Share any books, videos, films, experiences you have related to social justice. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from all of you, and expanding my vision.
I was discussing the concept of using Art to take action in our community... host a fundraiser at the rouge...etc. I know, Maddie, you were interested in possibly collaborating and would find this website interesting. However, I think all of you should check it out anyways for inspiration of what is possible, and on what scale! It is a great project even if you are not interested in taking action this way.... maybe it will inspire something new inside of you!
Yesterday night, I was surfing around a few websites, trying to get a bit of research done for my Inquiry project that centers around obesity and food habits, and I stumbled upon a documentary—Vegucated—that averages about an hour and fifteen minutes long and speaks about the growing popularity of vegan diets. The documentary follows three New Yorkers around for a period of six weeks and watches them as they attempt to live as a vegan for that period of time. It was so interesting to watch how they changed—both their bodies physically, and their mental states—and bear witness to such a healthy curb in a group of people who never in their wildest dreams thought they'd ever "go vegan".
For any of you who don't know what a vegan diet consists of, I'll try to sum it up here. No, part of the vegan died DOESN'T consist of growing your hair out, making yourself some dreadlocks, and singing Joni Mitchell all day—even though she is an amazing artist—but it does consist of cutting meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products from your diet. As a vegan, you basically eat tofu, beans, nuts, vegetables, and fruits to sustain your body. Seems a bit restrictive, but it's actually quite easy. The most difficult part for me, I think, would be cutting out eggs from a modern day diet, because they really are the only thing nowadays that you can't find a true blue "vegan" substitute for. But people have been eating vegan for years now—I'm sure they've found a way.
So, how are vegan trends qualifiable as a social issue? Well besides the fact that it's an amazingly healthy diet to be part of—all of the patients dropped 20 points on their bad cholesterol scale, everyone in the experiment lost a bit of weight, and the two overweight participants saw their unhealthily high blood pressure levels drop to a healthy level by the end of the program—vegans generally do not support the "mass farming" and slaughter techniques of the food industry.
I won't go into the gory details, but after having watched this film, I really am considering taking the plunge. I never thought I could by swayed to stop eating a large chunk of my current diet, but after this film, I'll be hard pressed to put a piece of steak in my mouth. Part of it was being exposed to the cruel methods used in farming, but to be honest, the majority of my desire to go vegan is fueled by a desire to eat a tad healthier than I am at the present.
If anyone wants to watch this film, you can do so on Netflix. If you don't have Netflix, I'm sure you can pick it up in any local video store. Heck, I'd even share my Netflix info with any of you if you were that eager to watch it. If you do watch this film and any of you feel as strongly as I do about drastically changing the way you eat and how you nourish your body, let's do it together and support one another. Who knows—could be tough—but it could be really fun!
Brogan, not going to lie but the idea of becoming a vegan is very intriguing to me. I think it would be really cool if the entire class did a sort of movement where everyone tried to be a vegan for a week or more. We could include more of the school too, and the idea would be to bring awareness to the way animals farmed and slaughtered. Also it could be a good cleanse of the body to get rid of toxins we get when eating at fast food places and stuff. I think it would be an interesting thing to inquire into more.
That's so funny that you would mention this film Brogan! I myself actually stumbled on it not too long ago. It was a crazy good. In addition to Vegucated, I really think you guys should watch Hungry For Change. I watched it before I watched Vegucated, and the combination of the two movies had me sworn on a better diet. Hungry For Change was actually mind boggling. The films shows the trap of most processed food on the market, and how to get out of an unhealthy eating cycle. It then compares the physical and mental aspects of unclean and clean eating.
I think the two films tie in well to social justice, because the obesity epidemic in the US, Canada, and the UK is such a prominent social issue. Not to say that those who are not obese are not going to benefit from watching these movies. I myself thought I had a healthy diet until I watched these two movies. The crazy realization I came to after watching these two movies is this: Dietary changes don’t have to mean complication, they should mean simplifying. Simple locally grown fruits and vegetables, simple grains, and spices. Add all these things together and you have a wonderfully diverse, healthy, simple diet. I don’t want to take away the impact of these two films, so I really encourage you to watch these two movies on your own. You will not regret it!
Like Brogan my piece I would like to share is also based on food. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uem2ceZMxYk
I found this video from Mrs Nelson. But I feel it should be shared with everyone. It shows how modern agriculture is ineffective and also destructive. I love this video because this is the way of the future and hopefully people realize it and put for better food in a better way.
I recently read a book called Sold, it was a fiction book, but it depicted what really does happen. It was about a girl who was tricked into working in a brothel in India, when she was 12. Her step-father tricked her into thinking she was going to work as a maid, and instead he sold her to a brothel and she couldn't leave until she had paid 5 000 rupees. It really opened my eyes about slavery. I did an essay for Social Studies on slavery, but reading this book made it feel more real (kind of ironic considering it wasn't a true story) because the story was based on true facts and issues and was presented in a way I felt like I could understand it and relate to it better, as opposed to reading articles and websites about slavery. It is a very easy read, but if anybody wants to borrow the book I have it.
This experience was fantastic. I wish that everyone could have seen him in action. He was so knowledgeable. He seemed to ooze intensity and he was such an engaging speaker. From the moment that he took to the stage, Wade Davis had my attention. He had everyone’s attention. But, let’s be honest here—whose attention wouldn’t he have? A Harvard graduate that has done 150 years of travel by the age of 50? He was so inspiring to the youth of the audience. When he was younger, he threw caution to the wind and, after six months of university education, left for South America to study botany, following in the footsteps of one of his professors.
I really can’t put into words how fantastic this presentation was. It could have been in Ancient Greek and it would have been engaging and worthwhile. He was simply such an amazing speaker. It could have been on differential calculus and accounting and the material would have still seemed interesting because of HIS qualities as a presenter. He was such an interesting individual who has done so much with his short life.
And, coming into the presentation, I really didn’t know what to expect. I mean—it was a presentation on botany and the effects of herbs on the human body as medicine. It certainly wasn’t something that I was particularly interested in at the onset of the presentation. But it was entirely by his skills as a presenter that I found this issue to be particularly interesting.
His presentation was not political, nor did it have a purpose except for discussing what his passion in life was—but he was so talented at conveying what exactly his passion was that I felt a passion for the same material growing on me.
However, I question what relevance his presentation had towards a certain social issue. I understand he discussed the cultural degradation that comes from technological development— a large portion of his discussion being devoted to speaking to the benefit of ancient wisdom and botany with regards to its medical properties. I do feel that, in his presentation being so nonchalant, however, that I missed the Social Justice issue portion of it. It was so neutral that I think it lacked drive to remedy a social issue—I know, I’m such a tough critic.
The presentation itself was top-notch. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—this was something to not be missed. Sam and I left the presentation thinking only of ways to convince him to come speak at our graduation—he was that motivational, that empowering, and that knowledgeable with regards not just to his subject, but to life in general.
This man has been around the globe and back again—it was a treat to have his experiences shared with me.
So I was browsing around Netflix a couple evenings ago—like I’ve been known to do—and came across an interesting piece of sociological work. It was a movie entitled “Le jeu de la mort”. Literally: The Game of Death. Ambitious title, I know, but it really was a fantastic work.
Let me start with a bit of a disclaimer: This movie sort of loosely relates to social justice material. It bases itself on a scientific experiment that tests the resilience of human morality under increasingly stressful situations, and it kind of fits in with the TedTalk we watched early on in the year that presented such a compelling case about where evil, in fact, comes from. The entire premise for this experiment was to test how far a human would compromise his or her moral compass for profit.
Let me explain: The experiment was put on in France in 2010. It based itself upon an experiment that was conducted by the CIA in 1962 in which two people took part in the experiment: Person A and Person B. Person A, in the 1962 version of the experiment, was an actor—unbenounced to Person B—and was the participant in a game. Person B was charged with mediating the game. His duties were reading the questions, giving the correct response if Person A, (the actor,) answered “incorrectly”—the incorrect responses had been planned in advance—and delivering the “punishment” should the wrong answer be given. The punishment, in case you were wondering, was an electric shock whose voltage would increase the farther the person would progress in the game. The punishments would range from 20 volts, all the way to 480 volts. Person A wasn’t actually being punished, of course, he was just faking, but it was there that the experiment lied. The scientists who watched the “game” wanted to see if the person who was mediating the game—Person B—would go all the way to the end, inflicting 480 volts of pure pain unto Person A, the actor. Whenever the person charged with inflicting the punishment would resist giving the shock because he felt guilty with regards to his actions, the “doctor”, a third party in the original game, would simply state: “Don’t let his screams bother you, we assume all responsibility for what he incurs.” One would think, however, that the person delivering the electric shocks would have an overwhelming sense of guilt, knowing that they’re hurting someone else against their will, BUT because of the higher power, being the doctor, they weren’t at all affected by what was happening to the person in the electric shock booth.
An overwhelming 62% went all the way to the end, sending the full 480 volt shock to the actor, knowing full well, or rather, believing full well that they were doing legitimate harm to him. This was back in 1962.
The French, however, performed the experience again. This time, two factors changed. The first factor was money. The contestants were told that if the actor in the booth went all the way to “recieving” the full 480 volts, he would win 900,000.00 Euros and the person inflicting the shocks would win 100,000.00 Euros. The second factor was the fact that the experience was televised under the guise of a game show. It, of course, never hit the airwaves.
However, with the addition of two new factors, the money acting as a motivator for the poor person inflicting fake punishment, and the studio audience acting as a pressure to keep going, get this straight: An overwhelming 91% of all contestants went to the end. Even after the first third of the game when the actor started to scream. Even into the second third of the game when the actor started to cry and beg. Even into the final third when the actor STOPPED responding altogether and pretended to be unconscious, the contestants still continued. Still continued to torture. Still continued to inflict pain. Still chose to hurt a human being simply because a higher power told him or her to continue. Because he or she wouldn’t be held personally responsible.
