Blog Blog Blog

1.  Ashlie’s Blog: http://genricha.edublogs.org/2008/02/25/ohhbese/#comments

2.  Brad’s Blog: 
http://mypedablogy.edublogs.org/2008/03/11/myface-and-rss-are-they-hooking-up/#comments

3.  Brad’s Blog:  http://mypedablogy.edublogs.org/2008/02/27/i-used-to-love-to-read/#comments

4.  David’s Blog:  http://innercityed.uniblogs.org/2008/01/28/3-steps-to-a-better-educationmaybe/#comments

5.  Jack’s Blog:  http://bicej.edublogs.org/2008/02/27/you-gotta-fight-for-your-right-to-youtube/#comments

6.  Laura’s Blog: 
http://laurita319.uniblogs.org/2008/02/26/its-like-the-inquisition-or-something/#comments

7.  Molly’s Blog:  http://mollybogue.edublogs.org/2008/01/25/4/#comments

8.  Laura’s Blog: 
http://laurita319.uniblogs.org/2008/04/09/misconceptions/#comment-26

9.  Stacy’s Blog:  http://stacynclb.edublogs.org/sixty-more-failing-schools-in-new-york/#comment-5

10. Desi’s Blog: 
http://mindlesscreations.uniblogs.org/2008/04/14/hmm-what-to-wear-oh-wait-my-school-already-made-that-decision/#comment-13

So, this is my good-bye blog.  This blogging business has been fun, although sometimes stressful!  It was nice to look into some issues that are arising in schools to get an idea of what we all will be dealing with in the future.  Censorship is a sticky issue and it raises the question of where we will draw the line in our own classrooms and where we will sometimes be forced to draw the line whether we like it or not.  Censorship spans a wide range of topics from what students can wear to what they can write or draw or even say.  I have found a lot of good articles in which I think schools acted admirably and many in which I think they did the wrong thing.  I have enjoyed reading everyone’s blogs and getting a closer look and some other issues that are prevalent in our school systems today.  Good luck in your classrooms and all you do!

Teaching should be full of ideas instead of stuffed with facts.  ~Author Unknown

I came across this article about two high school students who tried to wear “anti-gay” T-shirt to school and were forced to remove them by the school.

Alexander Nuxoll and Heidi Zamecnik had tried to wear T-shirts that said on the front “My Day Of Silence, Straight Alliance, and the back read “Be Happy Not Gay” as a protest against the National Day of Silence in 2006.

The T-shirts are clearly in opposition to gay and lesbian students, but I think what is most appalling is what the T-shirts are oppossing.  A gay eigth-grader named Lawrence King was shot and killed in front of his classmates in Oxnard, California.  The “day of silence” is in memory of him and others who have been killed for hate-crimes.  It is fine to have and express your own beliefs about homosexuality, but to be unable to recognize that what happened to that boy was a tragedy, is a tragedy in itself.  Regardless of what these students believe to be right, they should be able to show a little respect for people who are persecuted like Lawrence King.  If the T-shirts hadn’t been in opposition of the “day of silence” I might not have agreed with the to have them removed, but in this particular situation I absolutely agree.  Good for them, it’s nice to see people stand up for what’s right and defend the minority.

I attended the gathering with the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company on Tuesday April 1st.  It was really interesting to get a behind-the-scenes look at how they put together a production.  They stay true to the performance conditions used during Shakespeare’s time by using a “thrust stage” which sticks out into the audience so the people watching see the performance from three sides.  This type of stage allows the actors to interact with the audience which is something that happened often in Shakespeares time.  Rather than looking off into space during their soliloquies, they speak directly to audience members.  It’s strange to have the actors get right in your face, especially becuase as a modern audience we are not used to that.  They also use universal lighting rather than lights on the stage and a dark audience.  This is because Shakespeare would have performed in daylight or at night with candles lighting the audience as well as the stage.   They performed a few scenes for us and explained why they did it they way they did, deciding who was “leading” the scene and so on.  It was really cool to get a look at everything that goes into making a show come to life.  They were performing Macbeth and had decided to give it a “punk” feeling so that it would be something the audience could relate to a little more.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the show because I had to work, but it was fun to see how and why they do whay they do.

