Similar to Mr. O'Connor's blog post on Pete Seger and how his music has influenced change in the world, one of my favorite bands, Dispatch, has worked on various projects outside of music to help change the world as well. Lead guitarist and vocals, Chad Stokes, has worked with both Dispatch and another band, State Radio, on various works involving poverty in Sudan, helping the cause of Troy Davis, and most recently the "Amplifying Education" campaign with Teach for America. Below is an informational video with the band members from Dispatch discussing the details of their 2011"Amplifying Education" tour.
"It's channeled towards reading, mentoring, and tutoring"- Chad Stokes
"Spending time is way more valuable then spending money"- Brad Corrigan
The two quotes above are what I found most important regarding their involvement with "Amplifying Education". It is one thing to donate money to an organization, but to contribute your time and energy is truly significant. One thing that sets Dispatch apart from other groups contributing to efforts like this, is that these groups are more fed up with the cash flow then they are sacrificing their time and labor. This sets a strong example for fans to get involved physically too by mentoring, tutoring, and reading to kids.
Music has served as a strong hub for raising money, awareness, and time for various organizations and efforts. Musicians like Pete Seger, Bono, and Chad Stokes have gained significant followers because of their ability to produce good music, and show humility through supporting important causes. What other ways besides music are effective in getting people involved not only financially but physically as well?
What other musicians have helped change the world?
While flipping through the interesting and unique Yahoo news articles I stumbled across one that both shocked and disturbed me. It was about a third graders homework from a small town in Georgia that not only taught students math, but "social studies" as well. An idea that sounds harmless initially, but how corrupt it turned out to be. One question asked, "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?". This homework assignment tried to incorporate the idea of Slavery into math. After recently completing Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass I have become familiar with the brutal hardships many slaves endure in their lives. Therefore, a simple math problem like this that is designed to "educate" students on slavery really disturbs me. Not only are the students too young to really understand the perils of slavery, but to casually bring it up in this way is absurd. According to an ABC article I read on the issue another question regarded how much cotton Frederick picked. An angry Parent commented on the issue saying, "Something like that shouldn't be imbedded into a kid of the third, fourth, fifth, or any grade". While I agree that these students are too young at this age I believe that at some point, during either middle school or junior high, students should be introduced to the history of slavery. Clearly this homework assignment was unacceptable, but it made me think about the cross-curricular activities we are susceptible to at New Trier High School.
Cross-curricular simply refers to a combination of academic subjects through either a class or activity. At our school we have many examples of this such as American Studies, Literature and Film, Sports medicine, and many more. Part of what makes these cross-curricular combinations so effective is that it forces students to think of subjects in different ways, and also gives students the opportunity to express their ideas in different ways. For instance in our American Studies class we were able to take the idea of storytelling, and then think about how history is told through textbooks, the changes and recreations of a story to stress certain points, and even created an oral history essay through conducted interviews. This being said, the idea behind this homework assignment was not necessarily a bad idea, but the way they executed it turned out to be a nightmare.
Is there any way to really incorporate Social Studies and Math? What other positives and negatives are there to cross-curricular activities?