This is a wake-up call to the human race if I’ve ever heard one. The fact that we as a society and as a moral being are content to simply continue hurting someone because it’s qualified somewhere is unacceptable. If anything, this film has taught me to keep my moral compass in check, even when someone or something urges you to continue. I encourage you to watch it. The results are shocking.
Alright everyone, I watched a film called “Waiting for ‘Superman.’”
Am I allowed to say I wasn’t a fan of this one? I’m an absolute sucker for a good documentary. This film didn’t do it for me. The entire premise behind the film was to discuss the failing American public school system. I’d seen trailers for the film, it looked very interesting, as well as eye opening, but I found that the film fell short of its purpose.
I thought it was, to be perfectly honest, quite disorganized. As I watched the film, I found that the issue that they were trying to make clear—that is that public schools are failing their students—wasn’t accurately presented. The cause wasn’t compelling because the entire time I watched the film, I found that I had to pause it and collect my thoughts on the issue before continuing. Maybe this style lended itself to the subject matter: It’s not a simple thing, the plight of the system in the United States. But the documentary didn’t enhance my understanding of the subject matter at all. It simply served to confuse me.
The film bounced back and forth between human interest stories of students whose lives were being made difficult by their schooling and interviews with superintendents of districts whose schools had been proclaimed as “drop-out factories”, but the information wasn’t presented in a logical fashion. In my opinion, it wasn’t even chronological. The film bounced from one idea to another quickly, and wasn’t—how to put this—watcher friendly.
The information presented, or at least the information I cought, was interesting, however, and it really ties well into the ideas that we were discussing in class today about poverty and education. If the movie served one purpose, it was to educate me in the dangers and spirals of poverty mixed with a lack of education. In certain failing school districts, students aren’t motivated to continue with their studies, and because of automatic tenure granted to teachers, the teachers are no more motivated than their students. On the other end of the stick you see teachers that do a fantastic job teaching their students but whose contracts prevent them from being rewarded financially for their hard work.
All in all, the film was confusing, and kind of disappointing. It taught me a bit about the American public schooling system, but nothing like I was expecting. It did, however, succeed in linking education to poverty, albeit very briefly and in very little detail.
If I had to caution you away from this film, I would. Once again, however, these are simply personal opinions.
Alright everyone—this is me blogging about my last "experience".
Next year, I'm very excited to be off to a school in Switzerland called Neuchâtel Junior College in which a very significant part of being enrolled in the school is taking action against social injustice.
The school has been partnered with Me to We and Free The Children ever since Marc Kielburger, co-founder of Free The Children, graduated from the same school, and every year in December they offer a trip to Kenya on a humanitarian aid mission for the students there. It's over Christmas—so I'm not sure if I'll be able to go, but I'm definitely trying.
Every year, the students have been known to construct a school for a small village in rural Kenya—but the trip goes much farther than simple physical labor. The international exposure and eye-opening experiences lived by the students are unlike any other in the world.
Last year, the students saw much local African wildlife, including cheetahs and buffalos, elephants and hippos, treking through mud and rain to finally reach their work site and get their hands dirty. Guided by locals, it was an experience of a lifetime for all those involved—I hope to be one of those participants next year.
There is also an opportunity to go on a "Habitat for Humanity" excursion during spring break in which I would really like to participate. Usually, the students go to Romania, but have been to China and Nepal in the past.
If you want to take a look at the international service component of this school, feel free to give this page a look-see.
I was completely blown away by the presentation that Ivan Coyote gave—it was such an interesting mixture of both intimate stories from her past, as well as a poignant message speaking out against discrimination, voilence, and bullying of any kind.
I was pleasantly surprised at the tone of the presentation. I walked into the auditorium completely expecting to have to listen to a presentation about someone’s career—how they got there, what they’re doing now, how it is, in fact, possible to make it in this world as a writer—and if the presentation were indeed like that, I feel as if it would cause the students to lose interest quite fast. I think we’ve all heard that type of presentation before—but this presentation was far from that. It was engaging right from the get-go, when Ivan got us laughing with her hilariously true insights about growing up with her frugal Irish Catholic grandmother, her roller skates, and her cousin with the size thirteen feet. It was completely beyond hilarious. I had a fantastically cheeky grin plastered upon my face from beginning to end—and in my opinion, one would be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t like the presentation.
But just as poignant were Ivan’s ups were Ivan’s downs—as she talked about her fear of teenage girls—of her fear of bullies and her crippling self-consciousness ever since. She discussed “growing up queer” in the north of Canada, and her struggles with that. What really stood out for me, with regards to her views on the world, was definitely the fact that, to this day, she still remembers and can recite the names of the five girls who picked on her all throughout high-school. It’s a staunch message that I think everyone in the room understood—especially the bullies. People who are picked on during their high school career remember those who hurt them.
Ivan’s presentation also served to teach us that, no matter how small, bullying hurts. What might be an innocent remark simply thrown out here and there can have a lasting and dire consequence towards the person to whom the remark is directed. Bullying stings, no matter how small.
The most effective section of the presentation, however, was when she talked about that same cousin with the size thirteen feet and how he killed himself in his early twenties. You could have heard a pin drop as the tone of the presentation shifted from a lighthearted story time to a heavy and serious message. I can still remember her face—even though she has told this story time and time again, given this same presentation to schools around the world, and talked about her cousin on a daily basis—she is still deeply saddened by what happened. As her voice broke only slightly and she gulped and kept going, I really had a sense of her sadness, of her longing, and of her loss. I think that was the most effective part of the presentation—her use of the audience’s empathy towards her to make her message of anti-bullying ring all the more clear.
What was equally as heartbreaking was when she said something along the lines of, “And had he just waited a few more days, I think he would have survived,” referring, of course, to the fact that he was offered a job he thought he didn’t get at a rock-climbing business in the Lower Mainland. I think that this part of the presentation served a double purpose—it showed us that bullying can have lasting impacts on those who are bullied, as well as it showed us that even when life seems to be at its worst, there is always something left for which to live.
No matter how disgusting, unfair, or cruel life can be, resilience is key.
This dual-message presentation of suicide and bullying prevention coupled with hilarious stories of Ivan’s misadventures in Nanaimo living with her grandmother all serve the same purpose—to give an engaging presentation with regards to an extremely pressing issue in our world today. If our anti-bullying Taking Action presentation were to be half as good as Ivan’s presentation, we would be an extremely lucky group.
Alright let me start by saying that I was completely starstruck by this presentation. Gandhi’s grandson...in Castlegar...speaking about his grandfather’s lessons and teachings to an intimate collection of perhaps 100-150 people—it was completely rewarding.
Not only was it rewarding, however, but it was nourishing. It was nourishing for the soul, for the psyche. It was simply a presentation that made me feel...human, if I can put it that way. There was something within this presentation that spoke to me rather deeply. It made me feel calm, and I never really understood the concept of non-violence until the end of this presentation.
It began with a salutation to the four elements via song from a local musician who had been greatly influenced by the culture of the Andes mountains in South America, and he played four songs for those in the center as both a tribute to Gandhi and as a welcoming gesture from the First Nations people of the area—I believe that he was born and raised in Ecuador but had Sinixt blood in him, although I could be wrong—and although I wasn’t particularly a fan of the music, I do believe it was appropriate for the occasion. It served to unite the audience, so that when Gandhi took to the stage, everyone was ready and willing to listen to him from start to finish—and listen, we did.
Surprisingly enough, Mr. Gandhi spoke for less than an hour—and the presentation felt both very long in terms of depth of information given, as well as very short because it was such an engaging subject on which to speak. Mr. Gandhi spoke primariliy about his life and how he, personally, was impacted by what his grandfather had taught him, and some of the lessons about which he spoke during the presentation were incredibly interesting.
Mahatma Gandhi didn’t necessarily punish his grandson for committing a bad deed—he wouldn’t ground him nor would he restrict what he could do—but he would strive to teach him a lesson with every transgression he made. All of Mahatma’s punishments took the “non-violent approach”, by which Mahatma himself would take responsibility for the actions of his grandson and punish himself for having failed to raise him correctly. Arun claimed that, because the relationship between him and his grandfather was built on respect and openness, simply the guilt of seeing his grandfather inflict punishment upon himself—usually in the form of fasting—would serve as punishment enough for the action to never happen again.
He recounted one story in which he and Mahatma drove eighteen miles into town so that repairs could be done on the car they were both driving. Mahatma had to attend a political conference and Arun was left with the car to take it into the garage, have it serviced, and come and pick up Mahatma at 5:00pm. Arun, however, went to see a double feature, completely forgetting about the car, and was concequently late for picking Mahatma up. Instead of scolding Arun and punishing him, Mahatma punished himself, for he had caused this irresponsibility on the part or Arun. Consequently, Mahatma punished himself by vowing to walk home, eighteen miles, so as to reflect on his actions. Ruined by guilt and after unsuccessfully convincing Mahatma to accept a ride in the car, Arun followed Mahatma back to his house, for the full eighteen miles, all throughout the night.
And this, he claimed, was the non-violent approach. It is Arun’s view that to make a positive change in the world, the change must start within. As soon as humanity is united in changing themselves so as to not inflict violence upon one another, the true plight of the non-violence movement will be achieved.
In the wise words of Arun’s grandfather...
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.”
Alright everyone...so I lied. As it turns out, my post about Neuchâtel was not my last “experience” post...I’d only done four. Here’s the fifth and final one.
