Best educational philosophy book according to redditors
We found 73 Reddit comments discussing the best educational philosophy book. We ranked the 26 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 73 Reddit comments discussing the best educational philosophy book. We ranked the 26 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
You might as well ask 'Which religion is the one true religion'.
Some people strongly believe that the only way to end sexism is to stop treating people differently based on their sex, to the degree that is permitted by our physical/biological differences. That means you'd just have opportunities and people would apply. Male, female, trans, other, etc....would be irrelevant. You should treat everyone equally and choose candidates based on their merits.
Other people strongly believe that the only way to end sexism is to ensure 'equality'. That usually means something like, 'If a less dominate group is under-represented in a beneficial field, it's sexist for us to not work at achieving equal representation'.
I think there are strong arguments to be made on both sides. When I was in college, I was firmly in the first camp. "Just treat everyone the same" but there is a reasonable amount of evidence that suggests everyone isn't the same (for a lot of different reasons that people will largely debate).
Without getting into it too deeply, it seems that most people (even those who say they'd treat everyone equally) don't. It's not an intentional thing, but it seems to be a real thing.
In one example, they gave scientists a bunch of job applications to review, containing equally qualified male and female students. The female students were evaluated less favorably than the male students. But these were fictional students with identical qualifications.
>...which Yale researchers found to be prevalent when scientists were asked to review job applications for identically qualified male and female students
There are also students that seem to show that, despite people generally being polite and friendly, we still treat women worse than we do men.
> Indeed, several studies have shown that when women do speak, they’re more likely to be interrupted, they’re likely to speak for shorter periods of time than their male classmates, and it’s less likely that instructors will listen to what they have to say
Now you might say, 'Hey - it's not my fault women speak for shorter periods of time than men!' but if I were interrupted often and felt like the Prof wasn't really listening, I'd be a lot less verbose too.
I actually tried to get one of my past employers to anonymous resumes before sending them to the devs to evaluate. It was a small company and we didn't have like a dedicated HR team. So, HR did a very initial, just friendly level phone chat, and if they seemed alright, our dev team would look at the resume.
I wanted to remove the name and anything that would state or imply gender. Again, I had good intentions, but if we know that people evaluate men and women differently, let's just remove that from the equation. The problem was that too many other people objected on the grounds that, basically, we wanted to promote diversity and that if we didn't know a candidate was a woman, we'd pass on them....but if we knew it was.....we might bring them in for an interview.
So yeah, I got nothing. Except, no matter what you do, someone will think you are sexist.
>Husband still wants him doing as much if it as possible, but I think we can reasonably cut WAY down on it.
Have him take a look at the research.
There have been a lot of studies that find that school teachers give more attention to boys: they call on boys more frequently, they wait longer for boys to articulate their thoughts, they use more eye contact with boys, they reward boys more often for speaking out while punishing girls for the same behavior. Here's a book about it. The authors, Sadker and Sadker, wrote another article in 2004 about the same stuff, but I can't find a copy of it online.
There was a study that came out of Israel a couple of years ago where they found that teachers gave girls lower grades on a math test when they knew the kids were girls.
MtF trans people benefit from these sorts of teachers' biases as long as MtF trans people are in the closet. What I mean is: until a trans person comes out as trans--at 15, at 26, at 50--everyone around them will treat them as their birth sex, and so even if a MtF trans person doesn't feel like a boy inside while they're in school, the teachers around them will still treat them like boys, not like girls.
this may be it
For one, Zeitgeist was an art piece he did as a social experiment in his mid 20s. Joseph never cared about "conspiracies" at all, if people took 5 seconds to study his work over the past 10 years. He is also an artist at heart.
His AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/6414g3/i_am_peter_joseph_author_of_the_new_human_rights/
--First Book:https://www.amazon.com/Zeitgeist-Movement-Defined-Realizing-Thought/dp/1495303195
"One of the achievements of this book is its ability to find research-based connections between seemingly unrelated social and economic conditions. Without becoming repetitive or dull, each essay is able to shed light on specific issues in a way that is neither too academic nor too informal. Powerful quotes are used at the beginning of chapters, research is clearly footnoted throughout, and the language—albeit at times somewhat technical and term-heavy—does well to give a picture of how one social problem influences the next, and how one scientific advancement could, if accepted and adopted into society properly, change the way all humans interact with the environment that surrounds them." -Review by Kenny Jakubas
--Second Book:https://www.amazon.com/New-Human-Rights-Movement-Reinventing/dp/1942952651
"This book is a fascinating read, and a vitally important one for anyone who is tired of the status quo, seeks to understand why it is so entrenched, and wants to do something about it."New York Journal of Books"
Peter Joseph is one of the great visionaries of our time. If there's a beautiful future―and I think there will be―then his fingerprints will be all over it."―Marianne Williamson, #1 New York Times bestselling author"Since 9/11, security took over and retired human rights into a small closet. We need to get back to the issue of rights for all. Hopefully this important work will draw us closer to that reality and promise. Without economic realignment with nature to secure our habitat, along with conquering the sociological roots of fragmentation and bigotry, the human family is in peril."―Jack Healey,Head of Human Rights Action Center
"One of this generation's greatest visionaries delivers a startling exposé about the violent oppression that defines our economic order, while issuing an urgent call for global activism to unite to change it. Amidst a deepening crisis of capitalism and inequality, coupled with an intensifying assault by the Empire's elite, The New Human Rights Movement provides a crucial roadmap for the movement toward the next system."***–***Abby Martin, host of The Empire Files
--2008 follow up Zeitgeist when he showed his true colors to focus on economics:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EewGMBOB4Gg
--2011 seminal work "Zeitgeist Moving Forward"https://youtu.be/4Z9WVZddH9w
--His Lecture playlist. Brilliant:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV9KzChRGz7KEBhw20ZkipLU7BgLoVAxG
You can follow him on Twitter. DO IT!@zeitgeistfilm
This is kind of interesting. You're obviously being very sarcastic but, in your sarcasm, you made a bunch of good suggestions.
> We care for a year or so, and then we give up.
I almost never write anything by hand. I can, there's just no need. How is the time I spent learning to write things by hand anything other than a waste? With the increasing pervasiveness of computers and the advent of real, working voice recognition (Dragon Naturally Speaking rocks!), handwriting is going to become even more unnecessary in the future.
> My kids hates homework, and doesn't like school. No more homework!
Read Alfie Kohn's Homework Myth to see why we should get rid of homework.
> English has hard-to-spell words that aren't spelled like they sound. Umm, don't worry about spelling.
English spelling is ridiculous. What a god damn waste of time. Why shouldn't we improve the language so it's easier to spell stuff? I think one of the biggest current flaws with English (and maybe languages in general) is that we try to hold them static. We should regularly and systematically clean up the language and simplify spelling.
> It's just that parents aren't able to deal with the kid's hate, so they figure the system must be wrong if the kid hates it this much, so stop the system!
The system is stupid, broken and produces terrible results. Anyone who doesn't want to stop or change the system isn't thinking it through.
Here is a PARTIAL list of economics books I've read cover to cover, and why I appreciated Bitcoin earlier than most:
Adam Smith
Ludwig von Mises
Murray N. Rothbard
And many many more: https://forum.bitcoin.com/economics/blockstream-supporters-mock-those-who-study-economics-t49159.html
Your focus on detention is arbitrary. It's like saying it's unfair that hostages don't have access to pizza. Maybe, but the whole state of being-a-hostage is unfair. Instead of obsessing about their lack of pepperoni and mushrooms, why not, instead, focus on the actual problem?
All of this stuff has been studied for decades. We know that most schools are run horribly, according to unsound educational principals. But that never changes.
When psychologists or neuroscientists discover something about learning or education, it takes years or decades to affect classroom practices, if it ever does.
Schools aren't generally affected by Science. Instead, they are buffeted by politics and held fast by tradition.
See
I am skeptical that I will CYV, even though I believe that this is the best argument against it--not your view that detention is wrong, but that it's not even worth talking about. Sure, detention is a bad thing--but not the worst thing--about a horrible, corrupt, abusive system.
I'm skeptical, because the system is so deeply entrenched in our culture. And the most people can do is argue about small tweaks: whether we should use this textbook or that, the length of Summer break, the size of classrooms, etc.