Viewed by many New Trier High School students as the test that determines the future. The ACT is Stressed over, analyzed, and even trained for. When it comes down to it, New Trier's 2011 class averaged a composite score of 27.5, compared to the national average of 21.1, and the Illinois average of 20.9. Why is it that New Trier High School students exceed the national and Illinois averages by over an incredible 6 points?We recently discussed in class the trends in education between the rich and poor, but what exactly is the reason students from New Trier do substantially better than students from say, East St. Louis? (These statistics can be found on the ACT website by clicking on the following link) http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2011/states.html
"Competition is the lifeblood of New Trier"- Jonathan Kozol
I believe that a major reason for the divide in education between affluent school districts such as New Trier and Lake Forest, and impoverished East St. Louis comes down to the spending per pupil. Walk into any New Trier classroom and you will find a clean room with nice desks/tables, chalkboards, and more recently fantastic projectors. Walk into any East St. Louis classroom and you will find otherwise. In Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities he goes deeply into the issue regarding divisions between the rich and poor focusing on East St. Louis and even our very own New Trier High School. Written in the early 90's Kozol walks into an East St. Louis science classroom where he notices that pipes are missing in the lab stations. When asked, Physics teacher John McMillen exclaims that, "It would be great if we had water"(27). This passage shocked me as I realized that in some schools having something as simple as running water in a science classroom would be a pleasing entity. This then led me to realize all of the supplies and materials we have available to us at New Trier. In a society where most are destined to be college bound, it is hard to imagine a place just the opposite. According the book during the 90's New Trier's district provided $340,000 worth of taxable property per child. A figure that incomparably exceeds the property per East St. Louis child. These savage inequalities have aided in the great divide still prevalent in education today.
How might we close this gap between the rich and poor, specifically in Education? What other reasons can explain these savage inequalities?
Every year US News releases a College Ranking issue that ranks colleges by many categories including the overall best. The purpose is to show which colleges are the best value, and is designed to make college searches less stressful. Believe me this is a bitter lie. Coming from a community where from birth we are expected to go to college, once high school hits it is something that sits heavy on our minds. Told by counselors that we should go where we feel most comfortable, and where we will be best fit in with the new community. This ranking system is the very contradiction to all college searching should be about. Below I have posted the link to the US News College Ranking database: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities
The first sentence of an article explaining US News methodology towards these rankings states, "Certainly, the host of intangibles that make up the college experience can't simply be measured by a series of data points". Say no more, stated in the first sentence is the solid truth. You cannot rank the "best colleges" for someone based off of a set of data points. The "host of intangibles" are the most important part of ones journey to finding the right college, and one can't simply find this information from a plethora of data points.
On top of its unreliability and extremely non-personal appeal, it carries a very dangerous affect that pertains specifically to New Trier High School. Being from this extremely competitive High School i can tell you that the last thing we need on top of the abundance of information we already have, is a college list ranked from best to worst. With colleges being thought about and looked at this list is the very hinderer of ones college search. What if your favorite college isn't in the top 25? What if your fifth choice is ranked ten spots ahead of your first? This ranking system does not help the stressed out student, but rather pounds them with a mental break down.
In your opinion, is this ranking system useful? Could it be of some use to the confused college bound student?
"Half of Americans now consider Islam incompatible with American values"
This is a recent statistic from a survey conducted by the Public Religion Institute. The post 9/11 era has now revealed serious issues regarding Islamic practice in the United States. I recently watched a Current Television channel show called, "Vanguard: Islamaphobia", that focused on the growing fear around terrorism and Islamic Religion both in England and the United States. Below is a video summarizing the important points on the issue. Please focus on the American aspects instead of the English aspects if possible.
As stated in the video, the whole idea fueling this disagreement and hatred towards Islamic practice in the United States is FEAR. Similar to the hysteria associated with witch-craft in pre-constitutional Salem in Arthur Millers, The Crucible, Americans have now started to associate all people of Islamic faith as terrorists. It is this fear, and fear alone, that has inspired the establishment of many anti-Muslim alarmist groups across the nation. The leader of an anti-Muslim American group violently stated in the video above that the Muslim people are, "Wolf in Sheep's clothing". This saying was too me very disturbing because it portrays them as at first glance innocent looking human beings, but underneath this vulnerability was a deceptive animal capable of destruction. The use of the contradicting animals, the wolf and the sheep, help to guide us towards a distinction between friend and enemy. I believe that these groups are targeting and blaming the innocent Muslim people, because the fear of not having anyone to target in America after a tragedy is hard for people to cope with.
Also stated in the video by an American Muslim deeply involved in the issue is that Americans think, "Muslims are the threat to America, [when] in reality they themselves are the greatest threat to America". What do you think about this statement? Does it have any merit? Can you think of any examples where innocent Muslim Americans have been blamed, targeted and even tormented in the United States because of their religious affiliation?
