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April 29, 2006
Add some Style to your Writing
As a writing instructor (and writer), I find the process of writing interesting. Not just the actual composing, but also the editing particularly. For me, this is the most creative aspect of it; how to get my meaning across in a way that is eloquent while not changing the markers that indicate my individual voice. But, if you are not as enamored of the writing process as I am, and have no interest in the creative aspects of it, or just need some help and have no time to grapple with the complexities of editing your own work, this software might be for you. This software also does plenty of the tedious work, like tables of contents, footnotes, etc.. They even have a program to help you with your dissertation. It would be interesting to see how good the program actually is, but as a poor grad student, I don't have the cash to finance that discovery. Any takers?
Posted by dvaldesd at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2006
Balanced Literacy?
A is for Apple, B is for Brawl, is an article that you might want to take a look at. While many of us are not located in the New York City school districts, literacy is a problem that effects all of us, since the students we teach arrive from many different locations. The basic premise is the same: whole language ideology vs. phonics. What I continually do not understand is why they have to be pitted against each other. As an ESL teacher, I don’t need the studies done at Yale to validate my teaching philosophy regarding language. The best approach is to utilize both ideologies in a way that gives pre-literate students the tools to understand how we string letters together in English, as well as what words actually mean in various contexts. In fact, the real problem lies in myopic pedagogies. And, of course, there are other problems as well. What kinds of books are available to these children? Are they just those that the dominant society has decided children need to read, or do they have a few selections that are culturally specific (not to mention DIVERSE)? Do they have their copy of Afrotina and the Three Bears? This book is definitely important; it places young African American students in the center of the American fairytale. What about Uncle Nachos Hat? Not only is this book relative to Latino/a children, but it is a bilingual text that does double duty: it gives students whose first language is Spanish an opportunity to be exposed to words in English in a non-threatening, non-assimilative way. Do they have any selections written in non-standard varieties of English? And what about this ECLAS test, that will *determine* which children need “special services”. Dare we hazard a guess as to which children (aka African American and Latino/as) will qualify for these “services”? It seems to me that the one lesson this country needs above all others is one that teaches mutual respect and cooperation. Maybe then we can achieve real balance.
Curious about ECLAS? Check out this blog ...
Posted by dvaldesd at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2006
Akeelah and the Bee
Treat yourself and check out this terrific, light-hearted movie. Leave your critical lens at home...just because we're smart enough to see through the obvious doesn't mean we have to deconstruct everything. I won't supply you with a synopsis, but I will say that Laurence Fishburne is charming as the professor who coaches Akeelah.
The Scripps Spelling Bee is serious stuff, and the students that participate make me wish I had that kind of memory. If you think it's just kid stuff, check out the rules. My guess is that you will not only be surprised, but impressed as well. I know I was.
Posted by dvaldesd at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2006
Minority Children Left Behind (MCLB)
Is anyone really surprised to read about this? I knew that NCLB was nonsense long before I started teaching. Maybe the sad part is that I'm not surprised. But as I have said before, "no hay mal que por bien no venga"... This article only denotes the fear associated with what can happen if those on the periphery get a chance to leave oppression and poverty behind. Why else would they work so hard to keep our children from getting the education that could metaphorically set them free?
Posted by dvaldesd at 10:44 AM | Comments (1)
April 17, 2006
Women's Work
This is the project I am attempting for one of my classes. Suprisingly, I was able to find quite a bit of work on Latina women, specifically those that worked in the factories in the early 19th century, which is near to my heart as that was my grandmother's fate. Despite being the rare (female) high school graduate in her family, once she came to Nueva York, her training as a stenographer and book keeper was stilted because "her English just wasn't good enough". Ah...yet another reason why I think that I was destined to be a rhetorician. Exactly how much language does it take to do book keeping? But I digress... What follows is the work I am now actually thinking of pursuing with more scholarly vigor. Who said dissertation? I'm just expressing an interest is all.
When we think of societal contributions made by women, segregated images of family, motherhood, and domesticity are recalled with nostalgic warmth. Feminism conjures up another exclusionary image; White women working towards temperance and suffrage, and the overall liberation of their sisters. Seldom are these versions of womanhood expanded to include women of color, or the various contributions (fiscally, culturally, and politically) that they have made by assuming what were (and in some instances still are) considered by some to be less feminine, or less traditional roles. To that end, this paper will explore the ways in which Puerto Rican women entered the workforce during the late 19th and early 20th centuries respectively, why they were compelled to enter this male dominated arena in the first place, and how said involvement ultimately led to feminist awakenings and the Latina suffrage movement. By charting the migration pattern of Puerto Ricans and the political promises made to native islanders which initiated (what is known as) the great migration for Puerto Ricans, this paper will shed light on the pivotal roles that Boricua women played in maintaining the family structure while gaining independence through work, suffrage movements, and the fight for unionization for female factory employees. Incorporating the work done on Luisa Capetillo, it is my intention to argue that despite the patriarchal underpinnings of Latino culture, these women demonstrated agency in a way that was unique to the current historical understandings of feminism as it occurred in the early 19th and 20th centuries.
