School Girls; Young Women, Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap -Peggy Orenstein

• Women
• Pride
• Education
• Sexual Education
• Sexual Harassment
• National Organization for Women
• Opposite the Norm
• Confidence
• Knowledge
• Respected

Peggy Orenstein argues that all classrooms need to teach and acknowledge women, their rights, and achievements. Unlike the every day class which are "adorned with masculine role models, with male heroes, with books by and about men- classrooms which the female self is, at best, an afterthought." With this education, both males and females in the class will benefit from this new lesson plan, because it opens the minds of students and allows them to become more educated not only in gender but in hidden lessons such as public speaking, respect and equality.

1. "If I took those lessons out and concentrated only on men's experience for a whole year, that would be the normal."


2. "Phase one as Womanless and All-White History, which most of us learned as children. In phase two, teachers notice that there are no white women or people of color in the curriculum, and they cast about for a few exceptional achievers to sprinkle in..."


3. "I reassure them that women's studies is not about "ruling over," it is about "existing with."


4. "I usually find that boys only resist studying women when they're presented as "lesser."

I really loved this piece. Throughout the whole semester I believe this was a top favorite. Orenstein introduces this type of lesson with a confident yet not cocky voice. She could have come off very strong saying nothing but women are the better sex and being narrow minded. But she didn't and because of that I feel as if I accepted this article with pleasure. I believe her when she explains how men have a hard time with accepting this material. She quotes that she usually finds that boys resist studying women because they feel as if they are being presented lower then women. It would be had for men and manybe even some wome to accept this lesson because students are not use to learning about women.

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome -Christopher Kliewer

• Segregated
• Argument
• Denied
• Development
• Skills
• Judgement
• Disabilities
• Control

Christopher Kliewer argues that students with disabilities should be educated with all students of different learning abilities. They should be given the chance to learn in a mainstream learning environment because here every student would be able to grow, develop, and learn from one another; in a different way from the students who are on the same level.

1. “Society itself is hurt when schools act as cultural sorting machines—locations that justify a competitive ethic that marginalizes certain students or groups of students…"
2. “The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities."
3. "Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community."

I think it is really interesting that Kliewer raises such points. Before reading this article I felt as if children with special needs should be placed in a different learning environment. Not to segregate these children, but to be able to nurture them and give them additional attention or teach these students in a different way that they need to be taught. I always believed their was a specific teaching method for educating students with disabilities. Schooling Children With Down Syndrome reminded me of Jeannie Oakes piece on tracking. Both authors are suggesting mainstream classrooms should be mixed with different students including different learning abilities and mentality levels. By doing this, each student will benefit from one another allowing all levels to learn something new.

"One More River to Cross" Recognizing the Real Injury in Brown: A Prerequisite to Shaping New Remedies -Charles Lawrence

• Segregation
• Supreme Court
• Misunderstanding
• Recognize
• Black Children
• Elimination
• Devise and Demand
• Pupil Placement
• Civil Rights Case
• Brown vs. Board

Charles Lawrence argues that the Brown decision fostered a way of thinking about segregation that has allowed both the judiciary and society at large to deny the reality of race in America, that the recognition of that reality is critical to the framing of any meaningful remedy-judicial or political-and that Brown may ultimately be labeled a success only insofar as we are able to make it stand for what it should have stood for in 1954.

1. "The first is that segregation's only purpose is to label or define blacks as inferior and thus exclude them from full and equal participation in society."
2. "The second is that blacks are injured by the existence of the system or institution of segregation rather than by particular segregating acts."
3. The third is that the institution of segregation is organic and self-perpetuating. Once established it will not be eliminated by mere removal of public sanction but must be affirmatively destroyed.