Hello, friends!
Please write about the panel from this week that touched on the issues you'll be working with. Let us all know what the panelists said, what questions they answered for you, what questions they left for you, etc.
Can't wait to hear what you thought!
Stephanie and Julia
As the fifth class, we were broken into different categories based upon our location. Since I am traveling to the Peter Paul Development Center in Richmond, Virginia, I was put into the panel for Education. During this, the panelists analyzed multiple issues that many urban schools face today. One of the main issues is the problem with opportunity. Though we come from a country, where it is preached that we provide equal opportunity, this is not necessarily true. Our system is flawed and there are actually around 16 million children that live in poverty. Many of these kids end up in jail, rather than actually going to college. With this being said, it brought forth the problem of funding. Since schools are not gaining adequate funds to provide assistance to these kids, the kids end up suffering because of it. Nationally, the support is not there either. Many people in the United States tend to think that these kids ultimately have no future. Since they have no examples in their own life of individuals that have succeeded from the ground up, it causes the kids to have less motivation to actually go out and break the cycle of poverty that they have endured throughout their lives. Like one of the panelists said, "Since they face additional challenges, they need additional support."
ReplyDeleteAnother topic that they talked about was that the skills that many kids gain during school, do not lead to becoming effective adults in society. With No Child Left Behind, kids are simply being taught by the test instead of actually learning. Learning is supposed to be empowering, not forced upon. It may be good to see numbers to help show the kids how they have progressed, but once it becomes a number game, it boxes these kids in from succeeding.
From this panel, I have been able to realize the importance of an education. Though not everyone gains equal opportunity in today's society, it is up to us to ultimately try and break the mold that has been placed upon these urban areas.
I was placed into the environmental group this week since I am going to the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Kendalia, TX. It was great to hear from KU students and individuals in the community who had such a passion for the environment. One thing that I remember vividly is how one of the speakers was talking about her experience at Zion National Park. One guy asked what manual skills she used and she talked about how she had to learn how to tie a fence in a specific way so that the animals couldn’t break through. It was very fascinating. It was interesting to hear about the social problems stated by the group as well. How people who are poor generally live on worse land and with more contaminants in their water. They even touched on the topic of the heating and cooling of the earth. He stated how the Midwest, the Bread Basket, could be running slim on food, but Canada will be better off. That’s a little frightening and concerning. I also learned more about about getting involved and the organizations that are on campus and in the county. A lot of what was mentioned was more direct to the groups that are dealing with national parks or planting, but I still found it relevant to my group that is dealing primarily with animals. Of course, we are all a part of the environment. I also liked how one of the speakers mentioned how even if we are in a building and we think it isn’t “part of the environment”, it truly is. So, animals and humans alike are being impacted by what is in the environment. It was a very interesting panel and it was great to hear from their experience!
ReplyDeleteThe environmental panel we listened to was extremely interesting to me. The panelists discussed important environmental issues that they are dealing with in their organizations, and it was very cool that they were all from local entities. Maggie’s farm seems like a place I would much enjoy visiting, as they grow all of their food organically right here in Lawrence, for Lawrence. I also thought it was great to hear from Jordan and Joe, who both went on environmental Alternative Breaks in past years.
ReplyDeleteMost important to me from this presentation was Jordan’s advice from her Alternative Break at Zion National Park. She advised that we each take the time to talk to and get to know the Zion park rangers, as they all have interesting stories to tell that will add a lot to the experience we take away from the trip. One of the questions I had for her was the specific skills that she learned while she was on her trip, and her answer included several specialty tasks that she was put to work on, like knot-tying, cactus-harvesting, and wildlife control techniques.
At the end of the panel discussion, I noticed that they had not touched on global atmospheric environmental conditions. Air quality is the area of environmental conservation in which I am most interested, and unfortunately, this panel did not have the background in the area that I had hoped for. When I asked them what they thought and knew about atmosphere concerns, global warming, and climate change, they acknowledged that they knew about it, but could not give me much information that I did not already know. Seeing as our environmental breaks deal more with the land, it was not surprising that their areas of expertise lied in agriculture, farming, and the like. The discussion was, however, very interesting and engaging for me!