Wish me luck!
Posted by dvaldesd at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2006
Call Me Crazy...
During my time in the CCR program, I have read some very complicated texts. It’s not that the texts are especially ambiguous because they do not relate to me culturally, but instead because of the gaps in my lack of authentic knowledge with regard to rhetorical theory. This summer I plan to address this gap by taking an independent study that will give me the opportunity to engage with various theoretical texts, which I know will make me feel like I actually “know” something. Despite the fact that it is the end of the semester and I have projects to work on, papers to grade, and various other activities, I have to say that I am looking forward to it…hence the title of this entry. Thus far, this is what the reading list looks like:
Works Cited
Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses". Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. 1971 - Monthly Review Press
Barthes, Roland. "The Death of the Author" Barthes, Roland, and Stephen Heath, eds. Image, Music, Text. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977.
Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: UC Press, 1950.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York:Routledge, 1990).
Cixous, Helene. "The Laugh of the Medusa". The Signs Reader: Women, Gender, and Scholarship. eds. Elizabeth Abel and Emily K. Abel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. 279-97.
Davis, Diane. Breaking up [at) Totality: A Rhetoric of Laughter. Carbondale:. Southern Illinois University Press, 2000.
Derrida, Jacques. “Plato's Pharmacy.” Dissemination . Trans. Barbara Johnson. Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1981. 63-119.
_____. “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences”. Writing and Difference, Trans. Alan Bass. London: Routledge, 278-294.
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983.
Foucault, Michel. "What is an Author?" Trans. Donald F. Bouchard and Sherry Simon. In Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. ed. Donald F. Bouchard. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1977. 124-127.
_____.Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage, 1977.
Neel, Jasper. Plato, Derrida, and Writing. Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988.
Ricouer, Paul. The Conflict of Interpretations. Essays in Hermeneutics, Trans. D. Ihde Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press, 1974.
Posted by dvaldesd at 06:17 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2006
Dream Life...create a dream you?
Create a dream school life, and dream clothes. Want to be a different color? This is the newest game to teach girls how to commodify themselves. The venue for this commercial? NICKELODEON! Why is this channel allowing this game to be advertised on there station, and furthermore, why during the Kids Choice Awards, which is viewed by millions of impressionable young girls? To say that I am disturbed is the least of it. It seems to me that along with teaching young girls that there is something wrong with them that can be fixed via artificial means, they are also implying that if young girls are not happy with the color of their skin (you know, just in case they haven't internalized a sufficient amount of self hate), they have the power to change that as well. Here's what I think the commercial really communicates:
Are you unhappy with your looks? Do you hate the color of your skin, the texture of your hair and your working class parents who can't give you what every American kid should have? Are you having a tough time dealing with growing up? Well look no further! Dream Life can make it all better! Yes, you too CAN belong to the dominate society and ERASE who you are, what you look like, and all things that make you unique! You even get to choose your wardrobe (in case what you own is not good enough)! If YOU want to learn how to be an acceptable member of (a hegemonic) American Society, this game can be the answer to your prayers!
Is it me, or is this the next ploy to promote hegemony and assimilation? How about substance abuse? Talk about visual rhetoric...because our young daughters don't have enough to contend with. I don't think I ever want to hear about the success rate of this game, either. Exactly what is it that we want to teach our daughters? And, what do we want to teach our young Latinas? That they are not good enough as is? That job was done a long time ago by our patriarchal culture and those that colonized us, and it was done without the help of cutting edge video games, either. Thank godness for songs like this...one of the few weapons we have against this type of nonsense.
Stupid Girls
Stupid girl, stupid girls, stupid girls
Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back
What a paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girlGo to Fred Segal, you'll find them there
Laughing loud so all the little people stare
Looking for a daddy to pay for the champagne
(Drop a name)
What happened to the dreams of a girl president
She's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent
They travel in packs of two or three
With their itsy bitsy doggies and their teeny-weeny tees
Where, oh where, have the smart people gone?
Oh where, oh where could they be?Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back
What a paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl
Baby if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back
Push up my bra like that; I don't wanna be a stupid girl(Break it down now)
Disease's growing, it's epidemic
I'm scared that there ain't a cure
The world believes it and I'm going crazy
I cannot take any more
I'm so glad that I'll never fit in
That will never be me
Outcasts and girls with ambition
That's what I wanna see
Disasters all around
World despaired
Their only concern
Will they **** up my hair[Interlude]
Oh my god you guys, I totally had more that 300 calories
That was so not sexy, no
Good one, can I borrow that?
