Cassidy Ott

EDU 215
12 Nov. 2014
Learning to Not Learn
As students, everyone has different learning styles. Some people are auditory learners,
when a person must hear and speak out loud to learn material the best. Others are visual
learners, who have to see a lesson written out or have something to physically see the material to
learn. Whereas others learn best when they are moving around and completing some sort of
physical action; these are kinesthetic learners. Throughout my time in junior high and high
school, every single year at least one of my teachers drilled these types of learning into our
heads. We would get a quiz on the first day of school to decipher if we were auditory, visual, or
kinesthetic learners. Once we knew the results, teachers figured out what type of learners was
the majority, and geared most of their lessons for the year toward this type of learning.
Unfortunately, I was always in a class with mostly kinesthetic learners, and I am an auditory
learner. Needless to say, I put up with countless group projects (which I absolutely hated
because of the fact that I seemed to always get paired with the laziest people in class), pointless
activities that would be seen in an elementary classroom, and games that I had no interest in
playing. According to the quiz results, I just did not learn this way. I always wondered, if my
teachers really cared about my learning style, why would they create a learning environment to
benefit only one type of learner? While reading Herbert Kohls I Wont Learn from You, I
realized that this caused me to not learn some of the material that was taught. I was not
interested in the way that the material was being taught, so in some cases I simply checked out
and never learned it. After reading many books and looking back on my previous education, I

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am now aware of why certain things happened the way they did, and taking my experiences into
account I have formed how I will conduct my classroom to be multicultural.
The school district I attended from kindergarten to my senior year, Lexington Local, I
now realize is very biased. They did not discriminate necessarily on race, but on social classes
and based on who each kids families were. Since the town is so small, most of the teachers and
parents are family friends because of growing up in Lexington, going off to college, and then
coming back to the town to raise their kids. However, if a students parents or grandparents did
not grow up in Lexington, then the particular student tended to be left out, especially in the
younger grades in elementary school. Most of the students had only been friends with each
other, since their parents were friends, leaving students like me, whose parents had recently
moved into the area, to try and fit in. Throughout elementary school, what I now notice, was the
teachers tended to favor those students they knew.
In first grade, the ultimate goal of every student was to be the line leader. This person
got to lead the rest of the class through the hallways to whatever special, whether it be gym, art,
or music, we were attending that day. Every week a new line leader was selected, based on how
well a particular student behaved the previous week. Every week, I behaved my best, always
cleaning up after myself, keeping an organized desk, and even helping the teacher clean up the
reading area. I was determined to be picked for this highly desired job. However, week after
week, other students were selected for the position, some even more than once. January
eventually rolled around, and I still had not been selected for line leader. I started dreading
going to school because I was one of the very few students who had not been line leader. I also
stopped wanting to do my homework and reading. When I look back at who the other students
in my class were, I realize that most of them were from families who had been in Lexington for

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multiple generations. I started not-learning the material in class for a short while because I
became so beaten down about not being chosen for the position. This is only one example of
many I can think of teachers in my school district choosing favorite students because of who
their families were.
Another issue within the school district that I struggled with, especially in junior high,
had to do with student placement into advanced classes. Throughout school I was a decent
student, never getting any grades below a B. When it came time to be placed into advanced
classes in eighth grade, such as Enriched Algebra and Spanish, I had high hopes to be in both.
When we got our schedules for eighth grade I found that all my friends were placed in these
classes, but I had been put into the standard classes, otherwise known as the dumb kid class
by the student population. I was so disappointed with the placements that my mom went into the
school and talked with the guidance counselor. The counselor explained that the reason this
happened was my math and reading skills on my proficiency tests were not strong enough for the
advanced classes, even though my grades in both subjects consistently stayed above average.
After many arguments with the guidance counselors and principal, my parents finally convinced
the school to allow me into the Spanish class, which I ended up excelling in. This situation is an
example of schools suppressing students and their abilities based on pre-decided groups of who
the intelligent and less advanced students are (Kohl, 1994). These biased opinions schools make
of the students could suppress children, and keep them from realizing their potential. Gladwell
also touched this subject a little bit in his book as well. If students are in an environment where
they are given more opportunities, and if their parents express interest and help their child grow
in their intellectual abilities, otherwise known as concerted cultivation, then they have an
increased chance of succeeding educationally (Gladwell, 2008). Had my parents not shown any

