It seems to me that all the required reading we are doing has a negative tone. To me, it is very discouraging . Are there any articles that deal with the positive aspects of teaching? My goal as a teacher is to treat all students the same and hopefully show them how much fun learning can be. Maybe I’m wearing rose-colored glasses but I believe that a teachers main objective is to encourage all students to achieve their best regardless of their social class or “labelâ€

After reading a lot of these articles I have felt terribly discouraged. I think that it is important for us to see the bad side of education. If we can see then injustice that is done to students then we can fight this in our classrooms. I am not sure if you feel this way, but after the discussion in class I usually feel better. I think that your comment about treating everyone the same is very true and I feel the same way. Some teachers have become so wrapped up in accountability they do not take time to encourage children as much. I think that if you are this frustrated after seeing the ugly side of education you will make a more compasionate teacher and try to change these things!

I see where you're coming from as far as negative articles go, however I find a lot of them extemely thought provoking. Whether it be social class and education, or ethnicity and education - they are all things that we know exist, but that in most education classes we simply skim the surface of. I think it's good for us future teachers to see just what sort of negative impacts we can easily have on students. And by learning about the issues of race class and gender in American schools, we can arm ourselves with the tools needed to avoid making those mistakes.

On a positive note, I found "The Human Lives Behind the Labels: The Global Sweatshop, Nike, and the Race to the Bottom.â€

I definitely believe that the negative side of all the readings will make us better teachers. I believe that there is a lot of issues that go unseen within a school. When we are forced to step outside of the box and look in, we get a better, more accurate, picture of what is really going on. And only after this happens, is when we can truly be able to fix problems found in schools. And I have to agree with Amber that discussing the articles in class makes me feel better about reading them, because I can understand them better.

I agree that most of these articles do have a negative tone. They do tend to look at the down sides of education but we have to be aware of what is really going on in todays education system. In most classes, all we get to hear is the tip of the iceberg of what is going on. I agree with Cindy that these articles are very thought provoking. However, if we only read these articles and never discuss them then we might really feel like making a career change, but the discussions we have in class not only help us understand what we have read but also helps us to look into what we can do to avoid these things happening in our classrooms.

Most of the articles we have read have been negative, but I feel that it is important for us to read them. It is good for a future teacher to see what other teachers are doing and how they are approaching them wrong. By doing it this way, it will help us to see things that are a problem and see how they need to be corrected. That way, by the time we enter the classroom, we will be able to change it in our individual classroom.

It is like when you were a child and did something wrong. You were always punished for it, but you learned from it, move on, and not do it again. With this example, we can take these articles, learn from them, move on, and not do these things again in our classrooms.

I'm not staying the articles are have not value. I would just like to read more positive articles. There should be a balance. If someone constantly beats you with an issue, they wear you down and you end up with going along with it. It may be that I just get depressed and not comprehend the whole article but most of the time I can't find the suggestions on how to correct the problem the article is addressing. Including some positive notes would help.

I do agree that the articles are discouraging, however I think that Dr. Turner's reason for making us read them is to prepare us in the best way possible by giving us the negative side so that we will be able to handle it and wont be so naive when entering the field. I think we need to know all the negative aspects of education and the system, so we wont be in such shock. I think the articles and readings are very helpful and provide us with lots of knowledge concerning the institution of education.