Moment of Silence

Today in advisery we were all alerted to a change in state law. A moment of silence will now be observed everyday after the pledge of allegiance is recited. More information here. In my advisery the day was like any other. Only one person stood for the pledge and even my adviser was talking during the 15 second period of "silence." Many high school students do not take the time to say the pledge, not out of disrespect, but out of habit and a view that the pledge is a waste of time, insignificant, or not a proper representation of American values. I believe the moment of silence will be regarded in a similar way.
There has not been clear instruction of how to use this quiet time. Personally, I do not think a silent pause in the morning suggests that students pray. Instead, I think it could just suggest that students take a moment for themselves to simply think/reflect on really anything they want to.

But, then again, don't we already think/reflect daily if not hourly and minutely? I don't think that a designated time period is necessary, though I certainly don't think it's a big deal. I'll stop my conversations for a few seconds in the morning if I have to, but just don't see the point.
I am curious as to whether my advisery will begin to adhere to this new law...somehow I doubt it.

Semester I: Meta Post II

I cannot believe that first semester is nearly over.
The end of this semester marks the end of a very busy, sometimes challenging and stressful but genuinely enjoyable twenty week in American Studies. Blogging has become something habitual now. I see blog posts in almost everything, and often find myself inspired at times where a keyboard is anywhere but nearby. but on occasions when I'm at my computer ready to write a post, I am generally excited and eager to get my post out on the web. It's so cool to know that people from all over can read what I am writing, I have views from many places across the globe including: Slovenia, Australia, Indonesia, and Iran.
This semester I approached blogging in a more free form sense, over winter break I blogged, not for class, but just to share some images and thoughts I thought were important and/or relevant. Each of my blogs usually follows a formula. They have a picture, a link and an opinion. I'm not sure whether this uniformity is a good thing, but I have enjoyed being able to really do what I want regarding blogging.
This semester my most viewed post was "Celebrate the things you don't like about yourself"~Lady Gaga. I was surprised by the huge number of views it got, but I am not sure whether the number of views infers the worth of the post. Body Image and society's unfortunate obsession with weight is a very important issue to me and I wrote two post on the subject this quarter. "Unbelievable Apparel" also focused on body image and really hit home for me and i really hope that readers find the subject as provocative as I do. I got the most comments on my post: "Fixin' to Die". I really enjoyed writing about music and the Vietnam War and was really excited that people had their own views on the way songs and the media can portray political opinions. I was able to bring ideas from this post into our Perilous Times presentation in terms of analyzing lyrics during wartime.
So, I guess I would like to have  "Unbelievable Apparel"  graded.
I wish everyone tons of luck on final exams and hope that nobody gets overly stressed out, they'll be over before you know it!

P.S. Just for a side-note I wanted to alert any readers of the "Spread the Word to End the Word" campaign. It's extremely important that people of all ages are aware of how offensive the "r-word" can be. If you're interested please visit the site for this country-wide movement: http://www.r-word.org/

The Bliss of Boyhood

I came across this cartoon and immediately thought of American Studies. Not only did we look at another Calvin and Hobbes cartoon in class, but we have been talking about the "myths of childhood." Calvin demonstrates that even though he is a child, which can be equated with absolute bliss (such as care free afternoons, bubble gum and playgrounds) he does not possess adult freedoms and rights. Calvin doesn't even possess the authority to choose when he needs to take a bath or go to bed. Parents have control and responsibility over their children. But part of being a parent is understanding that having influence over your child is not the same as having ownership of your child.

Twain's 'Huck Finn' Does Not Support Racism: The "N" word is part of America's history

There has a large amount of controversy over the new edition of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." In order to make this Mark Twain classic more acceptable to teach in school, each "n" word was replaced with the word slave.
Is this an improvement? Is this necessary? Will this classic now be able to be read by fifth graders despite a complex storyline?

I think not. Twain wrote this book in the 1800s, a time chalked full of racism and the "n" word. By no means does his usage of this derogatory word support discrimination, but rather it accurately describes the era he was writing in.
Chapter Six of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" uses this banned word lavishly. However, it is used by Huck's father, a drunk, uneducated and disrespected man. He complains about a black man while drinking "enough whisky there for two drunks and one delirium tremens" (25). His drunken rant contained one of many telling lines such as, "if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that n***** vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin" (24). Pap's racism is clearly extreme and most readers would read this passage with disgust. This man is a drunk, who decided never to vote again because a black man was allowed to vote. Most readers do not desire to be like Pap, and therefore do not want to have characteristics of him (such as intense racism). His decision was nonsensical and ridiculous as it was evidently questionable whether this man even had the restraint to show up to the polls sober.

Readers learn to appreciate blacks and whites as equals as a large part of this book is a friendship between Jim(an African American) and Huck.
By eliminating the "n" word, one is attempting to overlook a crucial part of American history and to undermine the peaceful message this book portrays.

For more views here are some educated viewpoints on this new edition of a timeless classic:
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/05/132685293/Sanitized-Edition-Of-Huckleberry-Finn-Causes-Uproar
http://www.neatorama.com/2011/01/04/huckleberry-finn-to-be-published-without-the-n-word/
Why is Slave less Problematic?