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 Cedric's identity 
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Cedric seemed to identify himself in one of two ways his hardships or his accomplishments. It sounds like a bipolar identity;he's either really happy or really depressed and angry. I felt he was beginning to see the light with the statement he made on page 177: "...the things that make up identity are deeper things that skin color or whatever. Things, I don't know, like character or our faith or how we trreat other people.

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Bendy Pennington


Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:40 am
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You have made a good point. A lot of Cedric's struggles are within himself-man vs. self. He is a teen trying desperately to find himself and where he fits into the world.

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Teresa Goodman

ALL STUDENTS DESERVE THE CREAM!


Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:52 am
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Hey girls! My take on Cedric's "inner struggle" is that he was reacting and pushing against his environment. Even though he had his own goals and he knew that he was capable of living a better life, it had to be hard to have the environment pushing agianst him. I mean, all of the black teen boys around him were just continuing in the cycle. This must be incredibly difficult to break the cycle of the inner city.

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Jamie Little


Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:45 pm
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I agree that it would be terribly hard to break the cycle of the inner city children, however I think that we also have a cycle present in our school systems. Children whose parents are on welfare seem to also end up on welfare. Is this something that teachers, parents or a society are lacking to change? The children on the welfare system are having to really struggle (like Cedric) in breaking this cycle.

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Deborah Hess


Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:29 pm
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I agree that cycles of poverty are hard to break. And when we talk about it, usually we find someone who has broken out of their particular cycle - like Cedric. But the cycle is still there. Cedric has joined the ranks of working professionals, but what about his mom and all the women in Nickel and Dimed who are barely making it on minimum wage or a tad above?

So I'm with you Deborah. What is society's, school's, government's role in all of this? How do we break the cycle itself? And how can we as teachers equip students with tools to not only break out of the system but also dismantle poverty? Do we need to address the idea of social disparities and poverty's reality in the classroom? It's one of those little secrets. In order to spare the kids, we don't confront it head on. And yet, so many of the kids we teach come from homes just like Barbara's and Cedric's.

According to Joan Wink, in critical pedagogy, the first step is to name it, the next step is to reflect critically, and the third step is to act. If we want cycles to change, shouldn't we start naming them? Do we include the students in this process? Or better yet, do we teach them the process?

We need a charter school!

Cindy

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Cindy Fowler

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Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:40 pm
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