In The Service Of What? Kahne & Westheimer Reflection

After reading, “In The Service Of What,” by Kahne and Westheimer, I thought about my own service learning experience at Sackett Street School. This reading talks about how service learning allows students to explore outside the classroom and see how people are different. I personally think that service learning should be a part of every middle school and high school curriculum. I say start in middle school because this is where teenagers are starting to gang up on one another, and then it just becomes worst in high school. Students need to be aware of different surroundings and life styles that others live. Not everyone is as fortunate as others, and it is important to help those who could use an extra hand or two. I grew up in a small town where everyone knows everyone, and I volunteered in my local elementary school, but wasn’t around different people from different cultures. When I first went to Sackett Street School I was a little nervous to see the differences from what I am used to. Right away I saw that these children don’t have what children in my town do, and it is sad but just makes me want to do whatever to put a smile on their faces. This experience has just opened my eyes to other surroundings, and I think this would most definitely be beneficial to high school students. The end of this article caught my attention the most, “Students in Atlanta must complete 75 hours of volunteer service to graduate.” I only had to complete 20 hours in high school and have a paper signed saying it was completed. According to this article many schools do service learning experiences as part of their volunteerism. I think for mine I helped out my field hockey coach with coaching youth girls, and then every year at the father daughter dances. It didn’t matter what we did because we weren’t guided in any direction. Students need to be more aware of different types of schools around their homes, and realize their are all different types of people. This article was good to read because it makes you see how important it is to help others, and you gain a lot from it. 

* This article shared a lot of important information, and teachers today should always encourage students to reach outside the classroom. Even though I want to be a first grade teacher I will always teach my students about different people and environments in our society. 

"Cinderella Ate My Daughter" Oreinstein Extended Comments

Since I did not read the entire article by Oreinstein, “Cinderella Ate My Daughter,” I decided to use the extended comments blog option. I used Torie’s blog to form an idea of my own, and as I read her argument on Oreinstein I completely agreed with what she had to say. When I was a little girl I was obsessed with the disney princesses. Cinderella in particular, I dressed as her at least four times for Halloween. Even when I was little I always said when I grew up I was going to be here. Now that I look back on my childhood I’m not upset that I’m not Cinderella. I haven't found a prince with a lot of money. My parents taught me how life works, and I understood that life was different from movies. I understand that Oreinstein is trying to complain about how princesses and american girl dolls give little girls the image of them having to be pretty, and that they will find the perfect prince. Although, little girls don’t think like that because in their minds when their little they are justing playing dress up and pretending they are one of the princesses. "Both Princess and American Girl promote shopping as the path to intimacy between mothers and daughters; as an expression, even for five-year-olds, of female identity." When Torie used this quote in her argument she stated that shopping is a bond between mothers and daughters, and that you rarely see father and son bonding at the mall. I completely agree, I have two older brothers and they would never come shopping with my mom and I, my dad forget it he hates the mall! Oreinstein tries to pick out the bad of toys younger children play with, and I just believe that you can pick out the bad of anything. Little girls are so oblivious to these bad effects Oreinstein is conveying, and I don’t think they are going to harm them in anyway.

* Reading and writing this blog made me think of the last article By Christensen. People just want to do anything they can to take certain things away from children. I think it is a learning process for children once they reach a certain age to realize they aren't going to live the exact life as someone they admired on television. 

"Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us" Christensen Quotes

“Our society's culture industry colonizes their minds and teaches them how to act, live, and dream; this indoctrination hits young children especially hard.”

The quote I posted above from the article, “Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us,” really grabbed my attention when I started the reading. This quote is saying that children today live their lives through the media, by what they watch on television, and the toys that they play with. What the article and this quote in particular is trying to address is that children need to be exposed to more differences in the world and society they live in. Rather than just make belief fairy tales, and materialistic things, which don’t open a child’s mind to what is really happening in the world. 

“Because we can never look like Cinderella, we begin to hate ourselves.” “The Barbie syndrome starts as we begin a lifelong search for the perfect body.”

In this article, students were asked to critique the movie Cinderella, where they realized the movie focuses on women’s beauty and fashionable attire, to find a Prince Charming. The teacher wanted this movie to be more of a life lesson towards the girls in her class. As a five year old girl watching this movie all she cares about is beautiful Cinderella getting her glass slipper from her Prince Charming. As for the Barbie syndrome, this is just a “perfect” doll for little girl to play with I feel. Once girls outgrow the Barbie phase, that’s it, Barbie is gone. I was obsessed with Barbie and I don’t look back on my childhood wishing I look like a doll I used to play with everyday. Maybe girls wish that they could actually look like Barbie, but I don’t see why anyone would compare themselves to a toy doll. 

“Many students don't want to believe that they have been manipulated by children's media or advertising.”

The author of this article are trying to prove a point that children are influenced and have been manipulated by todays media. Most students in high school want to be in on the latest television series, and fashion trends. I agree that some television shows have a great impact on students in their teenage years, which is not a good influence at all. I also think that parents are not going to make their children of these ages stop what they’re watching, and how they’re dressing. If students from this class in the article want certain shows to be cancelled, then when your older just don’t show them to your children. Students are easily influenced by what they are surrounded by, but it is not likely anything is going to change in the society. 

* This article made me kind of mad because of how bad the author thinks a Disney movie is, and a Barbie Doll. Let's face it Disney is going to be around forever and children and families love it. Little children don't look at the bad affects of a Disney movie, they see them mostly as magical.