Cushman, Kathleen. Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students. The New Press: New York, 2003.

Fires in the Bathroom is essentially a summary of a series of interviews with high school students in the Bay Area giving feedback about their educational experiences. The author, Kathleen Cushman, works for a non-profit called What Kids Can Do, Inc that advocates for students. Her work aims to give a voice to students’ opinion and insight on the high school experience. This book is written as a narrative directed towards teachers that primarily communicates through quotes by students lumped by how they relate to common classroom challenges.

The following is the student-made teacher job description that gives a concise view of the book’s tone:

“Wanted: One teacher. Must be able to listen, even when mad.

"Must have a sense of humor’ must not make students feel bad about themselves; must be fair and treat some students better than others; must know how to make schoolwork interesting; must keep some students from picking on others; must let students take a break sometimes; must not jump to conclusions must let students know them; must get to know students; must encourage students when they have a hard time; must tell students if they do a good job or try really hard; must not scream; must not call home unless it’s really important; must smile; must help students with their problems if they ask for help; must not talk about students to other people; must be patient; must really know what they are teaching; if it’s a lady, it would be good if she is pretty.”

The students quoted in Fires in the Bathroom candidly express their opinions about what they think constitutes good pedagogy and their interpretation of teacher actions. The main message that I got from the students was that they needed teachers to be fair, understanding, and to communicate clearly. They expressed their frustration at being in an in-between phase and struggling to feel understood. One student put it bluntly, “we’re some moody-ass people right now.”
Cushman was able to take all of this raw feedback and create a couple of reflection forms that allow teachers to test themselves to see how they measured up to the students’ standards. These exercises are certainly one of the greatest assets of the book and the most constructive aspect.
My biggest complaint with this book is that it sets up an impossible standard for teachers and only haphazardly acknowledges student responsibility. Reading between the lines, I got the distinct impression that some of these students are regularly defiant, disrespectful and disruptive. These same students were happy to preach about how teachers should act, but lacked insight about how they could have controlled their own actions. This indicates to me that this book follows the current trend that gives all legal and social power to students and strips teachers of (what ought to be) their inherent authority.
Granted not every teacher tries hard enough to be fair or respectful of his students, but there is a reality between being cruel and being human. One student condemned their teacher for mistaking them for talking in class when it was their neighbor- an error that happened quite some time ago that he had yet to forive. If you are teacher doing the best that you can, sometimes you mistake which voice you hear and correct the wrong student, but that hardly negates your value as an instructor. The book seemed to be sending the message to students that it is right for them to disrespect teachers for that kind of simple mistake only furthers their conviction that they ought t have all of the power.
It also belittled teachers because the students seemingly assumed that teachers would never have enough sense to look past adolescent actions to a more serious cause. Additionally, I felt like I was waiting for entire book for one student to acknowledge the perpetual contradiction amongst students’ opinions and the paradox of “fairness” when that idea exists in the interpretation of every individual student. While that line never came, it did give me inspiration to include it in my discussions with my own students. I am sure that not all of them think that I am fair, but they might benefit from a reminder that all actions in the classroom are not centered on them. It is easy for teenagers to get hung up on things not being fair, but they ought to be approaching the age when they can understand why “fair” is not always “the same”.
The message I ached to send back to these teens was that they also need be understanding and communicate clearly. Being an adolescent is challenging but it does not stop you from striving for maturity and working to improve yourself. Pretending that your age gives you license for low standards for yourself will not lead to growth or success. Instead of boasting about how you avoid work or dwelling on feeling dumb: do your work and you may be surprised how smart you feel!

The History of American Education

"SCHOOL: The Story of American Public Education." PBS.ORG. Public Broadcasting Service, 2001. .

Public Broadcasting Service published this website that describes the origin and development of the American (US) education system. Roots in History, Innovators, and Evolving the Classroom are three categories that are particularly thorough in their coverage. The Roots in History not only summarized the evolution from religiously affiliated private schooling to contemporary issue such as bilingual education, standardized testing, and school choice. Though the site does not go into great depth in any one area, it does offer an introduction to the journey that has brought us to the current state of education. Instead of a controversy over who is educated, today's discourse focuses on how we are going to educate the population.


