A video and Final Thoughts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE

I thought that this video had a really interesting and thought provoking message. It points out the difference between classrooms from several years ago to classrooms of today. The part of the video that I found really interesting was the question that it left us with at the end. “Are we teaching them?” To me this question makes me think. What are we really teaching student’s. Is our world becoming so focused on technology and advertising that we are losing what we are really teaching students? As a future teacher, I will keep this in mind. We should be teaching them knowledge and values, not to be lifelong consumers as I discussed in a previous blog. Many things that we have learned in class so far have made me think about the way I want to teach. I’m still a couple years away from that, but I want to keep growing towards being a better teacher. I want to be a teacher who is looked up to and leaves children with good values and knowledge for their life. I think that teachers are very influential, especially at the elementary level, and need to always keep in mind just how influential they can be.

"The Girl Who Silenced the World for Five Minutes"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0&feature=related

This video is titled “The Girl Who Silenced the World for Five Minutes. It has almost eight million views. We talked in class about the degree that children are listened to. After watching this I think that maybe children can make a difference. She points out that our parents didn’t have the same worries growing up as we do now. It amazes me just how much our history has changed in the last years. She also pointed out that we teach our children certain values in school, but we don’t model them in the real world. I had never really thought about this. Maybe it will take a child saying these things to make adults stop and think about it.  The fact that this video has almost eight million views shows that maybe one child can make a difference. I thought it was a really powerful video. As a teacher, I have to keep this in mind, and know that I am instilling values and knowledge. I have to be very careful what values and knowledge I do leave my student with.

"Generation Boomerang" Young Adults Still Living at Home

Today in class we watched a documentary called “Generation Boomerang.” It was a video about the more recent phenomenon of young adults living at home or returning back home. One fact that I found really interesting was that 51 percent of 20-29 year olds in Canada still live at home. This video also discussed how life has changed since our generation’s parents were young. A lot of the time by the age of 21 they would be moved out, independent, and in many cases have a family. Things have definitely changed since then. We are a generation that relies more on our parents. While I do still rely on my parents for a lot of things, including financial support, I am moved out and in many cases fairly independent. My parents raised me to be independent, and this is the way I would also raise my own children. I don’t think living at home still at the age of 25 fosters a sense of independence. One exception to this is if your kids are attending school. In this situation, many young adults require financial assistance because most people simply can’t go to school and work enough to survive.

We were asked to reflect upon the statement that there are jobs out there that many young people don’t want to do, and that parents don’t push them to get these jobs. I think every job is a starting point, and having a job is better than not having a job. If someone is still living at home because they need to, it’s a different story than someone living at home because of laziness. I don’t think that parents should promote this sense of being able to have no responsibility and still be able to get by. This is not realistic and when they are forced into the real world they won’t be prepared.

With this being said, I do believe that parents need to be there in the years of early adulthood. The economy and job availability has changed since our parents were young, and the first years of independence are difficult. I think that a good mixture of support and encouragement to become independent are important. There are of course situations where moving home might be required and I do not look down upon living at home at all, I just disagree with living at home due to laziness.  

Applying Haberma's Paradigms to Education

At the beginning of class we learned about Haberma’s three paradigms; empirical analytical, situational theoretic, and critical theoretic. These different points of view can be applied to many situations, including education. Education can be looked at from all of these perspectives and as a teacher it will be important to keep this in mind.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/466795-benefits-of-eating-breakfast-for-students/

This link is to a website that supports the idea that students eating breakfast leads them to be better students. This website is using an empirical analytical or scientific approach to this aspect of education. Schools are even starting to implement free breakfast programs because of this idea. My high school implemented a program like this in the last three years that I attended.

http://tweenparenting.about.com/od/educationissues/a/AcademicAchievementPeers.htm

This link is to a website that talks about the link between social skills and academic achievement. It concludes that they are linked and I found several other websites that shared this conclusion. Linking social skills to academic achievement is a situation interpretive way of looking at education. A situational interpretive view uses lived experiences and looks at things subjectively. While this point of view is situational interpretive, they use scientific thinking to come to this conclusion. This demonstrates that the paradigms are interconnected.

http://www.aect.org/edtech/ed1/09/09-05.html

This link is to a website that takes a critical theoretical point of view on education. Critical theoretic takes the point of view that reality is concealed. While it is a less common way of looking at education, the point of view is still present.