I absolutely love this video—yes, it is only three minutes—but I definitely believe that it encompasses a social justice issue: That is societal conformity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a2ZOqPeS70
I’m sure many of you have seen the video, but if not, you’ll find the link just up above. In any case, it discusses the idea of one spending one’s life really doing something of importance to onself—not necessarily following the most lucrative path. It’s narrated by Alan Watts, who is essentially a philosopher and a sociologist. He is, by all means of the word, very bright.
The grad class had a grad transitions presentation this morning that dealt with much of the same subject matter, and I really do think that the issue of doing what is right for oneself is a very important thing to discuss, because we see so many students trapped in careers that they don’t like, stemming from degrees that they thought they would like, but didn’t change once they realized it wasn’t what they had in mind at the start. And as far as one’s future is concerned, one cannot be afraid to explore, to participate, and to get messy.
What we see evolving in our society today is a generation that does what is expected of them, not necessarily what they, themselves, want to do in life. It’s really tragic when you see people squandering away their lives, living what is in essence a life that society has constructed for them based on how to live comfortably, instead of living happily. This video is extremely motivational—it encourages one to do what one wants, as opposed to what society wants of that person in particular.
Perhaps this social issue strikes a particular chord with me simply because I’m in my graduation year and have been talking with everyone about my plans for next year since September, and it might not resonate the same with the rest of you, but I think it’s an important issue to acknowledge, the idea that the soon-to-be leaders of the world feel obliged to live a life that they haven’t constructed because it is a life that their parents have told them will give them the most freedom further down the road. These people are UNHAPPY; what’s the use of a life that is lived unhappily?
I think that for the most part, what we have discussed in Social Justice over the course of this year has been very outwardly focussed—and rightly so. We are very fortunate to be in the position to be able to change the world with our futures—but what good will being in the position be if we, as a generation, and even as a class, feel unable to act upon this position for fear of not pursuing a future that has been proven to be stable. What good are volunteers if they are too scared to go and volunteer for fear of angering their parents by not going to university? What good are relief workers if they decide that their futures are too uncertain doing relief aid, and decide instead to pursue a career in real estate?
For Social Justice principles to really be applied, there needs to be motivated people to go and apply them. Talk is cheap, and people must be willing to act, to rise up, against injustice wherever it may be!
This is impossible, however, while pursuing the “white-picket-fence, two-children, successful-financial-life” future that society has groomed you to choose.
For the good of the person, and for the good of the world—do what you would do if money were no object. It may just be the best decision you have ever made.
Earlier in the year I watched a documentary for english. It was called Living on a Dollar a Day in Haiti. It was about four men from America who went to Haiti a few months after the earthquake. The men stayed in Haiti for 28 days and were determined to only spend 1 dollar each day. When the first arrived they set up a tarp in between the rubble of two demolished houses. They could have about two bowls of rice and a bit of water. They wanted to get the most out of their experience there, so they also tried doing some of the jobs that the Haitians have to do. It is crazy to think how people allover the world have to live on this amount of money or less everyday. Can you imagine having do that in Canada? You can hardly buy any food for under a dollar, not to mention all of life's other necessities.
Wow! Shane Koyczan was everything that I had come to expect out of a slam poet, and then some. I can’t get over how much of a treat he was to see, how much raw energy was crammed into every inch of his work, and how much passion, pain, and heartache still sticks with him to this day. His poetry, I think, is something at which to marvel, simply because he has the unique gift to be able to tap into the raw sense of what makes up the human emotional spectrum, and steer you towards the emotion he wishes you to feel. His expression—his poetic ups and downs—were particularly engaging, and he succeeded in giving an immensely interesting poetry reading whilst still silently but surely advocating his cause: Bullying Hurts.
I consider myself to be extremely lucky to have seen two fantastic speakers this year who have undertones of “anti-bullying” to their work, as it provides me with both motivation and inspiration to push towards my, our, taking action project, which is to give an anti-bullying seminar to grade 4/5 at MacLean. Our small group of Social Justice students have immensely large shoes to fill, and our work cut out for us.
But back to Shane’s presentation:
I was genuinely astounded at how quickly the time passed—how easy it was for me to lose myself in his lines of twisting verse. We, as an audience, really felt his pain. His stories about his childhood were captivating—but none more so than his poem “To This Day”, of which we watched the animation in class. I’ll admit I was worried that we, as an audience, weren’t going to have the opportunity to listen to him recite this poem. We can hardly blame him—it’s perhaps his most well-known work, and it’s his prerogative to change it up a bit and showcase some of his different works—so the fact that we were given the opportunity to hear his hallmark recited by none other than the poet himself in our tiny auditorium is nothing short of insanity!
His other poems were just as good, however. Even his shortest poem, about an ex-girlfriend who cheated on him, was both hilarious, heartbreaking, and poignant. And that, in my opinion, is a good performance.
I’ll continue by suggesting that there wasn’t a single dry eye in the house. Little sniffles rushed through the crowd as Koyczan recited a poem about following your dreams—a particular chord was struck within those who are preparing to graduate—and my personal favorite poem of his would have to be his poem about his voice.
It was empowering—it called the citizens of the world to use their voices—their voices that they so frequently take for granted—to change the world, to become a better citizen, and to better the lives of those people in need. It was nothing short of miraculous. In a five minute poem, Koyczan empowered a generation to change the world, one voice at a time.
This is my voice—there are many like it—but this one is mine.
Extremely impactful line for this generation to hear.
Koyczan’s writers’ workshop was equally as empowering and interesting, albeit with less of a Social Justice slant. What Koyczan created in that classroom this afternoon was an intimate and inspiring atmosphere in which people who felt like sharing there work were given the opportunity to do so, and those who preferred that their poems stay private weren’t pressured into sharing anything.
We wrote a type of poem that is usually phrased in a letter to someone or something—Shane liked joking that he usually writes letters to food—and he gave us prompts suggesting we include certain things in our letter.
He shared a poem about “Icarus Harper” that he had written on his phone.
He shared with us his passion for poetry—and he shared with us his story.
I think that is where the most powerful advocacy for Social Justice comes is when people share their personal stories. His presentation wouldn’t have needed to have a single tangible element of Social Justice to it—he wouldn’t have needed to say anything about how bullying hurts—because we felt that, for him, bullying hurts. He sort of subtly hinted about how difficult his life was, his night terrors, and from that, the audience garnered a real sense of how broken he must have been during his formative years. I would dare say that the audience didn’t even need to hear his poem “To This Day” to understand his message—but I think that the fact that we heard the poem rendered his message all the more powerful.
It was a fantastic presentation and workshop—I’ll be itching to see him again in “concert”!
To be honest I didn’t really enjoy Shane Koyczan’s performance. I’ve never liked anything to do with poetry, whether it be writing it, reading it or listening to it. So it wasn’t anything against his performance specifically. I did however like his poem about spelling, I thought that was pretty funny. I did get the message behind his poem “To This Day”, I had seen that on youtube, but it was a lot stronger presented live. He related his own experiences of his childhood pain and being bullied. I really liked the workshop he put on. I am not much of a writer, but I do want to improve on it. I thought the letter writing was interesting, I found it much easier to find things to write about with the prompts he gave us at the beginning. Such as thinking of food it reminds you of and what season. That brought on more ideas and I found it easy to write, something I definitely don’t find easy normally.
I enjoyed the presentation by Ivan Coyote a lot. Her stories were hilarious and they had a message subtly put in. Many anti-bullying presentations are boring, I have a hard time paying attention to them running off facts. This presentation used just the right amount of humor and seriousness. Honestly I think almost, if not, everyone enjoyed her performance.
Brogan the fact that she can remember the five girls that picked on her growing up stood out to me too. It shows that what happens in high school will be with you forever, whether it is positive or negative.
You could tell how the mood changed from lighthearted to serious in just a second. She was very close with her cousin and his suicide affected her deeply. When she said if he had just kept fighting for a few days things would have gotten better. No matter what there is something worth fighting for, and there will always be somewhere there to help you through the tough times.
The two messages put into this presentation are that bullying has lasting effects and no matter what there is something or someone worth fighting for.
So, my last "guest-speaker field trip" post will be about...well...our group's presentation with regards to bullying.
This presentation was fantastic! I was extremely content at how well it was received by both the children watching the presentation, and the teachers who were supervising. The presentation was complete, thorough, and we had a great time presenting it. I was pleased by the ease with which we presented the material, and it was refreshing to have such an engaged, well-behaved audience. The kids watching the presentation seemed to have a ton of fun participating—but that was our goal, to keep them engaged by asking them thought-provoking questions.
The most effective part of the presentation, I think, was when our group used statistics to demonstrate just how much bullying happens in Canada.
It is shocking to think that, if bullying does happen once every seven seconds, a student is exposed to just under 28 million incidences of bullying over a thirteen year period—from Kindergarten to Grade Twelve based on a 180 day school year. This statistic seemed to really punch the point of our presentation to the children.
I was also very pleased by the participation of the students when it came to the pledge aspect of the presentation. They were all so keen to stand up and take the pledge, proudly proclaiming that they would not stand by, they would stand up to bullying.
The presentation, however, was logistically something difficult to coordinate. Given that the school in which we were presenting was Macintosh-based and the presentation was designed to be compatible with predominantly Windows software, the presentation was prone to a few hiccups. The multimedia had a few conversion issues, but we were able to overcome the challenge and use most of the videos to our benefit. As a bonus, the children who took part really enjoyed the videos, as they were often either thought-provoking or extremely powerful.
The cyberbullying video was of particular note—once finished watching, the young students were quieter than church mice. You could have heard a pin drop in the room—the video clearly spoke to them.
We also gave the group a small activity in which to participate at the end. Our group came up with bullying scenarios that we then gave to the children—they proposed potential solutions to the situations and we really succeeded in getting those “wheels turning”, I do believe.
