Tyson’s Corner

Charlotte, your favorite comment was mine as well. Basically the words positive stereotype is an oxymoron. Every child should be encouraged to grow to their finest potential. I did think it was important to learn about underlying myths. And we need to know what may be a prevailing culture at home. Only armed with this knowledge can we teach children with respect and engage them fully in our classrooms. Stereotypes are lies designed to imprison an entire culture within a society.

Hi Charlotte! :~) I had a lot of the same feelings you had while reading this article. As we continue on this journey in the Ed.S program I’m learning more and more about the detriment that can be caused by generalizations and stereotypes in our society. There is no such thing as a “positive stereotype” for any race, culture, or class. But how do we get rid of them? It seems like such an enormous issue for us to tackle. Today I listened to “Growing Apart”, the PBS Newshour piece that Diane wanted us to watch for class on Thursday and I made some connections between that and this article. As a nation, we all have to be willing to admit that these stereotypes and ways of thinking exist. I don’t think we’ve all gotten there yet. I understand. It’s scary for people to admit that these negative ways of thinking still exist in the year 2008. But I think that those of us in this program have taken a step in the right direction. We are allowing ourselves, to an extent, to let down our guards and have some honest conversations about these sometimes uncomfortable issues. It’s a start!

I completely agree with your perspections on this topic. You can’t even make a positive stereotype nice; they are all bad. Why do we lump 50 different cultures into one group? And what does that say to the 50 cultures being lumped? Does it bother British and Irish that they are all lumped into the white caucasian category? They have been butting head for centuries. What is the purpose for categorizing? I have had to grow in my understanding that my way of thinking is not necessarily wrong, but that it is not the only way of thinking? Just like there are several ways to solve 2+2, there are several ways to live a good productive life, and who am I to judge which way is best as long as the sum is four. As a teacher, I need to make it a point to learn about all the cultures in my class, to quell the ignorance that is perpetuated in the media and in certain political circles, so that the students can learn from one another and through this constructivist model maybe we can begin constructing educational bridges across these gaps instead of the walls we have been building all these years.

Amen Charlotte! I completely agree with your statement, “We must be especially aware that diversity exists within the confines of race, culture and ethnicity and we simply can not pigeonhole students according to preconceived notions.” (well said!) I think a large part of “why” be tend to make such generalizations is to avoid the work of dealing with people as individuals. If we think that we already know how a certain race of people will function and react, then that requires less work on our part to be attentive and learn more about them through interaction and dialogue. Even if an overwhelming majority of people within a particular culture share certain commonalities, there will always be those who function outside of those socialzied norms. We must treat people as individuals! Like you said, our students each have different personalities, their families come from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and they each have unique academic strengths.” Your comment about the Myth of the Model Majority places an unfair burden on Asian Americal students sums it all up.