Overall I think it is important to keep these three paradigms in mind when entering the field of education. There is different ways at looking at every situation. As a teacher I might apply a empirical approach to some of my teaching strategies, or a situational interpretive approach to others. Or in some cases the paradigms can work together.

The Importance of Peer Groups

One of the discussion questions this week asked us to think about what teachers and parents need to understand about adolescent peer groups. I think that this is an issue that teachers need to consider very carefully. At some point in many children’s lives their peer groups will become extremely important to them. Reflecting on my own childhood, my peer group became very important to me. They became a huge influence in my life. I don’t think there is a specific age that this transition occurs and from my observations it is different for every child. I think that this will greatly affect me as a teacher. I’ll have to learn how to deal with the importance of peer groups in my class room. As we discussed in class, impressing ones peer group can become more important than listening to the teacher.

            One strategy I think I could use as a teacher would be to use the importance of these peer groups as an asset. Implementing group work could be a way to do this. Some of the statistics that I found online indicated that some studies have shown that students that work in small groups tend to learn more of what is being taught and are more satisfied with the class. When I was working in a grade two classroom in my first year, I noticed that the teacher I was working with arranged the kid’s desks in groups of about four to six. She would also change the desks around every week and mix up the kids. This strategy seemed to get the kids working together and working with everyone in the classroom, not just their peer group.

http://chasewilsoneducation.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/peer-pressure.jpg (link for a picture)

 This leads me to consider one of the possible challenges that peer groups bring about, exclusion. I chose the photograph above because I thought that it demonstrated exclusion. Wanting to be part of a peer group can become as important as the influences of a peer group. When I was working in the grade two classroom I noticed this. Exclusion can become a distraction and consume the child’s attention. To me, this furthers the idea that peer groups are extremely important to children, even at very young ages. I think that my mentor teacher’s strategy of switching the desks around was a really good idea. It seemed to get all of the children working together and working with everyone.

            Overall, I believe that teachers and parents need to understand just how important students peer groups are, and learn different strategies to deal with them. As a teacher this is one of the challenges that I will have to learn to understand and work with in my classroom.

http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/collaborative.html (I got some information from this website)

"Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood" -Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maeXjey_FGA

I thought that this video was really interesting, and spoke on a lot of the topics that we discussed in class. It discussed how advertising towards children has changed drastically, even since the 1970’s. The video talked about how from the moment children are born they are advertised to. Companies are trying to turn them into “lifelong consumers,” or “super consumers.” The video also discussed how children are at the time of their life that they are forming their values and attitudes. It reinforced the idea that boys are advertised to one way and girls another. In advertising, movies and books, boys are shown that they need to be “tough, strong, and ready to fight,” and girls are shown that they should be “pretty, sexy, and that how they look determines their value.”

I thought that the video raised a lot of interesting questions and concerns to do with the amount of advertising that is directed at children. One question that I found interesting was, “at what point should children and families take precedence over corporate profit?” I think that this issue deserves a lot of thought. Companies now have the ability to advertise to kids almost everywhere they go, and they take full advantage of this opportunity that modern technology has given to them. But the question raised in the video was how is all this advertising going to affect children in the long term? The video seemed to come to the conclusion that it is not going to lead to good effects, and I agree with this. Through my observations of children, I have noticed that from an increasingly young age children are concerned with brand names, and the next best toy. We as a society are causing this, and I don’t think that it is a good thing.

Another quote in the video really stood out to me as the general message that the video is trying to convey. “We have become a country that places lower priority on our children’s emotional, cognitive, social, even spiritual development then it does on training them to be little consumers.” I think that most people might not even be aware that this is occurring, but it is to a great extent. I don’t think that most parents would want this to be happening, and perhaps through greater awareness on this issue they would rethink some of the values that are being imposed onto their children. To me a child’s emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual development should be way more important than teaching them to consume. Entering into the teaching profession, I think it is important to consider issues like this, and take measures to work against it. In my experience, a teacher can have a world of impact on kids, and they can be an important figure in instilling values into a child’s life. This is a tremendously huge responsibility, but also a tremendously huge opportunity, that I, as a teacher, hope I remember and use in my classroom.