Eisenmann, Linda."Creating a Framework for Interpreting US women’ s Educational History: Lessons from Historical Lexicography." HISTORY OF EDUCATION, 2001, VOL. 30, NO. 5, 453 ± 470. Web. 4 Feb 2010.

Eisenmann's writing focused on the historiography of women's educational history. While the historiography somewhat exceeded my base knowledge (as I have done no previous research into the question of women's education) it did offer an interesting insight. In her quest to create a framework, Eisenmann hits on key issues that have been common in the research, access being chief among them. The concept of access for women seems to have been the focus in previous studies but she suggests four other views: institution building, money, networking, and religion. Each other these four social concepts offer a different "lens" (p. 5) for viewing women in education with institution building being perhaps the most meaningful when applied.

While this article is a bit distant from my day-to-day classroom experience, it certainly has relevance for a MEd student. It evokes questions about how women operate in education and why it came to be that way.


Goldin, Claudia and Lawrence F. Katz. "Human Capital and Social Capital: The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America, 1910-1940." Journal of Interdisciplinary History; Mar 99, Vol. 29 Issue 4, p683-723. .

This article focused on the rise of secondary education in the United States. It picks up the thread at the start of the 1900s and explains the nation's motives for educating more of its workforce at a higher level. A key factor in the progression was based off of the opportunity cost of a teenager staying in school. As the dynamics of national industry changed, the availability of jobs and the potential for improved employment with higher education also shifted. When service industries gained steam during the 1910-1940 period, the benefits of completing an education increased and a greater push for school changed.

The study also pursued links between cultural and socioeconomic factors that may have influenced attendance. Most interestingly to me, church attendance was very highly correlated with school attendance. From an economic perspective, this research was very careful and deep, if not wide in scope (the 1915 Iowa census provided a vast amount of the information included).

Purplemath!

An online resource I have used is purplemath.com. It's fairly popular and you've probably stumbled on it if you have been googling your lessons...

The site is written for students and breaks down most Algebra lessons (tell them to click on lessons from the homepage). The best use I have found for it is if students have missed a lot of school or are simply struggling and their parents reach out for a resources. It gives them a tool outside of school to work with that they can use for other concepts once they are comfortable with it!

Stereotype Threat

Osborne, Jason W. "Testing Stereotype Threat: Does Anxiety Explain Race
and Sex Differences in Achievement?" Contemporary Educational Psychology 26, 291– 310 (2001).

This study investigated the arguments of Claude Steele that persons who belong to a group that has been traditionally stereotyped as academically inferior are less successful in part because of the stereotype itself. These individuals experience more anxiety for fear of personal failure AND for fear of reaffirming the negative stereotype of the group. These groups include both minorities and women. The study took a sample of high school seniors that represent the national population and tested the theory. The result was conclusive evidence that academic achievement is impacted by this anxiety and that math performance was also affected to some degree. Some 41% of performance disparity was explained the anxiety experienced by groups threatened by stereotypes.

This study made clear, logical sense to me. I truly believe that all students have a great potential and it always seemed like their was something missing in the educational achievement gap explanation. School systems that strive for equal opportunities often still see large racial disparities and elevated anxiety levels would explain the issue. If a person sits down to take a test with a clouded, anxious mind that somewhat expects to fail, they are clearly at a disadvantage compared to a peer who sits down thinking that they are expected to succeed. It seems that this greatly different perspective of the risk involved in academics could easily translate to anxiety and thus ability to perform. Students in my class who sit for a test and immediately exclaim "I don't know what to do." often extremely poorly because their anxiety over the test prevents them from even making an honest attempt at it. I think that the racially-motivated anxiety is a special case of that that merits more research.

Unconscious Bias

Moule, Jean. "Understanding Unconscious Bias and Unintentional Racism: Acknowledging our possible biases and working together openly is essential for developing community in our schools."
Phi Delta Kappan. Jan 2009.


Ms. Moule discusses the complex reality of unconscious bias in society and the classroom. Her thesis focuses on the idea that society dictates that racism is an inherently evil practice perpetrated by bad people, but that most of us are walking around with racist biases that we may not even recognize ourselves. From that foundation, the conclusion is that it would be better to seek out and acknowledge our subconscious racist tendencies in order to correct them than to simply shove them under the rug. The most interesting findings in the study were that even anti-racism activists harbored these unconscious sentiments.

