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Chapter 14

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?

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Chapter 12

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.

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Chapter 8

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?

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Chapter 4

This chapter reminded me of our discussion in the previous class questioning if the U.S. has one culture and if the education system is responsible for teaching patriotism. The chapter mentions that in the early period of common school reforms,” it primarily protected a Protestant ideology against an influx of Irish Catholics, African Americans, and Native Americans.” But the book continues on to say that “in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Americanization programs for immigrants in the public schools served the same function.”

It was interesting to learn that highschools only became institution in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Isn’t this the time of the Great Depression? In the section of “The Birth of The High School” it mentions that “A high school education would lead to obedience to the law.” My question would be, to what extent is the high school institution responsible for their student’s obedience to the law? I am actually pretty curious about the steps the school system or government took to have more kids stay in school today.And regarding another  supporting arguments for creating a high school, is that “high schools would promote the idea that achievement depends on individual responsibility.” To me this just shows American’s individualistic state of culture.

Lastly, it is also interesting that the chapter goes on to talk about the promise of the American life being an improved economic opportunity for all people. This has sparked the question of: How much of an improvement is there for the non-whites in America and if that promise holds true for the immigrants that continue to come here?

Posted in Religion, Values, Separation Church & State | 12 Comments

Chapter 3

First of all, in the passage on “The Problem of Cultural Diversity,” I find it to not be a coincidence that the U.S. census is brought to attention. Through the evolution of the census I believe that we can also kind of see the change evolution of cultural diversity. In that time period, (presented by table 3.1) they showed only the different English-speaking groups, and the only ones really considered white were the of English ancestry. They also didn’t care about the diversity of different regions that their slaves came from they only wanted to know how many slaves were there. But we can see that in today’s U.S. census that in the survey, there is a broad range of questions to figure exactly everyone’s ancestry and cultural backgrounds.

Another passage I found interesting was that after the American Revolution, the idea of a “protected childhood” arose. This was the belief that “children were born innocent, these families considered childhood as something to be enjoyed and prolonged.. childhood was a stage of life where character could be shaped to make the virtuous adult.” And then because of this, schools were then seen as “logical institutions for the extension of childhood that would protect and mold children.” This was interesting to me because this belief is definitely still present in the U.S. today.

Questions:
1. Why did the census or survey’s back then considered a problem of cultural diversity?
2. Is there any cons to patriotism?
3. How has the belief of the protected childhood from back them evolved to this day?

Posted in Multiculturalism, Nationalism, and the Role(s) of Education | 10 Comments