My autism group went to the education panel discussion. There, the panelists discussed the issues that today's kids faced with education. One issue brought up that I thought was interesting is the fact that teachers are teaching only to the test. In other words, they are trying to make the kids do well enough to answer questions on a test, but that they don't give them any skills to carry with them after they graduate. This issue is relevant in my academic life where in a lot of my core classes, I end up forgetting after I leave the class because they won't help me with getting and maintaining a job. A quote from the movie Mr. Holland's Opus: “A teacher has two jobs: fill young minds with knowledge, but more importantly, give those minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn't go to waste.” I think a lot of teachers don't bother to give kids a compass for whatever reason.
ReplyDeleteA second issue brought up is the fact that playgrounds across America are removing monkey bars, see-saws, and big slides because the owners are afraid of kids getting hurt. The deal is, kids need to get scraped and cut because they learn to pick themselves up and continue playing. By trimming down the playground equipment, the owners are also stunting the kids' growth.
I attended the environmental panel, which I found very interesting. Before this panel I have never thought of how environmentalism relates to social justice, which I found very interesting. My trip to New Orleans was one of the less relevant sites that attended this panel; however, I thought that the ties of social justice were very relevant. Many of the board members stressed how difficult it is to separate environmental concerns with social issues. For example, it was mentioned that many lower income individuals lack access to healthy food due to the cost and inability to use “SNAP” to purchase certain food items. No individual should be denied the ability to live a healthy lifestyle due to their financial situation. It was also mentioned that many landfills, factories, and other dangerous environmental hazards are located near poorer areas. This is concerning because many low income individuals in these neighborhoods often lack the agency to relocate and then are susceptible to various health hazards. This idea of environmentally social justice will be very relevant when working for Rebuilding Together. When visiting New Orleans it will be evident which neighborhoods received a lot of financial assistance after the hurricane and which neighborhoods are still struggling to fully recover. We will have the opportunity to work with one individual/family to help restore their home.
ReplyDeleteI am traveling to Joplin to help rebuild so I attended the environmental panel. It was very interesting to hear other's viewpoints on environmental issues in the world. It was also great to hear from people who had previously gone on an alternative break too. I am from a small town so I know a lot about farming and gardening and it was almost refreshing hearing that some people actually care about the environment in Lawrence. I felt a lot of what the panelists talked about was kind of irrelevant to my group since we are rebuilding, until they started talking about social injustice and the environment. Joplin faces social injustice because they are at an unequal disadvantage with the rest of the nation.
ReplyDeleteThe destruction of Joplin also created an environmental-social injustice. Joplin and the rest of southeast Missouri that was affected is a part of the “bread basket” area of the United States and rich in farming. The destruction of this part of the state led to many ruined crops and underproduction in farming, affecting the nation as a whole. Also, one of the panelists had said that during destruction, what are ruined are the soil and the water level. This is also true of Joplin, after the tornado destruction, anhydrous ammonia was released from a ruined risk management plan facility. It was contained, but that anhydrous ammonia could still easily affect the soil for a long time.
One thing that I took home with me from the panelists’ discussion was when Joe said to talk to the locals. We will be working with a lot of people rebuilding houses or whatever we may do when we are in Joplin. The work that we will be doing we can easily talk at the same time. I’m looking forward to meeting the people in Joplin and helping them with their struggles.
