Reading list for the second quarter

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, by Douglas Adams, December
Anne Frank:the Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank,December
Persepolis, by Marianne Satrapi, in January
Crank, by Ellen Hopkins, current

Censorship and Banned Books

Should Schools Limit Student Access To Certain Books?

Mathilde Jochum, 802

Completed January 7th

Dear Ms. Berner,

        Should people be stopped from reading wonderful and eye-opening books that prepare and lead the reader to think about issues in our world? What if this could traumatizes them? A school should make sure that students know what they’re reading, and once they know that, then they should be able to make their own decision about whether or not they would like to read it. If they really have no sense of self, their parents can give them their discretion to follow instead. All over the country, perfectly good and exceptionally deep books are being banned because of bias or parents wanting to shelter their children from the outside world. We, as a school, should allow students to read whatever they or their parents believe they can handle based on the thorough and individual knowledge of the child. As middle school students, we should have the trust of teachers in us and our parents that we can self-monitor what we should read individually. To make sure that we don’t mistake reading material that could have traumatic effects on os, however, there should be trigger warnings in the front of a book in which there is something that could trigger a reaction to something traumatic or harmful so that we are warned if we are victims of; or have had past experiences with; these things. I strongly support this way of approaching eye-opening novels and other wonderful genres.

        These wonderful genres can, however, only be explored with the trust of teachers in our self-discretion and consequential literary growth. Most of us have learned, in our eleven to fourteen years, enough to be taken seriously when we say we know what we, as individuals, can and cannot take. Solely because we are adolescents does not necessarily mean that we are only attracted to “homophobia, booze, and crystal meth” in our books. We should be allowed to be exposed to these things in an educational setting, just like analysts read “Anne Frank” or “Mein Kampf” for literary and historical purposes, not to express fascism.

        For the danger that people will not be able to deal with these same books and think they can, however, more drastic measures are needed. According to https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/8062/librarytrendsv45i1c_opt.pdf?sequence=1, “Law allows self-censorship. We cannot assume that everything valuable will find a publisher. Indeed we have evidence that educated audiences as well as publishers shun offensive material.”

Now the question of what the meaning of “offensive” is comes up.Some people don’t know this on an individual level. Although most of us have the skills needed for self-censorship, for those of us who don’t, teachers should assume that the parents of the child know the child better than the teacher. Therefore, even if the child doesn’t understand what they can and should not read, the teacher should ask the parents of the individual and address the issue on a personal level. Not to do so and just to assume that none of us are capable of managing ourselves is condescending and generalizing.

        That being said, there are some unfortunate students who have been the victims of horribly traumatic scenes and experiences in their life, and to make sure they don’t have an attack in which they are reminded of that experience, which could cause a mental breakdown, there should be a trigger warning on certain books. People who have been raped, for instance, may be affected badly by rape scenes in books because of past trauma. According to http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/08/21/342096499/grappling-with-trigger-warnings-and-trauma-on-campus, a teacher creating a new set of syllabi says  “ I'm in sympathy with those who fear overkill, an overexcited deluge of warnings slapped onto classic literature, for example — including plays by Shakespeare or novels by Virginia Woolf.” I agree with this, but if people take that as a one-size-fits-all rule and don’t acknowledge that the consequences could be harmful, that is when it becomes problematic. She then sets bar more reasonably by saying, “any survivors of rape, attempted rape or other acts of sexual violence don't need to be blindsided in my classroom by material that may cause them searing pain.” In cases such as that, there should be trigger warnings in a noticeable area of the front of said book.

        In conclusion, censorship is a job for parents and students. Frankly, it is not a teacher’s place to be telling a group of people what they are and are not ready for based on their own knowledge of themselves and of a generalization of that group. There should, however, be trigger warnings to make sure we know what we are choosing to read. All in all, banning or limiting books is not the place of any school or teacher.

