“Many students do not want to believe they have been manipulated by children’s media or advertising. No one wants to admit that they have 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 Fuba, Nike, Timberlines, or whatever the latest fashion rage might be.”
This quote really shows how people are manipulated by the dominant culture without even knowing. When you are a child you want to fit in. If follow what you see. If we see people on television who are cool because of their clothing we dress like them. I know myself I would not go around in a pair of parachute pants and a leather studded vest because those are not the times. We follow what we see on the television. We are a visually learning society and our media shows that.
”But, like the original tale, Cindy Elle’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 the man. Both young woman are transformed and made beautiful through news clothes, new jewels, new hairstyles.
This quote talks about how Christensen reads this book to her class and they discuss how much better it is because the lead character is black; it also helps support the Ra Ra Diversity team. Unfortunately the teacher then points out to the class she does everything Cinderella does to get what she wants; she changes her appearance. We need to stop looking at the outer figures of these people and look at the underlying meanings of these fairytales. Cinderella tells us you need to change yourself for a person to notice who you really are. That is not teaching our children to be themselves and that they have something called inner beauty. Here is a link that shows fairy tales are not all they are all cracked up to be.
“They were fueled by the opportunity to convince some parents of the long lasting effects cartoons impose on their children, or to enlighten their peers about the roots of some of their insecurities. Instead of leaving students full of bile, standing around with their hands on their hips, shaking their heads about how bad the world is, I provide them the opportunity to make a difference.”
This quote I find to be helpful and non helpful in two different ways. One I think that it is great that students are taking action and telling parents about this. I think that people should know these things. My problem is we are not going to stop having children watch cartoons. It is part of t our culture to let children watch these silly cartoons. Let them dream big and make mistakes, that is what being a kid is all about. I do agree with her letting them go out and try to change things. Her class reminds me of our class. We sit in class and discuss things about education and how we can change it. We say this is not right and luckily we get to go out and help make a difference. We use what we learn in class to educate children and we do not sit their shaking our heads saying how can we fix the this, WE DO IT.
I like the quotes that you used and think you explained them well
ReplyDeleteI really liked when you said, "We follow what we see on the television. We are a visually learning society and our media shows that." This is definitely true for our generation.
ReplyDeleteI also liked what you said about how we need to take what we are learning and use it in the classroom to educate students. Because I agree, we can't stop kids from watching TV.