Author Archives: voon.choo1

I particularly enjoyed reading the beginning of the chapter “Ending School Segregation of National Minorities.” Of course one would find/include Brown vs. Board of Education in a book about education and it’s history. I enjoyed reviewing this case because it reminded me of my highschool history class. Something that stood out in this section was the part where it mentioned “the president’s public image was often threatened when examples of racial injustice were shown to millions of television viewers.” I’m just wondering… if America’s image wasn’t threatened, would the government continue to let these civil right’s movements continue on? It’s also obvious that the media was helpful in aiding the civil rights movement. Going back to the civil rights movement reminding me about my highschool history class, is it necessary for schools in one’s own country to present themselves in a righteous way? For example, I remember reading in my textbook that Japanese history textbooks excluded all the facts or events that would make Japan look bad and in a way that would promote nationalism. Would children or students of one country actually be affected by the teachings of a textbook?

In the section of “Asian Americans: Language and the continued Struggle for Equal Educational Opportunity,” something that stood out was “there is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education.” Personally I think that providing language aid to non-english students is beneficial but in the back of my mind I am debating between aid and the ways of “sink or swim.” Sink or swim is when a child who probably doesn’t understand any english at all is put into an english speaking environment and they’re left to learn or catch up on their own. And from that I guess we see if that child sinks (can’t keep up at all) or swims (starts to learn and adapt to his/her new environment). So my question is, how effective is the way of “sink or swim?” Do you think some schools implement this, why?

Something that stood out to me in this chapter was the section “Creating the Superhero for Children’s Radio.” I found it amusing that children’s radio were being protested against because it is thought to be “harmful to moral fibre of children and…excite youngsters in a manner to interfere with their sleep.” Say what? This situation reminds me of the story/incident where Harry Potter books were either being protested against or banned because it made a kid jump out his window on a broomstick. Honestly though, I don’t think the blame should be put solely on the radio station but also on parents for not regulating their kid’s exposure to the radio. This was also as silly as that one video we saw in class about the no weapons or no violence in school. Does exposing children to violence, or fantasy really influence their behavior/actions?

Continuing on in this section it talks about having “‘heroes worthy of the child’s ready impulse to hero worship, and his imitative urge to pattern himself after the hero model.'” This section made me think about all the super heroes that were around in my childhood. I automatically thought about Captain Planet. He seemed like a good model to imitate–being all environmental friendly and all. This second question is actually based on individual curiousity: How come super hero cartoons have been removed? I haven’t seen any batman, captain planet, or superman episodes in too long? I feel like programs these days are so focused on being educational, they don’t really provide children with a “moral” model anymore.

The topic of home economics as a course is very intriguing to me. To think that there was actually an attempt to “professionalize the role of the housewife,” is probably controversial to today’s world. Even in today’s world we know that there are people out there who take a women’s job as a housewife very lightly. I, myself, would consider being a housewife a profession. Those traditional housewifey mom’s do astonish me, they cook, clean, do laundry, etc like a super woman! But now a days, I believe that there are less and less housewives especially in America. My mom would always nag me to do chores and tell me stories about how in the past she has done everything in her household as a child. And I would always think in my head that American kids don’t need to worry about those things anymore. So to think that, as the book mentions, that there was a belief that “home economics would imrpove society” is probably not a very prominent belief in today’s world. But of course that’s only my perspective. A possible discussion would be: Where does the importance of home economics stand in today’s America compared to the 1900’s?

Another interesting topic from this chapter is the section on “School Cafeterias, The American Cuisine, And Processed Foods.” It was interesting how home economists “hoped to Americanize the diet of immigrants,” and “hoped to persuade immigrant children to abandon the diet of their parents for the new American cuisine.” The results were “the development of new food products and made possible the proliferation of fast-food chains” and “helped…develop… refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, and washing machines.” I guess in a way home economists did help to ‘modernize’ America the way it is today. This topic stirred about the idea of cleaniliness and the organization “FDA” and “USDA.” Just made me think about a man in the book called “The Jungle” lost his finger, etc. A possible discussion question would be: What are your thoughts of one abandoning (tastes of )one’s own culture and being more appealed to the ‘American’ cuisine/culture?