Melissa Crews Freeman

I wanted to talk about this in class today but I never got a chance.  When Mrs. Dr. Williams asked about the points on the slide that were titled Religion and school, I wanted to comment on the Wiccan and Earth Centered Neopagan religions.  I believe if I was working with high school students I would tell students about paganism, but not in the sense that one would think is bad.  I don’t think it is common knowledge but most Christian religions are based in Pagan mysticism and have evolved into Christianity.  So when Christian holidays come around, I plan to teach where the root of the holiday comes from.  For little children I don’t know how much they could understand the root of paganism but if I were teaching high school I would definitely give the students historical facts of what holidays are based in.  For example, Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made.  It was Ishtar’s Sunday and was celebrated with rabbits and eggIshtar also proclaimed that because Tammuz was killed by a pig, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday. (Ham)There are many many examples of things just like this where Christianity and Paganism are rooted together in symbolism.  Like I said I don’t know if I would teach this to Elementary school students, solely based on the concepts and time periods that need to be understood.  I would not be opposed to mentioning, for example, that the egg and easter bunny represented in Easter came from and ancient religion called Paganism, and some people still celebrate that religion today.   

Today’s lesson on judging another culture was very valuable to me.  It was a fun experiment to see how in just an hour we all became very committed to our culture.  Although we knew it was an experiment we all became so childlike.  We were playing and having fun but also becoming very critical of the Beta culture.  I realized later when we were telling our experiences of the culture, we said that the Beta’s were primitive.  However, after realizing the truth behind the culture they were more advanced then our culture.  They had a very distinct language and it had symbols connected with counting.  I liked being shown how we as humans can become so attached to defending something we are not even that passionate about.  I was in a patriarical society where all we did was talk about our fathers or grandfathers, but in the skit I was defending my culture.  I found myself saying things like  (jokingly)”well at least we laugh all the time and we hug and talk!”  I was defending a culture I had only been a part of for about 50 minutes.  How can school systems even imply that people from other cultures should abandon their sets of rules they have had for centuries?  And why do we even want to be so uniformed in our one culture of American?  That sounds very boring to me.  Yet as the experiment proved to me today, there is something innately human about wanting to be a part of something and we will attach to our cultures and cling to them as hard as we can.  

Today was an inspiring day.  When I was at the museum looking at all of the information about real people who had laid down there lives to make the country a better place, I got very emotional.  Thinking of the oppression that still exist in the world, it made me sad that it takes such extremes to get people united.  Why does the situation have to be so bad, before we come together for change?  It made me sad to think how complacent we have become as humans.  The world has changed for the better and the civil rights movement was an amazing process but we are not even close to equal or being done!  It seems to me that the movement was just the start.  How bad does it have to become before we organize and demand change.  Fair labor prices, equal education, bridge the gap of classism, accept all people for who they are as humans and so forth.  Will we have to become visibly enslaved once more before the working class takes the power into their own hands? I know this seems far out, but it was very real to me standing in the King center and looking at what people had been fighting for.  The working poor in this country is a very real problem and teachers are the working poor!  

I just finished reading the article on “Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us”. I have actually been introduced to this concept before this article but it never fails to make me ponder, what are we being exposed to unconsciously?  My question is always the same, did cartoons and movies get written to portray these views or are they the experience of the writer and he/she writes the roles unconsciously?  I have to look at this question and consider all the many facets of the answer.  I wonder if there was a great story that displayed equalities in gender and race, if it would make it on the airways or to the public.  I know first hand that, organic food companies have tried to get commercials on TV for even 30 seconds, speaking about the harm in eating fast food and that is stomped out instantly by the television networks.  So it is hard for me to understand if this is another way the government, or corporations are trying to “secretly educate” us, or if theses are just the views of the story tellers themselves?  It most often seems to me that this is societies way of setting the norm.  Or should I say the top 10% of the wealth, because they are the ones who control the television, radio and most media that get’s out into mainstream.  I like the way Christensen said it on page 8 of the article, ‘We are taught more than anything else, how not to rebel”. 