This week’s panel discussion touched on environmentalism. I’m going to Memphis, Tennessee where we will urban garden around the community. In the panel, they discussed how to deal with such a prevalent topic among a variety of situations. Though none of them went particularly on our break, they had advice to learn of about the community around us as well as how it affects their life. The environment could be supporting them. The panelists touched on the topic of how to fully embrace our experience. We are going on this trip not to have fun but rather to volunteer ourselves in a community in order to grow in our ideals. I am not going to have fun; I would have just not signed up for this in that case. One panelist mentioned getting to know the people we meet on our site, learning about their way of life and applying that to our lives. This experience can cultivate a sense of more than just environmentalism but ethos for any future volunteer experiences. Another subject someone brought up was looking for the nooks and crannies of our site to find information and interesting things that can make the experience even more surreal. They also talked about their thoughts on global warming and other relevant topics. They said much ranging from human cause and mistreatment of the land, but our site is not very relevant to such topics. I look greatly forward to our trip, and these panelists got me excited to be a part of such an important cause, looking after our environment.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the different perspectives and knowledge about the different sites that the panelists brought to the discussions last Thursday. Every topic that was brought up could be related to our trip to Austin. The largest issue that I took from the panel was the idea that human justice is strongly connected to environmental justice—they are both aspects of a system. The issues that JBG faces are both environmental and human justice concerns. Having access to healthy food is a human justice issue because some people cannot afford locally gown food, or they do not have the transportation to get access to the local farmers’ market or health food store. JBG also combats environmental issues such as monocrops, fertilizers and pesticides, and other improper land use techniques. As an organic farm, JBG does not use chemicals while growing their vegetables. They also do not over use their farmland, knowing that they will be able to grow food for more years than if they exhausted the land.
ReplyDeleteThe panelists were also able to give insight on ways to prepare mentally for our Alternative Break. One panelist, Joe, talked in detail of stigma towards farmers and how everyday people view their own food. Joe explained that many people view growing food to be dirty, underclass work. This stigma often prevents people from viewing the source of their food to be unimportant knowledge and prevents people from being aware of where their food comes from or from taking on their own food production. This is another issue that JBG strives to overcome by making the community garden a place where community members can work for their own food or, at the very least, have the option to buy local, organic, seasonal vegetables.
People should have the ability and desire to be responsible for their own dinner; then many issues concerning human and environmental social justice issues could be conquered. Awareness of these food-based issues is not known as well--as they should. Hopefully, after our break, we will have more insight in how to relate our experience to local food issues.
In Thursday’s class we were broken up into two separate groups. One group focused on education while the other focused on environmental concepts. Our group is going to Joplin and we were placed into the environmental room. At first I was not quite sure how an environmental panel would apply to our trip, but it most certainly does. One of the panel speakers went on an Alternative Break last year and spoke about some of the things she saw during her trip. Jordan, spoke about how as an industrial nation we have this perception of “escaping” into nature. She soon pointed out many flaws with this idea. She first spoke about how we are always in nature, and that we just currently have structures around us. This idea is very relevant when talking about Joplin. Joplin did not only have the homes, and buildings destroyed, but also a large part of the environment. Once you begin to think about all the ways it was destroyed you soon start to notice why it is so critical that we pay great attention to the environment during the planning of rebuilding Joplin. During our trip I would like to ask the individuals of Joplin what environmental issues they are facing and how they are addressing those issues. The panel helped me notice more problems that Joplin is facing other than just homes and other man made structures.
ReplyDeleteLast Thursday, the class was divided up into two separate panels. My group (United Cerebral Palsy) was sent to the education panel. This group consisted of several different speakers with different backgrounds of educational experience. Since my group is not dealing directly with an educational atmosphere (teaching, etc) it was a tad difficult to directly apply what the panel had to say to my personal trip, but overall the issues that the panel discussed were quite interesting. It rose a lot of thought in my mind especially when the woman from the “Strong Girls” program gave an example of her son being upset about receiving a 9 out of 10 on his spelling test. She mentioned that instead of being upset, he should be proud of how much he had accomplished in learning those words and to celebrate his achievement and be proud rather than upset for not being “perfect.” I can easily see this as I have grown up in school over my lifetime. Teachers seem to put so much stress on being the perfect student and knowing all the facts being tested rather than being able to actually apply the information, or be proud of the little accomplishments and improvements students make.
