Pat Conroy is the author and the main character in this excerpt. He is a middle school teacher who is now teaching on a small island off the coast of South Carolina called Yamacraw. The other people this story is centered around were the kids of course and Mrs. Brown who was the principal of the school. Mr. Conroy didn’t know what to expect when he first walked into the classroom. On the first day there was an assembly held and was met by Mrs. Brown where he said he was happy to be here and she was quick to answer “don’t speak to quick, you’re in a snake pit…” basically telling him that he didn’t know what he was getting himself into and that would run him out the door. A cultural model for her would be that getting to know kids and teach …show more content…
them will drive you insane. Another one would be that she believed punishment is the key to get kids attention. She also believed in stern punishment and attitude towards them. She would always talk about switches and whipping the kids. A third model was that she believed tough love would get the kids on the right path. You could tell she cared but she was more of a tough love type of women and believed heavily in staying on the kids whether that be by fussing them out of using a switch. Mrs. Brown was more like a mother when it came to communication with the kids. She called them babies and handled them as such. She truly believed some of her kids were incapable of learning and told them too. She said “most of you are slow, all of us know that” she then called out two kids and told them that they were the only ones that used their brains. She also said some of them were slow and worst of all she called some of the kids retarded. Mrs. Brown is just a brutally honest woman that doesn’t have much belief in her students. She believes those kids need to be pushed harder and whipped harder than anyone. She also believed that Mr. Conroy was there to be the principal when that wasn’t the case at all. A cultural model for her that ties in with this is that she believed that whites were superior. She believed that because he was white that he was there to be over her. The story is based in 1969 a time when people of color were still looked at as a lesser or underneath white people. Which in turn made her think that the only reason a white man would come to the mostly black island was to be the principle. Mr. Conroy was a little different than Mrs. Brown, he wasn’t so stern, nor did he call the kids slow or retarded. He was an honest white man who was ready to teach. He didn’t expect what he got, for one the kids and the teachers couldn’t even say his name right, they would call him Patroy or many other variations of that. When he first met his class, he gave them an assignment and they all looked at him like he was crazy. This was very shocking to him One cultural model is that he was one that believed anyone was capable of learning.
This was shown when he established that the kids were at a major lack of knowledge, but they still knew things like how to hunt. He also seen how with time the kids were no longer afraid to try to answer question even though they may have been wrong. Another one is that he also believed that no matter how far behind you are now or what background you come from doesn’t affect what you can learn in the future nor does it limit your potential. Within the first two days the ignorance of the kids had astonished him, they were ashamed to show that they knew nothing. These kids couldn’t use proper English, they didn’t know the simple things like what country they lived in or where on the map it was located. The things that stuck out the most was the fact that four kids didn’t know how add two plus two, some couldn’t count to ten, two didn’t even know how old they were old they were, and all eighteen kids had no outside exposure to the world outside of the poverty stuck island. Even with all these things stacked against Mr. Conroy he never gave up on these kids, he continued to try new ways to teach and get the kids to open up and they eventually started to work in favor of both the kids and the
teacher. All of this wouldn’t have happened if he was the type of teacher that actually connected with the kids and liked to teach. That being said, a third cultural model for him was that he believed that getting to know the kids personally with help them more than just being a traditional teacher. He would also joke and play with the kids by calling them “chicken” and daring him to try and fight back with him in a playful way. He wanted to know where they were from and what they liked to do, he was more than just a teacher to those kids he was also a friend. By him being like this with the kids he was better able to connect with them and able to understand how to teach them the best he could. In this short but meaningful exert I was able to distinguish a lot between Mr. Conroy and Mrs. Brown. Everyone has their own way of viewing a situation and how they handle obstacles. This is just the case with Mr. Conroy and Mrs. Brown, they have two very different styles and views on how to interact and teach the middle school kids. Their cultural models also varied heavily within the two.
