In my first period class, I saw a side of a student that I'd never seen before. Real bitchy! I was surprised by it. I didn't know how to react to it. So I just smiled and said that I'd never seen this side of her. Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde. That seemed to work well to check her a bit. I have found that when I do not react in an angry or indignant way the students respond better to me. When they get real out of control, I have to be more in control. I don't want to feed their action with what they are expecting. We finished up reading about internment and I made constant comparisons to Guantanamo. Snatched, taken to an unknown place, and not given your inalienable rights. Freaky stuff. You have to dehumanize a people so much to be able to do that kind of stuff. Jap. Towel-heads. Gook. Hajis. Yellow nigger. Sand nigger. It all has the same intent. The worst part though was that the US government knew that the Japanese Americans hadn't done anything bad and they suppressed those findings. Scapegoats to rally the people. Removal of the Japanese from the agriculture industry. At one point Japanese were producing 40% of California truck crops. Internment uprooted entire communities that had struggled to live in a racist America as it was. The US didn't like Japanese imperialism in China all the while the US was acting imperialistically all throughout Central and South America. I mean the great irony is the US is demonizing the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor when the US took Hawaii from the Native Hawaiians. The significant analysis is the race analysis. White Man's Burden. Manifest Destiny. Craniometry.
In my US history class I talked about national self-determination and then we read from the People's History page 361-364. This class had a lot of energy. More people were getting involved and answering things. And even if they weren't answering things right, at least they were trying. That is big. That they just at least try. In teacher talk we speak of the low affective filters. I feel that I have a good low affective filter with this group. People feel safe enough to try. When they venture out then history becomes fun. This class I can get to do pushups when they swear and I had a student doing that. When I ask them to summarize chapters they try. The actions of states can be compared to the actions of individuals. I told them this quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti that says that war is the spectacular and bloody expression of everyday life. They really got that too. They understand and see violence around them. The one student that knows what is going on but tries to act all cool and quiet was speaking up more and getting things right. I spoke to him after class and complimented him and told him to play to his strength. He gets history and seems to like it. It's got his attention. My one student that chatters all kinds was answering questions and helping other people out. Then we talked a bit about WEB Du Bois's statement that
Yes the average citizen of England, France, Germany, The United States, had a higher standard of living than before. But: 'Whence comes this new wealth?...It comes primarily from the darker nations of the world-Asia and Africa, South and Central America, The West Indies, and the islands of the South Seas.'
I have encountered people before that say why can't "those people" get their countries together. For all the imperialism that the Europeans have done around the world...of course they got things better. When you got a ton of cash it's a lot easier to be nicer to each other. When you're poor and don't know where the money for the next meal for your family is coming from, that can drive you to do desparate things. European wealth is derived from European conquests. It's no mystery why English, French, Spanish, Portuguese are spoken in so many places in the world.
On the board I wrote
1. Sinking of the Lusitania brought US into WWI.
2. Lusitania carrying weapons for Allies.
3. 1914 US recession. War stimulated the economy.
4. End of WWI w/ Treaty of Versailles.
5. TOV placed war blame on Germans and told to pay huge reparations
6. TOVlaid the groundwork that led to WWII.
In my multicultural education class we finished up the reading on Niggers and caricature. I also told them about seeing Michael Eric Dyson speak on Tuesday. BTW the man is an amazing speaker. He was selling his new book, "Is Bill Cosby wrong?" The man is highly eloquent speaker that is so amazingly discerning. I didn't agree with his statement that Cosby should keep to comedy and leave social critique to those who do it. I thought that was rather condescending and elitist. But his criticism of Cosby I believe were interesting. He compared Cosby to the black elite that were trying to uplift poorer blacks because they wanted to impress whites and were embarrassed by their poorer brothers. Wanting to hold poor blacks to a standard that rich whites dont' even keep. He made this funny joke about how he was a social critic and so he had to watch both of Paris Hilton's sex videos. But she is an example of a girl that acts all crazy but is rich rich rich. I bought a CD of his talk that night and a book so that he could sign it. He asked me how I liked it and I totally just mumbled adulations and felt like a total moron. Anyways, the students are interested in hearing his CD and then writing up a summary for extra credit. But anyways... I had spoken to one of my students in this class that sits quietly and seems to fume. I asked her what she was thinking about and stuff and she said that she is considering not using the word given the history. She spoke of a picture of a black girl drinking a bottle of ink that was labeled nigger milk. That seemed to stick with her. I was happy to hear this.
All in all it was a good day today. I am really starting to build better and stronger personal connections with students.
No comments:
Post a Comment