ReplyDeleteThe panel also mentioned how teachers seem to really “teach for the test” which I completely agree. Too much emphasis is put on one number—a test score. Teachers should be more concerned about how the are feeding the brains of the future adults of society. Additionally, I completely agreed with the comment about how many 18 year olds are supposed to be adults, yet throughout school they really haven’t been prepared to be a functioning adult. This is very common. Teenagers go to school and learn basic principles, but do not learn how to apply them in everyday life—only for the tests in which they are judged upon.
Though my alternative break does not take place in a classroom, the panel really brought up some good points on problems in the education system. I am certain the groups going to classrooms found the panel to be very informative. I found them to be very thought provoking and helpful as well.
I listened to the environmental panel because I will be going to Grow Memphis for Urban Gardening in Memphis, TN. It was quite interesting to hear from the each of the panelists; especially the two speakers who had attended Alternative Spring Breaks last year. It was good to hear stories of people who have gone on trips in the past. It was also nice to hear from Maggie’s Farm because although a farm is completely opposite from an urban garden but some of the suggestions and ideas that they presented will be necessary to consider while working on our trip. It was also great to hear opinions on subjects that I am not as aware of as I should be like Sure, I worked in a garden store but people there were interested in gardening for their small yard, not exactly an entire farm and definitely not “gardening” for an entire National Park! I remember going to Yellowstone and the Park Ranger told us, “Take only photos and leave only footprints.” This quote came straight into my head when I heard that we were hearing about environmentalism. With urban gardening, the areas that we will be working in certainly won’t be the cleanest areas. I’m sure that we will have to clean up some areas by picking up trash. It will also be important that if we end up helping out a school on our trip that we emphasize the idea of not polluting the earth by properly throwing away trash and recycling.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, I heard the panel speak about environmental issues in relation to community service. From the panel of speakers, I learned that there is a lot I don't know when it comes to issues of environmentalism. My break is in Joplin for disaster relief so a lot of the information given by the panel went over my head a bit. However, one of the things I took away from the panel is that many people truly do feel as if they are disconnected from nature, or that environmental issues don't affect them on a personal level as much as they do. I like what was said about reminding oneself that we have a responsibility to our earth where ever we are. I don't typically consider the fact that the things I choose to throw away or pour down a sink have any effect. I had also never previously considered the ways in which the environment can influence issues of social justice. It makes sense, though, that the unhealthiest environments would be correlated with the poorest neighborhoods. Another thing I took away from the panel discussion was the importance of getting to know the people we will meet in Joplin. Not only to get to know them but to learn from them. I enjoyed hearing stories about learning miscellaneous skills from park rangers and I hope to learn some miscellaneous skills related to home maintenance and repair, as well as to learn about city planning and its relation to natural disaster recovery.
ReplyDeleteRebuilding Together listened to the environmental panel. At first I didn't think a lot of what they were saying applied to what we would be doing, but then it all started to seem connected. In New Orleans, the upper class designated the worst land to the poorest people who couldn't take care of it properly. Even before hurricane Katrina, with hurricane Betty, the lower classes were getting more damage and less assistance. No one seemed to care that the land wasn't being dealt with, especially the levees which had needed to be redone for 40 years! The standard of living coming from the land, such as drinking water, was all worse for the 9th ward (consisting of mostly the lower class) than the rest of the area.
ReplyDeleteSomeone on the panel also commented on respecting the history of the land. New Orleans has so many cultures that call it home, and so many different kinds of people live on the land. We need to respect the lands rich history and to learn more about it, we should talk to the locals. The most obvious and practical reason this panel pertained to our trip so much is because we will be rebuilding a home and have to be aware of the environment in which we work. I would like to make whatever we build to be as 'green' as possible.
