled with wealthier students but once those students were intergrated with middle and lower class students, their families chose to change to a more private location.
                       I felt this reading had two purposes, to inform about Pasadena's school system but also to show people how a certain county or school system could alter so quickly . Pasadena went from being an upper class neighborhood filled with wealthy and few lower segregated class, to a place were the minority was not the whites. I was able to retrieve a lot of information from this exerpt and found it very interesting to read.

"Savage Inequalities"(1991)By: Jonathan Kozol

                      This piece written by Jonathan Kozol was about his journy to a high school in Bronx New York. The author begins by giving a description of how the antique school looked from the outside and then goes on to talk about the innosence and happyness that the students at the school seem to express. I was surprised to find that as the author continued, the school was not as it would appear.                       The teachers looked like they actually cared alot about their students and the students for the most part were intelligent and understood alot about the world around them, so how could the school be suffering so badly. How is it possible that all this potential does not produce great graduation percentages or test scores, the answere as Jonathan revealed was that the school was actually falling apart. The principal of the school gave the author a tour and revealed that the fourth and fifth floors of the school had the most damage, with gaging whols in the sealing and even the guidance office had a buckt placed under a spot in the roof to collect dripping water.                  The ruins did not stop there, the schools older audotorium was completly unusable in a school were tuns of students loved to perfom. They performed as a way to express themselves and after some of the students sat aside and spoke to the author, he found just how intelligent they were. Each of those students were either black or hispanic, they understood the hars reality of the fact that they had a school that was falling apart and wouldnt be fixed because of them being minorites.                   I found this documentary to be very informative and filled with strong messages. It is hard to believe that so much talent is being waisted away because of segregation. Something needs to be done to help all communities like this one, people who have too much should understand that there are people with nothing and desreve just as much as everyone else. This would be a great read for all students who take their educational advantages for granted.                                     

" What High School Can Be" By: Theodore R. Sizer

              This report on High Schools done by Theodore R. Sizer was briliant in many ways. He was able to digg deep into the student part of what occured in a normal school day and understand the many problems. Most studies on high schools are done by test scores or percentages, it was refreshing to see that the author took the initiative and entered the high schools through the students perspective. Sizer does a great job of this by shadowing two students from different areas, through there high school day.
               Will who lives in an upper middle class suburban area is the first student Sizer talkes about and follows through the periods of the day. He describes Will as an athlete who basically remains motionless and quite throughout all of his classes. This to me was not a surprising sinario, i am familiar with the student athletes who only really participate in school durring the athletic activities after school.
                On the other hand, there was Martha from a high school in a working class neighborhood. Everyday she went through a ruitene, going to classes that were lifeless and stricked. The quote that stuck out for me the most about Martha would have to be when she turned to Sizer and said, " im not stupid, im not stupid, im not stupid!".  At that point in the report i really felt for Martha, so many students are put it classes that dont even challenge them, classes that just run through the process of school rather than really trying to make an impact on the students minds.
                I was especially surprised by the fact that the same basic ideas and practices for schooling presented by the committee of ten about 80 years ago were still present. The only difference however was the beliefe of how important science as a subject was, compared to foreign languages. The author shows a lot of emotion when he talks about the way high schools are recognized and what students go through. I find that he is completly correct when he sys that the authorites of these schools do not seem to acknowledge the weaknesses within the schools. Maybe if all high schools realized that somethings need o be changed to better the lives of there students, more kids would actually gain something more then anger or popularity from high school, they would gain a stronger education to send them out into the world.
               
      

"Creating the comprehensive high school"by James B Conant..& "In the Beginnning: the 1893 Report of the Committee of ten" by Charles Eliot

                  Both of these readings went on about schools, more specifically how high schools are run and how students were learning. The reading by Charles Eliot spoke about a committee who delt and debated over the questions high schools should be paying close attention to. While the piece writen by James Conant was geared more towards how students could be better taught and the best possible ways to run a good school.
                 It was diffiicult to read "In the Beginning..." because i felt asthough it was very dry and had no conection to its readers. The questions the counsels were asking however were correct. They foccused alot on the way a school should be run to better sute the needs of its students. Though this was written many years before, it still discussed many questions teachers and students deal with today.
                  The piece written by James Conant "Creating the Comprehensive High School" was much easier to read and understand. The author discussed high schools that him and his group had visited. He describes all the things he found they were doing wrong, problems that were even effecting students education. The author states that most students that were advanced were not being guided properly or made to take certain classes that would only benifite them. Conant also goes on to state revisions he thinks would help school systems work better. One way is by recomending certain classes like literature, math and sciences be taken at an earlier age then high school, because many students enter college withough sufficient knowlede in those subjects. In Conant's second book he does not mention those subjects as classes that should be taught at an earlier age.
                         I feel that i would agree with what both authors had to say because school systems, especially high schools have always been faulty. I believe it to be because it is difficult to find a balance between a serious high school invironment and a place were children could go to express themselves but learn at  the same time. Another major problem is funding, most schools just dont have to money to do the things asked of by these authors, they cant afford special counselers for the more talented kids or a teacher to constantly work with the kids who fall behind. Even so, maybe one day all these things will be posible and the problems faced by high schools today will be a thing of the past.

