Brainstrom

ok umm im not really sure exactly what my final topic is going to be but it may be how in my own life i havent experienced the side of school that isnt diversed but how i witness it everyday. I live near a school that has been broken up into 5 different schools. The reading rates are extremely low and it has everything to do with the lack of money.

essay

In my essay I planning to write about my own personal experience in school, the progress that I believe has been made in the last 5o years and the improvements that i feel need to be made. I also want to write about how even though there isn't legal segregration, in NY you can see the difference in schools and the education which people recieve. There are some sudents that recieve a much better education then other just because of where they live, there are kids who are confined to a certain school. As a student in public school i know that there is a lot more then can be done. In the essay i also want to mention how sometimes kids don't realize what is wrong in the education which they are recieving, because even though they might be doing well in the situation that they are in there is more that they are capable of doing. In Uncle Tom's cabin and The sky is Gray we see how our society and the people around us affect us, I belive that my environment and the people who I have met have had an influnce on me.

Lessons mother teach their children through hardcore diciplines

" Then I catch her kind of looking where i'm at. i smile at her a little bit. But think she'll smile back?"(pg. 91) - "The sky is Gray"

When I read this quote I compared my parental relation with his in a strange way. In this quote his mother reaction to his gesture of love and sympaty was very cold and sometimes my mom is very cold with me. Mothers love their kids but they have a diferent way of expressing that love. As I grew up surrounded by my grandmother who spoiled me alot and my mom who was very young and with poor experience in the filed of motherhood. With my grandmother I experience the sweet part of life and how to be caring and sensitive. However, as James mother my mother also at some random moment in life had a radical change in her life. Transitions are part of life and my mother and my father separated in a moment my mom was not pepare o take responsibility for me and herself. As James father was taking away to go and serve for the army his mother had to step out and be the man and the mother. My mother did too. As she was rasing me she also was growing and it was mutal fight for survival. She was not the loving mother I would have liked to have. Nevertheless, she was the young mother who without any experience in life was looking forward to enhance me with the best education as posible. When I read how James tryed to be a man and not complain and understand his mother I realized in a strange way I have done that myself. I did all I could to be the perfect daughter because that would be a problem less for my mother. My mom was very straight and always made me get rid of my fears and at that moment in time I could not understand why she was doing that but now I see it was to prepare me to survive in a world of darkness and fight for my goals. She made do my own things but now I know it was so I could be independent. As I was reading this I was atonished to discover my mother has just being preparing me so when is time for me to go out to the world.

Essay Brainstorm

To elaborate on my previous statement, I think can relate to the topic by comparing how life for colored youth has drastically changed from then to now. Education has changed today but yet some aspects still remain the same. White education today has a higher quality than that of minority schools. I can compare my experience to that of other kids and their high school experiences.

Essay brainstorm

i can totally relate to this topic by comparing and contrasting life.

EZ's Storm in the Brain

I would like to write an essay that could put the characters in a hypothetical world. And compare or contrast the different actions Richard would take. Instead of listening to what the white people said he should do, he would do what he thought was the right and fair thing. This would also show that Richard would not become spoiled and steal and lie. Instead we would see the honest and kind person he could have becoe if he was treated like a human being and not an animal.

wannabe essay topic

i would feel comfertable writting about the strategy used in the days of jim crow and displaying the difference between the survival tactics and the steps taken toward change. i could use the mind set of teens and students today and our environment and how that effects us in comparison to the surroundings of richard and the boy who suggested that the grass was green.

Prompt for tonight's postings

Hey guys,
Hope that you had a good first day at Vassar! I was quite impressed by our discussions, and I look forward to more as the week goes on. For tonight, you should read pgs 61-96 of the Civil Rights Reader. As I said earlier, you all will be writing a short (2 pgs.) essay connecting the Gaines, Wright, and Civil Rights Reader pieces to your personal experiences. Each of the readings addresses the question, "how do children learn about race?" We would like you to address that question for the Jim Crow era of Gaines, Wright, and other children mentioned in the readings on Brown, and for you in the late 20th/early 21st century. Show how you identify (or not) with the characters from the readings, and in what ways you feel racial education has changed for children now, over 50 years after the Brown decision. You may also integrate the recent Supreme Court decision in your essay, if you want.

Tonight's posting should be a brief brainstorm of your ideas for the essay. You don't have to write much, but I think that thinking "out loud" on the blog will help you formulate ideas and relate concepts you want to address in the essay. Please make your posting before writing lab tomorrow. We will go over them tomorrow.

