Kahne and Westheimer Blog #6

SERVICE LEARNING BLOG

Service Learning... What does that mean to have service learning? One answer is Volunteering!!!! Kahne & Westheimer's article, "In The Service Of What? The Politics of Service Learning" summarizes the idea of learning and improving skills on how to become a Youth Development (YDEV) Worker or a teacher. From the political optimism of U.S. Presidents JFK and Ronald Reagan, education became a reemergence in forms of service learning because there are lots of volunteers who want to teach kids how to become better educators.


Kahne and Westheimer's powerful essay on Service Learning connects to the readings of Kozol and  Johnson along with  my first service learning visit back in end of September.

Connection #1: Kozol's Amazing Grace

The first connection to Kahne and Westheimer's article is from Jonathan Kozol's Article Amazing Grace. In this article, Kozol is trying to lead a discussion of what's happening in the world right now by comparing social injustice problems to a rat infestation. By doing this, Kozol is attacking against Social injustice "rats" by saying, "Rats, like injustice, are a constant threat to the people in this community" (Kozol 5). Kozol is trying to make this point as a lesson to all because it is getting away from teaching or working with youth as a YDEV worker.

Connection #2: Johnson's Privilege, Power and Difference

The second connection to Kahne and Westheimer's article is from Allan Johnson's Article Privilege, Power, and Difference. When we talk about service learning as a whole, it is to learn that community service is to work for a privilege. For example, Johnson said that, “privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply […] because of anything they’ve done or failed to do” (Johnson 23). When he discusses about service learning as a privilege, we talk about how we can question ourselves after doing the service learning provided. These questions can be asked by yourself like "What did you learn from this experience?" "Are you ready/capable of teaching young people as a whole?" As educators or youth developers, we have to be aware and understand privilege is important for service learning.

Connection #3: My First Service Learning Visit

As we connected Kahne and Westheimer's article to the two articles from Kozol and Johnson, I would like to tell some stories from my service learning visits. Once I walked into the Robert Kennedy School where my service learning project takes place, I saw the building comes from the old days before education reforms in the 1990s. The significance of this moment is the differences between the old days where you handwrite papers and notes and the modern days where technologies played a major role in reforming education. I am saying this because the Service Learning article talks about how this is the moment where you compare educators who demonstrate the power of all students' learning levels to the old days where basic level of education happens.

In closing, there are many things that we can understand about service learning and how can we let other new educators make a difference to society as a whole. Basically, when we connected the service learning article to the two articles from Johnson and Kozol, we summarize how social injustice in the education system is a rat infestation that has to stop immediately and to question the role of service learning. Also, when connected to my first service learning visit, I compared the student levels at Robert Kennedy School from modern days to the old days. As we close up this blog, question yourself immediately about your experience in service learning and its importance to education/youth development programs.

August Reading (Blog #5)

A Reflection of LGBT Community Struggles

An LGBT community struggles through academic and social aspects. In consideration, Gerri August wrote an essay to discuss how LGBT students and teens were harmed by adults and other students because they were not socially fit for the classroom. Suddenly, lots of teachers decide to create seminars and open discussions to express how the LGBT communities feel today and what can we improve on. If I was someone who is part of the LGBT communities, I would feel the same as them because I would feel lonely up till being included in a classroom discussion. I would feel this way because I would be afraid of how people would react to how I am a part of the LGBT community in the first place.

Another point to this discussion would be that LGBT Communities are affected by psychological and social developments. According to the article, one quote that I feel is the most important for this blog is that, "schools are 'outcubators' -- places that introduce new ways of thinking and behaving" (August 84). If I was an administrator worried about the LGBT community, I would feel that it is time to make a change by bringing in-school discussions to shape and include the LGBT to our school communities. I would feel this way because 1) we can communicate more with the LGBT  culture and 2) I believe that inclusion is the best for all schools and communities.

Connection: After reading all of this article, I decided to connect this piece to Lisa Delpit's "Silenced Dialogue" essay and from one of my blogs on Mr. Jonathan Kozol and Mrs. Peggy Mcintosh. First, Lisa Delpit's "The Silenced Dialogue" explains that "there are code or rules for participating in power, that is there is a 'culture of power'". It explains that communication through culture of power is important for all schools to learn more about what is happening with the LGBT communities Second, I connected to Kozol and Mcintosh because (similar to the August article) they want to make sure that inclusion is best for all students whether in or out of the classroom.

In conclusion, LGBT communities at first were struggling, but now they feel more included in many schools. Thanks to the help of many teachers, authors connecting to August's article, and many other students, I believe that the LGBT communities feel much more safer now that classroom discussions and seminars come abroad in public broads. This is a big improvement which all school should keep doing while working with the LGBT communities.

Hyperlink:

https://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-new-gender-fluidity-essay-20160815-snap-story.html

Unlearning Myths by Christiensen

Cartoons! What does truly define cartoons? Well, I got one answer for you...Learning and Satirical HUMOR!!!!! Have you ever watched a cartoon as a child? It depends!!




The reason why these 2 words define a cartoon is because of a powerful essay from a solid writer. That article with the author is Linda Christensen's Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us. This essay is meant to target how cartoons can be connected to a mind of a child or a mind of an elementary school student through academic learning and satirical humor.




Although cartoons can overwhelm you by absorbing so much TV time or spending most time indoors, I do agree that cartoons can give so much academic help and teachers can basically educate children good aspects from old and/or modern cartoons.

Cartoons can give so much academic help because it can bring "secret education" or tutoring to children who need better understanding of the cartoon. According to this essay, Christensen exhibits Dorfman's work by saying that cartoons, or, "Industrially produced fiction[,] has been one of the primary shapers of our emotions and our intellect" (Christensen 128). This quote is definitely an example of how cartoons give academic help because there is something that many students have to analyze and understand the cartoon itself. For example, there are some political cartoons that children can learn about in a Social Studies or a History Class.

Next, Cartoons can help academically because teachers can basically educate children good aspects from old and/or modern cartoons. For example, Christensen exhibits a difference between old and new cartoons by saying that New cartoons "are subtler [than old cartoons] and take more sophistication to see through. But if the students warm up on the old ones, they can pierce the surface of the new ones as well" (Christensen 130). These cartoons can give educational aspects from Christensen's quote to other children because it can show how much creativity they put in the cartoon back to the old days compared to the new days. They can also write essays while critiquing cartoons which will encourage many other kids to watch and take notes.

Below is an image of comparing Tom and Jerry Cartoons back in the 1930s/40s-ish to new T + J cartoons on Present Day:

Although cartoons help children get good aspects from teachers and as a "secret education" tutoring, many kids absorb too much T.V. time or spend most of the day indoors which overpowers their education from videos and lead to academic downfalls. For example, Christensen exhibits three other students' graded essays from three cartoons, "Duck Tales -- Grade: C-", "Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles  -- Grade: D", and "Popeye -- Grade: F" (Christensen 136). Not only they have such bad grades based on poor understanding and judgement of these cartoons, but students also are getting behind on their work because they spent most TV or Indoor Time rather than finishing homework and/or going outside on a beautiful day.

In closing, we know that cartoons tend to overpower academics, but can also help understand what political issues are going on in the real world. We discussed that cartoons can show academic help and can tutor you on the stuff going on in the real world which can be solved by other kids pursuing their futures. Cartoons are powerful and helpful to others in a sense of learning and SATIRICAL HUMOR.

https://www.rethinkingschools.org/articles/unlearning-the-myths-that-bind-us