Tim Wise

Barack and a Hard Place, Tim Wise

This video discusses Obama in relation to our countries racial issues. Wise states in the video that:

“What’s real is that we’re nowhere near a racial America.”

Basically he is saying that there is still racism in our society and people who think otherwise are being unrealistic. People are beginning to think that because Obama is the first African American president it will change people’s minds about racism. Although, this is not the case. It’s unfortunate that people still can’t look past someone’s skin color and more at what’s inside.

“We need to be on the lookout for racism 2.0 it allows people to accept Obama as transcending and as being different other then the black norm. “

I feel like he’s saying that Obama’s not a typical black man because he accomplished being president. I believe he is trying to make clear that not only white people are smart. There are just as many successful black people in the world as white. We just tend to look down at them because they are portrayed in a negative light.
“If they graduate 5th from the bottom of their class a black person wouldn’t have a shot being president.”

He is saying that black people are at the disadvantage. He mentions that a white person wouldn’t have to go to Harvard to be president. A white candidate could go to a normal university or state school but if a black person did it would be seen as negative. I disagree because I don’t take into interest where the presidential candidates go to school to decide on my vote. I look more at what they have to offer to our country.

I found this video to be interesting. I think that the purpose of this video is trying to make clear that there is still racism in the world although many people are still blind to it. Obama goes up in our nation’s history as being the first African American president. This video definitely helped me to make sense of these issues.

The Politics of Service Learning

In Service of What?
The Politics of Service Learning

1.) “Service learning makes students active participants in service projects that aim to respond to the needs of the community while furthering the academic goals of students.”

- This quote describes the reason for service learning. It’s defiantly true because while service learning does help the community it also benefits the students. It makes me refer to VIPS because I defiantly think that I’m helping out lower academic students but it’s also giving me the opportunity to feel what it is like to work in the classroom. There is never a day where I don’t want to go, I learn so much from doing it. It even makes the class more interesting rather than just reading out of a text book which helps students to interact and participate more.
2.)”Everyone at the school had good manners, and I think more highly of [the neighborhood] now.” 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.”

-This is a quote from an upper class middle school student, who was given negative perceptions about the neighborhood where he would be volunteering. I felt like I related to this because I was worried about the neighborhood of my service learning project only because people told me how bad it was. I also wondered how it would affect the students in their school, but I actually had the same outcome. All the children in the classroom off my service learning acted the same as when I was in elementary school. Just because someone comes from a lower income home or neighborhood doesn’t mean they can’t be a good person.

3.)”While an additional emphasis on charity might lead to service learning activities that raise self-esteem, impel students into new experiences, and demonstrate the value of scholastic abilities in real-world contexts.”
-I believe that this is saying that service learning brings new ideas to students. It helps them to be more open minded. Also, I believe that all students benefit from this because they are learning from real life experiences rather than from a text book. This tends to be a more effective way of learning and is more hands on. I believe that what this quote means by “raise self-esteem” is that by volunteering in a place where we see the less fortunate, we tend to become more grateful for what we have no matter how much or little that may be. I believe that there is always someone out there who has it much worse than or is less fortunate than me and it’s a shame that sometimes I need real life experiences like this to remind me of this.

Overall I did like this article but it wasn’t my favorite. I believe that it had some good points but I feel like it was repetitive. This article made me realize how service learning can benefit me and the community. I also realized how it can make classes to be more hands on. I found it very interesting when the kids from the upper class middle school branched out to the community to find that it was not what they had anticipated.

Christensen

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

By: Linda Christensen

1.) “Have you ever seen a black person, an Asian, a Hispanic in a cartoon? Did they have the leading role or were they a servant? What do you think this is doing to your child’s mind? She ended her piece: Women who aren’t white begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess.”

This entire article was extremely informative to me. I haven’t actually noticed this to be a problem but it could definitely affect other minorities. I believe that there should be other ethnic characters that young children can look up to. Not only for their culture to look up to but others as well. It could help children to be more exposed to different races at a younger age. Although, Disney’s characters are dominantly white there are some other ethnicities shown in characters such as Mulan and Pocahontas.

2.) “I don’t want students to believe that change can be bought at the mall, nor do I want them thinking that the pinnacle of a woman’s life is an “I do” that supposedly leads them to a “happily ever after.” I don’t want my female students to see their “sisters” as competition for that scarce and wonderful commodity-men.”