Change in the Care of Infants

Today in class we discussed how the care of infants has changed throughout history. I think that a lot has changed when it comes to how infants are cared for and viewed. Wet nursing is one topic in particular that we discussed has virtually disappeared in recent decades. In history wet nursing was viewed as a symbol of status. People were considered of higher status if they could have a wet nurse. However, there were still people who opposed to this method, and I agree with these people. One main reason that people in earlier times opposed to wet nursing was because of the higher mortality rate among infants that was a result. I don’t think gaining status is worth putting your child at a greater risk. It is difficult to understand why wet nursing became so popular; it was a different time, and people had vastly different values. Status was high at the top of the list. As science became more involved in the medical profession, the popularity of wet nursing declined. As discussed in class the medical profession began to replace traditional female lore. I think that this change in thinking was a good thing.

            Status is still very important today, but people show it in a different way. Status is shown through things like how early you start to educate your infant. In our groups we discussed how toys for infant development play more of a role than they ever have. Parents are so focused on educating their children from the moment they are born, and in some cases even while they are still in the womb. Things like baby Einstein are focused at educating infants, the idea is that you can never start educating your child to early. Another thing that we discussed in our group was the recent increase in the use of formula or powdered milk as opposed to breast feeding. Mothers now have this choice, a choice that they didn’t have before.  I think that this combined with the increase in the influence of doctors and science is what led to the decrease in wet nursing. Now, when I think of wet nursing, I think that it is a strange and outdated practice. I couldn’t imagine someone hiring a wet nurse these days. Parents are also much more concerned with making a connection with their children as early as possible. They want their children to be the best that they can be, so the idea of sending your child with a wet nurse would not be an appealing idea. These are some of the factors that I can imagine have lead to the decline in wet nursing, and also other changes in the care of infants.

Themes of Innocece in Childhood

In class this week we were asked to reflect upon our own childhood, specifically to think about how we remembered being treated by teachers, parents, and other adults. The questions asked were: where do you imagine they saw you on the innocence/depravity continuum, and why do you think they saw you this way?

When I was a kid I was very well behaved and well mannered. I think that most adults saw me this way because this was how I behaved. One particular memory that I have demonstrates the theme of perceived innocence in childhood very well. In my grade five year my friends and I decided to write our names on the school bus seat. Obviously we got caught and in trouble, and I remember my teachers shock when he sat us down to talk about it. My friends and I were never in trouble so this was a new experience for me. My teacher kept saying things like, “When I heard about this you girls were the last ones I imagined to be responsible,” and other things along those lines. I think this demonstrates the perspective that my teacher had of us. His shock showed that he assumed that we were not capable of something like that.

I think that most adults see children as being innocent. They always have such a hard time believing that children can do bad thing, like bullying. I also notice that in these situations an adult will often blame a child’s parents or upbringing, instead of the child. It seems it is easier to for some adults to place blame on other people than the actual child. This brings up the question “is a child born innocent?”And “can a child be evil or commit evil acts without outside influences?” These are hard questions to decipher because there really is no way to tell. A child could be born with the ability to commit evil acts, or it could stem from outside influences like parents and television. Nonetheless, when I look at the world, and reflect on my childhood, I notice a definite tendency for adults to think of children of innocent.

A Change in my Thoughts on Hyper Parenting

After thinking more about the concept of hyper parenting I have some different thoughts. The video we watched discussed that hyper parenting has increased in the last number of years, which I agree with. Technology has lead to a much closer relationship between parents and adolescents. However, after our discussion in class about our notions of childhood, I discovered a contradiction in the concept of the increase of hyper parenting. In my last post I discussed how, even since my childhood, I have noticed a drastic change in the things children are exposed to. They see violence, sex, and other adult concepts everywhere. They can easily turn on the television and see all of these concepts. I think that it is ironic that we are living in a world where parents have become much more protective and involved with their children, but in this same world I have noticed an increase in the amount of violence and adult concepts that young children are exposed to. The video also discussed how parents don’t let children experience the world for themselves, but at the same time children are allowed to play violent video games and watch inappropriate movies. To me it is interesting that some parents don’t want to let their kids experience their surrounding on their own, but they allow them to be exposed to content that is full of adult concepts. After today’s class I had this insight and am unsure about the increase in hyper parenting that is supposedly occurring. Hyper parenting seems to be moving in both directions. I have noticed an increase in parents being more protective and coddling their kids more, but at the same time I have noticed and increase in the violence and inappropriate things kids are exposed to.

