Rebecca Prieto Blog 2 Diversity Imperative

Last Friday we discussed the different ways we take notes while we read and Julian presented us with different strategies we could consider using the next time we read. I found this extremely useful even though I did not particularly agree with all of the choices. I really enjoyed when everyone shared their different types of strategies and and actually applied it to my art class. I color coded in one color for key terms and a different color for main ideas. I found that this really helped while I was reading because my thoughts were more organized. We also went outside for a class activity where we linked pinkies and had to step forward and back depending on your answer to the questions. To the two people I was linked with we eventually had to let go because we could not stretch far enough to stay linked. I think for myself it affected me because it felt like being left behind. Compared to most of the class I was in the middle and the questions made me remember a lot of the struggles my family and I had to go through. When the class went back inside and people started sharing what they were feeling on where they were standing at the end I realized that all of us have struggled to get where we are. They may have not been the same struggles but we have all overcome them to be here and that is what counts.

After the activity we talked about the K-12 Pipeline and how it impacted education equality. The statistics on the PowerPoint slides to me were not really shocking to see because in school they would always show us the statistics and how Latinos were almost always ranked at the bottom. Usually my teachers would encourage us to work hard and get out of the percentile that was always at the bottom. Then there are other teachers that just do not want to “deal” with the students that are never going to succeed because of these statistics. It was saddening to see that some people never make it out because if you start behind you stay behind according to statistics. The in class activity showed how some students are being treated with little to no praise and that affects their motivation to continue in their education. We also spoke about the articles on White Privilege and it was sad to read about the discrimination that still exists today. When we talked about how people usually tend to live in neighborhoods with people of the same or similar background of their own and socioeconomic status I agreed because that is exactly how my family is living right now. Therefore, people in low income areas do not receive as much funding.

In this weeks reading Chapter 6 and Chapter 8 focused on affirmative action and how it effects the admissions to colleges. Chapter 6 was difficult to understand because there was a lot of information to digest and understand.  Both the article and Chapter 6 talked a lot about Supreme Court decisions that have been passed in the past. Chapter 8 was easier to follow and complimented the statistics shown in class. I remember reading about affirmative action in my Political Science class and it was similar to both the readings and articles where they talked about  minorities being accepted into universities even though they were not as qualified as others to be accepted. Chapter 8 expressed that once minority students are in college they need to help them stay in college and earn a degree. All in all the two chapters and the article were very informative just a little hard to understand but after reading everything and letting it sink in the information was understandable.