Little Rock 9
The times were different then and I’m sure very hard for blacks in the united states, it must have been hell to be treated like a second class citizen only because of the color of their skin, blacks were denied the most basics of rights, they could not drink from the same water fountain as whites, eat in the same dining establishments as whites, even riding public transportation they were not permitted to sit on the front of the bus and if the front was full and a white person needed to sit the black person would have to get up and give up his or her sit to that individual, very unfair indeed.
African-Americans had the worse schools systems, their classrooms were church basements and run down school houses that the Caucasians stopped using because of the poor conditions they were in, their books were used and torn and often times outdated, it’s clear to me after reading this passage the blacks were setup for failure, because the one way for a person to know their worth is through education, keeping a group of people ignorant would ensure their demise, because they will know nothing much than to servants and to do jobs that does not require any reading or writing, the only thing that African-Americans ever wanted was to be treated and be seen as equals no more, no less.
In 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas, the school name was Central High School, which was an all white high school just like every high school in the south. After a long fight the NAACP fought and won the right for African-Americans to attend the school, of course this was met with a lot of anger and hatred, parents were protesting and pulling their kids out of the school because they did not want their white children to be in the same classroom with “Niggers” even some teachers quit their jobs. Having to be escorted to class everyday by armed guards would have left me unable to concentrate on my school work, I would be too afraid someone may get to me and do bodily harm to me and the others, I would question if it was all worth it, but at the same time it would’ve motivate me to outperform the white kids that were attending the school, to show everyone that we are all capable of achieving greatness, given the opportunity. Because of the sacrifices and ridicule these student endured in the past, paved the way to us now having the same opportunities to an education, it really hurts me to see African-Americans taking this right as lightly as they are, if they only knew how many people sacrificed their freedom and their life to give them this opportunity and yet they are taking it for granted.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Understanding Eachother
Understanding each other
This world is full of diverse cultures and each of these cultures also has sub-cultures, each of these sub-cultures has their own customs, history and beliefs. Some of these customs may seem weird and strange to any outsiders never the less we have to learn to respect them; most of all learn to keep our own prejudices aside and keep an open mind. We have to know the same way we view their customs as being weird or different they themselves have the same perception of our own customs. With the diverse ways of traveling we have open trades of not only goods with other countries; we have sometimes adopted some of their ways as well, such as art, music, language and different types of medicines.
Language has always been the main barrier keeping people apart, without understanding linguistics there is no way we can ever learn what we need to know, it takes a lot of patience and open mind to learn each other’s way of life. Respect is the next and as important as language, show the person you will abide by the rules of the land and not disrespect their customs, some of these people would die for their belief because they believe that deeply and we must know that we are there to observe and take notes and not intervene and place our own beliefs into the mix, this could seem in many places as a form of disrespect. Food is a big deterrence because some cultures would eat some things that would turn your stomach, I’ve watched Japanese sell and eat rats in the streets, and nowhere in America would we ever consider eating a rodent. Some of the other soldiers that were with me makes obscene gestures and point and laugh at the sight of someone eating a rat, I can see the look on the peoples’ faces and I saw anger I really felt like I needed to apologize to them for what my fellow soldiers were doing. I am a product of another culture and my culture has prejudices against any other culture that is not theirs which to me is sad because we don’t give other people a chance.
Reading these two passages really open my eyes, not that they were ever closed after coming to America at an early age my parents forced my brother and I to learn the American way of life, because as they put it, the only way to succeed in this country is to learn the culture and language at the same time not to forget our own cultures.
This world is full of diverse cultures and each of these cultures also has sub-cultures, each of these sub-cultures has their own customs, history and beliefs. Some of these customs may seem weird and strange to any outsiders never the less we have to learn to respect them; most of all learn to keep our own prejudices aside and keep an open mind. We have to know the same way we view their customs as being weird or different they themselves have the same perception of our own customs. With the diverse ways of traveling we have open trades of not only goods with other countries; we have sometimes adopted some of their ways as well, such as art, music, language and different types of medicines.
