This was an interesting article. I think there were a lot of things in it that I had figured out for myself previous to reading but it was good to have research back me up.
The first thing that I made note of was when the author talks about using "multicultural texts featuring people of color as protagonist [is] in our experiences as students and educators, we witnessed practiced around these so-called 'multicultural' texts that were equally, if not more disempowering of students of color than more traditional and less diverse texts." I think this will be something that will be good for me to remember, though I really don't feel like I would ever look for a Ethiopian protagonist book for my Ethiopian student.
I think my favorite part was when the author talks about how learning and understanding Shakespeare or other academic texts is empowering to students. It gives them confidence with other readings. I truly understand and agree with that statement. I think texts like Shakespeare are intimidating but when students have a grasp of them, the are ready for the next text.
Another one of my favorite parts was when it states that our jobs as educators is to "make students more critical consumers of all information that they encounter in their daily lives and to also give them the skills to become more capable producers of counterinformation; the goal is to make them slaves to a different (and more politically correct) ideology." I really like the first part. I think it is important that when a student leaves your classroom that they are aware of all information and that they have the tools to process that information.
On a similar note I liked that in one of the examples where the teacher states that she will be grading on skills that are no longer emphasized in many classrooms such as working well with classmates, presenting one's ideas orally, and engaging in respectful, yet critical conversations with teachers and classmates.
I won't take time to talk about the examples that I liked but instead mention them. I loved that those high school students became activist for themselves and wanted to make a change in their school. Once they realized that some schools had more than enough and they weren't able to have their own math book to take home, they wanted change. The other example was using hip hop in the classroom. That is a great way to get students interested in what they are learning!
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