With all due respect,

-Mathilde Jochum, 802

Social Justice Project: Changing The Lives Of The Homeless And People With Disabilities

Julie Jochum Gartrell is a truly remarkable person, aside from her being my grandmother. She is proud to be volunteering for an inter-church homeless shelter. She is part of Project Home.  She has spent many nights at the shelter in the past ten years. She  is proud of the work she did teaching teachers how to accept differences, and even after retiring from her job as professor of education with a focus on special education, she focused and acted for homeless children or ones with special needs. Also, she has given persons with Down syndrome a safe place that has not been given to them by people who were uneducated in how to deal with people with Down syndrome. She volunteers at Gigi’s Playhouse, a place where children with Down syndrome can roughhouse, do crafts, or even go to a Build-a-Bear workshop as a group.

At the homeless shelter, she works with the  St. Paul Council of Churches. Last year, a family that had come to stay with at the shelter got an apartment and moved in after a month of staying at the shelter. There was just one problem: when they moved in, they moved into a completely empty apartment, and they had no furniture. My Grandma found a futon she had been meaning to get rid of and thought it might be nice if the family could have it. She wondered how many other people had anything they didn't want any more. She asked around, and at once, people volunteered dishes, a chair here, a desk there, a vase at the other place, and so she filled her friends’ apartment  with furniture My grandmother helped to furnish the home of a family who really needed the help.

For the past year at Gigi’s Playhouse, the twenty-five programs enriching literacy, math skills, and motor skills are completely free o f charge. My grandma (who also happens to be on the Board of Directors) has taken people to a Build-a-Bear workshop so that they could do something as a group, but also to integrate them with the general public. She not only works there, but has the feeling that what she does is an extension of two years of work, ensuring that there was a place where there were supportive mentors for children she knew needed such a safe place. There are currently17 Gigi’s Playhouse affiliates  across the country.

         All in all, My grandmother has definitely done more than most people to do her part in changing the world. She has been working at a homeless shelter for more than ten years. She is on the board of directors for a safe place for persons with Down syndrome. She has helped light a little light in the life of everyone around her.

Social Justice On TV: Portrayals of Teenagers and Family Life

I watched episodes of Leave It to Beaver, The Wonder Years and Family Ties. I definitely saw a lot of inaccurate portrayals of teens. Throughout all of these shows, teens were always in the white middle class. Also, all the main characters were male.

In Leave it to Beaver, which was produced and aired in the 1950s, the main family is a set of parents and two boys. One boy is in the eighth grade, those other is in the second grade. The mom is a stay at home mom who lives in a beautiful house wearing pearls and cocktail dresses. The dad wears suits and ties and goes to work early in the morning. They most likely want to be associated with a high social class. The two boys go to the same school. Wally is the older brother, and Theodore, or Beaver, is in the second grade. All the kids are white. The gaping difference between the boys and the parents affects the relationships that the boy has with people versus the relationships the parents have with people. In Leave It to Beaver, the main character gets a note from his teacher asking his parents if he can be Smoky the Bear at the next play, but Beaver thinks he will get expelled for doing something bad. He skips school and his parents get his brother, Wally, to find him. They search town - places only the boys know. The boys know mechanics, veterans, and old people that the parents have no idea existed, so they have trouble finding him.

The Wonder Years was produced in the 1980s about a family in the 1960s in the suburbs. The main character is a white boy who is in school on his first day of seventh grade. His parents are normal stay-at-home mom and office job dad. He has a friend who dresses like a hippie for the first day, and another childhood friend he used to call Winnie but now wants to be called Gwyneth. At lunch, he eats his food in the cafeteria and then walks out holding an apple. A guard stops him and tells him there's no food allowed outside the cafeteria. He throws the apple back into the lunchroom. When he gets home and finds out that Gwyneth's brother died that day in Vietnam, he finds her where she always is in the woods on the outskirts of town. The reason why he doesn't want to admit that he's looking for her is because he still feels weird about having a crush on her, since they're childhood friends. When they kiss, it seems so natural, but it also has a sad undertone because he knows where she is when she's depressed. They know each other so we'll that it seems like they shouldn't have a crush on each other.

