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Teachers, frequently, design activities which require their students to reflect on what they are most thankful for in their lives. However, how many of us pause to deeply and truly reflect on what we are thankful for?

Here are my “Top Ten” for this Thanksgiving.

10. I am thankful for waking up this morning. This means that I was given another day to live and participate in all of the wonderful things life has to offer.

9. I am thankful for having a warm, soft bed in which to sleep. Many do not have this comfort and must sleep in uncomfortable and unsafe surroundings.

8. I am thankful that I have an apartment to come home to each evening. Others do not know where they will find shelter at the end of the day.

7. I am thankful for the tasty meals that are part of Thanksgiving Day and for having an abundance of food to eat. How many will go hungry today?

6. I am thankful for my cat, Jeremy, who offers me his unconditional love and companionship daily. He ensures that I am never alone.

5. I am thankful for the opportunity to continue my education. I find immense joy in my studies, and as my father always reminds me, “An education is the only thing that nobody can take away from you once you have obtained it and the only thing you can take with you when you die.”

4. I am thankful for having a job that I love, where I can make a difference every day. To have a job you truly love is a rarity.

3. I am thankful for my few, but fabulous friends. They accept me as I am, flaws and all, and are always there for me when I need support. I only hope that I am as good a friend to them as they are to me.

2. I am thankful for my 94 year old grandfather. He took a chance on me when nobody else would. He gave me the opportunity to go to college. Without him, I would not be where I am today.

1. I am thankful for my family. We may argue and fight, and we may not see eye to eye, but we are still a family. How lucky am I to have a mom and dad and two brothers who love me unconditionally.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We should give thanks for all our lives are blessed with every day, but today, take an extra moment and really reflect on those blessings. Doing so reenergizes the soul and puts things in perspective.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Tags: blessings, family, friends, love, Thanksgiving, Top Ten

Our nation’s schools are becoming increasingly diverse. This diversity is supposedly celebrated, and provides further opportunities for the enrichment of our students. However, when high-stakes tests come into play, are we really accounting for the same diversity said to be celebrated? Are we truly taking the diverse backgrounds of our students into consideration, or are the tests, and educational system in general, a means to maintain societal divisions? This analysis intends to discuss high-stakes tests and their effects on the educational system in relation to immigrant students, minorities and those of low socio-economic backgrounds, demonstrating that the diversity, of which our nation claims to be proud, is frequently a detriment to receiving an equitable education.

High-stakes testing, whose purpose is to hold districts accountable for providing the highest quality of education to all students, results in teachers who teach limited subject material in decontextualized fragments (Au 2007, Kohn 2000), with the intent of achieving higher scores. In the process, these same instructors, supposedly advocates for their students, stop utilizing strategies proven to be effective in the instruction of their students, eliminating, in many cases, the incorporation of the diverse student backgrounds (Contreras 2006, Li 2008) for increased learning so that the students might achieve a passing score on a test culturally and linguistically biased toward middle-class, English speaking, white Americans. The tests in question are so grossly inconsistent that even the students taking them express varying opinions as to their accuracy (Johnson et. al. 2005).

The parents of the students taking these tests are supposed to, also, be advocates for their children. However, even when presented with situations in which they can vocalize their concerns, and demand changes be made, they remain silent, stating that they are not well enough informed to voice their opinions (Robinson 1997), and to make decisions that would highly impact the implementation of the system. Now, if the white, middle-class American parents are not comfortable involving themselves in the testing arena because the do not feel that they are adequately informed, how can immigrants, completely new to the American education system (Rong 2006), be expected to advocate on behalf of their children?

The current structure of the educational system does not allow immigrants, minorities, and those of the lower socio-economic realm easy mobility through the system and into a higher status in society (Hilliard 2006, Lee 2008). It’s very purpose is to maintain the social stratifications that are currently in place (Eferakorho 2006). High-stakes testing along with the various mandates and changes in funding that are tied to NCLB (2001) cause the system to have much stronger and longer lasting results that are detrimental to a large portion of society; the population that most desperately needs the advantage that a quality education can give them. It is a system that is geared toward oppression, emphasizing inequalities in education, giving truth to the idea that rich get richer while the poor get poorer.

Tags: culture, diversity, Education, immigrants, inequality, linguistics, students, testing