Weekly Reading #11

The Ted video is a good example to show of using current events to inspire and teach others, applied on a larger stage than most projects will ever go.  I think that it shows the importance of current events in the use of connecting to others, as we are ever-trapped in the mindset of the present: what do I have to do today? What is happening right now? What lies in store for me outside of my bedroom door? By connecting individuals to inspirational, emotionally compelling, or extraordinary current events, you and providing a lucid connection between these lessons and emotions and the most obvious state of mind: the present consciousness.
When we teach lessons about civil rights, or about racism and racial oppression, how often do we use lessons that circle around the 1960s, MLK Jr, the Freedom Riders, and the American Civil Rights Movement? While this time period does provide a strong amount of emotion, intensity, and information to learn from, it is also entirely distant from today's youth.  I would argue that using more modern and current events, such as the shootings in Ferguson, or as the book states, the flash mobs in Philly, lessons can provide a much stronger, much closer to home, and much more relevant lesson that can a student can claim ownership of and compare to their own philosophy and viewpoint based purely on personal experience.
The idea of current and close to home is also covered in the video as she points out that, as she travels the globe, she and her companions are using relevant and local lessons, not stories about Americans to inspire others. When we hear glorious stories about children in far away countries doing good deeds, we all think it is a great thing...but ask a person about it two hours later, and who really gives a shit? It is something we see, express a positive reaction to, then forget.
Let me explain this in a different way.  In Patrick Rothfuss' "Name of the Wind" book, he explains a magic called "Sympathy" which essentially is a mental bond between two objects, in which any force applied to one object, such as lifting a stick, would also lift another stick that is mentally bonded by sympathy. The more similar the objects, the less energy required and the more efficient/strong the bond. The less similar the objects, such as a stick and a rock, the less strong the bond is, and the more energy is required to perform similar actions.
In using real-world events to teach lessons, I think it follows a similar mindset. The more similarities one can draw from a lesson, the stronger the bond each individual will have to the teachings. The more dissimilar a person is from the subject of the lesson, the less efficient the bond will be, and as a result, the person will likely draw less from the lesson. I think this serves as a reason for us to seek out relevant and powerful topics for us to use as we try to analyze overarching themes or underlying causes in events to our friends, colleagues, and students.




On a side note, I typed up some quotes from this chapter while I didn't have internet access prior to seeing this weeks lesson. Oops! For fun, I will go ahead and post those, as they actually do serve some relevance to points I made in the above text. Have a good weekend, everyone!

“This student was aware that this particular point of view was completely absent from all the media accounts of flash mobs” (pg 146). 

                I was very taken by the game designed by this student as a way to express the frustrating and dangerous position that teens face in the region.  It just reminds me that if you give a student the means to creatively express themselves, the result can be something significantly more powerful than simply words on paper or spoken in front of a class.  Through creative outlet, students can convey emotions that are deeply imbedded and difficult to uncover.  Creating a lesson that teaches students necessary skills while simultaneously providing a healthy outlet is a wonderful goal indeed.  As educators, we can use those emotions to our advantage, weighing upon them to fuel a student’s motivation to complete a project.

“Increased mistrust of the media means young people may not believe much of what they hear, see, or read on the news” (pg 149).

I’ve been thinking ponderously on this point very much recently, especially after watching the debate between Tennant and Capito, when neither candidate really has a platform other than “my opponent sucks worse than me.”  I myself have grown increasingly distrustful of media, especially in the United States, as I find genuine journalism to be more and more of a rarity, as news organizations attempt to blow up stories just to get ratings, and shamelessly cover minor events like it is the apocalypse (CNN’s situation room comes to mind). I rarely check United States based media anymore, choosing to go to sites like BBC for news (though I’m sure they also have their own agenda). 

The state of politics in media and how we trust it really takes me back to the election between Kerry and Bush when I was in high school. For me, it was the first election that featured massive amounts of mudslinging and misinformation being published unanimously online.  I found myself frequently in debates at my school trying to convince students that, no, Kerry could not take away our guns and sell us to France,  and no, George Bush could not abdicate the presidency to his father. There was actually a small segment on Fox News for a brief time a couple years ago which, one week, asked the questions “How much difference is there between the two major political parties, and are they intentionally restricting our freedom and choice?” That segment was cancelled the next week. The truth we often receive from mainstream media is too often tainted, skewed, and disturbingly opaque.

“Linda Kane, the adviser of a high school newspaper in Naperville, Illinois, was told she would not be allowed to teach journalism or advise the paper the following year after students ran an article that administrators felt glorified drug use” (pg 156). 

This boils down to one of the majors barriers in media education and education in general today, doesn’t it? I constantly hear the question being asked “Why are children checked out? Why don’t they participate more?” We are asking students to speak their mind, then shushing them when they start to express themselves.  While there has to be some form of limitation on what students can say, in order to hedge inappropriateness and keep students on task, having a student express they true opinion on a situation is beneficial in multiple ways. The student learns how to express him or herself, other students hear an opinion on a topic, and the teacher also gets educated on the true thoughts of how students feel about a subject or idea. Just because a student’s opinion runs contrary to that of the schools does not immediately make it inappropriate, but rather can help create debate and teachable moments.