         In Family Ties, the family consists of a boy, his two sisters and their parents. The boy, Alex, is a middle class kid in middle school, and his little sister is in elementary school. Although his mom and dad dress up, the father doesn't wear a full fledged suit, and the mother doesn't wear pearls. In the episode, Alex has known a girl in his grade, and they have gotten to talking. At some point, he gets her to come over for dinner. The problem is that he wants the entire family to act rich, smart, and together, making them something they're not. When she does come over, she is pretty, but really stupid. When asked what she wants to do as a career, she says she wants to help the needy by being a cheerleader. Also, when his parents ask her what she does in class, she simply says," Oh, y'know." Alex ends up at an exclusive country club with her for dinner that weekend, and his dad is really paranoid, because he doesn't like him to be in an exclusive place without any sort of diversity. His dad comes and takes him home again, and the main character decides it isn't worth it. He learned that he should take his family for what they are.

The problem really is that the parents are hippies who are all about equality, and the main character, Alex, is a complete conservative.

Social Justice in Music: Fighting For Gay Rights in Mackemore’s “Same Love”

I had heard this song before and it made me really emotional, so I thought it would be a good song to write about. The song is a rap song by Macklemore mixed with a song by Mary Lambert. This song is about gay rights.

Macklemore says that the LGBTQ movement is "the same fight that lead people to walk-outs and sit-ins." The singer is saying that is that fighting for gay rights is no different from the fight for women's rights or civil rights or in some other way an oppressed group. All of these groups fight the battle for acceptance by the people who hold all the power. My interpretation of his point is that group after group has partially gotten most of what they wanted, so why not this group?

With the lyrics,

“The right-wing conservatives think it's a decision

And you can be cured with some treatment and religion

Man-made, rewiring of a pre-disposition

playing God,”

he addresses the fact that some people believe being gay is a choice and that they have the means and the right to try to talk you out of a trait. I believe they are bigots who think anyone who isn’t the way they are should be changed if possible. He really tries to make that clear, although I think that not only right-wing conservatives think it's a decision. There are many others who really can't accept the fact that we are all just people who love people of the same sex. That's it. Then, he brings up something very important that has just become a normal part of speech:

"Have you read the YouTube comments lately

"Man that's gay"

Gets dropped on the daily "

That really talks about how people don't even think about how what they say affect the people around them. They equate the word “gay” with “bad, weird, stupid, dumb,” or “lesser”.

         
These lyrics make me extremely emotional because I know that this is just like any other movement, may it be for women's rights or the civil rights movement, The movement that I really want to partake in and that I have been the victim of has been pushed down and made me see my non-straightness as a weakness. I am strong, but sometimes it's hard to see that when everyone tells you you're somehow not good enough or inadequate.  I identify with this song because I’m not straight. I hope that the people around me will at some point realize that I am in no way different from them, necessarily, except for my love for other people. Essentially, that's what most of us are: people who love other people.

Progress, march on!...

We turn our back on the cause...

Kids are walkin' around the hallway

Plagued by pain in their heart

A world so hateful

Someone would rather die

Than be who they are

This is another thing that is a major issue, especially in small suburban town where people may not be as accepting as in New York, the Hub of Diversity. People have been killed for coming out. People have had their parents evict them for being gay. So in that context, being who you are comes at a price some people are not willing to pay.

The entire text:

Same Love - Macklemore

When I was in the 3rd grade

I thought that I was gay

Cause I could draw, my uncle was

And I kept my room straight

I told my mom, tears rushing down my face

She's like, "Ben you've loved girls since before pre-K"

Trippin', yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she

A bunch of stereotypes all in my head

I remember doing the math like

"Yeah, I'm good at little league"

A pre-conceived idea of what it all meant

For those who like the same sex had the characteristics

The right-wing conservatives think it's a decision

And you can be cured with some treatment and religion

Man-made, rewiring of a pre-disposition

Playing God

Ahh nah, here we go

America the brave

Still fears, what, we don't know

And God loves all His children

Is somehow forgotten

But we paraphrase a book written

35 hundred years ago

Don't know

[Hook: Mary Lambert]

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

My love, my love, my love

She keeps me warm [x4]

[Verse 2: Macklemore]

If I was gay

I would think hip-hop hates me

Have you read the YouTube comments lately

"Man that's gay"

Gets dropped on the daily

We've become so numb to what we're sayin'

Our culture founded from oppression

Yeah, we don't have acceptance for 'em

Call each other faggots

Behind the keys of a message board

A word rooted in hate

Yet our genre still ignores it

Gay is synonymous with the lesser

It's the same hate that's caused wars from religion

Gender and skin color

Complexion of your pigment

The same fight that lead people to walk-outs and sit-ins

It's human rights for everybody

There is no difference

Live on! And be yourself!

