Media and Your Mind (Essay)

1.       Is knowledge power? Is ignorance bliss? Media depends on the ignorance of people. They do not want you to analyze their biases; they do not want you to point out the stereotypes you use. They want you to believe them. “They made us hate ourselves and love their wealth” (West). Lucky for you, you have access to an education which pushes you to look beyond the “face value” of what you see, hear, read… Unfortunately, the general population of this world does not have the same luck as you. Many are forced to live their lives like the members of the community in The Giver who “know nothing”, simply because they don’t have the knowledge. Nowadays, is knowledge available to all, and people just choose to stay ignorant? Or, is society more similar to “the community” than we thought, in which only some people are afforded the opportunity to gain knowledge? Should all be provided this opportunity?

The Power of Words (Essay)

1.      Words are powerful. It is through words that we transmit history and memories, share feelings and ideas, and enact a change. Words can liberate or oppress people. Words can evoke powerful feelings. Words can make people believe stereotypes. How do people use words to do all this? In The Giver, community members are taught precision of language from a young age to ensure the correct ideas are always transmitted. How are words that we tend to be passionate about changed in the community? Think about words like:  “love”, “passion/desire”, “family”, “home”, “career”, etc.

Freedom or Equality? (Essay)

1.   

1.      Would you rather have complete freedom or complete equality in society? We have seen the importance of equality throughout history as oppressed groups have struggled, and are still fighting, to gain equal rights, such as the Civil Rights Movement. Yet, we see that even when BY LAW we are equal, this is not always the case IN PRACTICE. Media provide us with countless examples to defend this. The community in The Giver has “Sameness”. Does that mean everyone is equal? What did they need to sacrifice for Sameness?

Important Information for Final Essay

HERE ARE THE GUIDELINES:

Select one of the questions below to write a 5-paragraph essay on. Feel free to combine questions and be creative in your voice/ writing style, as long as you include evidence from or references to texts we’ve studied the year.

You will be graded on:

-          Are your ideas well-developed? (5 pts.)

-          Do you use concise and powerful word choice? (5 pts.)

-          Is your message clear? (5 pts.)

-          Do you answer all the questions? (5 pts.)

-          Do you include textual evidence from or references to at least 3 literary works we studied this year in your answer? NOTE: 1 of these should be The Giver (5 pts.)

-          Do you include the elements of  an essay: introduction, MEAL body paragraphs, conclusion? (5 pts.)

-          Do you indent your paragraphs? (2 pts.)

Total Possible Points: 32

LITERARY WORKS

Following, are a few excerpts from some of the literary works we studied this semester, to help get you thinking. You may use them in your writing if you like, but you can include others that are not here as well.

Lauryn Hill, Motives and Thoughts:

“When the blind lead the blind
Just more trouble and woes
It’s the mind that they chose
Its designed to stay closed”

Lois Lowry, The Giver:

“Listen to me, Jonas. They can’t help it. They know nothing.”

“You said that to me once before.”

“I said it because it’s true. It’s the way they live. It’s the life that was created for them. It’s the same life that you would have, if you had not been chosen as my successor.”

“But he lied to me!” Jonas wept.

“It’s what he was told to do, and he knows nothing else” (p. 153).

Kanye West, Self Conscious

“It seems we living the American dream
But the people highest up got the lowest self esteem
The prettiest people do the ugliest things
For the road to riches and diamond rings
We shine because they hate us, floss cause they degrade us
We trying to buy back our 40 acres
And for that paper, look how low we a'stoop
Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coop/coupe…

…I say f**k the police, thats how I treat em
We buy our way out of jail, but we can't buy freedom
We'll buy a lot of clothes when we don't really need em
Things we buy to cover up what's inside
Cause they make us hate ourself and love they wealth
That's why shortys hollering "where the ballas' at?"
Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack
And a white man get paid off of all of that”

Black Star (Talib Kweli, Mos Def), Thieves in the Night

“Most cats in my area be lovin the hysteria
Synthesized surface conceals the interior
America, land of opportunity, mirages and camoflauges
More than usually -- speakin loudly, sayin nothin
You confusin me, you losin me
Your game is twisted, want me enlisted -- in your usary
Foolishly, most men join the ranks cluelessly
Buffoonishly accept the deception, believe the perception
Reflection rarely seen across the surface of the lookin glass
Walkin the street, wonderin who they be lookin past”

Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Taylor Mali:

“Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.” (from: “Speak with Conviction”)

“I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).
Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?” (from: “What Teachers Make”)

Martin Luther King Jr.:

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Violence for Violence?

Yesterday, thanks to several Blackberry broadcast jokes and "gifs" of Osama Bin Laden "alive in the Dominican Republic and dancing reggaeton", I found out that the United States had found and killed Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Wanting to know more, I looked up reports on cnn.com, and found this one:

CNN: "A Good Day for America"

I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about celebrating ANYONE'S death, even if he was a murderer. In Ancient Babylon (about 4000 years ago), this intellectual named Hammurabi came up with a law called Hammurabi's Code, which stated, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." In other words, if you hit me, I can hit you back, 'cause that's just fair! I tend to agree more with Mahatma Ghandi, an Indian Human Rights Activist of the early 1900s (A.D.), who stated, "An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind." This "monumentous day in American history", the murder of Osama Bin Laden, speaks very clearly to these principles, in my opinion.