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interest in which classes I was taking and convinced the school to allow me to take Spanish as an
eighth grader, I would have never realized my love for the language, and would probably not be
fulfilling my dream of being a Spanish teacher.
Classifying students based on one test is not fair, as the students score could directly
relate to events happening outside of school, or even occasions in school. Many examples Kohl
gives relate to students receiving poor results on tests because of racial or class boundaries.
Even in the documentary, A Class Divided: Then and Now, it indicated that students being
discriminated against received substantially lower scores on quizzes than when they were
considered superior (Peters, 1987). Basing a students whole secondary education on one test
is very biased and suppressing. Also, sanctioning students in this way leads to the students who
are placed in the lower level classes to feel dumb and unintelligent compared to those placed in
more advanced classes. Students feeling this way are left with two options: to fulfill the role
expected of them by the school, and never try to move into more advanced classes, or to find
ways around the schools system by using creative maladjustment-breaking social norms in order
to advance intellectually. More often than not, however, a student simply accepts the fate handed
to them, and simply endures the class to which they were assigned.
Although creative maladjustment can be used by students, it would be best if teachers
discovered this concept. Most teachers see what is wrong with schools, and simply ignore the
issue because it is easier. Kohl defines creative maladjustment as breaking social patterns that
are morally reprehensible, taking conscious control of ones place in the environment, and
readjusting the world one lives in based on personal integrity and honesty. . . . (Kohl, 1994, p.
130). All teachers should know this definition because becoming keener to what can be done to
solve the issue of why children are not learning, instead of simply saying they are incapable of

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learning, would transform the school system as we know it. If my teachers in junior high had
done something about me being too advanced for their intermediate classes, then maybe I would
have been more willing to learn algebra and trigonometry. Too often teachers stand by and
allow the school system to suppress their students, instead of finding ways to help children
flourish. As Kohl has determined, the best way to teach and help students is not by only looking
at a childs behavior, it is by scrutinizing the schools and figuring out the effects they made on
the children. This way, a teacher can not only help the certain student being affected by the
problem in the school, but can help students in the future having the same problem. One of the
bigger problems in our school systems have to do with some students growing intellectually
faster than other students, which Gladwell points out and explains why this might be happening.
One reason Gladwell gave for the rapid advancement of some students and not others is
the Matthew Effect which suggests that children who were born during the summer might have
a disadvantage in the education system here in the United States because of the cut off dates for
education (2008, p. 29). I can personally attest to this, being born in July, and being one of the
youngest students in my graduating class. Throughout school I struggled to keep up with my
friends who were born an entire year ahead of me, and most of them were in the Gifted and
Talented program that my school offered. Since my friends were all in this TAG program,
naturally I wanted to be in it as well, however my grades and reading level were not high enough
to qualify. Looking back on this now, I notice that most of my friends who were also born in the
summer were not included in this program either. This is a very interesting concept that our
school systems should start acknowledging, because if a solution to this phenomenon were to be
found, we would see a greater number of students flourishing, and not being as suppressed.