[Vomits]
I WILL BE SKINNYPretty will you **** me girl, silly as a lucky girl
Pull my head and suck it girl, stupid girl!
Pretty would you **** me girl, silly as a lucky girl
Pull my head and suck it girl, stupid girl!Baby if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back
Push up my bra like that, stupid girl!Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back
What a paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl
Baby if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back
Push up my bra like that, I don't wanna be a stupid girl
Posted by dvaldesd at 08:59 PM | Comments (2)
April 02, 2006
Truer words were never spoken
Questions about why the problem of immigration is an construction of American capitlaism? Check this out...
Immigration 101
By Molly Ivins, AlterNet
Posted on March 30, 2006, Printed on March 31, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/34256/
In 1983, I was a judge at the Terlingua Chili Cookoff, and my memory of the events may not be perfect -- for example, for years I've been claiming Jimmy Carter was president at the time, but that's the kind of detail one often loses track of in Terlingua.
Anyway, it was '83 or some year right around there when we held The Fence climbing contest. See, people talked about building The Fence back then, too. The Fence along the Mexican border. To keep Them out.
At the time, the proposal was quite specific -- a 17-foot cyclone fence with bob wire at the top. So a test fence was built at Terlingua, and the First-Ever Terlingua Memorial Over, Under or Through Mexican Fence Climbing Contest took place. Prize: a case of Lone Star beer. Winning time: 30 seconds.
I tell this story to make the one single point about the border and immigration we know to be true: The Fence will not work. No fence will work. The Great darn Wall of China will not work. Do not build a fence. It will not work. They will come anyway. Over, under or through.
Some of you think a fence will work because Israel has one. Israel is a very small country. Anyone who says a fence can fix this problem is a demagogue and an ass.
Numero Two-o, should you actually want to stop Mexicans and OTMs (other than Mexicans) from coming to the United States, here is how to do it: Find an illegal worker at a large corporation. This is not difficult -- brooms and mops are big tip-offs. Then put the CEO of that corporation in prison for two or more years for violating the law against hiring illegal workers.
Got it? You can also imprison the corporate official who actually hired the illegal and, just to make sure, put some Betty Sue Billups -- housewife, preferably one with blonde hair in a flip -- in the joint for a two-year stretch for hiring a Mexican gardener. Thus Americans are reminded that the law says it is illegal to hire illegal workers and that anyone who hires one is responsible for verifying whether or not his or her papers are in order. If you get fooled and one slips by you, too bad, you go to jail anyway. When there are no jobs for illegal workers, they do not come. Got it?
Of course, this has been proposed before, because there is nothing new in the immigration debate. As the current issue of Texas Monthly reminds us, the old bracero program dating from World War II was actually amended in 1952 to pass the "Texas proviso," shielding employers of illegal workers from criminal penalties. They got the exemption because Texas growers flat refused to pay the required bracero wage of 30 cents an hour. Instead of punishing Texas growers for breaking the law, Congress rewarded them.
In 1986, the Reagan administration took a shot at immigration reform and reinstated penalties on employers. They weren't enforced worth a darn, of course. In 2004, only three American companies were threatened with fines for hiring illegal workers. Doesn't work if you don't enforce it.
This brings us to the great Republican divide on the issue. Conservatives, in general, are anti-immigrant for the same reasons they have always been anti-immigrant -- a proud tradition in our nation of immigrants going back to the days of the Founders, when Ben Franklin thought we were going to be overrun by Germans. But Business likes illegal workers. The Chamber of Commerce lobbies for them. They're lobbying now for a new bracero program. What a bonanza for Bidness.
Old-fashioned anti-immigrant prejudice always brings out some old-fashioned racists. This time around, they have started claiming that Mexicans can't assimilate. A sillier idea I've never heard. Why don't they come to Texas and meet up with Lars Gonzales, Erin Rodriguez and Bubba at the bowling alley. They can drink some Lone Star, listen to some conjunto and chill.
Racists seem obsessed by the idea that illegal workers -- the hardest-working, poorest people in America -- are somehow getting away with something, sneaking goodies that should be for Americans. You can always avoid this problem by having no social services. This is the refreshing Texas model, and it works a treat.
Aren't y'all grateful that we're down here doing exactly nothing for the people of our state, legal or illegal? Think what a terrible message it would send if you swapped Texas with Vermont, and they all got health care. In Texas, we never worry about illegals taking advantage of social benefits provided by our taxpayers. Incredibly clever, no?
One nice thing about the benefit of long experience with la frontera is that we in Texas don't have to run around getting all hysterical about immigrants. The border is porous. When you want cheap labor, you open it up; when you don't, you shut it down. It works to our benefit -- it always has.
Molly Ivins writes about politics, Texas and other bizarre happenings.
© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/34256/
Posted by dvaldesd at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)