Gatto (1997) contends that education in school is not a perfect education. He outlines the challenges he experienced with his learners that led him to this conclusion. First, he notes that school is a psychopathic institution with no conscience. According to him, schools only teach how to obey rules rather than give the right content to learners. Besides, schooling has become very irrelevant to the enterprises of the world. Many people for instance, no longer believe that poets were made in an English class; neither do scientists in a science class. Gatto (1997) adds that children educated at home are ten years ahead of their peers who are formally educated in schools. Furthermore, he says that the lives of most learners are more controlled by two institutions-televisions and schools. However, the two institutions deny the learners the real life experience and wisdom that is merely presented an abstract form through schooling. In the past centuries, the lives of children between childhood and adolescence were more occupied with real work and search for mentors who would teach them the things they really wanted to do. The children had time to adventure and real charity.
In line with his perspective and contention about school, we find the book very relevant to education as a topic especially in this modern era. The American children need more education rather than the normal school set up education. They need to be trained through mentorship and life skills so that they are well equipped in all life dimensions.
Anzaldúa, Gloria. How to tame a wild tongue. 1987.
In this book, Gloria intends to investigate the negative attitudes imposed on the people who speak Chicano people and their language. She looks at the harmful effects of the contempt on the people. According to her, it is devastating for people to be isolated and discriminated for their ethnicity and the language they speak. In her article, she gives us her own frustrated feelings when she interacted with a dentist who viewed her tongue as strong and stubborn. This experience made her to begin a search on how to tame her wild tongue. The writer uses the term wild to underscore the criticism with which her native language was perceived. In her perspective, Chicano Spanish is a language that gives her identity. Above all, the language develops naturally across the border languages.
Gloria (1987) contends of the stereotypes and difficulties she had to overcome due to her language. According to her, both the English speakers and Spanish speakers could not accept her as a native language speaker. However, she identifies with the Chicano Spanish speakers who accept her as their own. She adds that the people who needed a sense of uniqueness in them perhaps founded Chicano Spanish.
The book remains a good resource for learning diversities and language as a symbol for that .Gloria educates the American citizens and her audience to accept diversities in the different ethnicities of the people. Actually, it is the more reason her book is relevant to education as a topic. She underscores the fact that language is the main identity an individual has. We are identified through the languages we speak. Therefore, it is fundamental for people to be accepted in their unique identities without discrimination.
Going Local
Steele, Julie, and Noah Iliinsky. Beautiful visualization: looking at data through the eyes of experts. “O’Reilly Media, Inc.", 2010
Local map is an essential tool that is necessary in helping us move around the city. His first motive to design a city map was influenced by his father who introduced him to mapping at a tender age. Besides, in college, he experienced the applicability of maps in the London College. Beautiful maps facilitate our easy movement in the city. On the contrary, the New York map was not as beautiful as the London map. According to Steele and Noah (2010), the map was poorly designed. In order to design a good map, better tools are needed for better work. The sight of the poorly designed New York map therefore forced Steele to begin her map-designing career. She contends that good size is the first important factor in designing a good map.
I believe this text is very important and relevant to the topic, going local. It gives the learner an inspiration to know his/her locality and how to move around it easily with maps that they may design for themselves. Above all, maps give us a complete overview of the places we go to thus the source can be used by a learner who intends to know mapping and locality.
Tai, Eve M. "Roadtrip to Chinatown: Tasting Your Heritage, One Bite at a Time." Gastronomica 8.2 (2008): 22-25.
Tai (2008) narrates her story of going back to Chinatown and the environment she finds in China. In her view, Chinatown smells the same. Being in Chinatown is like being in Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York City. She had been staying in Detroit since she was a kid. However, she goes back to Chinatown that is her hometown. She expresses her indifferent attitude about the town as she narrates her dislikes about it. For instance, in Chinatown, the traffic follows no logic and men split in sidewalks. The bathrooms too harbor broken pieces of towel dispensers. Generally, the author hates the town. She feels very much detached from home- Detroit, which she feels, is the best for her. Based on the challenges she faces in Chinatown, Tai feels like she wants to change her identity and become American.
Through her writing, we see the attitude with which children may perceive their homeland especially after living away from home for a long period. The book therefore, remains relevant to this topic because it acts as revelation to parents. They should make children used to home so that taking them home is not as boring as Tai narrates.