Thinking about terrorism, I remembered last year when we blogged about if Hitler was a terrorist. Check out the page for a blast from the past and to see your ideas last year about terrorism and if they have changed. Take time to read through it... it's pretty interesting, and amazing how your thoughts have grown so much in a year! Make sure to read the poem which, ironically, is called "Eye to Eye". It was written by a Palestinian teenager who lived through the "War on Terrorism". This poem was also made into a song, so you can see the power that WORDS can have to inspire AWARENESS and CHANGE. Here's the link to last year's blog on terrorism:

Was Hitler a Terrorist?

Feel free to share here what you think about all of this. I will leave you with the full quote (part of it I gave you in class today) from Martin Luther King Jr. about hatred and violence:

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
(taken from: http://www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/mlkquotes.htm)

Knowledge is Power, Ignorance is Bliss

If knowledge is power and ignorance is bliss, which is better?

In The Giver, Jonas and The Giver are the only 2 community members who are granted the POWER of KNOWLEDGE. The community remains ignorant. Think about how this relates to real life and the question above. You may want to use some of the quotes from The Giver below.

The Giver: "Everyone had access to the memories... It was chaos," he said. "They really suffered for a while... But it certainly made them aware of how they need a Receiver to contain all that pain. And knowledge" (Lowry 104).

The Giver: "I used my wisdom, from the memories. I knew that there had been times in the past -terrible times- when people had destroyed others in haste, in fear, and had brought about their own destruction" (Lowry 112).

About Jonas: "That he had this power frightened him" (Lowry 117).

The Giver, on the community: "They can't help it. They know nothing" (Lowry 153).

The Giver: "My work will be finished... when I have helped the community to change and become whole" (Lowry 161). 

Family Values

To get the picture for this blog, I typed "perfect family" in a google image search and these are the first two images that appeared. I wouldn't have expected anything different, yet at the same time felt somewhat disappointed. We see societal views haven't changed much in the past, oh, 50 years.

Is society right? Do these images capture "family"? Do they capture the "family unit" in the "perfect world" of The Giver? Would you say the "family unit" was a "family"?

Think about all the times throughout the book we are asked to question the meaning of "family" and how this applies to real life. You may want to consider discussing:
-Mother's job in the Department of Justice vs. Father's job as Nurturer (gender equality, anyone?)
-When Jonas recieves the memory of Christmas/Love
-The concept of grandparents, and biological parents (birthmothers) vs. those who raise the child (family unit)
-Jonas asking his parents if they love him
-The Giver's love for Rosemary and Jonas
-Jonas' relationship to Gabe
Try to take these events from this fake society and expand them out to real society, adding your own opinions about what is family?

Memories

"Memories are forever" (Lowry 144).

What do you think? Use evidence to support your answer from both The Giver and your life.

Here is a song for you to enjoy (about memories). Check out the lyrics.

Thank you, all, for creating very happy memories for me in class!

The Color Divide

Don't we all wish that the world could follow Micheal Jackson's famous words, "It don't matter if you're black or white"?

The problem is that skin COLOR is an easy way to DIVIDE people. It's visible, just like eye color in "A Class Divided", the video we saw today.

In these videos, did eye color CAUSE divisions in class, or was it the MEANING that the teacher (the person in power) put to eye color that caused them?
In society, does skin color cause divisions, or is it the meaning that society puts to skin color that causes the divisions? Do you think the people in power help to form and keep these meanings going?

Now, let's think about the societal problems you mentioned today that are caused by dividing people by color (whether it is eye color, skin color, hair color, etc). Some of those "color" problems are: racism, discrimination, stereotypes, prejudice... the list goes on (and on and on).

In Chapter 12 of The Giver, we discover the community's "solution" to these problems:
"There was a time, actually-you'll see this in the memories later-when flesh was many different colors. That was before we went to Sameness" (Lowry 94).
When Jonas asks why colors disappeared, the Giver responds, "Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences... We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others" (Lowry 95). 

So, is the PROBLEM in the COLORS themselves? Do we need to eliminate different skin colors to eliminate racism, etc.? Or is the PROBLEM in what skin color MEANS? Think about the video in the previous post (Perspectives on Life). Is the problem between Haitians and Domincans the NATIONALITY or is it what MEANING we give these nationalities? What (historically, culturally, socially, etc.) causes "The Color Divide" in society? Why does it (still) exist? What can we do to eliminate it, without going Giver-style and sacrificing colors?

Perspectives on Life

 

Yesterday, we were VERY lucky to be able to have a discussion with Emmanuel College students and staff. 

To all of our visitors from Emmanuel College... thank you for taking the time to come to MC School and share with us. Also, thank you for pushing us to think about and express our opinions on important issues in society today. 

To my beautiful 8th graders... I can't express enough to you how impressed I was with how you handled yourselves yesterday. Not only was I amazed at your ideas, but also the fluency and clarity with which you expressed them, and your focus, dedication and participation in the discussion. You make me proud to be your teacher and happy to know such bright, intellectual, caring individuals.

Now, to continue the discussion... Our main question is: 

Does everyone deserve the right to a quality education? 

(Think about The Giver and why the members of the community don't have books).

And if you would like to specify it to this country: 

Do Haitians deserve the right to a quality education in the Dominican Republic? 

(You may want to check out this video so you understand a little more how Haitians are treated legally in the Dominican Republic). 

 

I would like to invite everyone, including Emmanuel College, to comment. Feel free to look back on and comment on prior blog posts as well!