The Lost Boys

I was aware of these problems in the Sudan and a few years ago, there was a project online that showed how these boys left where they were and fled to the United States. It was a mass facebook cult like following, where people changed their facebook pictures to show support for the boys and what they were going through and how they got out. These kids sometimes left their entire families behind, others lost all family and just needed to get out before they were raped, and killed and hunted.  I am not shocked to see such disgusting behavior by a group of people on another group of being for being "lesser than them." It's happened all throughout history and unfortunately there is not much that can be done.

The only thing that really surprised me was the amount of people who have left and come to the United States. The number thrown around was somewhere near 4000 people, who have come to the United States to fight for the American Military, attend our universities and have gone on to be lawyers, and doctors. However, some fell through the cracks and have gotten involved in gangs, and the selling of drugs and problems with alcohol.

If these students were in my classroom it would be my responsibility to afford them the educational opportunities to succeed here in America.

The Stories that Bind Us

The article "The Stories That Bind Us" was written by Bruce Feiler who was having difficulty bringing his family together as his father stated how they were falling apart. Research states that a family whose unity is based on an oscillating family narrative leads to children having a better sense of self and family which makes it overall easier to handle difficult situations. The bottom line of the article is that if you want to have a happier family, you must recall stories of positive moments and the ability to bounce back from difficult ones.

In my classroom, I believe that I would have a class project based on the great depression. I would create groups in my class based on cultural background and after teaching them the basics of what happened and how each different group struggled, I would then have the students research and present the struggles and how those groups over come. As a sidebar, I may have the students take a trip with parents and relatives involved in the tenement museum walk in NYC. Where they can see how groups grew up, lived, struggled, and see how they overcame these difficulties.

Bedtime Stories... All that important?

The topic for this blog entry is bedtime stories. From my own personal experience I was always read to as a child; picture books then eventually chapter books and usually I wouldn't let my father leave my bedside until I was ready to stop having him read to me, or stop reading myself. I believe especially at a young age bedtime stories are crucial to the development of language acquisition, and a love for reading. Studies show that children who are read to or read with a parent at night grow up to be life time readers, (case in point: myself; I love to read! Nothing is more enjoyable on a slow lazy Sunday afternoon then to find my favorite spot for the day with a glass of iced tea and a good book.)

We were asked to watch two videos and discuss the features of storytelling in each. According to Wiki, "Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images, and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and to instill moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters, and narrative point of view." Both of these stories use embellishment. The first video, The Four Friends is a Russian story (in Russian, with Russian Subtitles) about four different animals: a deer, a tortoise, a crow and a mouse. They are worried about the hunter's traps and whether or not they will be able to outwit them. The animals talk to one and other and discuss how they are going to get out of a predicament. The second video, "Little Toot and the Lockness Monster" discusses the dream of a little boat and his adventure to go and find the creature, once the riverboats teased Little Toot. The embellishment is the the idea that a boat could have dreams, talk, or be personified in anyway. The same applies to the Russian bedtime story.

I believe that bedtime stories help children with their creativity because it enhances dreams. Our dreams are usually about the last thing we think of when we go to bed at night, or some other thing daunting on our minds. In school I believe that children can channel that creativity in their assignments and school work. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, storytelling at a young age helps students develop language skills. Thus helping the students be prepared for school.

Becoming American

After watching the Becoming American video I can find some correlation to my family and our ancestors. My heritage is deeply rooted in the Italian culture because I have family from all parts of  Italy. One story in particular that I could connect with was when they were talking about making fun of the Italian's last name, and calling Italians, "eye-talian". My great great grandfather's last name is Butticovoli, and when he came over to America the people at Ellis Island shortened it to Butt. Personally, my last name Fischetti, is often mispronounced and I cannot tell you how many times I have to correct people and how upset I get when someone does mispronounces it.

The fact that between 1820-1924 so many different types of cultures immigrated to America is amazing. Especially when you think about how the immigrants were under the pretense that they could achieve the "American Dream" and turned out that so many of them ended up in tenements and working less then minimum wage and in poor working conditions is hard to conceive. But, during my core class at Molloy (which was called "The American Dream") I had the privilege of visiting the tenement museum in NYC and having a first hand look at that living in this country meant for the immigrants. We were shown documents of people who signed in and they had their stories on display with personal artifacts that were left behind. It is amazing to think that our ENTIRE country's essence was because of families such as those that came over from their homelands to find a better life, one of prosperity and a dream.

A Class Divided

Having watched this video series during my undergraduate career,  I am familiar with the experiment and the results. Having watched it a second time, a year or so later, I have the same view as I did then.

Based on the results of the experiment I believe there was a valuable lesson to be learned and sometimes children need hands on experiences to understand and learn an abstract concept. This experiment addresses racism and prejudice by allowing the students to experience it first hand in an appropriate and safe setting.

I personally would do something like this in my classroom so the students can learn exactly how it feels to be on the other side of fence. Often in classrooms the issue of bullying needs to be addressed especially in the younger grades. Role playing is an effective way for students to act out and see results that they may not have known otherwise; such as a reaction of tears or retaliation instead of just walking away. Several times during my student teaching experience we used role playing to act out scenarios in which abstract concepts such as respect, or tolerance needed to be addressed and this strategy worked well with the students. The experiement is in the same fashion and it could be used with anything; i.e. shirt color, hair color, or even left handed and right handed. The purpose is to have the students understand another persons point of view.

CULTURES CULTURES CULTURES

Where do I begin?

The first video spoke about the importance of education in different cultures and how each culture views education to hold a different level of importance, depending on the culture. The example the video used was if there was a death or a marriage the entire family would attend and if the child missed school then they miss school. As educators we are expected to be accepting of this fact and help the student. I personally believe the opposite. In the educational community of OUR culture, missing school comes with consequences and those consequences should be enforced. Missing school regardless of the reason would result in having to make up the work or be punished for missing class (depending on the circumstance) and that should be how it is. In our culture we take education to be in high regards and I personally believe the more we allow education to become less of an importance the worse off we will be as a culture, nation, and world.

The second and third videos spoke about Manners and body language, and verbal expressions. I believe that it is important to be understanding of what these aspects of society mean to different cultures and embrace them. It is important to understand that the Indian student in our class may not look us in the eyes and we should be accepting of this fact and work with the student to help them realize it is okay to look the teacher in the eye. The whole basis of understanding is tolerance. I believe we should be, as educators tolerant of these differences but at the same time, it is important to educate the student and have the student realize that they are apart of our culture as well. Thus, assimilating to the culture in the classroom, or educational community is important for success. It is important to explain to the student that while it is important for you to keep your cultural values, at other times it is important for the student to assimilate into our culture.

Native American Talk

For the first week of class we discussed the Native American culture. We saw a movie entitled "The Last of the Mohicans" which depicted the struggles of the colonists, Native Americans, British and French. This took place during the French and Indian War in 1757 right before the Colonists declared independence. The struggles between different tribes of Native Americans boiled down to choosing sides between the French and the Colonists.


The next video we watched was on how a  Native American child was treated at boarding school. He was tormented and made fun of for having long hair and an accent. They made him wear a "Dunce" cap and proceeded to laugh at him. He became very emotional when discussing his past experiences at the board school and even cried. He is talking about his experience in order to education others about the abuse and struggles that Native American children may encounter.