In the Service of What? Kahne and Westheimer

This article that we read this week was a good look into service learning and the difference between charity and change.  I completely agree with this article that the service learning should be focused more on change.  I like the idea of charity and it should be instilled in young peoples minds that they need to help those in need but in my mind it should be thought not to look through people and think that you are better than them just because you have more.  Young people should always get to know the people that they are helping.  It creates more of a bond and more of a learning experience for them to know what the bigger issue is and how they can help these individuals not only on a level of charity but how they can help change the bigger problem.  The little story about the middle school kids that went to the poor neighborhood school was the one I liked the most.  It showed how the parents preserved the area and how the news portrays the area and how completely different it was than what they thought.  After their show they got to talk to the kids and see who the kids really were and it gave them a different perspective on the area.   Now the author stated what else could have been done in this service learning but overall it was good for these kids and they engaged in conversations and got to know them.  To go further if they discussed and researched why their parents thought like this or why the news makes this neighborhood look bad and then how can it be changed would be going an additional step forward.  I related to this because I had a different perspective on the MET school that I am doing my service learning project at.  I had a student on my baseball team that goes to the MET and he was a socially awkward kid and didn't really fit in with kids in the public school.  He was outgoing and respectful and focused on his studies.  So going into the MET that was what I assumed most of the children were but I was wrong.  A lot of these children have problems at home, get distracted easily, have some authority issues, and need more help than most kids that I have met in the public schools.  So to relate to the reading, I worked on trying to get to know these kids on a more personal level and how I could help them do better in school and out of school. 

I love the aspect of change and how kids can change the world.  I help run a non-profit organization in Warwick RI and we have a lot of young kids volunteer with other younger students and mentor them.  It's like a big brother program.  We also do community cleanups and we get to know why the area has become the way it is and how we can change it.  We utilize the help of the local police officers to get data from the community and we meet in groups to discuss what we can do to change this in the community. Change comes from the people who teach you as you grow up.  When I was a kid there was a man who worked at the boys and girls club in my area, we were always doing service learning around the community that we lived in.  We did community cleanups, homeless awareness, fundraisers for the homeless, etc.  It was from this man that I learned how to better help children and be a positive figure in my community.  This man went on to be a teacher and a mentor to many children, me included and he became one of my best friends.  So when he passed away in 2012 we wanted to do something for him like he did for all of us.  We rebuilt a basketball court down the end of Oakland Beach and named it after him.  It started out as just one project with the Oakland Beach Association and it turned into the George Schmeider Memorial Association.  This is the non-profit I mentioned in the above sentences.  So when we talk about change it starts with the teachers and how they teach you to be better human beings and how you can change the bigger issues.  This is a video that hits close to home it was what we made to help raise money to start the whole association. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csAjYcPg4Vk

Overall I agree with the article and think that service learning is important but it needs to be more focused on the change. It is good to see children being better humans beings but we need to teach them how to make the bigger changes.   Yes the charity is important but the change is how you make a difference.    

Blog #5 Unlearning the Myths that Blind Us

After reading this article I can defiantly say that I agree with everything that was written.  I loved how Christensen made her class think about all the things that go on inside the media and how the media is so influential to young viewers.  I first thing that came to my mind when I started reading this was commercials.  Perfect example of this is the smoking ads in the 90's.  At that point in time smoking ad's had been around forever we all remember the Marlboro Man, but they started getting a little more geared toward kids and I would say parents started to notice more about these commercials and the health risks of smoking were more known by then as well. So in turn the took them off the TV.  As I continued to read I started thinking about the cartoons that I watched as a child and started thinking about Popeye and then when I turned the paged she referenced Popeye and I laughed.  I thought about when I was a kid my Uncle was a huge Popeye fan and we would watch the show all the time.  That show is one of the worst ones I could think of and Christensen seemed to think so too.  If you really look at it Popeye was the "Man's Man".  Always the hero, had a lot of pride and was rugged so was Bluto.  Then look at Olive Oil.  As women were looked at in the 40's you were supposed to be super skinny, Olive was, women were looked at as kind of ditzy and Olive was, and then she was always looking for the stronger man.  Think about what that does for both women and men or shall I say boys and girls.  It shows kids that if you are a boy you have to be tough and strong and a hero and you'll get the girl.  And as girls it shows that they have to be pretty, skinny and just go with the man that is the strongest.  This video of Popeye was the one that came to mind when she started talking about how cartoons portray anyone other than whites or even white Americans.  Popeye always shows any other ethnic group is weaker than White Americans.  The video is about Popeye and the Indians at least that's what its called they are not called Native Americans.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baUIo7Gg4J8

There are so many things in the media that as kids we see and want to be like.  As men we need the nice cloths, nice shoes, nice cars, money, in shape, and popularity to get the girls.  And as women they need to have some of the same things but used differently.  Women need the nice cloths, nice shoes, makeup, skinny/in shape, and popularity to get the guys.  That couldn't be any more untrue but the media makes us think like that through magazines, TV shows, movies, and so much more.  It's worse now than it was when I was a kid. 

