Gender and Education

It is safe to say that gender inequality is very much around and very prominent in most schools in our society today. Girls are seen as more intellectual and "smart" than boys and thought to be more successful academically, while being taught that sitting quietly and focusing on her social status is equally important to boys focusing on their independency. This article titled Gender Bias in Education by Amanda Chapman includes a lot of information on how boys and girls in school districts are looked at completely differently both education wise as well as socially.

This website is all about gender differences and its role in education; how it affects both ends of the line. It lists some of the disadvantages for both boys and girls, as well as ways in which both genders cope with certain experiences differently and whether or not they should be educated in completely separate classrooms.

Of course the most common place in which gender bias takes place is within the sports' teams at school. The teams are divided into boys only teams as well as girls only teams; and we can all guess which one of these two groups gets better privileges for their sport. 

The Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations had a pole to see whether or not the public agreed with the fact that female athletes would play on all boys' sports teams. It was really interesting to see what the public had to say about this topic in their comments on this article.

This article even has statistical data proving that females are well capable of being just as successful as males in their ability to do math, however girls are more apt to have confidence issues when it comes to their math abilities.

All of this research is so contradictory because there are so many studies that say girls are more successful than boys in schools because of either the way they are taught or the way they are programed to learn, and other studies say that boys are more successful because they have more confidence than girls in their academic abilities. This article basically just talks about "gender gaps" and how boys and girls act very differently and learn differently in schools.

All of this information that I read and found is such good proof that there is still a large group of people that do not believe girls and boys are equal in any way, shape, or form. I think that every human being learns a different way and is successful in their own way and whatever that way may be has nothing to do on whether or not you are a female or a male.

Between Barack and a Hard Place

Brown vs. Board of Education


While listening to the videos of Tim Wise discussing his book, Between Barack and a Hard Place, I found myself agreeing with him more and more. It is disappointing to admit it, but racism is still very prominent in today's society. The "Separate Is Not Equal" website we explored explained a lot about Brown vs. Board of Education and how it supposedly "marked a turning point in the history of race" in the United States. Yes, this problem has come a long way and there have been many great improvements throughout the years on racism, but all of this hard work has yet to diminish all form of racism everywhere. 


Wise admits that Obama's presidential election was a step forward in this long battle, but racism still has a long way to go before being completely resolved. People really need to change they way they view people of color (and people of different "styles") because I believe that an issue such as this will never be resolved unless every single person is on the same page. It's one thing to say that there is no racism and that everyone is equal, but it's another thing to actually put those words in action and prove it. 


There are a couple of videos that I found that pertain to racism that is still seen today. They include some vulgar language, but they are amusing to watch, and they are completely true. I only posted two of them, but if you go on youtube, you'll see that these same characters have made many different videos pertaining racism in today's society. 
And since I can't seem to be able to post them directly on my blog, here's video 1 and video 2 :)


After watching the Tim Wise videos, I'm actually really interested in reading his book. There is nothing I want to learn about more than modern day issues in our society that clearly need to be fixed.
In class, I want to brainstorm about some of the small steps we as individuals could do to make a small difference, as well as giant leaps that we as a whole could accomplish in order to really start changing people's perspectives on this issue.

In the Service of What?

Argument:

In this article, the authors, Kahne and Westheimer, argue that service learning is an important learning experience that everyone should have the opportunity to get involved in at least once, but it is important to do it the right way. They write about two different ways to get involved in a service learning project and that the two can have very different outcomes. There is a service learning for simply charity purposes, and then there is a service learning that can make a change.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with being charitable, because that can be indeed extremely helpful to some people. But service learning for charity is basically just another way of saying "community service." Which, again, isn't a bad thing, but it involves more of just giving the community a few hours of your life and then brushing it off and being done with it. Whereas, service learning for change requires more passion, more research, and more thought. It's not just helping someone out for the sake of making yourself feel good, it's doing it for the sake of trying to make a difference and preventing the reasons why that person needs your help in the first place. Yes, that person may be in need of your services and your help, but why? And how can you, or we as a whole, change that?

It's kind of like what we've already talked about in class: The difference between pity and awareness. We can be involved in service learning either because we feel bad for those people in need and we want to help them so we can feel good about our accomplishments, or because we want to make a difference, and change the fact that these people are so dependent.

