Beyond Ms. Mason

  “Do we or do we not live in a world where we assist each other? Do we or do we not help each other with basic needs?” - Judith Butler, Examined Life- Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor (2010) Reading and watching this week’s sources brought a lot of thoughts I have about special education, particularly the way special education operates in public high schools, to the forefront of my brain. Starting with the Youtube video Examined Life--Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor (2010), I was instantly hooked on the concept of how social politics inform the way one operates in a space and/or if one asks for, and in turn receives, assistance. Although Butler and Taylor contain their conversation to the physical realm (i.e. how one’s appearance informs how the public reacts to them/ their bodies), I connected this conversation to something less visible, but just as omnipresent: asking for help in a classroom setting. In my experience thus far as a special educator it is common to see studen...

  “The dominant white culture is killing us slowly with its ignorance… As a people we have resisted and we have taken expedient positions, but we have never been allowed to develop unencumbered—we have never been allowed to be fully ourselves.” - Gloria Anzaldua, “La conciencia de la mestiza/ Towards a New Consciousness”, p. 86 Watching Precious Knowledge (2011) directed by Ari Palos and Eren Isabel McGinnis was a constant act of dedication after the first twenty minutes of the film. The shift of watching the success of  the Mexican-American Studies program (MAS) to the documentation of MAS’s untimely demise is what I think makes watching this film feel surreal: the first twenty or so minutes demonstrates to the viewer that there is a strong correlation between an increase in positive academic and nonacademic outcomes for students who participate in MAS with the remaining 50 minutes showcasing all the ways two prominent politicians use their power and their networks to put ...