I can't sit here and say all media is bad and all cartoons are terrible and our children shouldn't watch them.  I think as parents we should stay on top of what our kids watch and teach them right and wrong and about different things in society and life. Teachers can do this as well just like Christensen did in her class.  I couldn't never take cartoons away from kids some of my favorite memories are watching cartoons with my brother and my father on Saturday mornings.  It's just about how you teach our children what certain things are good and what things are bad. 

Speaking the Unspeaking

There were many authors in the article and at first I wasn't sure about the number of different views that each author would have but they blended everything together and I enjoyed reading the different stories that these teachers and researchers had.  I liked the one where the teacher Laura had come in and was "Cindy" rather than Cinderella.  She came into the classroom knowing not to cross too much of a boundary but also wanted to class to understand that a fairytale doesn't have to end with the princess marrying the prince.  She blended what happens in real life into her classroom and affectively gave her students another look on how the world operates.  She allowed the class to ask questions and gave appropriate answers that related to what the lesson was about. 
The staffroom "lingo" is a good insight to what is talked about in the private setting in the school rather than in the classroom.  I agree that talking about sex and sexuality between teachers should be talked about in the staffroom but if you want to bring it into the classroom it needs to appropriate and relate it to either readings that are being done or about topics relating to class.  Bringing this conversation into the classroom is very difficult because of parents and how some of the world views LGBT.  For example the father that had come into school about his son and said "I'm worried, my son's a fairy and what on earth am I going to do?"  He sounds concerned but he uses the word fairy and it shows that he doesn't understand what his son is going through nor does he accept it. 
The easiest way for conversations about LGBT is in the afterschool setting and the stories here prove that.  I thought it was great that Kate was able to "come out" to the after school group but she also knew that she wasn't teaching them everyday so it would be easier for her to explain it and then not have to worry about it everyday.  I love how her decision to talk about this led to conversations with parents and their children to talk about sexuality outside of school.  It also helped the boy who's dad didn't understand feel comfortable and realize that not everyone is like his dad and people will accept him for him. 
I think that it should be talked about more in the school setting because a lot of kids now don't understand what it is to be LGBT and it could help educate kids and might lessen bullies to those who are different.  It will also help the ones that feel different to make them feel more accepted and knowing that a teacher/adult understands what they are going through and can help them transition. Times are different now where we can talk about this  more in schools.  When I was in school it was a little harder but it was coming around to people being more understanding but you can go back even 20 years and if you were gay or a lesbian in school it was very taboo which is sad. 
In conclusion I believe that in the appropriate setting inside the classroom children should be educated about the differences in society and outside of the classroom we can continue to do projects like Kate did in order to make kids more comfortable with sexuality.  But there is still a fine line that you can not cross as a teacher and you have to remember not to offend or push views on children, because like the article states society still has this view that children in school or innocent creatures.  But as the times change so do the children and I think children are able to understand more and are not as fragile as people might think.

Hunger of Memory Post

This book Richard Rodriguez was about himself and how his native language was stripped away from him as a young child.  He is a Spanish speaking child at the age of 5 and is going to school in a catholic school trying to learn English.  At the home he speaks Spanish and he talks about how beautiful it is and how the sounds of his mother and father talk to him and how it is like a different world inside his house or "behind the screen door" than it is in the outside world.  He speaks about how he is shy in school and is shy around the neighborhood and that his family doesn't really know many people in his neighborhood.  But as the story goes on the nuns visit his house and basically make his parents have the children speak more English rather than Spanish in the home.  Richard slowly starts to learn the language but as it goes on the uniqueness and intimacy of his heritage language is slowly leaving him and the home.  He becomes distant from his parents but starts to fit in more at school and in the outside world.  The family starts to know the people in the neighborhood and Richard starts to have more friends and become more outgoing.  You would think that this is a good thing for Richard because he is living in America and needs to learn the language, but I would say that it is sad because Richard paints a picture of sadness because of the loss of his heritage.  He also talks about the anger of his relatives as well.  The reason I think this is sad is because he should have been encouraged to use both languages and the teachers should have tried to have an understanding of who Richard was and how they could keep both languages in his life.  

 

The last statement I made also relates to Meier's story about how to incorporate different languages in the schools and teach children how to use both.  That way it can keep a balance in the child's life.  Now to go back to Rodriguez's book, he didn't really have a choice and at the time in the world I don't think they were aware of the importance of bilingual students.  His teachers should have encouraged him to keep his language in his life as well as learning English.  In my opinion, I agree that a student of a different language should learn English but as teachers it is our job to not strip them of their first language or the heritage.  By they end of Richard's story he was barely speaking Spanish and he couldn't hear the sounds of his native language nor the sounds that intrigued him of the English language.  I came across this video that talks about bilingual students and how teachers can learn from them to help them teach the students.  I thought it was great because the teachers here made an effort to learn about their students languages and incorporate it in their teachings.  Not only does it help the student trying to learn English it also helps the students who know English adopt a second language and learn that as well. 

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09PrmLppQ1A

 

Questions to ask:

1. Why don't teachers do this more? 

2. Why isn't there more bilingual teaching going on in schools?

3. How can we incorporate more heritage into our schools?