"Students tutor, coach softball, paint playgrounds, and read to the elderly because they are interested in people, or because they want to learn a little about poverty and racism before they head out into the waiting corporate world .... We do not volunteer 'to make a statement.'"
We shouldn't go into our service learning thinking "I am so great because I am helping these people who are in need" but rather "I am going to learn so much from this experience and it will help me understand where these people come from and how they feel."

Service learning is all about the learning experience: who you are helping and working with, putting yourself in their shoes and trying your hardest to fully understand them and better their lives. Not so much about the charity work, that's just a small bonus.

Kahne and Westheimer state that it is very important to discuss each other's service learning experiences in class with our peers in order to either get different thoughts and ideas that will help one's service learning experience or just to share what they are involved in. In our FNED class, we do just that. We share our stories and experiences in our schools, are ask questions about certain things we are curious about, and we even connect our experiences to the different readings and subjects we learn about in previous classes.

This video is a great example of the right type of service learning. It provides facts and statistics about the issue they are raising awareness about and then they provide information on what one can do to help.

In class, I want to continue to talk about these two different types of service learning, and about how much more awkward, difficult, and nerve-wracking our service learning project would be if we didn't talk about it as a whole group.

Unlearning the Myths - Easier Said Than Done

Quotes:

In the article, "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us", Linda Christensen argues that the way children are influenced by media needs to change drastically. Cartoons, TV shows, and movies all do a great job in portraying the average human as beautiful and flawless, and, in most cases, the "bad guys" of the stories are usually much less appealing to the eye. Christensen gives many examples of fairy tales that do just that, such as Cinderella: the ugly stepsisters verses the beautiful Cinderella and the handsome prince, Snow White verses the evil Queen, and The Little Mermaid (and gorgeous Prince Eric) verses Ursula. Fairy tales are brought into children's lives at a very young age and these children are learning about all of these biases just by watching a fun, colorful, motion picture.
The truth is, most kids don't even notice it's happening:

"Many students don't want to believe that they have been manipulated by children's media or advertising. No one wants to admit that they've been 'handled' by the media. They assure me that they make their own choices and the media has no power over them - as they sit with Fubu, Nike, Timberlands, or whatever the latest fashion rage might be."

We, as children, adolescents, AND adults, don't realize how materialistic we really are. And the truth is, we're all the same! Of course, some people might always have more expensive brands and the most recent electronics or styles, but, if we all could, everyone else would as well. We have been brought up in a world that thinks 'image is everything', and it really is. Not that I agree with it, but everyone and everything revolves around one's image and appearance.

The next important thing on the list, is one's goals. People's social class and position in the world - what they do, who they are married to and how much money they have. The wealthier you are, the more important you seem to get. And people in the upper class are encouraged to marry within their class as well. The respect you receive from society dwells a lot on your marital status and who you're husband or wife is:

"Like the original tale, Cindy Ellie's main goal in life is not working to end the plight of the homeless or teaching kids to read. Her goal, like Cinderella's, is to get her man. Both young women are transformed and made beautiful through new clothes, new jewels, new hairstyles...Both of the Cinderella's compete for their men against their sisters...They 'win' because of their beauty and their fashionable attire. Both of these tales leave young women with two myths: Happiness means getting a man, and transformation from wretched conditions can be achieved through consumption - in their case, through new clothes and new hairstyles."


As soon as young girls turn the age of about thirteen, the most important thing in the world to them is having a boyfriend, or, a "boyfriend." It might not even matter who the boy is, as long as they have someone to call theirs, they're satisfied. This definitely does come from the media. Girls, young women, feel the need to be dependent on other people, mainly men, and they hate the idea of being single. It makes them feel unimportant, unwanted, and "unbeautiful."

 

"I'm single because no one wants to be with me. I'm not good enough for anyone, not pretty enough." How many times have you heard that one? I know I've lost track.
The fact that, in the media, we see all of these beautiful, flawless people get everything they could possibly want, does not help that matter, either. Most films include these characters who can't quite get what they want or where they want be, so they change something about themselves, and in the end, they get it. That is basically the basis of most Hollywood movies, it always has been. Pretty much saying "Hey, man! Still not getting that girl, huh? Try going to the gym, work out a bit, cut your hair, make more money, then you'll have a chance," or "Hey, girl! You actually want to 'fit in' in society? Okay well, try lowering your calorie intake to about 20 a day, dye your hair, glob on some makeup, spend your entire paycheck on designer shoes and handbags every week, then you'll be set." I hate to say it, but that is every one's mind set.

