When Tim Wise discussed his book "Between Barack and a Hard Place" he mentioned a lot of interesting things and some were related to Brown v Board of Education. The main point he made related to racial issues was that Obama's election is not the conclusion to equality. He argues that it is just another step in the staircase that will lead to equality. According to Wise there is still a lot of work to do.
One thing I disagree with Wise about is that another presidential race with an African American president winning will help prove discrimination is disappearing. If an African American loses a presidential race it does not necessarily relate to racism. Political elections always have a winner or loser and I believe if either one happens to be African American it does not have to coincide with discrimination or racism.
An interesting point made in this interview was the fact that Obama is a role model to colored kids. He gives kids more hope and opens their world to a less narrow world than they thought they had. It was ironic that this was this weeks reading especially because of the discussion in our class Thursday.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Its not my rule
Yesterday we talked in class about our Service Learning. A lot of good stories were told. I am sure every group will do fine on their final project due to the great connections that were made. One of the stories I heard really bemused me. That story was told by Beth.
Beth's story was quite bizarre. She told us that a lot of the time when the teacher at her SL school wants the kids to follow a rule she says "It is Obamas rule not mine". I tried to analyze why she would say this. Most of the things I thought were said in class. The thought I immediately had was she was using Obama as a scapegoat. This way the children could not blame her for having so many rules. In class I connected it to Christensen which makes sense to me. Kids will not want to disobey their idol and many kids look up to Obama. They would much rather listen to him than her so maybe he is not a scapegoat but rather a reinforcer to make sure the kids listen. The last thought I had was not brought up in class and I did not bring it up because it is kind of radical. The teacher may be an extreme nationalist/patriot. Maybe she is trying to instill in the kids that they always have to listen to the President because they are Americans. She may be making sure kids do not grow up to resent government or the President. No matter what the answer is, it is sure bizarre.
Beth's story was quite bizarre. She told us that a lot of the time when the teacher at her SL school wants the kids to follow a rule she says "It is Obamas rule not mine". I tried to analyze why she would say this. Most of the things I thought were said in class. The thought I immediately had was she was using Obama as a scapegoat. This way the children could not blame her for having so many rules. In class I connected it to Christensen which makes sense to me. Kids will not want to disobey their idol and many kids look up to Obama. They would much rather listen to him than her so maybe he is not a scapegoat but rather a reinforcer to make sure the kids listen. The last thought I had was not brought up in class and I did not bring it up because it is kind of radical. The teacher may be an extreme nationalist/patriot. Maybe she is trying to instill in the kids that they always have to listen to the President because they are Americans. She may be making sure kids do not grow up to resent government or the President. No matter what the answer is, it is sure bizarre.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Cindy's Strategy
Homosexuality can sometimes be a sticky issue to talk about. When our class discussed how or if to present this in classrooms, our class seemed a lot more quiet than usual. Personally I do not have a problem with it. The problem comes later in life when I have kids and I have to choose what to say to them and how to phrase it. Thanks to Cindy in FNED 346 I will now use what I deem "Cindy's Strategy".
What exactly is "Cindy's Strategy"? This is a term I coined after hearing a story in class. Cindy was watching Ellen Degeneres with her daughter. Ellen, as you may know, is gay and is married to a woman. Cindy's daughter asked her what Ellen was doing married to a woman. Cindy responded with the answer "That is who she fell in love with so that is who she married". Cindy's daughter then asked if she could marry a woman. Again Cindy replied with "If that is who you fall in love with". I feel this is an excellent way for kids to learn about homosexuality. If more parents were like Cindy the world would be a much more understanding one. As for me, I will always remember "Cindy's Strategy" and use it when it is time to teach my kids.
What exactly is "Cindy's Strategy"? This is a term I coined after hearing a story in class. Cindy was watching Ellen Degeneres with her daughter. Ellen, as you may know, is gay and is married to a woman. Cindy's daughter asked her what Ellen was doing married to a woman. Cindy responded with the answer "That is who she fell in love with so that is who she married". Cindy's daughter then asked if she could marry a woman. Again Cindy replied with "If that is who you fall in love with". I feel this is an excellent way for kids to learn about homosexuality. If more parents were like Cindy the world would be a much more understanding one. As for me, I will always remember "Cindy's Strategy" and use it when it is time to teach my kids.
Beauty and the Beast
On Saturday, February 13th, I attended a play titled Beauty and the Beast at the Providence Performing Arts Center. I was really surprised Dr. Bogad allowed our class to view this for our Social Justice Event. I thought this was excellent as I already had tickets to see this with my girlfriend so I was going anyways. Now I clearly see how this is considered a Social Justice Event.
I had not seen Beauty and the Beast in years. I was shocked at how sexist it was. The songs were very sexist. The villain of the play, Gaston, was the embodiment of sexist ideology. He sang a song specifically about what the roles of women and men should be. He believed women were to be homemakers, take care of the children and also attend to every need of the husband when they came home. In his opinion, men were to work and/or hunt and that was it. All of these ideas were expressed in this song. However this play helps to also counter this "secret education" as Gaston falls to his death in the end. This symbolizes sexism being negative and losing at the end of the battle.
In the play ten years had passed since the enchanted castle had been placed under the witch's spell. The entire castle felt as though they were outcasts to the whole world. This is much like Rodriguez felt in his article. When Belle first arrived at the castle it gave the inhabitants a ray of hope. If the Beast and her fell in love the spell would be broken and everyone would be human again. However the beast forgot had to be a gentleman and was trying to force Belle to have dinner with him rather than ask her. The "culture of power" teaches a man to ask a woman instead. Also the fact that the Beast was trying to force Belle to love him and vice versa was the wrong thing to do. It has to naturally happen. The same concept goes with homosexuality. Heterosexual people just need to see homosexuals as equals. This will not come about if they force themselves to think it but if they genuinely feel that everybody is equal.
