What I learned

For the most part, English 1A seems to be nearly the same as English A except without the 5 paragraph essay. Although the 5 paragraph system seems limiting, it also lets me know exactly what is expected of me instead of trying to guess about what is wanted. Honestly I've barely cracked open the MLA book except to find out how to cite something, makes me glad my wife and I are sharing a book. I recall that in the previous semester that the excerpt from "The Banking Concept" was shorter. I wonder if there is more to it but at the same time I rarely read "just because". Banking concept seems to be the root of each subsequent book or essay as in people are not really thinking for themselves and are reduced to mindless sheep or lemmings. As far as revising essays go, I'm planning on focusing on the last one (Essay #3) because it is more fresh in my mind and I am more concerned about the subject matter than in the others.

Beauty Myth - Reading Blog

In thr 1970s, women gained legal and reproductive rights after years of being silent. They are no longer restricted but newer generations of women are uninterested in carrying the torch. They're more interested in trivial things such as eating disorders and cosmetic surgery. Consumer spending has rose as well as pornography has started to become mainstream. Most women are more concerned with losing 10 or 15 pounds than anything else. The Beauty Myth is a violent backlash against feminism that is being used as a weapon. Feminism game women laws that prevent discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Betty Friedman liberated popular avenues of advertisements towards women. Each generation since 1830 has their own rendition of how they view beauty. Women were not allowed to vote or own property in 1855. Women were afraid of looking like their mother. Beauty is seen as a currency system to be used up as they age. Beauty is essentially in the eye of the beholder

Prereading blog - Beauty Myth

The Beauty Myth was written by Naomi Wolf. She looks at how society views beauty and the repercussions. She says that in the west, women are made almost to suffer for the sake of appearances to improve her standing in being accepted for relationships, employment and other venues. She argues that older men's views towards women are at cause. The old focus was on women remaining pure (or virgin) while today's focus being on figure.

Unit 3 WikiHunt-Thinggy! ש

Naomi Wolf is an author and political consultant with a huge list of accomplishments. Her political views lean towards the left. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature which she received in 1984. She wrote several books including Beauty Myth, Promiscuities, The End of America, & Give Me Liberty, which have received mixed reviews.

Jean Kilbourne is public speaker, author and documentary filmmaker. She makes others aware of the negative effects of advertising on women. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and earned a doctorate in education from Boston University. One of her more celebrated works is the series Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women which shows a few less than flattering images and icons of women.




Malcolm Gladwell commented about Sesame Street, "Sesame Street was built around a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them". The show began airing on November 10, 1969 but could trace the beginnings to 1966 with the Carnegie Institute hired Joan G. Cooney to conduct a study on how the media can help children. One of their educational goals is to help children to understand realworld problems and situations like death, illness & divorce.

Cognition means the product of though while cognitive is similar to but is a process of through. The difference is one is a product that is intangible while the other is an adjective.

On the web site http://eh.net/bookreviews/library/0521 there is a review of the book Advertising to the American Woman by Daniel Delis Hill. Hill suggests that prior to the 1950s that the advertising industry had a very narrow minded view of the role of women. After that women were empowered by consumerism.

It seems as through around the media portrays women as barbie doll thin which very few women can attain or maintain. Wolf's views on pornography suggest that men are beginning to no longer desire women who do not look or act like those in pornography. They are faced with the decision to either be ignored or become a toy to be played with.

fds

Reading blog - Kid Kustomers

Children used to only be targeted by a handful of companies such as Disney or McDonalds around 25 years ago. Now just about every imaginable venture has their sights on your children. This trend started in the 1980s with saturday morning cartoons. Until recently, Joe Camel was more recognized by children than harmless characters such as Mickey Mouse. Even though the ad campaign was discontinued, the damage was done.

Prereading blog - Kid Kustomers

Children are being used against their parent's wallets. Recall a time when we all were begging our parents to go to Chuck-e-Cheese for the obnoxiously loud and incoherent music, the sub-par pizza and the games. To the average adult this would be a ripoff but not to their children. I think that is what Eric Schlosser would try and communicate in "Kid Kustomers". Children are bombarded with ads during the commercial breaks of cartoons and they can't tell the difference. You as the parent then are subject to "Mommy Mommy" (or Daddy, if they don't know better ;) ) "I gotta have X" or "I wanna go, pweeze?".