"As Tinker Bell inspects her tiny body in a mirror only to find that her minute hips are simply too huge, she shows us how to turn the mirror into an enemy...and this scenario is repeated in girls' locker rooms all over the world."

Christensen quotes Catkin when she says that people hate themselves if they don't look as exquisite as Cinderella or Prince Charming. They refuse to be happy until they have the perfect body along with all their desired designer products.
"We don't call it deception, we call it good taste. And soon it feels awkward going to the mailbox without makeup."
 That line is genius, and most importantly, very true. We have been living in this state of mind our entire lives. It is brought upon us not only through our media, but also by our parents and families from what they learned from the media of their times as well. It's pretty scary to say that no one is safe from this lifestyle; it is all around us.
The sad part is, the goal for everyone is basically to become perfect. To look perfect, act perfect, have perfect materials, live a perfect life with the perfect amount of wealth in our perfect houses, with our perfect husbands and wives and perfect children. And this is impossible. Christensen knows that as well, and she feels, as do I, that the media in this world needs to slowly take a turn and change the way it is interpreting everyday people. Because the people they are creating, are not real, inhuman, and for us to feel the need to be like these fake characters should not be our lifelong goal.

I found this amazing blog that talks about princess stereotypes. I was so excited while reading it because it fits extremely well with this topic.

In class, I plan to discuss how our media is the main cause for eating disorders, surgical procedures, many reality shows, and suicides. "Why can't I look like that?" - the famous question inside everyone's mind.

Gayness, Multiculturalism Education, and Community

Hyperlinks:

Is this really happening? Okay, what century are we in again? And we still can't accept that people are different? What is wrong with out society? I just had to get that out because I am extremely disgusted, to say the least, with what is going on in our world right now.
The morning before I actually read Carlson's article, I was watching the news and found out that yet another young man had killed himself as a result of being harassed because he was homosexual. This man, named Tyler Clementi, was a freshmen at Rutgers State University of New Jersey, and, as you can read in this news article, he was pushed beyond the limit, and decided to end his life by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.
It doesn't end there. Just last week, two other boys took their own lives after being bullied and pushed out of the social norm for being gay. Thirteen year old Asher Brown of Houston, and thirteen year old Seth Walsh of California decided that they couldn't live one more day getting treated the way they were. And Billy Lucas, a fifteen year old high school freshmen, also hung himself last month from the same cause. Blunt enough?
Carlson argues that people, kids especially, need to become aware that there are differences in this world, and they need to be accepted. No matter how against something kids are, they need to somehow reprogram their brains and think otherwise. To do this, teachers and departments of schools need to stop being cowards, and they need to start teaching and acknowledging homosexuality in their curriculum. They need to know that it's okay to teach about these things, because it is present in the real world. It's when teachers decide to maneuver around the subject and ignore it, then students begin to think that maybe it is wrong, and maybe it shouldn't be accepted. And that's when gay students themselves are too afraid to stand up for themselves and live their lives openly as who they really are.
In this video, clinical psychologist Jeff Gardere reinforces the idea that teachers and parents need to help their children and students understand that homosexuality is a part of our world and it needs to be accepted. The video expands on Tyler Clementi's tragedy but the most important points begin at around 3:20 in the video. I also found this page that is strictly on gay/lesbian news where anyone can comment on specific stories and share their thoughts and I found it really interesting to read the different things people have to say on this topic.
Carlson states that "the official policy in most school districts is in fact identical to that of the U.S. military: Don't ask, don't tell," and that is ridiculous. People shouldn't feel the need to 'ask', because it doesn't matter either way, but they also should most definitely not be afraid to 'tell'.

I plan on furthering my discussion on how teachers, as well as parents, need to begin taking full responsibility in how their children and students view the differences in our society. This segregation and these "phobia's", need to stop, and since children are the future, I believe that's the best way to go.