The education panel made me so excited to work with the students in Chicago. The reason that it got me so excited is that one of the guys on the panel actually did his TFA time in Chicago. One of the first things I learned is that it will be very difficult for me to prepare for what I am going to witness in these schools. I am expecting the worst of conditions but potentially my expectations are still higher than what is in reality. They described situations where teachers have lost their fire and passion to getting through the children. Along with that, they described situations where teachers only recognized the people at the top of the class rather than giving credit to the students who have had continuous improvement. I know I will see that in these schools because I saw that happening in my schools growing up. My elementary school only catered praise to the children who made perfect scores and not to the children who worked hard. Another person on the panel spoke mostly about physical activity in school and it's importance. I do believe that in order to be successful academically, physically activity is a must. Unfortunately, in the inner city of Chicago, playgrounds are either non existent or not necessarily safe. This panel actually made me want to apply for Teach for America and also start researching urban diversity and it's relation with education. I think it will be important for me to start writing to local and state government after my trip in order to do my part in the hopeful reform of our educational system.
ReplyDeleteBeth Boomstein
Last Thursday, my group sat in on the panel about environmentalism, a topic that I have been gaining interest in over the last few years, especially after I spent last spring break with Alternative Breaks in Memphis, working with the Grow Memphis initiative and urban gardening. This break I'll be going to Joplin for disaster relief. Even though those two sites seem so different, it was incredibly interesting to hear the panel discuss environmental issues and find different ways to connect them to both experiences. I hadn't really considered the environmental problems that the people of Joplin must be experiencing after the tornado, other than debris, but Jordan pointed out some things I hadn't thought of before, such as how inaccessible clean drinking water is to obtain because of all the chemical runoff. I also found it interesting to hear the panel draw the correlations between environmental problems and social justice issues. For example, Jordan pointed out that it probably isn't a coincidence that the majority of poorer neighborhoods live within 10 miles of a dump and have the worst water supplies. While in Joplin, I want to take some of the topics we discussed and talk to the people to find out what they think, and I want to determine what we can do to help rebuild Joplin AND help it to rebuild in an environmentally conscious and friendly way.
ReplyDeleteBefore the panels last week I had never really thought about how environmentalism plays into disaster response. Although, thinking about it now I can see a lot of flaws in my thinking. One of the women on the panel spoke a lot about poverty in connection with the environment and she asked us to consider where people who are in poverty live in connection to the environment. This made me think of the poorer districts of New Orleans and the fact that those areas were the first ones affected by the levees breaking. I had never really considered the environment in terms of poverty. I always thought of environmentalism being concerned with only protecting the environment ( i.e. don’t litter, clean the streets, eat organic). The panel helped me realize the environmentalist are also concerned with people, how they are being able to use their environment. The documentary I watched about Hurricane Katrina had a lot of people discussing the disgust they felt when seeing how dirty the whole area was and that it took months for anyone to really clean the place. Also, for a place like Greensburg, Kansas that was demolished by a tornado and when they started to rebuild they decided to make the city a “green” city. Environmentalism can have a positive impact on how we respond to disasters, how we clean up the area, and how we rebuild. Another thing I thought was really interesting was that one of the panelist mentioned the effect a disaster can have on the water system and the fact that the water gets contaminated during a disaster and leaves the people of the community without a good source of water. This I could connect to because I remember when I was in Ramona California after a fire had forced all the citizen to evacuate and their water was not turned on for weeks after they were able to return. At the time I did not really understand why the water was affected by the fire, all I knew was that we were handing out water bottles by the case. However, after the panel it was like a light went off in my head and I was able to connect the dots. This panel was beneficial to me because it gave me a better understanding and appreciation for the field of environmentalism.
ReplyDelete-Mariah
Something that really touched me that was brought to my attention in the education panel was that we worship high scores, and praise students who achieve this high scores. Too often we overlook success in individuals and personal growth, and look for the majority. I think the education system is based on majorities and less on the individuals making up those majorities. While some students may be naturally gifted with ease and grace while taking tests, they may not have necessarily applied themselves as much as another student.
ReplyDeleteWe need to be able to look at the broader picture and teach our society how to grow instead of being concerned with our test scores. Even though my trip with the Rainbow Health Initiative does not take place in a classroom, we are still educators every day in our own right. When are teachers are obsessed with our scores, not only to please the board but to secure their jobs, what does that mean to our students and people around us?
