Group Differences Forum Reflection

I really wish we'd had this forum for more than two class periods. These articles all sounded incredibly interesting, and I would have liked the opportunity to discuss them more indepth. They brought up a lot of issues I don't feel I'd previously given much thought to. For example, the article I read "Killing Santa" illustrated the ongoing oppression presented by an institution still largely based in Christian practice. It discussed how limiting that is for children of different religions. I also thought the articles on gender and race outlined an interesting point about ignoring gender roles and being "color-blind". I'd be interested to hear more about people's experiences with these issues.

Like I said, I really wish we'd spent more time on this in class. I found these discussions very helpful as far as identifying issues I'd like to know more about and giving suggestions on how to address them. Specifically, I'd like to hear more about gender in the class room, as well as multicultural issues. I also thought the suggestion that all teachers be required to take at least one class in ELL was great. Ist's something I hadn't considered, but with the increasing diversity of language in our classrooms, I'm not sure why we DON'T take these classes. The only article I found confusing to hear about was the article on learning disabilities. The graphs sound hard to translate. Other than that, the only suggestion I have is that you give your next class a lot more time to cover these topics. I personally would have been happy to spend two weeks on these topics, and just do outside reading for the other material we covered in class.

This was an extememly intersting and informative class, thanks for your time and enthusiasm!