Kahne and Westheimer- "In Service of What?"

In this reading, Kahne and Westheimer began to distinguish the differences between charity and change. They explain that charity is based around civic duty and the "joy of helping the less fortunate". It involves giving back and volunteering. Change is reinforced around critical reflection that promotes social reconstruction. It also involves caring more for others and struggling together for change.

I believe service learning should be focused more on change. Policy makers and legislature is concerned more on the amount of hours a student volunteers, but they should shift their attention to promote critical reflection on our social environment. "Giving" emphasizes the social difference within the individuals volunteering and the "less fortunate". By calling them the "less fortunate" we cast ourselves away from them and consider ourselves as different or maybe even privileged. "Caring" however, promotes a view that both individuals are equal and should work together for social change. I believe it is important to break the barriers and stop separating ourselves from one another. When we see each other as equals, we are able to see our act of volunteerism as meaningful. Having a purpose behind service learning can help establish long term relationships and encourage students to continue to participate. Rather than feeling good for helping others, we begin to feel important and on a mission to work on something bigger than ourselves; social reconstruction. This feeling of awe is more impacting than that warm feeling we undergo when we do something good.

Volunteering at The Met has been quite the experience. For the most part, I consider the experience to be enforced by change. Watching how this non-traditional high school functions has been an eye-opening experience. I constantly see myself comparing The Met to my high school and how different things would have been for me if I was a student at The Met. I evaluate the opportunities I would have had if my school involved internships for me to participate in. I also reflect on how we can implement parts of the curriculum at The Met to other public high schools in Providence. I am interested to see how schooling will evolve in the future and I believe The Met is a great school model to implement on other school districts.This is a chart describing The Met's model and principles under which they have designed their curriculum around.

What do you believe is more important, charity or change? Do you have any examples or experiences on service learning? How has it impacted you?


This is just a short video providing some service learning experiences with undergraduate students and their own personal views on what service learning is. http://youtu.be/jcBMDm4m68c

Linda Christensen- "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us"

In Christensen's article, "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us", a teacher raises awareness to help her students analyze and critique cartoon stereotypes in relation to society. I was able to relate to the alarming misconceptions of most cartoon shows because in my Junior year of High School, I took a course called AP English Language and our teacher discussed these same issues within our class. How do fairy tales such as Cinderella or cartoons like Popeye form our own perceptions? As a kid, I loved reading fairy tale books and watching the six Disney princesses on TV, but it never occurred to me how alarming each hidden message was within each princess story. The most obvious message, which has never crossed my mind before is; why are the majority of the Disney princesses white? We are potentially teaching our children that outer beauty will get you married and marrying will make you "live happily ever after". These cartoons show that outer beauty can be attained though material means such as makeup and pretty clothes. Young girls are encouraged to " play dress up" and dream of their wedding day. These cartoons are significantly molding a child's mind into living within the gender stereotypes.

What cartoon shows are safe to allow our children to watch? Are there any cartoons or movies that don't embody the common stereotypes that most fairy tales do? How is Disney evolving now with the new movie Frozen?

This is a short blog speaking about gender roles within Disney princesses. http://blogs.longwood.edu/genderrolesbroughttoyoubydisney/conventional-feminine-beliefs/

Allan et al- "Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: addressing LGBT equality in the primary school"

These authors, Allan et al, argue that teachers should implement gay affirmative books to educate young children about LGBT awareness. They state that lesbian teachers make themselves indivisible to protect themselves from prejudice and violence. Teachers are responsible for their own safety and fear they would lose their credibility if others knew they were gay. However, it would be very beneficial to have a gay role model when speaking about LGBT. It would be much easier to teach about LGBT awareness in a much more private setting like an after school club rather than a classroom because the meeting is more informal and children are there by choice. They also argue that schooling is public while sexuality is private and teachers fear they might offend parents. If a teacher brings a private discussion such as homosexuality into a public setting like a classroom, the public setting thus becomes private. When the private discussion leaks outside the classroom to parents, the discussion becomes public. These boundaries of public and private spheres then seem to be permeable and justifies why there should be no issue in bringing a private topic to a public scenario or vice versa. These two spheres should never be kept apart because their boundaries are continuously open. The beauty of educating the children on gay affirmative issues, is that the open boundaries make it possible to change the prejudices on homosexuality within our community. I believe that LGBT must be part of classroom discussion to eliminate prejudices against homosexuality.

I do not recall reading any books on homosexuality in my childhood, have any of you read any books on LGBT? How can we implement more reading on homosexuality in classrooms?

This video sparked my interest because it addressed many points from the reading and argued what should be done to bring more gay affirmative books into classrooms.

When educating children about LGBT awareness, we can create a safe zone within our schools and hopefully it can "leak out" and make our entire community a safe zone.

Richard Rodriguez- "Aria", Hunger of Memory

"Aria" was an autobiography written by Richard Rodriguez. In his autobiography, Richard describes his childhood memories of assimilating into American culture. The arguments he made about assimilation connected to the readings from last week; "The Silenced Dialogue" by Lisa Delpit and "An Indian Father's Plea" by Robert Lake. Delpit brought up arguments relating to the codes of the culture of power. The third code explains; "the rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power" (Delpit 24). The culture of power has manifested its way into Richard's childhood and caused him to lose his own private cultural identity. When the nuns asked Richard's parents to speak more English at home, power and privilege played a huge factor in why his parents agreed to their recommendation. "How could they have questioned the Church's authority which those women represented?" (Rodriguez 20). If it was the next door neighbors, would the parents have listened to their remarks so easily?

In "An Indian Father's Plea", Lake expresses his concerns about having his child, Wind Wolf, assimilate into American culture. He wants his child to retain his own cultural identity while adding on the knowledge of American culture to his repertoire. However, Wind Wolf was assimilating rather than integrating the new culture. Wind Wolf began to want to cut his hair and seemed to be embarrassed of his own Native American culture.We see both Richard and Wind Wolf preoccupied about their own public identity and whether or not they "fit in" with American society. Wind Wolf worries what his classmates think of him and Richard wants to connect and be part of society. Both began to sacrifice their own private cultural identity for their own spot in American culture.

How can we address the issue of assimilation? How can we make classrooms more open and accepting of diverse students?

This video is about Native American assimilation and how they are affected by the culture of power.