Our Conceptions of Childhood

Today in class we talked about the romantic notion of the child as opposed to the notion of the “evil child.” We discussed how the romantic notion of children came about around the same time as the industrial revolution began. We also discussed how the romantic notion of the child is still present in today’s society. We still see childhood as a time of innocence. Then we compared this notion of innocence in children to the notion of the “evil child.” We see children portrayed as evil in countless movies and other representations. In class we were asked to choose a movie and answer the question “what does this video say about certain cultural ideas about childhood?” My group chose the video clip from toy story that included the character Sid. In the movie he is portrayed as one of the evil forces to overcome. His parents are clueless about the extent of his violent nature and he is an expert at manipulating them. He just pretends that he is the perfect child when he is around them and they have no suspicions. Why would they, children are often thought of as innocent and angelic beings. We thought that this part of the movie affirms the widely accepted cultural concept that parents believe their children can do no wrong. We also came up with the idea that the character Sid demonstrates that violence can be learned through video games, television, and movies. This supports the point that Postman makes. He believes that television is the end of childhood; that it teaches children adult concepts therefore killing the period of childhood. I agree with this. Looking back at my own childhood I remember that there were certain television shows and movies that I wasn’t allowed to watch because they contained thing inappropriate for children. When I look at children today I see a drastic change in the last few years. Children are allowed to watch shows like Family Guy and they play games that involve death and extreme violence. I agree with the fact that there should be restrictions on what children are allowed to watch. A show like Family Guy contains very adult concepts. In my group it was brought up that a lot of parents might allow children to watch these shows because they don’t think that they will understand the adult concepts. I think that the things shown on these shows have more of an impact on kids then parents think. Children should learn about the world through their own experiences, and watching television shows that include violence and other adult concepts almost alienates them in a way.

            I think that it is interesting that quite often in the last couple of decades children are portrayed as evil. I think that this ties into the concept of the romantic notion of childhood versus the concept of the “evil child” that we talked about today in class. In all the movies that children are portrayed as evil the adults around them are always unsuspecting. They don’t believe that and innocent young child could have the capability of committing such horrible things. I think that the use of children as evil beings in movies reflects how our culture looks at childhood. We look at children as being images of innocence and grace and I think that movies use this to play on suspense and uncertainty in movies. When I watch a movie involving an evil child I never really believe that the child is really to blame. I have also noticed in movies that children are often shown to be possessed or manipulated. To me this also reflects the way our culture thinks of childhood. They are so innocent that they can be mislead, and this affirms an attitude that parents seem to have towards their own children. This attitude goes back to the idea of hyper parenting; parents believe that they have to guide their kids in every way possible and this often leads to the kids not experiencing anything for themselves. Our conceptions of childhood affect the way we interact with them.

The Phenomenon of "Hyper Parenting."

This week we watched a video called “Hyper Parents and Coddled Kids.” I found the video really interesting and thought it had a lot of really good points. It discussed how in recent years there has been an increased trend in “hyper parenting.” Hyper parenting is when parents are over-protective and over-ruling in their children’s lives. The video talked about how kids have and over dependence on their parents to make decisions. It talked about some things like parents calling their kids bosses, and I think this is an extreme, but I do notice it in our present society. I notice that parents can be over protective of their kids, leading to some over dependence on them in their adolescence and early adulthood. Some parents are scared to let their children experience anything because they don’t want to put their kids in danger. I think that this leads to adults who are scared to take risks and don’t understand the real world. A parent can’t keep their children from every danger and I don’t think they should because it robs them of the learning experience.

