HW 41

Source 1:
Burke, B. (1999, 2005) 'Antonio Gramsci, schooling and education', the encyclopedia of informal education, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-gram.htm.
This article (compiled by Barry Burke), talks about Antonio Gramisci an (Italian phiosopher) and his ideas on schools and education. I know he was from early 1900's Italy, but he brings up a good point about Ideological Hegemony. He tries to explain how ideological hegemony relates to school being a big part of society, and how education is used to sort people.
Even though this article was a little challenging, I think that Gramisci believed that education was a way for a society to prepare kids for jobs and positions with power. he viewed education to be another way to keep people in that society 'in their place'.


Source 2:
Bennett, James R. "Corporate and Government Control of Education in the United States." Education Resources Information Center. 1986. Web. 22 Feb 2010. .
This is a brief abstract of an opinion paper about the influence the government/corporations has on education in America. It mentions how schools (mainly colleges) rely on the on the government in order to do well. It's also another way for corporations and and the government to control education. Even though it's brief, this overview mentions how education and government go hand in hand. Institutions rely on the government/corporations money for funding (research, scholarship money , etc.), while the government/corporations rely on the institutions for backing and support.

Source 3:
Kohn, Alfie. "The Corporate Role in the High- stakes Testing Obsession & Other Methods of Turning Education into a Buisness." Reclaim Democracy. oct 2002. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .
This article also explores the affect corporations have on public education. Kohn believes that corporations involvement in public education has caused America's students to become basically a test taking product. Corporations use school and students to advertise their product not in cafeterias, buses, and through the products they are trying to sell. Kohn brought to my attention how these companies even work their product/advertising into our curriculum. I found this article interesting but only somewhat informative. I would have to check up on some of the facts that he presents in this article.

Garcia, David R. "Profiting form Public Education: Education Management Organizations and Student Achievement." ERIC (2009): n. pag. Web. 4 Mar 2010. .
This is just an abstract about a study that was conducted in Arizona (2001) comparing and contrasting EMO charter schools and non-EMO charter schools. This article briefly mentions how most EMO charter schools, the for-profit educational management organization have authority over curriculum and instruction. Some people feel that an EMO charter school will provide their chid with a better education with a higher level of academics. Based on the results, even though test scores were sightly higher compared to non-EMO charter schools, EMO schools lacked reading comprehension and complex thinking skills.

Possible Source 1:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For-profit_school For profit schools are not only focused on the benefit of the child, but also profit. supported by businesses/corporations for funding.

Possible Source 2:
http://www.edutopia.org/economic-stimulus-education-funding-priorities

HW 40- Interviews and Synthesis

HW 38- Cool Project

Cool can be interpreted so many different ways. Whether you are the cool one, trying to be cool, or aren't trying to be cool, cool is always present. The idea of trying to be cool eventually crosses everyones mind. Even if you are not trying to be cool, you are still thinking about cool. In Alicia and I video, we tried to focus on how people aspect of cool can affect a person. Everyone has a desire to be cool and uses the people around them to influence which type of cool they want to be apart of. In our video we focus on the labels/stereotypes that are present in our school. There is always someone who doesn't seem to fit in with a certain 'clique', and fail miserably when they do try to fit in.

Alicia's character knows that she doesn't fit in with a certain group, and hates being the outcast. She sees girls come into the bathroom that know where they fit in and tries to see if she would fit in as well. She sees Esther the Asian girl that's into anime, Egypt the cocky jock, Brittani the confident fashionista, and Sandy the proper and poised good girl. Alicia tries to be like each of these girls by mimicking their pose in the mirror, just to get a disgusted rejected look from each of them (except Sandy). After watching our video, I hope people will question how much other people influence who you are. Although the message in our video is