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Suppression is a very common concept, especially in the public school systems. During
my years as a student in a public school system, I can remember certain aspects of the standard
curriculum that might not have made every student willing and eager to learn, simply because of
what the material was implying. Explicitly, the text books seemed to be telling the history of the
United States. Most, especially white, people would not think too much about this fact, however
it is the implicit meaning behind this that can cause issues. I noticed that in my freshman level
history class, the text portrayed Native Americans as being savage-like, and being easily taken
advantage of by the white settlers. For a student of the Native American descent, this is basically
telling them that their race was inferior to the white race, and they could think that this is still the
case. The implicit curriculum in not only my high school, but in many schools across the country
are sending this image that only white males in history were important, and no other culture had
any influence on the building of this country. Teachers today need to acknowledge this, and
work on finding a solution to work towards multicultural classrooms.
In my classroom, I will work towards a more diverse curriculum using not only the book
provided by the school, but also other articles, videos, or pictures. Todays technology is so
advanced, it is not hard to find supplemental material online, in fact there are websites that allow
you to connect the common core curriculum to different articles on various subjects, based on
grade and reading level. This would allow me to continue teaching required material, but also
choose more culturally diverse articles to read from. This would also be great for students with
lower or higher reading levels, because the website I have in mind, Newsela, allows the reader to
choose which reading level they would like to read the same article at. For instance, a student
better with reading could choose a challenging level, whereas a struggling student could choose a
lower level, but still get the same concept and idea out of it. As well as reading different

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materials, I will hang up posters around my room, of not just predominantly white leaders in the
United States, but posters of all world leaders in history, such as Native American chiefs,
important Chinese leaders, or key black leaders in the civil rights movement. This will enhance
the feeling of acceptance, and my students of all races will feel like their backgrounds are
important. Diversity will be welcomed and desired in my classroom, instead of just something to
dealt with, like so many of our countrys educators see it as.
Since my high school was not too diverse, I grew up mostly with white students. Out of
the four thousand people that make up my hometown, only about five percent are of a different
race than Caucasian. Of this five percent, only about 2 percent are African American, and one
percent Hispanic. Because of the little diversity in our town, I grew up in elementary school
without being exposed to many different cultures, and not fully understanding how to interact
with people of different races. Obviously my parents taught me that everybodys different and
everyone should be treated the same, but I did not get the chance to put this into practice very
often.
Reflecting on my parents statement of everyone being treated the same, I realize that this
is not the best way of thinking. Everybody comes from different backgrounds, cultures, races,
social classes, and families, so treating everybody as though they are the same would not be a
very effective teaching style. This is where equality and equity come into play, teaching with
equality would be going by what my parents taught me, whereas equitable teaching would be
acknowledging that every student has different experiences, and working with this diversity to
help each student reach their full potential. It is important for a teacher to take the time to get to
know each of their students and understand where they are coming from. For instance, a student
who is from a low-income family might not be able to focus on their school work as much as a

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student from a high-income family might be able to, due to having to have a job outside of
school. This student may need extra time to work on their homework as opposed to the higher
income student. Being equitable is a teaching method which ensures that every student, no matter
their race, culture, economic status, family background, or learning abilities, is accepted into the
classroom and reaches their best self.
Going back to the non-diverse town that I grew up in, one of the first encounters I can
remember with someone who was not the same color as I was on the first day of school of
Kindergarten. A black boy names Caleb got on the bus. At the time, I noticed that Caleb was
different, but it never bothered me, nor did I think twice about it. Since he was the only black
student in my class until about fourth or fifth grade, he just blended in with the rest of us
students. Caleb and I became good friends, doing typical five year old activities together, like
finger painting, coloring, and even eating glue. However, the next year when my grandparents
came to town, they asked if there were any black kids in my school. I told them about Caleb, and
how we were friends, and they got a weird look on their face as if it was not alright for me to be
friends with him. After this, I started noticing the differences in everybody. I noticed that a girl in
my class had darker skin than I, and the boy that sat across from me was Asian. This incident
opened my eyes to see the small, but obvious diverse population in my school.
Once I entered middle school the student population started getting more diverse, and I
started to notice different patterns. For instance, a handful of students were Muslim, so the girls
wore hijabs to school, which, being in middle school, these students definitely stood out from the
crowd. I noticed that all of these students sat at the same table for lunch, and nobody tried to sit
with them either. I also noticed this pattern with other minority groups, such as the black
students. It was one of those instances that just happened naturally, or so it seemed in middle

