Instructor: Jeanne Curran, Ph.D., Esq.
Course: Soc. 395-01. Special Topics in Sociology: No child Left Behind.
Course Reference Number:Reference No: 22256
Academic Credit: 3 units
Scheduled Meeting Times: Wednesday, 1- 3:45 p.m.
Meeting Room: SAC 1362
Office: SBS B325 - Across the hall from our old office.
Telephone: No phone so far
. . . . . Jeanne's cell: 213-705-2100 - for quick answers only, not to report absences, please.
Office Hours:Tuesday, Thursday 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.; Wednesday 4:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Teaching Assistant and Community Adjunct: Patricia Acone, A.B.T.

Course Description:

No Child Left Behind is an Undergraduate Special Topics course that will be taught simultaneously in real time classes in SAC 1362 and over the Internet. I prefer that you be in class. However, I know that there are many time conflicts for all of us. For that reason, my lectures are available online, as are the self tests that will help you ascertain that you clearly understand the concepts and theories we discuss. Even if you are prevented by work or time conflict from being regularly present, I will appreciate your presence at least a few times during the semester in our office, once it's available, so that we have the benefit of at least some face-to-face time. Some of the time conflicts may be alleviated by coverage of the same material in the graduate section between 4:00 and 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, in SBS F121. You are welcome to attend then if that is more convenient.

No Child Left Behind will address the unstated assumptions of the dominant discourse as to why some children fail in school, the consequences of such failure, and the contingencies on which this failure is based. We will challenge the premises of standardized testing, answerability, accountability and the philosophical underpinnings of Theory X and Theory Y, one of which says people will work hard naturally, to satisfy their own curiosity, and the other of which says that people will work hard only if manipulated into such hard work, as by holding out the reward of a carrot or some M&M's.

We will explore the relationships among school failure, accountability of the various parties to the failure, and the resulting social and criminal justice issues that provide many of the contingencies that shape our everyday lives. Basic information will be provided on the Dear Habermas site, along with self tests that will guide you in choosing material for certification of learning (i.e., for grades) if you are formally enrolled in one of our departments.

Texts:

Required: I have chosen not to require a text. That doesn't mean that I don't want you to read. I do. But we are going to approach this subject broadly. I want you to be able to choose your reading, and to read according to your own personal comfort level, so that prior barriers will not interfere with your present learning. All the readings I expect you to cover will be provided on the Dear Habermas site. Then, I ask that you choose your own reading, with both cost and time considerations that fit your particular circumstances.

Text Materials Accessible through Dear Habermas Site

• Communication

• Liberal and Conservative: What Happened to Left and Right, and Where Do New Social Programs Fit?

• Love for Fellow Humans: A Christian (Amongst Others) Doctrine

• Institutions of Education and Structural Violence

• Race, Structural Violence, and No Child Left Behind

• Art, Spirituality, Politics, and community Activism

• General References:

If you want hardcopy of a section of the reading, use cut and paste to copy just the part you want. Instructions for Reasonable Hard Copy from Site.

Course Objectives:

1. Objective: To master the concept of aesthetic process of answerability and its role in creating an atmosphere of morality and ethics in our institutions and world systems, particularly the educational system. Answerability.

   Outcome: Students will participate in class discussions on transform_dom, respecting the answerability of every member of that community, and the aesthetic process of collaborative creation. Academic Assessment. Four of student's dialog participations will ultimately be posted on learning records for a collaborative evaluation report on the class.

2. Objective: To master the simple use of any computer that happens to be available. Our readings are on the Internet. Please be sure you know how to access them and to post to the discussions.

   Outcome: Students will be expected to access class materials on the Dear Habermas website and to post on transform-dom, our discussion forum.

3. Objective: To explore in depth the contingencies that affect the interdependence of many groups in the No Child Left Behind program that is primarily characterized by standardized tesing..

   Outcomes: Students, in their submissions to our discussion group, will consider the framing of the facts they cite, the illocutionary discourse in which they must engage to hear one another in good faith, and the importance of such a forum to in-depth consideration of the social justice and criminal justice issues of education in both social learning and banked learning of facts we should all command. Students will have four submissions in which to demonstrate that they have mastered this objective.

4. Objective: To explore the concept of Love 1A, as taught by Buscaglia, with an understanding of how he utilized the love he defined in the teaching of special education, and to explore how that concept can be understood in relation to the No Child Left Behind program.

   Outcome: Students will be expected to demonstrate either that they understand the role of love, in the sense of affirmation of answerability and good faith listening to the student's perspective in education or that they reject that particular objective for U.S. educational programs. This outcome can be demonstrated either in our discussions or as part of the submitted learning records for our evaluation report.

5. Objective: To create some piece of visual sociology to be used for community activism, and to report that activity so that we can all share it. Cards, box sculptures, hand-made books, bookmarks, etc.

   Outcome: Participation in our Spring Semester Exhibition of Naked Space. Project exhibited may be done individually or in a group.

6. Objective: To appreciate the nature and value of collaborative work in building community and supporting governance discourse.

   Outcome: Time and traffic constraints prevent the kind of community that once was possible on the average liberal arts college. Students will describe the contingencies that prevent such community in their local areas, and the ways of collaboration we have learned to overcome such contingencies. Students may do this as part of the collaborative evaluation report, incorporating the report by reference, or indivdually.