Overall I learned much more than I thought I would about this play. I never expected I would be able to connect texts that we read to this. Sexism, isolation, secret education and the culture of power all appear in Beauty and the Beast. Thank you Dr. Bogad for allowing me to learn this through my social justice event.
I had not seen Beauty and the Beast in years. I was shocked at how sexist it was. The songs were very sexist. The villain of the play, Gaston, was the embodiment of sexist ideology. He sang a song specifically about what the roles of women and men should be. He believed women were to be homemakers, take care of the children and also attend to every need of the husband when they came home. In his opinion, men were to work and/or hunt and that was it. All of these ideas were expressed in this song. However this play helps to also counter this "secret education" as Gaston falls to his death in the end. This symbolizes sexism being negative and losing at the end of the battle.
In the play ten years had passed since the enchanted castle had been placed under the witch's spell. The entire castle felt as though they were outcasts to the whole world. This is much like Rodriguez felt in his article. When Belle first arrived at the castle it gave the inhabitants a ray of hope. If the Beast and her fell in love the spell would be broken and everyone would be human again. However the beast forgot had to be a gentleman and was trying to force Belle to have dinner with him rather than ask her. The "culture of power" teaches a man to ask a woman instead. Also the fact that the Beast was trying to force Belle to love him and vice versa was the wrong thing to do. It has to naturally happen. The same concept goes with homosexuality. Heterosexual people just need to see homosexuals as equals. This will not come about if they force themselves to think it but if they genuinely feel that everybody is equal.
Overall I learned much more than I thought I would about this play. I never expected I would be able to connect texts that we read to this. Sexism, isolation, secret education and the culture of power all appear in Beauty and the Beast. Thank you Dr. Bogad for allowing me to learn this through my social justice event.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Talking Point #5
The article "In The Service Of What? The Politics of Service Learning" by Joesph Kahne and Joel Westheimer is broken up into two sections. The first part breaks down the objectives of community service/service learning. The second part describes the politics of the services.
Their are two main objectives for service. One is the actual doing part. Helping the homeless, tutoring, joining the Peace Corps, etc. This is labeled as "giving". The other is labeled "caring". That is when the person providing the service, tries to understand what the situation is that they are helping in. Some people value one of the objectives more than the other based on what they define "citizenship" to be. That is where the politics come in.
The authors argue that the best form of service learning is to combine the two objectives. However they believe the "caring" portion should be expanded so that ever person, especially students, makes an attempt to make change by analyzing the causes of the situation and trying to alter them to improve the situation. The service learning done in FNED 346 encourages both of these goals. Each student going to their assigned school is the "giving" part and the "caring" part comes in the form of journals, discussions in class and the service learning project.
Their are two main objectives for service. One is the actual doing part. Helping the homeless, tutoring, joining the Peace Corps, etc. This is labeled as "giving". The other is labeled "caring". That is when the person providing the service, tries to understand what the situation is that they are helping in. Some people value one of the objectives more than the other based on what they define "citizenship" to be. That is where the politics come in.
The authors argue that the best form of service learning is to combine the two objectives. However they believe the "caring" portion should be expanded so that ever person, especially students, makes an attempt to make change by analyzing the causes of the situation and trying to alter them to improve the situation. The service learning done in FNED 346 encourages both of these goals. Each student going to their assigned school is the "giving" part and the "caring" part comes in the form of journals, discussions in class and the service learning project.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Talking Point #4
This articles beginning reminds me of a story from earlier this year. I take an anthropology class and the focus of the class is on Native Americans. One of the first assignments we had to do was find a negative or positive way that Native Americans are show in society. One boy in my class didn't bring in anything but he asked the professor if she could bring up a Peter Pan clip on the computer. We watched it in disgust. It was so racist and degrading to Native Americans. When I read this article it said many children get a lot of information from cartoon images. Peter pan was cited in particular. There are a lot of things wrong in society if that is what children are learning from!
The Black Cinderella essay makes some good points. It also reminded me of the fim we watched yesterday in class, It's Elementary. Even though that was about homosexuality, a girl said if we read stories about the princess and prince getting married we should read stories about a princess marrying a princess. Another kid said "They don't have that" and the girl said they should. The same thing applies here. If we read stories about a white princess and white prince, we should read read stories about a black princess and black prince. We do have one now called "The Princess and the Frog" but it was made very recently. I have not seen it but, I believe Dr. Bogad said, the princess is very stereotyped as an African American women. This is not surprising to me considering Disneys past. It is a step in the right direction, however, so at least that is something to cheer about.
The Black Cinderella essay makes some good points. It also reminded me of the fim we watched yesterday in class, It's Elementary. Even though that was about homosexuality, a girl said if we read stories about the princess and prince getting married we should read stories about a princess marrying a princess. Another kid said "They don't have that" and the girl said they should. The same thing applies here. If we read stories about a white princess and white prince, we should read read stories about a black princess and black prince. We do have one now called "The Princess and the Frog" but it was made very recently. I have not seen it but, I believe Dr. Bogad said, the princess is very stereotyped as an African American women. This is not surprising to me considering Disneys past. It is a step in the right direction, however, so at least that is something to cheer about.
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