Safe Spaces

Quotes

1. "Death should never be an option. Unfortunately, for many young people suicide feels like a better alternative than living with rejection or abuse from peers, family members, or community leaders."
This quote was very sad for me to read. My cousin is a lesbian and fortunately she doesn't get abused or rejected because of it but the thought of that ever happening to her is so hard to think about. This article and especially this quote makes me think of Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen who committed suicide in December. Her death became public after posting her suicide note onto her Tumblr account. In her note, she blames her death on her parents. It makes me so upset thinking that a parent could cause their own child to commit suicide.

2. "Sexual orientation topics are entirely absent from nearly half our elementary teacher education programs in the United States. It is therefor unsurprising that LGBT people are largely absent from elementary curricula or classroom discussions."
I think that it is very important for more teacher education programs to include sexual orientation topics. I think that one of the reasons why many people are accepting of the LGBT community is because of a lack of education about it. Children are taught at a young age what is considered "normal" in society and if something breaks those norms, they consider it to be weird and probably won't accept it. If children learned more about sexual orientation at a young age, they would lean that sexual orientation doesn't change who they are as a person and doesn't make somebody "weird".

3. "Language is a tool. Such as, we believe speech is performative- it does things. Words invite or exclude, recognize or erase, empower or intimidate, examine or assume."
I really liked this quote. I agree that words are such a powerful thing. I think the old saying "stick and stones may break my bones, but worlds can never hurt me" is wrong. Words have the power to do a lot of things, including hurt people.

"Aria" by Richard Rodriguez

Reflection

Richard Rodriguez

     In the "Aria", the author, Richard Rodriguez discusses his experiences with having Spanish as his first language but attending a school where classes were taught in English. He states that many people think that students miss a lot in school when they are not taught in their primary language, but, he seems to disagree with those people. He said that he had a right and obligation to speak in English. It seemed like he thought it was a privilege when he said, "I couldn't believe that the English language was mine to use." He also talked about the way he felt when the nuns at his school would make him speak in English. He said he would have felt more comfortable if teachers would have addressed him in Spanish when he walked into the classroom and how he always felt afraid and different when being forced to speak in English. He also realized the differences in the way language was used at home and the way it was used in school. This reminded me of a discussion we had in class about differences in the way language is used within different cultures and how it is a very white, middle class way of speaking when teachers say things like "is it time to be playing with your puzzle" instead of "put your puzzle away".
     Although I can not relate to Rodriguez's feelings in this article because English is my first language, I can understand how he must have felt. I can't imagine having to speak a foreign Augean all the time at school, school is hard enough for many people so I can't imagine how hard it must be trying to learn in a different language. Even though it is necessary for people in America to know English, this article still makes me feel bad for people trying to go to school and learn in a language they don't know. This article really made me realize how important it is for schools to have English as a second language programs.

"The Silenced Dialogue" by Lisa Delpit

Quotes

1. "Those with power are frequently least aware of - or least willing to acknowledge - its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence." (page 26)
 
In this quote, Delpit is saying that people with power usually aren't  aware of their power but people without power are aware of it. The same thing can be said about privilege. People with privilege tend to be unaware of their privileges while less privileged people are very aware of it. The quote reminded me of the first article we read in class that discussed privilege.

2. "Black children expect an authority figure to act with authority." (page 35)

In this quote, it seemed that Delpit was implying that only black children expect this and children of other races do not. I disagree with this. As a child and even now, I always expected authority figures to act with authority and I think most people do, not just certain races.

3. "We must believe that people are rational beings, and therefore always act rationally. We may not understand their rationales but that in no way militates against the existence of these rationales or reduces our responsibility to attempt to apprehend them." (page 47)

In this quote, Delpit is saying that people always have a reason for doing the things that they do. Even if their reasoning doesn't make sense to one person, it doesn't change the fact that it makes sense to another person.

About Me

My name is Kristin Carter, I'm 20 years old and I'm a sophomore at RIC majoring in early childhood education. I am a member of the RIC Programming Event Board. In programming, we plan many of the events on campus such as welcome week and RIC end. I graduated from Burrillville High School in 2013 and have lived in Burrillville all my life. I love animals, especially dogs and I have a black lab named Buster. In the little free time I have I enjoy playing piano and spending time with my friends.