"Beyond the Cult of Fatherhood"By: David Osborne

                   "Beyond the Cult of fatherhood", when i first read this title i was a bit confused. I can imagine a cult of Motherhood but Fatherhood, what could a man possible know about raising a child. That was my initial thought as i began reading this piece. I do understand that there are many different types of families and there are men who are the primary care givers, but to be honest most men could not come close to the bond women have with there children.
                    As i continued reading, the author recognized my point and explained how he realized he could not come close to what his wife had with the child (Nick) even if he had desired to. This brought up another question for me, how many men want to have a strong bond with there baby but are unable to without making there partners feel insecure about there maternal duties? Do most men want a more active role in there child's life but don't know how to go about it?
                    The author begins the story by telling the reader all that has been going on in his day, from the baby's fever to the stress he has been facing trying to complete his work. I feel that most men would pity him while a woman reading this article would be happy a man is feeling her pain. That a man is understanding what she goes through everyday. I do have to admit that i felt like he should go through everything he did because it gave him a deeper appreciation to what mothers do everyday. The author goes on to say "After 48 hours, I'm ready to pin medals on women who stay home every day with their kids. For single mothers, I'm ready to build monuments...".
                     This story shows me that though the author had his doubts and moments that he felt miserable, the time he had with his son were priceless. When it comes down to it time goes so quickly, the author is only so lucky that he got such precious memories in the days spent home raising his son. Most men may be reluctant to admit it but maybe they want to be pushed into being more involved with their  child. Perhaps fathers want to say they have been forced rather than they made the decision themselves.

"Woman's Rights/When Woman Get Her Rights Man Will Be Right"By Sojourner Truth- "Conquering Themselves So Beautifully" By Louisa May Alcott

                            These two pieces fit extraordinarily well together. They both manage to hit the major points of what women have been faced with throughout time. One focused more on the rights of women and women coming into there own as a powerful group rather than the property of men. The other story was about four young women, each of these young women could relate to any type of women because they faced all of the insecurities and expectations women face every day.
                           In the piece written by Sojourner Truth i saw two sides to the writer. In both Woman's Rights and When Woman Get Her Rights Man Will Be Right, i saw a great deal of emotion. Woman's Rights was written very plainly, in the authors exact words which brings the reader ever deeper into the authors world. As for the second piece written by Sojourner Truth, i do have to admit i was a little confused at her examples. In parts of her speech it almost feels like she understands that women, more specifically black women are not as intelligent as the white women. Though after reading it over a few times i saw that maybe she was trying to appeal to the white women for support in the fight as well. Sojourner knew that the fight for woman to be treated as equals was not going to be easy, she needed all the help she could get.
                        Conquering themselves so Beautifully connected with Sojourners speech because in this story the woman were treated better because they were not slaves, but they still had to fit a certain mold to please a man. Regardless of the fact that the man they were pleasing was there father, i still feel that was a defining point in the story. The problem was not that they were trying to please there father but in the way they thought they should. All of the girls wanted to be more "lady like" and the intellectual child "Amy" wanted to basically dumb herself down because everyone told her it was wrong for her to try to speak with such large words.
                    Both of these pieces hit different sides of the fights woman face everyday, no matter what the year may be the challenges woman must over some keep coming. Today woman still must fight to prove themselves at home, school and the work place, i know that just as our ancestors have done before use we will continue to conquer the challenges ahead.

"I'm Thin Therefore I Am" By: Nicci Gerrardo

                As i began to read the title of this story i imagined it would be about  a typical women speaking about body image and how much women really care about it. I quickly realized that it was completely the opposite, there was so much depth in this piece that i immediately became intrigued. I feel that most women can easily relate to this story because its about more than appearance, its about life and living, savoring every part of it.
               The author began the story by talking about hunger and how it rarely plays a part in why she eats. Her first sentence alone could make a connection to anyone because no matter what mood you are in when you eat, most of the time its because of your feelings, not your stomach. She then goes on to explain how important food and cooking is in her daily life. Its a door that connects her to her family, herself and even piece. The author does a magnificent job of bringing to light the happiness but also the pain food brings to peoples lives.
                Gerrardo also switches over from the joy she gets from food, to how peoples body images changing over the years. Its obvious that societies vision of beauty is a thin and tall figure but society may be the reason why so many young people have body dis morphia or believe they are over weight when in reality they are extremely Mal nourished. Though many test have proven this to be a growing problem in our country i would have to disagree with the example given in the book about the Miss America pageant winners. After seeing the picture of the winner from 1927 i saw that she was average in body size and looked exactly like what era would have consisted of. I have to admit i was expecting a drastic difference when i looked over at their winner in 1997, but as far as body image goes i don't think there was anything wrong with her. The nutrition experts quoted in the book stated that the contestants now are dangerously malnourished and under weight, i do not think that is true. Of course the contestant from 1997 is going to look different because in that decade women where already exercising different ideas, and a more fit and healthy body was one of them. Though there are definitely a high number of pageant girls malnourished I don't see any signs of that in the photo of the winner in 1997.
                Overall i thought this piece was very strong and made me think of my family, about how we all connect and come together over food. Its a source of comfort and can show someone how much you really care for them. I very much enjoyed reading this because it wasn't the normal story about someones struggle with food that makes you resent eating, it was a story that reminds you about what a great thing it can be, all the wonderful memories it can bring.