The debate about Creationism vs Evolution in schools is a good example. If the Evolution folks (or the Creationist folks) win, they will pat themselves on the back and walk away happy, never glancing back and noticing that the same shoddy educational methods are being used now as before--with just one correction.
Yes, Dominoes is bad pizza. It won't suddenly become good pizza if you put it in a less-ugly box. I agree that the box is ugly, but why focus on it? It's not the core problem.
Whether or not you're going all the way to homeschooling or finding alternatives such as Montessori or Waldorf, here's my two cents as well. Read up on it. I'll probably come off as bit of an ass, but it's your kid, what more relevance do you need to find and buy lots and lots of manuals(so to speak). Kids're pretty complicated, or so I've heard.
I'm not an expert, but I have a few titles I'll promptly lay on whatever friend of mine starts to procreate first. In my opinion these aren't 'crazy' books, and I sincerely hope you'll take them seriously.
How Children Learn
How Children Fail
Punished By Rewards
The Homework Myth
John Taylor Gatto has written some stuff as well, but Google can find that for you. Read and read more. I couldn't begin to describe my time in the famous twelve years without plenty of cussing.
Take an interest, is my advice.
I think the closest we have are Chris Hedges, Cornell West, David Graeber...
Or, maybe we're in a new paradigm were you don't have leaders - we have movements. Occupy. The Zeitgeist Movement just put out a new book that is amazing:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Zeitgeist-Movement-Defined-Realizing/dp/1495303195
John Holt's work defends a pretty radical idea of how to educate children.
Try The Classroom Management Secret instead. So much of the literature out there is primarily for elementary, but this one is my go-to for secondary ed.
>What craig does have though, and you still seem to lack, is the basic understanding that he cannot under any circumstances allow for the possibility that the universe could have begun without a cause.
Well, there is this where he writes:
>Notice that they equate knowledge with certainty. If you’re not certain that some proposition p is true, then you do not know that p. But what justification is there for that assumption? I know that I have a head, for example. But I could be a brain in a vat of chemicals being stimulated by a mad scientist to think that I have a body. Does this mere possibility imply that I do not know that I have a head?
There is also the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Certainty that says,
>One of the primary motivations for allowing kinds of knowledge less than certainty is the widespread sense that skeptical arguments are successful in showing that we rarely or never have beliefs that are certain (see Unger 1975 for this kind of skeptical argument) but do not succeed in showing that our beliefs are altogether without epistemic worth
Or you could, you know, actually read a book.
You're just wrong, and no matter how snarky you are you will still be wrong. So you can either admit it, or you can continue to be a part of the most dogmatic religion around - New Atheism. Let me guess, you choose New Atheism? Big surprise...
Im currently have a proffesor that is autistic and has done a lot of research on it.
First, some short pieces of my own writing...
http://neurocosmopolitanism.com/what-is-autism/
http://neurocosmopolitanism.com/throw-away-the-masters-tools-liberating-ourselves-from-the-pathology-paradigm/
http://neurocosmopolitanism.com/autism-and-the-pathology-paradigm/
http://neurocosmopolitanism.com/neurodiversity-some-basic-terms-definitions/
http://neurocosmopolitanism.com/neurotypical-psychotherapists-and-neurodivergent-clients/
Next, some videos...
My friend Steve Silberman, journalist and autism historian:
https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_silberman_the_forgotten_history_of_autism
A 2007 video that was one of the earliest public statements by a nonspeaking autistic activist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc
Spectrum, a 23-minute documentary featuring a few autistic folks including my nonspeaking poet friend Tito and me:
https://www.pbs.org/video/iptv-presents-spectrum-story-mind/
My advice for parents of autistic children:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6GnPgro5BY
And here are some book recommendations...
