Blog #3: Just Dreamin'

Class division and social status are two main themes throughout these readings. Some were harsher than others and some were just a realization of how sad our society has become. While reading "The House on Mango Street" I was introduced to a lot of things that I was not particularly aware of. Rape, abuse, control, and downgrading women. All things that happen, unfortunately, on a daily basis and are things that I just don't think about. So when I was reading this book, I really paid close attention to how the author wrote the story. She did not just come out and say that these things were happening, we had to infer them. It's like real life in that way, people who are victims of such things don't come out and talk about them. Other than that, this book does a fantastic job of showing how a low income, hispanic neighborhood functions. Esperanza,  a young resident of Mango Street, is ashamed of her house. She has much bigger dreams of living a high class life - I mean who doesn't? She is always thinking of the future...what house are they going to live in next? Will it be nicer than the beat up bungalow they live in now? I think that this stems from insecurity. I peg her to be around middle school age, a tough age in general, let alone she is struggling with her hispanic heritage, social economic status, and looks. Throughout the book it seems as if she is having an identity crisis, she doesn't know really who she is or what she stands for. She wants to essentially live the "American Dream", to have a nice home, loving family, nice neighborhood where you don't have to worry about your neighbor (Sally in particular) getting abused or raped. She wants to live a happy, carefree life. And it's a shame that her family's social status has to hold them back from that.

This brings me to my next point. In the article, "For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall." The title could not be more accurate of the article. While reading this, I genuinely felt bad for Angelica, Bianca, and Melissa. They, like Esperanza, grew up in a minority, low income household. All three ended up attending college, but not necessarily succeeding at it. I think that a big problem for this is because they were too worried about how they were going to pay for it to really get the fun college experience. This article shows that low income families (like the ones in the article) - maybe education just isn't a top priority (to the parents) therefore, they don't save for it. Both the article and "The House of Mango Street"show low income families and the areas they come from. The areas they come from made a huge impact on their lives - it's as if the schools did not want them to succeed, like they were a lost cause. I think that the article is the non - fiction version of the story and "House on Mango Street" is the fictional version...either Angelica, Bianca, or Melissa could have grown up like Esperanza...wanting and wishing for something more out of life.

Chris Rock's skit was a good, light-hearted way to laugh about a deep issue. He pointed out that white neighborhoods typically don't have signs named after black people. I guess that's true. So as a joke - but not really - he went around petitioning to change a street sign to "Tupac Blvd". It was funny. However, most people - white people - were turned off by this notion. Without second thought, people automatically said no. It's hard to determine what the reason was for it. Because he was a rapper? Because he was black? Because they simply didn't want to change the street sign? I believe that they didn't want to ruin the reputation of their "hoity toity" neighborhood. They liked having the high class thing going on...and to them they associated "Tupac" with something negative. Really interesting. As for the song "Wake Me Up When September Ends", it deals with two teenagers (who from the looks of it come from a nice home, looked middle class. To them, they had it all. They weren't worried about money or wondering if they would fit in at school, or even college. Their attention - full attention - was on each other. Their happy-go-lucky love life comes to a screeching halt when he enlists in the army. I think this goes to show that nobody has it all. Even if on the outside it may look like they do - they don't. Just because this couple doesn't struggle with money doesn't mean they don't have worries themselves. In this case, in contrast to all the other things I have talked about in this blog, they are worried for his survival through the war. I think it was a good contrast to the other pieces we looked at for this unit because it showed a middle to high class people struggling too. It is important to never judge because everyone has their own levels of hardship they go through on a daily basis.

Blog #2: Chivalry, Gender Roles, and Feminism

These three things are very touchy and controversial topics in today's society, and they come in all different forms - from songs to video clips and commercials. But one thing I noticed was that they weren't all necessarily new. The song "Holding Out for a Hero" is an '80's song (where a woman sings about how she need a "white knight upon a feisty steed" to come save her - a little dramatic if  you ask me)...which coincidentally was the theme music for "The Dare" clip in Footloose. This scene is quite the manly one. It displays how men need to constantly prove their manliness to women...and other men.   It is the whole idea of the "alpha male". Where did this come from? No matter where it did - this has been around for ages.