Language has always been the main barrier keeping people apart, without understanding linguistics there is no way we can ever learn what we need to know, it takes a lot of patience and open mind to learn each other’s way of life. Respect is the next and as important as language, show the person you will abide by the rules of the land and not disrespect their customs, some of these people would die for their belief because they believe that deeply and we must know that we are there to observe and take notes and not intervene and place our own beliefs into the mix, this could seem in many places as a form of disrespect. Food is a big deterrence because some cultures would eat some things that would turn your stomach, I’ve watched Japanese sell and eat rats in the streets, and nowhere in America would we ever consider eating a rodent. Some of the other soldiers that were with me makes obscene gestures and point and laugh at the sight of someone eating a rat, I can see the look on the peoples’ faces and I saw anger I really felt like I needed to apologize to them for what my fellow soldiers were doing. I am a product of another culture and my culture has prejudices against any other culture that is not theirs which to me is sad because we don’t give other people a chance.
Reading these two passages really open my eyes, not that they were ever closed after coming to America at an early age my parents forced my brother and I to learn the American way of life, because as they put it, the only way to succeed in this country is to learn the culture and language at the same time not to forget our own cultures.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Importance of Writing
Importance of writing
Initially writing was invented for early men to keep track of cattle, grains and other properties; eventually they found many other uses for writing. Writing was also used to mark territory in order to warn others of dangers. The most important use of writing has to be documenting events in order to share with others and these stories would be told to other generations, which are the first glimpse into recorded history. The writing and reciting of these event or history to the new generations is a way of establishing traditions and culture, through these writings we gain knowledge and understanding of the past, can we make improvements on the future. By keeping records we can see just how far we have evolved from the past to the future.
Writing styles however have made tremendous changes over the years, early writing can actually be dated in about forty-thousand years ago, starting with the cave drawings, these drawings were pictures, this early style of writing is called pictograph, the use of pictures to tell a story, and sometimes these writings are just writings. The ancient Egyptians also used and still used a more refined version of this style of writing; we can see evidence of this in art effects such as vases and tombs. Different symbols had specific meanings; some were to show the wealth, status and role in society. Early Egyptians also started a new more modern style of writing, which was called acrophony, this was the beginning of what we now used today this style which is the alphabet. The early version of the alphabet had a lot of characteristics of pictographs, letters were still being represented by symbols now instead of these pictures meaning a whole story, now with this new style each of these symbols represent a letters. There are countries that are still using hieroglyphics as their writing style; such cultures are Iraq, china, Japan and most Middle Eastern and Asian countries. The only countries that use the alphabetic system are mostly Europeans and countries that have European influences.
Without the invention of writing we would have never known our history and cultures, in order to establish a civilized culture. History played a major role in preserving ways of life of their ancestors.
Initially writing was invented for early men to keep track of cattle, grains and other properties; eventually they found many other uses for writing. Writing was also used to mark territory in order to warn others of dangers. The most important use of writing has to be documenting events in order to share with others and these stories would be told to other generations, which are the first glimpse into recorded history. The writing and reciting of these event or history to the new generations is a way of establishing traditions and culture, through these writings we gain knowledge and understanding of the past, can we make improvements on the future. By keeping records we can see just how far we have evolved from the past to the future.
Writing styles however have made tremendous changes over the years, early writing can actually be dated in about forty-thousand years ago, starting with the cave drawings, these drawings were pictures, this early style of writing is called pictograph, the use of pictures to tell a story, and sometimes these writings are just writings. The ancient Egyptians also used and still used a more refined version of this style of writing; we can see evidence of this in art effects such as vases and tombs. Different symbols had specific meanings; some were to show the wealth, status and role in society. Early Egyptians also started a new more modern style of writing, which was called acrophony, this was the beginning of what we now used today this style which is the alphabet. The early version of the alphabet had a lot of characteristics of pictographs, letters were still being represented by symbols now instead of these pictures meaning a whole story, now with this new style each of these symbols represent a letters. There are countries that are still using hieroglyphics as their writing style; such cultures are Iraq, china, Japan and most Middle Eastern and Asian countries. The only countries that use the alphabetic system are mostly Europeans and countries that have European influences.
Without the invention of writing we would have never known our history and cultures, in order to establish a civilized culture. History played a major role in preserving ways of life of their ancestors.
