Unlearning the Myths that Bind us - Christensen - Hyperlinks

           "Children's cartoons, movies, and literature are perhaps the most influ­ential genre "read." Young people, unprotected by any intellectual armor, hear or watch these stories again and again, often from the warmth of their mother's or father's lap. The messages. or "secret education," linked with the security of their homes, underscore the power these texts deliver. As Tatum's research suggests, the stereotypes and world view embedded in the stories become accepted knowledge." (127)

           Last semester along with Karissa, I took a First Year Seminar about Disney, and how it was a huge corporation and it uses its influence and power to expose children to many gender stereotypes and patriarchal ideologies.  That class really opened my eyes to the power and influence that the media, most of which Disney has a part in and what it teaches the young, impressionable youth that we study in this class.  This is also what Linda Christensen talks about in her article "Unlearning the Myths that Bind us."  Disney holds such a large part of the control of he media and in many Disney films, if we look past the beautiful colors, fun animation, and cute characters we can see the lessons being taught.
  Women are shown as inferior, and helpless and are in need of a man to come and save them.  Until recently the Disney Princesses were depicted as being housewives, "damsel in distress", flawlessly beautiful with perfect hair, big eyes with long eyelashes, and a tiny waist.  This unrealistic expectation that every little girl looks up to is unhealthy.  Although Disney is slowly moving away from the gender roles, the physical representation is still there.  The men are all strong, rich, white and handsome.  This makes me think back to SCWAAMP.  The men of disney fit into every category, except white in some cases like Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast where Disney realized that they couldn't make another cookie cutter prince although they fit all the other criteria.  
         The gender stereotypes are a huge issue that are beginning to be discussed.  I found a video of the reactions of parents when they see a little boy that wants to dress up as a princess for halloween, and then a little girl who wants to be spiderman.  Many of the people around didn't accept these children for who they wanted to be because they got it in their minds as a child of the traditional roles we are supposed to fill.  This brings in connection to Safe Spaces  where children should be able to feel comfortable being themselves, in this case a boy dressing up as Belle and a girl dressing up as Spiderman.  
       The name of Christensen's article is "Unlearning the Myths that Bind us"  this means that we need to see past the traditions of gender roles and learn to accept that every child is different.  We need to "unlearn" the lessons that Disney taught us of a women needing and man to protect her and that every women should be physically flawless.   Like in this Youtube video, we cannot look at a boy in a dress and think that it is wrong because he picked it and he doesn't think its wrong so why should we?
           

            

“Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome” by Christopher Kliewer- Reflection

This weeks reading “Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome” by Christopher Kliewer made me think a lot about the way being ostracized can affect a student, for whatever reason.  This article focuses on children with special needs, mostly down syndrome, but it happens to children for all kinds of reasons whether it be for race, gender, socioeconomic status, or in this case disabilities.  When we were talking about “Safe Spaces” it was said that when a student doesn’t feel comfortable in their learning environment, it is distracting and they have trouble.  I think that this can also be said about children who need some extra help in school due to a mental disability.

Also like in “Safe Spaces” there are teachers who stick out and are a good example on the right way to treat all kinds of students, and situations.  In “Safe Spaces,” Zeke sticks out as a teacher who does the right thing by teaching his class about all kinds of families, including LGBT ones.  He did it in a very comfortable way that taught it as a very normal and accepting.  In “Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome” the example of the right way to teach was Shayne.  She was all about community acceptance.  In the future when I am a teacher, I hope to be like these two wonderful examples and handle these situations just as they do in my classroom so there is no child who feels uncomfortable in my class. 

 I was reading other posts from our class and something from Alyssa’s blog stuck out to me.  She was talking about her SPED 300 class and she said there is “a student who has a learning disability and is pulled out of the classroom and goes to a resource class class, Everytime he is pulled out he says to the people at his table, "time to go to my class for stupid people"’ That really hit me that that is the feeling that he has.  It must feel awful being pulled out of class and ostracized from the other students to learn and be on the same level as them. 

On the other hand, a couple weeks ago I was at my service learning placement working with one of the students that I see regularly and I know that he struggles with math and my teacher has told me before that he has an IEP and gets some extra help.  (I included a link because I had to look up what that meant)  We were working on the 2’s tables in multiplication and he got every single one and he told me that it was because he had been practicing when he went and got extra help.  He was even able to help some of his friends at the table and show them his strategies so they would be able to do them too.  So for him the IEP is really working and getting him the help he needs to succeed and feel confident which is how all students should feel.

Literacy with an Attitude- Finn (Reflection)

When I was reading some of the other blogs in our class I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only person who struggled with this article a little more than usual.  Like Dennis, I also thought that it was lengthy and dry and hard to get through.  I am looking forward to talking about it in class to get a better understanding of what exactly the main ideas of “Literacy With an Attitude” by Patrick J Finn were.

