1. I beleive this poem is written in both spanish and english because both languages were a part of the narrarators life. The feeling I got from the peom is that as a kid she struggled with accepting her culture, not because she wasnt proud of it, only because of society and the way people during that time viewed them. In class today we discovered the incident in this poem took place in the late 1950's, a time where mexican americans were subject to racial segregation. Schoolchildren and adults were both discriminated against, and the speaker talks about the girls in class that didnt try and hide their heritage. Teresa seems to be a girl that she remembers for her defiance. She obviously wrote this peice for Teresa, and probably wrote it in spanish to show her respect and to show that shes proud of her people.
2. I feel like in the end she almost regreted trying so hard to fit in with americans, and probably wrote this poem with a new outlook. As a kid she probably didnt see the change coming in the future, and looking back as a young adult she wished she stood up for her poeple instead of trying to hide and quietlly do what they say. She realized now how big of a statement these girls were making and they were never afraid, people like this probably made the biggest contribution to change. She explains, during the fight, that her tactic to defy the system was to prove she could keep up with anyone else, that she wasnt stupid and could do just as well if not better than anyone else at school. I think she has a better understanding of Teresa now, because she realized that they even though there ways of dealing with it were different they both wanted the same thing, to prove everyone wrong. Mexicans were just as important part of american society as anyone else and they still are.
Horace mann
#3-
Horace Manns View on education with ralation to wealth and povery.
Manns views Education as the most obvious possible way to avoid poverty. He begins with talking about how men are naturally devided into different classes, and points out that most people view it either one way or the other. The first being, that men are either going to have to work hard, and others are there to enjoy what they've already been given. The next is that all men are created equal and have an equal oppurtunity to work and earn. He compares all this to the fuedal time in england, because at that time the extremes in society were very prevelent. He claims that "What force did then, money does now" , and he strongly beleives that if we spend a lot more time working on the quality of our education system all of this can be avoided. He states that there is no feasable reason that a properly educated intellegent group of people should end up being poor. It just dosnt make any sense, because if everyone is educated they should be able to create there own means of living. They should be creating jobs, thinking of new ideas and not everyone should be depending on what's already available. He names education "The great equalizer of the conditions of men", because if all over the world there is a general education system, then all the people around the world will have the same basic background information, and therefore a reasonably equal chance at success.
I think all of these ideas make a lot of sense, and I wish that people understood better that the sytem still needs work. I think that is a candidate for school board brought all of this up, people would think that they were stating the obvious. I think it would be hard for people to accept that the way we've been doing things for all these years might not be entirely effective just yet. I think that the general education system, at least reffering to early education, is way too specific. It dosnt leave room for growth, kids are expected to do things a certain way, even if thats not necesarily the way they learn best. I think a lot of the focus should be removed from standardized tests and put toward working with individuals and finding that one thing each person is good at. Kids might have a better chance of finding something they're passionate about if that had more time to do the things they love.
I really want to include this, because I cant possibly say any of this better myself. This is the valadictorian speech of my senior class in highschool, and if anyone has ever struggled in public school I want you to watch this. This speech means so much to me, it made me so proud of each and every individual in my class, and gave me hope for the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n8Chftlsg4
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