Rites of passage
Rites of passage
Rites of passage and teaching are similar, because both serves the same purpose and that is to prepare the individual for the next stage in their life. Rites of passage are a way of passing along cultural, ideologies and traditions along to the upcoming generations. Most non-literate cultures often pass on their knowledge and traditions along to their offspring by allowing that child to follow and imitate their parents and elders, this process is called shaping, that child is being molded into their parents without having to read and learn about their culture. Mostly the elder in the tribe would tell stories and these stories would explain traditions to the youngster, these stories are stories that are passed down from generation to generation.
The main difference between the methods is rites of passage only teaches the person about his or her own culture and nothing else, where as learning teaches about diverse cultures and academics, such as language, culture and mathematics. Through teaching and learning cultures are able to aid in the survival of all cultures, with knowledge we are able to document and learn and experiment with different ideologies and improve on each objects, therefore ensuring the preservations and spreading of their culture. Both types of learning are very critical to societal and cultural understanding.
Rites of passage are mainly a transitioning from adolescents into adulthood. These rituals exist to teach young males and females their place in society and teach them the necessary requirements to becoming an adult. Some of these rituals are may seem barbaric to outsiders because some may include male and female circumcision other cultures may also have males fight or beat the young man to see if he is worthy and strong enough to withstand the physical pain without showing fear or pain, if this individual passes he will bring pride and status to his family but if he was to fail he will bring shame and maybe driven out of the tribe. The one aspect of these traditions is that only the strong are welcome into the society, all of these rites of passage are there to weed out the weak and frail. There was an episode of such a ritual on Discovery Channel, where a young man was being tested; his task was to run on the backs of ten cows, five times without falling down. The day of the initiation the women are also preparing as well, their preparation was the harshest; they were placed in the middle of a circle while the males of the tribe had switches or tree branch in their hands, they women danced after being served traditional beer to help them deal with the pain. The drummer started beating the drums and the women started dancing and the men started beating them until their skin were bleeding, this is to show their devotion and loyalty to their relative. If the young man would have failed it’s all would have been for nothing, fortunately the young man even after falling once, the elders allowed him to continue, once he was allowed to start over he then completed his task and was now a man, he is now able to marry and have cattle and a farm of his own.
Rites of passage and teaching are similar, because both serves the same purpose and that is to prepare the individual for the next stage in their life. Rites of passage are a way of passing along cultural, ideologies and traditions along to the upcoming generations. Most non-literate cultures often pass on their knowledge and traditions along to their offspring by allowing that child to follow and imitate their parents and elders, this process is called shaping, that child is being molded into their parents without having to read and learn about their culture. Mostly the elder in the tribe would tell stories and these stories would explain traditions to the youngster, these stories are stories that are passed down from generation to generation.
The main difference between the methods is rites of passage only teaches the person about his or her own culture and nothing else, where as learning teaches about diverse cultures and academics, such as language, culture and mathematics. Through teaching and learning cultures are able to aid in the survival of all cultures, with knowledge we are able to document and learn and experiment with different ideologies and improve on each objects, therefore ensuring the preservations and spreading of their culture. Both types of learning are very critical to societal and cultural understanding.
Rites of passage are mainly a transitioning from adolescents into adulthood. These rituals exist to teach young males and females their place in society and teach them the necessary requirements to becoming an adult. Some of these rituals are may seem barbaric to outsiders because some may include male and female circumcision other cultures may also have males fight or beat the young man to see if he is worthy and strong enough to withstand the physical pain without showing fear or pain, if this individual passes he will bring pride and status to his family but if he was to fail he will bring shame and maybe driven out of the tribe. The one aspect of these traditions is that only the strong are welcome into the society, all of these rites of passage are there to weed out the weak and frail. There was an episode of such a ritual on Discovery Channel, where a young man was being tested; his task was to run on the backs of ten cows, five times without falling down. The day of the initiation the women are also preparing as well, their preparation was the harshest; they were placed in the middle of a circle while the males of the tribe had switches or tree branch in their hands, they women danced after being served traditional beer to help them deal with the pain. The drummer started beating the drums and the women started dancing and the men started beating them until their skin were bleeding, this is to show their devotion and loyalty to their relative. If the young man would have failed it’s all would have been for nothing, fortunately the young man even after falling once, the elders allowed him to continue, once he was allowed to start over he then completed his task and was now a man, he is now able to marry and have cattle and a farm of his own.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
paradigm
Paradigisms
Paradigm can be describe as point of view, a way a person or group of people view and interpret reality. These interpretations are mostly learned from generation to generation. One of the most well known sorts of paradigms in any culture is religion. Religion is the one common thread that most of us have in common. No matter what denomination you are, you share a common belief with other members of that faith. Take for instance the story of Adam and Eve, all religions with the exception of Buddhism and Islamic faith has that story in their books (bible). Most Christian faiths, such religions with the same beliefs are Catholics, Jewish, Baptist, just to name a few. These followers never question anything from the bible; they whole-heartedly believe every word to be truth even without facts. The story of Mary and her immaculate conception, to us we most like would look at this with some type of Sinicism.