Technology
Turkle, Sherry. "How computers change the way we think."Law and Society Approaches to Cyberspace. Routledge, 2017. 3-7.
Turkle (2017) argues that growing up with computers change how children perceive things. It also changes what they learn in schools. In her article, she addresses the fact that written language is the most basic form of information technology. Computer is the current technology that affects our reasoning and thinking. She shares with us her personal experience with computers that first took place in 1970s when she first joined the faculty at MIT College. She came across calculators that the college professors agreed its influence on the students’ ability to think and make calculations off head without computers. In 1980s, she began an in-depth study on the effects of computer on our thinking. She found out that the effects of computer are so diverse that they will always increase as years pass by.
Her book exposes us to the effects of computer technology to the human thinking and reason. As a result, the book remains relevant to learning technology especially in this modern era of technological discovery and application
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google making us stupid?." Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education 107.2 (2008): 89-94.
Carr argues that computer has affected human brain so that they cannot read continuously without being distracted. He explains this effect with his own scenario where he no longer concentrates in text reading as he used to do. Previously before the internet period, he used to take so much time carrying out research through large stacks of books trying to find information. However, with the new Google era, he only takes few minutes to surf and search through large number of information that he needs for his research. Carr (2008) observes that internet has become a universal medium that contains large information for the various fields needed.
Throughout his book, Carr observes one major problem with internet reading; it gives readily condensed information that prevents one from in-depth research. Moreover, people reading online have poor concentration to long texts contrary to the past edges before internet. Reading through internet therefore affects and changes our thinking since the information we get online has ubiquity. Carr’s findings here, therefore gives the relevance of his book to us on learning technology.
Human Rights
Assembly, UN General. "Human Rights Council." Fourth Session," Civil and Political Rights 2 (2011).
The article reaffirms the fundamental human rights as stated in the United Nations universal rights charter. It upholds the political rights and the civil rights of all humanity as was declared by the United Nations agreement. The article states that all human are universal and indivisible. They have equal rights that must be respected and protected by all nations. The states therefore, have the right to promote and protect the human rights without fear or favor. The document also gives an acknowledgement that peace, security, development and human rights are the foundations upon which the United Nations is built. In this regard, the states are urged to foster dialogue among themselves to ensure peace and sustainability in defending and protecting the human rights.
In dealing with the human rights, states should understand that the rights are objective, universal, and non-selective. They should struggle to eliminate double standards with which human rights may be treated. As a result, the article is relevant to us as we aim to learn the human rights as outlined by the United Nations.
Roosevelt, Eleanor. "The struggle for human rights." Speech given at the Sorbonne, Paris. www. americanrhetoric. com/speeches/eleanorroosevelt. htm (1948).
Roosevelt gives a speech on the importance of the human freedom as proclaimed in the United Nations chapter on the universal human rights and freedom. He seeks to echo the human fundamental rights as outlined by the United Nations. The speech is given in Sorbonne because Roosevelt believes the place holds so much significant as far as human right and freedom are concerned. He believes that the human rights stand right in the heart of the United Nations. It is one of the core issues that formed the basis of its formation. Roosevelt’s speech is therefore in conformity with the topic on human rights as addressed by the United Nations. His speech only helps to emphasize the need to preserve the human rights as deemed important by the United Nations.
Works Cited
Anzaldúa, Gloria. How to tame a wild tongue. 1987.
Assembly, UN General. "Human Rights Council." Fourth Session," Civil and Political Rights 2 (2011).
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google making us stupid?." Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education 107.2 (2008): 89-94.
Gatto, John Taylor. "Why schools don’t educate." Nexus 1316 (1997): 81.
Roosevelt, Eleanor. "The struggle for human rights." Speech given at the Sorbonne, Paris. www. americanrhetoric. com/speeches/eleanorroosevelt. htm (1948).
Steele, Julie, and Noah Iliinsky. Beautiful visualization: looking at data through the eyes of experts. “O’Reilly Media, Inc.", 2010
Tai, Eve M. "Roadtrip to Chinatown: Tasting Your Heritage, One Bite at a Time." Gastronomica 8.2 (2008): 22-25.
Turkle, Sherry. "How computers change the way we think." Law and Society Approaches to Cyberspace. Routledge, 2017. 3-7.