An article from the New York Times tells the story of two Jewish families who sued a Delaware school district for their blatant Christian practices.  The mother of one of these families, Mona Dobrich, grew up in the town and attended the same school.  She said that it had always been dominately Christian and noted that they have Christian prayer at school events such as sporting events and graduation.  This is clearly something that this woman has been dealing with for years.  The last straw came when, at her daughter’s highschool graduation ceremony, a minister lead a prayer in which he stated that Jesus is the only way to the truth.  Mrs. Dobrich was bothered by this enough to ask the school board to review and change some of it’s policies on religion in the school.  As a result many of the parents became enraged and spoke there opinions on the radio and at board meetings where they carried around signs, praising Jesus.  This article strikes me becuase I am constantly amazed when I hear stories such as this one.  I just can’t believe that this kind of behavior still happens in public schools and aside from that it’s amazing how angry people become when someone opposses their views.  It’s fine to be a Christian, it’s fine to be a Jew, I just don’t understand why anyone feels that these opinions should be taught in school.  Furthermore, I think the saddest part of this article is how all of this affected Mrs. Dobrich’s 11 year old son, Alex.  The family ended up moving away due to the backlash of people in the community and in a statement the little boy said; “I feel bad when kids in my class call me ‘Jew boy.’ I do not want to move away from the house I have lived in forever.”  This is not the way things should be, he should not stick-out like a sore thumb simply because his family is Jewish.  Even worse than this is the fact that the family tried to move back to their home-town, realizing it wasn’t a good idea, they thought that maybe Alex could stay with his aunt so he could continue with his normal life.  One day he was playing in her yard when a few kids from school came up to the fence and said “There’s that boy who’s suing Jesus.”  It’s heartbreaking that a little boy has to leave his home due to the overreaction of student’s parents.

This article from The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) highlights an incident that took place at Globe High School in Arizona.  Administrators pulled the plug on an issue of the student newspaper known as The Papoose for reasons that don’t seem to be clear.  When interviewed, the paper’s co-editor, Nathan O’Neal stated that they had not allowed publication of the paper for two reasons.  First they were upset over a headline with included the word “Whudafxup”.  Although the TRUTH campaign, which is where this word comes from, is a good one, I can kind of see where the school might find this inappropriate.  However, as I read on I came to realize that the school runs ads for the TRUTH campaign every morning on their student news channel because they receive funding from this organization.  It seems as if they allow it for the profit of the school then they must allow it in the headlines of the newspaper.  The second reason the administration gave the students was concerning an article that O’Neal had written, stating that there was “a lack of motivation from students and staff at school.”  This opposition seems even sillier to mean considering there isn’t any real harm in this statement, it’s simply one student’s opinion.  These were the reason the school apparently gave to the students, but they later issued a public statement saying that the reason the paper was pulled was due to a picture on the front cover of someone smoking out of a Hookah.  Once again, I thought, well that makes sense; you probably don’t want your high school newspaper condoning drug use.  But I read on only to find that it was an article about the adverse effects of smoking and how smoking tobacco out of a hookah may even be worse for you than smoking a cigarette.  The article posed this question; “Considering the surplus of detrimental effects and risks to hookah-smoking, one would question why high school students insist on partaking in such a potentially dangerous form of recreation in substitute of traditional cancer-causing cigarettes,” in response to the ever-increasing popularity of this practice.  To me this entire situation seems like one that was blown completely out of proportion.  It doesn’t seem as though there was any sort of bad behavior being condoned in the paper and maybe if the articles had been read more carefully or more deeply looked into, this paper may never have been pulled.