Paradigm shift is an individual or group of people who refuses to believe anything without questioning their validity. By questioning everything is one way humans can discover new objects, new inventions, all of the new inventions such as cell phones, microwave ovens, television and the most important tool today the PC or (personal computer). If it weren’t for men’s curiosities we would still be in the Stone Age, cars and space travelling would never have been realized. Every generation has evolved more from the previous generation, which is due to paradigm shift.
It is important for teachers to practice paradigm change, is because classrooms are become more and more diverse in more ways than one. Classrooms have children of many different learning styles and capabilities, which mean teachers, would have to get rid of their old world teaching methods. Now some classrooms have special education students mixed in with mainstream children, the special education students may require more attention than mainstream students. No longer is education general because of the diversity of the students.
Paradigm can be describe as point of view, a way a person or group of people view and interpret reality. These interpretations are mostly learned from generation to generation. One of the most well known sorts of paradigms in any culture is religion. Religion is the one common thread that most of us have in common. No matter what denomination you are, you share a common belief with other members of that faith. Take for instance the story of Adam and Eve, all religions with the exception of Buddhism and Islamic faith has that story in their books (bible). Most Christian faiths, such religions with the same beliefs are Catholics, Jewish, Baptist, just to name a few. These followers never question anything from the bible; they whole-heartedly believe every word to be truth even without facts. The story of Mary and her immaculate conception, to us we most like would look at this with some type of Sinicism.
Paradigm shift is an individual or group of people who refuses to believe anything without questioning their validity. By questioning everything is one way humans can discover new objects, new inventions, all of the new inventions such as cell phones, microwave ovens, television and the most important tool today the PC or (personal computer). If it weren’t for men’s curiosities we would still be in the Stone Age, cars and space travelling would never have been realized. Every generation has evolved more from the previous generation, which is due to paradigm shift.
It is important for teachers to practice paradigm change, is because classrooms are become more and more diverse in more ways than one. Classrooms have children of many different learning styles and capabilities, which mean teachers, would have to get rid of their old world teaching methods. Now some classrooms have special education students mixed in with mainstream children, the special education students may require more attention than mainstream students. No longer is education general because of the diversity of the students.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Changes in Men
Changes in Men
No one has ever thought us that there were so many different types of prehistoric human beings. Looking at the pictures of the skulls of the early sapiens, I’ve noticed significant changes in their skull features. The earliest such men were the Homo Habilis, which are also known as Neanderthals or “cavemen”, there skull features are more ape than human. Then came the Homo erectus, they are the result of men’s evolving from walking on four limbs into bipedal. Homo erectus as they name clearly shows they were erected meaning they walked on two legs and had a much larger brain then the Habilis; this is the result of the eating of red meat, which produces proteins and helps the brain become more developed.
The passage on the Hominids really just presented more evidence of the evolutions men went through to become as we are today. These two readings really showed me just how far human evolution has come. There are a total of nineteen different types of hominids from the beginning of time. This shows the many different types of evolutions men went through, throughout the centuries. We went through changes mentally as well as physically.
Lucy and the story of African eve both confirmed my belief that life began in Africa. Reading any magazines or archeological journals, you always read that prehistoric human bones were always being discovered in Africa. All of the pieces of literature could not be wrong, this further confirmed my theory where life begun. All of the different types of humans are being discovered in Africa, from Homo habilis to Homo erectus. It is important to recognize where life began because it’s way to know that we are all related and are the same. The human skin body changes with the climate, the African skin remained dark because of the sun in Africa, where the Anglo Saxon skin turned light to deal with the cold weather. The truth is we are all the same inside and out, all brothers and sisters.
