Book Review

     "He shined the light on the mound of fallen leaves. Jutting out from the pile was an unfathomably small- yet unmistakably human-foot." Catherine Ryan Hyde's When I Found You captured my heart with its compelling compassion.
     When I Found You encourages its readers to follow their hearts. Nat met a girl at Frosty Freeze named Carol. He knew that he liked this girl a lot, so he decided to win her over every way he could. Nat also wanted to be a professional boxer when he got good enough to fight better players. He followed his heart to get to his goal as close as he could. Nathan wanted Nat to except him and get to know him. Nathan never gave up on trying to the best parent figure he could to Nat.
     The author's style totally sets the mood of her book When I Found You. The diction and how much she described every event really made this book so enjoyable to read. Such as, "Then a click, and a brusque male voice on the line." Her description in her book made everything so clear. Such as, "It was wrapped in a sweater- a regular adult-size sweater- and wore a tiny, well-fitted, multicolored knit cap." This gives her readers a perfect picture of a scene she was trying to portray. Another example of this is "Nathan stood in the cool autumn dark, a moment before sunrise, his shotgun angles up across his shoulder."
     The setting of the book impacts the main conflict of the book in a huge way. The book says, "He scooped underneath the lump with both gloved hands at once, lifted the child up to him, blew leaves off its face." This affects the conflict by telling the readers that the baby was in the woods. Another example is Nathan's wife would not him keep the child. He was worried about what kind of home he would be going back to. Lastly, Nat's grandma could not handle him anymore, so she dumped him back off at Nathan's house years later. Nat had behavioral problems, so Nathan had to teach him to become the man he needed to be in the time period that they lived in.
     I recommend this book to anyone who loves to read about following your heart and having compassion. This book shows that it is possible to put ourselves aside to help others and help them chase their dreams.

Current Connection 3.2

According to http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/genderbias.html teachers need to be aware of the gender roles we are facing in our schools. The teachers are the ones who are suppose to make the schools comfortable environment. Being constantly put down by their teachers, the students will not perform their best.

If teachers realize that they cause problems with gender roles, they should go out of their way to make sure the problem is solved. The website says, "Gender bias in education is an insidious problem that causes very few people to stand up and take notice." This means that if gender roles are causing so many problems, someone needs to stand up and say what they feel. Being noble leaders, The teachers should definitely stand up and speak their minds.

The people higher than the teachers, the ones who should be lifting up our students, should help out with this issue as well. The website said, "Departments of education should be providing mandatory gender-equity resource modules to in-service teachers..." This simply means that the teachers should not work alone. The people who are above them should be working on the issue as well, trying to be problem solvers.

Someone needs to make sure that every teacher knows about the gender role problem in our schools. The website states, "..teachers need to be aware of the gender bias.." If no one brings it to their attention, how could they fix it? No one can fix a problem, if they are not aware. 

I watched a movie called "Paradise" recently, and the main character Lamb could not go to college because of how her community thought of the women. She was not happy with how she grew up and now she could not pursue her dreams because how women were portrayed. 

Boys and girls everywhere are being put down in their school settings. That is where the journey should begin and not end. It should not matter what a persons gender is. Everyone should have their shot, starting with our schools. 

Current Connection 3.1

Gender roles have always been a major part of our way of life. The competition of gender roles do not just begin in the workplace; it starts in the school atmosphere.

Gender roles in the school environment have an affect on the rest the students' future. The text says, " Schools serve as 'gatekeepers'..." This means that the schools, the influence to the personal lives of the students, are responsible for what they feed to the minds of the students. The schools are to watch what they teach their students because their minds are still clay that is being crafted. 

Both genders go through different phases from when they start elementary school to when they enter in the higher grades. The text says, "In some measures of school readiness, such as fine motor control, girls are ahead of boys. Twelve years later, girls have fallen behind their male classmates in key areas such as higher-level mathematics and measures of self-esteem." This means that girls start out at a higher level than the boys. Falling back, girls now have lower math grades and self-esteem.

Feeding young minds of students, schools could see a brighter future. The text states, "...Latinas are not achieving primarily because they are in low-achieving (poverty) schools, not because they are girls." This means that the school is at fault for not choosing to truly invest in the lives of young Latina girls. The text clearly states that it is not because they are girls, but the school should focus on all of the students and make sure that they are doing their absolute best.

Making sure every student has what they need, Schools should have the main goal that they will their best no matter what their gender. What would the world be like if this goal was met?



http://www.education.com/reference/article/gender-roles-schools/