I believe that this quote is saying that most children’s stories/movies are based upon living “happily ever after.” In these stories happiness is portrayed by having money and a prince charming. Basically, we are teaching children that marriage and wealth automatically means happiness. We know as adults that this is not necessarily true. Just because you have material things doesn’t mean you are actually happy, money cannot buy happiness. Also, we do not need to rely on a man to make us happy.

3.)”Because we can never look like Cinderella, we begin to hate ourselves. The Barbie syndrome starts as we begin a lifelong search for the perfect body. Crash diets, fat phobias, and an obsession with the materialistic become commonplace. The belief that a product with make us above our competition, our friends, turns us into addicts.”

People want to be what they see. When were young we are exposed to Barbie’s and Cinderella dolls and of course we’d look up to them. When we get older we are exposed to even more media. We see all these beautiful people on t/v and in magazines and think that’s what we should look like. It’s so unrealistic because those people aren’t the average American. It becomes unfortunate because people get so caught up in the media, where they are faced with eating disorders to be the “Barbie or Cinderella.”

I liked this article by Christensen. I think she has some good points. I found that it corresponded well with S.C.W.A.A.M.P because the media portrays the norms of our society to our children so young. I never really noticed that stories like Pop-Eye or Ducktales showed such stereotypes. When I think of children’s shows or stories I tend to think there so innocent, but I learned from this article is that I need to be more observant when it comes to the media.

Watch this video!

For the past week I hadn't been in class because I unfortunately had a kidney infection. I had a lot of time to watch lifetime movies. This one in particular caught my attention because it was based on a true story. Basically it shows the prejudices people still feel in our society to homosexual and trans gendered people. Its called A Girl Like Me, The Gwen Araujo Story. This you tube link gives you a brief idea what the movie was about but basically it was about a young women who was born a male. Her whole life she had known that she wasn't truly a male. It showed her daily struggles and even how hard it was on a daily basis for her to go to school. When she was older she basically transformed to female and most people didn't know about her previously being male. Guys became suspicious because she wouldn't ever go "all the way" and one day they gruesomely locked her in a room to find out. They pulled off her clothes and once they saw she had male body parts they beat her to death.

This movie seriously brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't believe this really happened to such a innocent person. I just wanted to share it with everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYm0RSEkPoU

talking points #3; Carlson

1.)" At the level of state educational policy, it is noteworthy that no state currently recognizes gays and lesbians as legitimate minority or cultural groups to be considered in textbook adoption or to be included in multicultural education; and a number of states explicitly prohibit teaching about homosexuality.”

I never actually was aware how much schools disregard homosexuality. I think it could actually be beneficial to students. Gay students would realize it’s okay, and not be so ashamed or scared to be who they truly are. For other students it would be helpful by making them more aware and less sheltered about this topic. I believe that schools should be more open to this “reality.”

2.) “He argued that homosexual teachers represented a danger to their students since "nothing seems more certain than that homosexuality is contagious."

This is ridiculous, I believe that they should be looking more at his teaching abilities and be less concerned about his sexual preferences. How could homosexuality possibly be contagious when you’re born with it? If I had a teacher who was lesbian, I could never grow or learn to like females unless I truly was lesbian. You are who you are and having a gay teacher wouldn’t ever change that it may just make you more open to new ways.

3.)"We cannot and should not attempt to impose "politically correct" beliefs on students; but we have a responsibility as public educators in a democratic society to engage them in a dialogue in which all voices get heard or represented and in which gay students and teachers feel free to "come out" and find their own voices."

I believe this is saying that as future teachers we need to be open minded. We need to let students know that there is such a thing as homosexuality and it is okay to be yourself. It is okay to be unique because students can vibe off one another. As educators our job is to inform and help students about these rights, but I also believe it’s not a teacher’s job to help gays find and discover themselves.

Overall, I like this article by Dennis Carlson. I think it helps to make us more aware of these situations. Students should be taught about homosexuality rather than act like it doesn’t exist. It definitely would benefit students of all sexuality to be more open minded and aware. Also, I believe that preventing gay teachers is insane. It has nothing to do with teaching. Who knows gay teachers may even have a better connection with students.