Thanks guys! Great work today:)

Reflection on Today's Writing Lab

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to review what we did today in Writing Lab. We were exploring the idea of writing as a conversation--with texts (or whatever you're writing about), with others, and perhaps most importantly, with yourself. In getting your ideas out on paper, you are externalizing the internal conversation you had with the text when you were reading, and you begin to hear your own responses more clearly as you put them into words. Later, when others join the conversation (either in a class discussion, or when you engage with others' ideas in a paper), you respond to their comments and your thinking evolves.

The exercise we did on the Blog was in three parts. First, you chose a quotation that provoked a powerful response in you; you posted that quotation, along with a brief comment explaining why you chose it, and what it meant to you. In the second phase, you left that conversation temporarily to read what others had posted about their quotations, and you responded with a comment of your own. In the third phase, you went back to your original posting and reflected on it by explaining how your ideas developed in response to one or more of the comments.

The 3-part process in this exercise is a model of the 3-part process that you use whenever your are writing an essay in college. First comes "brainstorming"--finding a topic you want to explore (many of you used them as the titles of your first posts), finding texts that relate to that topic, exploring your first thoughts, but without necessarily knowing where you want to go with them. Then comes "drafting"--your first attempt at formulating a statement, developing an argument. The drafting process often involves what you were doing in the second phase of the exercise, too, that is, putting your ideas into a larger conversation (with other texts, and/or other writers). Finally comes "revision"--the moment when you go back to what you wrote at first, with a clearer understanding of what you really want to say, and rewrite with an imaginary reader in mind--a reader you want to engage, excite, convince.

My hope is that thinking of writing as process and as conversation will help free you from the fear that sometimes sets in when you face a writing assignment, such as a paper--the fear that whatever comes out of you onto the screen has to be "it," the full-fledged argument, the final word, and that some invisible Teacher-Reader is hiding inside your head, overhearing everything, poised to jump in and correct you. The more you get used to approaching writing as your own process, the more you'll be able to shut out those negative voices, and the better you'll be able to hear your own.

I'd be really grateful to get YOUR feedback on this writing lab: was the approach new to you in any way? what did you like best about it? what might have worked better for you? do you have any concerns or questions about writing that you'd like us to work on this week? You can post your comments on the Blog, or if you'd prefer to write just to me, my email address is dunn@vassar.edu.

Thanks, Leslie

Response to Yudany

After reading Yudany's post, I realized that in the several times I've read the Gaines' piece, I never once thought about the boy's upbringing, who is parents were, and how they feel about their son's choice to have faith in his mind over his heart and over God. Since this boy seems to be well-educated, I wonder about his socioeconomic background, and whether or not his parents are also well-educated. All of these things contribute to a particular kind of freedom a person feels that they possess... perhaps his parents were more open with him, allowed him or encouraged him to rely more on his mind/logic than matters of the spirit. Or maybe he was a complete rebel. It's difficult to tell, but I do think that it is very important to think about the influences of each individual's background on his/her ways of thinking. Background is by no means the determining factor in how one thinks, but sometimes its influence can be profound.

reaction

as one person said that really made me think is that we should greatful that today we have more freedom compared to back then because there were certain rule they had to obey. Today we can go outside, laugh, and hang out with other colored people including white because certain white people were treated just like black because they were for black rights.

REFLECTION ON: where is the pain being felt?

i agree with the comments that the main problem that richard is having is understanding that his actions will always put him in a position where he will have to be punished one way or another and he must be able to see the REAL war and that it goes much further and is much deeper than simply throwing cyinders at white kids.

What came to mind after reading the comments

I have to say the power of the mind is rich n powerful. " Think with the head not the heart or the other way around." Yes people do forget to about the mind and emphize alot in the heart as well as untained said there has to be a lil of happiness. In deed, there have got to be a balance. But I insist that we should be more aware of the power of our mind. Is the mind the one that have feelings b/c is with it that one think about those emotions. Is our brain the one that control the hormones that cause different feeling not the heart. Is the mind that knows who is fear and anger as well as sadness and happiness. Heart is just an organ wich with imagination and fiction has become a personification given life by humans .

Reflection

Even though I do see the importance of taking action in order to see change, I also see how difficult it can sometimes to take action when there are things that hold you back and when you grew up with a mind set. I agree with Marquita about taking action and not living in fear, however people can easily become accustomed to living that way. It can take a lot to change a persons' entire perspective on life. Not everyone is born to take action and be a leader, however if a person is strong and finds a way to do so then they can change the world and make an impact on the lives other.

this is what i thinki

i agree with sami on my quote but it goes exactly with what im saying. u want the bread because u have thought about how satisfied u are with it. u have the choice to question others who are not satisfied with what they have. that is my perspective. if u dont get the opportunity to even think about how u want bread and others dont... then u are not really living the correct way. we should always question things.. ask y it doesnt change or ask y it should change... but we should always question things