Tipping Point Pre-reading blog

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell sounds like it's going to be about spreading an idea that catches on like a wildfire. The analogy on the back of the book is a single sick person can start an epidemic of flu but it also appears to go the other way. This reminds me of Mozilla Firefox in the sense that in mid 2002, no one heard of a little offshoot of Netscape known as Phoenix. I have recommended it to family and friends who are quite happy with it. Others have done the same and today it is estimated that 25-30% of the global market uses Firefox. Gladwell introduces several ideas such as "The Law of Few", "Stickiness Factor" and "The Power of Context". The Law of Few states that ~80% of the work is done by 20% of the participants. Under that are 3 types of participants. The "Connectors" are people with excellent networking skill, "Mavens" gather information and "Salesmen" sell their ideas (or goods). The "Stickiness Factor" is how memorable the subject was, such as famous persons like Elvis. Finally the "Power of Context" is how human behavior is affected by their environment or surroundings. One example would be peer pressure in school. Some student may be goaded into doing something that he or she wouldn't do otherwise. Oh and in the second to last chapter, Snape kills Dumbledore, FYI.

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Summary of "More Factor"

The More Factor describes past accounts in the 1880s in which land in Texas would be developed into towns with all the amenities. After t he labor was finished, the people would then move on an continue the cycle continuously. Sometimes some would be paid to appear as residents for a census worker to count and even their houses would be setup to be transportable. This sounds like a convoluted way to draw up political boundaries as well as to divide up extra funding from government for a non existent population. Back then, the rail road tycoons seemed to be pulling the strings behind the scenes. Most likely they were funding the bribes for a populace to stay. This echos what has been happening today with the value of stocks and homes falling. The common elements are that some person figured out a profitable venture and continued to produce more until it became unprofitable due to a variety reasons. These towns in the 1880s may have been built in very bad locations such as to far away from any real natural resource such as water or trees. Without some kind of mechanical pump for water or a trucking infrastructure, no one would want to live in the middle of nowhere without resources. In the past few years, some would buy a house to fix up and sell for profit which combined with easy money and credit caused a huge inflation in price that eventually burst when the housing market became over saturated. In the past, it was suggested that one could not be wiped out by such losses because there would be another venture to capitalize on.
There had always been some new place to colonize which in turn has been called the final frontier or the land of opportunity. From Europeans traveling to the new world to Americans moving west in search of gold. What I believe Laurence Shames is trying to convey is that there is a limit to how far and how much we can expand. He also suggests that we as Americans are not realizing that there is more than infinite expansion and consumption. His idea seems to be to change the system from invest wildly and hope profit is to be made to consider the ramifications first before rash actions. I personally doubt this would happen anytime soon because many people seem to be concerned with the bottom line without little regard to the consequences, unless it doesn't benefit them.

Prereading blog - The Banking Concept of Education

The reality imparted by a teacher utilizing the banking concept (knowingly or not) is boring. It can be described as barren, devoid of any life, energy, feeling or meaning. Facts are simply memorized instead of understood. The students become a container for that sterile information and is rated according to how well he or she can regurgitate facts. Education has traditionally been this way and it prevents a person from becoming truly human. Knowledge is dispensed from those who consider themselves "knowledgeable" that the students know nothing. This in turn is reflected in society with family, government & religion. Essentially, school prepares the student to "fit into place" in the "real world."

People are regarded as "adaptable beings" to be identified and then cataloged away. As the process continues, the student is less likely to think or act for themselves and not participate in events that would change their world. Banking Education serves the interests of oppressors who would not want to see the world changed,whether it be for capital gain or for some kind of perverse satisfaction. They seek to quell any attempt to stimulate any critical thinking that doesn't help their prescribed view of reality. Their only concern is to change their own reality for the selves instead of for everyone. If one is kept ignorant then they are easier to dominate and control. Those that are oppressed are dubbed "welfare recipients" because they fall outside of the idea of a "good, organized and just" society. They need to be integrated back into society that they have rejected.

Those who use the baking concept may or may no be aware that they are dehumanizing their students. Sooner or later the students may rebel when they realize that their whole education experience has been designed to keep them under control. A humanist teacher cannot simply wait for a revolution to occur, he/she must cause it to happen by encouraging their pupils to think critically in order to become more human. He/she should be trust in other people and their potential. An individual is not a conscious being, they are in possession of that consciousness. Objects do not define a consciousness, they are just things to interact with it. The baking concept perpetuates the idea that men and women are objects and tries to promote what Fromm would call "biophilly" but instead causes "necrophily." It promotes an unhealthy idea and obsession with the inanimate and mechanical. They corrupt that which is alive to dead and that having rather than being is what is important. They identify with a physical object and if that object is threatened, that such a corrupted person is threatened too. If the object is lost, missing or destroyed, then so is the person.

Problem posing education suggests that people can be free and must demand their freedom. This would be undesirable and possibly even a threat to "the oppressor" due to the person thinking and operating in their own self interest instead of the will of "the oppressor".

To me, this sounds like the book "1984" or even the movie "Equilibrium". I personally prefer the latter due to the oppressor losing their power and control and once again the people are free to express themselves without being forced into a drugged, mindless automaton state. I personally wonder how this can be implemented due to the oppressor tying to stifle out any resistance and rebellion but it sounds desirable nonetheless.

Obligated to post

(insert something witty or sarcastic here) yeah, this is for an English class at school