Disney you tube video (extra blog post)

I thought you guys would like to see this you tube video. It goes along with the class we talked about Disney in! I hope you all enjoy it :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWMCt35oFY

Kahne and Westheimer "In the Service of What?" : Argument

In the article by Kahne and Westheimer argue that service learning is a way to improve the community and provide opportunities to educate other people doing the service learning.

In my opinion, I think that service learning has its ups and downs. I agree with Kahne and Westheimer in some ways but I also disagree in some ways. I think that service learning is a way to improve the community in some ways because you are there to help the less fortunate people in america. One example they give in the article is giving survival kits to the homeless. I think this is one way of service learning to help improve the community. Or is it just community service?

I also think that it means not only helping people in need but you benefitting from helping those people. For example going to the classroom you are helping the students who are less fortunate to go to a better school but you are also learning how to be a teacher while your helping other people. Unlike the example I gave above where you are just helping people by giving them the survival kit but you are not benefitting from this because you are not learning anything. This is where I disagree with Kahne and Westheimer because I think service learning is where both parties benefit. The first example above I think is a better example of community service because just one party is benefitting from the help you give.

All in all service learning is when you help someone less fortunate than you (service) and you benefit from doing it and learn something new to further your education (learning).

Christensen "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us" : Extended Comments

I read Ann's Blog and I decided to do mine based on her. I agree with her totally that disney tends to focus on one particular type of person in their films. In many of the  movies the higher class white folks are the main focus. For example all of the princess movies have to do with a white royal family which is very a typical of the American society. I think disney has tried to make movies with people of other ethnic backgrounds as the main leads like Ann had said in her blog and she used Mulan as an example. But, I still think that it is all mainly focused on white Americans which to me is not the right thing that we should be teaching our children as they grow up. I also noticed in many disney movies that color is not the only thing they choose to avoid but also women. In a lot of the movies they tend to kill off the mother and they just have the Dad. The disney movies are a great way of showing the how powerful the culture of power really is.

I really like the hyperlink that Ann chose because it shows a how children notice black people are not in disney movies. One girl even says," I have never seen a black person in a disney movie." I think the best part of the hyperlink is the part about Aladdin. I liked this because it shows just how allowable it is for Disney to be rascist. In the Aladdin problem, there was a big controversy over it and someone wrote in a news paper that it was rascist but it did not matter because it was disney. I think this is the wrong way to teach children about cultures and races because it could be part of the reason why we have so many racial issues today.

In class I hope to discuss, Do other people think that the disney movies teach children the wrong things about race? I also would like to discuss other movies in America and if they are interratial or portray the culture of power.

Carlson "Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community" : Hyperlink

When I think about gay orientation the only thing I think about is oh they are interested in girls and I am interested in guys, what is the big deal in that. But in today's society there are so many controversies over gay rights it is crazy. When I think about other people being gay I think to myself before I decide to make fun of them or accept who they are as a person. I put myself in their shoes and say if I was a lesbian would I want to be made fun of just because I am interested in woman rather than men and I do not follow the "culture of power." as Delpit would say. These are the many issues in todays society because gay marriage and gay orientation goes against religions and its just not the "ideal" way of life.

Recently, at Rutgers College two freshman boys had got paired up to live in the same dorm room. One of the boys just happened to be gay. One day, the boy had brought back another boy to his room and they started making out in the room while they were alone. Little did they know the roommate had hid a camera in the room to video tape them and then put it all over the internet. The gay boy ended up committing suicide after this whole incident and the roommate is being charged with his murder. Many people seem to think his suicide had to do with the lack of acceptance gay orientation has in the world. When I heard this story I thought about how many other people probably feel unaccepted just like the boy who committed suicide did and how many other people will committ suicide just like he did. This is a terrible thing when we should not care about what people look like or who they choose to have an intimate relationship with. I hope to discuss this more in class and see what other people have to say about gay orientation and the role it plays in the world today.