The Real Experts, a short book of autistic writings for parents of autistic kids:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0986183563/
The ABCs of Autism Acceptance, another 101-level book for parents and others:
https://www.amazon.com/ABCs-Autism-Acceptance-Sparrow-Jones/dp/0997297174/
Plankton Dreams, a lovely brief childhood memoir by nonspeaking poet Tito Mukhopadhyay:
https://www.amazon.com/Plankton-Dreams-What-Learned-Special/dp/1785420070/
Diverse Bodies, Diverse Practices, a book on somatics and diversity that includes a chapter by me on autistic embodiment:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1623172888/
Authoring Autism, the definitive scholarly critique of the dominant discourses on autism:
https://www.amazon.com/Authoring-Autism-Rhetoric-Neurological-Queerness/dp/0822370115/
There are a few resources for you:
Philosophy for Kids
Junior Skeptic Magazine
I have an 11-year old who is very interested in discussing philosophy, and sometimes talking and learning together is the best approach. There's not as much of a 'right answer' as it is a process of inquiry. Also, if it fits with your worldview, McGowan's book on Parenting Beyond Belief is also really helpful. Good luck and enjoy the ride!
Wow, I don’t even know where to start, but I will try to be brief and maybe add more later.
First and foremost, the ways in which resources- material and human- are distributed in the U.S. are woefully inequitable and unacceptable. I believe that all students should have opportunities to engage in intellectually demanding curricula and that this curricula should reflect and build on their life experiences. While I do believe a valid role in public education is “preparing our children to compete in the global economy” (www.barackobama.com/), I think that the most important responsibilities of the education system to sustain a democratic society and to support students’ critical literacy. By critical literacy, I mean students should be able to read, write, and do arithmetic, but also be able to use these skills to understand the world, in terms of social, political, cultural issues.
I was optimistic about Obama when he took office. There were rumors he was going to pick a distinguished educator/professor who is internationally known in the field of education. So I was dismayed that Obama named a non-education person for the Secretary of Education. While I appreciate and value outsider perspectives, to me Duncan just seemed like another neo-liberal business person who really didn’t understand schools or school (due to his past performance as head of CPS and his rhetoric). His record of closing neighborhood schools and privatizing public schools in Chicago was devastating. His misguided notions of merit pay were embarrassing, given the decades of educational and sociological research on the topic. Just to name a few! (From a common sense standpoint, why would “good” teachers want to teach in underperforming schools? Why would teachers in underperforming schools teach anything other than the low-level skills required on the test?)
To me, very little seems different than the Bush years in terms of action/rhetoric. I wish that the DOE spent more time listening to and collaborating with real teachers and education researchers that have more than enough accounts and research to lead the way to a more progressive, equitable, and socially just educational system...really take the notion of educating our citizens [in the public school system].
An Open Letter to Arne Duncan by Sen. (and former teacher) Herb Kohl is an excellent example of the kind of issues and hope I have for the future.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_04/good234.shtml
Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation is also an excellent, albeit depressing book about schooling in the U.S.
http://www.amazon.com/Shame-Nation-Restoration-Apartheid-Schooling/dp/1400052440 - http://www.amazon.com/Shame-Nation-Restoration-Apartheid-Schooling/dp/1400052440
Quick resource would be Bennet's "Bumps".
http://www.tvdsb.ca/webpages/wolson/files/classroom%20management%20-%20theory%20of%20bumps.pdf
Book would be "Teaching Children to Care"
https://www.amazon.ca/Teaching-Children-Care-Classroom-Management/dp/1892989085
I've read Gatto's "Dumbing Us Down", and his writing style for that is a bit sensationalist, too. It was confusing that in this .txt file, near the end, someone wrote that free market, pre-Civil War style schools are "UNavailable only to the
resourceful, the courageous, the lucky, or the rich." (Huh?)
If anyone takes anything from this, though - since I'm assuming everyone reading this post has already gone through said schooling system - is to look into homeschooling yourself now. You can still learn things from people in the community and or teach yourself. Sure, we don't have as much free time as schoolchildren anymore, but that doesn't mean we ought to not try. Inside of a school building is not the only designated place where you are allowed to learn, and after you graduate high school/college/trade school, that doesn't mean you have to be "done."
Gatto's writing, along with others (John Holt, Susan Wise Bauer, etc.) have been used by many who have decided to homeschool their children, but you can can become an autodidact and "unschool" yourself, no matter what age.
Edit: If you like the idea of Ben Franklin's self-education, you might find this book to be a really fun read.
> Do you or your professor have any research that supports this claim?
The professor did not cite studies in her discussion, no. As to myself, I have no studies, just years of experience teaching in high schools and colleges.