Pat Summitt is one of the many elite coaches of basketball, but coaching doesn’t make Pat the person she really is; she’s a determined woman and strong willed in everything she does in life. How Pat was raised in her childhood is an important factor to the person she is today. Pat Summitt is one of the most successful coaches of all time. Pat now has to deal with a disease called Dementia Alzheimer’s type.
The narrator Sylvia and the children in her impoverished neighborhood are prisoners in a dark cave, which is the society that encompasses ignorance and puppet-handlers. “The Lesson” begins with Sylvia as she talks condescendingly about her neighborhood of Harlem, New York: “Back in the days when everyone was old and stupid or young and foolish and me and Sugar were the only ones just right, this lady moved on our block with nappy hair and proper speech and no makeup. Quite naturally we laughed at her… And we kinda ha...
n the “Pat Conroy Letter” (October 24, 2007) to the Charleston Gazette, Pat Conroy implies that the only good in banning books is giving students irresistible temptation to read them. Conroy emphasizes the dangers of banning books by juxtaposing books to real life utilizing diction, imagery, and conjunctions. He uses sarcasm in order to persuade the school board to change their book banning policy. Conroy captures the audience’s attention with a historical allusion to the Hatfields and McCoys to relate to the people in Charleston, West Virginia using sarcasm and humor in hopes of convincing that censorship is wrong.
Mrs. Brown, the first schoolteacher on the island, most clearly demonstrates the theme of national ignorance. Mrs. Brown focuses on old-fashioned, and worthless teaching methods to educate her students. She very strictly follows the curriculum of the government, regardless of whether the students understand the content at all. She lacks caring and belief that the students will succeed. She just continues teaching her class according to the law, which in itself has ...
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s purpose in his article is to persuade the reader that children should not be force fed knowledge but should instead simply be taught the tool with which to learn. He emphasizes that children should be taught to be inquisitive and to seek knowledge out of enthusiasm and curiosity. One thing Emerson does that is effective is he goes chronologically through a person's lifetime for the most part. A young child and works his way to a college student and then touches on the teacher himself or a grown man.
The Lesson takes place in New York?s inner city. The fictional story begins with a group of poor, uneducated, lower class city kids standing in front of a mailbox, preparing themselves for another day of being taught by Mrs. Moore. Mrs. Moore felt that it was her duty to help underprivileged children learn because she was one of the only women in the neighborhood to earn a degree. The main character is Sylvia, who tells the story in a first person narrative. Sylvia is a young African American girl, probably around fourteen years old, who is very judgmental about the world around her. By Bambara?s choice of words, the reader can tell that she is extremely opinionated, presents a very tough, hostile exterior and not at all happy about having to be taught anything by Mrs. Moore. For instance, she states ?we kinda hated her too, hated the way we did the winos who cluttered up our parks and pissed on our hand ball walls? (Bambara 121). On this hot summer day, Mrs. Moore felt that there was a lesson to learn at FAO Schwartz, a very expensive, upper class toy store in downtown Manhattan. After stepping out of the cab and peering into the window, Sylvia knows that this is not just any toy store and they are not just there for any reason.
Toni Cade Bambara wrote the short story “The Lesson”, and in this story she writes about a teacher who not only teaches her students educational things, but she also teaches them the ways of life. Or another way to put it, she teaches them that they must get a good education in order to make something out of themselves. The class that the story is based on is mainly poor children and some wealthy children. Miss Moore is the teacher and she takes the class to a “rich people” toy store, and she lets the children walk around the store. When the children find something that interest them, Miss Moore will teach them accordingly to what the item is. The theme woven throughout the story is life lessons, particularly about how school relates to the world around the children, how money does not define them, and how society uses money in the wrong manners.