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school, and nobody thought anything about it. Thinking back on this now, I realize that this is a
common occurrence in many schools, based on Beverly Tatums Racial Identity Development in
her book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, where students tend to
identify with people of the same race and culture, and feel more comfortable when with them.
This is the identifying step in the four stages the Racial Identity Development. Students feel
more comfortable with others of their own race because typically theyve experienced
discrimination or racism of some sort, and feel safer with groups of the same race. This definitely
was the case not only in my middle school, but even in high school, although it was not as
apparent, since the racial groups began to sit with white students, and vice versa.
Another pattern I began to notice when I started high school was that the very smart
students were labeled as the over-achievers. These students were able to not study for a test and
still receive a perfect grade, which I always envied. I was a decent student, but in order to do
well on a test I had to study very long and hard. These students are what Malcolm Gladwell
refers to as outliers in his book, Outliers. Gladwell describes these outliers as being people with a
very high intelligence, who may or may not have had the opportunities and privileges to live up
to their full potential.
When I hear the word outlier I think of one person specifically from my high school
named John. He is a very smart individual who took high school math as a seventh grader, and as
an eighth grader scored a thirty one on the ACT test. Since John was one of the smartest students
in my class, he always stood out from the crowd, however there was one more thing that stood
out. From the time he transferred into my school as a seventh grader to the time he graduated he
wore either a suit or a sweater vest to school every single day. This definitely led to some name
calling throughout junior high, but when asked why he dressed up for school he replied that he

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wanted to prepare himself for the business world. Anyway, John is a naturally smart person, and
can name just about any capital of any country around the world, but what really made him stand
out was the opportunities that were presented to him. He just so happened to be from a very
wealthy family who could afford to send him to academic camps every summer, and his family
encouraged him to study as opposed to watching television or sitting on the computer. This goes
back to concerted cultivation discussed by Gladwell, and how the right opportunities given at the
right time can make all the difference. Sometimes it does not matter how much individual merit
you earn, but under the right circumstances is when an individual can flourish. At the same time,
certain circumstances can keep students from reaching their full potential based on what gender
they are.
Throughout my education I never noticed any gender biases that may have existed,
mostly because I was never made aware that there may have been any in the first place. As far
as I was concerned, women in the twentieth century had fought for my rights, we gained the right
to vote, and I could do just about anything a boy could do. However, as sweet as this scenario
sounds, looking back now I realize this was not the case. In fifth grade I remember a
conversation with a boy in my class, where he stated that being a girl is worthless, and he would
rather die than have to be a girl. That night I went home crying because of this, and hating the
fact that I was a girl. Our society does not outwardly say that women are worth less than men,
but its the way women are portrayed within the media, and gender stereotypes that implies it.
I did notice that in my education most of my teachers were women. Throughout high
school I probably had a handful of male teachers, and did not even know of one until about
Junior High. Once I start thinking back to the principals of my four schools I attended within my

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district, only one of them was a woman. I have to wonder why this is, why can women be good
enough to teach children, but not enough to have a higher up position in educational leadership.
Just recently, I was talking to my parents about my future as an educator when we got on
the topic of the possible teacher strike in my home school district. I was saying how the teachers
were upset they had not gotten raises for six years, which is one of the main reasons they were
going to strike, and that I did not blame them for this. My dad then started talking about how the
salary the women teachers were making was plenty enough for a woman, but the men would
probably need to get another job with the same salary. I could not believe what my dad was
saying, so I asked him what he meant, and he told me that men were the bread-winners of the
family, and deserve to be paid more. Being a future teacher, I did not want to believe that my
own dad was saying I deserve to make less money than a man. Even my mom played into this
by saying that teaching was a good profession for a woman. What my parents did not take into
account were the women who are single mothers and therefore are taking on the role of what was
traditionally a mans. Single mothers are providing for their families, so all women deserve to be
paid equally as men. Unfortunately, this is the kind of culture that we live in, the stereotypes that
teaching is a womens profession and that men need to make a bigger salary than what
teaching pays. Our culture says it is perfectly fine for a woman to be making the average teacher
salary, but for a man it is not sufficient enough.
These are the types of biases that I was trained to overlook as a child, but now I look back
and realize how unfair simple things are in this world for women. Children in our society are
taught from a young age that women are not as important as men and that our sole purpose is to
find a man to love, which is portrayed in most movies. When I brought to light the biasness that
my parents comments contained, they did not seem to understand how it was sexist. This is just

