Blog Post 6

In the Service of What?

Ali Kleinebreil

Reflection

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and agreed with a lot of the points that it made about service learning. I absolutely love service learning and I think that when it is used correctly it is a great tool to both enhance learning and help the community. I think that this article poses an interesting question about what service learning should be. I personally feel like service learning should be anything that both relates to your education and benefits your community in someway. 

I think that what we do in this class is an awesome example of what service learning should be. Our service learning relates perfectly to what we do in class and gives us hands on experience in the field we are pursuing. This article made me think a lot about this class and how it is structured in a way that does benefit both us and our education and students in surrounding public schools. The schools we go to may not be perfect and sometimes do need extra help so us being there does benefit them in the same way it contributes to our education. By going out and getting field experience we are given the opportunity to gain real knowledge and solve small everyday problems in classrooms.

The second paragraph on the sixth page discusses how service learning benefits those volunteerings' education and I whole heartedly agree. Even if we get put in classrooms that need more help or more control, we are still learning. We have the opportunity to see what we want in our future classrooms. We can see firsthand what works and what doesn't and how it may not always be the same for every kid. I think its also a mutually beneficial relationship because some schools need more help and just having us in the classroom one day a week benefits the students. Having that extra body is one more person that can walk around and offer assistance to the students that may not be struggling the most, but can still use that extra help.

Safe Spaces Blog

Safe Spaces

One of the first articles I thought of when I began reading this text was the Christensen article. I thought of this article because one of the first arguments made in this article is about how under representation leads to LGBTQ students assuming that what they are doing is wrong. In my Christensen article reflection, I talked a lot about the stereotypes that Disney movies often play into and the "secret education" that children learn because of it. However I never discussed the implications that this had for LGBTQ children. They never see any real representation in Disney tv shows or movies which I think is really disheartening. All kids deserve to have some type of character role model that they can relate to and look up to you, because I personally feel that having that type of connection makes it much easier to get through your childhood.

These kids not having a character similar to them, implies that there aren't other people like them and that what they are doing is wrong. In the article the authors discuss how when parents and schools choose to avoid LGBTQ education they are feeding into the problem and I 100% agree and feel like Disney should step up and make a change. Disney has a huge platform to change that culture if they made a princess that had a girlfriend instead of a prince. There are rumors that Elsa may have a girlfriend in Frozen 2 and I think that would be such an awesome step in the right direction for everyone.






I also thought a lot about the Kozol article while reading this article. This article wasn't as descriptive in its nature and didn't follow a specific storyline or setting but it did describe American classrooms and how they aren not inclusive to LGBTQ students. The article discusses creating safe spaces for LGBTQ students so that they have somewhere they can go and be themselves away from the sometimes harsh criticisms of their peers. I feel like Kozol would have liked this idea had his article pertained to LGBTQ rather than those struggling financially. This article also talks about ways educators can make their classrooms more inclusive for these students so that they do feel safer. Kozol's article discussed how those who are in the major low socioeconomic status face more challenges in the classroom due to the challenges they face outside of the classroom which I think relates strongly to this article because if students don't feel safe they aren't going to learn.

Snow Day Class

Snow Day Class

Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves

1. The moral or takeaway of this story is that Popeye is stronger than 40 thieves and their leader Ali Baba. Popeye can fight them all of on his own in order to save Olive.

2. The main protagonist is Popeye, a white, American man.

3. I'm not really sure that a Servant was portrayed in this film but one could argue that Olive is Popeye's servant or supporting character because Popeye has to save her. Olive is a white, American female.

4. The joker in this film is J. Wellington Wimpy. He is a white, American male.

5. This show does not pass the Bechdel test. The only female in the whole episode is Olive and she does not talk to any other females because there are none.

6. This episode conveys that men are stronger and more valuable. In the beginning Popeye is the one with the job guarding the airplane while Olive is just sitting around waiting for him to give her attention and affection. This creates the message that woman should sit around and wait for a man, and when the woman gets herself into trouble they should wait for their man to come and save them.

7. This show conveys that white people, white American men in particular are superior to other races and ethnicities, as a white man is portrayed as the hero and other races are portrayed as thieves and or cowards who hide in their house while their town is ransacked.

Frozen

1. The moral or take away of this story is that family comes first and that love takes time. All of Anna and Elsa's problems are caused by their miscommunications and lack of a solid relationship. Once they get to know each other and form that sister bond, where Anna no longer feels rejected and shut out, their problems start to go away. The second moral that love takes time is proved by Anna and Kristoff's relationship. Anna is at first "in love" with Hans and Kristof proves to her that you can't love someone that you don't actually know and the two end up falling in love with out even trying, just by getting to know each other and caring about one another.

2. The main protagonist is Anna, a white woman.

3. The servant I guess you could say is Sven because he helps Kristoff and is his pet reindeer.

4. The joker in this film is Olaf who is a snowman.

5. This movie does pass the Bechdel Test because Anna and Elsa do have conversations about things other than men and form a relationship between the two of them.

6. This movie conveys that family is our real true love. Only an act of true love could save Anna and while she assumed that meant kissing Hans or Kristof, she is saved instead when she sacrifices her life and tries to save Elsa rather than worrying about herself. This shows that men are not woman's saviors, even though Anna originally thought that.

7. This movie conveys the importance of family and friends and having strong bonds outside of just romantic relationships. However the movie still focuses mainly on white people and suggests that white people are more important because there are few, if any people of color through out the whole movie.

Christensen Article

Reflection

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and I felt like it was full of good points about the stereotypes in children's books, cartoons, and movies. I absolutely love Disney movies but when I watch them I always notice the stereotypes and sometimes it is really frustrating to watch. The movies place an emphasis on what women should or shouldn't do in order to be loved and saved by a man. I completely agree that growing up watching these movies does create a "secret education" in kid's minds, especially young girls. In the princess movies like the article discusses, the heroine waits for her prince to save her and they live happily ever after. These aren't realistic expectations and they aren't standards that we should set for relationships

However, I feel like Disney is doing a much better job at representation and coming up with plots where a man doesn't save the princess. Frozen is a great example of this. Anna desperately wants to marry Hans but Elsa doesn't allow it and says exactly what every person who has ever watched a Disney thinks, "you can't marry a man you just met." This quote in and of itself shows the strides that Disney is making with relationship stereotypes in the movie. Another amazing aspect of Frozen is that rather than a Prince saving Elsa, her sister does. This shows major growth and also shows young girls the importance of having powerful and loyal friends and family in your life and how they shouldn't just sit around and wait for a man to save them.

I also agreed with Christensen when she discussed how this topic is hard for students to dissect because they don't want to believe that their childhood was so significantly impacted, and in some cases distorted, by the way different races, religions, and socioeconomic status' are portrayed in cute little books and movies they grew up watching. I truly felt this because at first I always wanted to believe that there was nothing wrong with Disney movies. I will always love Disney movies and I will probably never pass up an opportunity to watch them but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't do our best to explain to young kids some of the flaws in the system that has been set up.

While I was reading this article I thought a lot about a link I saw on twitter a few days ago. It displayed the Disney princesses as educated, successful entrepreneurs doing things on their own. They had careers in various industries that related to their movies and I thought it was adorable and funny.