Kahne and Westheimer

Reflection:
In the Service of What? The Politics of Service Learning by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

The article brings attention to service learning and what that means. Service learning is the idea that students can learn outside of a traditional classroom setting and do so by helping others. The article says, "Service learning makes students active participants in service projects that aim to

respond to the needs of the community while furthering the academic goals of students." This is an important concept because it fights traditional learning styles. Service learning allows students to connect with their community and become more well-rounded on their knowledge of the world around them. Kahne and Westheimer state, "Our goal is not to replace consensus with conflict, but rather to point out the various ideological, political, and social goals that can be promoted by service learning activities in schools." They directly state that they want students to learn different and more lessons from this type of learning. Service learning gives students an opportunity to come up with their own ideas and reap the benefits directly. In my own life I can already see the benefits from working with the kindergartners. I found out how good I am with younger kids and that I want to be more involved with them. I also discovered that I do not necessarily want to be a high-school teacher and am considering working more with younger students. Seeing this kids is also giving me insight as to how the younger generations see the world. They are more insightful than I thought and have a lot to say about the world around them. Service Learning Projects help students experience the world in a different and more independent way.

More information about Service Learning:
http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teaching-resources/engaging-students-in-learning/service-learning/

August

Reflection:
Safe Spaces: Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth by Gerri August

Gerri August begins the article by explaining the affect that classrooms may have on LGBT youth. She says, "Students understand that classrooms are not neutral spaces.. they are charged with emotion". This is true in everyone's case. It is impossible to keep emotion out of the classroom. Both students and teachers bring in personal issues, whether or not they share them with the class in another issue. Because it is impossible to separate home from school, there may be students present that are dealing with LGBT issues that the teachers do not know about. It's important to make sure that they feel safe discussing problems and opening up in the classroom. Not everyone will open up and if that is the case classrooms also need to be a safe space for LGBT youth to be. This means monitoring offensive comments and making sure that nothing said will result in harmful thoughts. Being a safe and open space is also about presenting issues that this group faces. The whole class
must be informed about LGBT youth and the types of things that they are facing. A lot of times students don't know enough information to formulate opinions or be an ally to others until they are informed about the types of things that go on. Information about LGBT youth also includes proper sex education. Discrimination against this will present itself in an unkind way. I was given the opportunity to learn about all types of sexual orientation and the issues each group faces. Having these types of discussions has helped me become more knowledgeable and given me the ability to inform others. I believe that education about LGBT youth and all youth really, is important to making sure that our students are okay and have allies within the classroom.

The gay straight alliance is one way that LGBT youth can feel connected and less alone in schools. Below is a link that explains the important of GSA
https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/Gay-Straight%20Alliances.pdf

Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us by Linda Christensen

Argument:
Linda Christensen argues that "Our society's culture industry colonizes their minds and teaches them (children) how to act, live, and dream."  She discusses throughout her article the affect that analyzing children's cartoons and movies has had on her students. They took the time to discover how racism and sexism are woven into the subtexts of children's films. With this came the idea that these underlying messages have had an affect on us since before we realized it. The media has fed us ideas and shaped us as individuals without us realizing it. One example Christensen gave was the idea of body image. She references Tinkerbell in Peter Pan. Tinkerbell seen criticizing herself in the mirror. Unknown was the implanted idea in young girls minds that their bodies will never be perfect. Christensen mentions how she wants her "students to question this accepted knowledge and the secret
education delivered by cartoons as well as by the traditional literary canon." Gender and Race have been depicted in similar manors for years and to think that it hasn't affected anyone would be naive. I believe that Christensen's main point is to question what the media presents to children and be aware of the underlying messages that come forth through analysis.

Christensen's point of view is not new to me. I was lucky enough to take a seminar class that presented Disney's role in the corruption of America. I studied the views that were presented in
children's films and read articles explaining different points of view. At the end of the course we had all been changed by the idea that our thoughts weren't necessarily ours and had been implanted over time by the Disney Corporation. It is important to question the world around you.

Below is a link to an article that contains information on the affects of animation on children:
https://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7184