Factoring in Cost of Living

I read the article called Teachers’ Cost of Living Matters More by Danielle Georgiou. I thought that this was a very informative piece because too be honest I didn’t realize that cost of living was not factored in to teacher pay. I have always been told how teachers don’t make a lot of money and I have looked at several school districts websites to examine the highest teacher pay in the area. However, I did not realize that those charts do not give any indication about the cost of living in each area. Too be honest I thought that teacher pay depended on how large the district was and that larger districts would have higher cost’ of living. Apparently this is not the case. Is education the only area that salaries are not dependent upon cost of living? My father is an industrial engineer and has moved 3 times because of his career and each time his pay was agreed upon after the cost of living in each area was discussed. In one instance he moved somewhere that the cost of living was lower therefore; on paper he did not get a pay raise however when the salaries were compared with cost of living he actually was making more because of the move. My boyfriend also just recently moved because of work and cost of living was a factor in the salary decision. I suppose I just assumed that this was the way salary settings were in every job.

It seems to me that it would only make sense to think about the cost of living in an area when analyzing teacher’s salaries. I certainly will be careful to examine the cost of living more carefully when I start applying for jobs. I recommend checking out the cost of living calculator at http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/cost_of_living/cost_of_living_calculator.asp . For instance, I found out that the cost of living in Chattanooga is higher than the cost of living in Murfreesboro. If you make $100,000.00 in Murfreesboro and move to Chattanooga, you will need to make $105,646.04 ($5,646.04 more) to maintain the same buying power. You can compare any two cities in the US. Another good website to check out would be http://www.teateachers.org/cms/Average+Classroom+Teacher+Salaries+%28by+system%29/896.html This is a link off of the TEA website that provides a list of average teaching salaries in different Tennessee school districts. I think it would be a good idea to compare different cities in these districts with the cost of living calculator to determine whether or not the teacher pay is fair.

Classroom Diversity

I had never heard the term cosmopolitanism before but I really liked how Hirsch described it as being a member of humanity as a whole. I think that we have been focused a lot lately on “multiculturalism” and what it means to respect other cultures. However, not everyone fits into one stereotype or cultural box. Each person is different. Therefore, I think it really just comes down to getting to know our students. Each and every student not just certain culturally groups of students. I also agree that just because we are respecting a culture does not mean that we have to allow intolerance if it is a part of their culture. We have laws for a reason and while being aware of what others believe is important it is not ok if their beliefs cause harm to other people living in this country. I think an important question came up in one of the readings about how other countries offer their children more equal educational opportunities. My question was, do they?
To be honest I don’t think that they do. Yes, our country may have a gap between low and high socioeconomic education mainly in comparison of test scores, but we also have the most diverse country in the world. I highly suggest reading, What ‘Superman’ got wrong, point by point by Rick Ayers http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/what-superman-got-wrong-point.html . Ayers says, “According to this piece in The Nation, ‘In the Finnish education system, much cited in the film as the best in the world, teachers are – gasp! – unionized and granted tenure, and families benefit from a cradle-to-grave social welfare system that includes universal daycare, preschool and health care, all of which are proven to help children achieve better results in school.’" Why does Finland have such high test scores? According to Wikipedia, “The country is ethnically homogeneous, the dominant ethnicity being Finnish people.” How can we compare our multicultural education system with a country that has no minorities or different ethnicities represented?

Now with that said, I do think that we can fill that gap we just have to understand what we are dealing with. We are dealing with students who all have different home lives, experiences, and learning environments. There is all this push to change curriculum in order to increase test scores. Has anyone thought that maybe we should change the test to match the curriculum and not vice versa? If you want to know more about the Core Knowledge Foundation and their curriculum ideas, check out http://www.coreknowledge.org/the-k-8-sequence .

The Multicultural Challenge

Where are these people that have these “Aryan” views? I was highly disturbed by many thoughts in PJ Tobia’s article. To be perfectly honest I never realized there were such opposite opinions regarding multiculturalism. It doesn’t seem like it should be this complicated of a debate. In my mind, multiculturalism simply means respecting others people’s beliefs and cultures. You don’t have to believe what they believe and you certainly don’t have to agree with it. However, you do need to accept the fact that they can have their own opinion.

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter, don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss

It is very easy for people to cross a line when they are arguing equality. For instance, I think the minority quotas in work places have gotten out of control. In theory it sounds like a wonderful idea. You have to have a certain number represented of every demographic to ensure equality in the workplace. But if you have already filled you “Hispanic” quota does that mean no one else with a Hispanic background can get a job even if they are more qualified than the other applicants? Why does it even come down to race? I thought the point of equal opportunity America was that everyone had an equal opportunity REGARDLESS of their color not BECAUSE of it. Why is financial aid based on your ethnic background more than financial NEED?