The most rewarding part of our presentation was giving out our little prizes, however. The children loved participating in our “fact game pop quizzes”, especially given that we rewarded correct answers with smoothie gift certificates and even had a chance to pass out a few of our tee shirts that people in the group made for art class as prizes for being a leader in the presentation and sharing.
All in all, I feel as if the presentation was more than effective. Despite minute logistical concerns, the hour passed without issue. The kids seemed engaged, the adults seemed impressed, and ultimately, we as a group do feel as if we’ve made a difference.
I quite enjoyed the Chasing Ice movie, I felt it held my attention better than throwing out facts. Obviously I know about global warming and how it is effecting our planet, but seeing the difference through the pictures really had an impact on me. I have always cared about helping the environment, I try and do little things that help make a big difference. I try not to waste water, walk whenever I can and buy products with less packaging when possible. I believe that it is our duty to save the earth because soon the damage will be irreversible and who knows what will happen then. I was very surprised at how much the ice actually melted during the three year period. I did not realize how rapid this problem is happening and how much it is increasing in speed. Many people don't think that ice melting in the Arctic will affect them. In fact it will affect them a lot. An increase of melting ice will mean higher water levels, many houses at sea level will be wiped out within the next few decades. As well it may cause more tsunamis other natural disasters.
This past weekend when I was in Vancouver I volunteered on the Downtown Eastside at a program called Mission Possible. This program works with the members of the community to help. They get members of the Downtown Eastside to volunteer for a few hours a week and in return they receive food and money. The program has three buildings, the office building, an art studio and a food kitchen. While I was there I helped with the soap recycling program they have. They receive soap from 100's of hotels in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan. We did body wash, shampoo and conditioner sanitizing while I was there. To do this they sort the bottles into ones at least half full and sanitize in oxidized water, then we towel dried them and boxed them up to be distributed to local shelters. When they do the bar soap they sanitize them in a solution of oxidized water and something else (I'm not sure what it was) then they air dry for a few days and box them up. I think this program is very important, not only does it provide hygiene products for the shelters, it also provides food and payment for at-risk locals. At their art studio, Eastside community members can go in and create art, either to sell for some extra money or to escape from the life outside. At the kitchen food is provided for community members at meal time, as well they have counselling there. While I was there I also got a tour of the Eastside with a local community member. We walked past the shelter where ex-convicts can stay for the mandatory 3 months of having accommodations after being released. Beside that is the shelter where women with children can stay. There is also the living room where people with mental disabilities can register to stay and be provided with food. I didn't get the chance to go down to the more "sketchy" part of the Eastside, but down there they have the Insite, a supervised injection site. This injection site provides a safe environment for drug users to do drugs. No matter what, people will do drugs, this helps everyone by getting people to stop injecting drugs on the streets and public places, and it helps the drug users by creating an environment that will prevent overdoses and diseases from happening. Many people stereotype the downtown Eastside members as all druggies, being down there I realized this is not true. Although there are many people who take drugs down there, 1/3 of the population, and it is a free drug market. When we walked around people were selling all sorts of drugs around us. Many of the community members are just in poverty and can't afford to live anywhere else in Vancouver because of the high housing prices. I think trying to stop this stereotype is important, because then people will be more willing to help the people down there. I know that I would much rather volunteer to help people struggling with poverty than people doing drugs. Anyway there were many other volunteer buildings and services provided down there, such as a health clines for pregnant women and lots of places providing free coffee and food. I thought going to The Downtown Eastside was a very great experience, it really opened my eyes to the situation down there.
Welcome to the World is a documentary about the differences between being born in America, Sierra Leone and Cambodia. In America there is a life expectancy of 78 years, yet they have a 1 in 3 chance of becoming obese. Although there is a higher life expectancy rate and lower infant mortality rate there is still lots of poverty in America too. In Cambodia you are more likely to malnourished than attend high school, and the life expectancy there is 65 years. In Sierra Leone there is a life expectancy of 49 years and 1 in 8 women die in childbirth.
The documentary shows three families expecting children, one from America one from Sierra Leone and one from Cambodia. The first family they show is the family from America, with a pregnant mother named Starr, a father and their other couple children. The family has struggled with poverty since the economy has become worse, and in the past year they have become homeless. Her family goes to the homeless prenatal program in San Francisco which provides women below the poverty line with essentials for a baby. The family stays at a shelter with 2 bunk beds for the four people in the family. In the USA 1.6 million children are homeless.
Neang is a single pregnant mother in Cambodia who has a 12 year old boy and she adopted a 5 year old girl after the parents abandoned her. Neang wants her children to get the opportunity to go to school, but her son has to scavenge during the day to earn money for the family. After Neang discovered her husband cheated on her with many other women she discovered she had AIDs. She says that she wanted to kill herself, but knew her children needed her to keep fighting. Two months after Neang’s baby was born the baby died of an unknown disease.
In Sierra Leone a young pregnant mother Hawa lives with her four children and husband. She has no running water and finds her food in the bushes. For a living Hawa breaks palm kernels. Hawa would like her children to go overseas so they can work and have a better life, then help support her back in Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone there are only 78 midwives and the government doesn’t want women to give birth in villages so they don’t provide the midwives with supplies.
The video also briefly showed a pregnant 13 year old girl, Marianne from Sierra Leone. The baby survived for only a few minutes. Each year 16 million adolescent girls give birth worldwide.
This movie was very empowering, where and what family you are born into plays a major role in what will happen in your life. Being born in developed countries you still have the chance of being in poverty. The chances of survival in developed countries are higher because of the level of medical provided. Even in America though they don’t have free healthcare, and many families cannot afford health care. In Canada we are very fortunate to have free healthcare, but before watching this movie I never realised how important it is, because so many people in the world can’t even access a healthcare facility without travelling for days. This is very sad because in emergencies after travelling for days it may be too late to be saved, whereas if they were somewhere else that sort of thing could easily have been cured or prevented. I think that improving health care around the world is a major issue, it will lower birth and infant mortality rates, but it can also help with simple sickness. To do this people need to become educated. All of these major things tie in together, once one thing is solved the others will start to fall into place as well.
Solar Mamas is a documentary about a 32 year old woman named rafea living in a tent in Jordan. She has 4 children. Rafea is uneducated and receives the opportunity to attend the Barefoot College, where women from poor communities can train to become solar engineers and provide power or their communities. Since Rafea cannot read, write or understand English it is a challenge. Rafea’s mother is left in charge of the kids, her husband lives with his first wife and family and only visits sometimes. Another woman from Jordan named Umm will be going to the Barefoot college with Rafea. Umm has 9 children, and knows this is the way to provide food for them. Another 25 women from around the world are chosen to attend the Barefoot College for six months as well. The women take classes to try and learn how solar panels work and how to assemble them. All of the women speak different languages, so it is very difficult for the women to communicate, but they try very hard too. After a month of being at the college, Rafea’s husband threatened to divorce her and take her children away if she stayed at the college. She knew that she must return home to protect her children. Rafea made a compromise with her husband if he behaved for ten days she would stay, if he upset her or misbehaved she would return to college. After being home for a month Rafea meets with the representative about returning to to the college. Finally the husband agrees that Rafea can return to Barefoot college as long as she promises to finish her training. A few days later Rafea returns to the college. She sets to work catching up on the work she missed. At the end of the six month course the women had a final exam to make sure they remember everything. Once they return they will make an organization to set up a training program to teach other community members how to make alternative energy. After six months the equipment arrives in the womens villages to provide solar power for their community. Rafea now lives in a house with her daughters run on solar power.
I think this is a great program, it provides women with education, that they can bring back to their home and teach others, as well as use their knowledge to provide sustainable solar power for the community. It provides jobs for people in the community and is beneficial for the environment too.
I cannot watch “To This Day” enough. Even though I practically have it memorized, his delivery never fails to give me shivers, and bring tears to my eyes. I wish I could somehow open my ears a little wider to keep up with his wonderful words. That’s why I was absolutely thrilled to find out Shane Koyczan was doing a workshop at our school. At first, I felt our little classroom set up was a bit awkward. I think most of us were a bit awestruck (especially you Ms. Nelson (; .) Thankfully Koyczan knows how to break the ice in a room full of small town high school students. I liked that he made sure we all spoke at least once when we shared a favorite and least favorite words, but he respected our decision not to share our poems. I found his prompts really interesting, and they definitely spurred some amusing poems (the one on Ketchup was my favorite.) The highlight of his workshop, for me, was when he read his poem “ Icarus Harper.” I still cannot believe that was just a rough draft. I looked online afterwards and found his completed version. For those of you that liked it as much as me, here you go.
Dear Icarus Harper
You will fall as any empire or civilization has fallen before you you like they will fall
like rain over fields of thirsty soil your fall will be celebrated
gravity (usually indifferent) will cheer on your fall and pull you faster into a graceless and unflattering dance
and as you fall as birds dive around you as if in some game they play with other birds who die mid flight
perhaps you will wonder what has happened to the country whose people once
would have caught you.
Hurrah for Shane Koyczan and his word ninja-ism! I’m sure I’m not the only one who read this poem in his voice. If you enjoyed this as much as I do I encourage you to listen to his poem “Wasted Vote”. I will post the youtube link below. I found it to be extremely powerful as well. I have to admit, his political poems are some of my favorites. Warning, there is a little language. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUnFhCcNPoo
I was discussing the concept of using Art to take action in our community... host a fundraiser at the rouge...etc. I know, Maddie, you were interested in possibly collaborating and would find this website interesting. However, I think all of you should check it out anyways for inspiration of what is possible, and on what scale! It is a great project even if you are not interested in taking action this way.... maybe it will inspire something new inside of you!