The two teachers introduced in “Students” and “Crow Lake” both struggle to engage their students’ interest because they can not connect well with the students. One of the main factors that separates Wayman and the narrator with their students is the generation gap. On Wayman’s first meeting with his freshman class, he already feels the distance between him and the students, as the speaker describes that “Wayman was sure the computer was in error,” because the birthdates it showed was so recent. (2-3, Wayman) There is a difference in values and attitudes between the generation the students and that of Wayman’s. Although Wayman probably needed the “Kung Fu Theory of Education” when he was young, in order to deal with hardships all by himself, the students, most of whom are still able to depend on their parents both financially and mentally, can not recognize the importance of Wayman’s words. (25, Wayman) The narrator in “Crow Lake” also senses the difference between she and her students, too. She wonders that “how many of the students” in her classroom “would have had the opportunity to see” the marvels of life which she had seen when she was little. (16, Lawson) The narrator does not understand why her students show almost no interest in the things she is so ...
By using the topic of public school systems disregarding creativity he can persuade the viewers to want to take action. In the middle of his speech, he points out how every education system in the entire world is based on a ranking of subjects. When Robinson talked about the rankings of classes he had two main topics that he made sure to talk about. One being, the ranking is based on the most useful subjects are at the top of the list. He brought up how children have driven away from certain activities that they enjoyed because were raised to believe that those businesses will not create a successful job in the future. For example, if a child were gifted at playing the guitar and liked it, he or she would be guided away from the activity because there is no promise to have a successful career as a musician. This point was followed up by talking about how the entire rankings are based on one's academic ability. The school knowledge has come to take over our view of what intelligence is because universities are designed with just one image in mind. He makes this clear when he says Because of this child who are gifted and talented are being turned away by multiple colleges because the only thing they excelled at in school, did not matter. This leads to the audience to believe in all of the aggravating points Sir Ken
The fictional setting of A Lesson Before Dying, Bayonne, Louisiana, is based on a real Louisiana town and has a background of Cajun culture, which is an important part of the culture of Louisiana and the South as a whole. Gaines does not go into depth to explain Cajun culture, however, and spends more time carefully describing the injustices of segregation. Readers also see in the novel that despite the Cajun culture all around them and their immersion in it, the African American characters in the novel do not identi...
show how the life of the teacher who is apparently stuck in a rut is
“If you would just get up and teach them instead of handing them a packet. There’s kids in here that don’t learn like that. They need to learn face to face. I’m telling you what you need to do. You can’t expect a kid to change if all you do is just tell ‘em.” Texas student, Jeff Bliss, decided to take a stand against the lack of teaching going on in his class (Broderick).
3. Delpit, Lisa D. Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: New, 1995. Print.
Diversity plays an important role in education in this multicultural country. Professors from different countries with different cultures and with different experiences are important in this country’s education because they have many experiences and knowledge to share. The interaction between professors and students help students to understand and to be adapted to diversity in a faster way. As the book mentions, success stories are around us and within us (Bucher, 2015). If I were in Mary’s situation I would do almost the same thing she does. I would put more effort to understand the teacher and study the concepts that I do not understand during class at home. An individual with a diversity consciousness well developed, can be more successful academically (Bucher, 2015). I would view the class as a good scenario to develop my diversity skills and I would view the professor as an important source of knowledge.
Culture is a powerful influence plays a big role in our interactions. Culture may also impact parenting style and a developing child. Having a strong sense of their own cultural history and the traditions associated with it helps children build a positive cultural identity for themselves. This also supports children’s sense of belonging and, by extension, their mental health and wellbeing. This class is crucial in understanding and working well parents, staff, and children. An effective educator understands how students’ cultures affect their perceptions, self-esteem, values, classroom behavior, and learning. As director, I need to use that understanding to help my students and staff feel welcomed, affirmed, respected, and valued. One way that I can do this is by using multicultural literature, especially children’s literature, to honor students’ culture and foster cross-cultural understanding. If cultural differences are not understood by teachers and management, it can lead to miscommunication and misunderstandings on both sides. It will be my job to do all I can to overcome both language and cultural differences to ensure a positive learning environment for