Christensen

Ryan Mottram
FNED 346
Mrs. McKamey
10/9/18

Response to Unlearning the Myths that Blind Us 

By: Linda Christensen

Quotes:

"True death equals a generation living by rules and attitudes they never questioned and producing more children who do the same." (Justine, Christensen 129)

This quote by Justine from The Empire's Old Clothes presented by Christensen seems to be implying what freedom should be in a way and that there should not be so much limitation on how to teach young children the ways of life, so that they can grow to be better educated and more mature than the previous generation. Children must also learn that there may be times where questioning something or someone, even of authority is the right thing to do in order to stand up for friends, family, and others.  Young students should be able to look up to the teacher(s) of a classroom as a friend, and in some cases a second parent depending on the current situation at home.  I believe that is a special part about specifically being an elementary school teacher, which is to maintain a friendly relationship with the 15-20 or so students they are responsible for 6 hours a day 5 days a week beyond classroom subject material.     

"Children's cartoons, movies, and literature are perhaps the most influential genre "read"." (Christensen 127)

Unlike high school and even middle school students who will sleep during a video in class, elementary students are much more energetic during the day I would say, and watching educational cartoon videos and movies every now and then will capture their attention.  In order for young children to want to learn in the classroom, the teacher(s) have to appeal to their age group and senses.  Christensen noticed that these students were attentive and more willing to learn when videos were playing in class.  I remember in 2nd and 3rd grade when there would be days of just completing various small worksheets for each subject, which was boring and tiring even though pretty simple.  Then there were the times we did writing activities based on Disney videos/movies and other small audio presentations that encouraged us to try harder on the work.  

"I start by showing students old cartoons because the stereotypes are so blatant. We look at the roles women, men, people of color, and poor people play in the cartoons.  I ask students to watch for who plays the lead. I encourage them to look at the race, station in life, body type of each character." (Christensen 129)

Although I feel having young students identify stereotypes in cartoons that may appeal to their sense of learning is not perhaps the most appropriate thing, it is good for these students to see videos that tend to have diversity.  I remember in 4th grade when my teacher had us watch a video on Martin Luther King Jr. that explained and gave a visual for everything from early childhood to the Civil Rights Movement. Although a rather serious documentary and not a comedic cartoon, the video was still more entertaining and even educational than doing a worksheet on MLK.  I recall in 4th grade that one subject we did not do very often was history, and I feel that for this subject in elementary school especially, kids should be shown videos more than worksheets and maybe even complicated readings for that matter.    

Comment/Point to Share:

I feel that using cartoons and kids' movies can be greatly beneficial when trying to appeal to elementary students in the classroom, especially when trying to teach life lessons and values.  Perhaps a class discussion on whether each of us would use this method as elementary education teachers or not to get students to want to participate in class, would be beneficial for schooling in the future.  

  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-JcBFAuLc-0NEFOT1BJZXVnZnM/view