ReplyDeletehttp://baltimoreartplusjustice.wordpress.com/art-and-impact/
Hey there everyone,
ReplyDeleteYesterday night, I was surfing around a few websites, trying to get a bit of research done for my Inquiry project that centers around obesity and food habits, and I stumbled upon a documentary—Vegucated—that averages about an hour and fifteen minutes long and speaks about the growing popularity of vegan diets. The documentary follows three New Yorkers around for a period of six weeks and watches them as they attempt to live as a vegan for that period of time. It was so interesting to watch how they changed—both their bodies physically, and their mental states—and bear witness to such a healthy curb in a group of people who never in their wildest dreams thought they'd ever "go vegan".
For any of you who don't know what a vegan diet consists of, I'll try to sum it up here. No, part of the vegan died DOESN'T consist of growing your hair out, making yourself some dreadlocks, and singing Joni Mitchell all day—even though she is an amazing artist—but it does consist of cutting meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products from your diet. As a vegan, you basically eat tofu, beans, nuts, vegetables, and fruits to sustain your body. Seems a bit restrictive, but it's actually quite easy. The most difficult part for me, I think, would be cutting out eggs from a modern day diet, because they really are the only thing nowadays that you can't find a true blue "vegan" substitute for. But people have been eating vegan for years now—I'm sure they've found a way.
So, how are vegan trends qualifiable as a social issue? Well besides the fact that it's an amazingly healthy diet to be part of—all of the patients dropped 20 points on their bad cholesterol scale, everyone in the experiment lost a bit of weight, and the two overweight participants saw their unhealthily high blood pressure levels drop to a healthy level by the end of the program—vegans generally do not support the "mass farming" and slaughter techniques of the food industry.
I won't go into the gory details, but after having watched this film, I really am considering taking the plunge. I never thought I could by swayed to stop eating a large chunk of my current diet, but after this film, I'll be hard pressed to put a piece of steak in my mouth. Part of it was being exposed to the cruel methods used in farming, but to be honest, the majority of my desire to go vegan is fueled by a desire to eat a tad healthier than I am at the present.
If anyone wants to watch this film, you can do so on Netflix. If you don't have Netflix, I'm sure you can pick it up in any local video store. Heck, I'd even share my Netflix info with any of you if you were that eager to watch it.
If you do watch this film and any of you feel as strongly as I do about drastically changing the way you eat and how you nourish your body, let's do it together and support one another. Who knows—could be tough—but it could be really fun!
I think I'll go out and buy some soy milk!
Brogan, not going to lie but the idea of becoming a vegan is very intriguing to me. I think it would be really cool if the entire class did a sort of movement where everyone tried to be a vegan for a week or more. We could include more of the school too, and the idea would be to bring awareness to the way animals farmed and slaughtered. Also it could be a good cleanse of the body to get rid of toxins we get when eating at fast food places and stuff. I think it would be an interesting thing to inquire into more.
DeleteHey Brogan and Kenzie,
DeleteThat's so funny that you would mention this film Brogan! I myself actually stumbled on it not too long ago. It was a crazy good. In addition to Vegucated, I really think you guys should watch Hungry For Change. I watched it before I watched Vegucated, and the combination of the two movies had me sworn on a better diet. Hungry For Change was actually mind boggling. The films shows the trap of most processed food on the market, and how to get out of an unhealthy eating cycle. It then compares the physical and mental aspects of unclean and clean eating.
I think the two films tie in well to social justice, because the obesity epidemic in the US, Canada, and the UK is such a prominent social issue. Not to say that those who are not obese are not going to benefit from watching these movies. I myself thought I had a healthy diet until I watched these two movies. The crazy realization I came to after watching these two movies is this: Dietary changes don’t have to mean complication, they should mean simplifying. Simple locally grown fruits and vegetables, simple grains, and spices. Add all these things together and you have a wonderfully diverse, healthy, simple diet. I don’t want to take away the impact of these two films, so I really encourage you to watch these two movies on your own. You will not regret it!
Like Brogan my piece I would like to share is also based on food.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uem2ceZMxYk
I found this video from Mrs Nelson. But I feel it should be shared with everyone. It shows how modern agriculture is ineffective and also destructive. I love this video because this is the way of the future and hopefully people realize it and put for better food in a better way.
I recently read a book called Sold, it was a fiction book, but it depicted what really does happen. It was about a girl who was tricked into working in a brothel in India, when she was 12. Her step-father tricked her into thinking she was going to work as a maid, and instead he sold her to a brothel and she couldn't leave until she had paid 5 000 rupees. It really opened my eyes about slavery. I did an essay for Social Studies on slavery, but reading this book made it feel more real (kind of ironic considering it wasn't a true story) because the story was based on true facts and issues and was presented in a way I felt like I could understand it and relate to it better, as opposed to reading articles and websites about slavery. It is a very easy read, but if anybody wants to borrow the book I have it.
ReplyDeleteThis experience was fantastic. I wish that everyone could have seen him in action. He was so knowledgeable. He seemed to ooze intensity and he was such an engaging speaker. From the moment that he took to the stage, Wade Davis had my attention. He had everyone’s attention. But, let’s be honest here—whose attention wouldn’t he have? A Harvard graduate that has done 150 years of travel by the age of 50? He was so inspiring to the youth of the audience. When he was younger, he threw caution to the wind and, after six months of university education, left for South America to study botany, following in the footsteps of one of his professors.
ReplyDeleteI really can’t put into words how fantastic this presentation was. It could have been in Ancient Greek and it would have been engaging and worthwhile. He was simply such an amazing speaker. It could have been on differential calculus and accounting and the material would have still seemed interesting because of HIS qualities as a presenter. He was such an interesting individual who has done so much with his short life.
And, coming into the presentation, I really didn’t know what to expect. I mean—it was a presentation on botany and the effects of herbs on the human body as medicine. It certainly wasn’t something that I was particularly interested in at the onset of the presentation. But it was entirely by his skills as a presenter that I found this issue to be particularly interesting.
His presentation was not political, nor did it have a purpose except for discussing what his passion in life was—but he was so talented at conveying what exactly his passion was that I felt a passion for the same material growing on me.
However, I question what relevance his presentation had towards a certain social issue. I understand he discussed the cultural degradation that comes from technological development— a large portion of his discussion being devoted to speaking to the benefit of ancient wisdom and botany with regards to its medical properties. I do feel that, in his presentation being so nonchalant, however, that I missed the Social Justice issue portion of it. It was so neutral that I think it lacked drive to remedy a social issue—I know, I’m such a tough critic.
The presentation itself was top-notch. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—this was something to not be missed. Sam and I left the presentation thinking only of ways to convince him to come speak at our graduation—he was that motivational, that empowering, and that knowledgeable with regards not just to his subject, but to life in general.
This man has been around the globe and back again—it was a treat to have his experiences shared with me.
PART 1
ReplyDeleteAlright everyone—
So I was browsing around Netflix a couple evenings ago—like I’ve been known to do—and came across an interesting piece of sociological work. It was a movie entitled “Le jeu de la mort”. Literally: The Game of Death. Ambitious title, I know, but it really was a fantastic work.
Let me start with a bit of a disclaimer: This movie sort of loosely relates to social justice material. It bases itself on a scientific experiment that tests the resilience of human morality under increasingly stressful situations, and it kind of fits in with the TedTalk we watched early on in the year that presented such a compelling case about where evil, in fact, comes from. The entire premise for this experiment was to test how far a human would compromise his or her moral compass for profit.
Let me explain: The experiment was put on in France in 2010. It based itself upon an experiment that was conducted by the CIA in 1962 in which two people took part in the experiment: Person A and Person B. Person A, in the 1962 version of the experiment, was an actor—unbenounced to Person B—and was the participant in a game. Person B was charged with mediating the game. His duties were reading the questions, giving the correct response if Person A, (the actor,) answered “incorrectly”—the incorrect responses had been planned in advance—and delivering the “punishment” should the wrong answer be given. The punishment, in case you were wondering, was an electric shock whose voltage would increase the farther the person would progress in the game. The punishments would range from 20 volts, all the way to 480 volts. Person A wasn’t actually being punished, of course, he was just faking, but it was there that the experiment lied. The scientists who watched the “game” wanted to see if the person who was mediating the game—Person B—would go all the way to the end, inflicting 480 volts of pure pain unto Person A, the actor. Whenever the person charged with inflicting the punishment would resist giving the shock because he felt guilty with regards to his actions, the “doctor”, a third party in the original game, would simply state: “Don’t let his screams bother you, we assume all responsibility for what he incurs.” One would think, however, that the person delivering the electric shocks would have an overwhelming sense of guilt, knowing that they’re hurting someone else against their will, BUT because of the higher power, being the doctor, they weren’t at all affected by what was happening to the person in the electric shock booth.
An overwhelming 62% went all the way to the end, sending the full 480 volt shock to the actor, knowing full well, or rather, believing full well that they were doing legitimate harm to him. This was back in 1962.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteThe French, however, performed the experience again. This time, two factors changed. The first factor was money. The contestants were told that if the actor in the booth went all the way to “recieving” the full 480 volts, he would win 900,000.00 Euros and the person inflicting the shocks would win 100,000.00 Euros. The second factor was the fact that the experience was televised under the guise of a game show. It, of course, never hit the airwaves.
However, with the addition of two new factors, the money acting as a motivator for the poor person inflicting fake punishment, and the studio audience acting as a pressure to keep going, get this straight: An overwhelming 91% of all contestants went to the end. Even after the first third of the game when the actor started to scream. Even into the second third of the game when the actor started to cry and beg. Even into the final third when the actor STOPPED responding altogether and pretended to be unconscious, the contestants still continued. Still continued to torture. Still continued to inflict pain. Still chose to hurt a human being simply because a higher power told him or her to continue. Because he or she wouldn’t be held personally responsible.