Here is the link to the New York Times news article for the roommates at Rutgers I discussed above.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/nyregion/02suicide.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=gay%20roommate%20suicide&st=cse

"Aria" By: Richard Rodriguez Reflection

When I first started out reading this piece by Richard Rodriguez I was not sure to expect. I was shocked by the second sentence of the reading that stated that children not being taught their family’s language are a “social disadvantaged child.” I have never thought about learning another language of a social disadvantage. When I think about learning another language I picture it to be an advantage because now you can talk to people of all different languages instead of just your native language.  As I read on about the disadvantages the narrator had I began to understand why he started out saying it is a social disadvantage to the children. After the teachers had come to the narrators house to explain to his parents that they needed to encourage their children to use more English at home I could not believe the changes that could occur in a house just because of the different languages being spoken. The narrator explains that at first the family just thought of learning to speak English as a joke and they would always have that Spanish language connection in the family and learning English would not change that. Little did they know it was going to change their family life drastically. One part of the reading that really said something to me was when he was unsure of what to call his Mother and Father. He no longer wanted to call them mama and papa because it reminded him of home much his life had changed but he did not want to call them by the generic names Americans called their parents. He tells us that he just did not call them anything and hoped to get their attention by eye contact. I felt like he was almost confused about what to call his parents due to the two different languages he had learned because one was no longer existent to him but the other one his parents could barely speak. I never thought about how this could affect bilingual children in a negative way. I could not even imagine not knowing what to call my parents or having to just look at them to try to get their attention. One more part that I really liked reading about was when he explains how much his family dinners had changed because his siblings and him no longer spoke to his parents due to the difference in language. I thought this was awful because I know in my family when I come home from school I enjoy having family dinners and talking to my parents about everything in my life. I think it is really unfortunate that some children have to go through the struggles learning to speak English come with. I think the reading really sent a message that something needs to be done to eliminate the cons of being lingual and illuminate the pros of speaking two languages. I really liked Richards’s message in his reading and the way he wrote what he wanted to say by telling a story.

Jonathan Kozol " Amazing Grace" : Argument

I thought that Amazing Grace by Kozol was really easy to read and very interesting and eye opening. I think everybody has an idea of how each class lives. Poor people are less fortunate than middle class and middle class less fortunate than wealthy people. But, I think no one seems to stop and think about what kind of lives each class really leads. The stereotype that is perceived for wealthy people is that they are happy and they have all the money they need and more and nothing else could be wrong in their life. In reality, their lives might not be perfect. I think we do not know unless we talk to someone from that class or experience being in that class. As Kozol gives us many examples of what it is like to live in the South Bronx it really starts to open my eyes about what kind of things go on and it is a lot worse than I had imagined. One part that really stood out to me was when Cliffe was taking him around town and he asks if he wants to go down a certain street. Kozol asks what is down there and the boy responds and says, "That is where they burn people." When they walk down the street we come to find out that the incarcerator is not really there to burn people but other things. When the boy and the narrator get back to the house and the narrator tells the mother about the incarcerator and what the mother said I felt like her response to what her son had said almost sent the message like anything could happen here and burning bodies there is a possibility. Another part that really blew my mind was when he is talking to the Pastor and the Pastor tells him about the Children’s Park. I found it crazy that volunteers bring condoms and clean needles to adults with their children who are addicted to drugs. I think this is very thoughtful to try to help these people but I just never knew something like this happened and it really showed me how different of a life I have from other people in the world.

One Quote from the article that really said something to me was, "The point is that they put a lot of things into our neighborhood that no one wants. The waste incinerator is just one more way of showing their affection." I liked this quote because this woman is living here because she is cannot afford as much as others but, at the same time our society is making it worse by adding things like the incinerator and other trashy things around town. I got the impression that it is offensive to the people who live there because there is no reason to put a bunch of trashy things all over there town just because they are less fortunate than other people. I think the society/institutions add to the problems in the poor areas by adding more areas that are trashy and unsafe to be around. I think this article by Kozol is very well written and eye opening to people like me who really do not know what life in the Bronx might be like because in my mind I had a totally different image than I have now after reading Kozol's piece.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/amazing-grace-by-jonathan-kozol-8545

This link is a little bit about Kozol and another perspective on his piece "Amazing Grace."

Me :)

Hello everyone,

My name is Kathryn Foos and I am a sophmore here at Rhode Island College. My major is Elementary Education with a concentration in Special Education. I am from Mansfield Mass. and I love to play basketball it is my favorite sport. In my free time i like to hang out with my friends or watch my all time favorite show on tv, Jershey Shore. I also have two jobs. I work at the Comcast Center in Mansfield which is a Concert venue and I also work at Hollister. I enjoy working at both of my jobs but they both have pros and cons. My favorite concert that I got to work at through out my experience at Comcast Center was New Kids on the Block. Everyone always makes fun of me for it but they were the most entertaining that I have seen so far, although, KISS comes pretty close behind New Kids on the Block. I am really looking forward to this class and going to the first grade class that I was assigned too since first grade is what I would like to teach in the future. I hope to learn many new things in my experience as well as helping the students that I work with.