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how ingrained the biases against women are, people do not even realize when they are being
sexist.
Looking at this from a different perspective, I realize that people of color and of different
races have some similar struggles as women do. Just like my parents did not realize they were
being sexist, many people do not realize they are being racist because they have not had to deal
with the same issues as colored people have. Julie Landsman gives her perspective on race while
giving her every day experiences with working in an inner-city school in her book A White
Teacher Talks about Race. In this book she has high hopes for students of color, and tells of the
everyday struggles for students of color. I found this very interesting, mostly because some of
the struggles for these students are ones that I have never had to worry about. Such as getting
accused for a crime, just because of the color of my skin. This kind of thing had never crossed
my mind, because I have never had to worry about it, nor did I want to acknowledge it when
differences in races were brought up. Landsman states that We white people hide from the fact
of skin color difference (2009, p. ix), which I thought was a very interesting and true statement.
Throughout school, my teachers did not point out the differences in people, everyone just
pretended we were all the same, even though there were clearly students of other races present.
It is crucial to not pretend everyone is the same, or have what is called color blindness,
but to acknowledge and embrace the differences in people in a positive way. In a way that
makes every student feel welcome in the school environment, and feel comfortable in the school
place where they are developing their futures. Educators should be aware of the different types of
students they have in their classes, and be able to acknowledge this. As Richard Milner discusses
in his book, Start Where You Are, But Dont Stay There, failing to recognize the different
cultural backgrounds students may have can hinder their learning, because in the real world

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race does matter. These students are dealing with racism outside of the classroom, which effects
how they interact with their peers at school (Milner, 2010). If teachers constantly think their
students are all equal, and had the same experiences growing up, then the students who have not
had a lot of opportunities tends to be left behind. A teacher needs to help every student learn to
the best of their ability, and nurture their skills in every subject. However, this type of school
environment, where race is acknowledged but not considered a deficit, can be offset by what
students are seeing every day in the media.
Media influences people today so much that whatever is portrayed on television, movies,
magazines, newspapers, and newscasts is how people begin to think. It just so happens that
women are constantly downgraded and colored people are shown playing into their stereotypes,
which influences the way our society treats and looks at these groups. Women are constantly
being shown that in order to achieve perfection they have to look, act, and feel a certain way.
Black people are not very prevalent in many popular television shows, and when they are, they
typically do not have very big roles. Both of these groups rarely ever play the lead protagonists
in movies. Most of the time, a womans sole purpose in a plot line is to fall in love with the
typically white male hero. The underlying messages portrayed on television and in movies
shapes the minds of our society, and everyone starts believing that women are not good enough
unless they are gorgeous and black people do not have a big role to play in our culture. The
documentary Miss Representation brings about some really interesting facts about how things are
portrayed in the media. A quote from this I can specifically recall is from a girl whose sister has
been bullied into harming herself, and she wonders How long is it going to take for someone to
take a stand? This is a valid question, how long will it be until someone takes a stand against
inequality and inequity, especially in our school systems.

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As a teacher, I feel as though incorporating lessons on how the media influences us is
very important. The media can brainwash someone to believe just about anything, and this is a
really dangerous occurrence. If people are constantly seeing black people in the news for a
shooting, naturally people form the stereotype that all black people are bad. Same goes with
Middle Eastern people, if they are the only ones portrayed as terrorists in the news, then people
are going to think that all people from the Middle East are trying to destroy the United States.
One way to start changing this way of thinking is educating our youth that the media only uses
one perception, and can twist any story to seem one way, even if it happened completely
differently from the way it was portrayed. We need to teach students that everything they see on
the news or on television is not correct, necessarily. We also need to educate them on how the
media portrays certain groups of people, which either begins or enhances stereotypes for these
groups. As I previously discussed, women and black people are the most common groups to be
portrayed in a negative way, or even not portrayed at all. Telling students in the classroom about
this, and having them watch shows or movies in class that are not offensive or negative toward a
certain group of people would be a great place to start when talking about stereotypes in the
media. If students are aware of this information, they will start changing the way they think when
watching the news, television shows, movies, or even reading books or magazines. This is
something that I will teach in my future classroom, and I hope many other teachers will choose
to do so as well.
As I think about all of these previous stated problems in most schools across the country,
I realize that I will have the ability to change the issues for at least some students. In my
classroom I am going to make every student feel welcome, and as though they have a voice, no
matter their backgrounds. I feel as though a good place to start this is by getting to know each of