Although I had a lot of trouble with it, I did find some connections, not only to authors that we have talked about, but my service learning, just like a few others in our class.  Finn talks about his teaching styles and how he was very no-nonsense and was very strict and down to business and that’s how my teacher is for my service learning.  The classroom I am in is a third grade one and my teacher keeps it in very strict order, just like Finn said he did.  She follows her rules and tells her students exactly what she is looking for from them so there is no confusion, or room for misunderstanding. 

“I didn't say to an errant student, "What are you doing?" I said, "Stop that and get to work." No discussion. No openings for an argument.“ (7)  In this quote I noticed that he had ideas similar to Delpit.  She has this same discussion in “The Silenced Dialogue” where she said that students were more likely to understand and respond to a direct order, rather than an instruction formed as a question.  Although it was a challenge, I can see connections to other readings in our class and I understand how “Literacy with an Attitude” is relevant to class discussion. 

Kozol- Amazing Grace (Revisited)

In his article "Amazing Grace" Jonathan Kozol tells us about his experience in Mott Haven the people he met there, and the conditions in which they live.  He tells us about the disease, poverty and neglect they live through in order to show us the clear lack of attention and disrespect they are given by those in positions of power who have the ability to help, but dont.  Poor people staying poor and rich people getting richer keeps the system of poverty and racism in place. Kozol shows us this system with examples of how many people didn't get proper medical care and were born into a world of racism and poverty, and how most of them didn't have the resources to get away from this environment.  "Racism and poverty are systematic problems, not individual ones."

“3,000 homeless families have been relocated by the city in this neighborhood during the past few years, and she asks a question I will hear from many other people here during the months ahead. ‘Why do you want to put so many people with small children in a place with so much sickness? This is the last place in New York that they should put poor children. Clumping so many people, all with the same symptoms and same problems, in one crowded place with nothin' they can grow on? Our children start to mourn themselves before their time.’” (11)

“’If poor people behaved rationally," says Lawrence Mead, a professor of political science at New York University, "they would seldom be poor for long in the first place.”’(21)

‘"Evil exists," he says, not flinching at the word. "I believe that what the rich have done to the poor people in this city is something that a preacher could call evil. Somebody has power. Pretending that they don't so they don't need to use it to help people-that is my idea of evil.”’ (23)

"I saw a boy shot in the head right over there," he said a moment later, in a voice that does not sound particularly sad (6)

‘"I don't know how sick you have to be to qualify for SSI. My girlfriend died from AIDS in March. She never did get SSI. After she died, the checks began to come. “’ (20)

Some connections to other blogs:

In her blog, Nathali included this video, or one similar to it and i thought it gave a good visual of the area Kozol's article took place.

In her blog, Cindy includes connections to her own life, and how her family was from the bronx and some of her family still lives there, but how her parents moved her family to a different area.

Alyssa included a picture in her blog that I also had in mine of the St. Annes Church that many children and families went to as a sort of sanctuary away from the dangers of the streets in the city.  

In her blog, Karissa includes her thoughts about the religion of the people of Mott Haven "One thing I would like to bring up in class is some of these families go to church every weekend and have God in their life. I think their lifestyle is very hard and I am proud of these people for always believing in God and trusting him along their way. I think the children believe more in him because they do not know how bad their life really is compared to their parents. "

Mike included a link to the local newspaper of Mott Haven in his blog post that I liked because it showed some progress and I also liked that it made this all much more real, that this was a real place with real struggles that they need to overcome.

In The Service of What? -Extended Comments

This weeks reading "In the Service of What?" by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer looked at service learning, and the benefits and learning that students can take out of helping the community by serving those in need.  In her blog post, Karissa says that she would rather go out and learn by seeing and doing rather than reading about what it is that she could do.  I agree with her.  It is so important and rewarding to go out and meet people and create bonds and feel connected with them and help them because you genuinely care.  It is so important for students to see those in need and to help them.  

Like Karissa, I also belong to a very involved church community.  While I was in school, starting in fourth grade, and going until I graduated from high school, we had to complete hours of community service.  I spent many hours at soup kitchens, including St. Vincent de Paul in Norwich, CT.  There I met a lot of people who not only needed something to eat but also a friendly face.  When I read Kozol’s article, this is where my mind went, although Norwich is not nearly as bad as Mott Haven, but still not a very nice area.  And has sloth of people in need of help. I wish I had the experience that Karissa had, to go on a mission trip and help children in another country.  Helping people locally is just as important though.  There are people everywhere that need help, and we can help them.  

Starting up my service learning project this week is very exciting.  I was so nervous before I got there, but as soon as I was in the classroom I felt much better, and very comfortable.  I cannot wait to go back next week and continue helping these kids in my Providence elementary school.