Thursday, September 24, 2009

Classrooms for sale blog Sept. 21-27

I never went to public school so I never experienced all the advertising and sponsorship dilemmas that are popping up from companies. When I first read “Own This Child” I was not shocked at the idea that advertisers target children and consider them a separate demographic from adults. When I read “Classrooms for Sale” I could not believe some of the things companies do to edge their way in on schools! Does this really happen in Sonoma County? I remember a while ago that parents were trying to remove soda machines from schools but I never realized that schools have contracts for sponsorship from these companies.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Sept. 13-19

I have no idea what to do for the social action project! Listening to people talk about their ideas helped, but I am still undecided. I love animals, and the majority of the ones I have owned have been adopted so I might want to help with a shelter or adoption program. I know that a few people in the class have talked about helping animals at a shelter. I also have nephews and a niece in public schools so I have tried to think of something to do to help out. Does anybody know of any needs in public schools? Thanks for the suggestions!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Sept. 6-12 blog

I have enjoyed the discussions that we have had in class. Our discussion on Wednesday about conspiracy theories was a revelation for me. I have never had a teacher who was so set on one idea. I think mostly that is because I have taken subjects that I do not believe are subjective like Art History or Agriculture. A Monet is a Monet and a cow is a cow. I think that sometimes there are some subjective aspects of study like in math class, you can do one problem five different ways but that does not change what the answer will be.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Racist Speech

Talking about racist speech has been interesting for me this past week. I really enjoyed the discussion we had in class. It was interesting for me to hear other people’s opinions about racist speech. Racist speech is a sensitive subject for me because I have two half siblings that are half Haitian. This week, I realized that even though it is hard to see someone you love being attacked because of their skin color, it is technically protected under the First Amendment. I wish there was something that could be done to change that, but I think that it will never change because as American’s we love our freedom, even if it hurts somebody else.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Reflection Blog

I found the conversation my group had about the issue of whether or not pornography should be more strongly controlled to be helpful for me to get back into critical thinking. It has been a year since I have taken a critical thinking class, and it was nice to discuss both view points.
I was one of two people in my group who read Susan Brownmiller’s essay. She feels very strongly about the pornography issue because she is a feminist. I did not read the other essay, but I felt like the people in my group prepared very well and I got the main points of the essay.
Everyone was very respectful and even though we had our own opinions I never felt the need to justify my view.

Monday, August 24, 2009