Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us by Linda Christensen

Christensen's argument in her paper is that children and even us as adults are easily influenced by the Media. Christensen says, "Children's cartoons, movies, and literature are Perhaps  the most influential genre "read". Young people, unprotected by an intellectual armor, hear or watch these stories again and again, often from the warmth of their mother's or father's lap"(127).  Children learn from the cartoons or movies they watch daily but behind these cartoons their are many hidden messages.
         Christensen discusses the many stereotypes behind children movies. I never really thought  of cartoons and movies as having stereotypes until I read this paper. As I was growing up I always though of Media as just entertainment but this paper has opened my eyes and made me realized that that every cartoon is meant for teaching and influencing children. I found it interesting that one of my favorite cartoons as growing up has a bad influence on kids. I always knew ninja turtles is bad because of the violence but I never took a closer look at it. Towards the end of the paper Christensen shows a summary made by a student who took a closer look at ninja turtles. The paper says " The show is based on fighting the bad guy, shredder....they battle and fight but never get hurt. This cartoon teaches  a false sense of violence to kids: fight and you don't get hurt, or solve problems through fists and swords"(136).  Clearly the lesson taught with this cartoon is not good for kids they are being lied to because problems are not resolved with violence and if you do fight you get hurt.

A picture that I found online that goes with this article is the picture below. I chose this picture because it shows how Media basically feeds humans with information not necessarily true information.

Speaking the Unspeakable in Forbidden Places: addressing lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school.

“The primary is school often thought of as a place of safety and innocence; a place where childhood is both nurtured and sheltered, and attempts to address what are seen as ‘adult’ issues are sometimes intrusions into or threats to this safety zone”(1).

            School should be a safe and comfortable place for children. School is meant for educating and keeping the children safe. I think that it is important to have a safety zone for children but I think that children should be protected up to a certain point. It is important to teach children about some of the things they will see out in the real world because they aren't going to be in a safety zone forever. It is better to teach children about things they will see now that they are young because it can help them have a better understanding and a more positive perspective on things.  We can’t prevent children from seeing things out on the street and have them be confused.

“I talked quite openly with my class about the princes’ sexuality. We began the lesson with a letter from prince asking the class for help (because he has to meet all these princesses but doesn't want to marry any of them) and then we read the book”(3).

            Although some children may feel confused at first when talking about sexuality it is important for them to know that there are gays, lesbians and bisexuals. In order to teach children about this teachers should use strategies like the one that this teacher did read a story and help them understand what is going on.  I think that telling the children the story of the prince who was supposed to meet princess is a good way to teach children about gay people because they will understand that the prince is not happy finding a princess because that is not what he likes. The prince wants to be with a prince and that’s okay because that makes him happy.   

“kate asked her class how her Muslim colleague might have felt if she were called ‘paki’ and followed this by asking the class how she might feel if she were called ‘gay’”(8).

            Children should be taught that name calling is a horrible thing and that makes people feel sad. Here she asked her class what they think her friend might feel like if she was to be called paki she did this to show the children that it doesn't matter what someone may call the other person it is wrong. Whether the person may be Muslim or gay people shouldn't be called any names because people shouldn't have to make others feel less about themselves  because they are what they are. 

I found this link that connects with this article it is a site where their is a list of books for children that include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families. I like this because i found many books that i have never even heard of and I am now interested in reading. 

http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/201001/LesserHandout310_2.pdf

I really like this picture because you can see how happy this little boy is with both his fathers  you can tell that he loves them very much. 

Why Can't she Remember that? by Terry Meier

“At one point when the teacher asked, “how many mittens are there?” Gabriela the bilingual puertorican sitting next to me turned and asked me in an exasperated tone “why can’t she remember that?”(4). 

            Gabriela’s teacher had read the book a couple of times already and all the times that she had read the book she would ask the same question, “How many mittens are there?” The teacher’s purpose here was to see if her students were paying attention. Clearly Gabriela was paying attention because she noticed that she would ask the same thing each time, but Gabriela still didn't answer her question even if she knew what the answer was.  I think that it was in fact very clever of Gabriela to catch on what the teacher kept on repeating and ask why it was that she couldn't remember the answer when the answer was right in front of her.

“Many children in multicultural, multilingual classrooms are not used to an adult asking them questions for which it is obvious that the adult already knows”(4).

            Coming from a Hispanic family I don’t recall memories of my mother or father asking me questions that they already knew. I think that this is because parents or family members assume that we know the obvious.  My parents wouldn't have to ask me constantly how many mittens I need to go outside and play in the snow because I already knew that I needed two because I have two hands. In Gabriela’s case she clearly knew how many mittens there were because the picture showed her, so she didn't think that she should have  been asked that because adults in her life didn't tend to ask her obvious questions.

The teacher’s likely assumption in this case was that Gabriela didn't know the answer to the question, possibly leading to the conclusion that she needed more simplified instruction or perhaps more English language vocabulary, rather than more interesting questions”(4).

            From my own experience I know that a child not answering to a question doesn't mean that he or she doesn't understand what the teacher is saying. Many of the times they don’t answer because they are shy or just don’t feel like answering an obvious question like in this case with Gabriela. When the teacher sees that a child is not answering a question I don’t think that they should assume that it’s because they need more English vocabulary if the child is bilingual. I think that the teacher should try to ask the question differently make it more interesting for the child so that the child can be motivated to answer what the teacher is asking.

I think that this picture connects with this because many times  children have so many things to say but they chose not to and this is not because they don’t understand what the teacher is saying or asking it’s because they are not confident enough to say what they actually want to say.

Another link that I found that goes with this article is this video about a teacher who teaches a classroom with multicultural and multilingual children.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/multi-language-classroom