Talking Points #6

After watching the interview with Tim Wise, author of Rings of Fire, and doing some research on the Brown vs Board of Education I’ve realized that there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done to break the glass.  We have come so far as to have an African American president but as Tim Wise states, “Obama is the exception,” because racism is a reason, not an excuse and race will always be a problem among Americans.  

So many people are closed minded, in denial, and oblivious to racism. When was it ever ok? White people have a double standard... We can have a white president that graduated college in the lower half of his class or a president that has crashed several planes but we can’t have a Black president that has graduated top of his class and has become very successful.  

Brown vs Board of Education shows that there will always be issues. President day or in the past.  Everyone should have equal rights but that is not the case.  This case tapped the class... it allowed minorities to take a step forward but it is only a step when what they need is a leap.  Would today be the same if no one ever spoke up back then? If Rosa Parks never sat where she wasn’t supposed to? What are people doing today to push the process of equality into play?

Talking Points #5

In The Service Of What? 

The Politics Of Service Learning

Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

Quote #1: “The experimental and interpersonal components of service learning activities can achieve the first crucial step toward diminishing the sense of “otherness” that often separates students- particularly privileged students- from those in need.  In so doing, the potential to develop caring relationships is created.”

The only way to create a relationship is to repeatedly return to that act of kindness.  If schools are able to help students establish this bond at a young age then those students learn first hand how great it feels to help others in need.  If we can encourage the youth then our future will be greater... It may not be the biggest change but it is a step farther than any other generation.

Quote #2: “We attempt to “apprehend the reality of the other” and then to “struggle [for progress] together.” In doing so, we create opportunities for changing our understanding of the other and the context within which he or she lives.” 

“You never know someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes.” Trying to make their reality yours is borderline impossible. You will never know the horrors or joys that someone feels but you may be able to understand why they are in the situation and what they need to overcome the battle.  This is when the struggle to become more is not just on their shoulders... By accomplishing such tasks, you yourself become a better person.  

Quote #3: “When I care, Noddings explains, a relationship develops in which ‘the others reality becomes a real possibility for me’.” 

Caring for something or someone changes the way you seem them or it.  You never really know a person until you enter into a special bond where they know that they can trust you.  I believe this quote means that the closer you get to someone the more you feel what they are feeling. If they hurt, you hurt for them. If they are happy, you feel joy for them.  And the closer you get to them the harder it is to let them fall because if you let them fall then it feels like a failure on your part.

Conclusion: I believe that all high schools should require a service learning project as a graduation requirement.  It enables adolescents to interact with the society that they live in.  It is an amazing experience which I have been able to witness first hand.  Many young adults and even adults are sheltered from what happens in the world on a daily basis: starvation, homelessness, abuse, murder.  The world really can be a cruel place and everyone needs a shoulder to lean on. It is really hard to go it alone in a world that judges you on sex, gender, race, ethnicity, weight, age and a countless amount of other aspects of human life.  No one is perfect and service learning allows the children to lend a helping hand.  Hopefully they will realize how good it feels to help and will want to continue their work in the community.  Like it states in the article, “Relationship” is the key word.  Building bonds makes the world stronger.

Talking Points #4

Unlearning The Myths That Bind Us

Linda Christensen

Quote #1: "Many students don't want to believe that they have been manipulated by children's medias or advertising. No one wants to admit that they've been "handled" by the media." 

Nobody wants to be "controlled" by the media. But if you think about it when you think of professional athletes and their commercials, the children always want what they have. Or often times in movies the bad kid is always the black kid. When children see that, often times every time they see a black person they associate bad with that person. Or the old ladies and old men are always grumpy, they are never nice, and all the girls always want to be like the princesses and not the normal, more realistic characters. Media sets the basis of what we see or think we see in society.  Its true that media had influenced all of us in some way... even car commercial... Buy this car and you can look as sexy as this woman driving it.

Quote #2: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this cartoon teaches a false sense of violence to kids: fight and you don't get hurt, or solve problems through fists and swords instead of words." 

When children see this they think that it is okay to fight with fists, they think that nothing can happen to them. They think that fighting is the solution to everything. I remember being five and watching this show my self. I loved it and my brother and I used to dress up as the turtles and pretend fight each other. Children should not be allowed to watch violence on tv.

Quote #3: "We look at the roles women, men, people of color, and poor people play in cartoons." 

In older cartoons you notice that there are not many women as characters. But when the women started appearing in cartoons they looked perfect. They looked like barbies, and all the girls wanted to look like them. They set an unreachable goal... To be perfect.  In cartoons the poor people always look dirty and have on ripped and torn clothes, and get treated awful. So people have in their minds that this is reality, the real world is based on stereotypes! It is so sad that this is true.  If your black your bound to end up in jail... If your gay we all know you have aids and if your women you are weak.  Why do we set such unreachable goals for ourselves and believe that because one person did it it most be true for the rest? 

In this reading Christensen explains how in cartoons, books, and even movies show a great emphasis on sexism, racism and are often very stereotypical. Ever since we have been children we have experienced sexism and racism and haven't even known it. Just by watching children's cartoons we witnessed cases of sexism and racism. We often refuse to see the fact that certain cartoons and children's movies have these issues. 

Talking Points #3

Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community

By: Dennis Carlson

Quote #1: “While public schools have been viewed by progressive educators as embryonic communities that should engage young people in building a democratic community of mutual support and respect, gay people have for the most part been made absent, invisible, and silent within this community and at the same time represented as the deviant and pathological “Other”.”

How society hides all those that are not SCWAMMP is becoming even more clearer to me with all the articles we have been reading.  Growing up I feel so sheltered. Why am I only learning about this now that I’m in college... It makes no sense to me. Wouldn’t, shouldn’t we be teaching our children that it is okay to have different families at a young age... that two mommies and two daddies are not wrong.  Being gay is just who you are. It doesn’t effect your personality, its just your sexual orientation so why are so many people against that fact that gay people are apart of our community. Rather then trying to hide the fact that they exist we should embrace the fact that they are different.

Quote #2: “Early in this century, the dismissal of gay teachers was legitimated as a way of keeping young people from being exposed to improper role models, lechery, and child molestation.”

This is wrong. They are teachers just like the rest of us.... Honestly I bet that there  are more straight child molester teachers out there then gay teachers.  They are normal human beings and just because they choose to have relationships with the same sex it is none of our business and it is not our right to judge.  They aren’t contagious.  By society hiding the fact that there are gay people out there it gives the impression that being gay is wrong.

Quote #3: Straight teachers often participate in silencing practices because they are fearful of raising a controversial issue that might provoke conflict in the classroom.”

Why? Shouldn’t children be taught that there are different people out there? That not everyone is like them? Or for that one little kid that knows he is gay, shouldn’t he feel accepted and know that its okay to be gay? 

Reading this article has just made me more aware of the fact that children need learn at a young age that it is okay to be gay.  It should be taught in classes that it is okay to have two moms or two dads... Children shouldn’t be sheltered from a fact of life that is perfectly normal. It doesn’t change their personality and maybe if taught at a young age then people will be more accepting of other that are different from them.  Why does society try and protect us from gayness? It is not a disease... you can’t die from it.