This is a wake-up call to the human race if I’ve ever heard one. The fact that we as a society and as a moral being are content to simply continue hurting someone because it’s qualified somewhere is unacceptable. If anything, this film has taught me to keep my moral compass in check, even when someone or something urges you to continue. I encourage you to watch it. The results are shocking.
Alright everyone, I watched a film called “Waiting for ‘Superman.’”
ReplyDeleteAm I allowed to say I wasn’t a fan of this one? I’m an absolute sucker for a good documentary. This film didn’t do it for me. The entire premise behind the film was to discuss the failing American public school system. I’d seen trailers for the film, it looked very interesting, as well as eye opening, but I found that the film fell short of its purpose.
I thought it was, to be perfectly honest, quite disorganized. As I watched the film, I found that the issue that they were trying to make clear—that is that public schools are failing their students—wasn’t accurately presented. The cause wasn’t compelling because the entire time I watched the film, I found that I had to pause it and collect my thoughts on the issue before continuing. Maybe this style lended itself to the subject matter: It’s not a simple thing, the plight of the system in the United States. But the documentary didn’t enhance my understanding of the subject matter at all. It simply served to confuse me.
The film bounced back and forth between human interest stories of students whose lives were being made difficult by their schooling and interviews with superintendents of districts whose schools had been proclaimed as “drop-out factories”, but the information wasn’t presented in a logical fashion. In my opinion, it wasn’t even chronological. The film bounced from one idea to another quickly, and wasn’t—how to put this—watcher friendly.
The information presented, or at least the information I cought, was interesting, however, and it really ties well into the ideas that we were discussing in class today about poverty and education. If the movie served one purpose, it was to educate me in the dangers and spirals of poverty mixed with a lack of education. In certain failing school districts, students aren’t motivated to continue with their studies, and because of automatic tenure granted to teachers, the teachers are no more motivated than their students. On the other end of the stick you see teachers that do a fantastic job teaching their students but whose contracts prevent them from being rewarded financially for their hard work.
All in all, the film was confusing, and kind of disappointing. It taught me a bit about the American public schooling system, but nothing like I was expecting. It did, however, succeed in linking education to poverty, albeit very briefly and in very little detail.
If I had to caution you away from this film, I would. Once again, however, these are simply personal opinions.
Alright everyone—this is me blogging about my last "experience".
ReplyDeleteNext year, I'm very excited to be off to a school in Switzerland called Neuchâtel Junior College in which a very significant part of being enrolled in the school is taking action against social injustice.
The school has been partnered with Me to We and Free The Children ever since Marc Kielburger, co-founder of Free The Children, graduated from the same school, and every year in December they offer a trip to Kenya on a humanitarian aid mission for the students there. It's over Christmas—so I'm not sure if I'll be able to go, but I'm definitely trying.
Every year, the students have been known to construct a school for a small village in rural Kenya—but the trip goes much farther than simple physical labor. The international exposure and eye-opening experiences lived by the students are unlike any other in the world.
Last year, the students saw much local African wildlife, including cheetahs and buffalos, elephants and hippos, treking through mud and rain to finally reach their work site and get their hands dirty. Guided by locals, it was an experience of a lifetime for all those involved—I hope to be one of those participants next year.
There is also an opportunity to go on a "Habitat for Humanity" excursion during spring break in which I would really like to participate. Usually, the students go to Romania, but have been to China and Nepal in the past.
If you want to take a look at the international service component of this school, feel free to give this page a look-see.
http://www.njc.ch/njc-advantage/international-service
In any case, I can't wait to go!
I was completely blown away by the presentation that Ivan Coyote gave—it was such an interesting mixture of both intimate stories from her past, as well as a poignant message speaking out against discrimination, voilence, and bullying of any kind.
ReplyDeleteI was pleasantly surprised at the tone of the presentation. I walked into the auditorium completely expecting to have to listen to a presentation about someone’s career—how they got there, what they’re doing now, how it is, in fact, possible to make it in this world as a writer—and if the presentation were indeed like that, I feel as if it would cause the students to lose interest quite fast. I think we’ve all heard that type of presentation before—but this presentation was far from that. It was engaging right from the get-go, when Ivan got us laughing with her hilariously true insights about growing up with her frugal Irish Catholic grandmother, her roller skates, and her cousin with the size thirteen feet. It was completely beyond hilarious. I had a fantastically cheeky grin plastered upon my face from beginning to end—and in my opinion, one would be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t like the presentation.
But just as poignant were Ivan’s ups were Ivan’s downs—as she talked about her fear of teenage girls—of her fear of bullies and her crippling self-consciousness ever since. She discussed “growing up queer” in the north of Canada, and her struggles with that. What really stood out for me, with regards to her views on the world, was definitely the fact that, to this day, she still remembers and can recite the names of the five girls who picked on her all throughout high-school. It’s a staunch message that I think everyone in the room understood—especially the bullies. People who are picked on during their high school career remember those who hurt them.
Ivan’s presentation also served to teach us that, no matter how small, bullying hurts. What might be an innocent remark simply thrown out here and there can have a lasting and dire consequence towards the person to whom the remark is directed. Bullying stings, no matter how small.
The most effective section of the presentation, however, was when she talked about that same cousin with the size thirteen feet and how he killed himself in his early twenties. You could have heard a pin drop as the tone of the presentation shifted from a lighthearted story time to a heavy and serious message. I can still remember her face—even though she has told this story time and time again, given this same presentation to schools around the world, and talked about her cousin on a daily basis—she is still deeply saddened by what happened. As her voice broke only slightly and she gulped and kept going, I really had a sense of her sadness, of her longing, and of her loss. I think that was the most effective part of the presentation—her use of the audience’s empathy towards her to make her message of anti-bullying ring all the more clear.
What was equally as heartbreaking was when she said something along the lines of, “And had he just waited a few more days, I think he would have survived,” referring, of course, to the fact that he was offered a job he thought he didn’t get at a rock-climbing business in the Lower Mainland. I think that this part of the presentation served a double purpose—it showed us that bullying can have lasting impacts on those who are bullied, as well as it showed us that even when life seems to be at its worst, there is always something left for which to live.
No matter how disgusting, unfair, or cruel life can be, resilience is key.
This dual-message presentation of suicide and bullying prevention coupled with hilarious stories of Ivan’s misadventures in Nanaimo living with her grandmother all serve the same purpose—to give an engaging presentation with regards to an extremely pressing issue in our world today. If our anti-bullying Taking Action presentation were to be half as good as Ivan’s presentation, we would be an extremely lucky group.
Alright let me start by saying that I was completely starstruck by this presentation. Gandhi’s grandson...in Castlegar...speaking about his grandfather’s lessons and teachings to an intimate collection of perhaps 100-150 people—it was completely rewarding.
ReplyDeleteNot only was it rewarding, however, but it was nourishing. It was nourishing for the soul, for the psyche. It was simply a presentation that made me feel...human, if I can put it that way. There was something within this presentation that spoke to me rather deeply. It made me feel calm, and I never really understood the concept of non-violence until the end of this presentation.
It began with a salutation to the four elements via song from a local musician who had been greatly influenced by the culture of the Andes mountains in South America, and he played four songs for those in the center as both a tribute to Gandhi and as a welcoming gesture from the First Nations people of the area—I believe that he was born and raised in Ecuador but had Sinixt blood in him, although I could be wrong—and although I wasn’t particularly a fan of the music, I do believe it was appropriate for the occasion. It served to unite the audience, so that when Gandhi took to the stage, everyone was ready and willing to listen to him from start to finish—and listen, we did.
Surprisingly enough, Mr. Gandhi spoke for less than an hour—and the presentation felt both very long in terms of depth of information given, as well as very short because it was such an engaging subject on which to speak. Mr. Gandhi spoke primariliy about his life and how he, personally, was impacted by what his grandfather had taught him, and some of the lessons about which he spoke during the presentation were incredibly interesting.
Mahatma Gandhi didn’t necessarily punish his grandson for committing a bad deed—he wouldn’t ground him nor would he restrict what he could do—but he would strive to teach him a lesson with every transgression he made. All of Mahatma’s punishments took the “non-violent approach”, by which Mahatma himself would take responsibility for the actions of his grandson and punish himself for having failed to raise him correctly. Arun claimed that, because the relationship between him and his grandfather was built on respect and openness, simply the guilt of seeing his grandfather inflict punishment upon himself—usually in the form of fasting—would serve as punishment enough for the action to never happen again.
He recounted one story in which he and Mahatma drove eighteen miles into town so that repairs could be done on the car they were both driving. Mahatma had to attend a political conference and Arun was left with the car to take it into the garage, have it serviced, and come and pick up Mahatma at 5:00pm. Arun, however, went to see a double feature, completely forgetting about the car, and was concequently late for picking Mahatma up. Instead of scolding Arun and punishing him, Mahatma punished himself, for he had caused this irresponsibility on the part or Arun. Consequently, Mahatma punished himself by vowing to walk home, eighteen miles, so as to reflect on his actions. Ruined by guilt and after unsuccessfully convincing Mahatma to accept a ride in the car, Arun followed Mahatma back to his house, for the full eighteen miles, all throughout the night.
And this, he claimed, was the non-violent approach. It is Arun’s view that to make a positive change in the world, the change must start within. As soon as humanity is united in changing themselves so as to not inflict violence upon one another, the true plight of the non-violence movement will be achieved.
In the wise words of Arun’s grandfather...
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.”
