feedback on the 2-17-09 class

Social Action Project Ideas:
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For my social action project I am planning on helping one person. For this purpose the choice was made on helping a young lady who did not finish school at her country. Coming to USA from Afghanistan, Mona worked in many places to support her mom, her younger sister, and herself. Finally, after a lot of moving her manger at a department store, where she worked last, told her that she is not needed any more. I decided on finding Mona a place where she can study the English language for free. Mona will also need to have some help to find a job. For this reason, she will need to learn how to use the pc and some of its applications. At Fairfax adult education, Mona will attend classes twice weekly where she will learn secretarial duties through enrolling in certification program.
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Question:

I wonder with the crowded curriculum that keeps adding up with each grade level, how much time the kids will have to maintain their critical thinking? In another word: kids should be learning critical thinking but how can we guarantee that schools would create critical space for students in the future?

Comment:

When asked about the future and follow up of the kids, Dr. Vivian’s mentioned among other things a negative reaction from the teacher that was in charge of them the following year. It is frightening how much this attitude toward their way of thinking would affect them if not damage them.

Connection:

It is so important to teach kids How to tackle challenging situations. In every situation I was amazed how kids were able to think of ways that allowed them to solve their problems on their own. It is so powerful how kids can develop negotiation strategies at such early age. While reading I remembered one night when I was 8 years old, our house was full of people and noise. My mom put us to bed (regardless of all the noise and music) and went to sit with her guest. We lay on our beds my little sister and me for hours listening to the happy sounds outside of our bedroom. we decided that we need to send our mom a letter to tell her how bad it is for us going to bed while everyone is having fun. So with no lights in the room except form the lights coming form the living room we took a tissue and we started writing mom our plead to join the rest of the party. Thank you Dr. Vivian you took me back to the good old days----a long time ago.