philog #8

Hi everyone,
I read both articles and know for a fact that Payne's is made up. She doesn't site any references.But I have to say she's smoooooth in her attempt. I was reading her article thinking, "yea that sound's right" "yep, that sounds right" until someone pointed out that she sites nothing!!! Therefore, it's got to be simply her point of view. Sometimes I wonder about myself,I didn't catch that on my own, it had to be pointed out to me. Gorski points out in his article The Myth of the "Culture of Poverty" that thsis type of thinking about poverty has existed since about 1961. in his boook The Children of Sanchez, Oscar Lewis writes ["that people in poverty have frequent violence, a lack of a sense of history, a neglect of planning for ther future, and so on"] These things look true on the surface but it amounts to a "first things first" mentality. You can't plan for the future if you are not sure weather you have one. You have immediate problems that are more pressing than long term problems, so you take care of those first and move on. If you can get a handle on the short term problems, then you can move on to the middle range problems, and os on. Most people living in poverty have to live day to day and can't look too far in the future; because by the time they get there, everything will have changed anyway. They can't manage their money because they have to spend everything they have to keep their head above water. Gorski talks about the myth that poor people are unmotivated and have weak work ethics. I would find it hard to be motivated about a jog that paid minimum wage. I once worked for 8.00 an hour and the woman who was my bosses boss told me I didn't seem to take my job too seriously and I told her, she was right, for 8.00 an hour I wasn't going to do much. That was the end of that job, and I have no intention of ever working for 8.00 an hour again. ever ! I'm simply not motivated to work at that wage. Who would be? Anyway, I'm on a rant now.
What strategies will I use in my classroom to bridge the gap? Gorski says we should stop such practices as, tracking, ability grouping, segregational redistricting, and the privitazion of schools. I have not got enough info in my mind to make a decision on these things yet. Some of you guys have taught and are in the middle of these decisions, what do you think? Jean