I found this article to be very worthwhile and frank discussion about the realities of racism today. Sure there are extremist views on race that are flatly bigoted and cruel, but the reality is that most people are not criminally racist despite having underlying racist tendencies. I think that one of the best things that American society could do to improve race relations is to stop making racial distinctions taboo. As a white woman, I have often felt that the expectation is for me to completely colorblind and that any acknowledgment of other races has the potential to be held against me. I am sure that I have unconscious biases like those described in the article but so long as my actions are consistently fair and well-intentioned, I don't think that I should be fearful of being judged a bigot.

I truly believe that the more time one spends interacting with a variety of human beings (race, religion, lack of religion, sex, sexual orientation, affluence and many other categories make up my definition of "variety") the less unconscious bias they will harbor. Comfort with individual is typically generated overtime, so it seems to follow that the more time one spends with individuals from a particular group, the more likely they are to become comfortable with that group. Personally, after spending the last 4 months with my nearly exclusively Filipino students, I am a lot more comfortable with Filipinos. Prior to my students, I knew a few Filipinos that I liked (many who were in the Navy with my father) but the extended contact has simply increased how much I understand and embrace them. This brings me back to my original point, that if I would have unconsciously offered a negative response to a Filipino accent before, it wasn't a matter of immoral racism, simply a question of the comfort level that I felt as an individual with limited experience.

Multicultural Education: Getting Started

Burnett, Gary. "Varieties of Multicultural Education: An Introduction." ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education: New York, NY. Jun 1994.

Mr. Burnett gives a summary of the types of multicultural education that were commonplace in 1994. The three main categories that he identifies are: content-oriented, student-oriented, and socially-oriented programs. Each of these groups has a different focus and purpose, despite falling under the same banner of "Multicultural Education." Teachers, local boards of education and the Department of Education may choose to focus more heavily on one strategy than other, but the tide of change will compel all parties to move towards at least one of these methods.

Personally, multicultural education is always a hazy topic for me. I went to fairly progressive public schools in Virginia growing up and earned an International Baccalaureate diploma in high school. That meant that my secondary education included more works-in-translation from foreign authors than original-English literature written by Americans. The history classes that I took were from a diverse perspective and focused not only on North America and Europe, but also Africa, Asia, and South America. As such, I think my own experiences were a great leap beyond what this article discussed. Additionally, the diversity of the classroom that I now teach in dictates an immutable multiculturalism. Algebra is fairly limited in intrinsic bias, so I feel that coupled with the melting pot that my students create, there is a fairly casual exchange of culture created.

Gender Bias in Education

Sadker, David. "Gender Equity: Still Knocking at the Classroom Door". Educational Leadership, Vol 56 April 1999.

This article considers a "Top Ten" of updates on gender bias in the classroom and in education in general. The purpose is to highlight a variety of sticking points in the move towards gender inequality that are often overshadowed. For example, while tax-supported tertiary education is nearly all coed, there is still a distinct gender divide present in majors. These majors feed into jobs that propagate the reality that women earn less money (due to the nature of their work, not necessarily outright discrimination). Another point made was about high school dropout rates. Boys repeat grades and drop out more often, but female repeaters on the whole are much more likely to become dropouts. The characterization that girls quietly drop out (often due to pregnancy) and do not return, boys drop out "with a crash" but are somewhat more likely to return.

I found many of these statistics and ideas very intriguing. While some of the facts highlighted areas where sexism was clearly to blame for the discrepancy, other problem areas seemed to be the result of personal choice. How do we motivate girls to even out the majors? What if they are capable, but simply still are drawn to being teachers or nurses?

I appreciated that #5 on the list also mentioned the impact of gender bias on males. The article explains that "...[m]ales are less likely to have close friends and more likely to endure alienation
and loneliness at every stage of life. It is males, after all, who experience higher mortality
rates through accidents, violence, and suicide, most of which are male role related." As we focus on traditionally disadvantaged groups, it seems appropriately egalitarian to note the struggles of the traditionally privileged as well.