Blog #5 - Troublemakers by Carla Shalaby

 "Classrooms must be places in which we practice freedom" (Shalaby, preface page 2).

In this picture, the hand represents us, the teachers, who show our students how to be strong leaders and independent humans. The bird represents the student who broke free from stigmas, stereotypes, and the assembly line. The cage represents the solidarity of following a corrupt lead taught to them for years and how they are forced to tolerate the "poison".

Schools do not teach students the fundamentals of life. They teach students how to stand in line and wait for the corporate arrow to strike into them instead of teaching them how to struggle alongside a peer and lift each other up to create sanctity between them. In this book, Shalaby discusses what she learned about being human and how she realized the hard work being put in for some people to be considered fully human in everyday life. 

"Interested in freedom, I needed the children who sing the most loudly rather than those who follow orders for quiet. -- They are the children who make trouble at school--the troublemakers. They have been my teachers, and on these pages, they will become yours" (Shalaby, preface page 5). 

Students who struggle have the most to say. They are knowledgable and they are silenced voices by those who stand for supposed support of them. It takes away from their schooling to be constantly reprimanded instead of insighted. "They make noise when others are silent" (Shalaby, preface page 6). These students demonstrate their own leadership skills, which is what actual leadership is...Speaking up LOUDLY for others to actually hear, demanding their freedom, and exercising their power.

Shalaby states that children in pre-k classrooms are expelled at alarming rates and in k-12 grades as well. This disproportionally affects children of color, as the U.S. Department of Education recently released data that black preschoolers are 3.8 times more likely to be suspended than their white peers. Why is that? How are they a problem before they reach kindergarten? Is making mistakes the wrong way to grow yourself up? Are the children even making mistakes, or are they simply trying to exist without someone screeching in their ear about what shape goes into which hole in the box?

"--The problem is the poison--not the living thing struggling to survive despite breathing it" (Shalaby, preface page 9).

Being forced to sit still and obey for eight hours every day is completely exhausting for children. I do not think it throws them into a routine, but I do believe that these in-school "routines" take away from a child's imagination and sense of free will. Yes, students should have a set schedule during class times, especially little ones, because if not, the entire class would be in absolute chaos. I believe that students deserve more than one 15-minute segment of recess every day. I know when I was in elementary school, and my whole years in middle and high school, I doodled a lot. Creating art is a great way to relax after a test or something and it is also good to do as a quick five-minute break during class if students are becoming agitated. I know some teachers also have stretch breaks as well, which can help regain focus. 

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