When I was in church

They taught me something else

If you preach hate at the service

Those words aren't anointed

And that Holy Water

That you soak in

Is then poisoned

When everyone else

Is more comfortable

Remaining voiceless

Rather than fighting for humans

That have had their rights stolen

I might not be the same

But that's not important

No freedom 'til we're equal

Damn right I support it

I don't know

[Hook: Mary Lambert]

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

My love, my love, my love

She keeps me warm [x4]

[Verse 3: Macklemore]

We press play

Don't press pause

Progress, march on!

With a veil over our eyes

We turn our back on the cause

'Till the day

That my uncles can be united by law

Kids are walkin' around the hallway

Plagued by pain in their heart

A world so hateful

Someone would rather die

Than be who they are

And a certificate on paper

Isn't gonna solve it all

But it's a damn good place to start

No law's gonna change us

We have to change us

Whatever god you believe in

We come from the same one

Strip away the fear

Underneath it's all the same love

About time that we raised up

[Hook: Mary Lambert]

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

My love, my love, my love

She keeps me warm [x4]

[Outro: Mary Lambert]

Love is patient, love is kind

Love is patient (not cryin' on Sundays)

Love is kind (not crying on Sundays) [x5]

Social Justice Project: Watching the News: ABC World News Tonight, November 27th, 2014

ABC World News Tonight on Wednesday, November 27th,  had a frightening story about a group of hostages captured recently by Al Qaeda. I thought this would be interesting because it had to do with an ongoing problem, but was directly associated with the United States.

When US soldiers were sent to an Al Qaeda stronghold in Yemen on Monday to rescue hostages from Al Qaeda, I was genuinely scared for them. The soldiers’ arrival was scheduled as soon as al Qaeda militants were observed lugging hostages covered in blankets into pickup trucks that were then transferred about 68 miles away from al-Saiyer to a cave. There was a shootout in the open with the terrorist group before the  American militants could advance to the mountainside cave. There, they escorted them to their chopper and flew them to safety. If I was in their shoes, I would be terrified. I would be the first to reenter the helicopter and the last to leave it.

Nevertheless, I would probably still have tried to save the hostages, because were I a hostage, I would have wanted someone to at least try to save me. I would have been even more terrified that  I would never come out of there again.

Were I in the shoes of a hostage, I would probably have fought back at first, but ultimately, I would have accepted it and fallen into a deep, sleepless frustration and sadness. I would have tried to comply with my captors so that nothing would happen to me. I would have kept my head down. I would have been scared that I wouldn’t be found and that I would just stay here for years. I would have been frustrated because I would ot have known what to do, much less been able to do it. I would have been hopeless.

Social Justice Project: Problems with Our World - Interviewing Dan Gartrell

Some people focus on different issues with our world and try to change that one thing. If everyone did that, amazing things would get accomplished. I wanted to know what my grandfather focused on because he used to be a professor of education, and still writes about early development for children, so he might have a more educated opinion than someone else.

My Grandpa Dan thought the best thing about the world was that when a baby is born, it has vast and infinite potential. Anything that robs the child of these possibilities and this potential should therefore be stopped.

That includes poverty. He believes that poverty causes stress about where you are going to sleep tomorrow night, what you will eat, how you will get clothes on your back. The parents of a toddler now also have one more mouth to feed, not to mention the amount of hardships poverty will cause once the child is in school. Making a bright future happen for a kid from a bleak past seems extremely challenging. These are no living conditions for a toddler, according to him.

Thus, he said, as would be logical, poverty is a major priority on his list of unjust things about the world. The way to stop this is to increase support by any means possible, and reduce poverty to almost nothing or as far as we can go. 

When asked how a single person can make change, may it be small or large, he said that that's up to the individual. He changes poverty by writing and teaching about stress levels. His wife works at a homeless shelter. In these ways, they have together found a way to make a change.