Gender and Education

I have gathered multiple videos showing and explaining gender and education. These videos are very interesting and is an eye opener to me. I knew that women tend to mature before men but i was very surprised to find there is a learning difference as well.  Maybe it is my male ego in the way but i always thought that the men were the ones who were succeeding more in school and going further in school. These videos do bring up good points and i can now see how women are more successful in school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGpGCQ6Mx9k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swv-wTo93ck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZPmXfSc0Rw&feature=related

Figure 1. Total fall undergraduate enrollment in degree-granting institutions (in thousands), by gender: 1980–2001

Figure 2. Percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds with a bachelor’s degree or higher, by gender: March 1980–2003

#6 Wise and Website

After looking over the website, article, and videos I noticed that they all had to do with racism. Racism is not a new thing sadly it has been around for a while. What’s even worse is that it’s probably going to be around for more years to come. While looking at the website I noticed that they had tracked racism all the way back to the 1800's. I have seen racism at school and even while I'm out with my friends.  During high school I had a friend who was African American and kids would always say some racist comment to him just joking around, but after a while I noticed that the kid did not find it funny and some of the comments really would bother him.  There would be times when i would tell these kids to knock it off but they thought because they were just joking around it wasn't being mean and they were allowed to do it.

There is a very funny musical called Avenue Q that focuses on all kinds of issues and racism is one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovF1zsDoeM&feature=related

The video may be funny but it is true everyone is a little bit racist even if you’re not trying to be.  Most people are not racist but sometimes the things we say end up coming off as it.  It is a serious issue because kids growing up are listening to these racist comments and think that it is ok to continue making these comments. Another prime example is integration in schools.

This video shows a great example of how people were reacting during the times schools were intergrading.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYgzPkOeKUQ

Go 6 minutes in to see what I am trying to show you.  Also if you get the chance watch the whole movie manly because it is a great example of racism and a community coming together. What we need to do is stop the racism and come together as a country.  There are wars going on and the economy is in the toilet, so don't you think its time to come together stop all the racism and find away to save this country?  

In the service of what the politics of service learning" by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

In this article Kahne and Westheimer talk about service learning and the benefits of it. By using service learning kids can not only benefit in school but also improve the community. the article then goes into two  cases of service learning.  The to teachers that were followed were Mr. Johnson and Ms. Adams. Both teachers had different approaches Johnson let his students pick their own service learning project and Adams  had her kids focus on homelessness. Even though they had different approaches on handling their service learning projects they both provided learning experiences dealing with social concern.
I think that social learning projects are great things for people of any age to be a part of.  having projects like this help out the community in which you are living in, and also has children learn and grow from the experience.  Some kids might really enjoy their project and would want to continue with it even when the class is over. Plus another big thing is by having kids work on these projects they are less likely to get into trouble because they will be to busy working on them.  
One of my friends brothers is now in high school and just the other day he was saying his class was doing a service learning project.  He wasn't to happy about it but I believe by the end of the project he will have learned a lot and probably didn't think it was that bad.  I strongly believe there really isn't a down side to service learning projects and they should have a lot more being  planted into are schools, not only for the kids to learn but to start making our communities better.

In the Service of What? by Linda Christensen

Linda Christensen argues that the social media is portraying certain roles to race and sex, and how live life.

The problem with this is the fact that we see this media exposure at such a young age people start to believe that this is their role in society and what they need to do to succeed in life. For example the TV show Duck Tales may seem like a perfectly fine show but Christensen explains how the show makes it seem like the only way to be happy and live such great lives you need to have lots of money. What Christensen wants us to do is to be able to see what is wrong with these media messages and understand that this is not the correct way to act in order to live a normal life.  Another message portrayed by the media was how women stayed at home hoping that one day a man would come and sweep them off their feet.  They never had the women go out work and find a guy they liked it was always them waiting. By seeing and understanding these messages we can take action and let the media know that they way they portray roles or ways to succeed in life are wrong and need to be changed.

Now a good topic I believe to talk about during class would be how many people actually picked up on these media messages? The reason being is when I was younger I never picked up on the messages like Duck Tales was about getting money and how important money is, I was just thinking that they enjoyed going on adventures.  Another thing that I thought would be interesting to talk about is if even though I didn't know about the message being portrayed did it have any impact on me as a kid growing up?

From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America - A National Report on School Bullying

Bullying is defined by dictionary.reference.com/  as a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people. This is mainly scene inside schools from elementary all the way to college. This is such a terrible thing that needs to be stopped. The article that I read from www.GLSEN.org stated that students who are being bullied tend to miss classes or do not get involved in class because they feel like they are in a uncomfortable environment. Now bullying is not only physical abuse but it can also be verbal, either way both forms of bullying can be as equally painful.
Just a couple days ago I was watching the Today show and saw a poor kid named Jamie who committed suicide after being bullied for so long. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7ftikqwrA8 I wanted to post the video mainly to show how terrible bullying is and how unbelievable kids continue to be. I just don't understand why kids find it fun to be so mean to each other.
Another example I wanted to share happened in my own high school. A group of kids thought it would be funny to make a facebook group that hated this one girl, and one day they told everyone to wear a white t-shirt to school to show how much they hated her.  The girl ended up going home crying and only the kid that made the group got suspended.  Personally I believe that every kid that was in white should have been suspended and the kid that created the group should have been expelled.  Kids need to be strongly disciplined if they are bullying someone else.     


One thing the article pointed out that I thought was very important was that teachers need to make a better job in showing that if bullying is going on it will not be tolerated and they will take action. Also they need to express that if someone is being bullied they can come and talk to the teacher. This is very important mainly because bullying needs to stop! Parents need to also talk to their kids and let them know bullying is wrong and if they know someone or if they are being bullied to tell an adult so the bullying can stop before it gets worse.