I asked my parents if they thought their generation was less dependent on their parents then mine was, and they both thought that we are. They said that their parents still helped them out a lot, but my generation gets more help than they did. When I look at my own childhood and my life so far my parent were and still are very present in my life but not in a bad way. They didn’t parent to the extent of hyper parenting. They were always there to help me, but the always let me make my own decisions. They also let me experience a lot of different things in my childhood, and I was able to learn through my own experiences and mistakes. I think that this is very important in childhood.

We were asked to reflect upon why we thought that hyper parents and coddled kids are appearing at this time in history. I think that as technology develops, parent’s ability to “coddle” their children does as well. The video talked about electronic devices, such as cell phones, lead to this phenomenon. Now that everyone had cell phones and email it is much easier for parents to be in contact with their children at all times. We also talked about how our conception of what childhood actually is has changed a great deal throughout our history. We have a concept of childhood now as a time of learning and growth, which I agree with. I disagree with the idea that this means parents need to interfere more. The video discussed how children have the ability to learn on their own from their experiences and environment. Having said all of this, I also have to remember that I am not a parent and that I don’t know how much my thoughts would change on this topic if I do one day become a parent. I do know that my parents were great role models to me, and I feel as though I can talk to them about anything. I would want to model myself as a parent after them.

Money and Childhood

Today in our in class activity we discussed the statement: “It’s bad when families are poor, but if they got off their butts they wouldn’t be in that situation. They got themselves into it, they can get themselves out.” This was just a general statement, but it is an opinion that I think a lot of people hold. I don’t think that it is a fair statement. When we discussed this in small groups, my group thought that we have to consider the situation that a family is in. I think that there are some families that this statement would apply to, especially in North America, and other well developed countries. It does occur in families that they are just too lazy to work for a better life. We also see families that gamble away all of their money, or make bad financial choices that lead them to being poor. While we do see this occurring in some families, I think that the statement is way to general and does not describe every poor family. There are some families who work very hard, but can never seem to pull themselves out of their bad situations. In my group we discussed how difficult it is to move from lower class to middle/upper class. When you are born into a lower class family it will be hard to ever move up to the middle class. Some people may work hard, but if they never had the opportunity to go to college, or get a good job, they will have a hard time making more money. We also talked about the issue on a more global level. There is people in countries like Africa that work all day doing backbreaking labour, and they don’t make any money. The video we watched in class on the chocolate trade really put things in perspective for me. Some of those people, including children, work for nothing in a slave trade. This is an example of a case where people are born into little to no money and won’t have a chance to “get themselves out.” I also think that sometimes life isn’t fair to children. When people have a child and are very poor, the chances of that child getting out of that situation are slim, not that it doesn’t happen. In the video we watched we seen children as young as six years old being taken away from their families to work as slaves in the chocolate trade. So I think that this statement doesn’t consider all the possibilities, and that when considering why people are poor we need to look at every situation separately.

The Influence of Advertsing in Childhood

In class we have been discussing the role of advertising in children’s lives throughout history. We were left with several questions regarding advertising in children’s lives to ponder at the end of class. The first question was how do we see advertising influencing the lives of children today. I think advertising is a huge part of children’s lives. Children are constantly bombarded with advertising wherever they go. They can’t turn on the tv, walk down the street, or walk in a store without seeing a series of advertisements. Children won’t buy things that they haven’t seen advertisements for, or see movies that they haven’t seen previews for. It affects almost every decision that they make. If they constantly see something being advertised the idea that they have to have it will be more and more ingrained in their minds. Advertising also creates the “cool factor” that kids search for. If something isn’t considered cool kids won’t purchase it and advertisers can decide what’s cool and what’s not. The video that we watched in class called “Merchants of Cool,” we learned that there are even people hired to go out and find the next trend. I also think that over the years advertising has kept on growing and changing. When we were discussing the article “Children and Advertising” in class we discussed that advertising helps to create childhood. I think that this statement is true. It creates a part of childhood that the media wants to promote, “the cool factor,” and makes it desirable for children.  I think that today children are extremely influenced by advertising.

