Large, Boyce, Gilyard, Aronson, and hooks Ideas

Large is writing about the author Paul Tough, who in his book emphasizes the importance of building character in children from a young age. His suggestion is that IQ tests and testing scores are not a way to predict success later in life, and rather the character of the children is a better determining factor. He brings up a study about rats which shows that when they are young and nurtured by their mothers, they are able to navigate “stressful” situations much more effectively.

Boyce writes about Mark Greenberg, and his views of using mindfulness exercises as a way to help educators and parents to teach children how to not react to emotion, and to step back from it in order to gain a better perspective on the current situation. In the article the turtle technique is recommended to teach to children to help them step back and look at things from a different view.

Gilyard talks about a visit to a public elementary school to discuss, in front of young students, the history of his life and his work with the humanities. After his visit he found out that the school was cutting back on the humanities credits to focus on other areas due to funding cuts. He argues that humanities should be included on par with other fields in public education. Gilyard quotes W.E.B. Du Bois several times in his writing to illustrate the importance of the humanities

Aronson writes about a controversial school program called the Mexican American Studies program that helped Hispanic students learn more about their heritage and writers in their culture. Her point of view is that this program encouraged Hispanics to do better in school and she demonstrates her argument with graduation statistics locally within the program compared to national statistics. She includes quotes from teachers and others who participated in the program to support her argument.

bell hooks reading argues that critical thinking is essential to humans. She mentions that from a young age we are obsessed with gaining knowledge by any means necessary. Hooks then goes on to argue that we are taught not to be critical thinkers and instead filled with information to interpret and “regurgitate” at a later time.  Her main point in the writing is that teachers must encourage free thinking in order to produce successful student minds. The second part of her reading is about the importance of the students’ participation and working hand-in-hand with each other. Her argument is that they should be  getting to know the other students as well as the teacher and to be willing to accept some failure in order to be more successful critical thinkers.