I came across this article, March of the Book Censors, and it seems to me that this same problem is being echoed across the country.  This is not the first time I have encountered an article concerning a children’s book about homosexuality being strongly opposed.  At an elementary school in Loudoun County a book about two male penguins raising an egg mysteriously disappeared form the library shelf.  Apparently the superintendent, Edgar B. Hatrick III, thought it appropriate to remove it at the request of a few individuals.  The article states that he ignored the review process and did not allow for a county-wide vote to allow parents to agree upon what they want and do not want their children to learn, read and hear about.  This debate that seems to be everywhere these days is incredible frustrating to me.  I can’t understand why some people think it is their right to censor the world.  School is supposed to be a place that enlightens and educates young minds so that some day they will be able to enter the world as productive citizens.  Whether you like it or not, gay people exist, deal with it.  We cannot educate our students in a bubble and pretend that certain things that certain people don’t like don’t exist.  I recently read another article about a fourteen-year old California boy who walked into a computer lab and shot a fifteen-year old student in the head because he was gay.  This is insane, when children are sheltered from something and taught that it should be looked down upon bad things happen.  Now, obviously this is a very severe case of what happens when kids aren’t taught tolerance and acceptance, but it certainly exists.  What further aggravates me about the penguin article is the fact that it wasn’t even a book that was being read to students, it was simply available in the library.  We live in a world where a child may walk into a library and see a gay couple, so for that reason alone maybe they should be able to walk into a library and find a book about a gay couple- that’s all.

So, after going through my google reader I’ve decided to change my topic a little.  I started out thinking that I was going to write soley on censorship of literature in schools.  I have since realized that there is a lot more and a lot more interesting articles on censorship in schools in general.  So, as you can see from my two posts I have changed my topic to Censorship in schools- I think it should be pretty interesting.

When I first read the title of this essay I thought it was ridiculous; “Teen arrested for violent essay is reinstated.”  I was immediately appalled at the fact that a kid would be arrested for something that he wrote for school.  After reading the article I still don’t see why he needed to be arrested seeing as how the school felt “that he’s not a threat and never was a threat and he should be treated as such” (from article).  However, the writing did strike me as rather disturbing- I would be really interested to read the entire essay to see what it was actually about.  The excerpt printed in the article is as follows; “Blood, sex and booze. Drugs, drugs, drugs are fun. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, s…t…a…b… puke. So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P90s and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did” (from article).  Not exactly sunshine and daydreams, huh?  This is a touchy subject, especially due to the rise of in-school crimes, so where exactly do we draw the line?  In this case it seems as though, other than the graphic nature of the writing, there was really no other reason for alarm.  Apparently no one in the school felt that he was a threat and he holds a 4.2 GPA which certainly is impressive.  Apparently the teacher had told the students in advance to “Be creative; there will be no judgment and no censorship” (from article).  This, then, raises the question of whether these kinds of situations cause students to back away from creativity and doing the best that they can do.  If they fear punishment or, worse, jail-time will they be deterred from doing what they can ultimately do?  I’m not really sure exactly how to take this article- I’m a little torn and interested to hear if anyone has a solid opinion to share.

I found this article very interesting.  It raises the question; should teachers be free to present religious information in their classrooms?  I think that the answer to this is an obvious, yes.   However, I feel that what happened in this situation was not simply a teacher presenting information on Christianity, but a teacher promoting Christianity.  The teacher in question, Rogers, apparently handed out pamphlets to his students titled “Why Jesus is better than Santa Claus.”  Also, “Mel Downs, the father of a seventh-grader at Irasburg Village School, said Rogers has the Ten Commandments on a classroom wall and religious-themed books on the shelves” (from article).  The article did not specify what exactly was in the pamphlets but it seems pretty obvious that the message was pro-jesus.  What I found even more fasinating than the article itself were the many letters that were sent into the newspaper concerning the situation.  One woman claims that the reason teenagers are getting pregnant and shooting each other is because of the lack of religion in our school systems.  True?  Maybe, but I don’t tend to agree.  This same woman also claims that “if these people don’t want their kids associated with someone who has the 10 commandments in their classroom then homeschool them” (response letter).  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this sounds a little backwards, but I don’t know, maybe that’s just me.  Another woman wrote in saying, “I find it amazing that our schools can hand out condoms and birth control pills but they can’t hand out flyers regarding Jesus Christ. We wonder why our schools are failing. How sad!” (response letter).  I think it is important to point out here that although schools do hand out condoms and birth control, they also hand out information on abstinence and I don’t that those pamphlets are titled “Why sex is better that abstinence.”  The bottom line is that we have a separation of church and state for a reason.  Students should not have any religion or idea pushed upon them within their school.  Presenting information is great, promoting it is not.