> The largest determinant in student learning is student practice and practice is not always fun, but it is beneficial.
Agreed -- up to the point to where the student knows the topic. After that, it's simply drudgery and an exercise in following orders. Since you're interested in research, Alfie Kohn analyzed a lot of research on this topic in his 2007 book, "The Homework Myth".
I'm gonna take the long shot here and recommend Paulo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It's the type of book that'd slip pass prison restriction (assuming you from US), but also equally powerful and can profoundly impact and influence your nephew's ideology. Pedagogy Of The Oppressed educates one how to think for themselves, and not thinking like other. It's an extremely powerful book that few leftists talk about it. I recommend it.
Also The Wretched Of The Earth by Franz Fanon is another great book I'd recommend.
if she still wants to stay within christianity, I suggest UU or TEC (the episcopal church) both are fairly progressive non-indoctrinational churches. We go to TEC, and my girls love it the two oldest got to go to their first sleep away camp and they loved it, they are even open to the fact that even tho I am still Christian, my spirituality is more closely align with agnostic theist and my hubby is Secular humanist/agnostic atheist. but as with everything it would also depend on your parish, not all churches are made equal even within a particular denomination. also I suggest helping her develop her own critical thinking. have her read [the magic of reality] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Magic-Reality-Whats-Really/dp/1451675046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406185178&sr=8-1&keywords=magic+of+reality), and [Philosophy for kids] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1882664701/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) also read [Raising Freethinkers] (http://www.amazon.com/Raising-Freethinkers-Practical-Parenting-Beyond/dp/0814410960/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406185579&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=raisin+free+thinkers).. Edited: for grammar and to add one more book suggestion..
Not really surprising, is it?
This reminds me of the facts behind homework. The author of The Homework Myth claims that with the sole exception of high school math, the many, many studies on the topic find that homework is detrimental (or at best has no clear positive correlation) to actual student knowledge.
But our protestant work ethic and mindless football-like mindsets about toughness, work and punishment has us ignoring facts...
We really appreciate criticisms, we really do. But thoughtful, substantive ones. Branding something with labels such as "new age" and "hippie" is essentially meaningless and the opposite of skeptical analysis. If you want to engage a topic, why not actually address claims rather than paint in broad brush strokes and loaded dismissive jargon.
By the way, the first Z-film has nothing to do with TZM (and I don't endorse it, by the way), and the second film, in retrospect, was probably not presented optimally. TZM has come a long way since then. The third film is a very academic work, and the new "TZM Defined" book is a meticulous work: http://www.amazon.com/The-Zeitgeist-Movement-Defined-Realizing/dp/1495303195 and available for free on TZM's main website.
Here’s 37 of em!
Stress Control: 37 Strategies to Lower your Stress
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So, in my ethnic group, there is a saying that saying, culture is "Godliness/religion" or "Unduire ni Ungai". Most African cultures, were also their religion. There was no separation of the two. Unlike, for example.. Christianity, where you can be wicked and evil during the week, and show up to church on Sunday wearing a suit (like some of our most corrupt people do) and ask God for forgiveness, and come Monday, go back to swindling the country.
The single most important thing in most African cultures, is the religious ceremonies (Magogona), which put the ethnic group (I'll speak for Kikuyu's) in communion with God, and those that had departed. (ngomi).
Heaven and hell do not (I didn't say "did not") in the Kikuyu religion. That was a foreign concept, brought to us by you know who.
I could go on an on about Kikuyu religion, but there are several good books that get into this topic:
https://www.amazon.com/Decline-Spiritual-Authority-Traditional-Religion/dp/1534634436/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=gikuyu+religion&qid=1554144365&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull
​
​
Okay, it's ten years old (2007) but the research and referenced studies/data in the book still holds up very well.
So I'll just drop this here: The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing.
