BTV Song

The Blaming the Victim Song

Warning there is explicit language and I imagine many of you have heard this song, but I challenge you to listen to the lyrics 

Blaming the Children

Blaming the Children

It is always easiest to find a problem.  If youth today are struggling to meet expectations then it can be very easy to pinpoint one aspect of their life as the cause.  Whether this is parenting, schooling, friends. neighborhoods, it isn't hard to use that as an excuse.  But in the end that is all that those things are, excuses.  Why do we need to make excuses for these children and label them, when all they need is guidance and the right opportunity.
We look at upper class communities and idolize them as the norm.  Just because they can preform better on test and look better on paper doesn't mean that they should be the norm that the rest of society needs to conform to.  These students who have be labeled as delinquent or even underprivileged should not be made to feel less than any other child in the U.S.  The failure happens progressively, and when a good teacher, mentor, or friend observes a youth on the downward slope it becomes exponentially harder for them to affect change in the person.
Students are merely passed on from one bad situation to the next and it is no surprise that they have trouble failing.  If they are not given the opportunity to succeed how can we expect them to excel.  Students should be given equal chances throughout the school systems, not just because their parents can afford a white picket fence.
Progress is being made.  Many services are giving these students extra help so that we can fix the problems we have created for them.  The hurdles they have to are still more significant than others, but with the right guidance and help then they two can achieve whatever goal they set for themselves.  Us as caregivers and educators can't ever though use the excuse the student being too difficult or too far gone to explain our own failings as professions.  For gosh sake we are the adults act like one

Technology, Modern or Medieval?

Reading and viewing the material for this week has made me aware that especially the reading was 

written by a digital immigrant. Their tenancies are those of a person looking in on the digital 

immigrant world and not of someone who grew up in the technological world their entire life. We all have to accept that technology is changing the way we live for better or worse, and Prensky is correct in saying that the education system has to reflect this. Many successful school systems are attempting to provide this new education environment to their students, but impoverished school systems are struggling. The problem is the equipment to create a digital native friendly environment costs more than what the school systems can afford. Many companies and corporations have accepted the technological age. Applicants have to diligent on what their digital imprint is, and weather their Facebook and other social media outlets portray a person companies would want to hire. With more access comes more responsibility, and review required of the information portrayed. The article written by Prensky has a very interesting approach to linking the Digital Immigrants to the Digital Natives. He proposes that a student should b able to access computers and technology once they are able to build a computer themselves. This would be a very informative and effective way of teaching students a new skill, but only to the extent of attempting to have a student think in a "immigrant" step by step manner while applying it to technology. This will create a space where the teacher will be able to apply their method of teaching and learning to the modern age, instead of encouraging students to think and develop strategies of learning of their own.