Alright everyone...so I lied. As it turns out, my post about Neuchâtel was not my last “experience” post...I’d only done four. Here’s the fifth and final one.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this video—yes, it is only three minutes—but I definitely believe that it encompasses a social justice issue: That is societal conformity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a2ZOqPeS70
I’m sure many of you have seen the video, but if not, you’ll find the link just up above. In any case, it discusses the idea of one spending one’s life really doing something of importance to onself—not necessarily following the most lucrative path. It’s narrated by Alan Watts, who is essentially a philosopher and a sociologist. He is, by all means of the word, very bright.
The grad class had a grad transitions presentation this morning that dealt with much of the same subject matter, and I really do think that the issue of doing what is right for oneself is a very important thing to discuss, because we see so many students trapped in careers that they don’t like, stemming from degrees that they thought they would like, but didn’t change once they realized it wasn’t what they had in mind at the start. And as far as one’s future is concerned, one cannot be afraid to explore, to participate, and to get messy.
What we see evolving in our society today is a generation that does what is expected of them, not necessarily what they, themselves, want to do in life. It’s really tragic when you see people squandering away their lives, living what is in essence a life that society has constructed for them based on how to live comfortably, instead of living happily. This video is extremely motivational—it encourages one to do what one wants, as opposed to what society wants of that person in particular.
Perhaps this social issue strikes a particular chord with me simply because I’m in my graduation year and have been talking with everyone about my plans for next year since September, and it might not resonate the same with the rest of you, but I think it’s an important issue to acknowledge, the idea that the soon-to-be leaders of the world feel obliged to live a life that they haven’t constructed because it is a life that their parents have told them will give them the most freedom further down the road. These people are UNHAPPY; what’s the use of a life that is lived unhappily?
I think that for the most part, what we have discussed in Social Justice over the course of this year has been very outwardly focussed—and rightly so. We are very fortunate to be in the position to be able to change the world with our futures—but what good will being in the position be if we, as a generation, and even as a class, feel unable to act upon this position for fear of not pursuing a future that has been proven to be stable. What good are volunteers if they are too scared to go and volunteer for fear of angering their parents by not going to university? What good are relief workers if they decide that their futures are too uncertain doing relief aid, and decide instead to pursue a career in real estate?
For Social Justice principles to really be applied, there needs to be motivated people to go and apply them. Talk is cheap, and people must be willing to act, to rise up, against injustice wherever it may be!
This is impossible, however, while pursuing the “white-picket-fence, two-children, successful-financial-life” future that society has groomed you to choose.
For the good of the person, and for the good of the world—do what you would do if money were no object. It may just be the best decision you have ever made.
Earlier in the year I watched a documentary for english. It was called Living on a Dollar a Day in Haiti. It was about four men from America who went to Haiti a few months after the earthquake. The men stayed in Haiti for 28 days and were determined to only spend 1 dollar each day. When the first arrived they set up a tarp in between the rubble of two demolished houses. They could have about two bowls of rice and a bit of water. They wanted to get the most out of their experience there, so they also tried doing some of the jobs that the Haitians have to do. It is crazy to think how people allover the world have to live on this amount of money or less everyday. Can you imagine having do that in Canada? You can hardly buy any food for under a dollar, not to mention all of life's other necessities.
ReplyDeletePART 1:
ReplyDeleteWow! Shane Koyczan was everything that I had come to expect out of a slam poet, and then some. I can’t get over how much of a treat he was to see, how much raw energy was crammed into every inch of his work, and how much passion, pain, and heartache still sticks with him to this day. His poetry, I think, is something at which to marvel, simply because he has the unique gift to be able to tap into the raw sense of what makes up the human emotional spectrum, and steer you towards the emotion he wishes you to feel. His expression—his poetic ups and downs—were particularly engaging, and he succeeded in giving an immensely interesting poetry reading whilst still silently but surely advocating his cause: Bullying Hurts.
I consider myself to be extremely lucky to have seen two fantastic speakers this year who have undertones of “anti-bullying” to their work, as it provides me with both motivation and inspiration to push towards my, our, taking action project, which is to give an anti-bullying seminar to grade 4/5 at MacLean. Our small group of Social Justice students have immensely large shoes to fill, and our work cut out for us.
But back to Shane’s presentation:
I was genuinely astounded at how quickly the time passed—how easy it was for me to lose myself in his lines of twisting verse. We, as an audience, really felt his pain. His stories about his childhood were captivating—but none more so than his poem “To This Day”, of which we watched the animation in class. I’ll admit I was worried that we, as an audience, weren’t going to have the opportunity to listen to him recite this poem. We can hardly blame him—it’s perhaps his most well-known work, and it’s his prerogative to change it up a bit and showcase some of his different works—so the fact that we were given the opportunity to hear his hallmark recited by none other than the poet himself in our tiny auditorium is nothing short of insanity!
His other poems were just as good, however. Even his shortest poem, about an ex-girlfriend who cheated on him, was both hilarious, heartbreaking, and poignant. And that, in my opinion, is a good performance.
I’ll continue by suggesting that there wasn’t a single dry eye in the house. Little sniffles rushed through the crowd as Koyczan recited a poem about following your dreams—a particular chord was struck within those who are preparing to graduate—and my personal favorite poem of his would have to be his poem about his voice.
It was empowering—it called the citizens of the world to use their voices—their voices that they so frequently take for granted—to change the world, to become a better citizen, and to better the lives of those people in need. It was nothing short of miraculous. In a five minute poem, Koyczan empowered a generation to change the world, one voice at a time.
This is my voice—there are many like it—but this one is mine.
Extremely impactful line for this generation to hear.
PART 2:
ReplyDeleteKoyczan’s writers’ workshop was equally as empowering and interesting, albeit with less of a Social Justice slant. What Koyczan created in that classroom this afternoon was an intimate and inspiring atmosphere in which people who felt like sharing there work were given the opportunity to do so, and those who preferred that their poems stay private weren’t pressured into sharing anything.
We wrote a type of poem that is usually phrased in a letter to someone or something—Shane liked joking that he usually writes letters to food—and he gave us prompts suggesting we include certain things in our letter.
He shared a poem about “Icarus Harper” that he had written on his phone.
He shared with us his passion for poetry—and he shared with us his story.
I think that is where the most powerful advocacy for Social Justice comes is when people share their personal stories. His presentation wouldn’t have needed to have a single tangible element of Social Justice to it—he wouldn’t have needed to say anything about how bullying hurts—because we felt that, for him, bullying hurts. He sort of subtly hinted about how difficult his life was, his night terrors, and from that, the audience garnered a real sense of how broken he must have been during his formative years. I would dare say that the audience didn’t even need to hear his poem “To This Day” to understand his message—but I think that the fact that we heard the poem rendered his message all the more powerful.
It was a fantastic presentation and workshop—I’ll be itching to see him again in “concert”!
Shane Koyczan-
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I didn’t really enjoy Shane Koyczan’s performance. I’ve never liked anything to do with poetry, whether it be writing it, reading it or listening to it. So it wasn’t anything against his performance specifically. I did however like his poem about spelling, I thought that was pretty funny. I did get the message behind his poem “To This Day”, I had seen that on youtube, but it was a lot stronger presented live. He related his own experiences of his childhood pain and being bullied. I really liked the workshop he put on. I am not much of a writer, but I do want to improve on it. I thought the letter writing was interesting, I found it much easier to find things to write about with the prompts he gave us at the beginning. Such as thinking of food it reminds you of and what season. That brought on more ideas and I found it easy to write, something I definitely don’t find easy normally.
Ivan Coyote-
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the presentation by Ivan Coyote a lot. Her stories were hilarious and they had a message subtly put in. Many anti-bullying presentations are boring, I have a hard time paying attention to them running off facts. This presentation used just the right amount of humor and seriousness. Honestly I think almost, if not, everyone enjoyed her performance.
Brogan the fact that she can remember the five girls that picked on her growing up stood out to me too. It shows that what happens in high school will be with you forever, whether it is positive or negative.
You could tell how the mood changed from lighthearted to serious in just a second. She was very close with her cousin and his suicide affected her deeply. When she said if he had just kept fighting for a few days things would have gotten better. No matter what there is something worth fighting for, and there will always be somewhere there to help you through the tough times.
The two messages put into this presentation are that bullying has lasting effects and no matter what there is something or someone worth fighting for.
Hey there everyone.
ReplyDeleteSo, my last "guest-speaker field trip" post will be about...well...our group's presentation with regards to bullying.
This presentation was fantastic! I was extremely content at how well it was received by both the children watching the presentation, and the teachers who were supervising. The presentation was complete, thorough, and we had a great time presenting it. I was pleased by the ease with which we presented the material, and it was refreshing to have such an engaged, well-behaved audience. The kids watching the presentation seemed to have a ton of fun participating—but that was our goal, to keep them engaged by asking them thought-provoking questions.
The most effective part of the presentation, I think, was when our group used statistics to demonstrate just how much bullying happens in Canada.
It is shocking to think that, if bullying does happen once every seven seconds, a student is exposed to just under 28 million incidences of bullying over a thirteen year period—from Kindergarten to Grade Twelve based on a 180 day school year. This statistic seemed to really punch the point of our presentation to the children.
I was also very pleased by the participation of the students when it came to the pledge aspect of the presentation. They were all so keen to stand up and take the pledge, proudly proclaiming that they would not stand by, they would stand up to bullying.
The presentation, however, was logistically something difficult to coordinate. Given that the school in which we were presenting was Macintosh-based and the presentation was designed to be compatible with predominantly Windows software, the presentation was prone to a few hiccups. The multimedia had a few conversion issues, but we were able to overcome the challenge and use most of the videos to our benefit. As a bonus, the children who took part really enjoyed the videos, as they were often either thought-provoking or extremely powerful.
The cyberbullying video was of particular note—once finished watching, the young students were quieter than church mice. You could have heard a pin drop in the room—the video clearly spoke to them.