It's a book, the full title is:
Yardsticks: Child and Adolescent Development Ages 4-14, by Chip Wood
​
https://www.amazon.com/Yardsticks-Child-Adolescent-Development-Ages/dp/1892989891/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/144-9661703-6814451?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1892989891&pd_rd_r=4a8f43a8-a2af-11e9-b53b-0f76579948e0&pd_rd_w=AjcWy&pd_rd_wg=c7qAe&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=TZ8ERFCN6QXJZ230T2SC&psc=1&refRID=TZ8ERFCN6QXJZ230T2SC
The Venus Project and /r/TZM is proposing a new kind of economic system where automation enables us to not need jobs anymore. Here is a book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Zeitgeist-Movement-Defined-Realizing/dp/1495303195
Dig around in the Stanford graduate school of education website. I was part of a CRT professional development last year there and it was amazing. I missed this event, but wish I could have attended.
https://live.stanford.edu/content/conference-culturally-responsive-pedagogy-and-arts
Whittier College has a program with some great resources also.
https://www.whittier.edu/iclrt
This is an excellent book of strategies, we used at the end of the Stanford program.
https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Culturally-Linguistically-Responsive-Teaching/dp/142581462X/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_3/133-2697092-6710969?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=142581462X&pd_rd_r=3b7a0912-c440-41a7-bc21-f835a85c0db8&pd_rd_w=htoyc&pd_rd_wg=Z2TEN&pf_rd_p=3ecc74bd-d08f-44bd-96f3-d0c2b89f563a&pf_rd_r=XJM77MFNBZCQK6W2PNGG&psc=1&refRID=XJM77MFNBZCQK6W2PNGG
Tough age, especially for boys. Some could be a tough sell to your TBM wife - ease into it and tread lightly, being careful to pick safe-sounding books. You may have to check the age some of these recommendation apply to. You may also want to go through some of the books geared towards younger kids if they need more foundation. Use the library!
Let your kids pick a subject they are interested in and do a library trip.
https://www.amazon.com/Maybe-Yes-No-Dan-Barker/dp/0879756071
See the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" recommendations for a bunch more possibilities.
A list found on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/436gdu/my_book_list_of_books_for_children_of_various/
More from another site:
http://overthecuckoonest.blogspot.com/2014/08/atheist-mama-whats-your-secular.html
Another promising looking one and the related books:
https://www.amazon.com/Activities-Building-Character-Social-Emotional-Learning/dp/1575423944/ref=pd_sim_14_20?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MAARJ6YHJN9HC15SQZ7P
A List and lists of lists at the bottom:
http://atheistscholar.org/filmsandbooks/parentschildren.aspx
Considerando que la relacion tareas/calidad de educacion es muy debatida y parecen en lo general no tener beneficio para los resultados academicos, suena a un buen negocio y puede considerarse relativamente etico ya que sus clientes no pierden en la calidad de educacion que reciben.
http://rer.sagepub.com/content/76/1/1.abstract
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738211117/?tag=greatschoolsn-20
It's an integral part of my high school sociology class, especially in the few couple weeks. We focus on classical perspective, Plato's allegory, etc. I am currently using Dr. Seuss, as well as Aesop's Fables and will migrate into this as they get older. Right now we will read a book, and I will ask probing thought question and Socratic method afterwards. The benefits I'm seeing thus far are very promising. My 5 YO is doing great with insightful questioning and comments when we discuss other things, and watch movies, etc.
The more I look at the history of reform, the more I see values differences underlying the ideologically driven parts.
The example I keep going back to in progressive education is MACOS, the social studies curriculum that sought to get students to apply inquiry methods to thinking about the human condition. I got the distinct impression that opponents (often driven by people who didn't even have kids in the districts using the curriculum) really did not want kids asking questions that compared human societies.
That was my impression from Peter Dow's book.
The return of segregation has been going on for a while. Jonathan Kozol wrote about in his 2005 book, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. I'm glad to see the NAACP taking a more aggressive stand on the issue.
One of classes this summer (also a student teacher) had us read The Trouble with Black Boys. Sounds like these students have experienced what they perceive as racism from previous or current teachers and now it's become the expectation. I wouldn't let this discourage you, but try to gain their trust and break that expectation. I am dealing with this at my own placement, with an African American student as well, and I have learned a great deal about patience.
Edit: Also this book by Ladson-Billings
This may be too narrow for your needs, but I found this book very useful; "The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children"
I had to read a few chapters from this book as part of my credentialing and MA program.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Dreamkeepers-Successful-Teachers-American/dp/0470408154