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my students. In Christine Sleeter and Catherine Cornbleths book Teaching with Vision, longtime bilingual teacher Mike Roberts talks about building trust with his students and how he does
so. His advice to teachers is to get to know younger students, whom might end up in your
classroom in a few years, this way the connection is already started from a young age (2011). As
a teacher, I will get to know my students individually, and show them that I care, so that they
will be more willing to pay attention in my class, and be less-inclined to not learn from me. One
way of getting to know students is by attending extra-curricular activities, such as sporting
events, academic competitions, and school productions that my students are involved in. By
showing interest in students lives, they will, hopefully, show more of an interest in lessons and
the material in class. I will get to know my students on a more personal level, that way I can help
them even more academically and be able to measure their abilities based on their experiences
and factors.
Milner brings up an interesting topic of focusing on opportunity gaps in education as
opposed to achievement gaps. The latter is used to identify and major differences in academic
achievement between groups of students, such as white versus black students, or high income
versus low income families. These types of gaps are measured through standardized tests, which
is no secret that our school systems are focused entirely too much on. The problem with these
standardized tests is that they do not take into account different factors that have influences on
students. Opportunity gaps, however, are measured by so much more than just scores, they are
measured by socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, learning abilities or English proficiency.
Opportunity gaps also take into account creative and critical thinking, both of which are
important skills for students to master. Multitudes of factors are looked at to compile this gap, as
opposed to one score determining a students fate. This way, as Milner describes it, teachers are

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more focused on the process of learning and teaching, as opposed to the outcome (2010). As a
future educator, I realize that every student comes from a different background, and evaluating
every student the same way would not be equitable. Taking all these different factors into
account, and focusing on how to help each student differently is going to help me become the
best teacher I can be.
As I have stated previously, my school district had its flaws, and I was affected by them
directly in some cases. However, it is because of some of these instances that has influenced me
to become a teacher, to help those students who are forced to learn in only one type of way, or
are being suppressed by the school by not being allowed to take the classes they need to be
challenged. As a teacher, I will allow students to learn in their own unique ways, and allow them
to have hope of a bright future of what they choose. Hope mongering or reinforcing hope into a
students life and providing and positive voice-is just as important to education as creative
maladjustment. Students need to feel as though they are allowed to have their dreams, and
teachers need to reinforce this feeling by teaching optimism and showing interest in their
students futures. I will be more aware of the multiculturalism and diversity in my school
district, and be conscious of noting important, influential people of all races in my lessons. I will
also never suppress a student based on race, class, gender, culture, or learning abilities by
providing equitable lessons for every student. Every student deserves opportunities, and I will
strive to provide these for my students to help them achieve their best. Overall, I have learned
from my experiences in public schooling some of the things that do not work for children, and I
will work every day to not making the same mistakes for my students, and making my classroom
multicultural.

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References
Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The story of success. New York, NY: Little, Brown and
Company.
Kohl, H. (1994). "I won't learn from you" And other thoughts on creative maladjustment. New
York, NY: New Press.
Landsman, J. (2009). A White Teacher Talks about Race. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield
Education.
Milner, R. (2010). Start where you are, but don't stay there: Understanding diversity, opportunity
gaps, and teaching in todays classrooms. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.
Peters, W. (1987). A class divided: Then and now. Retrieved from FrontLine:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/friday.html
Sleeter, C., & Cornbleth, C. (2011). Teaching with vision. New York: Teachers College Press.
Tatum, B. (1997). Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? New York, NY:
Basic Books.