When it come to education, I just do not see how discussing and learning about different cultures could possibly have a negative effect. No one is saying rewrite all the history books and offer a different curriculum for each ethnic group, because that is unrealistic and Samuel Taylor’s article. However, why can’t we bring in books, movies, and speakers from different backgrounds to teach us about where they come from? What makes some people think they have nothing to learn from anyone different from themselves? I recently read Inside Separate Worlds by David Schoem for another class and I think that Sherri Campbell said it best when she wrote, “A white person in America who does not associate with other races will never know how others feel and, in effect, will deprive himself of education” (Schoem, p.126).

Standard English and Grammar Usage

I always viewed Standard English as the kind we learned in school. English in itself has many different dialects all of which are acceptable depending on where you live, where you are from, and who you are talking to. I agree with the argument that there really is no single standard of English. However, I do believe that there should be one standard form chosen to be taught as a basis in a school setting. I also think it is very important to teach students that there are different times and places to use different dialects and accents of English. Obviously the way that we speak and the way that we write are completely different. But it is important to remember that the way we speak also differs depending on the setting. I think that all students personally vernacular should be acknowledged because it is part of their culture. My parents both grew up in New Jersey and moved to Tennessee when they were pregnant with me. My mother stayed at home with me for most of my early development years and I spoke like her, with a northern accent. When I entered school I was surrounded by the southern accent influence with caused my speech to change. However, at the same time I was learning “Standard English” in school. I picked up very quickly on the fact that my classmates would make fun of me for saying “northern” words. However, when we went back to New Jersey to visit family, all of my cousins would make fun of me for using “southern” words. Unconsciously, I began to change my dialect depending on who I was speaking to. I think this is something that many students learn to do automatically; however, I think it’s important for students to be aware and exposed to different dialects besides their own.

Another interesting thing I noticed about Standard English is that I very rarely hear it spoken. I think that this is why it takes the longest to learn. I think that the best way to learn Standard English outside of English class is through books. Written or book language most often follows the Standard English rules. The realization that Standard English does not involve pronunciation was a new one for me. I had always just assumed that it did. This is an interesting point especially regarding ELL students. They can master “correct” Standard English and still pronounce things differently, just like I can speak “correct” Standard English whether I am pronouncing things “southern” or “northern”.

Now grammar is a whole different discussion all together. I am very interested in descriptive grammar. I think that it is fascinating to observe the structure of the language and how it is actually used by speakers and writers. However, I students should be taught prescriptive grammar initially. Students have to know the way that grammar is expected to be used in the academic society. I have always thought that grammar had to do with errors or correctness and that was it. I had never thought about how grammar can make a sentence sound interesting or make it come alive. I think this is an important lesson that I never really understood in school. Grammar is the way we make our sentences come alive for the reader. The structure of our sentence can determine what kind of picture the reader sees in their head. Show your students how grammar helps their stories come alive. Because I am a big believer in Vygotsky’s scaffolding teaching strategy, I also align with the inductive approach to teaching grammar. I will use lots of higher order thinking questions to guide the students through interactive grammar exercises. I think this is the most developmentally appropriate way to teach any student, especially ELL grammar and Standard English.

SPSE 6810-Multicultural Education

When it comes to the topic of multicultural education, most of society would say that it is complicated. At least that’s the answer I have received many times when I have asked someone what they thought about it. I, however, would highly disagree with this. I think where we go wrong in education is that WE discuss multicultural education like it is an option, a suggestion, or even a chore. This is ridiculous. In fact, it is almost insulting that our society even has to come up with such a label as multicultural education. Shouldn’t our education system be multicultural anyway?

I remember taking a Day Care Perspectives class in undergrad and having to use the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale to design a developmental appropriate preschool classroom. One of the criteria was that the classroom had to be multicultural and there were lots of ways to do this. For instance: the dramatic play center had to have clothing that represented different cultures, the kitchen center had to have food represented of different countries, the library had to have books about different cultures with characters of different races, etc. This was the first time that I realized how much we as educators could affect societies beliefs about multiculturalism. At first I thought this was a really good way to implement multicultural education; however, I noticed that it also taught stereotypes. The students assume that everyone in Asia wears a Kimono because that’s the outfit in the dress up center. Or, they assume that everyone who is Hispanic only eats tacos because that’s the food in the dramatic play center that represents them. I think that these stereotypes can very easily be avoided if we as educators take multicultural education a step further. It doesn’t just mean having things in the classroom to represent different cultures, it means TEACHING students how to appreciate and learn from different cultures. It’s important to have parents come into the classroom and tell stories about their cultures, their traditions, their lives. Have students bring in their family’s favorite foods and games.

Multicultural education isn’t just a word with a definition; it is an attitude, a choice: a choice to get to know someone else on a personal level and appreciate where they come from. This is how we influence society, we start with our students.

Anna