The issue of women and their roles in society has been a topic of question and debate for quite some time. Women have been pushed aside in society with men thinking that they run the place. Like I said, this is not a new issue. "The Wife of Bath" is a very old narrative poem that is a tale of a knight who takes advantage of a young maiden and his punishment (as ruled by the Queen) is to go find out what women most desire - he has a year to do it. And if he cannot complete this task then he gets the death penalty. Ultimately, he gets the answer from an old woman who he ends up having to marry (talk about role reversal - this was the time when arranged marriages were very common for women). She gives him an ultimatum saying that he can have her the way she, aged. But in return she will be a faithful wife. Or he can have a young and beautiful and unfaithful wife. Where the story takes a turn is when he  lets her decide. This is the part where the reader is shocked. Because usually in today's society (although it is slowly changing) men are usually the ones who make all the decisions because they are the head of the household.

Like I said, times are changing. Typically, when we think of men and their roles we think of power or high status and women are less dominant. The parents of baby Storm (whose gender is unknown - even to him/her) are fighting against society's gender roles. They want their baby to find themselves on their own and NOT have their identity be defined by what others think is right. Personally, I feel this to be quite extreme. Why put your kid through that? Pretty much social suicide. I think that kids can break society rules and still be considered male or female. Just odd and I am not sure how effective that will be either. When we look at a diagram such as "Gingerbread Person v. 2.0" we can see how the roles of gender are becoming a blurred line. This diagram shows a gingerbread person with all the possible ways and degrees of identity, attraction, and sex. To me, it was a little complex and I would have never thought that some of these terms existed. Male and female are not so black and white anymore...there is a lot more gray area. For example, under the gender category a person can be considered: female, male, two-spirit, genderqueer, or genderless. My question is who came up with all these terms? And are the legit?

Despite these interesting terms of gender, it doesn't change the fact that women are still undermined in society. The work place for one. Sheryl Sandberg is trying to change that. She wants to start a social movement to create equality for men and women. I have to agree though when she says that we can not only blame society for this, but women as well. Women are so susceptible to falling under society's rules. Women need to stand up for themselves and be the change. Lyrics from Lorde's song, "Royals" can accompany this thought. I have heard this song a thousand times over but never took time to actually listen to the lyrics. This song suggests that the singer is talking about social status and how she is "not proud of her address"but she refuses to be labeled the way society claims to be. She wants to take a stand and rule in her own way..."you can call me queen bee". I now have a new appreciation for this song.

Blog #1: 12th Grade - Nature

All of these modes of literature had a common theme: nature. But not the kind of nature that talks about bunnies and cute baby bears, but real nature. The kind that causes disasters and can be deadly. That is what kids care about - real world problems. They like learning about something they can apply their knowledge to. And why not cater to that need? All of these pieces we were asked to look at dealt with serious stuff - serious yet interesting...intriguing.

Students from Washington would particularly find the multimodal article, "Snow Fall" interesting because it is local. It is about a group of pro skiers who were caught in an avalanche in the Cascade Mountain Range. This article was interesting because of the way it was written. Right off the bat it got readers hooked wanting to know more about the poor skier trapped beneath the icy surface. It also gave some background on avalanches, talking about the rising number of fatalities due to an increase in snow sports. "Vanishing Ice" ties in with my last sentence due to the fact that it talks about the reasons why we are seeing avalanches more often. It is partly because of global warming and how it not only affects humans, but animals and plants as well. We as humans need to be aware of nature and how it works. Who knows it could save your life someday.

The two video clips or trailers would probably catch the students attention the most. One, because it is a video and what students don't like to watch videos? And two, they are beneficial to the lesson. "Gasland" is a documentary on a guy who goes out and researches hydraulics. From the trailer we see dirty, undrinkable water coming from faucets in peoples homes. The video looked controversial because clips of court and officials were being shown that obviously do not condone what this man is researching. The Spike Lee video on the other hand dealt with flooding and exploding oil rigs.

Lastly, the poems. The poems dealt with nature too...but in a different more abstract light. "The Tyger" poem was very dark and used a lot of dark words to conjure the meaning and tone of the poem. It dealt with forest fires, which every summer there is a bad case of them. "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" was  much more euphoric. It described nature from a birds eye view.

I think that all of these forms of writing and literacy that have to do with nature are very beneficial to students. Each of these could be taken as controversial...which can lead to great classroom discussion. They are also about spreading awareness, dealing with real life scenarios that students can take this newfound information and actually apply it. And that is a lesson that students will want to learn.