No one has ever thought us that there were so many different types of prehistoric human beings. Looking at the pictures of the skulls of the early sapiens, I’ve noticed significant changes in their skull features. The earliest such men were the Homo Habilis, which are also known as Neanderthals or “cavemen”, there skull features are more ape than human. Then came the Homo erectus, they are the result of men’s evolving from walking on four limbs into bipedal. Homo erectus as they name clearly shows they were erected meaning they walked on two legs and had a much larger brain then the Habilis; this is the result of the eating of red meat, which produces proteins and helps the brain become more developed.
The passage on the Hominids really just presented more evidence of the evolutions men went through to become as we are today. These two readings really showed me just how far human evolution has come. There are a total of nineteen different types of hominids from the beginning of time. This shows the many different types of evolutions men went through, throughout the centuries. We went through changes mentally as well as physically.
Lucy and the story of African eve both confirmed my belief that life began in Africa. Reading any magazines or archeological journals, you always read that prehistoric human bones were always being discovered in Africa. All of the pieces of literature could not be wrong, this further confirmed my theory where life begun. All of the different types of humans are being discovered in Africa, from Homo habilis to Homo erectus. It is important to recognize where life began because it’s way to know that we are all related and are the same. The human skin body changes with the climate, the African skin remained dark because of the sun in Africa, where the Anglo Saxon skin turned light to deal with the cold weather. The truth is we are all the same inside and out, all brothers and sisters.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Cultural Diversity
Looking back on my elementary education, I would definitely say it was multicultural. The school I attended was in an area where there were diverse nationalities living there. I attended Allapatah Elemementary school, deep in the heart of Liberty city. Which if anyone that grew up in Miami knows that it is a pretty rough area?
The reason why I felt my education would be classified as being multicultural is because the school had different ethnicities. There were African-Americans, Haitians, Cubans, Puertoricans and Dominicans. The group that dominated the school was the African-Americans; they were ruthless and view all foreigners as bait. Never the less we all had to learn to learn together and coexist within the same community and school.
I would say it was more of the transformation approach, because we had to learn to tolerate the other ethnic groups and learn about their customs to better understand and accept them as friends. Some of us were able to put aside certain prejudices about the other group and talk out our differences. Being Haitian going to school in that area was tough, the students did not like us because they never really gave us a chance, while on the other hand we were strongly trying to learn the custom and culture of this country in order to fit in. Some of the teachers treated foreigners as leapers and did not care if we understood the lesson that was presented in class.
I would really like for my teachers to use the transformation approach. Because if the teachers would’ve thought that approach, it would make it easier for the students to try to put prejudices that were implanted in their minds by people outside of the school grounds. Learning to respect and accept everyone is one way of keeping peace with the school grounds and beyond. We all have had prejudices or misunderstandings about another culture or person, that if we take our time to learn why that person act or do certain things would make life easier.
The reason why I felt my education would be classified as being multicultural is because the school had different ethnicities. There were African-Americans, Haitians, Cubans, Puertoricans and Dominicans. The group that dominated the school was the African-Americans; they were ruthless and view all foreigners as bait. Never the less we all had to learn to learn together and coexist within the same community and school.
I would say it was more of the transformation approach, because we had to learn to tolerate the other ethnic groups and learn about their customs to better understand and accept them as friends. Some of us were able to put aside certain prejudices about the other group and talk out our differences. Being Haitian going to school in that area was tough, the students did not like us because they never really gave us a chance, while on the other hand we were strongly trying to learn the custom and culture of this country in order to fit in. Some of the teachers treated foreigners as leapers and did not care if we understood the lesson that was presented in class.
I would really like for my teachers to use the transformation approach. Because if the teachers would’ve thought that approach, it would make it easier for the students to try to put prejudices that were implanted in their minds by people outside of the school grounds. Learning to respect and accept everyone is one way of keeping peace with the school grounds and beyond. We all have had prejudices or misunderstandings about another culture or person, that if we take our time to learn why that person act or do certain things would make life easier.
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