Between Barack and a Hard Place

For this blog on the video, Between Barack and a Hard Place: Challenging Racism, Privilege and Denial with Tim Wise; I chose to reflect on quotes within the video. 

The first quote I picked was at the beginning of the speech; “today we live in a world where people are ignoring the issues at hand." I find this to be very true. There are so many issues occurring in this world at this very second that nobody cares to mention or try to fix. Problems aren’t just going to go away and I think that is many people’s problems. Most people think, ‘well maybe if I don’t acknowledge the problem, I wont have to think about it or see it as a problem.’ Once one-person thinks in that way, everyone starts too. Then who is going to fix the problems at hand? No one will.

It only takes one person to start a chain reaction, so be that person to try and fix the problems in this world, not only Barack Obama can fix things, the average person can too.

The second quote that stood out to me was, “if people did not want to have the conversation about racism, they (white people) would say I’m not racist, most of my friends are black.” This stood out to me because sad to say but I have seen a lot of this in my life. In the town I grew up they would throw around the ‘N’ word and other foul language, but the instant someone would call them out on it, they would say it is okay because I am friends with the only black kid in school. People I know would have these quick remarks to make others believe that it is okay then. This happened way too often throughout high school and I still see it now as these “sheltered” kids are off at college. It is sad.

The last quote I have chosen is, “the only way would benefit from greater equity, is that we would be forced to face the realities, that we will eventually have to confront anyways.” I think this is important because it is the sad truth. As individuals we like to think we are in complete control and know our lives better than anyone else. The truth is we don’t have full control and we don’t always know the best for ourselves. Sometimes we need that extra help from an authority figure or someone with greater knowledge than us to come in and teach us right from wrong. The example Wise gave about privileged kids who have relative advantage over under privileged kids; yet they are big on substance abuse, parent alienation etc. These are the times in one’s life that require higher guidance to help these people face reality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuRURJ9E3iQ

In the Service of What?

In The Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer the importance as well as the benefits of service learning programs are highlighted for both students and communities. Service Learning allows a student to take the information they are learning in a classroom and transfer it into real-life experiences while responding to the needs of their communities at the same time. I strongly agree with this idea. Students get bored from being lectured in a classroom and usually wonder how this will help them in their future. I believe the most effective education is taught to us through doing it our self; at least that is how I’ve always learned best. Service learning allows students to have a more hands-on learning experience and connect this to the real world.

There was one section of the article that I was able to connect to the most; when the music director had her upper-middle class students volunteer at an elementary school in a poor neighborhood. This reminded me of our community service being done in a providence elementary school. I did not come from a wealthy family, but my family was able to live without worry. I’ll admit, when I first found out that we had to do this I was very nervous and skeptical. I am not even sure why because my mother taught me to not be afraid of unknown places.  But I wasn’t sure what to expect, how the kids will treat me (an outsider) and how they will react to tutoring. When I arrived on the first day to the classroom I was placed in, kindergarten ESL, the students were all so sweet and eager to learn. They are bright children for only being in kindergarten. They learn with hand on activities and I cannot think of a better way. This is fun and educational for them. My prior accusations were wrong and I am ashamed I felt that way. These kids are just like kids from my hometown just in a different environment. I hope I will be able to make an impact on their learning; they should be able to receive a great education as well.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pFTINdpen94

I couldn’t agree with this video more. Service learning is so crucial. It is one thing to receive your own education but to then use that to your advantage and help someone grow theirs is amazing.

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

For this blog post, I decided to write a think piece for Christensen, Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us. As children, we grow up watching Disney movies, I am sure we all know what most of the movies are about. We start to picture a perfect future for ourselves at a young age, then as we get older we realize that perfect future doesn't exist. These movies are setting children up to think their life is not "perfect," when in all reality, it is the movies that are not perfect. One aspect that is mostly in ever fairytale is "magic." Magic appears in each of these stories in different forms, such as: talking animals, pumpkin carriages, mermaids etc. As we all know, these ideas do not exist in real life, so why give children this false hope. Most writer's use it for entertainment purposes, some find educational values behind it, but I think it is plain out silly. Children's stories should hold truth to them and real world situations. Another aspect that is common in most children stories is, prince charming. Young girls are taught that they are happiest when they have a guy, like Cinderella. We should be teaching girls that instead of adjusting yourself with pretty clothes and makeup to attract your "prince charming," that your true prince will love you just the way you are. And even with that, we should be teaching girls to love themselves before they want a guy to love them. Another issue I have with these fairytales is how each one has a romance between a guy and a girl. You would think that after all these years, Disney would make a movie about LGBT's. This opens the gateway for change at a young age, which I think is so important. The media has a way of influencing your opinion and your way of life. This is how it is with everything, and this is why if society wants to see a change in the acceptance of LGBT's then they should allow the media to reach out to all ages about it, including kids.

A video I found on YouTube tells you about after the ever after in these fairytales. Although these ideas may not be true, it is interesting to see the see what other's think would happen. These "after ever after" scenarios can sometimes be more realistic or prove how "make believe" and foolish Disney's stories actually are. Also the artist of this video, Paint, provides the more important issues in the world that would relate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mIQr_TrFTUk