The peaceful protests at the University of California, Davis, turned ugly on friday when several students were doused with orange pepper spray by the police. It all began when the students decided to set up tents and camp out in the university quad as apart of their protest. This was against campus policy, and when asked to leave several students refused and locked arms. Below is a video of the incident:
This incident fits in perfectly with our class discussions on civil liberties and peaceful protest. Like the Chicago DNC(Democratic National Convention) protests in 1968, the acts against the protesters by the police force were unjust and brutal. The police officers shown in the video above seem to be complacent with their actions against the defenseless protesters. This is a clear example of how the police have abused their authorities and have gone way to far with breaking up the protest. Due to the campus policy there was definite reason for why the police needed to clear the quad, but this was far from the most ethical way. Unlike the Chicago DNC protests, the protesters at the University of California, Davis, showed no violent acts against the police force.
On top of this violent incident another question is posed. Should the right to peacefully protest be banned on college campuses like U.C. Davis? Nathan Brown, a professor in the English Department, states on the issue that,"The fact is: the administration of U.C. campuses systematically uses police brutality to terrorize students and faculty, to crush political dissent on our campuses, and to suppress free speech and peaceful assembly". Mr. Brown accurately discusses how police brutality is used to "terrorize" the students in order to instill a sort of order on campus. This is in fact a clear violation of our right to peacefully assembly and as many agree should not be restricted on college campuses in the United States. It is a difficult topic to set boundaries on given the current circumstances regarding Occupy Wall Street Protests, but one thing is certain, the police force completely abused their authority and had no reason to inflict this kind of pain on the defenseless protesters. Below is a link to the New York Times article I read on the incident: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/video-of-police-pepper-spraying-u-c-davis-students-provokes-outrage/?ref=us
I was recently watching political advertisements on the Washington Post website's Political Ads archive, when I saw a video that immediately caught my attention. With elections right around the corner, this is one method candidates can utilize to influence the views of the public. But we must ask ourselves, to what extent should these videos be limited? Below is the Advertisement supporting 2008 presidential candidate, John McCain, and a link to the Washington Post's Political Ads archive.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/politicalads/
I want to first explain a few messages I saw in this video that I found significant:
1.) Obama is a Celebrity, and Celebrities are not equipped to protect families
This was incredible to me. This video is implying that Obama is a Celebrity in the sense of the "Hollywood" term. He is not a serious political candidate, but instead an "actor" who lives in the spot light. The advertisement then takes a sharp, serious turn when the screen turns black and white and the question is posed: Is Obama (the Celebrity) ready to help your family? When the lives of family members are put into question, Americans start to take a serious look at the potential culprit.
2.) Facades
The advertisement focuses on revealing who the "real" Barak Obama is. Tying into our discussion of the masks people wear during class I found this message particularly interesting. Is Obama wearing a facade? Is he a fake? These are all points emphasizing that the American citizens should doubt his character.
3.) Vote McCain, Get a job and thriving economy
The most emphasized and significant point of this political message. The dramatic shift from a somber black and white tone, to the colorful uplifting tone helps give the American citizens a feeling of hope and optimism. In my opinion the basis of all political campaigns are the important changes promised by each candidate. Especially in times of economic peril, these promises are exactly what the American people want to hear. Similar to my last post, whether or not the chances of delivery are high or not, it is the hope and optimism associated with these promises that gains supporters.
This political advertisement clearly makes some bold statements about Barak Obama. Most of which make him out to be a fake "celebrity" who craves the spot light. I am not siding with one party or the other, but I think that it is an important issue in American society. Is it appropriate for these bold assumptions and descriptions to be made about the opposing candidate? In times where these messages can be displayed throughout an abundant amount of media sources, I feel that there needs to be restrictions on what messages can be displayed in these advertisements.
What do you think? Should there be restrictions on what messages can be displayed in these political advertisements?