Julie
The environmental panel was very interesting to me. I haven't really been very active in learning about the environment and how it affected by all of the things that we, humans, do. The farmers that were there, i forgot their names, planted a new seed in my mind that i have been thinking about since. The idea that all aspects of our society have an impact on all others. They didn't explicitly say this, but listening to them, I couldn't stop thinking about it. The effect that poverty has on a persons environmental consciousness was supremely mind provoking. When a person is living in poverty or barely making ends meat, they don't consider their impact on the environment by buying cheap meat or cheap produce that maybe wasn't made by the best means. Also, people with a lot of money may not realize that driving a car or flying or doing other things that create some sort of pollution does impact the environment in a significant way. There are also many ways that we can positively impact the environment. One of those is the act of volunteering. We are going to be positively impacting the environment on the Zion trip by helping some plants survive and helping to isolate the natural environment from outside forces (by fences).
ReplyDeleteThis week we were split between two panels, one for environmentalism and one for education. My group followed the education panelists. Here we learned about the importance of making a difference in the life of someone’s education. Many students in urban areas are not afforded the privilege of having a strong influence in their lives, like many kids I know have growing up. One of the most important aspects of education is simply the opportunity to succeed. Given the tools and the encouragement there is little that students cannot do. With success it is important to praise achievement. While this is an important aspect, it’s also even more important to not just praise high scores, it’s necessary to praise individualistic things that children do well. This shows the students that they are more than just scores, and helps them to be a while person. At the same rate effort should be encouraged and praised as well. Just because a student isn’t succeeding at a task doesn’t mean that they are not trying their very hardest. As future educators we need to seek effort and improvement and we need to praise achievements. These things combined will keep kids motivated and prevent them from not only failing in school, but also in life.
ReplyDeleteI attended the environmental panel. I currently love nature and the environment because as a child, I spent all day outside exploring around the forest near my house. The main aspect that I learned from the environmental panel was that the decisions the government and the legislative make affect everyone. Every law that gets passed doesn't just affect everyone one that lives in the city. The farmers that live way out west and in country are affected just as much when the taxes are raised. Another aspect of the panel I learned was that even after natural disasters, the idea of building buildings and planting trees was in the minds after the Joplin disaster. The environment is very important and without it, the natural ecosystems that farmers rely on to produce food and crops are affected, driving up the prices of food and many other factors involved with the production and delivery of the food. From listening to the panel, it emphasized the fact that the earth is the most important to us. Without it, nothing can exist and we need to take care of it. Simply doing the basic things such as recycling and picking up trash can help reduce the amount of pollution in earth. Overall, the panelists answered all of my questions. I don't have any more questions but instead now have a different opinion about the environment and how just doing the little things if done by the entire world can make a huge difference for the world.
ReplyDeleteI think the education panel really ignited a spark in our group and reinvigorated us in preparation for our alternative break. After the panel, during our group-time, we all shared our thoughts and opinions on the panel. Among us, there seemed to be a general feeling of inspiration after hearing what the panel had to say. A lot of us were also taken back by some of the personal details, stories, insights or perspectives that they shared, such as classroom experience in a low-income school or parenting a frustrated 7 year old. Having these different perspectives, from a macro and micro level in combination from a personal and political point of view, really helped us wrap our heads around the social issue of inequity in public education.
ReplyDeleteBecause we are going to working with Teach for America, having two TFA affiliated speakers on the panel was really beneficial for us. A lot of the questions and discussion felt like they were directly tailored and applicable to our upcoming experience. A lot of people in our group said that some of the stories shared by the panel made them think about things that they had never even considered or expected before. I think that while we are in Chicago, when we encounter difficult situations or unexpected “speed-bumps” that we will be able to look back on the specific meeting for guidance and inspiration. I feel extremely fortunate to have been able to attend such great panels this semester. Every one of them has had something really valuable, and different, to offer us.
Pierre Mondon