Academic Assessment:

• Academic Assessment and Grading Policy

  We assume that you are here to learn, and that you are serious about your grades as a ladder to job success and choices as well as the general satisfaction that comes of disciplined study and learning. Therefore, we assume that if you are not learning, you need another approach or a different tool to guide you, or maybe just for someone to say it once more, in different words, whatever it is. We DO NOT grade on a curve, since it is our job, as we understand it, to provide every possible means to help you each succeed at a competent professional level, which we translate to an A. Our class is not competitive. We will each be better off as citizens if we all gain the skills we are teaching here. Please help each other. Our greatest pride would be to see you all provide solid evidence of an A.

  • What We Mean by Participation. Participation is required.

  • Collaborative Work and Choosing Issues You Know Best. How we test. Submit your best work.

  • Providing Academic Support Groups for Writing Practice Use transform_dom for your dialog. Then submit on Learning Record. I'll upload to our collaborative Writing Project.

  • Ritual and Compliments without being "ickypoo sweet."

  A's are earned, not given because you need or want them. So how do you earn them?

  • Consistency, showing disciplined learning; means you focus on something and make it your own. And then you let me know that you're doing that consistently over the semester.

  • Cooperation, showing an understanding of how important it is for all to master these skills and your power to aid in that learning; means that you either work with others, and make sure that I'm aware of that, or that you at least understand the importance for such cooperation in governance and governance discourse.

  • Competence, showing an ability to apply skills and readings, and interpret them in your own context.

  • Creativity, showing an ability to transfer the skills to other classes, other jobs, other relationships.

  • Courtesy, showing a respect for all despite skill, character, physical, and cultural differences. We all contribute a lot, if we're helped to do so.

  • Communication, letting your teacher know what you've learned. Maybe you'll never get Chi Sqaure straight. But if you come and show us what you've been doing, we can help you get it right, and you can at least experience that success. And then you'll know, for sure, you should never, never volunteer to do a Chi Square unless you've got someone to help you. Knowing what you shouldn't volunteer for is as important as knowing what you should volunteer for. It's about showing off your skills, not your weaknesses.

    And how do you communicate? By talking to us and writing to us, in class, in the halls, in the office, on tranform-dom, on learning records if it's about grades.

  • Here Be Dragons: The Plagiarism Gotcha Game The university requires inclusion of this component, so it might be a good idea to take a look at it. I stole the title "here be dragons" from a feminist work on the site, but it was more in the spirit of "stealing theory," which is a good thing.

  Common Sense:

  Permission to enroll in this course is premised on college admission, assumed to have been granted because you were judged capable of performing competently. However, I recognize that crises occur and that you have many conflicting demands as students, family members, and workers. Please remember that A's are earned, not given for the status characteristic of "being a good student who could get an A if he/she made the effort." One way to deal with such crises effectively is to be sure that I know when they are happening. Because most of my lectures and your practice are on the site, it's easier to make up missed time over conflicts than you might think.

  Nota bene: If you have the flu, please don't come and give it to the rest of us. We'll help you catch up when you're well. We are all overwhelmed and over committed. Please respect my request to e-mail me, not come see me, when you have a contagious infection. Better safe than sorry for all of us.

  If you haven't slept, and are falling asleep from exhaustion, please stay home and sleep. Sleep deprivation is a very real problem. We all drive freeways to get here, and go home often late at night. If your children or significant others keep you up in their crises, before you drive without sleep, please remember that you're risking their losing you in a freeway accident. Get a grip on your priorities. Sleep is essential.

  I do not give specific deadlines, because I want you to use your common sense and your own discipline to study effectively. All work can be made up within university imposed limits.

  Readings to Keep Us All on the Same Page:

  • Week 3: Week of February 5, 2006

    Topic: Communicating with Respect and Caring for the Other

    • Reading: Sneaky Strokes as Silent Stimuli to Illocutionary Discourse

      Self Test on Sneaky Storkes as Silent Stimuli to Illocutionary Discourse

    • Reading: Empathy and Responsibility Be Damned: Defining the Capitalist Purpose
      

      Self Test on Empathy and Sensibility Be Damned Will post this weekend.

    • Reading: Communication and Politics and Religion: Frames and the Language of Persuasion

      Self Test on Communication and Politics and Religion: Frames and the Language of Persuasion Will post this weekend.

    Topic: Rhetoric as Opposed to Reasoned Argument

    • Albert O. Hirschman's Rhetoric of Reaction

      Self Test up soon. jeanne

• Week 4: Week of February 12, 2006

  Learning How to Differentiate Between Illocutionary, Instrumental, and Governance Discourse Reading for Week 4.

  Self Test on Learning How to Differentiate Between Illocutionary, Instrumental, and Governance Discourse.

  The Silent Language by Edward T. Hall. Reading for Week 4. Self Test up soon.

  Hermeneutics, Interpreting Scripture Reading for Week 4.

  Week 5: Week of February 19, 2006

  Reframing the Cheney Shooting Incident: A Minor News Story or A Pattern of Denial of Transparency

  Backup of Cheney Says He's to Blame in Shooting of Fellow Hunter
  

  Backup of Critics See a White House Failure to Communicate

  The Expression of Feelings: Visual Language Lecture notes on Edvard Munch's expression of visual angst.

  Which Child Will Be Left Behind When $100 Laptops Are Shipped to School Districts?

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  Footnote 1. Esq. means Esquire, and is sometimes used to indicate that you are a member of the Bar.
  jeanne is a member of the California Bar. But mostly it sounds elitist.

  
  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
  Individual copyrights by other authors may apply.