We were also asked to reflect on how advertising affected our own childhood and what lingering influences from advertising remain in your life today. It’s difficult to recall just how much advertising affected my childhood because at the time I wasn’t considering this question. This also demonstrates just how hard it is to study the history of childhood when children don’t often record their voice. I do remember constantly seeing advertising everywhere I went, and it did influence my thinking. I was also, like the vast majority of kids, majorly influenced by the changing trends and the “cool factor” that advertising created. It especially affected the clothes that I would buy; and I remember that the trends would change as quickly as I could start wearing them. This impact of advertising is still present in my life as a young adult, although now I am much less concerned with what is cool. I am more likely to buy something that I like by my standards. But advertising doesn’t disappear in adulthood, I still see it everywhere, and it’s still an ever-present influence in the lives of most adults.

Pivotal Moments in Childhood

Today in class we did an activity where we were asked to document a pivotal moment that we recall from our childhood and write about it. This is what I wrote:

One pivotal moment that I remember from my childhood was meeting my best friend Dalyce. It was in grade six at a camp I went to with my school called camp Goldeye. At the time Dalyce and I weren’t friends yet. I was friends with a couple of other girls, but we got in a fight that day and they were mad at me. I remember lying in my bunk crying because I was so upset that I had no friends. This is when Dalyce came over and invited me up to sit on her bunk and talk. I sat there so long that I ended up falling asleep on her bunk. She is still my best friend today. I chose this as a pivotal moment in my childhood because meeting her changed me. I was a different person before I met her, I was scared to show people who I really was and I was very guarded around other people. She totally changed that aspect of me and I am now a very outgoing person and am not afraid to show people the real me. Dalyce is a big part of who I am today and that is why I chose this story as my pivotal moment.

In class today we talked about how the history of childhood is hard to document because there isn’t much documentation of children’s actual voices. Children don’t often write down their feeling making it hard to study the history of childhood. Things like tv shows directed at children and articles written at the time can only tell us so much about what children were actually thinking at that point in history. This activity was done to demonstrate us writing down the history of childhood. We were also asked to reflect upon how different this moment might have been recorded if I had written about it at the time. I think that it would have been a lot different if I had actually documented it in my childhood. I wouldn’t have realized what a pivotal experience it was. Children also have very different perspectives on things, and they would have very different feelings about situations.

Shyness in Children

We watched a video called “Shyness” in class and although it was outdated and slightly stereotypical I thought it also brought up some valid points and ideas. The video discussed shyness in children, possible reasons for shyness, and possible methods to help shy children. It featured three children who seemed shy. After study it was concluded that one of the children wasn’t in fact shy, he just enjoyed being alone and thrived that way. The second child was found to be very shy, and the third was discovered to have deep routed emotional issues that lead to isolation from others. I think that this was a good way to demonstrate that every child is different and will have different reasons behind their apparent shyness. No child is going to have the same reason for being shy, just like there is no exact method to cure a child of their shyness. I think the video demonstrated some good general ideas that teachers can use to bring a child out of their shyness. Finding activities that the child is interested in and excels in is a starting point. If the child excels in a certain activity they will be more comfortable and comfort can lead to less shyness. Every student will be different, and shyness doesn’t go away overnight, but I think that teachers can help them towards being less shy.  There was one idea that I pulled out of the video that I thought I could apply in my own teaching. That was the idea of having a set time period where the children were able to discuss whatever they wanted. I think that this in small doses would be good for students; it would give them a voice and make them believe that their opinions mattered. It’s a good idea in theory, but it also may not be applicable in today’s society possibly leading to conversations that don’t have any merit. I could possibly test an idea like this in my own classroom.

The amount childre are listened to in todays society.

In class we talked about the degree to which children are listened to in today’s society. I think it varies from family to family and also globally. When you look at a typical middle class parent and child relationship in Canada you see children being listened to almost too much when it comes to things that they want. If a child asks for something, the parent will often give them whatever they want so they don’t have to deal with saying no or being the “bad parent.” I think in these cases children need to be listened to less. If they get everything that they want when they are young it does not prepare them for the real world where they will have to work for everything that they get. On the other hand, when you look at this issue on a global level, you see children in other countries that have no voice at all. These children will never have a chance to express their opinions or wants and needs. I think when it comes to more serious situations, like abuse, and poverty, that this is where we need to start listening to children more. I think that in a lot of cases children can have a valuable opinion, especially as they reach older ages, and they should have the chance to be heard.