Web Paper or Special Event

Looking down at the ground

        Children are captivated with picture books and coloring books from the very beginning of life.  It was not uncommon for children’s books to be composed of only a couple of words, or sometimes even no words.  Before children learn to read and write words and phrases, they are introduced to coloring books.  I remember sitting down at the kitchen table, my two older sisters hovering over me emphasizing to me the importance of staying within the lines, keeping the lines sharp and never putting too much of just one color.  To this day, I use these guidelines when I am coloring anything, and coloring anything happens quite often for me.  

Sitting in a one room hut in Belize, sipping the freshest hot cocoa I’ve ever had, I was somehow able to both relax and enjoy the moment as well as think about just how much wealth I am a part of at home. I knew from the moment we landed in the airport that everything was smaller and possibly poorer in this country, but meeting a local family and seeing the way they were used to living is what has really stuck with me in the years since that trip. To explain, this was technically a science field trip with a group from my high school, but I feel like I learned much more about the culture of Blue Creek Village and the weather of the rainforest than I did about the topics you would find in a general science textbook.  

I recently listened to an NPR story on the program This American Life called "550: Three Miles" (you can find it here: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/550/three-miles). The story discusses a program of school 'exposure' in the Bronx, between a public school (majority students of color, from low-income families) and a private school (70% white, and $43,000/year - 1/5 students receive financial aid). Even though the schools were physically three miles apart, the students "needed a foreign exchange program to meet each other".

This is an experiment. It may fail, and if it does, it does.

For me to openly connect with a piece of literature and take away a lesson, it requires that I feel as though I, as a reader, am not being attacked and that my ideas and values are not disregarded.  In addition, for this connection to occur, I also have to be able to find a way of relating the ideas back to myself and understanding all angles of the story, not feeling as though I am only being fed one side of the whole story.

            The No Child Left Behind act has been a constant source of questioning to me for a while now. I have heard of it many times, but was never formally introduced to it. For this reason, when we read No Child Left Behind as an anti poverty measure by Jean Anyon and Kiersten Greene I was inspired to finally get acquainted with No Child Left Behind (NCLB). When I learned what NCLB entails I realized why is it such a hot topic in education; it is inseparable from other core issues in education, including: charter schools, testing, the achievement gap, and funding.

It was a cool summer morning in the outskirts of Mancos, Colorado when I first noticed a golden retriever behind a rusty, iron fence. Our eyes found their way into each other as the gloomy clouds dissipated above us, revealing the warm, golden sun. The dog had a silver bell and a circular copper tag around its brown leather collar. The dog stepped closer to the fence and let out a quiet bark.  I did not understand what that meant. There was a language barrier between the dog and I. We were both up early in the morning, awake during the lonely hour of 6 A.M. I tilted my head while maintaining eye contact as I let out a soft smile. In a blink of an eye, the dog was gone. I could hear the silver bell ring from behind me.

I woke up to the sound of the birds chirping, the Motmot’s low whistle carrying through the wind and the Northern Pintail’s sqawks disturbing the early morning. I could see stars thrown across the sky from the small hole in my home. Grass was growing through the floorboards.