This day has been very heavy so I am going to keep this blog light. I am sure anyone reading this blog has sensed a reoccurring theme that I am a big advocate of how the media effects our world.  When we were speaking in class today about stereotypes and wrote down on the paper what we saw in different races of people, I noticed a lot of media stereotypes represented.  In the news we often see Black culture represented as poor, uneducated, petty crime and so on.  We often see Asians represented in the math success stories, or music.  We often see White people portrayed as politicians or people of authority.  I think if we are going to change the way we think of the world, we have to be advocates of changing the way it is presented to us.  We as individuals have to demand the media to cover the real news, issues and to portray real culture or turn the TV off and not support it.  PS. Judy Elliott Rocks and I am in awe of her and the realizations she is bringing.   

I loved the passion that Michael and Jessy Molina brought to the retreat.  I really want to get involved with QECR and know more about it’s mission.  I know it might be hard while I am in school.  It is so important that teachers entering into the public school system should hear about these things.  I had never considered the fact that schools were becoming more privatized.  After hearing Michael talk about it, it makes so much sense (Aha moment).  Why wouldn’t the government want to make schools into a business model, after all it’s the corporations that run the government and that is the product they are looking for in society.  Another important thing that they brought was the knowledge that there is a collective movement going on.  I think so many teachers experience burn-out because they get beat down by the system and feel that they can’t make a change.  Being a part of a collective you can feel a part of something that you rally behind.  Even if the change is minimal it is celebrated with the collective and remembered by the collective.  A lot of times it is hard for an individual to remember the small differences we make and the collective can serve as a point of encouragement and power.  I never knew that the United States and Somalia were the only countries to not have make education a constitutional right or agenda.   That is appalling, in the land of the free and to be in the greatest country in the world, why is education still on the back burner of every politicians agenda?  In my opinion, the politicians (corporations) don’t see a point in investing a bunch of money in poor, weak society.  They save the business model for the best and the left overs for the rest.  The business model works this way.  We need people on the low end to clean the rich’s house’s and keep their children, wash clothes, serve food, do all the menial task that no one with lots of money has time for.  Then they system also needs criminals to make money for the police to stay active and for the citizens to feel that they are not “safe” without the trust of the official police office.  If we all felt safe, and trusted each other, would we need half of the SHIT they sell to us?  Probably not!!!! (there might be a little bit of mind control happening here, eh)

I just wanted to comment on class yesterday when we talked about the teacher from Seattle.  I have seen a couple of blogs and heard people yesterday, saying the teacher went to far and left his students.  Then I had a thought when I was reading the article today.  What if Rosa Parks had moved?  This would have dramatically changed history.  I am sure she was not thinking of the other blacks on the bus she was putting in danger, or the uncomfortable situation she was putting people in.  She was just sick and tired of having to go to the back.  I guess my point is who are we to say when someone has gone to far?  There are so many instances in history where great change has happened in the presence of making people feel  uncomfortable.  In my opinion much needed change can only occur if someone rocks the boat.  If everyone remains complacent, then nothing moves or changes.  It is exactly the way it feels on a local, or individual level to grow.  It is often times uncomfortable, embarrassing, uneasy, but in the end the growth becomes well worth the sacrifice of being uncomfortable.  I feel the same way about the teacher taking his stand.  Change has to start somewhere and we all should, “be the change we want to see in the world”.  

Ahhh, I am tired.  It has been a long day of speaking on intense issues and absorbing a lot of information.  It has also been a very fun day because it is not often that a person gets to sit and speak with such educated and open minded people on issues that really effect our world.  I wanted to blog today about one of the concepts in the article we are reading from, The Ethnic Myth by, Stephen Steinburg.  I think he raises a huge point when he talks about the Indians being portrayed as “savages and beastlike” so the White men would not feel bad as to steal the land, p. 14.  This to me stands for, the people with power tell the masses what to think and how to feel and we listen.  This is still true today.  The government and corporations make powerful decisions everyday and we put our faith into them and just assume that what they decide is in our best interest.   However, what if power and money are the interest and not what is best for community?  Which to me is what Steinberg is speaking about in this passage.  It was more beneficial for the people with power to create an illusion, so they could sleep at night and not think about what was being done to innocent people.  It is important that we all take an active part in our own history and to realize that we do not have to sit idle and let things happen to us.  We can be just as active in our own destiny if we know what is happening to us and why.  This is why I said I supported the man in the news article that took a stand for what he believed.   What would happen if more of us were willing to take stands and not be afraid of what could happen to us?  What would have happened if only one or two early settlers told the truth about what they saw when they took the land and what was really happening to the Indians? Who knows, but possibly other people would have realized what they were really doing and followed the ones who spoke up.  It could have created an entirely different his*story! Melissa~ 

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