From the Editor
The Importance of Maintaining Native Language
This article focuses on the implications of native language loss as well as the benefits of maintaining native language. Due to the focus on assimilation in the United States’ bilingual education, immigrant children face native language loss at alarming rates. Although assimilation into our country’s English-speaking culture is beneficial to children’s educational and professional futures, native language loss has a negative effect on familial relationships, sense of identity, and social interactions. Maintaining native language thus negates these negative impacts while benefiting the economy as a whole. Language-minority individuals who maintain their native language are benefited from a broader scope of career opportunities, increased cognitive abilities, and higher academic success.
More than "Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' roll?": Woodstock's Political and Cultural Elements
The 1960s counterculture—and perhaps an entire generation—was defined by one historic summer weekend, fifty years ago. About half-a-million people, most under the age of thirty, swarmed Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York, from August 15th to 17th to be a part of the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
This is AmeriKKKa
See we just out here tryna
succeed, But they just wanna see
us all fall. Don’t like the color of
my skin, But like my features and
all.
The Transnational Consequences of Anti-Black Racism and Settler Colonialism on Black Women: From Turtle Island to the Jawara Tribe
The Jawara people of the Andaman Islands live under the jurisdiction of the Indian government and are recognized as a legal and social “Adivasi” group, subject to an ongoing process of colonization which materializes in the form governmental neglect and isolation, as well as sexual and monetary exploitation.
The Exclusive Power Of Agenda-Setting In The Modern United States Congress
In the United States Congress, one individual per chamber holds the power to bring a bill to the floor of the House of Representatives or the Senate. The concentration of the agenda-setting power in Congress allows a single elected representative to prevent the passage of any legislation that would negatively affect his narrow political or financial interests, regardless of the popular support for the policy. Using theories of political inclusivity and representation from prominent democratic theorists Jane Mansbridge, Robert Dahl, and Iris Marion Young, I demonstrate how the institutionalized exclusivity and the historical unrepresentativeness of the current system of agenda-setting in the United States Congress undermines other institutions meant to ensure a democratic legislative process and leads to undemocratic outcomes. I provide relevant examples of Congressional agenda-setters preventing the public from exercising its democratic agency, and offer suggestions to create a more inclusive agenda-setting process.
Grades in a Modern Education System
This paper explores the plausibility of a gradeless classroom in the twenty-first century. School rankings are reliant on standardized test scores, and students are evaluated based on arbitrary number and letter grades. Both of these measurements lack important information regarding specific concepts that teachers expect students to know. Educators believe that moving away from a score based system would allow students to learn and achieve more. Instead of letters or percentages on a report card, some schools have turned to a narrative grading system. By breaking down student report cards into specific content categories, teachers produce feedback for students on individual concepts. Emory H. Markle Intermediate School in southern Pennsylvania has recently transitioned to a standards-based grading system. Through the collection of administrator and teacher opinions, readers can get a deeper understanding of the topic by current professionals in the field. In addition to the educator’s perspective, data is included on student opinions. Through current research, teachers, administrators, and parents alike support a standards-based system, due to its ability to provide specific feedback, promote student growth, and make learning meaningful.
Iris
Iris and Max sat in the overgrown grass on the hillside that dipped down to become their soccer field. They spoke slowly: about her coach and his, about the same old uniforms, about the sun in the sky and the humidity in the air. Iris tried to fill the space between them with her words, but there was a long, and by some means awkward, lull of silence that hung there instead.
Monkeys and Itches
The sense of knowing
Is a bottomless depth.
The sense of understanding
Even more so.
The lived experience of a Black Brazilian woman
While discussing racism and sexism, Sara Ahmed remembers how Audre Lorde considered those “grown up words” (2017, p. 32)—words whose meaning we experience since the day we are born, but which we can only name years after constantly dealing with them.
Volume 16, Spring 2020