We also gave the group a small activity in which to participate at the end. Our group came up with bullying scenarios that we then gave to the children—they proposed potential solutions to the situations and we really succeeded in getting those “wheels turning”, I do believe.
The most rewarding part of our presentation was giving out our little prizes, however. The children loved participating in our “fact game pop quizzes”, especially given that we rewarded correct answers with smoothie gift certificates and even had a chance to pass out a few of our tee shirts that people in the group made for art class as prizes for being a leader in the presentation and sharing.
All in all, I feel as if the presentation was more than effective. Despite minute logistical concerns, the hour passed without issue. The kids seemed engaged, the adults seemed impressed, and ultimately, we as a group do feel as if we’ve made a difference.
I quite enjoyed the Chasing Ice movie, I felt it held my attention better than throwing out facts. Obviously I know about global warming and how it is effecting our planet, but seeing the difference through the pictures really had an impact on me. I have always cared about helping the environment, I try and do little things that help make a big difference. I try not to waste water, walk whenever I can and buy products with less packaging when possible. I believe that it is our duty to save the earth because soon the damage will be irreversible and who knows what will happen then. I was very surprised at how much the ice actually melted during the three year period. I did not realize how rapid this problem is happening and how much it is increasing in speed. Many people don't think that ice melting in the Arctic will affect them. In fact it will affect them a lot. An increase of melting ice will mean higher water levels, many houses at sea level will be wiped out within the next few decades. As well it may cause more tsunamis other natural disasters.
ReplyDeleteThis past weekend when I was in Vancouver I volunteered on the Downtown Eastside at a program called Mission Possible. This program works with the members of the community to help. They get members of the Downtown Eastside to volunteer for a few hours a week and in return they receive food and money. The program has three buildings, the office building, an art studio and a food kitchen. While I was there I helped with the soap recycling program they have. They receive soap from 100's of hotels in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan. We did body wash, shampoo and conditioner sanitizing while I was there. To do this they sort the bottles into ones at least half full and sanitize in oxidized water, then we towel dried them and boxed them up to be distributed to local shelters. When they do the bar soap they sanitize them in a solution of oxidized water and something else (I'm not sure what it was) then they air dry for a few days and box them up. I think this program is very important, not only does it provide hygiene products for the shelters, it also provides food and payment for at-risk locals. At their art studio, Eastside community members can go in and create art, either to sell for some extra money or to escape from the life outside. At the kitchen food is provided for community members at meal time, as well they have counselling there. While I was there I also got a tour of the Eastside with a local community member. We walked past the shelter where ex-convicts can stay for the mandatory 3 months of having accommodations after being released. Beside that is the shelter where women with children can stay. There is also the living room where people with mental disabilities can register to stay and be provided with food. I didn't get the chance to go down to the more "sketchy" part of the Eastside, but down there they have the Insite, a supervised injection site. This injection site provides a safe environment for drug users to do drugs. No matter what, people will do drugs, this helps everyone by getting people to stop injecting drugs on the streets and public places, and it helps the drug users by creating an environment that will prevent overdoses and diseases from happening. Many people stereotype the downtown Eastside members as all druggies, being down there I realized this is not true. Although there are many people who take drugs down there, 1/3 of the population, and it is a free drug market. When we walked around people were selling all sorts of drugs around us. Many of the community members are just in poverty and can't afford to live anywhere else in Vancouver because of the high housing prices. I think trying to stop this stereotype is important, because then people will be more willing to help the people down there. I know that I would much rather volunteer to help people struggling with poverty than people doing drugs. Anyway there were many other volunteer buildings and services provided down there, such as a health clines for pregnant women and lots of places providing free coffee and food. I thought going to The Downtown Eastside was a very great experience, it really opened my eyes to the situation down there.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the world
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the World is a documentary about the differences between being born in America, Sierra Leone and Cambodia. In America there is a life expectancy of 78 years, yet they have a 1 in 3 chance of becoming obese. Although there is a higher life expectancy rate and lower infant mortality rate there is still lots of poverty in America too. In Cambodia you are more likely to malnourished than attend high school, and the life expectancy there is 65 years. In Sierra Leone there is a life expectancy of 49 years and 1 in 8 women die in childbirth.
The documentary shows three families expecting children, one from America one from Sierra Leone and one from Cambodia.
The first family they show is the family from America, with a pregnant mother named Starr, a father and their other couple children. The family has struggled with poverty since the economy has become worse, and in the past year they have become homeless. Her family goes to the homeless prenatal program in San Francisco which provides women below the poverty line with essentials for a baby. The family stays at a shelter with 2 bunk beds for the four people in the family. In the USA 1.6 million children are homeless.
Neang is a single pregnant mother in Cambodia who has a 12 year old boy and she adopted a 5 year old girl after the parents abandoned her. Neang wants her children to get the opportunity to go to school, but her son has to scavenge during the day to earn money for the family. After Neang discovered her husband cheated on her with many other women she discovered she had AIDs. She says that she wanted to kill herself, but knew her children needed her to keep fighting. Two months after Neang’s baby was born the baby died of an unknown disease.
In Sierra Leone a young pregnant mother Hawa lives with her four children and husband. She has no running water and finds her food in the bushes. For a living Hawa breaks palm kernels. Hawa would like her children to go overseas so they can work and have a better life, then help support her back in Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone there are only 78 midwives and the government doesn’t want women to give birth in villages so they don’t provide the midwives with supplies.
The video also briefly showed a pregnant 13 year old girl, Marianne from Sierra Leone. The baby survived for only a few minutes. Each year 16 million adolescent girls give birth worldwide.
This movie was very empowering, where and what family you are born into plays a major role in what will happen in your life. Being born in developed countries you still have the chance of being in poverty. The chances of survival in developed countries are higher because of the level of medical provided. Even in America though they don’t have free healthcare, and many families cannot afford health care. In Canada we are very fortunate to have free healthcare, but before watching this movie I never realised how important it is, because so many people in the world can’t even access a healthcare facility without travelling for days. This is very sad because in emergencies after travelling for days it may be too late to be saved, whereas if they were somewhere else that sort of thing could easily have been cured or prevented. I think that improving health care around the world is a major issue, it will lower birth and infant mortality rates, but it can also help with simple sickness. To do this people need to become educated. All of these major things tie in together, once one thing is solved the others will start to fall into place as well.
Solar Mamas
ReplyDeleteSolar Mamas is a documentary about a 32 year old woman named rafea living in a tent in Jordan. She has 4 children. Rafea is uneducated and receives the opportunity to attend the Barefoot College, where women from poor communities can train to become solar engineers and provide power or their communities. Since Rafea cannot read, write or understand English it is a challenge. Rafea’s mother is left in charge of the kids, her husband lives with his first wife and family and only visits sometimes. Another woman from Jordan named Umm will be going to the Barefoot college with Rafea. Umm has 9 children, and knows this is the way to provide food for them. Another 25 women from around the world are chosen to attend the Barefoot College for six months as well. The women take classes to try and learn how solar panels work and how to assemble them. All of the women speak different languages, so it is very difficult for the women to communicate, but they try very hard too. After a month of being at the college, Rafea’s husband threatened to divorce her and take her children away if she stayed at the college. She knew that she must return home to protect her children. Rafea made a compromise with her husband if he behaved for ten days she would stay, if he upset her or misbehaved she would return to college. After being home for a month Rafea meets with the representative about returning to to the college. Finally the husband agrees that Rafea can return to Barefoot college as long as she promises to finish her training. A few days later Rafea returns to the college. She sets to work catching up on the work she missed. At the end of the six month course the women had a final exam to make sure they remember everything. Once they return they will make an organization to set up a training program to teach other community members how to make alternative energy. After six months the equipment arrives in the womens villages to provide solar power for their community. Rafea now lives in a house with her daughters run on solar power.
I think this is a great program, it provides women with education, that they can bring back to their home and teach others, as well as use their knowledge to provide sustainable solar power for the community. It provides jobs for people in the community and is beneficial for the environment too.
Shane Koyczan
ReplyDeleteI cannot watch “To This Day” enough. Even though I practically have it memorized, his delivery never fails to give me shivers, and bring tears to my eyes. I wish I could somehow open my ears a little wider to keep up with his wonderful words. That’s why I was absolutely thrilled to find out Shane Koyczan was doing a workshop at our school. At first, I felt our little classroom set up was a bit awkward. I think most of us were a bit awestruck (especially you Ms. Nelson (; .) Thankfully Koyczan knows how to break the ice in a room full of small town high school students. I liked that he made sure we all spoke at least once when we shared a favorite and least favorite words, but he respected our decision not to share our poems. I found his prompts really interesting, and they definitely spurred some amusing poems (the one on Ketchup was my favorite.) The highlight of his workshop, for me, was when he read his poem “ Icarus Harper.” I still cannot believe that was just a rough draft. I looked online afterwards and found his completed version. For those of you that liked it as much as me, here you go.
Dear Icarus Harper
You will fall
as any empire or civilization
has fallen before you
you
like they
will fall
like rain
over fields of thirsty soil
your fall will be celebrated
gravity
(usually indifferent)
will cheer on your fall
and pull you faster
into a graceless
and unflattering dance
and as you fall
as birds dive around you
as if in some game they play
with other birds
who die mid flight
perhaps you will wonder
what has happened
to the country
whose people
once
would have caught you.
Hurrah for Shane Koyczan and his word ninja-ism! I’m sure I’m not the only one who read this poem in his voice. If you enjoyed this as much as I do I encourage you to listen to his poem “Wasted Vote”. I will post the youtube link below. I found it to be extremely powerful as well. I have to admit, his political poems are some of my favorites. Warning, there is a little language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUnFhCcNPoo